A few years ago I was visiting my parent’s sheep farm with my family. While we standing on the back deck of the house, I attempted to point out the sheep grazing in field to my son Josiah.
“Do you see them?”
“No.”
“They’re the little white dots on the green grass. You don’t see that?”
“No.”
“Look over there. They’re right there in that field.”
Nope. He couldn’t make them out. Gigi (my Mom) brought out her glasses and sure enough the sheep appeared to Josiah. He now sports some sweet specs and never has an issue spotting sheep whenever they might be milling around.
We heavily rely on our vision to understand many things in life. Until Gigi shared her glasses, Josiah had no idea what we were talking about. With his own glasses Josiah is able to see and enjoy all the things that the rest of us can. Clear vision enables us to not only understand but move forward in life with confidence.
God uses dreams and visions to help us see from His perspective. He intends that His vision for our life and our vision are one in the same. But before we go any farther with this, let’s make sure we’ve got all of our words straight. Night dreams are symbolic and need interpretation. Visions from God can come in many forms but they are literal. A vision can simply be a picture or movie in our mind or it could be a full-fledged experience in which we see everything with our natural eyes. Our vision for your life is about our destiny – what we are created to do. I think it’s telling that we use the same words for different yet connected ideas. They are connected but the reality of that is not often recognized.
Many of us see our life goals (dreams, vision) as real, concrete thing that we can visualize, pursue and achieve. The whole world recognizes this as a good practice. While the dreams and visions God sends us are an afterthought if that. This needs to change. Our interaction with these heavenly messages should be accepted just like putting a vision map together or writing down our yearly resolutions.
God’s dreams and visions for us are on His time table. He is the sender. We are the receiver. A heart that is open to hear and seeks the wisdom of God will be one that receives. As you begin receiving you will notice that God is speaking about the plans and purposes for your life. Your night dreams speak about your life dreams. A vision from God brings clarity to the vision for your life.
Do not expect every detail to be mapped out for you. Not only is this unrealistic as we would not be able to retain all the information given to us, but it removes faith from the equation. Without faith it is impossible to please him (Hebrews 11:6). Pleasing God should be fairly high on our priority list. While we may get the big picture or a single step, God is looking for us to step out in faith to activate the desires of our heart. God will give us instruction, correction, guidance and wisdom. All of that and more help us see more clearly and walk more confidently.
Our vision plus the input of our all-knowing Father equals success. The spectacles God want us to wear are breathtaking. They allow us to see into the realm of the supernatural and be equipped with wisdom and resource of heaven. Beats the heck out of those hipster glasses you have been trying to pull off.