Then, after doing all those things, I will
pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters
will prophesy. Your old men will dream
dreams, and your young men will see visions. Joel 2:28 (NLT)
For all who are led by the Spirit of God
are children of God. Romans 8:14 (NLT)
Spirituality is big
these days. With the advent of the “New
Age” movement, even well-known celebrities talk about spiritual things. Sarah Michelle Gellar is Buffy the
Vampire Slayer. In an interview
Buffy said her …personal spirituality borrows from a hodgepodge of
religions. I consider myself a spiritual
person. I believe in an idea of God,
although it's my own personal ideal. I
find most religions interesting, and I've been to every kind of denomination:
Catholic, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist. I've taken bits from everything
and customized it.
There you have buffet-style spirituality (where
you pick a little of this which you like from that religion…and a little of
something else here and there); it is the number one religion these days.
The problem with
that when it comes to spirituality, is that you can be sincere in what you
think – it just doesn’t mean you’re going to be right in what you
think.
When it comes to
God, just because you’re sincere about what you think, doesn’t make you right –
or acceptable in God’s eyes. You cannot
simply pick what you want to believe about God.
In fact, sincerity
that is aimed in the wrong direction can get you in big trouble. God reserves for Himself how He is to be
worshipped; THAT is the whole issue of a transcendent God, One who is
greater than His own creation. Either He
is Sovereign…in charge…or He really isn’t
God. We cannot tell God what He is to be
like, or how to act.
From today’s texts
of Joel in the Old Testament, to Paul in the New, and on down to this very
moment, God tells us He will lead us, and we should follow
Him. Living life led by the Spirit of
God is no simple chore! What can be said
about the Spirit-led life?
It’s a Life of Dreams and
Vision
Visionary Spirit-leadership, according to the Bible, is
like a window through which we wonder about tomorrow. The word “vision” is (in Hebrew חִזָּיוֹן,
chizzâyôn), literally, a revelation. It means we contemplate tomorrow. Plant life and animals can’t do that. They react to surrounding influences; they
respond to instincts within to build a den or protect a cub. Only humans set goals and dream of tomorrow’s
possibilities.
Do you have goals, dreams and visions? Are you planning for a bigger tomorrow than
today? Are you planning for a greater
tomorrow? I mean, are you involving
yourself in something greater than yourself?
To be led by the Spirit of God is to bend
your will to His and allow His revealed word (as we have in the Scripture) to
inform your human mind and spirit – to shape you into the image of Christ,
obedient, yielded, usable.
How do you
do that?
I’ve known far too many people who prayed
for the will of God to be revealed, only to sit, unfulfilled for years awaiting
the sky to part, and a new Biblical text to unfold mystically before their
eyes. With every revival, and every call
for commitment they hold off putting themselves on the line of obedience
because somehow the great vision hasn’t yet happened. They live life wallowing in second-guessing
and miserable guilt, sensing they have not followed God. They’re right…nothing surrendered, nothing
gained!
Others I’ve known have made a conscious
decision to accept and follow Christ according to the revelation they have;
they trust Him to reveal Himself. They
got busy in a local church, studied their Bibles, shared their faith and gave
of themselves to build the kingdom of God wherever they are, however they could,
with whatever God gave them.
God has given us
plenty of vision. He tells us to
cooperate in building His church, the visible symbol of the Kingdom of God.
…upon
this rock I will build my church, and
all the powers of hell will not conquer it.
Matthew 16:18 (NLT)
He tells us to love
and care for one another – as we would care for Him in person.
“And the King
will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these
my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ Matthew 25:40 (NLT)
He tells us to set
our goals on things eternal, great visions, magnificent dreams.
Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust
cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Matthew 6:20 (NLT)
The Spirit-led life
is a life of dreams and vision. And…
Darkness is for
bumping into things. We have all made
our share of mistakes. We have all
jumped to the wrong conclusion at times.
We’ve all made the “dumb and dumber list”.
Vision is God’s
light on what we think about life.
Figuring out whether we have God’s perspective on something we’re
planning to do can be difficult. James
helps us at this point.
If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will
give it to you.
