RECOGNIZE PEOPLE’S INFLUENCE ON VISION

Genesis chapter 8










Today we are walking in: Recognize People’s Influence on 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)​, vision​s​ (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 #8:

Recognize People’s Influence on Vision




When you begin to act on your vision, it will stir up both those who want to help you and those who want to hinder you.







Principle number eight is that we must recognize people’s influence on our visions. We need other people if we are going to be successful in life because, as I emphasized earlier, we were not created to fulfill our visions alone. As a matter of fact, Yah specifically said about His first human creation, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). We need people to make it in life. Again,

individual purpose is always fulfilled within a larger or corporate purpose. Therefore, it’s important that we work with others in making our visions a reality.







Remember that Nehemiah reported,“Then I said to [the Hebrews, priests, nobles, officials, and others], ‘You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace’” (Nehemiah 2:17, emphasis added). Nehemiah was the one who had received the vision, but he had to go to other people to help him get it done. For any vision that you have, Yah has people prepared to work with you, and they will be a blessing to you.










There will always be a need for positive people in your life. When I went to college, I had a dream to get my degree, and there were people who already had been set apart to help me get through it. Some of them helped me academically, others financially, others with encouragement in my spiritual walk. When you have a dream, that’s the way it works. People will always be there, waiting to help you. Therefore, if you have no dream, or if you do not begin to act on it, the people who are supposed to help you won’t know where to find you.







The principle of influence has a twofold application, however, because people can have a negative effect on us as well as a positive one. When you begin to act

on your vision, it will stir up both those who want to help you and those who want to hinder you.







The Law of Association







The law of association states that you become like those with whom you spend time. We often underestimate others’ influence in our lives. There are two words that most accurately describe influence: powerful and subtle. Often, you don’t know you’re being influenced until it is too late. Whether you realize it or not, however, the influence of those you spend time with has a powerful effect on how you will end up in life, on whether you will succeed or fail.







What we call peer pressure is simply this: people with whom we associate exercising their influence on us, trying to direct our lives in the way they want them to go. We should stop telling young people that they alone have peer pressure. Adults have it, too. They find it hard to disregard other people’s opinions. There are people who are sixty, seventy, and eighty years old who give in to peer pressure; almost everyone is affected by it.







You must be careful whom you allow to influence you because your vision will be either encouraged or destroyed by others. There are two kinds of people in this world: those who are with you and those who are against you. I have learned that people have the potential to create your environment. Your environment then determines your mind-set, and your mind-set determines your future. Therefore, you must choose your friends wisely, selecting those who are with you and not against you. Show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future.










Questions of Influence







Y ou should generally choose friends who are going in the same direction you

are and who want to obtain the same things you do, so you can reinforce one

another. In light of this truth, I want you to ask yourself three questions. First,

“With whom am I spending time?” Who are your closest friends; who are the

people you are confiding in?













Second, “What are these people doing to me?” In other words, what do they have you listening to, reading, thinking, doing? Where do they have you going? What do they have you saying? How do they have you feeling? What do they have you settling for? That last one is an important one, because your friends can make you comfortable in your misery. Most important, what is being around these people causing you to become? Solomon said, “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm” (Proverbs 13:20). The

New King James Version reads, “The companion of fools will be destroyed.” My version of this maxim is, “If you want to be a success, don’t keep company with those who aren’t going anywhere in life.”










For example, if you associate with people who spend more money than they make, the chances are high that you also will spend more than you make. A friend may say, “That new dress came in, and that’s the latest style. You should get it,” when you know you can’t afford it. When she says, “I have mine; do you have yours yet?” you really feel pressured. Another friend may say, “I traded my car in for a brand new one. You should do the same thing. You have to look right, you know.” The result is that you’re knocked right off your goals—your payments are so high that you can’t save money anymore. Don’t let anyone throw you off course any longer. Decide for yourself, “What are my goals and

plans?” and don’t let others influence you to deny them.










Third, ask yourself, “Is what other people are doing to me a good thing in relation to my vision?” When you start telling people where you’re going to go and what you’re going to do, they may (even unconsciously) begin to say things to try to hinder your dream. You need to ask and answer these three questions for yourself truthfully—and

regularly—as you progress toward your vision.










