This message will show us how important it is to have a vision from Jesus and each one of us needs to have a Vision from Jesus.
I want to start by talking about Apostle Paul, he was then known as Saul because he had not yet converted. He was very religious but he was not a born again Christian.
I like Paul because he was aggressive, he wasn’t a good man, he was mean, he murdered. He would kill Christians.
I want to tell you something about God. God loves bad people. Because bad people make the best kind of people when they get convert.
Paul was that kind of person. He was on his way to pick up some letters and go after some Christians when he had a Vision from Jesus.
For the first time in his life he was not acting religiously, he was experiencing a real encounter with Jesus Christ. On that road he was overwhelmed by an encounter with the Lord.
Please listen to what I’m saying today: True conversion is not becoming part of a church or praying prayers a preacher leads you in. It’s possible for people to be in church and not be saved, to have a praying mother and be around church events all their life and still be as lost as they can.
It’s not until you have a vision of who Jesus really is that you really convert. It’s not until you see Him as He is. It’s not until you are overwhelmed by His love and what He has done for you. That’s what the Bible teaches as the new birth, you must be born again, it’s not just saying a prayer or coming to church.
There is a difference between being religious and being truly converted.
After Paul’s encounter with Jesus, after finding out who Jesus really was, the first words out of his mouth were:
What would you have me to do?
When you truly see Jesus and your heart is broken and melted by his Love, from that day forward everything changes!
That’s what the Bible says is true conversion! You must be born again!
When he saw Jesus, he saw who he really was and it gave him a new vision for his life.
When he was questioned about his faith he said : I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. Acts 26:19
When you have a vision from Jesus the first thing you say is : What would you have me to do? Your service in the Kingdom of God proves that you really had an encounter with Him!
1 John said : When we see Him we shall be like Him. 1 John 3:2
When you really see Jesus it makes you want to become more and more like Him. When you meet Him, when you have a vision from Jesus you want to be like Him.
Do you remember the time when the disciples were caught in a storm? The storm was raging and Jesus came walking towards them on the water.
“Peter said, “Lord, if that is really you, tell me to come to you on the water.” Jesus said, “Come, Peter.” Then Peter left the boat and walked on the water to Jesus.”
Matthew 14:28-29
Lord if it’s you tell me to come, and Jesus just said: come.
Peter got out of the boat. The Bible says he fixed his eyes on Jesus and started doing the impossible.
He could walk on water as long as his vision was turned towards Jesus.
He could do what should not be – humanly speaking – possible to do. But because Peter had his eyes fixed on Jesus he could walk on water just as Jesus had done.
He is halfway towards meeting Jesus when suddenly he starts sinking because he gets distracted. He starts looking at the circumstances and when he looks around and sees his condition, he loses his sight of Jesus.
How many Christians started their spiritual life and their ministry so well but because of circumstances, because of the storms of life, they lost their vision.
The enemy’s goal is to get your eyes off of Jesus and on the conditions surrounding you. Because as long as you are looking at Jesus and you are hearing Him say: come, you can do the impossible, you will achieve unbelievable things.
But the moment when your eyes shift off the vision to the condition that you are in, that’s when you begin to sink.
Suddenly the thing that was holding Peter up began to give in, he got halfway to Jesus and began to drown because he broke his focus off of the vision and he began to look at his fears.
This is how we get defeated. He was distracted from the vision by looking the conditions around him.
The Bible says : Without a vision the people perish. Proverbs 29:18 KJV
People with vision can do things that others believe to be impossible.
But the moment your eyes shift and begin to focus on conditions, you start sinking in fear, you start sinking in worry, you start sinking away from your faith and that is a sure sign you are in need a fresh vision of who Jesus really is!
Some of you are afraid right now and you don’t know why…
Some of you here started drowning on something that used to be stable ground.
Maybe it’s your spiritual life, your marriage, your ministry, maybe it’s an old habit…
When you first saw Jesus you got on the top of that addiction, you got on top of that problem in your life. But now you’re sinking – it’s when you start looking at the conditions around without any fresh revelation of Jesus.
Can you see some areas in your life where you feel like you’re sinking?
You need a fresh vision of Jesus !
Mark chapter 8 talks about a blind man who had no vision. Notice the first thing Jesus did to get his vision restored.
“So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town.”
Mark 8:23 NKJV
The Bible said Jesus took him by the hand and led him out of the city.
Jesus took him out of town because sometimes before you can help someone you have to get them out of the place where everyone has preconceived ideas about who they are and what they can achieve.
