Week 1 – The Power of Vision Devotional by Pastor Mark Cowart
This teaching is a culmination of decades of ministry. These are life-changing principles, not theory, to me. They are tools developed in the heat of spiritual warfare, to now help you in your own personal quest to discover the power of vision for your life.
In the past 40 years of ministry, I’ve witnessed how walking in faith can transform your life. Our friends, Rick and Denise Renner, and their ministry now in Moscow, Russia, are a manifestation of the power of vision. That is why Rick was the one to write the forward to my book, The Power of Vision.
As a young pastor, I did a “deep dive” into the study of the power of vision. If you could have pulled the curtain back at that time and given me a glimpse of where I’d be at this time, I would probably have stumbled at being able to take it all in and receive it. These are principles from the trenches – we have lived them. And, I want to share them with you, so that you don’t have to “take the same ground.”
“I hate paying for the same real estate twice.” – General George Patton, WWII
In spiritual warfare, as in physical combat, when you gain ground, you want to hold it and continue to move forward in conquest. I don’t want you all to have to start where I did. I want to pass on to you what was learned through hard-fought battles. You will still have your own conflict with the enemy, but you can be better equipped.
There are a lot of things that are being done in the earth in the name of the Lord, in the name of God, in ministry, that will be burned up when we stand at the judgment seat of Christ. One reason for that is there are two types of vision – earthy vision and heavenly vision. Earthly vision may be good ideas, but heavenly vision is born out of God’s plan and God’s vision.
When my wife and I became Senior Pastors of Church for All Nations in 1987, there was a backlog of problems since the church was started in 1979. You may not be a pastor, a minister or even a business owner, but there are principles we learned through the years since then, as God has led us to solutions, that are relevant to you in this study.
The ensuing years were some of the most painful times in our life. We were faced with insurmountable obstacles, impossible odds. We had a negative cash flow, a deteriorating building, and a previous administrator was criminally prosecuted. The pastor and his wife before us moved away. We were in our late twenties at the time. Quite honestly, we didn’t know what we were doing.
Pressure was all around us. We were facing creditors for things that we did not lease or purchase. The facility was in bad shape. And, we had a wounded congregation. I wondered why the Lord had put us in that position. Fast forward to where we are now, and I look back and know I wouldn’t trade the experiences for anything in the world. We would not be who we are without the hardships. We would not have the faith we do now without the opposition we have come through with the Lord.
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. - Galatians 6:7 NKJV
The grand master law of life, so to speak, is the Law of Sowing and Reaping. You have to understand this entails seed time and harvest. The seeds must be sown, time passes, and then comes the harvest. If you don’t understand his principle, life will continue to be frustrating and potentially destructive for you.
The harvest that comes from the sowing of the logos word of God in your mind is the rhema word, the quickened word, divine revelation made alive to you and abiding in your heart.
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. – Romans 10:17 NKJV
The Greek for “word” in this passage is rhema. This is not just the written logos word, but the deep truth within that word revealed to you by the Spirit of God.
It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
- Matthew 4:4 NKJV
In this verse, the Lord Jesus, during His fast in the wilderness following His baptism, is quoting from Deuteronomy in the Old Testament in answer to Satan’s taunt to turn stones into bread. Here again, He is talking about the rhema, the living word being His essential nourishment, not simply the letter of the law. We must recognize the difference to move forward into vision.
What then is “vision”, that we would seek to understand its power?
Where there is no vision, the people perish. – Proverbs 29:18 KJV
That is strong language. It doesn’t say where there is no vision people just don’t do quite as well, they are not happy, or something like that. This is talking about redemptive revelation being essential for people to thrive, to move forward in God’s kingdom plan for them.
To implement the vision, it must be aligned with the times. The message never changes, but the methodologies must. What got us to where we are in life won’t get us to where we need to go.
In Matthew chapter 16, Jesus had taken the disciples to a place known as “The Gates of Hell” due to its pagan associations. Many people believed it to be the opening to the underworld, because such wickedness was practiced there, and Jews were advised not to go near it.
The Lord took them there to get their attention, to make a strong point.
When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, ‘Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?’ So they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.' He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered and said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. ’Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.'
Matthew 16:13-17 NKJV
You might note that all the famous figures referenced as possible identities for our Lord were controversial. They confronted political leaders of their day and suffered severe confronted political leaders of their day and suffered severe consequences. We must, nonetheless, follow the direction of God if he sends us on such an assignment.
What is most important here is who the disciple said their Teacher is. Each of us must have a divine revelation of His true identity on which to build a vision. I believe there are basically three interpretations of who Christ is.
There is the universal Jesus whom everybody loves. He is very convenient, because you can believe He is with you and go anywhere, do anything. This is false. Secondly, there is the religious version of Jesus, with endless rules and condemnation, enough to make you hate God.
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. - II Corinthians 3:6 KJV
The written word, the logos, can itself bring death if not enlivened by the Spirit of God to become the rhema.
In the Matthew 16 passage above, we see Peter give the right answer as to who Christ is, he said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Right there in front of “the gates of hell” because it was “revealed” to him by our “Father who is in heaven.” No matter where you are at, the corruption of this world cannot prevail against you when you step out in the faith you have and receive the revelation, the rhema in God’s word for you.
Your way out of where you are right now is through the power of vision. But not just any vision, not just your intellect. It’s the faith of God and receiving from the Lord what He has provided to empower you.
Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ, right now let the light of your Word come through to me to stir my faith alive. Let there be a quickening of your Holy Spirit to show me the way out of what looks, in the natural, like an impossible situation. I know that, with you, all things are possible. Lord I want to fully embrace the vision that you have for my life and partner with your Spirit to fulfill it. Help me to fully and completely believe it and to be obedient to you. Amen
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