Pro 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
Vision- khaw-zone' a sight (mentally), that is, a dream, revelation, or oracle word from: - vision.
Perish- paw-rah'c to loosen;, dismiss; avoid, bare, go back, let, (make) naked, set at nought, perish, refuse, uncover.
but those who adhere to God’s instruction know genuine happiness.
About 350 years ago a shipload of travelers landed on the northeast coast of America. The first year they established a town site. The next year they elected a town government. The third year the town government planned to build a road five miles westward into the wilderness.
In the fourth year the people tried to impeach their town government because they thought it was a waste of public funds to build a road five miles westward into a wilderness. Who needed to go there anyway?
Here were people who had the vision to see three thousand miles across an ocean and overcome great hardships to get there. But in just a few years they were not able to see even five miles out of town. They had lost their pioneering vision. With a clear vision of what we can become in Christ, no ocean of difficulty is too great. Without it, we rarely move beyond our current boundaries.
Helen Keller was asked once “What would be worse than being born blind?” to which she replied “Having sight without a vision.” What a profound statement by a girl who was born into this world Deaf, Dumb and blind. Could not help how she came into this world but she sure could help how she left this world.
Vision from God will always be a challenge to your ability and ask of you more than you can give.
It will carry with a sense of deep conviction that this must be accomplished. There is a convicting element that propels enlivens inspires and energizes us out of the realm of passive interest into action and accomplishment.
Vision is a picture held in your mind’s eye of the way things could or should be in the days ahead.
Having a vision is more than just looking on the bright side. It is looking on God’s side. It is looking at life from His perspective.
Col. 3:2 (NKJV) Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.- Katherine Logan
Destinies are shaped by ones vision. - Pastor Ron Crandall
People who stay in perpetual Failures are only the by-product of a visionless, they are overcome by belief in the Fact that through God all things are possible.
One’s destiny is determined, not by what he possesses, but rather by what possesses him.
Poor eyes limit your sight; poor vision limits your life.
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
ILL. A page from John Wesley’s Diary reads as follows: Sunday morning, May 5, preached in St. Ann’s, was asked not to come back anymore. Sunday p.m., May 5, preached at St. John’s, deacons said, "Get out and stay out." Sunday a.m., May 12, preached at St. Jude’s, can’t go back there either. Sunday p.m., May 12, preached at St. George’s, kicked out again. Sunday a.m., May 19, preached at St. somebody else’s, deacons called special meeting and said I couldn’t return. Sunday p.m., May 19, preached on the street, kicked off the street. Sunday a.m., May 26, preached in meadow, chased out of meadow as a bull was turned loose during the services. Sunday a.m., June 2, preached out at the edge of town, kicked off the highway. Sunday p.m., June 2, afternoon service, preached in a pasture, 10,000 people came to hear me.
Sometimes you will feel as if vision is dead
D. Paul – Stoned , They thought he was dead, But he got up, “I still have work to do, Beaten, imprisoned “I still have work to do” Shipwrecked left to drift in the water clinging to nothing but bits and pieces of the boat, “I’ve still got to fulfill my vision” Bitten by a snake, Shakes it off in the fire “I can’t die right now I’ve got to reach my dream”
2 Timothy 1:12 For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
In zech 4:10 God speaks a word to Zechariah
70 years earlier, Babylon had over run Israel, destroying their cities tearing down their walls and in Jerusalem the temple was completely gone. The Persians took over Babylon and King Cyrus called for Zerubbabel. The King told him to take 50,000 people and return to Jerusalem and rebuild this once great city Wall, and temple.
The people worked hard and when the walls were finished, they began on the temple, and other people wanted to help build the temple, but Zerubbabel told them they could not. So they wrote a letter to the new king who told them to stop building on the temple.
Apx. 16 years the temple lay in ruin, half started but the glory of the house of God was not complete.
Zerubbabel is left with an unfulfilled dream. Many of us in this room are in the same place as Zerubbabel.
- unfulfilled dreams
- uncompleted goals
- unfinished works
- frustrated desires
Hopes dashed, you are living with a dead vision.
