Michael Todd - Vacant Vision
Oh, come on, Transformation Church! Let’s give God a shout of praise! Oh, come on, has He been good to you this week? Has He been faithful all over the world? Let’s give God one shout of praise! I’ll magnify the Lord with me; I said, with me, God, You’re worthy! Hallelujah! Five more seconds—shake off the week and give God the praise that He’s worthy of! Hallelujah! Oh, I feel something about to happen in the room, happen in your house, happen in your heart! Somebody—y’all quit, quit! I feel expectation this morning! Is anybody expecting anything from God right now? Come on in the chat, «What I’m expecting? I’m expecting, I’m expecting!» It’s funny that, around Transformation Church, a lot of people are having babies right now! A lot of y’all just don’t know what to do with yourselves—pandemic and people at home, and now everybody’s problem is, «We’re having a baby! We’re having a baby!»
And I’m so excited about everybody that’s expecting! The one thing that happens when you’re expecting is everything changes, because you know something’s coming. Like, what you eat changes, where you go changes, who you allow yourself to be around changes. When you’re—somebody say «expecting!» This whole series that we’re in, what I believe God’s trying to do is make people expect something that maybe they weren’t pregnant with in a different season. Maybe it wasn’t something you were believing for in a different season, but right now, somebody said, «I’m expecting!» Say it with faith! Somebody say, «I’m expecting!»
Now, the question is, what are you expecting? Because some of us are expecting hurt, expecting pain, expecting frustration because it’s what happened last time. But today, God told me to encourage everybody in our church to expect good from God! I don’t know who needs to hear this this morning, but you’ve been expecting for it to fall apart—how it’s about to mess up and where we’re gonna have to put it together. And God told me, as I was coming down this morning, «Michael, tell My children to expect good from Me!» Lift your hands right now because some of y’all are in a place where you’re like, «I don’t know how!»
Father, I pray that You would raise the level of expectation that we would expect good from You! I feel Your presence! Come on, just begin to say, «God, help me expect good! Help me expect You! Help me expect more than I’ve been expecting!» I expect good from God! I even heard God say, «I know it’s good because it means a better 'yes'! And the 'no' is good because that means He’s saving you for a better 'yes'!» I need somebody with faith to help me! Already there’s a better 'yes' in your future! There’s a better 'yes' around the job! There’s a better 'yes' for your business and your family! No, it’s not just 'not good'—it’s a better 'yes'! And I’ve just been sensing a better 'yes'! Oh, I feel that thing! God said some of the things that He said 'no' to were for His protection! Just for a—I need somebody to say, «A better 'yes'!»
I just think about it—this ain’t my message, but somebody is pulling on me right now. You need to be encouraged right now that God has said 'no' several times in a row because that would have been jeopardizing to the plan He has for your life, but He’s been setting you up for a better 'yes'! My daughters, they now start to tell me, «Why do you keep saying 'no'?» Because they don’t know what I have planned for them! And when I tell them they can’t have pizza at breakfast, it’s not because I don’t want them to have good in their life—it’s because I know what me and their mother talked about for dinner!
There’s a better 'yes' in the future, and I just feel like somebody’s expectation needs to raise because they know it’s not 'no, ' it’s a better 'yes'! Thank You, Lord, that we can see Your goodness even when it doesn’t feel good! Thank You for what You’re going to say and do today! I feel Your presence already! I’m trying to move right now, but prophetically, somebody was about to give up because of the door that slammed in your face, and God said you should start praising for that door closing! Y’all don’t even know how to do that! God said you need to shout because the thing that didn’t happen was the best thing you never had! I feel that thing right now!
There are some things that you’ve been crying over that God said, «Dry your tears, because you would have really been crying if I let you have that!» But there is a better 'yes'! Ah, there’s a better 'yes'! There’s a better 'yes' in your future, and it might be disguised and wrapped in a 'no, ' but there’s a better 'yes'! Oh, I feel that thing! God said, «I’m not denying you; I’m setting you up for a better 'yes'! I haven’t forgotten—I got you carved in the palm of My hand, but there’s a better 'yes'!» I feel this thing is for me! Even the church not being opened yet! See, I gotta talk to myself right now! I have tried everything in my power to get this building back open, and I have to believe that this holy pause that God has had on all of y’all being in this building wasn’t because God doesn’t want this place filled with people and praise and worship! He said, «There’s something I’m setting you up for that’s a better 'yes' than what you could have done!»
So, Father, help all of us not just get discouraged while You’re still working! Yeah, we thank You for the better 'yes'! So we say, «Yes, Lord!» Say, «Yes, Lord!» From the bottom of my heart to the depths of my soul, I say, «Yes, Lord!» Completely yes! My soul, my mind, my willing emotions says, «Yes!» I feel old right now, but I say 'yes! ' So somebody needs to get that in your spirit: say 'yes! ' From the bottom of my heart to the depths of my soul, I say 'yes! ' The Lord! My soul says 'yes! ' Somebody say, «My soul says 'yes! '» Say, «My soul says 'yes! '» Some of y’all are too young for this, but there’s a place that I don’t want to do it! But my mind, my willing emotions are going to say «yes!»
Somebody say, «My soul says 'yes! ' Foreign yes, God! Yes, God! Even though I don’t feel it! Yes, God! Even though it doesn’t look good! Yes, God! My soul, my mind, my will, my emotions, I say 'yes! ' God’s got a better 'yes, ' but you’ve got a better 'yes' too! There’s got to be a better 'yes' in you! Ah, there’s got to be a better 'yes! ' Some of us are doing what God’s saying gradually, but slow obedience is disobedience! And God says there’s a better 'yes! ' Somebody say, „A better 'yes! ' I have a better 'yes' in me! I got a better 'yes' in me! When He tells me to wake up early in the morning and pray, well, there’s a better 'yes' in me! When He says, 'Go give to that person, ' and I can’t figure it out, God said, 'There’s a better 'yes' in you! ' So my soul says 'yes' today in front of everybody!
