Bobby Chandler - Vision With Love
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Summary
In this installment of the «Communicating with God» series (now dubbed 2.0), the preacher explores how God still speaks through dreams and visions today, emphasizing that these give hope and reveal God’s destiny—or desire—for our lives, as referenced in Acts 2:17 about the last days. He addresses the key question of discerning God’s voice from the enemy’s by explaining that true words from God become a heavy burden urging obedience and must align with Scripture. The core takeaway is to value and protect God’s visions with love, writing them down, patiently waiting for fulfillment, and acting in faith, as illustrated through stories like Jeremiah’s and the preacher’s own journey.
Communicating with God 2.0: Dreams and Visions
We are on part six of our series, «Communicating with God, ” and last week, if you were here, I told you I’m taking it up a notch, and I’m calling it „Communicating with God 2.0.“ I want to ask a very difficult question: Can God still communicate with us today? Do we still have dreams? Do we still have visions? Can we still clearly hear God’s voice?
If you were here last week, I also stated that dreams and visions in our lives drive us. They drive us. Why? Because they give you hope. The reason they give you hope is that you can have hope no matter what life looks like, no matter what the world looks like, and you know that one day you’ll be able to step into your destiny.
God’s Destiny and the Enemy’s Opposition
Your destiny. I mentioned it last week that we like that word. But also, I want you to know this truth: God has a destiny for your life, but it can also be translated like this: God has a desire for your life. And who else has a desire for your life as well? The enemy, Satan, wants to do anything he can to attack you and knock you off track so that you never step foot into the destiny that God has for you.
Therefore, communicating with God is very important to hear the voice of God and to know that He’s there—guiding you—to give you confidence and hope, no matter what things look like. We also asked last week whether dreams and visions will decrease or increase as we get closer to the end times.
I asked the congregation how many of you are excited about Jesus' return. Come on! I hope everybody is! I get it; some of you want to get married, and you want to have kids, and you want to buy that house. You want to get that yacht, you want to get that boat, or whatever. But I’m telling you, the day Jesus comes back, His glory will be shown, and every knee shall bow.
Dreams and Visions in the Last Days
Looking at the Word of God, when I see us getting closer to the end days, it talks specifically about dreams and visions. This is what it says in Acts chapter 2, verse 17: „In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy; your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.“ Probably because older men have a harder time staying awake. And you know what’s true! Amen? Amen. It’s an early morning; Pastor, don’t go there!
But God can speak to you in your visions and your dreams. Why? Because we serve a miraculous God, and that’s something that always gives me hope! It always gives me faith that I know there are no limits to my God: He can do anything. He is in complete control, no matter what my situation looks like.
But last week, I was also asked an important question, and I want to dive right in today because someone came up to me at the end of the service and said, „Pastor, I believe that God can speak through dreams, but how do I know?“ Right? How do I know that it’s a dream from God, and this is where He wants me to go? Also, how do I know what if it’s the enemy trying to attack me and knock me off track? Pastor, how do I know that this is really a God dream, or beware? This is the enemy trying to knock me off track.
A Word from God Becomes a Burden
So I want to help you out. I want to answer this question right away. Okay, point A is this: A word from God becomes a burden. A word from God will always become a burden. What do I mean? Have you ever received a word from God, and it’s so heavy on your heart that you can’t help but obey? Right? Even though it may be uncomfortable.
Right? Maybe you have a friend who’s in a relationship, and all of a sudden, you had a dream about them—that relationship is not good. Normally you would never stick your nose in their business, but something about this doesn’t seem right. You can feel God saying, „Hey, I want to use you to warn them that relationship is not good.“
Maybe you’re about to date somebody, and you’re excited. They seem like a good person, but then all of a sudden, God gives you a dream saying, „Hey, you know what? This is not what I have for you. It’s going to knock you off path; it’s going to knock you off track.“ Or maybe you want to start a business, and you know somebody else starting a business, and you have these warning dreams. I promise you it’s uncomfortable. It is uncomfortable.