IV. What to do with a dead vision
A. Remember where the vision came from
- When God puts it in our hearts it will come to pass
- The Prophet told Zerubbabel that God was going to move in on the scene of dissolution, Hopelessness and despair, Things were about to turn around but not by might nor by power but by the working of God’s Holy Spirit
B. Realize that God is in control
- God knows what he is doing even when we don’t and the mountain that has depressed us that has frustrated us that has almost mocked us, it is going to fall.
- For Years Zerubbabel had walked passed that mountain of Building materials Cut timbers, Cedars from Lebanon, Hand carved stones from the quarry.
C. Say Grace
- The head stone was the same as the capstone or the ceremonial last stone and the placement was a celebration that the building was finished
- Shouting grace was not some magical formula to jump start the vision
- You must understand what grace meant to understand what it’s significant was.
- Grace means that “Lord It’s out of my hands”
Vision is The power of anticipating that which may come to be. (foresight)
· Instance of apprehending true nature of a thing through intuitive understanding (Insight)
· Vision is the art of seeing the invisible things.
Isa 6:1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
Uzziah – hardened strong
My life is but a weaving Between my Lord and me
I cannot choose the colors He worketh steadily
Off times He weaveth sorrow And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper And I the underside
Not till the loom is silent And the shuttles cease to fly
Shall God unroll the canvas And explain the reasons why
The dark threads are as needful
In the weavers skilled hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned
Without clear vision odds are you will come to the end of your life and wonder what you could have done and what you should have done. You will wonder if your life really mattered at all.
Vision gives significance to the otherwise meaningless details of our lives. There are times when much of what we do doesn’t appear to matter much when evaluated apart from some larger context or purpose.
But when we can take the minutia of common ordinary days and drench it with God-called vision, stir it up and then suddenly we can see purpose, meaning, excitement, energy and direction.
It is the difference in the man who is just filling bags with dirt and the man who is building a wall to save a town from being flooded.
Too many times we take on the thinking of the masses and we look at our lives as just shoveling dirt. But we can take our routines and responsibilities and begin to view them through the lens of vision our world begins to come into focus. Vision brings order to chaos, vision allows us to look past the here and now and see into the future.
Vision requires visionaries people who have allowed there thinking and heart to wander outside boundaries that have been hoisted upon us.
Scripture says that without a vision, people perish. The opposite is true as well. With a vision, people prosper. The future is always created twice. The first creation happens in your mind as you envision the future; the second creation happens when you literally flesh it out. Vision starts with visualization. In 1995, Alvaro Pascual-Leone did a study validating the importance of visualization. A group of volunteers practiced a five-finger piano exercise while neurotransmitters monitored their brain activity. As expected, neuroimaging revealed that the motor cortex was active while practicing the exercise. Then researchers told the participants to mentally rehearse the piano exercise in their mind. The motor cortex was just as active while mentally rehearsing as it was during physical practice. Researchers came to this conclusion: imagined movements trigger synaptic changes at the cortical level. That study confirmed statistically what athletes already knew instinctually. Mental rehearsal is just as important or more important as physical practice. It’s mind over matter.
And that is a testament to the power of right-brain imagination and the importance of well-defined dreams. When you dream, your mind forms a mental image that becomes both a picture of and a map to your destiny. That picture of the future is one dimension of faith, and the way you frame it is by circling it in prayer. In 1992, a Canadian swimmer named Mark Tewksbury won the gold medal in the 200-meter backstroke at the Barcelona Olympics. When he stepped onto the gold medal stand, it wasn’t the first time he had done so. He stood on the gold medal stand the night before the race and imagined it before it happened. He visualized every detail of the race in his mind’s eye, including his come-from-behind victory by a fingertip. The Australian sailing team did the same thing in preparation for the 1983 America’s Cup. The coach made a tape of the Australian team beating the American team three years before the race. He narrated the race with the background sound of a sailboat cutting through the water. Every member of the team was required to listen to that tape twice a day for three years. By the time they set sail from San Diego Bay, they had already beaten the American team 2,190 times in their imagination.