Say, „My soul says 'yes! '“ It’s in my soul! Just one more time, if you got a better 'yes' in you, give God one more shout! Oh, come on, all over the world, wherever you’re watching from! You might have to be quiet, but something on the inside of you is raising up! „Yes, Lord!“ Come on, put it in the chat! Say, „Yes, Lord!“ Say it out loud! Say, „Yes, Lord! Yes, Lord! Yes, Lord!“ Foreign! A real maturity when you walk in your faith with God is your 'yes' gets quicker! Some of us are still trying to say 'yes' for something God said to you three years ago! God’s twisting your arm and convincing you and putting you in a headlock, and, „Oh, well, I guess I need to say it!“
But the sign that you’re maturing is when God just whispers something and the 'yes' is quick! „I don’t understand it, but yes!“ „It doesn’t feel comfortable, but yes!“ „I don’t even know them like that, but yes!“ My prayer as your pastor is that our 'yes' would get strong and fast! If God says for us to give, we say yes! If He says for us to stay when we want to go, we say yes! When He tells you to shut up when you have plenty to say—oh, come on, don’t do me like that! Well, I have all the reasons why, and God said, „Be quiet!“ And you say 'yes! ' That’s what I’m praying is happening through this series, that God is maturing our 'yes! ' He’s saying, „Walk in crazy faith!“ and we say 'yes! ' He says, „Give the book to somebody else! Stand, and get, and pray for somebody you don’t know their whole situation!“ „Fast!“
And I didn’t call the whole church to a fast! I told you to fast, and we will say 'yes! ' Thank You, Lord, for a church that says 'yes! ' Thank You, Lord, for business owners that say 'yes! ' Thank You, Lord, for students that, in the midst of what culture is telling them to do in high school, they will say 'yes! ' God’s calling you to do a Bible study every day at lunchtime! What will you say at the workplace, at the job? He wants you! „I didn’t even study for that; this is not my career!“ But He said, „But I got a calling for you in this thing! Will you say 'yes? ' My soul will say 'yes! ' My mind, my will, and my emotions!“
Oh, that last one—well, emotionally, I don’t feel—I don’t have peace about it! Do you know that you don’t have to emotionally have peace to be obedient? Do knees shaking, unsettled? Why? Because God’s not looking for my feelings; He’s looking for my faith! Did He say it? Did He do it? My answer will be 'yes! ' Somebody’s 'yes' is getting stronger right now! Amen! Y’all sit down—anybody ready for the word today? Amen! We are in week five of a series we’re calling Crazy or Faith! Somebody say, „Crazy or Faith!“ with your chest! Say, „Crazy or Faith!“ And we have been walking—um—systematically through things that I told one of my teammates who helped me run the church this morning: I was like, „I don’t want to preach a series that sounds good and people can’t live out! I’m sick of ineffective church! I’m sick of impressing you with their knowledge and wisdom from the platform, and you’re like, 'Oh my God, look at them! They’re amazing! ' but you do not know how to go home and do anything with what they talked about!“
And I’ve made a decision that I want to have effective ministry—not just impactful or big ministry! And we’re at the place right now as a church that God has exceeded all of our expectations of what we thought church would be, and ministry would be, and all this other stuff! And so now I’m at a point, it’s like, „What is the vision for what God wants to do?“ And God’s like, „Michael, help it work in people’s lives!“ Because it’s literally tens of thousands of y’all! If you got the concept of crazy faith and crazier faith, it would change—everybody say, „the world!“ Not just your family, not just your—my crazy faith has changed hundreds of thousands of people’s lives because of one person believing!
If one can put a thousand to flight, and two can put ten thousand to flight, that’s multiplication, y’all! I don’t know how long it’s been since you’ve been in a math class, but one being a thousand, two being ten thousand—something multiplied! What if we could get ten thousand people? That ain’t even all of y’all watching right now—that ain’t even all of y’all on the rebroadcast! But just ten! I don’t need everybody! I don’t need the fans! I just need a few fighters! I just need about ten thousand of y’all to really get these concepts! And so a part of this teaching has been very, very, very, very, very—cheap code teaching! I want to give you the cheat codes to faith! Like, I don’t want to get up here and impress you; I want to give you tools to be able to go back to your sphere of influence and live! Everybody shout, „Live in crazy faith!“
So today, I’m gonna attempt that in another form, and I feel like I’m just done in the series. The past four messages really was one message! It was the intro! The last four weeks was the intro! I’ve had so much in the holster ready to jump, but the Holy Spirit said, „But you can’t give them that until you give them this!“ So we’ve talked about our anointed imagination, we’ve talked about believing for more than what we can see right now, we’ve talked about getting the friends or the circle of faith. We’ve talked about these different things, but today I want to take it to the next level.
And um, I think the way that I want to start this out is with a little story time! So, 2020 was a challenging year for everybody, but it especially got a little wonky when my father, the Captain Tom Todd, aka man of God, got hit with COVID—like for real! Like, on a ventilator, and like, breathing treatments and all this other stuff! And my dad is my hero! So this is my first time in 34 years of living that I saw my father in a compromised position, and it messed with me! It was like, „Hold on! I could live on the earth and my daddy not be here!“ And, like, I know that, but it never was like real! And one day he started coughing really bad, and it just kept going, and I just couldn’t get that image out of my head! And when life gets in the balance of people you love, you start reevaluating everything. So in 2020, I started reevaluating everything! This is not a sad story—he’s still living, and he’s sitting here!
The front row, I know some of y’all—he, he, he—up, he’s moving, he’s good, okay? But it gives backstory to what I’m about to tell you. So, um, what ended up happening was I really started thinking about what would bless my family. For Father’s Day, I’m a gift-giver; my dad’s a really generous person, and I learned that from him. And for Father’s Day, Natalie and I were talking about what we could give my dad that would really bless him. My dad never wants anything for Christmas; he always says something generic like, „I just want y’all to love each other.“ I was like, „They don’t sell that at Walmart!“ He always says stuff like this, but my dad is the biggest family guy you could ever imagine—he just loves bringing people together, especially our family.
So, Natalie and I said, „What could we give my dad for Father’s Day?“ It is no secret that I love being able to live transparently in front of our church. God has, for some reason, chosen to bless me personally through books and by being an author. I could have never foreseen this, but God has been so gracious to us financially through selling books. „Relationship Goals,“ they told me, in basically a year and a half, has sold over 800,000 copies. Y’all, I don’t even know what that means except that they send me a couple of checks, and I praise God for that. And for some reason, they told me that this week „Crazy Faith“ is in its third week on the New York Times bestseller list, and I just want to say thank you because it’s never been about selling books; it’s just about getting the message out. I want people to win in relationships and all that other stuff.