My wife, like I said, is a dreamer. She writes down all of her dreams, and there have been many times she’ll have a dream about somebody random, even all the way in Louisiana, and see a warning for their life. Every time she brings it up to me, I’m like, „You gotta tell them!“ She’s like, „I don’t want to.“ I said, „Oh, but you got to tell them! God gave you this dream.“ It becomes a burden, and the reason why is because God wants to use you to warn others to change their lives.
Jeremiah: The Weeping Prophet
And there’s a perfect example of this in the Bible as well. If we look at Jeremiah real quick, I talked about him last week. Now, here’s what’s so powerful about the Word of God: It will never be censored; it will never be stopped. Satan has tried over and over again to stop the gospel from being preached. He has tried to stop the disciples. „Hey, if you talk about Jesus, you’re going to be persecuted.“ What happens every time? The rise of Christianity.
And trust me, Satan’s going to try it over and over again because he has the same strategy. But each time, God’s glory is seen. When I think about the prophet Jeremiah, he was very specific. The reason why is because he heard clearly from the Lord. He heard clearly from the Lord, and he goes up to King Zedekiah and tells him, „Hey, Babylon is coming.“ We talked about this a little bit last week. He said, „Babylon is coming, and when they come, they are going to destroy Jerusalem.“
Now, put yourself in his shoes. You’re talking to a king who could kill you, who could take your life. In fact, King Zedekiah did not like Jeremiah because he was always preaching against what he wanted to hear. Okay? So another name for Jeremiah is actually the weeping prophet. But he hears from God! Shouldn’t he be happy? Sometimes, what God is speaking through you is uncomfortable; but it’s always worth it because it saves lives. Right? Even though it may be difficult in the moment.
He was so certain from what he heard from God that he even prophesied how long they would be in captivity. Look at this, Jeremiah chapter 25, verse 11. He said this to them: „Hey guys, the entire land will become a desolate wasteland. Israel and the neighboring lands will serve the king of Babylon for 70 years.“
Fire in My Bones
So imagine this: He’s standing up to the king and telling them, „Hey, Babylon is coming, and you’re going to serve this king.“ They were going into captivity for 70 years, and they did not like him. The priests started to say, „You know what? Jeremiah is not preaching the word.“ They started telling King Zedekiah, „You know what? Don’t trust him.“ All right? This is not what God is saying.
So Jeremiah gets fed up with it. He gets fed up with it, and he says, „You know what? I’m not preaching anymore. Fine! If you don’t want to repent, if you don’t want to listen to what God is telling you, then fine, I’m not going to speak anymore.“ But then he tells us later on that the word of God—he tried to shut it up; he tried not to say it, right? Just like you have that friend and you know God’s telling you to say it, you don’t want to.
He tried not to say it because he’s risking his life. But he says, „There is fire in my bones! I cannot contain it! I have to speak it! What the Lord is telling me to speak must come out.“ Jeremiah chapter 20, verse 9. Jeremiah stated, „But if I say, ‘I will never mention the Lord or speak His name, ’ the word burns in my heart like a fire! It is like a fire in my bones! I am worn out!“ Listen to the wording: „I’m worn out trying to hold it in! I can’t do it!“
And if you’ve had this burden before, you know what it feels like. You’re tired! God, it’s uncomfortable! I need you to understand this, though: This is God’s love. When God brings a warning, He desires repentance. And because of repentance, we see salvation. See, it’s always bigger than you; that’s why you feel the burden.
That’s why sometimes when you’re in the workplace or with your family, all of a sudden, God says, „Pray over them, ” and you’re like, „I don’t want to! I don’t want to pray over them.“ But God is going to use you to change their lives, and you feel it, and you know it. But are you going to act on it? Right? Remember this: God may not tell you what you want to hear, but He will tell you what you need to hear because He wants salvation for your life and the lives of others.
Tested by the Word of God
Point B is this: How do I know that this is a dream from God? A word from God will be tested by the word of God. A word from God will be tested by the word of God. Now, what does this mean? Okay, if you ever feel like you have received a word from God, whether it’s through a dream, through a vision, through a pastor, through a friend, or whatever, you should always test it by the word of God.
The reason why? We’re human. I don’t know about you guys, but I make mistakes; we all make mistakes! And so, a lot of times when God speaks over our lives, guess what we instantly do? We think selfishly! Right? „Oh, God said I’m gonna be blessed! God said I’m gonna make it through!“ Yeah, but you’re also going to go through a lot of opposition! You’re going to have some heartbreaks; you’re going to have some difficulties in your life that you didn’t see coming! But when you get there, guess what? Your character will be ready! Right?
