Your Vision

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..."Write the vision and make it plain"... 

Habakkuk 2:2

Five times in Genesis chapter thirty-nine we read: 'But the Lord was with Joseph.' Be encouraged: God is at work in what you're going through right now. Where did Joseph get the wisdom to lead a nation? By dealing with his own family problems, by handling Potiphar's household staff, and by running a prison system. Like rungs on a ladder, each one took him closer to the top. Notice how it worked: his brothers sold him to Ishmaelite slave traders, who sold him to Potiphar, who put him in prison where he met the butler, who introduced him to Pharaoh, who made him Prime Minister of Egypt, fulfilling his dream. 

Was it easy? No, Until the timecame,'...the word of the Lord tested him' (Psalm 105:19). Your vision will be 'tried' by situations that either make or break you. Bill Gothard describes this process as the birth of the vision, the death of the vision, and the resurrection of the vision. When you've no funds, no friends, and no fight left in you (the death stage), remember the words of Jesus: '...unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies [to self], it produces much grain' (John 12:24 NKJV). When your vision dies and God resurrects it, you begin to talk and act differently. With ego subtracted and grace added, you start saying with the Psalmist , 'I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living' (Psalm 27:13 KJV). At that point God smiles and says, 'You're finally getting it right!'

Used with permission from UCB Word for Today. Free issues are available here for the UK and Republic of Ireland.