The Spirit of a Visionary
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Key Scripture: Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish … (KJV)
In about the year 1000 BC, a young man who had been anointed to be the next king of Israel but had not yet been crowned, was leading a band of renegades, secretly raiding the Philistine cities in defense of his beloved homeland. David, the son of Jesse, had two wives at this time and they along with the wives and children of his mighty men, were living in the city of Ziklag, in the South country of Judah, near what is not Gaza.
One day when David had led his men out to deceptively join the Philistine army a band of Amalekites raided Ziklag, burned the city and carried the women and children away captive as slaves. Upon the return of David and his unofficial army, the men found their world crushed and their worst fears a reality.
How could this have happened? Whose fault it is? Who is to blame for this terrible tragedy? How can we ever replace what we have lost in this horrible blow?
These, among others, are the same questions asked today by those who suffer troubling times, disappointing defeats and unwarranted tragedies.
Why do some people become victims and others become victors in terrible times such as those faced by David’s mighty men, country after country, leader after leader in World War II, and even those of us who are currently facing such disasters as the mudslides in Central America, the earthquakes in Pakistan and India, the Asian Flu epidemic, the genocide atrocities of Rwanda and Burundi, the Tsunami disaster of Thailand and Indonesia and even the hurricanes of this year in the Eastern seaboard states along with Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and the Texas Gulf Coasts.
Why are some able to rise above the trouble and lead others to safety, recovery and victory while others become distressed, depressed, worried, angry and defeated?
Afterward it is easy to evaluate the actions and attitudes of men like Winston Churchill who led the British and the free world to believe that there was a better day just ahead. Men like Reverend Dr Martin Luther King who taught the people from the dream in his heart that one day there would be a world which would not be so prejudice, so color minded, so racially bias and so socially divided.
While others sit and say “Why has this happened to me?” Others
stand and declare that despite their current circumstances, a better day is yet ahead. These godlike men and women speak to the wounded souls of mankind and impart a vision that enlightens the imagination, revives the spirit and strengthens the body to take what they have, start where they are and make something positive and productive from the hand they have been dealt.
“Anyone can curse the darkness, but it takes a visionary to light a lamp!”
Today I want to impart to each of you “The Spirit Of A Visionary”
Anyone can see what they have, but a visionary sees what he and others he cares for don’t have and dreams of a way to get it.
Turn in your bibles to the book of 1 Samuel 30 (KJV)
1 Samuel 30
1 And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;
2 And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way.
3 So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.
4 Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.
5 And David’s two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.
7 And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David.
8 And David enquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.
David and his men had experienced troubled times, a tragedy, a disaster which left them:
* Without inhabitable homes
* With family members being displaced
* Wives and children in danger
* They were all overwhelmed with grief and wept sorely
* David’s men became
> Depressed
> Angry
> Resentful
> Full of Blame
* Even David himself was greatly distressed
But David did something that the others did not do.
His men were looking around for someone or something to blame for their losses. The question of in their minds was:
How did we get in this shape?
While David was looking at something completely different. The question on his mind was:
“How can we get out of this thing?”
David did not cause the problem but he was being blamed for it.
This is what people do when they don’t have hope of a better day, they begin to murmur and complain, blame and curse the darkness and anybody that’s not in their group.
You have heard me say it before in regards to churches and congregations:
When churches cease to be evangelistic, they become cannibalistic.
It’s the same spirit.
These mighty men believed that their greatest day was behind them and that tomorrow would bring them nothing but sadness and pain.
What they needed was a vision for a better day.
Nothing will pull the desperate soul out of the pit of distress like getting a vision of a better day.
Even though David was facing the same exact thing as the others around him, he found the remedy for his distress in getting a vision from God.
When there was no one else to help him, no FEMA, no Red Cross, no Blue Tarp Program, no Points of Distribution for food, ice and water, no Church On The Rock, and no home owner’s insurance, there was still a God,
* The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
* The God of Moses, Joshua and Joseph
* The God of Rahab, Ruth and Esther
* The God of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and George W. Bush
* My God and Your God
* The God of David
And that’s why David was able to encourage himself in the Lord … He knew his God was still on the throne of the universe and he knew that his God had not failed him, would not leave him nor forsake him, was not far from him or hard of hearing.
Just thinking about that brought David to the reality that God wasn’t finished yet and that God would have the last say and that no Amalekite, no Earthquake, no Mud Slide, no Tsunami, no Hurricane and no devil in hell can touch a child of God without all of heaven being turned loose in favor of that one who has been afflicted, putting down their foes, wasting their enemies and bringing comfort and victory to everyone, from the least to the greatest. And our God is not finished yet! In fact He is just getting warmed up!
So what did David do? He encouraged himself in the Lord his God!
Later David wrote:
Psalms 31:24 Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.
Nehemiah 8:10 tells us that the joy of the Lord is our strength
Habakkuk 3 says
17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
19 The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.
Now there is a vision of a greater day!
Give me your imagination for a moment. Suppose you won the lottery and you were told that you have $200 million after taxes. Tell me, would things seem better?
That’s because it would create the vision of a greater day and somehow that vision would give you strength and the ability to endure the moment for the greater day which is to come.
That’s what imagining a greater day can do. This is where visionaries live. Not in a false imagination but in a reality birthed by the dream of God in their heart.
If money can do this, then certainly God can do it better!
Today I want to pray for you to become visionaries. I want to impart to you the “Spirit of a Visionary”.
I want you to experience what David felt, what perhaps Churchill felt, what maybe Lincoln felt, what I know Abraham felt and Jesus felt when they spoke of the future.
The Apostle Paul put it this way:
2 Corinthians 4
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Begin seeing a better day in your future. Imagine what God will do and encourage yourself in the Lord.
Won’t you stand and let me pray.
