Proverbs chapter 29
Today we are walking in: Develop the Faith of Vision
Habakkuk 2:2
And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
VISION
Today we look to the word VISION- H2377 chazown- vision(in ecstatic state), visions (in night), oracle, prophecy (divine communication), vision (as title of book of prophecy) from H2372; a sight (mentally), i.e. a dream, revelation, or oracle:—vision. to see, perceive, look, behold, prophesy, provide, to see, behold, to see as a seer in the ecstatic state, to see, perceive with the intelligence, to see (by experience), to provide
The Torah testifies........
Numbers 24:4
He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision H2377 of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:
Numbers 24:16
He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most High, which saw the vision H2377 of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:
The prophets proclaim.........
1 Samuel 3:1
And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days;there was no open vision H2377.
Jeremiah 14:14
Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision H2377 and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.
The writings bear witness.........
1 Chronicles 17:15
According to all these words, and according to all this vision H2377, so did Nathan speak unto David.
Psalm 89:19
Then thou spakest in vision H2377 to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
Principle #5:
Develop the Faith of Vision
Sight is a function of the eyes, while vision is a function of the heart.
The fifth principle is that you must develop the faith of vision. Sight is a function of the eyes, while vision is a function of the heart.
The greatest gift that Yah gave humankind is not the gift of sight, but the gift of vision. You have probably heard of the great author and wonderful entrepreneur Helen Keller, who became blind, deaf, and mute as a result of an illness when she was only eighteen months old. She was a powerful, remarkable woman who impacted her whole generation, and she still influences us today. In her old age, she was interviewed by a news anchor about her life. Part of their conversation went something like this: Communicating his questions to her through Braille, he asked, “Miss Keller, is there anything worse than being blind?” She paused for a moment and, in her very unique way of talking, said, “What’s worse than being blind is having sight without vision.”
What a perceptive woman! This woman, who could not see physically, had more vision and accomplishments than the majority of those in her generation who had sight. Her books are still read today, and her poetry is wonderful. Helen Keller didn’t spend her years being angry and blaming Yah for her blindness and deafness. No, she was able to live a full life because she had vision in her heart. As the saying goes, “Eyes that look are common, but eyes that see are rare.”
Vision Sees Things as They Could Be
I am convinced that most people have sight but no vision. Physical sight is the ability to see things as they are. Vision is the capacity to see things as they could be, and that takes faith.
The Bible says, “As [a person] thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7 nkjv). We must never let what our eyes see determine what our hearts believe. “For we walk [“live” niv] by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7 nkjv). In other words, we are to walk according to what is in our hearts. We are to let what is in our hearts dictate how we see life.
Yah told Abraham something that could be seen, believed, and achieved only through the eyes of vision: He told him that inside him was a nation. He and Sarah were already elderly, and Sarah had been barren throughout their marriage. However, Yah said, in effect, “I see a nation in you. Everyone else is looking at your barrenness, but I see a nation of descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the shore.” (See Genesis 11:29–30; 12:1–3; 17:1–19.)
When we have vision, we are governed by the faith Yah has put in our hearts. Hebrews 11:1 says that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen [that you cannot see]” (nkjv). Therefore, I would define faith as vision in the heart. Faith is seeing the future in the present. When you have faith, you can see things you hope to have and achieve.
Seeing by Faith
If you are operating by sight, you see the problems and challenges all around you. You see how many bills you have to pay; you see that your company is downsizing; you see things that threaten your security. Sight without vision is dangerous because it has no hope. Many people have been living by sight alone, and that’s one reason they have all kinds of medical problems—muscle tension, migraines, high blood pressure, heart disease, ulcers, tumors, and so on. Living by sight can kill you. Life is so full of depressing things that you need to learn to live by vision and see with the eyes of faith.
Remember that sight is the ability to see things as they are, and vision is the ability to see things as they could be. I like to go a step further and define vision this way: Vision is the ability to see things as they should be.
Maybe you are going through a hard time right now and you’re disheartened. You’ve lost your vision edge. Perhaps this is because of your surroundings. Sometimes, the environments we live in are not the best for fostering vision. What people say to us is not always encouraging and can be very discouraging. I have been tempted to be disillusioned and discouraged many times. Even though we know that the discouraging things we see and hear are temporary, they still can distress and depress us. We must keep our visions constantly before us, however, because the visions in our hearts are greater than our environments. Yah gave us vision so we would not have to live by what we see.