So we instantly get a word from God, and we’re like, „It’s gonna happen tomorrow, and everything’s gonna be perfect!“ But that’s not what we see out of the Bible, right? Joseph is a perfect example of this! He had a wonderful dream where he was in a high position, and all of a sudden, his family comes up to him and bows down. But if you look at the word, you see that when he told his brothers, what was he doing? He was bragging! „Hey guys, you’re going to bow down to me one day! God told me this dream! All of you are going to bow down!“
And guess what happened? They became jealous; they were envious of him, so they sold him into slavery! Yet Joseph didn’t know that it had to be this way, and that the word of God was testing him over and over and over again. Look at his journey: He went through temptations; he went through opposition. He went through a lot to finally get into that position that God spoke over his life!
Why? Because God has a desire for your life, but the enemy’s always trying to distract you! Listen to this! Let me prove it to you: Psalm chapter 105, verse 19, New King James Version states, „Until the time that His word came to pass over Joseph’s life, the Lord tested Joseph’s…“ Oh, the word of the Lord! Sorry! I got ahead of myself. „The word of the Lord tested him.“ In the New Living Translation, it states, „Until the time came to fulfill his dreams, the Lord tested Joseph’s character.“
The Perfection of Scripture
The word of God was testing him, and the reason why this is so important—hear this all the time—people are saying, „You know what? I heard from God, and the Bible is corrupt!“ I’ve seen it so many times! „Oh, I’ve heard from God; this is what God is telling me to do, ” and I’m like, „Hey! He’s so sure about that, because when I look at His word, it doesn’t sound like that’s what He would tell you to do!“
So whenever you feel like you’ve received from God, you must test it by the word of God because people are going to tell you that you can’t trust this Bible. Let me tell you this: This Bible is perfect! There is no other book like it, written by 40 different authors over 1,500 years to write it across three different continents. Imagine the persecution they had to go through just so that we can have the Word of God within our hands! One full story, too! 40 different authors, one full story, 1,500 years—you can’t find another book like that!
Why? Because every word out of this book has been breathed to life by the breath of God, and that’s why it comes to life for you! I said it last week: You could read the same thing over and over again, and all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit grabs your attention—like, „I never knew that! I never realized that before! That God could do that in my life!“
It’s crazy how a lot of times this book collects dust, yet it’s a straight-up miracle in our hands to have today that God has given us this word. Look at this: Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 16: „All scripture—not some of it, not a little bit of it, not parts—all scripture is inspired by God.“ All of it is useful to teach what is true—not partially true, but what is fully true! Why? To help us realize what is wrong in our lives.
The reason why God desires salvation for you, and I know you desire it as well, is because the reason that you’re here today is that you have been through a lot of pain, a lot of opposition, a lot of times you ran away from God, and you’re tired of it. He’s telling you to come back, and His word is speaking to you, and He’s moving you because it comes to life.
Vision with Love: A Valentine’s Day Illustration
So I feel like we have seen that dreams do come true, that God can show us dreams—but what about this vision thing? What is that about? How does that work out in the Bible? How do we receive visions from God? How do we know that it’s a vision from God? And what can it do within our lives?
Since today is Valentine’s Day, I started to think about my family, and instantly I thought about my little girl. If you’ve ever seen Gabriella, she’s a little four-year-old running all over this place, but she loves getting cards! She loves it! This is a day to give cards! She loves cards just as much as she loves presents!
In fact, it’s so funny: She will freak out over the present; she will freak out over the card, and she starts yelling all over the house, „Look at my card!“ Like, it’s crazy! I have to prove it to you, so I have this little video; go ahead and show it real quick. It’s a little delayed, but you get the picture, right? All right, she gets a card; she starts freaking out, and she loves these things!
Now, my boys are total opposites in that regard. Like most of us, when they get a card, they look in to see if there’s any money, and then they chuck the card! All right? Because their value is in what may be inside. So she is different! The reason why I want to show this? As a four-year-old, she already has a vision to keep all of her cards!
