Proverbs chapter 29
Today we are walking in: Set the Priorities 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 #7:
Set the Priorities of Vision
Your life is the sum total of the decisions you make every day.
Principle number seven is that, if you want to be successful, you must set priorities for yourself in relation to your vision.
Our Decisions Are Based on Our Priorities
Understanding priority will help you accomplish your dream because priority is the key to effective decision-making. Both successful and unsuccessful people alike make decisions every day that influence their chances of achieving their visions. Whether they realize it or not, it is the nature and quality of the choices they make that determine their success or failure.
Life is filled with alternatives; we are constantly bombarded with choices, and our preferences reveal who we are and what we value in life. In fact, your life is the sum total of the decisions you make every day. You have become what you have decided for the last fifteen, twenty, or thirty years of your life. What is perhaps even more significant, you can tell the kind of life you’re going to have in the future by the decisions you are making today. In this sense, the future really is now. Sometimes, we believe that we can make bad choices today and make up for them later on. That thinking is in error. Whatever we are doing now is our tomorrow.
This is why yes and no are the most powerful words you will ever say. Yah wants you to be able to say them with precision because they will determine your destiny. You will be blessed by saying yes to what is in accordance with your vision and no to anything else.
Vision Focuses Your Priorities
In other words, if you want to fulfill your dream, you must fix your eyes on it and not get caught up in anything that won’t take you there. You have to know how to maneuver between the alternatives of life, meaning that you have to learn how to prioritize. When people don’t succeed in their visions, it is often because they don’t understand that prioritizing creates useful limits on their choices.
In 1 Corinthians 6:12, Paul wrote, “‘Everything is permissible for me’—but not everything is beneficial.” Even though we have permission to do everything and anything we want to, “not everything is beneficial” for us. The King James Version uses the word “expedient,” which means “appropriate,” “suitable,” or “desirable.” Not everything is advantageous to you. You have to determine what is beneficial, and you have to define what is beneficial based on the needs of your vision.
The second part of 1 Corinthians 6:12 is a very powerful statement: “‘Everything is permissible for me’—but I will not be mastered by anything” (emphasis added). The King James Version reads, “I will not be brought under the power of any.” The Greek word translated “power” means “to control.” Even though you can do anything in life, the only things that should master you are the things that will take you to your goal.
Just because something is a good thing does not necessarily mean it is beneficial to you. For example, when you are traveling along a highway, there are dozens of exits you might take. Is there such a thing as a “bad” exit? No, they’re all good, legitimate routes. Many of them lead to helpful services, such as hotels, restaurants, or gas stations. Therefore, is there anything that makes an exit “bad” for you? Yes—if it doesn’t lead to your desired destination. The same is true for the activities and people in your life. Something is beneficial if it relates to what you want to accomplish and takes you to your goal. Ask yourself, “What benefits me? What will move me toward my goal?”
Obviously, the first thing that you would consider to be beneficial is your relationship with Yah. If you want to know where you’re supposed to go in life, you have to establish a connection with the Person who gave you the assignment, who created you. It’s no wonder the Bible says the greatest commandment is to love Yah first with all your heart, mind, soul (will), and strength. (See Mark 12:30.) When you do that, He reveals to you the assignment that you were born to fulfill. Once you are certain of where you are meant to go in life and have truly committed to it, then a lot of the extraneous things will fall away on their own.
After you capture your vision, you need to prioritize your life in keeping with that vision. You have to decide how many of the things that you are currently involved in are beneficial to your dream. There might not necessarily be anything wrong with them. They just may not be right for you to be involved in based on what you need to accomplish. There may be some good people in your life who are “bad” for you because they’re distracting you from going where you want to go. There may be some good books in your house that are wrong for you because they take your focus off your goal. You must come to the point where you focus on what is necessary to fulfill your dream. If you don’t do that, you won’t make it to the end of your vision.
Good versus Best
The key is that the vision itself decides what is good for you. You don’t just do good things. You do things that are good for your vision.
Most of us know the difference between right and wrong. Therefore, your greatest challenge is not in choosing between good or bad but between good and best. A vision protects you from being misguided by good alternatives. It allows you to say no to lesser opportunities, even if there are certain benefits to them.
We can see a clear illustration of the principle of priorities in Yahusha’ reactions to the choices of Martha and Mary of Bethany:
As Yahusha and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.
