Prevailing Strategies: Guard and Follow Your Vision

Be sensible and don’t tell everything you know… (Proverbs 12:23 CEV)

When you walk with the Lord, He gives you visions for your future; visions about your life, the things He wants to accomplish with you and through you. He causes you to see into the future so you can head for that future. Everybody may not see what you see, or know the future God is guiding you into. But some people try to tell everybody what God is showing them about their future. That’ll be a mistake, except if He’s the one leading you to talk about it.

Understand that Satan doesn’t know what you see until you tell him; he doesn’t know everything. When he hears about what you see, then he starts scheming how to work out a plan to try to stop you.

There are people who, because they couldn’t keep certain things to themselves, lost the beautiful idea they received from the Spirit. Once they got the idea for something, they started telling people about it, and Satan got wind of it and devised means to stop the idea from materializing. Don’t give him that chance.

Our theme verse says, “Be sensible and don’t tell everything you know….” Don’t always tell your plans to non-Christians. Whatever idea God gives you, get started with it first before talking about it; or else you may never start. It’s not because the people who know about your vision or even the devil can stop you, no. It’s because there’s a spirit that works with them; they may exude a certain kind of negativism that could dampen your zeal for what God wants you to do if you’re not careful. So, be spiritually smart. The Bible says, “Watch your words and hold your tongue; you’ll save yourself a lot of grief” (Proverbs 21:23 MSG)

And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it (Habakkuk 2:2).

One of the things you must ensure in your personal life is to get rid of excuses. Do what you ought to do, say what you ought to say—at the right time, and in the right way. When you want to live a life of glory, power, success, and influence, you shun mediocrity and excuses. As long as you make excuses, you can’t be excellent. Be known for excellence, for glory, because that’s your calling in Christ. He called you to display His wonderful deeds, virtues, perfections, excellence, and wisdom: “…that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9 AMPC).

What vision did the Spirit of God lay in your heart to have achieved by the end of the year? Review the current status and make up your mind there’ll be no excuses. Stay focused and disciplined; tell yourself it’s going to be nothing short of excellence. Be challenged and motivated by the joy and anticipation of an excellent finish. Many procrastinate and give excuses for their poor performance or ineffectiveness. Choose to win. Choose to succeed. Success is measured at different stages. So, do your best now, and then move on to the next stage.

Do the right thing at the right time, for the right purpose. Be consistent. Be diligent. Don’t be the person who always starts things but never completes them. Persevere in transforming your vision into reality. You’re sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency (2 Corinthians 3:5). In Him, you’re up to any task; you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you (Philippians 4:13).

There are different kinds of visions; there’s the vision where the Spirit of God shows you what to do in a particular situation and guides you on how to do it—vision for guidance —and there are examples of such in the Bible. Acts 10:1-6 narrates the remarkable account of the Roman centurion named Cornelius who was guided through such a vision.

The Bible describes Cornelius as a God-fearing man who gave many alms to the poor. For this reason, God sought to save him. So, one day, God showed him a vision where he saw an angel telling him to send for Peter who would tell him what to do for him to be saved.

But that wasn’t all. In Acts 11, Peter himself saw a corresponding vision. He said, “I was in the city of Joppa praying and, in a trance, I saw a vision… And, behold, immediately there were three men already come unto the house where I was, sent from Caesarea unto me. And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting.

Moreover, these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man’s house: And he shewed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter; Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved” (Acts 11:5, 11-14).

These scriptures clearly illustrate for us how God guides His people through visions. And if you’d lift your eyes in the spirit as well, He’d guide you in your endeavors. He’d give you visions and show you the right steps to take. As you look to the coming year, give yourself to the Word of God and yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit in prayer; you’d see visions of the things He wants you to do and the steps you should take.

And he brought him forth abroad, and said, look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them:  and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be (Genesis 15:5).

The Word of God brings visions to your spirit. It’s one of the important benefits and impactful ministries of the Word of God in our lives. When you hear God’s Word, watch out for the visions that it brings to you, the spiritual visions, and revelations that it conveys; accept them, and they’ll profit you.

Spiritual visions from God come to your spirit when you hear or study the Word. It’s the reason a man can see himself healed, once the Word of God for healing comes to his spirit. And when he acts, on the basis of that vision produced in his spirit by the Word, he’ll jump out of the wheelchair, or stretcher, as the case may be, and start doing the things he couldn’t do prior to hearing the Word.

We see such all the time in our meetings. Many who were carried into the auditorium, sick, and unable to walk, suddenly started running and jumping. Many of them, in their testimony say, “I just saw myself walking and running, as I listened to the Word, so I acted accordingly.”

When the Word brings visions to you, hold the picture and act accordingly. It’s one of the reasons you must soak yourself in the Word. Give yourself completely to the Word of God. Revelations, manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit, and several other blessings are activated in your life, when you listen and pay attention to the Word.

–GSW–