He
will not rebuke you for asking. James 1:5 (NLT)
Is your vision, a
Godly dream or a pipe dream? Does it
match with God’s will? Bring the light
of God’s word to bear on your vision.
It’s a life in the light! Again…
How Do I Do
That?
There are numbers of ways to verify your
dreams and visions. The primary way is
prayer and study of the scripture. Does
your life’s path line-up with what God said in His word. Much heartache and wasted effort could have
been avoided in the past had some penetrating questions been put to the
Biblical test.
Ananias and Saphira thought they had a good
plan. They sold a piece of land. They told the church leaders they were going
to give all the money to the Lord’s work.
Secretly they decided to hold back some (nobody would know). God knew, and lying isn’t part of his
plan. They thought they had a vision of
being chief in the giving department – they wound-up feet first in the morgue!
Question #1 is always: Does your vision line-up with God’s Word?
Another way to bring your vision to light
is to share it with respected leaders in the Kingdom. The scripture says
Without wise leadership, a nation falls; there
is safety in having many advisers.
Proverbs 11:14 (NLT)
I cannot tell you the number of times I
have been saved from myself by the wise counsel of a mentor, or caring church
leaders. I have learned about myself
that sometimes I can have a good vision, a Godly vision, but my goals may be
off. Clarifying our vision and goals by
sharing in the light of Godly believer’s counsel is God’s way of sharing
wisdom.
I went to school with another pastor. He had a desire to be the best pastor God
would make him…a wonderful vision. He
also had trouble getting along with his wife.
The man stood up in a pastor’s meeting and told the rest of us he was
going to divorce his wife so he could spend all of his time becoming a better
pastor.
Friends, God has told us He hates
divorce…my colleague-pastor misses the point that you cannot pick and choose
where the light of God’s Word falls.
When your vision or dream doesn’t square with God’s word, you don’t have
God’s blessing.
Spirit-led – a life of visions and dreams,
a life in the light, and…
Every living thing
is born, grows and dies. That is a
life-cycle. Your visions and dreams are
living things. If they are nurtured and
tended they will grow. Are you growing?
I read a book
some years ago by Dr. Robert Dale of Southeastern Seminary. The book outlines the health cycle of
organizations – with application particularly for church health. The author traces how things happen in local
churches like ours, all the way from first dream, to the pinnacle of ministry,
and down the slide to dropout.
In the book’s
introduction Dr. Dale suggests there are four ways to revitalize a church,
organizationally-speaking.
·
Policy
change – this is the easiest…change the way you do things and create some
excitement. Easy, but rarely
transforming!
·
Personnel
change – fire the minister (let’s not go there!), or get new lay leaders.
·
Program
change – We do that all the time.
·
Purpose
revitalization…that is, we re-focus on our reason for being here, and re-cast
the vision and dream about where we’re going.
In the case of our
church, it means we focus on what God wants done in this community, and make
some plans to get there.
I want to suggest
to you today that a real hallmark of being led of the Spirit of God is not how
many “screw loose” ideas you can come up with; or policy and program
changes. It isn’t about having a phony
smile on your face or singing Kumbayah with feeling.
Being Spirit-led is
all about sticking to the purpose for which God placed you on this planet. It’s about being an obedient and pliable
instrument in the hands of God to accomplish His will. It’s all about hard work and commitment with
no personal agenda; it’s all about being ready to sacrifice and risk what you
have for the sake of being the best servant on earth, approved in Heaven. It’s all about what the Apostle Paul told
Timothy he needed to be about…
Work hard so you can present yourself to God and
receive his approval. Be a
good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the
word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15 (NLT)
·
Do
you dare to have visions and dreams?
·
Do
you dare to bring them into the light of God’s wisdom and share them with the
family of God?
You can be that
way. God told us that Jesus died just for that…for you, so
that you could be living an abundant life, filled with the poured-out Spirit of
the living God. He did it because He
loves you.
Dare to be a
dreamer; it’s the best life yet!
Ted
Olson, "Buffy's Religion," Christianity
Today (7-08-02),
p. 10
God calls to us saying, See, I have
better things in mind for you.