So, in 2020, God blessed our family financially. Instead of going and buying a car that I saw or buying something more materialistic, I thought, „I want to create experiences.“ So, for Father’s Day, we decided to take our entire family—my wife’s side of the family and all of my side of the family. Now, if you don’t have context, I have five brothers and a lot of them have wives and kids, and we took everybody on a trip out of the country. Okay, now that sounds great in theory, but we went on a family trip this past weekend, and it was 22 of us. That’s 22 flights, 22 seats on the plane—that is a lot of attitudes and a lot of different preferences! And we did it. I’m here to talk about it, and I need much prayer and counseling after this week. When I started to think about taking 22 people to a different country, the one thing I did not fully plan for was how much luggage 22 people would require in a different country. The number is 38 pieces—38 pieces of luggage came on this darn trip with us for four and a half to five days.
Let me show you a picture of the family—happy together and loving one another. Look at us all at the beach; it’s beautiful, isn’t it? Let me show you a picture of the luggage; just put it up. This is one of four vehicles for luggage—38 pieces! Now, as I began to examine my whole life and think about why I decided to do this, I started to think about how 22 different people brought 38 pieces of luggage—wheelchairs, baby strollers, backpacks—and all of them packed for a journey they had not yet been on because they had a vision of where we were going. There were 22 different visions of what this trip would entail for them, and I could open up their luggage to see what they had envisioned for a journey they had not been on yet.
As I began to look at how valuable vision is, I started thinking about how meticulous some of my family members were with the items they packed in their luggage because of the vision they had for their family trip. Let me be clear; because somebody thought I was going to say vacation, it is not a vacation if your kids come. It is not a vacation if your parents are there, and if your other parents are there; it is a family trip. That’s just in my spirit. It’s only a vacation when it’s me! My question today is: What is your vision for your marriage? What is your vision for your business? What is your vision for your ministry? What is your vision for your finances? What is your vision for your children? Not ethereal, not „I have been thinking about that,“ but hand it to me in black and white ink because it’s not a vision until it’s written.
So, if I ask Ed day what is your vision for your health, most people have more vision for the vacation they want to take than for the purpose that’ll bring them into victory. So today I want to talk to you about vision because if we don’t understand how valuable vision is for every part of our lives, we won’t be able to use crazy faith for what we’ve been called to do. The only reason we’re standing in this building today is that I used my anointed imagination in the presence of God, and He gave me a vision that only became a reality when I wrote it down. Today, I’m pointing back to a document I wrote 37 days after I became the lead pastor of this church because that’s when it had the ability to actually happen on Earth. I just want to talk to the people who have visions for vacations but don’t have a vision for their victory.
Proverbs 29:18, this is going to be tight and right today—Proverbs 29:18. The funny thing is, some of y’all are saving money for vacations that are years away; some of you have planned for things—I know I’m in your business right now. Some of you have a vision for inanimate objects that will be in your life this year and out of it next, but have no vision for your emotional stability. Uh-oh! You’re not getting counseling, and you know you’ve got trauma after trauma, but you stand in line waiting on internet rooms to buy clothes, yet you won’t pay that money to talk through the grief that continues to weigh you down. You have a vision for the house you want to live in but no vision for the house—your body—that you live in every day. You’re tearing down walls, eroding foundations. Oh, y’all! Do you let anybody touch this house?
You let somebody slide in the DM, and you end up on your back, and you don’t even know their last name, who they are, or even their car type. You have more vision for the outfit you’re going to wear on your birthday than you do for the kids that God trusted you with. You won’t even do your homework with them; they’re asking for help, and you haven’t taught them one Bible scripture. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person; it just means you may not have figured out the value of vision. There are so many people who look like they have vision, but they—I’m not even going—y’all are not ready for it. I gotta build you up to it because some of y’all are already checking out.
Proverbs 29:18, because you’re like, „Where’s the scripture, Pastor Mike? Give me the Bible!“ Let me help you: blessed itself. The only reason I feel so passionate about this is that I’ve figured it out. I am the product of living a life full of vision, and a lot of times I can pray for people who will never get what I prayed for them. They don’t have vision for themselves, so I can’t agree with God to multiply what isn’t there. There are so many times that my prayers can’t do anything past what you believe, past what you’ve seen for yourself. I can pray it, but it just hits the ceiling and comes back down because you don’t even believe it; you don’t even think it’s possible for yourself. That’s why I’m trying to raise your expectations in this series. I want everybody to get a vision. Somebody shout at me, „Vision!“ Say it like you mean it—say „Vision!“
Proverbs 29:18, King James version. I’m going to use like four different translations so this can ring in your mind forever: „Where there is no vision, the people perish.“ It does not say „where there is no vision, the people just don’t get all the things that God had for them.“ They die! Can I give you the Michael Living Translation? Let me remix this whole thing: without vision, something dies that God wanted to live! Where there’s no vision, God’s like, „Man, I wanted something to live right there! Man, I wanted something to flourish right there! Man, I want to do something, but they wouldn’t get a vision from me.“ So when there’s no vision, I command that to be a desolate place. Where there’s no vision, it won’t flourish; where there’s no vision, it cannot feed others with life. I want you to think of every area in your life and ask yourself, „Do I have vision there?“
I’m not talking about a dissertation of 16 points and all this stuff written down—a vision of what you want in that area of your life, what God has said about you in that area, what He said in His word about that area of your life. Get a vision! Without vision, something dies that God wanted to live! In other words, this is what I see all over the world—many people are existing but not living. If I look at the state of most people’s lives, they’re in a state of existence. They’re not flourishing; they’re not joyful; they’re not overwhelmed with the goodness of God—they’re just existing! That is a sure sign that there’s an area where there is no vision. Let’s go to Proverbs 29:18, the English Standard Version (ESV): „Where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint.“
See, I love this version of it because prophetic means it’s telling something in the future. There’s something that I’m not at yet, but there’s a prophetic vision! A vision is something that is not where I’m at, but it’s up ahead. I want everybody to know that in your life, there is a plan that God already has that is up in your future. I’m not there yet, but it looks good up there, better than it does right here! But if I don’t get an image of that prophetic vision, I cast off restraint. Or let me remix it; look, this is a passage remix for you: when you don’t see it before you see it, people stop caring! I cast off restraint. If you don’t see it and get a vision of the prophetic future before you get there, you stop caring about stuff.
