Mensa Otabil - Enlarge Your Vision
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Welcome to day number 21 of our 40 days of power. We are now in the second half of our time of consecration, and I trust that you’re journeying well in faith and trusting the Lord to lead you day by day. Isaiah 54:2 and 3: Enlarge the place of your tent. Let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings. Do not spare. Lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. For you shall expand to the right hand and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations and make the desolate cities inhabited.
The prophet Isaiah proclaimed this oracle from the Lord to Israel at a time when they felt like a despised people — desolate and depopulated. The nation is presented as a woman with no children, a woman who is desolate, and that is the picture painted by the prophecy of the nation of Israel. Then God speaks a word of hope to the nation of Israel and says to her, «Although you seem desolate, you have no people, your inhabitants are all gone, and there are no populations in your cities. Get ready because I’m about to do something great, and I’m going to make you rejoice because you have abundance.» In preparation for what God is about to do, He tells them, «Enlarge the place of your dwelling or enlarge the place of your tent.» He didn’t say, «Enlarge your tent,» but rather, «Enlarge the place of your tent.»
That’s a very different concept. The place of your tent is the boundaries you have set for it. God is about to expand them. Before He brings in the abundance, He says that you must be ready for it. You have to enlarge your boundaries so that the tent can be enlarged because if you don’t enlarge the boundaries, no matter how much you want the tent to be, it cannot grow, as the tent grows within a boundary. The basic principle God gives to Israel is that every principle or process of expansion begins with enlarging your boundaries, enlarging your vision, enlarging your capacity, and enlarging your scope.
Boundaries can be good; sometimes they prevent us from getting into danger. However, sometimes boundaries can stop you from expansion or growing. Sometimes a boundary can be something you’ve told yourself. It can be a boundary you’ve inherited from your family, based on the color of your skin, or based on your educational achievement, and all these boundaries become limitations. God tells the children of Israel to enlarge your boundaries. Open up your boundaries. Then He tells them that if they open their boundaries, they can then open up their tent.
I like how He says to them in verse three, «For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants shall inherit the nations.» You shall expand to the right and to the left. I believe that word is a sure word for you: God is about to do something in your life, and you will expand to the left and to the right. You’re going to expand on all sides. Yes, for the moment it seems like you don’t have enough; you’re limited, but get ready. Get ready. Get ready. God is about to expand you. Before that expansion comes, your mind must expand. Your vision must expand. Your understanding must expand. Your faith must expand. And you must have the boldness to dream new dreams, to have a new vision, to have a new appetite, to have new desires.
Don’t allow your past to be a boundary to the future that God has for you. He has great plans for you. He’s taking you to a better place. He’s taking you to a good place. Get ready for it. Expand the place of your tent. I believe this is a great word for you, for me, for each one of us. As we wait on the Lord and pray, it’s time to enlarge the place of our tent.
Let’s pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, I enlarge my vision for life. Help me to stretch out and boldly step out into new territories in Jesus' name.» Amen and amen.