Vision, Vision, Vision

Well, the last several months I have really been challenged by the Lord. As the three of you who read my blog know, I finally got the guts to sit down with my wife and my senior pastors to tell them about the vision to plant a church that has been growing inside me. After that I started talking about it out in public as my pastor directed. This has really stretched me. I think actually telling others with the blessing of my pastor has been a very humbling experience. This is all topic for another blog, though...

So we have been rolling along with youth ministry, then the Father lets me know I need to change direction with the youth. This has been a good thing for our youth. We have a small group, but I must admit that they have been a blessing, and I have seen the Lord work in them in many ways.

It all started when I was praying about the vision to plant this church. I was on the road spending time with Father and was impressed about the need to impart vision now. As I was thinking on this He reminded me about David as a young man. From there He reminded me of a number of young men in the Bible and showed me how they had the same vision.

Then, my pastor has been corresponding with a young pastor in Alabama, I believe. This young man sent him an Mp3 of one of his recent sermons. Guess what??? It was very similar to what the Lord was speaking to me above.

David was a young man in the place where Father pointed me to. He was asked by his mother to bring some food to his older brothers who were in the army. Those brothers were sitting in a camp waiting for a battle to begin. These guys were trained for battle. They were military men and ready for war, but something stood in their way.

On the other side of the field stood a big obstacle. A large man, somewhere near 9' tall opposed the army that David's brothers belonged to. He issued a challenge to the army daily, "One of you face me." I am sure this army was versed in battle, but they were versed in a certain type of fighting and this giant fighting wasn't it. Also, how would you like to be the one who loses to this guy and causes your whole army to be enslaved to the enemy???

David didn't like the smack he heard going out from this guy, though. To talk bad about the army was one thing, but to talk about David's God was another thing. Anger burned inside David. He knew God. God was his friend, his provider, his protector, his father, and spent time loving him daily as he attended sheep. He went to God as he was lone and had no one to talk to. He was comforted and guided by God. This person on the other side of the field needed to be taught a lesson. I can hear David's thoughts, "This guy has to go... No one talks about god like that and gets away with it, that dirty blasphemer..."

Let me sum this thought up for the sake of time as I have a lot to talk about here. His brothers were a little annoyed with David as they had been trained for battle. King Saul had been trained for battle as well. As a matter of fact, if you have already read the story, you know the Israelite army could whip the Philistine army. So what is my point? The Israelite army was paralyzed by not knowing how to face this enemy. This enemy was an enemy of God, though, and David had a real, lasting, relationship driven vision of the Father and nothing was going to drag His name in the mud while David could do something about it. It took a person with a vision of Father to release an army to fulfill its destiny.

Let's look at the older brothers and the whole army as the "adult church", and look at David as the "young church" for a minute. I believe that there is a need for young people to rise up and take a stand against the enemy. I know you may have heard that before, but I think too often the older church has missed the point, leaving another generation burned out. Since I focused on the young church in the youth ministry, I will continue to do so here.

I believe that if the young people of the church truly seek Father, and get a true vision of Him, and oppose the enemy, that the older generation will be able to move forward in battle and the whole body of Christ will be able to achieve victory over the enemy of our times.

You might be saying a couple of things:

1. You keep mentioning vision, what's up with that?


2. What enemies?

I guess I will answer them in order.

What is up with Vision?

As we know, the Bible says that without vision, people cast off restraint and perish. I have noticed that a large number of Christians have lost some sense of vision. I have also noted that the older we get, the more vision we lose. I have also noticed that when I am not wrapped up in thinking about Father I am an easy target for the enemy to sneak up and get me sinning. Vision is essential for the Christian. If we do not have vision we follow aimlessly. If we do not have vision we get caught up in "good" rituals. If we do not have vision we can miss Him entirely. For this I submit the following test I found (this test is actually for cycling, but I think it makes a strong point)


As you can see, it is easy to miss something you are not looking for. This is why it is imperative that we seek Him for His vision. We need to seek Him to know Him. We need to know Him to see Him. we need to see Him to have a vision of Him. We need to have a vision of Him to have His vision for the world.

What enemy?
There are so many enemies to our world right now. In our particular area some of them are:

• For God and Country


• The American Dream


• Family above _____


• Materialism


• Poverty


• Injustice


• Racism

I will point out here that I left a number of holes in this blog. I purposely didn't put the scripture in because if you read it I hope you would know where to find the passages. I thought it would be fun to see if anyone can mark the verses.

Second, I left a number of holes in here as there were a month worth of sermons to our youth. I can't do them all justice.

Third, I just want to hear your thoughts.