Month: August 2020

Visions Becoming Reality

Oswald Chambersby Oswald Chambers

The parched ground shall become a pool… —Isaiah 35:7

We always have a vision of something before it actually becomes real to us. When we realize that the vision is real, but is not yet real in us, Satan comes to us with his temptations, and we are inclined to say that there is no point in even trying to continue. Instead of the vision becoming real to us, we have entered into a valley of humiliation.

Life is not as idle ore,
But iron dug from central gloom,
And battered by the shocks of doom
To shape and use.

God gives us a vision, and then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of that vision. It is in the valley that so many of us give up and faint. Every God-given vision will become real if we will only have patience. Just think of the enormous amount of free time God has! He is never in a hurry. Yet we are always in such a frantic hurry. While still in the light of the glory of the vision, we go right out to do things, but the vision is not yet real in us. God has to take us into the valley and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the point where He can trust us with the reality of the vision. Ever since God gave us the vision, He has been at work. He is getting us into the shape of the goal He has for us, and yet over and over again we try to escape from the Sculptor’s hand in an effort to batter ourselves into the shape of our own goal.

The vision that God gives is not some unattainable castle in the sky, but a vision of what God wants you to be down here. Allow the Potter to put you on His wheel and whirl you around as He desires. Then as surely as God is God, and you are you, you will turn out as an exact likeness of the vision. But don’t lose heart in the process. If you have ever had a vision from God, you may try as you will to be satisfied on a lower level, but God will never allow it.

by Oswald Chambers

The Virgin’s Responsibility

Jonathan Cahnby Jonathan Cahn

The Hebrew Almah Miryam is the Virgin Mary. We have so many songs about her. It’s been the theme of art and music for two thousand years. However it rarely goes deeper to the truth. It wasn’t just Virgin and Child. It was Virgin and Responsibility. We tend to downplay that part. If you’ve received the Lord’s new life, then you have the newborn presence of God in your life. If you think that it’s going to be all Christmas Carols, you’re in for a rude awakening. That seems to be the problem with many of our walks. We want the Christmas experiences, but we don’t want the responsibility. We want the new life but we don’t want anything to take care of. We don’t want the sacrifice involved with having a treasure. If you want the life and presence of God, then you have to take the responsibility. You’ve got a newborn. That means you have to take care of this life, cherish, protect, sacrifice for it, and treasure it. You’ve been blessed with the greatest of blessings, but remember, life isn’t neat and blessings must be treasured.

Today’s Mission – What responsibility has God entrusted you with? Seek to fulfill your charge with more passion and excellence today – For with the blessing comes the responsibility.

by Jonathan Cahn