FROM ENVISION TO INVASION 2001
THINK BIG - Attempt something so great for God that it’s doomed to failure unless God be in it.
Acts 2:17 `In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions; your old men will dream dreams.
Dream - A condition or achievement that is longed for; an aspiration
A woman in a convalescent home was given a party to celebrate her one-hundredth birthday. Her pastor came to offer his congratulations. Later, the pastor said, "Her mind was keenly alert. When I arrived, she was completely caught up in the excitement of the birthday party. A reporter had come to interview her. And when he asked that high-spirited, one-hundred-year-old woman, ’Do you have any children?’ she replied, without hesitation, ’Not yet!’"
Vision - 2 a: the act or power of imagination (1): mode of seeing or conceiving (2): unusual discernment or foresight b: man of vision.
When you have a vision you become a threat to the kingdom of Satan. If the devil can keep you from completing visions and stopping you from seeing the Fathers business from being complete then Darkness wins.
The sad thing about it is most Christians haven’t ventured out to envision the ministry that God has for them. Religion’s job is to stop the relationship between you and God. If that relationship is quenched then vision becomes void and lifeless.
Gen 37:5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.
People with out vision are jealous of people who do have vision and get upset when God uses the least to get the job done.
Gen 37:9-11 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. "Listen," he said, "I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me."
10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, "What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?" 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
After the betrayal, After Potiphar wife’s lies, after the baker, and Butler. Joseph kept the dream alive. He believed what God has showed him, after 13 years he refused to let the dream and vision die.
THREE THINGS THAT HAVE TO BE INVOLVED FOR VISION
1. YOU HAVE TO BE PERSISTANT WITH YOUR VISION TOO MANY PEOPLE LET THEIR VISION BE STOLEN BY THE ENEMY WHEN THEY DON’T SEE QUICK RESULTS.
1 Kings 19:19-21 So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. 20Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. "Let me kiss my father and mother good-by," he said, "and then I will come with you." "Go back," Elijah replied. "What have I done to you?" 21So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant.
2 Kings 2:9-10 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?" "Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit," Elisha replied. 10"You have asked a difficult thing," Elijah said, "yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours-otherwise not."
Elisha followed Elijah for 7-8 years before the mantle was handed down to him.
Elisha knew about the miracles of Elijah he knew about
o Increases the oil of the widow of Zarephath
1 Kings 17:14-16
o Raises the son of the woman of Zarephath from the dead
1 Kings 17:17-24
o Causes rain after seven years of drought
1 Kings 18:41-45; James 5:17,18
o Causes fire to consume the sacrifice
1 Kings 18:24,36-38
o Calls fire down upon the soldiers of Ahaziah
2 Kings 1:10-12; Luke 9:54
Yet Elisha would not give up on his vision, his promise, his dream, to be fulfilled. Elisha would in no way or fashion settle for what Elijah had, he would not stop or give up until he had double the anointing, double the power, and double the manifestations of God.
We Have Sold Ourselves Short - Jesus said you have not because you ask not
1. IN ORDER TO OBTAIN A VISION YOU HAVE TO
HAVE A FRESH PERSPECTIVE FROM GOD
Luke 18:27 He replied, "What is impossible from a human perspective is possible with God."
Former Under Secretary of the Interior John C. Whitaker is reminded of how easy it is to get an out-of-perspective feeling about one’s importance in government whenever he thinks of an 85-year-old woman who has lived her life in one spot in Nova Scotia. The population there swells to nine in summer and stays steady at two during the winter. Whitaker, who has been fishing there every year since he was 12, flew in one day. Miss Mildred welcomed him into her kitchen and said, "Johnny, I hate to admit I don’t know, but where is Washington?" When Whitaker realized that she wasn’t kidding, he explained: "That’s where the President is. That’s like where you have the Prime Minister in Ottawa." Then she asked how many people lived there, and Whitaker said there were about two million. She said, "Think of that, two million people living so far away from everything."
2. PAST CIRCUMSTANCES HAVE ROBBED YOU OF WHAT GOD WANTED TO DO THROUGH YOU.
Former heavyweight boxer James (Quick) Tillis was a cowboy from Oklahoma who fought out of Chicago in the early 1980’s. Years later, he still remembers his first day in the Windy City after his arrival from Tulsa. "I got off the bus with two cardboard suitcases under my arms in downtown Chicago and stopped in front of the Sears Tower. I put my suitcases down and I looked up at the Tower and I said to myself, ’I’m going to conquer Chicago.’" "When I looked down, the suitcases were gone."
Psalms 112:6-10 6 Such people will not be overcome by evil circumstances. Those who are righteous will be long remembered. 7 They do not fear bad news; they confidently trust the LORD to care for them. 8 They are confident and fearless and can face their foes triumphantly. 9 They give generously to those in need. Their good deeds will never be forgotten. They will have influence and honor. 10 The wicked will be infuriated when they see this. They will grind their teeth in anger; they will slink away, their hopes thwarted.