So this is her box, and in this box, she has all kinds of cards that she’s received. She’s probably stolen some from me and my wife as well! But anyway, she has this box of cards, and it’s funny because she hides it in her room. She’s got two brothers—one is a little adventurous—so she hides it in her room so that he can’t touch it, and she takes care of these cards.
What You Value, You Treat Differently
What I’m telling you is she sees value in it, and because she sees value, she’s created a vision to protect it! I started to think about that: When we see value in something, it changes how we treat it. Let me make this statement: What you value, you treat differently. What you value, you treat differently!
Because my boys don’t see value in the cards, they toss them! But because she sees value, she protects it; she loves it. So I started to think about this: How do we expect to take care of a vision from God when we do not value what He values? Think about that.
Jeremiah prophesying, „Babylon is coming, ” what he’s telling them is „Repent! Judgment is coming.“ Repent! Whether you like it or not, this is what God is saying is going to happen. But because they did not value what God values, they never repented, even though the vision was clear—this is what was going to take place!
So let me make this example for you: If you do not value your marriage, you create no vision to protect it! Right? If you do not value your job, then you create no vision to move up. If you do not value your future, then you create no vision for retirement. Without value in something, you create no vision to protect it, preserve it, or see what it will become in the future, and this is very important when it comes to the vision from God!
So I titled today’s message „Vision with Love“ because each one of you has been given a vision from God. I hope you know that! I told you last week that God has a destiny for each and every one of you, but God will also show you visions of that destiny, that desire, what He has for your life.
But you will decide how to treat that vision, and you will either take care of it, or you will walk away because you did not realize the value it had. And I see this all the time where God has spoken into somebody’s life and shown you that vision—something to get excited about, something to hope for—but then life gets hard, and what happens? You throw it away! You throw it away!
So I’m telling you today: What if you protect it? What if you keep it close? What if you pay attention to what God is doing?
Without Vision, You Miss the Vision
So let me answer some questions for you today. What is vision in the Bible, and how does it work? There are actually two definitions for vision out of the Bible. So point number one is this: Without vision, you miss the vision. Without vision, you miss the vision.
What does this mean? Let’s look together at Habakkuk chapter 2, verses 2 and 3. Listen to this: It says, „God says, write my answers plainly on the tablets so that a runner can carry the correct message to others.“ When God speaks, He’s saying, „Write it down! Write it down right away! As soon as you go to the other people, now that it’s written down, you can speak it correctly to them.“ Okay, but be careful!
And it continues: „For this vision, any vision from God, is for a future time.“ So it’s for a future time; it describes the end. And guess what? Don’t you worry! It will be fulfilled! It will be fulfilled, and it doesn’t matter what the world looks like; it doesn’t matter the chaos around you; God’s word will be fulfilled! But it may seem slow in coming; wait patiently!
How many of you love hearing that? Wait patiently! I’m just preparing you for the restaurants after church today. Okay? Wait patiently! None of us like that! But I stress this enough: Stop giving up on God just because it’s not happening in your time! Stop walking away and being distraught and giving in to the temptations of the world and looking for worldly ways to numb your pain!
God didn’t say it’s not going to happen; He said wait patiently! You have a destiny! I got a vision to show you, but you’re not caring for it! Wait patiently, for surely it will take place! And then I love this: It will not be delayed! God will never say, „Hey, I meant for this to be on a Monday, but since all this is happening, I guess Friday will be okay!“ All right? Nobody can delay God! The enemy does not have that authority!
So that means, in His timing, when it happens, it will knock you back, and that’s when you will realize the love of God like never before! But be strong! Be in prayer! As a church, lift each other up! Pray for each other! Be there for each other! God will come through in His timing!
Vision for Planning and the Spiritual Meaning
Because the most common use of the word vision that I see—when we talk about it—is his vision of planning for the future. Most people, when they hear the word vision, they think about planning for the future. So maybe in your business you talk about a vision: „This is where we want to go.“ Right? This is what I want for my family: „A vision. This is a vision for my marriage! I want to make sure that we stay in this good, healthy relationship, so we need to take these steps and never forget how much we love each other.“
Vision as a church, we catch vision all the time, right? We’ve been casting vision! We showed that video three different times, but we showed it that we’re about to get a new building. Why? Because that’s a vision we’ve seen from God, and we’re planning for the future! We’re working on renovations right now; we have a vision for the youth—we have a vision for connect groups—all these things are coming! But we’re planning for the future!
