Proverbs 29:18 – “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law.”  NASB

I am fully persuaded that one of the most needed abilities in a Spiritual Overcomer and for defeating defeatism, rising to that place which God desires for us as individuals, local congregations, and nations is VISION!  I did not say having sight but having a Vision. 

Please know that I do not think that the Vision is the only ingredient needed but is an important and vital ingredient.  With Vision comes Determination and Faith.  It is as we have Vision, we sense the need for establishing priorities (first things first) and we accept personal responsibility.  I am fully persuaded that without an infusion of Spiritual Vision we will become nothing more than notches on the devil’s gun and live, in bondage to defeatism.

Matthew 6 gives us a sample and insight into the great difference between the way people live naturally (filled with worry and anxiety) and the way Jesus has purposed and prepared for us to live (FREE).  We do not have to live in bondage to the world’s system we can be Free.  That must become more than a cliché it must become a focal reality and pursuit in our lives. 

Let me ask you to engage in a simple activity and see if you can identify any areas that resemble your life.  Look around at the world in which you live and see if you can see any areas in which you have been stymied or trapped.  What are you willing to accept and tolerate?  What is your burning desire? 

The World in which we live is both negative and positive.  That is not a bold revelation but a simple fact.  Sadly, many tend to focus on the negative.  They look for what is wrong rather than what is right.  They look for what is missing rather than what is present. 

Those focusing on the present tend to look at what is ugly rather than what is beautiful.  They look at what is destructive rather than what is constructive.  We talk about what cannot be done rather than what is being done or can be done.  They talk about what hurts rather than what helps and what they lack rather than what they have.  You see that in the Newspapers, on television, and in conversations.  That tends to produce doubt, fear, resentment, and even bitterness and the result is defeat.

We are engulfed by the status quo and attitudes of cynicism.  Former President, Barack Obama declared there was no American Exceptionalism and largely that kind of attitude is reflected in the ‘participation trophy society’ we now live in.  There is encouragement for the masses to be average rather than exceptional. 

I am convinced that without spiritual vision to motivate us, we tend to become part of the Status Quo with nowhere to go.  Average not Exceptional.  One of the things the Bible noted about Daniel was that he had an ‘excellent spirit’.  We live in a world where Indifference is the norm not the exception and that leads to defeat.

The majority accept Indifference as the norm and choose to live in mediocrity.  I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been encouraged to ‘go with the flow, don’t rock the boat, and don’t make waves.’  I’ve heard more times than I find comfortable, “Who Cares?”  I don’t know about you, but that kind of living looks a lot like Bondage and incredibly Boring to me. 

I want to adopt the Army’s motto and “Be All I Can Be.”  I want to rise as High as God will take me. I want to mount up with wings like the eagle and soar to the pinnacle of the mountain.  I want to be Free and a Partaker of and Participant in God’s Abundant Life and Living.

I have read that an eagle has 8 times as many visual cells per cubic centimeter as a human being.  An eagle flying at 600 feet can spot an object the size of a dime in six inches of grass.  He can see a 3-inch fish jumping in a lake five miles away.  He sees what most miss!  For us to be all that we can be in God Vision is imperative and we must develop Determination and become totally Committed!  We can be sighted naturally and blind spiritually or we can See in both realms.  What do you desire?

I want to address this just a bit more so we will pause here and pick up next time considering the matter of Vision and Blindness! 

God, bless you richly is my desire and prayer!