RE-VISION: Simplifying Our Focus for His Fullness
"Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it..." (Gen. 1:28)
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
A VISION represents what God desires for us to see.
From the very beginning, God communicated His vision in letting the first two living souls know that He wanted them to participate in the fullness of His creation by "being fruitful and multiplying" what He had given to them. God intended for the human race to produce more image bearing children throughout the world that would reflect the goodness, godliness, and glory of God without any kind of corruption.
However, since mankind fell into sin, there has been a need to revisit this vision of how to be fruitful spiritually and to multiply His goodness until every person is reconciled to God and ready to be conformed to His image.
God told Noah and his sons and Abraham and Isaac that He was going to multiply their descendants as they placed their full trust in the Lord. (Gen. 9:1,7, 22:17, 28:3)
A VISION helps us to align our lives with what God desires us to do.
We see God intervening in many different ways to help us return to a right relationship with Him and to align our hearts to His righteous ways. God raised up many prophetic voices to call His children back to Him from where they have strayed or drifted. Proverbs 29:18 states, "Where there is no revelation (or spiritual vision), the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law."
We all know what it is like to be weighed down with the cares of this world or to be pulled in different directions or temptations. O how we need to anchor ourselves in the simplicity of Christ and remember that we exist to know Him and reflect His glory. Thus, we are not to make our decisions apart from Him or to put other priorities above what God has called us to be and do.
A clear VISION of Jesus helps us to understand God's heart for His Church.
When we look to Jesus, we see an interesting parallel with the Church. When Jesus was born, we see that it was due to the work of the Holy Spirit in the womb of young virgin named Mary. Similarly, we see that the Holy Spirit needed to fill the earliest followers of the Lord for them to rise up in power to be His new witness on the earth. Shortly after the birth of Jesus, there was an immediate attempt to destroy His life. Similarly, when the church was birthed, there was an immediate persecution from the religious authorities to silence their testimony. Wherever Jesus went, He brought about the reality of His righteous kingdom on the earth and the same is still true for those in the Church today who are walking in His Spirit.
It is Jesus who does all the work but He uses His surrendered people to represent the Father's love and to distribute His divine resources to others. When Jesus fed the multitudes who were hungry on two different occasions with scarce resources, He blessed and broke the bread and then gave it to the disciples to distribute it to the multitudes.
"And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among them all. So they all ate and were filled." (Luke 6:41-42)
The truth remains: When we SIMPLIFY our Focus, we will MULTIPLY His Fulness.
O how we need to take everything to the Lord and to get back to the simplicity of knowing who He is and what He is able to do. May we enter into this new season with a readiness to freely give of that which we have freely received from the Lord! May we focus on Jesus over all other things and watch His fullness come into every area of our lives.
"But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Cor. 11:3).
"but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love" (Eph. 4:15-16).
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
A VISION represents what God desires for us to see.
From the very beginning, God communicated His vision in letting the first two living souls know that He wanted them to participate in the fullness of His creation by "being fruitful and multiplying" what He had given to them. God intended for the human race to produce more image bearing children throughout the world that would reflect the goodness, godliness, and glory of God without any kind of corruption.
However, since mankind fell into sin, there has been a need to revisit this vision of how to be fruitful spiritually and to multiply His goodness until every person is reconciled to God and ready to be conformed to His image.
God told Noah and his sons and Abraham and Isaac that He was going to multiply their descendants as they placed their full trust in the Lord. (Gen. 9:1,7, 22:17, 28:3)
A VISION helps us to align our lives with what God desires us to do.
We see God intervening in many different ways to help us return to a right relationship with Him and to align our hearts to His righteous ways. God raised up many prophetic voices to call His children back to Him from where they have strayed or drifted. Proverbs 29:18 states, "Where there is no revelation (or spiritual vision), the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law."
We all know what it is like to be weighed down with the cares of this world or to be pulled in different directions or temptations. O how we need to anchor ourselves in the simplicity of Christ and remember that we exist to know Him and reflect His glory. Thus, we are not to make our decisions apart from Him or to put other priorities above what God has called us to be and do.
A clear VISION of Jesus helps us to understand God's heart for His Church.
When we look to Jesus, we see an interesting parallel with the Church. When Jesus was born, we see that it was due to the work of the Holy Spirit in the womb of young virgin named Mary. Similarly, we see that the Holy Spirit needed to fill the earliest followers of the Lord for them to rise up in power to be His new witness on the earth. Shortly after the birth of Jesus, there was an immediate attempt to destroy His life. Similarly, when the church was birthed, there was an immediate persecution from the religious authorities to silence their testimony. Wherever Jesus went, He brought about the reality of His righteous kingdom on the earth and the same is still true for those in the Church today who are walking in His Spirit.
It is Jesus who does all the work but He uses His surrendered people to represent the Father's love and to distribute His divine resources to others. When Jesus fed the multitudes who were hungry on two different occasions with scarce resources, He blessed and broke the bread and then gave it to the disciples to distribute it to the multitudes.
"And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among them all. So they all ate and were filled." (Luke 6:41-42)
The truth remains: When we SIMPLIFY our Focus, we will MULTIPLY His Fulness.
O how we need to take everything to the Lord and to get back to the simplicity of knowing who He is and what He is able to do. May we enter into this new season with a readiness to freely give of that which we have freely received from the Lord! May we focus on Jesus over all other things and watch His fullness come into every area of our lives.
"But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Cor. 11:3).
"but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love" (Eph. 4:15-16).
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