Why? Because when you do not have a vision, what happens? You could care less! When you could care less, the people perish; dreams are broken, people feel hurt, and then you get to a place in your life, and you’re like, „God, why am I here? Why do I feel so stuck?“ You never cared for the vision! You never made a vision for the vision! You didn’t do anything! You just went through life!
Proverbs chapter 29, verse 18, King James Version: „Where there is no vision, the people perish.“ And I’ve seen it: Like my boys would throw away a card, I’ve seen believers throw away a vision from God because they did not see the value anymore! Completely chuck it out of their life! No measure for the future, and I’m telling you—like I said—you’ll end up hurt or unhappy when there is no vision for your life!
But something even deeper out of the Bible when it comes to vision, there is a spiritual meaning to vision, and it actually is a supernatural way of communicating with God! Now, this is something that always piques my interest! I love reading the Bible and seeing how God speaks to His people! Right? Because there are no limits: we see this!
And so, a lot of the prophets out of the Bible had visions from God; they got glimpses of heaven or of what God was doing for the future. Just to give you some examples: Isaiah writes about visions seven different times; Ezekiel mentions visions 13 different times; Daniel talks about visions 22 times!
But as I looked through all the visions, I noticed something similar—something that they all had in common. Most of the time, when a prophet of God received a vision from God, God said to do something: He said to write it down. We’ve already seen that out of the book of Habakkuk: Write it down! Write down what will happen!
And I realize when you write it down, you’re no longer wishing it will happen, but you’re waiting for it to happen! Because it’s what God has declared over your life! What He’s shown you, what you’ve seen! Right?
Write It Down: From Moses to Today
Let me give you an example of this: Moses, when he went up to Mount Sinai to meet God through prayer and being in the Lord’s presence, received the Ten Commandments. Now, listen to this: Exodus 34:27: „The Lord said to Moses, 'Write this down—all of these instructions.’“ What if he didn’t write it down? We’re like, „Well, I don’t know, but we had the Ten Commandments today! I don’t know because God chose Moses!“
So why didn’t he write it down? „But Pastor, that’s important!“ Yeah, but He’s still speaking something important over your life. Have you written it down? Have you believed it? Or have you thrown it away because you’ve been attacked or you’ve been hurt? God still has a vision for you!
Because Moses wrote it down, He teaches the Israelites the Ten Commandments, and guess what happens? Today, we’re teaching our children the Ten Commandments! Why? Because we value what God values, so we treat it differently! And we take care of it!
So when God shows you a vision, when He speaks to you, when He’s molding you and guiding you, take care of it! Hold on to it! We value what God values, so we treat it differently!
Follow God’s Assignment Over Worldly Desires
Point number two is this: Follow God’s assignment over worldly desires. Follow God’s assignment over worldly desires! Every time God shows a vision out of the Bible, it’s usually followed by an assignment.
For example, in Second Kings chapter 6, this is a cool story! The prophet Elijah is with the servant, and all of a sudden, an army of Syria is coming to attack them. Now, put yourself in their shoes! Okay? Elijah is with the servant, and the servant sees them, and he’s like, „Oh no! What do we do? They’re coming for us! They’re coming to attack us; they’re coming to take us out! What do we do?“
And he looks at him, and I love Elijah’s reply in Second Kings chapter 6, verse 16. Elijah says, „Don’t be afraid!“ I kind of imagine it almost like it’s a superhero voice: „Don’t be afraid! For there are more on our side than on theirs!“ That’s great, Elijah! That’s awesome! Okay, I see you’ve got faith! Right?
If we were to say something like that in the church, we’d all be like, „Yeah, God’s with us!“ But his servant is looking at an army coming to cut his head off—to take him out—and so he’s probably looking at Elijah like, „You have lost it! Something’s wrong with you! Like, I get it; God is with us, but this doesn’t look good right now!“
Here’s where it gets cool: We talk about visions, and prophets of God receive these visions, and it’s almost like a veil; Paul talks about there’s a veil in front of our eyes. Sometimes God allows those scales to be removed, and the reason why—in the very beginning out of Genesis, Adam and Eve, they walked and talked with God; all right? They saw Him!