Our spirits were designed to operate as Yah operates. In Genesis 1:26, Yah said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” The word “image” refers to moral and spiritual character, while the phrase “in our likeness” means “to function like.” In other words, we were created to live according to the nature of Yah and to function as He functions in the world.
The Bible is very clear that “without faith it is impossible to please Yah” (Hebrews 11:6). If you try to function in any other way than faith, you will malfunction. That is why worry is unYahly and fear makes your vision short-circuit. You were never meant to be afraid.
Yahusha was filled with faith, and He was the calmest person on earth. He slept soundly in the middle of a storm. When His frightened disciples woke Him up, He asked them, “Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:40). He was telling them, “If you have faith, you’ll be able to sleep during a storm, as well.” You may be saying, “This doesn’t sound very practical.” It is, however. I have been living this way—by faith instead of fear—for over twenty years, and it’s been so much fun. I don’t worry for very long about anything because I believe that, ultimately, everything is on my side. Even the schemes of the devil work to my benefit. All things work for my good because I am called according to Yah’s purpose. (See Romans 8:28.)
The Creative Power of Faith
How does faith work? To understand the answer to this question, we need to examine more closely how Yah functions. In Jeremiah 1:12, Yah declared, “I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.” The New American Standard Bible says it this way: “I am watching over My word to perform it.” As this verse—along with many others throughout the Bible— demonstrates, Yah always brings His words into being. What did Yah use to create the universe? He used words. All through the account of Creation, we read, “Yah said” (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26). Yah had an idea for the universe, and then He saw or visualized it. Finally, He spoke His idea into existence. The result was that everything Yah saw in His mind’s eye for the earth and the rest of the universe became visible reality in the physical world. Yah created everything by speaking His thoughts into being.
Nothing on earth is more important than a thought. Thoughts are more important than words because words are produced from thoughts. Yet while thoughts are the most important things on earth, words are the most powerful. This point is crucial to understand because, while thoughts design a future, words create that future. Nothing happens until you start talking about it. You can think about something for twenty years, but that will not bring it to pass. Creative power is not in thoughts alone. It is in the words (and actions) that come from them. Whether those words are spoken or written, they are full of creative power.
Therefore, when you speak words expressing what you see in your vision, your words become creative power to help bring that vision to fruition. However, there is a negative aspect to this truth, as well: You can undermine your vision by what you continually say about yourself, such as “I’m fat,” “I’m slow,” “I’m not intelligent,” “I’m a timid person,” “I don’t like people,” “I’m a failure,” or “I’ll always have a mortgage.” I am. I am. I am. You will become everything you constantly declare about yourself. That is the power of words.
Compounding this problem is the fact that the devil knows Yah and His ways very well. Satan knows that the key to creating anything is having a clear vision of it and speaking it into existence. He wants you to speak negative rather than positive things so that your effectiveness for Yah’s kingdom will be negated. We can help protect our visions by guarding what we say.
If you want to fulfill your vision, you must speak differently than you have been. Instead of saying, “I’ll always have a mortgage,” say, “I’m going to be debt free.” Can you say that? You may have been imagining that you don’t owe any bills, but you have to start saying it, as well. Say, “My Yah will meet all [my] needs according to his glorious riches in Hamachiach Yahusha” (Philippians 4:19), then pray, “Lord, please perform Your Word.” You have to speak. A vision doesn’t have any power until you talk about it.
Faith Sees Problems as Opportunities
Life is the way you see it. When you begin to see with the eyes of faith, you will understand how to make your vision a reality. There is a story of a man and his friend who visited India years ago. They were walking down the streets of Bombay and saw the thousands of poor people on the streets. Hundreds lay on cardboard boxes in the gutters or under the bridges. Filthy people were begging along the streets. There were poor people by the thousands walking barefoot.
The man said to his friend, “Look at these people. Isn’t it a sad sight? They’re without shoes. Thousands of barefoot people. What a pity. Isn’t it a shame that we have so much at home in our country while these people are poor and without shoes. I’ll never forget this sight. I have to tell my wife about this.” He continued to talk about how poor they were and about their bare feet. By this time, his friend had already taken out a piece of paper and was writing down some notes. He had started working out a plan of how to ship shoes over to India and how to manufacture shoes in India. Instead of saying, “Look at the bare feet,” he was saying, “Look at the feet that need shoes!” Today his enterprise is one of the largest shoe companies in America. One man saw bare feet. Another man saw an opportunity for a much-needed business. It’s all in how you see.