Vision Wakes Up Opposition







Nehemiah 4:1 says, “When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed.” People of vision have found that the minute they decide to fulfill their dreams, all their enemies seem to wake up. Again, as long as you’re not doing anything about your vision, no one will bother you. If you start to move toward your vision, however, opposition arises.










For example, suppose you have been a secretary for twenty years, and everybody thinks you’re content in your job. One day you decide, “I’m going back to school.” When your friends ask you why, you say, “I’m going to get a master’s degree in computer science because I want to head a computer company someday.” Suddenly, your friends seem to become your enemies. They

ask, “Who do you think you are?” or “Do you know how old you are?” or “Do you realize your brain can’t handle studying anymore?” or “Who do you think will become your clients?” By the time they finish, you feel like settling down and becoming a secretary again. It is an interesting phenomenon that certain people will become angry when

you step out and start to do something that they have never done. Friends and associates don’t want you to break out of your situation because they don’t want

you to leave them behind. You need to get used to the idea that people may gossip about you and treat you with malice because of your vision. It’s all part of the process! It is often proof that you’re really doing something with your life.










Napoleon Hill wrote a great book called Think and Grow Rich. From the title, some people might not think this is an appropriate book for believers to read, but it actually contains many of the principles of the Word of Yah. Hill made a statement that has really stuck with me:










The majority of people permit relatives, friends, and the public at large to so influence them that they cannot live their own lives, because they fear criticism....Countless numbers of men and women, both young and old, permit

relatives to wreck their lives in the name of duty, because they fear criticism.

*







That is a powerful statement. Sad to say, sometimes the people who are the most detrimental to the fulfillment of your vision are members of your own family. Some family members may be extremely supportive, but others may not be. This is because they have lived with you for such a long time that they think they know who you are, so they try to talk you out of all your dreams. Your mother may say, “You'd better stay at your job. It’s secure, and it has benefits.” Your cousin may say, “What are you leaving your job for? That’s good money.” These are forms of attacks on your vision, even if they are well-intentioned. By the time your family has finished telling you all the reasons you shouldn’t follow your dreams, you want to give up on them. In your heart, however, you still have the desire to fulfill them, so you end up frustrated and suffering from things such as high blood pressure.










The potential for negative influences from family members in regard to vision is probably the reason why the Lord told Abraham, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). The Scripture doesn’t say that Abraham’s wife was present at the time, which was probably a good thing. Remember that, later on, Sarah laughed with unbelief when Yah said she would have a child. (See Genesis 18:1–15.) Joseph also had to leave his family before he could become what was essentially prime minister of Egypt.










Sometimes, we need to pull away from the influence of even those we love if we’re going to follow our Yah-given visions. Many people want you to be what they want you to be, not what you were born to be, and often they end up limiting you. For example, a family member may say, “I know you—you’re just like your mother. She never had any business sense. What do you mean you’re going to open a store?”










When you step outside what others expect you to be, they begin to see you as a problem. However, people who change the world have declared independence from other people’s expectations. That’s what makes them successful. Even if people lie about you or start rumors about you, keep your eyes on the mark, continue working, and keep on building. Your passion has to be more powerful than the opposition of those around you. You must be clear about what you’re going to do and persevere in doing it.







Nehemiah faced this very situation. In Nehemiah 4:2, we read,







And in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, [Sanballat] said, “What are those feeble Hebrews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble?”













Look at the questions Sanballat was asking. When people are angry, they ask questions to discourage you. Verse three says, “Tobiah the Ammonite, who was

at his side, said, ‘What they are building—if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!’” In other words, “Don’t worry about them. This isn’t going to work. It will soon come to nothing.” Have you ever heard that before? “Oh, don’t worry about that new business. It will last only a couple of months before it folds.” That attitude is what I call the “Tobiah Syndrome.” When someone says something like that to you, just keep moving forward with your vision.










The reason some people may begin to hate you when you pursue your vision is that you are exposing their own lack of vision. There are toxic people in the world, and they will pollute your whole life if you let them. They will tell you things such as the following: “You can’t do that.” “You don’t have enough education.” “You're too young.” “You're too old.” “You don’t have the right background.” “You don’t have the right connections.” They continually talk in this way. My response to such people is this (essentially): “Leave me alone. I was born into my family, and I didn’t choose my brothers and sisters. However, I

can choose my friends.”