But as soon as they sinned against God, yes, the Bible says their eyes were opened, but at the same time, they were closed. Because you’ll notice something different from that moment on: Anytime God spoke to them, He had to do it through a miraculous way; sometimes angels would disguise themselves as human beings. We see that a lot in the Bible, right?
But the Bible was clear: There is a veil where you can’t always see what’s happening around you. You can’t always see the spiritual! And so at this moment, the reason Elijah was able to say this is because he prayed something out of faith and power!
In Second Kings chapter 6, verse 17, he said, „The Lord opened the young man’s eyes.“ Okay? He prayed, „The Lord opened the young man’s eyes, ” and when the servant looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elijah was filled with horses and chariots of fire! The Lord opened his eyes and removed this veil for him to be able to see: This was an angelic army all around him!
The army of Syria is coming at them, but all of a sudden, he sees angels encamped all around him—mighty angels willing to fight on his behalf! And let me make this clear: This vision that he received is spectacular, but it’s also a vision of God’s love.
He was a servant; most likely in his position, he could have felt like he was beneath a lot of people, that nobody cared for him—that nobody really cared for his life. But in this moment, he saw that God’s army was with him and protecting him—that he was valuable in the eyes of God! That he was valuable because God was protecting him with this incredible vision!
God Protects His Children
And it’s a glimpse! I want to share a truth with you: God protects His children! You’re a child of God! He wants to protect you! And there are times when you feel like giving up; there have been times when you have felt completely alone. But it’s when we pray; I do believe that sometimes God allows you to see a vision, a glimpse of His holy presence all around you—protecting you and guiding you!
And I’ve always asked the question, though: Why? Why does God allow that veil to be there? How come He just doesn’t remove it so that we could see all the time? Wouldn’t that be great? No! You would never sleep! You would never sleep!
Think about it: If you were able to see spiritual warfare take place all over your life, every time out of the Bible, when you see a prophet of God encounter an angel or the presence of God—what happened? They fall to their knees and they tremble in fear! The human mind can’t handle it!
So if God removed that veil permanently, you would see all kinds of things! And that’s where faith comes in! And that’s why, when God gives you a word, you test it by His word, and He makes it evident in your life that God is doing this for you!
And I realize this: This is really important when we discover, okay, because we always have an assignment when we have a vision. When we discover our value and His promise by following the assignment, at that moment, like I said, the servant realized that God was with them and he had value!
So when God gives us a glimpse of this, we realize that there is a purpose in our lives. There is a purpose to the pain that we experience! But when we reject God’s vision for our lives to chase our own selfish desires—remember! God has a desire for your life! So it’s easy to get distracted when we chase our selfish desires!
We start to lose value because we gain empty promises from the world, and I believe every one of us knows what that feels like! „I’m gonna do my own thing, God! I’m gonna follow and do like everybody else!“ And then in the end, you’re hurt, and you realize everything the world promised you was empty! Even if you saw success! Even if you got what you thought you wanted that would make you whole—in the end, it didn’t!
But it’s through a vision that God shows you His love, and He’s there, and it’s powerful!
Hear His Love and Believe His Vision
And my last point is this: Hear His love and believe His vision! Hear His love and believe His vision! You know, it’s kind of funny that I’m talking about puzzle pieces. If you came in today, you may see a puzzle piece on your chair, because earlier this week, when I finished the sermon, I felt like I was going to do more with it.
So this weekend, as I was praying and going over it, things started to change. In fact, more things changed this morning—the entire title of the sermon changed this morning because God was showing me something different! Remember last week I told you, sometimes the puzzle may not be complete, but trust that God will reveal all the pieces!
I believe that when God gives you a vision, He also gives you a special gift—His love! Let me make it clear to you: A vision from God gives us the ability to see something finished before it begins—a glimpse of the future of what’s going to happen! A vision from God gives us the strength to keep going when we feel all alone!