Some of y’all do not care about relationships that are around you because you don’t know your future. Those people are supposed to help you in another season, and you’re mean to them right now! Oh, so you stopped caring? Well, it doesn’t matter if I forgive them! They’re the linchpin to the next thing that God wants to do in your life, but you have no prophetic vision—you don’t see anything up ahead, and so you stop caring! There are so many areas of our lives where you find an area where you don’t care, and it’s linked to what the vision is for that area. Uh-huh, I’m trying to help you reverse engineer this! Some of y’all do not care about how you work at your job; you don’t care anymore! You come in late, you steal stuff—it’s just paper clips! You’re never going to be a boss! Huh!
I see right now that you’ll never be the one signing for everything! It’s just Sharpies. It’s just printing, and you’re printing out your vision statement because Pastor Mike told you to do it on the company’s paper? Well, it’s for God! Go buy a printer, go to Kinkos! See, I’m getting down to the details because it exposes that you don’t have a prophetic vision of stewardship. You don’t see yourself owning and leading and doing the things that God has called you to do, so you stop caring. Hmm, if you stop caring about it, that means you get sloppy about how you present what God has called you to do. I just feel like we’re in the age of the sloppiest Christians in history who’ve stopped caring about what your post may do for the kingdom! You don’t care!
Well, this is how I feel. The very person you just offended was part of your destiny to reach them, but because you don’t have a vision of the future, you stopped caring today! The very people who muted you, the message that God was going to give through you six weeks from now, was going to actually minister to them because you don’t have a prophetic vision of who God created you to be and the level of strength you are in the sphere of influence that He’s put you in, and that you may not have a big platform, but God gave you a platform to reach people right where you are! Because you do not have a prophetic vision, you stop caring! God says this is why you need a vision! Look at it in the NLT version. Oh, Proverbs 29:18! When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. There are areas that are just wilding out in your life because you have not accepted the divine guidance of God—just doing what you want to do!
Do how you want to do it, and God is saying, „Let me just put it in a passage remix.“ If it’s not governed by the Word, it’s going to be wild. This is why, for all my people still searching in relationships, if you do not allow the Word of God to govern your relationship and you’re just living together, doing married stuff, and making all the things, you’re not a bad person. It makes logical sense. But because it’s not governed by the Word of God and what He said, what ends up happening is that stuff just starts going wild.
Now, you actually finally get married after seven years of playing house, and he doesn’t want you anymore. It’s not the same. Why? Because you were in a season living outside of submission to the Word of God, and now you got what you thought you wanted, but there is no actual exclusivity because you’ve already been there. Now I smell your breath in the morning, and I have to deal with your attitude and your family, and all that stuff. I’m just telling you, it goes wild when you don’t let the Word govern your life. I already came and amened myself a lot before this service, so I don’t need anybody’s help. I am going to give you what will help you reach your vision in life.
Okay, let me give it to you in the last message version, and this one jacks me up every time: Proverbs 29:18, the Message version. „If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves.“ If you don’t get a vision to see what God is doing, you are going to keep tripping. So the way I want to say this in the passage remix is: get vision and stop tripping. A lot of the things you experience are because you didn’t clearly know where you were supposed to step. Have you ever been somewhere and you were distracted by everything? That’s when you can make a mistake. It’s because you had no clear vision. So today, I want to help everybody get clearer vision.
I told you a couple of weeks ago about the frame of your faith and this progression from imagination. Put it on the screen real quick because I want everybody to see this. I’m working on a progression all the way to Christmas. We’re crazy until Christmas. By Christmas, I pray that God ignites something inside of you that changes you forever. This is the progression: we go from imagination, which is the spiritual womb, then we cross over to vision, and that’s what we’re talking about today. It’s the receipt or the evidence of what’s to come prophetically that God says. Then you move over to hope, and hope is the fuel for your faith. Then you move over to crazy faith, believing God can do it, and then you move over to believing beyond, and that’s crazier faith. A lot of us are still way over here imagining what God could do.
Today, I want you to take a big step—everybody say a big step—and I want us to step into vision. How do I know it’s a vision? Pastor Mike, thank God for His Word: Habakkuk 2:2. Then the Lord answered me and said, „Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.“ Write this point down: vision is not valid until it’s written down. It’s not vision in your head. If it’s in your head, it’s not a vision; it’s still an imagination. It only becomes a vision when it’s written down. I ask the question again: What’s your vision for your family? If it’s not written down, it’s your imagination. What’s your vision for your health? What’s your vision for your business? What’s your vision for your family? What’s your vision for your singleness? Because without a vision for your singleness, guess what you’re going to do? Run wild, cast off restraint, and stop caring. What’s your vision for your purity? What’s your vision for your friend group? What’s your vision?
Ask somebody right now, „What’s your vision?“ No, ask them right now! The crazy thing about this is why I started off with the vacation. If I told you tomorrow that we were going to Maui, you would automatically have a vision of what you were about to do in Maui. How do I know? Because you would start preparing and packing based on what your vision was. What people have not done is started preparing and packing based on what the vision God has given them is. So write it down, get in prayer, and whatever God shows you, what are you going to do? Write it down. But I’m going to spend time specifically praying this week, and when I get in there, I’m just going to put „family“ at the top of the paper. I’m just going to literally put „family“ at the top of the paper, and I’m going to ask God, „Give me vision for my family,“ not compared to somebody else’s, not in competition with these ideas. God, give me vision for my health.
