Consumed by the Vision
I read the following excerpt this morning from "The Philosophy of Sin" by Oswald Chambers. Since we were talking about "Living in the Later", it struck me about how critical it is for us to walk in obedience to the vision of truth that the Holy Spirit reveals. Being open to the vision and walking in obedience will lead us to greater revelation. Take a look at the story of Cornelius in Acts 10. Cornelius was obedient to the vision he received from the angel and he sent for Peter. He did not look at all the circumstances and consider that he was a gentile, but he considered the voice of the Lord and knew God would make a way to bring the Word to his home. At the same time God was preparing Peter with a vision which he also responded to and God was glorified through it all.
Hold on to the vision God has given you. Follow it through until He completes it in your life. Don't be afraid to let your life be consumed by His vision and His voice.
"The healthiest exercise for the mind of a Christian is to learn to apprehend the truth granted to it in vision. Every Christian with any experience at all has had a vision of some fundamental truth, either about the Atonement or the Holy Spirit or sin, and it is at the peril of their souls that they lose the vision. By prayer and determination we have to form the habit of keeping ourselves soaked in the vision God has given. The difficulty with the majority of us is that we will not seek to apprehend the vision, we get glimpses of it and then leave it alone. "I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision," says Paul. It is one of the saddest things to see men and women who have had visions of truth but have failed to apprehend them, and it is on this line that judgment comes. It is not a question of intellectual discernment or of knowing how to present the vision to others, but of seeking to apprehend the vision so that it may apprehend us. Soak and soak and soak continually in the one great truth of which you have had a vision; take it to bed with you, sleep with it, rise up in the morning with it, continually bring your imagination into captivity to it, and slowly and surely as the months and years go by God will make you one of His specialists in that particular truth." - Oswald Chambers
Hold on to the vision God has given you. Follow it through until He completes it in your life. Don't be afraid to let your life be consumed by His vision and His voice.
"The healthiest exercise for the mind of a Christian is to learn to apprehend the truth granted to it in vision. Every Christian with any experience at all has had a vision of some fundamental truth, either about the Atonement or the Holy Spirit or sin, and it is at the peril of their souls that they lose the vision. By prayer and determination we have to form the habit of keeping ourselves soaked in the vision God has given. The difficulty with the majority of us is that we will not seek to apprehend the vision, we get glimpses of it and then leave it alone. "I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision," says Paul. It is one of the saddest things to see men and women who have had visions of truth but have failed to apprehend them, and it is on this line that judgment comes. It is not a question of intellectual discernment or of knowing how to present the vision to others, but of seeking to apprehend the vision so that it may apprehend us. Soak and soak and soak continually in the one great truth of which you have had a vision; take it to bed with you, sleep with it, rise up in the morning with it, continually bring your imagination into captivity to it, and slowly and surely as the months and years go by God will make you one of His specialists in that particular truth." - Oswald Chambers