She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what He said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”(Luke 10:38–40)
Martha had made a very good, honorable request: “What I’m doing is important, and I need help.” What could be more important than preparing a meal for Yahusha? Yet listen to the answer of the Lord: “Martha, Martha....You are worried and upset about many things” (v. 41). Yahusha didn’t say “bad” things, just “many things.” He continued, “But only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her” (v. 42).
Yahusha was saying, in effect, “You’re doing what is good, Martha, but Mary has shifted into an area of life that I wish everyone would go to. Don’t just do good things. Concentrate on what is best.” Martha was so busy doing good things that she didn’t do the right thing. When Yahusha said, “Mary has chosen what is better,” what did He declare was “better”? It was “only one thing”—devotion to Yahusha and His Word. This principle applies to both our relationship to Yah and our fulfillment of what He has given us to do. When you concentrate on one or two things, you have chosen the better way to live. You must find your calling and stay in it.
Many people have their own ideas about what they want to do for Yah, and this is why they keep drifting off in the wrong direction. It is easy to become preoccupied in doing things for Yah rather than doing what Yah has specifically told us to do. In the story of Martha and Mary, nowhere does it say that Yahusha was hungry. It says just that Martha went about preparing food for Yahusha. Yah doesn’t want us to start anything, including doing good works for Him, until we consult Him. This is because He doesn’t want us to work for Him, but with Him in partnership. We are “Yah’s fellow workers” (2 Corinthians 6:1) or “workers together with Him” (nkjv).
Keep Your Eyes on the Mark
Yahusha made it clear that Martha missed out on “what is better” because she was dwelling on the wrong things. When someone sets his eyes on a goal and never takes them off it, he is guaranteed to reach that goal.
In Israel there was a group called kibbutz. A kibbutz is a self-sufficient community. Everything the people need to live is found right there on the farm. They have beautiful fields where they grow their own food, I noticed that their tractors and combines were very modern. Then I saw a little field in a valley not too far from the kibbutz. A man was working in the field with just an ox hooked up to a plow.
I was intrigued with the sight, and I asked one of the men at the kibbutz, “What’s he doing?” He answered, “Well, he’s preparing the field to plant seed. As a matter of fact, he’s planting seeds now. As the ox makes the furrow, he drops the seeds into the earth.” I said, “He’s using an animal, and he’s using an old, outdated plow, but his field is just as perfect as yours, and you use modern machinery!” The man told me, “That guy’s system is better than mine! Here’s how he keeps his furrows completely straight. First, at the end of the field, he sets up little sticks and ties red or white flags on them. Then he goes back to the opposite end of the field, where he starts to plow. He sets his eyes on the little piece of cloth at the far end of the field as he controls the movements of the ox. If he didn’t use the sticks, his furrows would be crooked.”
Then he said something that put the whole thing into perspective for me: “That little stick is called ‘the mark.’” That term took me back two thousand years to that same country, to that same area of Palestine, where Yahusha had lived, and I understood what Yahusha meant in Luke 9:62: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of Yah.” When you set your hand to the plow, you must put your eyes on the mark and not look to the left or to the right because you will inevitably move toward whatever you are looking at.
Do you remember when you were learning to ride a bicycle? You were told to look straight ahead because, wherever you looked, that’s where you were going. If you looked down, you would fall down. Many of us have set markers in our lives— our visions—claiming that that is where we are headed, but then we keep looking everywhere except at our visions. It doesn’t take too long before we’re off course. Ten years later, we suddenly realize, “I really wanted to go back to school. What happened?” If we’d been in school in the first place, we could have graduated in just four years. We keep taking our eyes off the mark, and that is why we end up in places where we don’t really want to be. We drift off course because we allow ourselves to be pulled in many different directions by all kinds of distractions. Again, we are busy with a number of activities rather than a single focused right thing to do.
In Matthew 11:30, Yahusha said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” A yoke is a single piece of wood that joins two oxen together. It keeps them at the same pace and in the same position. Yahusha also said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me” (vv. 28–29). We are to join with Yah’s plan for our lives and let His yoke guide us. This means that, if He turns, we turn; if He stops, we stop. We stay with Him at the same pace and in the same position. This is the way we hit the mark.
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