I’m going to tell the truth today. On January 6th, I weighed 264 pounds this year, 2021. I’ve always admitted it publicly: I’ve always had this teeter-totter, seesaw relationship with my weight. If I’m feeling good, I eat; if I’m feeling bad, I eat. If things aren’t looking good, I eat; if things are going really good, time to celebrate, let’s eat. That was my only options. Like, it’s date night; I eat. Alone in a time of solitude, God told me maybe seven years ago, six years ago, that the level of this ministry would only be able to go to the level my body could take it. He gave me a vision of myself being healthy, but I didn’t focus on it. So I stopped caring, and I was like, „As long as I can dress my body, it shouldn’t matter.“
I’m going to dress it right. It might be a couple of more pounds, but when I stepped on that scale in January, the conviction of God came over me. He said, „I gave you a vision, and you’re just going to ignore it?“ „What I want to do in your life for Transformation Church and transformation: I gave you a vision, and you have literally ignored it. You’re the heaviest you’ve ever been, the most unhealthy you’ve ever been, and the most anointed you’ve ever been.“ Oh, did you know you can be anointed and unhealthy? Did you know you could be on a big platform and literally eroding the thing that God told you to do? I said—this was the moment—I said, „God, I wrote down health on a piece of paper. I don’t know how to do this. Will You help me get healthy?“
All I did was put a picture of myself on somebody else’s body. See, this is see, y’all trying to be so spiritual. I had to write the vision down. This was me making the vision plain. I found somebody who had the body I needed to have, and I just put my smile on it. I literally wrote, „Help me, God,“ and over the course since January, I stepped on the scale this morning, and I was 221 pounds. I’ve lost 42 pounds, y’all—42 pounds! Now, watch. Thank you! This is my first time wearing a shirt without, you know what I’m saying? I could turn all the way around; God bless you. What I’m saying to you is this didn’t come because I imagined it. The reason that it started moving is because I got a vision, and I’m going to tell you in a second how that vision helped me all the way through. But in every area of your life, I’m challenging you this week: get a big piece of paper, write down the areas of your life, and ask God for vision.
Habakkuk 2:2 in the Message version, I love this: „And God answered, 'Write what you see.'“ That’s all God is asking you to do: write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run. This vision message is a witness pointing to what is coming. When you write the vision down, it gives it permission to actually come. What is coming is me being healthy. What is coming is my marriage flourishing. What is coming is me actually being in a marriage; shout out to my single people! What is coming is this church being stronger than ever. What is coming is me not being addicted to anything. What if y’all don’t even hear me? What is coming is me being able to bless other people the way that God has blessed me. What is coming—see, when you get a vision, it points to what is coming. And for most of us, we don’t have a vision.
See, vision gives imagination permission to exist on the earth. Vision, when you write it down, gives what you saw in your imagination permission to actually access the earth. I don’t know why God did this, but after He created for them for six days, He decided He would do nothing else on the earth without our participation. Now, if I was God, I would be like, „They betrayed me. I tell them to do something, they don’t do it. That’s something to believe, they don’t believe.“ So why in the world am I waiting on them? And I’m all-powerful! He says, „It makes more sense for me to get glory if I use something that doesn’t have the ability to make it happen, and I partner with them.“
I use the foolish things to confound the wise, and I show a testimony through Mike Todd’s life, through Amber Lee’s life, through Gary McIntosh’s life, to Brenda’s life, through Lisa’s life, through Roberta’s life. I’m going to use them, and God says, „I’ll do nothing on the earth without one of my children.“ So He says, „Take it from imagination and bring it to vision, because when it gets written down on paper, it now has permission to actually show up on the earth.“ I’m giving y’all cheat codes right now, and some of y’all are sitting there like, „Okay, so what am I supposed to do? Write it down?“
Excuse me, I don’t even know how to write; just don’t feed that negativity. You would work at that job in that attire; write it down! And the crazy thing is y’all skirt—I didn’t say scared; I said skirt—that if you write it down and it doesn’t happen, somehow God’s not good or you don’t hear Him. I’m giving you the cheat code, and you skirt. This is the thing you got to understand: one thing I came to grips with a long time ago is, number one, I don’t have to protect God’s reputation. Some of y’all think you’re real strong. God was here before you and He’s going to be here after you, and kingdoms have risen and fallen, yet the name of Jesus is still being proclaimed all over the earth. You cannot protect His reputation, so take that burden off your back.
Another thing you need to understand is that when you walk around scared, it’s the only thing that can limit God from doing miracles. When you don’t believe—can I prove it to you? In Jesus’s life, He performs miracles all over, but when He goes back to His hometown, it’s like, if I’m at my hometown, this is where I want to do the most! It’s a homecoming; I want to bless my people, these are my people. But because they were familiar with Him—"Ain’t that Mary’s boy? We know his sisters and brother"—they could not get over His humanity, so they missed His divinity. The Bible literally says He left there only able to perform a few miracles because of the people’s unbelief. Stop being scared and trying to protect God; write it down.
Practical example: eight years ago, representing God to the lost and found for transformation in Christ was not a thing. Nobody was walking around with «represent» merchandise; nobody was writing «represent» on walls and garages. I had a vision that God gave me. Now when I showed up in Aruba with my whole family, I saw somebody in a different country wearing a bootleg version. Y’all missed it! You’re thinking about the bootleg; oh, that looks like they took something from my head that I wrote down, and it became a vision. I started saying it out loud and printing it on jackets, putting it on things, and saying it every Sunday, and now it’s in a different country where someone else has adopted the vision for their own lives on a bad quality print. They didn’t care because the vision is in me.
Ah, the vision in you isn’t just for you. What God has placed on the inside of you is not so that you can be good. It’s so that others can know what’s possible when you receive a vision from God. So let me help you understand this; bring my luggage. I want everybody to look at every area of your life, every area, and I want you to see if you look like you have vision or if there’s actually vision in that area of your life. This is super practical, and next week I’m taking you to a whole other level, but I’m just trying to build the value of vision because you don’t need crazy faith in a place that does not have vision. The only reason I had to believe God is that He had given me a vision for something, and what I’m trying to share with you right now is the value of having a vision in every area of your life. Everybody say, «Every area of my life!»
So when I look at all this luggage, I’m just trying to recreate what I experienced this past week with my family. This is what it looked like: us in the lobby of that hotel—yep, strollers, wheelchairs, duffel bags, suitcases. Yep, bring the wheelchair; that was a struggle. Um, yep, kids. I asked myself several times, «Whose kids are these?» and four of them were mine. Like, it was just a lot—dinosaur bags, all kinds of stuff—yes, this was ridiculous.
