The Process Proverbs 29:18NLT
How many of you can remember Easter vividly? Today marks the 50th day after Easter which we call Pentecost. This Jewish holiday is also called- the feast of weeks that commemorates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Pentecost is not as well-known, or as popular as the Christmas and Easter, though it commemorates a watershed event in Christian history. In many ways, Pentecost is the birthday of the church. After the disciples received the infilling of the Spirit 3,000 were saved, and then 2,000.
Proverbs 29:18NLT When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful.
Proverbs 29:18NKJ Where there is no (vision) revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law.
Footnotes: Proverbs 29:18 Or prophetic vision
“Can I remind you that God is the ultimate visionary. He saw, and it became.”
Listen to John 3:16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
Everything God does is always for our benefit. Once again, God visualized man’s need; therefore, He sent His only Son.
Jesus was a man filled with vision, it’s recorded throughout the gospels. Sometime after Jesus’ baptism from John the Babitist, Matthew 4:18-22NLT records, Jesus choosing His first 4 of 12 disciples. 18. One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. 19 Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” 20 And they left their nets at once and followed him.
21 A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too. 22 They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind.
They caught His vision, and somehow knew there was more!
Testimony: This is the 100 year of our homecoming, men and women keeping their dream alive. Like the Olympic torch someone carried it, it had to be passed on to others to keep it burning. There had to be at least a spark at all times are the fire would go out, just like the dream, both would die!
Think again, as we look at a fire, usually we just see the flame, but before the flame, there had to be a spark.
Hear Habakkuk 2:1-4NLT I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guard post. There I will wait to see what the Lord says and how he will answer my complaint. 2 Then the Lord said to me, “Write my answer plainly on tablets, so that a runner can carry the correct message to others.3 This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed. 4 “Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.
For a vision to be carried out there will always be a process, usually you'll have to go through disappointments, setbacks, adversities, and even strife. However, these are things that will motivate you to do things differently the next time around, and God uses them.
How many of you know, quote, and claim this scripture?Jeremiah 29:11NKJ For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, say’s the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope.
I love this verse, not just because of it's encouraging hope for the future, but because God views things differently than we do.
Did you know that before God said, “I know the thoughts I have for you thoughts of peace…” God said, “I'm going to send you into captivity for 70 years for the mistakes you've made?”
Listen to Jeremiah 29:10NKJ For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place.
Now remember when Daniel was in Babylonian captivity, he was there because of the mess the children of God had made. He was a prisoner-of-war and a prophet for God in a foreign land. The Bible says that while Daniel read the writings of Jeremiah, he stumbled across a passage of Scripture that brought him incredible hope for the future.
Daniel 9:2NLT During the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, learned from reading the word of the Lord, as revealed to Jeremiah the prophet, that Jerusalem must lie desolate for seventy years.
It was Jeremiah 29:10 and not Jeremiah 29:11 that spoke to Daniel. He discovered that God had a plan, and that plan was to return the people back to Jerusalem after 70 years.
“When you dream a dream of destiny, you don't always understand how it will come to pass, where to look, or how to find it. In the process God will send you on a journey that seems pointless or insignificant. You will seek after one thing, and find things very different.” P.H.
When you begin the process, you're confused and lost, and others will ask, “What are you seeking?” This is the time that you have to remember the words, “For I know.”
The process is part of the vision. However, in the mist of the vision, the process always seems overwhelming with pain, rejection, loneliness, and even character assassination all these, seems to blur the vision.
However, somewhere along the process, you will begin to realize that pain, rejection and other assaults of the devil will bring a knowing shift.
God strategically places you in situations that require you to grow.
Romans 8:28NLT And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
All things work together. Work together is actually the Greek word which means, “made to cooperate.”
Upon revelation of this scripture you will receive life transformation because, “all things” means all things! It means everything- high times, low times, times of great victory, times of defeat, times of attack, times of peace!
Paul was saying that over time we will no longer say, “For I know… but rather we will say, “And we know…”
What do we know?
Jesus loves.
Jesus saves.
Jesus keeps.
Jesus cares.
Jesus offers eternity.
Benediction.