In addressing the problems that come with the law of association, I have had to learn to do three things to protect my vision. The first is disassociation.










Disassociation







Priority requires that there are people and places that you are going to have to disassociate yourself from if you’re going to make it to your dream. This fact shouldn’t be taken lightly. Some people say that it doesn’t really matter with whom they associate, that they wouldn’t want to hurt anybody by disassociating from them. Yet Yahusha said, “If the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch” (Matthew 15:14 nkjv). He was telling us not to be foolish by following those who are spiritually blind. You have to disassociate yourself from people who aren’t going anywhere and don’t want to go anywhere in life. The sad thing is that some people literally sacrifice their dreams and their lives because they are afraid of having conflict and disagreement with others.










Young people, tell your former companions, “I don’t do that any longer. I don’t want you coming here. We aren’t going in the same direction anymore.” Choose the people in your life carefully. There are many people I went to school with that I can’t spend time with today. There are people I associated with five years ago that I can’t be around any longer. You can outgrow your friends. When

you start pursuing Yah’s vision for your life, sometimes you have to change who your close friends are because you’re not speaking the same language anymore. Choose people who want you to go where you want to go. Let them be your encouragement.










Don’t be afraid to disassociate yourself from people who aren’t right for you. Disassociation does not need to be confrontational. Sometimes, you can ease out of people’s lives very quietly and very subtly, just as you eased into them. For example—







“I haven’t seen you for three weeks.”







“Yeah, I’ve been real busy.”







“I haven’t seen you for two months.”







“Yeah, I’ve been working on some projects.”







“I haven’t seen you for a whole year!”










“Yeah, I’ve really been doing some things!”










Disassociation is not an easy action to take, but it is a very important priority in life. I want to conclude this section by saying that, if you listen to the critics, you won’t do what you were born to do. You must ignore the critics and keep on acting in accordance with your vision. Critics criticize because they have too much time on their hands. You need to be so busy that you don’t have time to criticize anybody or time to listen to anybody criticizing you. Remember what Nehemiah said when his enemies tried to distract him from his vision: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” (Nehemiah 6:3).










I was talking to a woman one time who was in the midst of a divorce. Her husband didn’t really want the divorce, but she had some friends who had gone through divorces, and they were trying to talk her into it. She came to see me and said, “I need to decide whether I should go back to my husband, and I was told

you could help me.” After I had listened to what she had to say, I told her, “I’ll tell you what. Your husband is your best company, because he wants the marriage. Your friends are not really your friends. If you want to save your marriage, don’t speak to them any longer. All of them are divorced. That is why they are giving you this advice.”










When you’re going through an emotionally painful situation, you must be especially careful from whom you receive counsel. You don’t want to talk to someone who is still down at the bottom. You want someone who can help you out. When you need help, you don’t go to a drowning man.







Limited Association










The second thing I have learned is limited association. You may not want to completely disassociate yourself from some of the people in your life. It is important, however, that you thoughtfully and prayerfully determine how much time you will spend with them. Perhaps there are some people you will just want to be acquainted with, so that you can back off and leave them alone again if you see that being with them causes your vision to falter.










For those of you who are dating and becoming excited about your relationships, please take this to heart: When you have a goal for your life, make sure that the person you are interested in is also interested in your goals. Many people get married and then tell their spouses their goals. Often, their spouses say,“I really don’t want that.” The Bible asks us, “Can two walk together, unless

they are agreed?” (Amos 3:3 nkjv). Yahusha reinforced this theme when He said,










“A house divided against itself will fall” (Luke 11:17). You don’t want to be in a house that is divided. That’s what causes confrontation. You want to be in a house with one vision.










It’s all right to have casual friends as long as you give them casual time. You don’t want to spend quality time with casual friends. It’s all right to spend two hours with some people but not two days. It’s all right to spend two minutes with some people but not two hours. It depends on the person and his influence on you. In fact, there are some people I can’t be around for even two minutes

because they’re always complaining. Before I talk to them, I am upbeat and ready to give my full energy to life; after I talk to them for two minutes, however, I’m depressed.










You must protect your mental environment. Here’s how to do so: Spend major time with positive influence and minor time with negative influence. Stay away from bad situations. Paul quoted the adage,“Bad company corrupts good character” (1 Corinthians 15:33). He was telling us, “Choose your company well.”







