Vision For 2017

"And the Lord answered me and said, 'Write the vision and engrave it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes may [be able to] read [it easily and quickly] as he hastens by. For the vision is yet for an appointed time and it hastens to the end [fulfillment]; it will not deceive or disappoint.
Though it tarry, wait [earnestly] for it, because it will surely come; it will not delay on its appointed day.'"
                                                                 Habakkuk 2:2-3




The beginning of a New Year is an excellent time to take a spiritual inventory of our lives. While I'm not really one to set a bunch of lofty resolutions for the year, I do enjoy the challenge of trusting God with the struggles at hand and for insight regarding spiritual disciplines that I need to improve in the upcoming year. For me, it is very beneficial to press in spiritually in an effort to gain God's perspective for how I can best co-labor with Him for the next twelve months.

Right now our church is doing a 21 day Daniel fast as we write down our prayer requests for 2017. It has been during this time that I realize that the most important thing for me right now is a fresh perspective. I am believing God for revelation on what He is doing in my life, which direction we will be travelling, and what my role in our partnership will be. In other words, I really want supernatural eyes and understanding to know the ways that will yield the greatest harvest in my life- both in a transformation and in a literal way.

The more New Years I have experienced the more it occurs to me just how short this life really is. There are two things that I think will matter on the day I go home to be with the Lord. The first thing is how much like Jesus I have become and the second thing is how many people did I share the love and Good News of the Gospel with? On that day, it seems to me that all else would seem unimportant.

Too often, I tend to focus on the obstacles and the challenges that seem to be insurmountable. Instead, I want to see my God as bigger and more powerful than what I face and I want my love for Him to supersede whatever parts of myself I need to lay down. I want gratitude to rise above all else and to be thankful for His provision for us to conquer all that stands against us. His grace really is sufficient.

This is the year of the breakthrough. For Brent and I, there have been some prayer requests that we have prayed now for over two decades. There was a time when I believed that the answers to these prayers were the most important things, but I don't anymore. While they are Biblical petitions, I now see that even more importantly than the answer was the journey that landed me smack in the middle of God's arms. His heart far outweighs what His hands can do. While I am excited for the breakthroughs, I am more excited about hearing the heartbeat of a beautiful and loving Father!

Other prayers we have prayed have been flat out denied by God. Most of the time while it was happening we didn't understand why God said, "No". Too often, I would see it as God not moving on our behalf. Now I see it as God moving fiercely to protect us from things in which we were unaware. Things that would have harmed us.

Now I crave the set-ups for Him to be glorified in the earth. It doesn't matter how it happens or who it comes through; I just want Him to be lifted up. Interestingly, when I survey the places in my life where the enemy tried to discourage me or deceive me into believing that no good could come from it, I now see that those were the set-ups for His glory to be seen! That's where God shines the brightest!

Whatever looks dead in your life, begin to speak resurrection to those places. If you are currently facing a situation in your life that only God can revive, then rejoice and look up! This is not the time to give up; it is the time to be filled anew with His Spirit, His vision, and His purposes.

It is time to dream again, live again, and hope again in Christ. God is moving in mighty ways across the globe and we will not be exempt from what He is doing. His desire is to seek and save the lost and He will use our lives to accomplish this goal.

Look ahead in this New Year and do not look behind. Trust His timing and His process in your life. When He said that He was returning for a bride that was without spot or wrinkle (Ephesians 5:27), we have to know that that level of sanctification involves some pain. However, in the end, the result is glorious!

Ask God to give you a new vision and a new dream or to resurrect the ones He has placed in you previously. This is not a time to shrink back. Rather, it is a time to be on fire for God and to help others to do the same.

Spend time in His presence and hear what the Spirit is saying to you personally. There is so much he wants to share with us right now. There is so much He longs to give to us.

When the apostle, Paul, was blinded on the road to Damascus, he was given a heavenly vision of Jesus. The Lord said to Him, "I have appeared to you for this purpose that I might appoint you to serve as [My] minister and to bear witness to what you have seen of Me and to that in which I will appear to  you, choosing you out and delivering you from the Jewish people and the Gentiles to whom I am sending you- To open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may thus receive forgiveness and release from their sins and a place and portion among those who are consecrated and purified by faith in Me" (Acts 26:16-18).

Paul's spiritual eyes were opened before his natural eyes were. He also heard the voice of the Lord. Supernaturally, God revealed His glory so that Paul could see the Living Christ. God showed Paul Himself so that he could co-labor with Hi to reap a mighty harvest.

This was the First Advent of Christ and we are drawing ever closer to His Second Advent. We have the ultimate privilege of living in the times in which we live. We are blessed beyond measure to be a part of what God is doing in this time and season.

Dream big. Pray without ceasing. Shine your light brightly. Receive God's vision and write it down. Love Him and trust Him with all your heart. Have a blessed and fruitful 2017!


"It won't be long now, He's on the way; He'll show up almost any minute. But anyone who is right with Me will thrive on loyal trust; if he cuts and runs, I won't be very happy. But we're not quitters who lose out. Oh, no! We'll stay with it and survive, trusting all the way."
                                                                                                                     Hebrews 10:38-39
                                                                                                                     The Message Bible