Elijah and his servant, afraid to be attacked; a vision from God gives warnings—not to stray from the path! Jeremiah preaching to Jerusalem: „Repent! Judgment is coming!“ A vision from God gives us value! There’s more to life! There’s always more to life than what you see!
Sometimes, I want to say something cool. So this is what God did today! These two books—thank you, sir. I’ve had these two books for a long time! One actually talks about dreams and visions, Bible research; the other one is about church planting and what that looks like.
And I was looking at it, and it’s crazy because I saw this: I’m gonna read it to you, and it says, „At times the only way to test a dream or a strong inner impulse that continually throbs in your spirit is by actually stepping out in faith.“ And it’s underlined! It’s underlined, and I have in big words right next to it „Right now!“
It was written—I look at this book; I think of frustration because I underlined that and wrote that when we were still in Louisiana, and I knew that God was giving me a vision—something new was coming. But I felt stuck, and I didn’t know how to get there!
And so I saw that little piece! Here’s what’s funny too! So this is church planting, and I looked at it, and I kid you not, on page 11, it talks about some of the cities about planting churches, and circled in this book, I circled Charlotte, North Carolina, and I even wrote down within the book the church because this is when I looked at it later, and I wrote down „Authentic Church—my church—2018!“
When I look at this book, I think about fear! This one was frustration; God was telling me He gave me a burden. I didn’t understand it. This one was scared to death because I knew God was showing me a vision of this church, but I did not know how it was going to take place—when I had nothing! Nothing! I mean broke and scared!
And it’s crazy; these little pieces kept popping up in my life, and I recognized them to be important and every time I underlined it, I wrote it down, I put it somewhere special! And it’s crazy now that I get to stand before you, and I see more of the puzzle coming together—things that I didn’t understand then.
Jeremiah’s Act of Faith
Let me show you this: We hear His love; we believe His vision! Why? I was telling you about Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, and he was telling them, „Hey, Babylon is coming! King Nebuchadnezzar is going to destroy Jerusalem!“ So he knows this again, he said, „Hey! We’re going to go into captivity for 70 years! Okay? That’s a long time!“
But by faith, he did something incredible—something I want to challenge you with today! Because God also told him this—knowing what was about to happen, God told him to purchase the field of his uncle’s son! To take a sealed and open deed and bury it within a clay jar, because just like my little daughter’s box, he took value in what God was saying for a future time! It’s incredible!
Listen to this: It’s really cool! Jeremiah chapter 32, verses 14-15: „This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel says: Take both this sealed deed and the unsealed copy and put them into a pottery jar to preserve for a long time.“ For this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel says: „Someday people will again own property here in this land and will buy and sell houses and vineyards and fields!“
Jeremiah believed this word from God so much that he bought land, even though he knew Babylon was coming to destroy Jerusalem! Even though he knew that they would go into captivity for 70 years, God had given him a vision and spoken, „One day you’ll be back; one day your people will be back and that land will be yours. That land will be your families!“
He heard God’s love! You realize this is love? God’s talking about destruction! „Oh no! Doom and gloom!“ I get it! But at the same time, He’s saying, „Don’t you worry! You trust me! You follow me in obedience! One day your family will come back, and they will inherit because of your obedience!“ That’s His love!
And when we hear it, we should believe it, and we take action even though it doesn’t look like it will ever happen! But we write it down, we hold on to it, and believe!
I want to say again one more time before you leave today: What you value changes how you treat it! You have received a vision from God—a sign of His love for your life! But I want to ask you right now: How are you treating it? Do you care for it? Keep it in hard times, or have you lost faith? You just chucked it and thrown it away!
The reason I wanted to put a puzzle piece on your seat is you could do two things with it. I want you to think about what God has spoken over your life, and I want you to hold on to that little piece because it’s small! It can be very easy to lose! But I want you to take care of it!
Why? Because every time you look at it, I want you to remember a promise that God has spoken over you! Because what you’ll notice, just like me with the church, these books, these little pieces, God starts putting that puzzle together when you value what He values, and He’s shown you this vision—to keep going and to keep moving!
And I’m begging you—everybody stand up right here—I am begging you today: Do not throw away what God is speaking over your life! Because again, when you mark it down, it’s not just an impact in your life but an impact on the lives of others around you!