You should also be careful about what you receive from other people in terms of your life’s purpose. I have mentioned this before, but I want to mention it again: No one should prophesy anything over you that you weren’t already thinking about because Yah will confirm your vision to you first. Prophecy is for confirmation, exhortation, and encouragement, not for direction. The reason why so many people are confused is that they don’t have a vision for their lives yet, and they keep running to various meetings looking for someone to give them a word of prophecy. There are some people who have no self-control. They follow whatever others speak into their lives, and it messes them up, like the friend I

mentioned earlier who moved away from his family. This happened because he had no clear vision for his own life. Again, don’t allow other people to give you your vision; allow them only to confirm the vision that Yah has already given to you.










Expanded Association










Third—and this is the most positive of the three—expand your association. If you’re going to be successful, you have to spend more time with the right people: people who have the same philosophy and discipline that you do, people who exhibit the kind of character that you want to have. Those are the people with whom you want to expand your relationships. Ask yourself these questions:

Who can help me toward my goal? What person can I get close to and learn from?







Spend time with people of vision. When the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would become pregnant with Yahusha, Mary asked, “How can I have a baby?” Yah’s

answer through Gabriel was that this would occur through the power of the Ruach HaQadesh. Yet notice what else the angel said. He mentioned that Elizabeth was pregnant with John the Baptist after she had been both barren and

past the age of child-bearing. It was as if Yah was saying, “Mary, to help you stay strong during this time, you need the faith-inspiring testimony of Elizabeth. She has her own miracle baby, and she’s six months ahead of you.” The Bible says that Mary went straight to Elizabeth’s house and stayed with her for three months. (See Luke 1:26–56.)










Yah doesn’t want you to spend time listening to critics because they will talk you out of your “baby.” He wants you to be encouraged by someone who has already been through the morning sickness, so to speak, because there will be times when you’ll feel like giving up. During those hard times, that person can tell you, “Honey, you’re going to get through it. Don’t give up on your dream.”










Remember what Yahusha did when He wanted to raise a little girl from death? The girl’s house was full of people who were crying and moaning, “Oh, she’s dead!” They were playing funeral music and were dressed in black. They were beating their chests, tearing their clothes, and throwing ashes on themselves. Everybody was so dark and depressing. It was a pity party. When Yahusha arrived, He said to the father, “Put all of them out for Me, please.” Yahusha wanted an atmosphere of faith, not unbelief. Then He took the girl’s parents, along with Peter, James, and John, into the room where she was, and raised her from the dead. (See Mark 5:35–43.)







Accentuate the Positive







We all need other people to guide, help, and encourage us along the path to fulfilling our visions. Because we need the influence of others, however, we are also in danger of the negative effects they may have on us if we—or they—are not careful. Therefore, it is crucial for us to guard our hearts, thoughts, attitudes, and ideas from being sabotaged by those around us. We must increase the positive influences in our lives and decrease the negative ones as we pursue our individual goals in tandem with others.










Action Steps to Fulfilling Vision







Answer the three questions posed in the chapter:







With whom am I spending time? Who are my closest friends; who are the people I am confiding in?







What are these people doing to me? In other words, what do they have you listening to, reading, thinking, doing?







Where do they have you going? What do they have you saying? How do they have you feeling? What do they have you settling for?







Is what these people are doing to me a good thing in light of my vision?







Ask yourself: Who can help me toward my goal? What person can I get close to and learn from?










Chapter Principles




1 When you begin to act on your vision, it will stir up both those who want to help you and those who want to hinder you.

2 The law of association states that you become like those with whom you spend time.

3 There are two words that most accurately describe influence: powerful and subtle.

4 People have the potential to create your environment. Your environment then determines your mind-set, and your mind-set determines your future.

5 People of vision have found that the minute they decide to fulfill their dream, all their enemies seem to wake up.

6 Sometimes, the people who are the most detrimental to the fulfillment of your vision are members of your own family.

7 People who change the world have declared independence from other people’s expectations.

8 Three things that will protect your vision are disassociation, limited association, and expanded association.

9 We must increase the positive influences in our lives and decrease the negative ones as we pursue our individual goals in tandem with others.