Let me give you another illustration of this truth. Some years ago, a pastor said to me, “Dr. J, I am from Vermont, and there isn’t anything up there. There is nothing but maple trees, cows, and snow. There isn’t anything happening in the town where I’m from, and I want to do something for Yah. I’m going to move down south, build a nice ministry, and do a work for Yah.” I listened to him for a while and then said, “Think about it. If there isn’t any other ministry to go to in your town, you have a great opportunity to build the most dynamic ministry in Vermont.” He looked at me and said, “Yeah!” Today, he has the largest ministry in his town. We must not only have sight but also vision.
You can see every problem as an opportunity for ministry, service, or business. That is really how Fiveamprayer Ministries got started. The number one problem of people in developing nations is ignorance. Yah raised us up
to be one of the solutions to that problem: to bring knowledge, training, and information. The organization was birthed to help solve a problem that affects 3.8 billion people. I believe with all my heart that Colorado will become known as a center for education and training, not just sun and sand. There are going to be all kinds of universities, training schools, and opportunities to grow intellectually. That’s the vision Yah has placed in my heart.
Great Thinking Precedes Great Achievement
Successful men and women who have impressed and impacted their generations weren’t “lucky.” They didn’t just stumble on greatness. They thought great things and expected great things, and greatness found them. Big thinking precedes great achievement. You don’t need to be big to think great thoughts. You need to think great thoughts to become big. That is the faith of vision.
You must realize that ideas control the world. Ideas are so powerful that many nations are ruled by the thoughts of men who have long since died. When I went to college, most of the books I read were by people who are no longer living. I spent thousands of dollars studying their ideas. A vision is an idea that is so powerful it can live beyond the grave. Your own vision should outlive you. In order for that to happen, however, you can’t keep your ideas to yourself. You must clearly conceive and express them.
I’ll never forget the time I was grappling with the possibility of writing books. I told Yah that I didn’t want to write because so many others were writing books, and I didn’t want to do it just because everybody else was doing it. I wanted my teaching to be real and genuine. For months, I struggled with this issue because publishers had been calling me telling me that they had listened to audio tapes of my teachings. They said, “You have many ideas that need to be shared with millions of people. Why don’t you write a book?” At first, I told them, “I don’t want to write a book. I’m happy just teaching.” However, when I was preparing my notes one night for a teaching, I felt as if the Lord was saying to me, “If you do not write, what you know will die with you. If you write down the ideas that I have given you, however, your words will live on after you are gone.”
Do You Have Sight or Vision?
Your success or failure is determined by how you see. Yahusha continually dealt with the sight of the disciples because their sight got them into trouble so often. He wanted them to move from sight to vision, and that is why He taught them about faith through life illustrations such as the fig tree, the feeding of the five thousand, and the raising of Lazarus. (See, for example, Matthew 21:19–22; Mark 6:34–44; John 11:1–44.)
The faith of vision is crucial because the way you see things determines how you think and act and, therefore, whether or not your vision will become reality. Proverbs 23:7 says, “As [a person] thinks in his heart, so is he” (nkjv). Do you have sight orvision?
Action Steps to Fulfilling Vision
What is your answer to the question that concluded this chapter: Do you have sight or vision?
Are you thinking and speaking in positive or negative terms in relation to your vision?
Choose one aspect of your vision and practice speaking words of faith regarding it.
Chapter Principles
1. Sight is a function of the eyes, while vision is a function of the heart.
2. Sight is the ability to see things as they are, while vision is the ability to see things as they could (or should)be.
3. We must never let what our eyes see determine what our hearts believe.
4. Faith is vision in the heart.
5. Sight without vision is dangerous because it has no hope.
6. The visions in our hearts are greater than our environments.
7. Yah gave us vision so we would not have to live by what we see.
8. We were created to live according to the way Yah functions. Yah functions through faith and His Word.
9. While thoughts are the most important things on earth, words are the most powerful. Thoughts design a future, but words create that future.
10. Whether words are spoken or written, they are full of creative power.
11. Faith sees problems as opportunities.
12. Great thinking precedes great achievement.
13. You don’t need to be big to think great thoughts. You need to think great thoughts to become big. That is the faith of vision.
14. Ideas control the world.
15. A vision is an idea that is so powerful it can live beyond the grave.
16. In order for your vision to outlive you, you can’t keep your ideas to yourself. You must clearly conceive and express them.
17. The faith of vision is crucial because the way you see things determines how you think and act and, therefore, whether or not your vision will become reality.
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