Jesus could operate miracles everywhere, but He couldn’t heal this man on the spot , He said I have to get you out of this familiar environment, this comfort zone, in order to give you vision.
You want what’s easier, familiar, more comfortable, but Jesus say to you , no! Come with me!
The Bible says that Jesus led him by the hand, it’s just powerful !
He led him blind! Jesus will lead you out blind sometimes too, He will pull you out of the comfort zone and take you to unknown places!
Do you see how this is a very big deal for a blind man? Blind people usually stay where they are familiar with; they move around by learning their way.
A blind man knows how many steps to the light switch in his house, he doesn’t need any help because he knows where the oven is, and two steps to the right is the sink, and ten steps to the other side is the toilet and from there twelve steps to his bedroom and he is very comfortable in his familiar environment.
God says: sometimes I will take you by the hand and I will lead you out blind, you don’t even need to know where you going, He will guide you , He will lead you and you need to trust Him!
Maybe you don’t understand but you have to trust him. You have to trust in the vision He gave you at the beginning, even when you don’t understand why things are the way they are.
God spoke to Abraham and gave him a vision! Abraham had to leave his people , his family and his country because God had greater plans for him.
Not knowing where he was going! All he had was God taking him by the hand and saying: come, I want you to go with the vision, I don’t want you to be focused on the circumstances, on the condition, I’m leading you, I have a vision for your life.
Usually when God gives you a fresh vision He will lead you out of town, He’ll force you out of comfortable situations.
Maybe you have being led blind and you don’t know what’s going to happen next , maybe something happened and you don’t know what you should do!
Keep the vision that God has given you!
What if he loved his town more than he loved the vision God had for him?
You have to be willing to obey when God says come!
There are some people that want to see and know everything before they step out. The truth is sometimes God leads you out blind, and as you walk you start getting your sight back.
“So Jesus held the blind man’s hand and led him out of the town. Then He spit on the man’s eyes. He laid his hands on him and asked, “Can you see now?” The man looked up and said, “Yes, I see people. They look like trees walking around.””
Mark 8:23-24
The first touch gave him better vision, now if you didn’t have any vision and suddenly you’re seeing men like trees, that’s good news, that’s already better.
That’s where most of us would have stopped. We set out for better but we don’t go on to the best.
We settle for a dim vision when God wants to bring a clear vision to our life, and often we stop before we get to see God’s full vision.
Sometimes we say: it’s not as bad as it used to be so I think I will just find myself a comfortable place and settle here.
The Bible says he had a dim vision and Jesus prayed for him again, He touched him a second time!
You all need to understand that God has a second touch. We settle for better and we give up the best. But Jesus touched him again.
God is saying to you: I don’t want to bring you halfway and stop. I want to touch you again, because the best is yet to come. I want to touch your eyes again and give you a fresh new vision for this season for your life.
We need to say to the Lord: Lord touch me again ! You touched before and you gave me vision. Touch my eyes again and give me a fresh new vision of who you are.
You can be focusing on conditions and losing your vision!
We need go to the Lord and say: touch me again, clear my sight again. Give me a new vision for this season, touch me again , give a vision for my life again , I want to see , the second half of my life.
Some of you young people need to get the first touch, some of you still need to have Paul’s kind of transformation, conversion. You need to see Jesus and when you see him it will overwhelm you so that you’ll want nothing but to be like him.
When I got saved I remember something started happening to me. It was my own road to Damascus and when I saw Jesus, something melted in my heart, tears started streaming down my face and I finally saw Him and decided to be like Him.
And I never looked back.
Unless you have that kind of conversion you have but religious experience.
But when you truly get converted you will say the same words as apostle Paul: What would you me to do?
I will do anything you want me to do! Jesus, what do you want me to do?!
When you truly convert you die for yourself and you say: I will give up anything and anybody and hold Jesus!
When you see Him on the Calvary, when you see His love , when you see his grace you will say: what do you have me to do?
We need a fresh vision from Jesus! You must ask: Jesus touch me again! Give me a fresh vision of who you are and what do you want me to do?
Jesus touched that man again and suddenly his eyes cleared he saw where he was going and he knew what he was to do.
All along your walk with God you need to constantly ask him to touch your vision because we tend to focus our attention on the conditions around and then we start to sink in stuff we used to be on top of.
God’s word today is: refocus your vision back on Him because He is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that you can ask, dream or imagine.
May the Lord bless and give you a vision from Jesus.