Follow Your Vision ( 1&2)

**fennywest** Tue 18 Jan 2011, 2:46 am

Your vision - you must 'follow' it! (2)
..."Write the vision and make it plain"... Habakkuk 2:2
Five times in Genesis chapter thirty-nine we read: 'But the Lord was with Joseph.' Be encouraged: God is at work in what you're going through right now. Where did Joseph get the wisdom to lead a nation? By dealing with his own family problems, by handling Potiphar's household staff, and by running a prison system. Like rungs on a ladder, each one took him closer to the top. Notice how it worked: his brothers sold him to Ishmaelite slave traders, who sold him to Potiphar, who put him in prison where he met the butler, who introduced him to Pharaoh, who made him Prime Minister of Egypt, fulfilling his dream. Was it easy? No, Until the timecame,'...the word of the Lord tested him' (Psalm 105:19). Your vision will be 'tried' by situations that either make or break you. Bill Gothard describes this process as the birth of the vision, the death of the vision, and the resurrection of the vision. When you've no funds, no friends, and no fight left in you (the death stage), remember the words of Jesus: '...unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies [to self], it produces much grain' (John 12:24 NKJV). When your vision dies and God resurrects it, you begin to talk and act differently. With ego subtracted and grace added, you start saying with the Psalmist , 'I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living' (Psalm 27:13 KJV). At that point God smiles and says, 'You're finally getting it right!'

Your vision - you must 'follow' it! (1)Write the vision and make it plain"... Habakkuk 2:2 ..."
Paul was on a mission. He travelled light, practiced personal discipline, avoided distractions and kept his eye on the ball. '...one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal...' (Philippians 3:13-14 NKJV). Successful companies live by a mission statement every team member can understand; they keep it before them at all times. God told Habakkuk, '..."Write the vision and make it plain...that he may run who reads it.' Habakkuk 2:2 NKJV You must write your vision down, read it regularly, remember it at all times and run with it. Your greatest enemy isn't the opposition, it's the distractions. Ever heard of 'a white elephant?' When the King of Siam wanted to destroy an enemy, he supposedly gave them a white elephant. In those days white elephants were considered sacred, and nobody dared refuse a king's gift. The trouble was, white elephants couldn't be put to work but they had to be fed - a lot! So the king's 'gift' ended up causing his enemy's downfall. Hello! Guard against 'white elephants' that drain your time, energy and resources. In order to protect your vision, live by these words, '...lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God...consider Him...lest you become weary and discouraged...' (Hebrews 12:1-3 NKJV).

Source
http://www.ucb.co.uk/index.cfm?itemid=92&testdate=04 Jan 2011