VISION 2020
“And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are – northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever” – (Genesis 13:14-15).
In the secular world, many organizations and countries have been counting down to the year 2020. Many have expectations and believe it’s a year visions and aspirations will be realized. The World Health Organization (WHO) in 1999 launched a global initiative that by 2020 all cases of avoidable blindness would have been eradicated. The WHO launched Right of Sight for humans. Eye specialists also talk about vision 2020 as being good sight and use this as yardstick to measure eye deficiencies generally.
As it is in the secular, I believe so it is in the spiritual. The Bible says in the latter times that there will be a preponderance of visions and dreams because of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:16-18). To have a clear vision from God the following are imperative:
Visualize: In our opening text, God instructed Abram to lift up his eyes and see. It’s a spiritual principle that whatever we see (and behold) is what we possess. Vision is a function of the heart, while sight is a function of the eyes. Real faith is a matter of the heart. God wants us to visualize His Word and promises in our heart till they become reality to us. Our hearts can be so flooded with enlightenment from the scriptures that we take a hold of spiritual realities even before they become physical realities. God responded to Abram’s complaint, when he said he has no child of his own, by bringing him outside in the night and asking him to look at the stars. We become what we constantly behold (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Inspire: Visions are often borne out of inspiration. Inspiration means breath. Breath is life, and breath animates. The scriptures say that divine breath in the soul of a man will produce understanding and insight in him (Job 32:8). David was inspired and animated when he saw Goliath. He saw differently than the soldiers of Israel. While the soldiers saw Goliath as too big to hit. David saw him as too big to miss. Inspiration makes one think, feel and act differently. On the other hand, a deflated tire will stagnate a vehicle. As we stay inspired in 2020, we will catch a vision.
Spiritual Intelligence: By deepening our walk with the Holy Spirit we become spiritually intelligent. Spiritual intelligence means we are able to evaluate and discern things from within our spirit man (1 Corinthians 2: 14-15). The Bible says because of the anointing within us we are able to know stuffs because the anointing teaches us all things (1 John 2:20,27). Many times, we don’t look for the witness of the Holy Spirit; rather, we are always prone to look for the spectacular (open visions, audible voices, etc) as God’s methods of communicating to us.
Insight: Foresight (ability to see ahead) and Far-sight (like God was recommending to Abram in our text) are critical and very important. Hindsight on the other hand is said to be 20/20 vision, because we have the benefit of clarity of vision after the event has taken place. Foresight and far sight are all based and hinged on insight. The light has to be turned on inside first before it can begin to shine all around. This light is the light of the scriptures. The Psalmist said in Psalm 19 verse 8b in the NLT version that “the commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living.” May we all receive grace for ardent study of the scriptures in 2020.
Ownership: To have clear divine vision in 2020, we have to take ownership of the impulses and convictions of our hearts. We take ownership by journaling what we think the Spirit is ministering to us in times of prayers, worship, biblical meditation and other spiritual activities (Habakkuk 1:1-2). When Heaven sees we are diligent in wanting to know and understand, more visions and revelations are released. On the other hand, when we are carefree and careless about Heaven’s downloads, the visions are withheld.
New Perspective: Our perceptions usually are our realities. How we see colors what we see. The kind of sunglasses and goggles we put on will certainly color what we see. The new and better way to see and adopt is seeing through the lens of redemption realities wrought for us by Christ Jesus. To hear Heaven correctly it must be through salvation in Christ and also through the baptism and sanctification of the Holy Spirit. These are perilous times that Satan shows up as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).
CONCLUSION: Happy New Year! Our Year of Perfection!
Ade(Gboyega) ESAN