Jentezen Franklin - What You See Is What You Get
If you have your Bibles, I want you to open them with me to the book of Habakkuk in the Old Testament. Habakkuk. And I’m gonna preach to you today, this message of dreaming is in my heart, and I believe that what I’m gonna share today can help you. I wanna give you today a blueprint plan that is laid out in the word of God to finding and obtaining and doing the vision that God has called you to do. I’ll begin reading with Habakkuk 2:1, «I will stand my watch, I will set myself on the tower, and I will watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected. Then the Lord answered me and said, 'Write the vision, make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry».
God’s timing will be right. And I’m preaching today on, «You Get What You See». You Get What You See. Vision in the Bible is mentioned many times. There were open visions, there were closed visions, there people who were carried in a vision by God to places, even to the third heaven. But the kind of vision that this text is giving us the blueprint for affects all of us. Vision is the ability to see a day you have yet to enter into. Vision is what you focus on. He said, «I will watch to see what He will say». «Not just hear what He will say, but I’m watching,» Habakkuk said, «to see what God is saying».
In other words, if you’re gonna see what they’re saying, it’s a picture, it’s a mental image. I will wait, I’m waiting on God for His vision for my life and I’m gonna see myself doing what he says I can do. I will wait to see what He will say, not just hear what He will say, you gotta see it. You gotta see yourself doing it. It’s possible to have God say something to you, but you don’t see it. You have to see what God says to you. You can read all you want that God wants to bless you, that you’re the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, that you are forgiven, cleansed, free. But until you see yourself walking in that truth, it doesn’t work for you. He said, «I’ve gotta see what He will say».
You’ve gotta get a picture, you’ve gotta see yourself out of addiction. You’ve gotta see yourself out of fear, torment, the defeated life. You’ve gotta see yourself in a happy marriage before you’ll ever experience it. You’ve gotta see your family and your children saved by faith in Jesus Christ. And when you begin to see it, you don’t let all the distractions around you, because a vision is what you focus on. «I’m focused on this so all the things pulling at me cannot change the direction that I’m going». You get a picture. And the way we see ourselves has a lot to do with where we end up in life. You’ve gotta see what He says about you. I’m not gonna be holy when I get to heaven. He said, right here, right now, if my faith is in that blood and in that body of Jesus Christ, I am as holy and righteous and forgiven because it has nothing to do with what I bring to the picture except faith.
My faith in Jesus Christ says I am the righteousness of God right now. And if I’m the righteousness of God, which the Bible says, I have to see myself like that so I can come boldly before the throne of grace. When you understand that, it can change your life. If you believe in your heart you’re a failure, if you believe in your heart you can’t succeed, that everybody else is better than you, if you believe in your heart that you don’t deserve what others can obtain through the cross, you’ve got to be able to see yourself walking in what God says about you. And there are obstacles to that vision, three specifically. First of all I want you to understand that the vision that God gives you will have the obstacle of present circumstances not lining up with what God is telling you to do. And that’s why He said, in the next part of the verse, «Write the vision».
When you see what I say I want you to write it down. Why? Because I want it logged into your mind what I say over what present circumstances say. I want you to hang on to it. I want you to pull it out of the drawer and look at it again and remind yourself I showed you that that family would be saved. I told you that that business would be blessed. I told you that I would help you. I told you in that service, I gave you, I said it and you saw it, write it down because there will come days where tomorrow you’ll have the opportunity to lose what God is saying to you today because you’re not seeing it in the present circumstances. Not only is there the challenge of present circumstance, and more people have given up on their vision because of present circumstances than probably anything. They let the present talk them out of it.
