however, until then, here's someone else's thoughts. someone whom i greatly respect:
"Vision Gives Pain a Purpose"
An excerpt from Kris Vallotton's upcoming book, Heavy Rain.
from ibethel.org
"Of course, I am not saying that if you imagine a pink elephant you are going to give birth to it. I am simply trying to demonstrate the supernatural principle of envisioning. The New Age movement has been teaching this [envisioning yet-unseen-realities] for years, which has led many Christian leaders to think that the idea is from hell. But the truth is that they are stealing our stuff, and by reacting to them we have lost the creative power of visioneering.
Okay, now let me be a little more pragmatic for a moment. This supernatural principle basically works like this: When we imagine something in our mind’s eye, a phenomenon occurs in our spirits that causes us to want to see with our natural eyes what we perceived in our hearts. Michelangelo put it like this: “I saw the angel in the marble and I carved to set it free.” He looked at a boulder with his natural eyes and with his imagination he pictured an angel imprisoned in the stone. This motivated him to relentlessly chip away at the rock until he could view on the outside what he imagined on the inside. When people envision something (especially something from God), it creates a naturally supernatural impetus to apprehend the vision and see it fulfilled, built, funded, and otherwise realized.
Solomon said, “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained (wander aimlessly), but happy is he who keeps the law” (Proverbs 29:18, NASB). The King James Version says it this way: “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” When people lack vision, they lead unrestrained lives. Their life’s motivation is reduced to staying out of pain or finding pleasure. This may seem like Easy Street, but it is actually the path to a mundane, boring existence, which ultimately undermines God’s divine destiny in their lives. As Helen Keller, who was born blind, said, “It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.” But when people catch a vision, they will “keep the law;” in other words, they will restrain their options to apprehend their vision. Vision not only gives focused energy that empowers us to say no to certain things and yes to others; it also gives us the courage to endure difficulties in the path to our destiny.
Here is an example: An overweight person goes to the gym to get in shape. But the morning after his first workout, he is so sore that he can hardly get out of bed. If he has a vision (he can picture himself with a great body), that vision will give his pain a purpose. It’s vision that causes a person to restrain his eating, reorder his schedule, and push past the discomfort of muscle pain to obtain his goal. On the other hand, it is very difficult to get skinny by hating being fat, because reacting to a negative rarely creates a positive.
Vision is the invisible manager that guides, encourages, and inspires fervent souls undertaking the Master’s supernatural assignment to prepare the planet for His re-entry. When I see saints exercising enormous self-control, showing great courage in overcoming difficulties, and demonstrating excellence in their divine assignments, I know it means that they have captured a vision for their lives.
I am reminded of the old fable of the three bricklayers all working on the same long wall. Someone came up to the first man laying bricks and asked, “Sir, may I ask what you are doing?”
“I am laying bricks,” he snapped sarcastically. “What does it look like I am doing?”
The man approached the second bricklayer and asked, “What are you doing?”
“I am building a wall. That’s what I am doing.”
Finally, the inquisitive onlooker approached the last mason, finding him hard at work briskly laying bricks with exceptional excellence and speed. “Mister, could I trouble you with a question? What is it that you are doing?” the man asked in admiration.
Still hard at work, the bricklayer answered, “I am building a great cathedral for God.” Which mason would you want working for you?