The crazy thing I thought of in the picture I got in my head is, what if I prepared for the trip? What if I prepared? I put everything on; we’re ready to go—my duffel bags, everything ready. Let me get everything. Come on; some of the luggage was faulty too. This is what I looked like personally coming off the plane. But do you know I spent fifteen hundred dollars paying for luggage to get to Aruba? Because of all the stuff that’s going on, they don’t let you have free luggage; it goes under. You’ve got to pay thirty dollars a bag, and if it’s over a certain weight, it’s a hundred and twenty-five dollars. Yeah, I almost cussed.
Do you know how frustrating it would have been to get to Aruba and open up these suitcases for them to be empty? This is what most of our lives look like: God says, «I’m ready to do something with you,» and you look packed; you look ready. But until I open it up, that’s when I see it’s actually vacant. Today I just need to ask you, do you have vacant vision? Everything I have on has nothing in it—my family; no vision for my children. Yeah, it looks good—unicorns, imagination, all this other stuff—no vision. Every one of these suitcases has nothing in them. This could be a picture of our church family; picture: vacant vision. That’s what I’m titling today’s message, because I do believe there is a void that has to be filled with vision from God. If we don’t take this seriously, we end up wasting the faith that God wants us to have.
See, when everybody packs, I pack from here. I’m not in Aruba packing; I’m packing in my current situation. See, I don’t pack for the season I’m in; I pack for the weather I’m going to. I don’t pack—I’m trying to help somebody get the importance of a vision. I don’t pack for the location I’m in; I pack for the location I’m going to. I don’t pack for the time zone I’m in; I pack for the time zone I’m going to, and I’m packed for the culture that is around me. I pack for the culture I’m going to. I don’t pack for this place; I pack for the prophetic vision that God has given me. My question to you is: why is the vision vacant? Why is it empty? Why wouldn’t someone ask you about what God wants to do in the next two years of your life, and you say stuff like, «I don’t even think that far; I don’t even…I have too much going on.» Hold on, vision is valuable; write this down: in a point, vision is prepared from here, not there. I’m preparing for what transformation is going to be, not from here. I am preparing for the level of—let me just say it right now.
Part of the vision that God told me when we started this church is that Transformation Church would be multi-ethnic, multi-generational, multiplying, and then it’s this last one that’s been on my nerves: multi-campus. I have fought that with everything in my being because He’s done the multi-generational, He’s done the multiplying, He’s done the multi-ethnic, but the multi-campus? Do we really have to? I like Tulsa; I like right here. But God said, «I need you to start packing right now.» Y’all missed it; I need you to start packing right now for where I’m about to take you.
So slowly but surely, I came back and told my team; I was like, «Y’all, get ready! We’re going into a different season. Get ready! I gotta start preparing the teams differently. We got to start thinking differently; we got to think outside the box of just opening the building. Could the prophetic pause that God put us in be the very thing we needed to start getting ready to see the next thing?» God’s saying, «Fill it up; wherever it’s vacant, wherever there’s nothing, wherever you have not gotten a prophetic vision.» Somebody say, «Fill it up!»
I may not even use it in the next season, but I will be caught with more than enough than not enough. Y’all don’t hear me. We may not—we may not see. I need to stop yelling, but somebody say, «Fill it up!» This is prophetically what your life should look like in this next season. I’m going to the rack of Revelation; whatever you want, I’m gonna bring it before you in intercession. And God, I’m gonna fill the places of my life with the vision that you give. I’m gonna fill my kids' lives with a vision of who they can be in the future. I’m not gonna let them sit here and deal with the same devils I dealt with all my life; they’re gonna have a different vision. I’m prophetically doing this, but this is what’s about to start happening. I’m not gonna stay here and deal with these traumas and never be delivered, and then what I don’t actually confront gets passed on. No devil, we are about to actually do something about this!
What should happen is that wherever you have vacant vision should get so filled up that when it comes time to close it—See, when I really pack, you don’t just close it. But then God, you say what? Oh, see, some of y’all got the vision six years ago, and you thought He was done speaking, but God’s saying to you, «I got more for you! You heard one part of it; you saw one part of the journey, but I got something else for you that I want to do with your business, about your family, about your emotional health, about your spiritual health, about your forgiveness—all that weight you’ve been carrying around. Some of y’all need to trade out some stuff in your luggage right now. You actually need to make room for the vision of God! You’ve been carrying people and things that have been hindering your vision. When you get God’s vision in there, some of y’all are gonna need help being able to carry all the things that God has placed in you.
You know why we have such a great team at TC? Because the vision that God has given me is bigger than what I can carry by myself. See, any smart person will come and say, „Just get another bag.“ I would if I had somebody willing to carry it! But many of us do everything we can with our own vision because we haven’t found anybody else that’s willing to actually carry their part of the vision too. Yeah, yeah! It’s one of those things that I’ve been sitting here, and I’ve been reflecting on how good God has been to give me people to link arms with whose visions align. Like, He told them something in California but told me something in Tulsa, and told them something in Colorado, and told them something up the street, but we never met before. God’s linking people to be able to carry vision together because it’s bigger than me, and it’s bigger than we; it is what God wants to do in the Earth right now. He’s looking for people who would actually get vision, write it down, and be willing to say, „The area of my finances is vacant, but God, will you fill it up?“ Somebody say, „Fill me up!“ Say it again, „Fill me up!“
Hold up, Brent, come sit on this with me, bro. This is what having the right people in your circle looks like. This was last week’s message: having a circle of faith because can you use it from that side? Okay, use it from that side. Hold on; get in front. Get in front, bruh, get in front because now I’ll put my whole body weight on it. Okay? You close it up. Okay, you got it? Okay, cool. It looks the same. It looks exactly the same as it did when it was empty, but until you—oh, there’s some weight on it! There’s some weight when you get a vision from God. I can say it, and you can say it, but when you put something—there’s some weight on it. And what God is saying is that He wants you to get a vision so that His weight, or His glory, can be a part of your life.