I don’t let the pre… When God tells me something, I don’t let the present circumstances talk me out of it. Hallelujah. And that’s how you maintain joy. Because you don’t live by what you see, you live by what God said. And I just believe that when it’s all said and done that God’s gon' take it a lot like this, and a lot like that, and a lot like this, and all this, and then finally, in His timing, see, He will withhold no good thing from them that walk uprightly. If God’s withheld it, it wasn’t good or it wasn’t time yet. And for me, when I hear Him say it, I wait to see what He will say, and when I know that I know that He’s told me, «My sheep know my voice,» He said, then I get it settled. Go on and act crazy, do whatever you wanna do, let all Hell break loose, but present circumstances don’t change the promises of God.
The second thing is not just present circumstances or obstacles to the vision, but present resources. I mean, this is a big one. You never have now what you need to get the vision done because present resources don’t match up with where God is taking you. I never had the money to do what God told me to do. It’s pro-vision, which means you get vision and the pro comes, the provision. But if you’re sitting around waiting on the lottery, you’re never gon' do anything. It’s vision that attracts resources. There’s a Bible verse, and I tell this to young preachers all the time, I’m telling you, I read a little book one time and this guy, he said this, he said, «Deep calls unto deep».
That’s a Bible verse, «Deep calls unto deep». In other words, there are some resources. The deep pocket resources never come to you until you get a big vision. And it’s not one you make up, it’s the one God gives you. But deep only calls the deep. Some people just, they’re not even interested in your vision until it’s big enough for their world and their finances. Hallelujah. So, dream big. Hallelujah. 'Cause you serve a God who said, «I can do exceedingly, abundantly», I’m preaching myself happy this morning. «Abundantly, above all that you could ask or even imagine».
The last one is your present self. You see, you feel…Have you ever noticed that when God gives you a vision you feel like, sometimes, you biggest obstacle is yourself? The devil hasn’t got as much to do with stuff sometimes as your present self. When you see what God says, you will always be somebody better in the vision than you are right now. It’ll be beyond you, it’ll be bigger than you think you’re capable of, and so if you’re not careful your present self will talk you out of your future self. When God releases vision to someone, by the time they get to it, they’re going to be somebody else. When the vision came to Abraham, his name was Abram, God gave him a vision.
But by the time that it manifests, God said, «Now your name is Abraham, father of many». He started out his present self, but God said, «I’m gonna make you into the man that can handle everything that I want to do in your life». When the word and the vision comes to Jacob and he sees God’s blessing on his life, his name is Jacob which means liar, and swindler, and cheat, and it literally means worm, if you look it up. But that was his present self. His future self, by the time he’s standing in the vision, his name is Israel, which means a prince with God, who has power with God and favor with men. He went from a worm to a prince through the process. It will, the vision that God gives you…
When I first started with the vision I was not capable. I didn’t have the sermons, I didn’t have the Bible knowledge, I didn’t know the things, I didn’t understand buildings. I didn’t understand nothing. I had nothing. How in the world do I have books? How in the world do I have a study Bible? How in the world do… How? It was always, that was my present self and there was the future self. And don’t let the present self kill the future self. If you’re in a drug rehab, that’s your present self, but you’ve got a future self, and your future self is gon' get it together by the blood and the cross, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah. Tell somebody, «You’ve got a future self».
And don’t let your present self, your present circumstances, and your present resources stop you from pursuing the vision that is bigger than your resources, bigger than your circumstances, and bigger than who you are right now. He said, «I’ll make you a disciple. I’ll take you through valleys and you’ll pick up a stick and it’ll part the Red Sea. I’ll take you through fiery furnaces and you’ll find out you don’t have to fear nothing' when the fourth man is with you. I’ll take you through the lion’s den and you will watch the lion breathe his breath on you but not touch you, and then you come out into your future self».
That’s why you can’t give up if you’re a weak Christian. You can’t give up if you’re a struggling Christian. I’m tell you, our future self is coming, praise God. The trumpet’s going to sound and we’re gonna get a new body, and we’re gonna get a new beginning in heaven, and we won’t fight this stuff anymore. But until then, keep on walking in the direction of the vision that God gives. By the time the vision comes through, you’re gon' be somebody else. I have a future self. This is amazing, watch this. In Genesis 13:14, God says to Abraham, He says, «And the Lord God said unto Abraham,» I’ve separated Lot from you, and He says, listen to these words, «Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are».
