Dear Friends,
Having a clear vision and sense of direction from God does not eliminate the times of waiting in our lives. It will not keep us away from the desert moments when our soul will need to be converted once again to be ready for what lays ahead.
Andy Stanley’s fifth building block (and you thought I had forgotten about these . . . didn’t you?) is:
Building Block #5: What God originates, He orchestrates.
Paul’s vision to preach to the gentiles was clear, but he spent three years in the desert preparing. Moses’ vision to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt was clear, but he needed to spend forty years tending sheep in the desert before he was ready to lead the people. Joseph’s (the first one, not the father of Jesus) vision to lead his family was obvious, that the journey there would take him through slavery and an Egyptian prison was not. So it is for us. We must be willing to allow God’s timing to be God’s timing, no matter how much we may wish his timing looked a lot more like our timing. “Waiting time is not wasted time for anyone whose heart God has placed a vision. Difficult time. Painful time. Frustrating time. But not wasted time” (49).
“If the Old and New Testament teach us anything, they teach us that nothing is too difficult for God . . . When God puts something in your heart to do, he goes to work behind the scenes to ensure that it happens. In the meantime, we are to remain faithful to him and focused on the vision. You are not responsible for figuring out how to pull off God’s vision for your life. You are responsible to do what you know to do, what you can do. And then you must wait . . . If it is a just a good idea, you have to make it happen. When God gives you a vision, there’s a sense in which you stand back and watch it happen. The challenge is that sometimes you stand back for a long time” (56-57).
Staying and keeping focused on our vision keeps us focused on God as we are reminded that the only way this vision will be fulfilled is if God acts and orchestrates.
Blessings,
Stephen
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Quotations taken from:
Stanley, Andy. Visioneering. Sisters, Or: Multnomah Publishers, 2005.