We had one bag on this trip; the limit was 55 pounds. There was one bag on this trip that my beautiful, wonderful, amazing wife packed that was 82 pounds. It cost me $230 going and coming back, but what she said to me messed me up. It was all Gia’s stuff—our new baby. She said, „Michael, everything in that bag is essential.“ Now, I don’t know all the little cleaning products and all of the little things and the zippies and the wrappers and the different things, but it was heavy as can be. It’s heavy, but when she looked at me—because she packed the bag, and she had a clear vision of our baby at the beach and our baby in a hotel room without all of the amenities—she had put herself in a different country, sitting in our bedroom, and she knew when she said that to me, „Everything in there is essential,“ I said, „Here’s my card, woman, swipe the thing—take the bag!“ Why? Because the vision that she had brought clarity to how everybody else responded to it.
Some of you have been dealing with stuff because you have had no clarity to the vision. You’re having conversations about things that you’re not even supposed to be discussing right now because there’s no clarity to the vision. Let me just finish my thought. What my wife did is what I’m asking everybody to do: see it before you see it. This week, put on a blindfold or close your eyes. I just have to go extreme and put on a blindfold, and then I start calling out areas of my life—where am I spiritually a year and a half from now? See it before you see it. Where do you work a year from now? How much money will be in the bank a year from now? Who are you helping a year from now?
Scratch that; it doesn’t even have to be a year from now; it can be a month from now. What are you doing about your health next week? See it before you see it. When you start walking like this, I promise you, if you make space, God will give you a vision. If you make space, God will give you a vision. Who are you serving? How are you making a difference? Who is being helped by the words God gives you? Where are you sharing your testimony? See it. If you are riddled with anxiety right now, you may never share what’s going on, but see yourself standing up boldly and confidently saying, „You know what? Yes, I used to be on every pill imaginable for six years. I could not go into social settings without having a drink, and afterwards, I needed a week.“
See yourself telling your testimony. See it. See yourself standing up in front of your family, saying, „I forgive all of you. I have been holding a grudge and a burden against all of you for the past nine years, and today, my Christmas present to all of you is to let you know that I’ve released you from the dead. I love you, I believe in you, and I want to start a better relationship with you from here right now.“ For somebody, that literally makes your stomach turn, but see it. See it before it happens. This is what vision is—it is being able to see what God has in the future before you ever see it in your present. I didn’t say sight is what I see with my eyes open; vision is what I see with my eyes closed.
This week, set aside time and see what God has for you in the future, and then make it a vision and write it down. 1 Corinthians 2:9—this is what the scripture means when it says, „No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love.“ It’s already prepared; why don’t you just ask God to show you? It’s not like there’s some conjuring you have to do, some dance, or that it has to be perfect. Just ask me! Ask me for vision, and I’ll give it to you. This is why I am so out of time, but I have to give somebody this so we can write it down: six advantages to vision. Just write it down, and I’m just going to go through them because this is going to be the key.
The number one advantage to vision is: vision gives energy. Some of you are so lethargic about everything because you don’t have a vision. The moment you get a vision, something comes alive in you. I can tell you, I can be dead tired and asleep, and I get a melody or I hear something in my mind. I do music, and I’ll start to hear something. My entire body wakes up! I don’t need coffee at that moment; I don’t need energy drinks! Y’all know what I’m talking about. It’ll be three o’clock in the morning, and my body says, „Hold on! I have a vision of what song this could be.“ I got a vision! I will—I mean, we were dead tired: it was one or two in the morning, and I came alive because I saw that song being ministered on this platform, and this morning, they’re singing a song that started as imagination that turned into vision because we started writing down the words and marking things down, and it gave me energy.
You need energy to work out? Get a vision of yourself healthy. You need energy to go to counseling because your marriage is on the rocks right now? Look at all of the couples you’ve been fantasizing about and get that out of your mind. Ask God, „Who am I supposed to be with? Who am I supposed to be with?“ Let God give you a vision. Me standing up here with my wife at the version one conference hand in hand was a vision God gave me before we were engaged. That’s why we went through all the hell we went through. It gave me energy to actually do what was hard because I had a vision. Vision gives energy.
Number two: vision eliminates excuses. When you get a vision, excuses become irrelevant. I do tons of stuff I don’t like doing because of the vision that God has given me. Can I be honest with y’all, humble and transparent? I don’t like studying to preach every Sunday; it’s tedious work for me. I start on Wednesday to get to Sunday, and I’m working on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I’m tweaking up until 30 minutes before service on Sunday every week, but I’ll do it for the rest of my life. Why? Because of the vision God has given me. I don’t have an excuse when God gives me vision. This is why your excuses are louder than your production—it’s because you don’t have a vision. But let’s eliminate excuses by doing what? By getting a vision.
Three: this is the advantage of vision—vision regulates who or what you entertain. There are certain people I don’t even associate with because they would mess up the vision God has given me. You have no parameters on who can take from your life and deposit into your life because you don’t have a vision for your life. That’s why you’ve been in 19 relationships in the past three years—because you don’t even have a vision of the person you want to be with. Regulate your life by getting a vision.
Number four: vision illuminates exits. When you get a vision, you know when to exit. You see that big sign. This is what I see when I walk into situations: do I need to keep going, or do I need to walk in and say, „God bless y’all!“ and head straight for the exit? Some of us stay in places or around things too long because we do not have a vision. Until you get a vision, you won’t know if this is an opportunity or an assignment. Do you know what has happened as I’ve gotten a vision? My „no“ and my „yes“ have become very clear.
There are things, y’all, that would have changed my family’s life—opportunities in the past two years that I’ve clearly said „no“ to because they did not align with the vision God gave me. Most of us are looking for opportunities instead of assignments. God says when you get a vision, it illuminates exits. I have a friend who, wherever we go, the first thing he does is find out where all the exits are. I’d be like, „Bro, are you paranoid?“ But when I talked to him, I started to figure out that he’s always preparing for if something happens.