You gotta see what I say. «Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are». Some of you have settled where you are, you’ve lost vision, you’re not dreaming of anything, you’re not singing anything, you’re just existing. And the Lord said to him, «Lift up your eyes now and look from the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, westward, for all the land which you see I will…» This is why I support Israel. «I will give to you and your descendants forever». Don’t get so focused on your circumstances, your resources, and your present self that you lose focus. Lift up your eyes, and all that you can see, if you can see it, I can give it to you. Now look at verse 17, it’s unbelievable. He says, «Arise, walk through the land it’s length and width for I will give it to you».
Notice that all the land had been given to Abraham just like God said. «In any and every direction that you can walk and you can see it, I will give it to you». But the day you stop walking, and the day you stop seeing it is the day that you just built the boundaries on what I’ll do. Because if it’s all yours it doesn’t really matter which direction you start. I love to preach like this. I wanna scream it at the young people. The only regrets I’ve got in life is I didn’t dream bigger. I just believe anything that I could believe God for He could do it. If it’s about souls, if it’s about helping people.
See, please understand this, God gave Joseph a dream. This is the most important thing to understand. And we only hear about one dream but God gave Joseph a dream, and when He gave him the dream, the first part of the dream… He gave him two dreams, the first dream was an earthly dream. And he saw a field, in the field the harvest was bending over and bowing to it. That’s an earthly dream. And God can give you authority and dominion in the earth, but that’s not the total dream. Then the next part of the Bible said that he saw a second dream and he saw, watch this, a heavenly dream. The sun, the moon, and the stars bowing down.
See, God when He gives a dream to somebody it has effects on earth, it will bless you, it will bless your children, it will bless your children’s children. But if all you do is get the car, and get the house, and get the stuff, and get the career, and get the country club or whatever it is that you want, and you get that stuff, all you have is half a dream. It’s not until that dream is attached to the heavenly dream. Do you understand that? See, God will bless you if you seek Him first. What is amazing that we get so wrong, that people work so hard to get the dream: the dream house, the dream this. I found that if I seek first the Kingdom of God, all of these things will be added unto me. Your heavenly Father knows what you have need of.
And then the last part, I wanna close it. The last part He said, and once you see what He says, «Run with the vision». Run with the vision. Do you hear me? Everybody say, «Run with the vision». That’s burning on the inside, run with it. Let me give you one last biblical example, 1 Kings 18, the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah. But before the hand of the Lord came on him, you know what he did? He got down and he prayed and he said, «Lord, I need a word from you. I need a word from you, I need a word from you». And he sent the servant, and the servant went on a cliff and he said, «You’re praying for rain but I don’t see no rain, it’s bright sunshine». He comes back he says, «Do you see anything»? «No». He says, «Go again». He goes again. He comes back.
See, this is the tarrying part. «Did you see anything»? «I don’t see nothing sir, nothing». «Go again». He goes again, six times. Comes back, six handfuls of nothing. «You see anything»? «Not a thing». See, he’s tarrying. «Though it tarries wait for it, it will surely come to pass». He knew he was seeing what he heard. But when you get… When you see what he says that’s when you run. And the Bible said, go back to that verse, 1 Kings 18. «The hand of the Lord came upon…» This is the context of this verse. «Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah, girded up his loins, and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel».
He outran a horse. He had a vision and he said… And all he had was a cloud the size of a hand. And he said, «I’m gonna beat him to the city because I have heard from God and I’m running with the vision». God wants us to take Him at His word. Praise God. Will you take Him at His word? You say, «Well I don’t feel like God’s got a vision». No, the problem is you’ve not sought Him for the vision. He has a vision for every one of you, and it’s earthly, and it’s heavenly.