I started to think about it, and when I looked at it, I saw that when a crisis comes, if you start running into situations without knowing where the exits are, you’ll literally run into things instead of running out of them. When chaos comes, we run into wrong relationships. We run into things we’re not supposed to be in, and God is saying, „I want you to know where the exits are so that you can have clear vision and be able to walk out of stuff you’re not supposed to be in.“
Number five: vision frustrates the enemy. When you get clear vision, the enemy gets frustrated. This is why the enemy’s whole job is to steal, kill, and destroy your vision. That’s why it didn’t work last time, so you don’t trust this time. But God is saying, „I came that you might have life!“ Bring life back to the vision.
The last one: vision produces endurance. When you get a vision, it’ll make you last. It’ll make you believe when nothing seems to be going the right way. I’m going to show you in scripture with our example, Jesus, and then we’ll go home. Hebrews 12:2—how do we do this? How do we get a vision and endure? We do it by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. I love that: He initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him—watch this—it is a live example of Jesus enduring because he had a vision. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. It didn’t matter how much it hurt and how embarrassing it was; now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. God in human form, named Jesus, had a vision of himself seated next to God, and that made him endure all the challenges he had to go through. If you get a vision, it will help you endure every bit of hardship.
In a generation that quits so quickly, we talk about persecution; we think persecution is in the comments. There is no persecution in the comments. Persecution is what’s happening to people in Afghanistan when they say the name of Jesus and someone is killed. Persecution is what’s happening in other countries. God said you’ll really be able to endure when you get a vision. The things I’ve had to endure in this last season of my life, I’ve only been able to last because I had a vision. Stand up all over the place. At your house today, I want to challenge every area of your life that has vacant vision. This is not one you listen to and then just come back next week. You have homework! You are responsible for what you heard. Don’t complain to God, saying, „God, I’m just waiting on you!“ He’s saying, „I told you what to do!“ I told you what to do: get a vision, write it down, and make it plain so it can be read. Then, this is the key to all of it: let God refine the vision as He sees fit.
Well, this is what I wrote down: I wrote down that I was going to impact the world through music when I was 15 years old. I wrote it down like that; it was my vision. I said, „I’m going to impact the whole world through music,“ and God said, „Can I refine that? You’re going to impact the whole world, but it’s going to be through preaching first.“
I didn’t see that in my vision. He gave me something to work with. You wrote down the part that you saw; you wrote down the thing that illuminated in your heart. Because you obeyed my word, now I can refine it and tweak it, cross out things, and illuminate others. All I’m saying is you can do something this week to start moving in crazy faith. Hands lifted, I want to pray for you. Every service, I feel an anointing to impart. I don’t want to just pray; these are things I’m teaching from that God has allowed me to master and live out. Today, I’m going to pray that courage and boldness to write down what God says would jump off on everybody that would have the spirit to receive it. Hands lifted, come on, somebody’s about to get this right now!
Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you that vision is coming alive in your people. God, I thank you that you’ve spoken all the way back to Abraham in visions and dreams. And God, today I’m asking you that for anybody who would have the crazy faith to listen to this regular guy, that I would stand in my authority and impart, Father God, from your word what you make available to every one of your children. I speak faith enough for us to get the vision, write it down, and make it plain for every area of our lives that has vacant vision. I pray that you would fill it up. Come on, somebody say that: „Fill me up, God!“ Come on, fill me up, God! Fill me up, God! Come on, somebody say it right now: fill me up, fill me up. Give me vision for my family, give me vision for my health, give me vision for my finances, give me vision for my relationships, give me vision, Father, for outreach, give me vision, Father God, for serving others. Fill me up! Thank you, God. I declare that this week will be a download—a download of vision, Father—that we won’t look like a bunch of people who are ready for the journey, but we have nothing in it. God, fill us up! Father God, I declare that this group of people will be ready to say yes to whatever you want to do and whatever you want to say. We will keep our eyes on you! Focused on you, Father. You did it for the joy that was set before you, for the vision of you being at the right hand of the Father. You endured. Father, give us endurance to be able to outlast the doubt, to outlast the depression, to outlast the devastation. Father God, you’re making us stronger right now. God, fill us up; we can’t do it without you.
Listen, right there, I want to interject James 1:5. That tells us so practically what we can do. Somebody say, „Fill me up!“ No, say it one more time: „Fill me up!“ God’s about to start filling people with vision like never before. I see it. But this is what you have to do: if any of you lacks wisdom, if you lack vision, and you don’t know what to do or what to ask for, you should ask God, who gives generously to all—everybody say „all.“ That includes you—without finding fault. God’s not mad at you if you haven’t had vision in an area; it will be given to you. Thank you, Father.
Today and all this week, whether we’re watching live or on rebroadcast six months from now, or ten years from now, today we’re going to ask for vision. Fill me up, God; fill me in fear. Come on, that’s what we’re asking for—fear; come on! You just write right there—fear. You’re asking right now; you’re doing James 1:5. See, let every empty area put something else in it. Guys, come on, keep saying that. Give me vision for my family, for my pain. Come on, fill me up! Lift that up. Oh, I feel this thing. Where I can give us fresh vision, start filling me up! Say it: fill me up!
Until I see new songs, new books, new cures, new business plans—oh, you better say it with crazy faith. Tell God, „Fill me up!“ I want to be able to give it away. I need people to carry it with me. Vision, God. Trust Vision with the non-profit. What if that’s how every area of your life looked when it came to vision—for the ministry in Africa? Amberly, for the business—for life. I want you to understand, if you get the vision, it now has permission to actually happen.
Monica, what if we get the vision for what the kids' area is supposed to do for transformation kids all over the world—not just here in Tulsa, but transformation kids in India and Dubai? Y’all see, I’m not playing with people with little faith. What if we get a vision of what multi-generational ministry looks like, Bishop Gary? We could talk to pastors all over the world, show them how to transition and work together. What if we get a vision for a church that doesn’t just get resources from tithes and offerings, but we create a business model that changes the economics of a city? Y’all, we can build our own communities and our own grocery stores!
Y’all, oh my God. See, I’ve got to get around people with faith because when I start getting a vision, most people told me that where we are today was impossible, but I had—can I prove it? It was written down. I stand in the vision that God gave me. God wants every person to be able to stand in a different season and say, „God did this.“ I can’t take credit for what was impossible in one season. Today, I can look at everybody around the world and say, „It’s only crazy until it happens.“ So from now on, next week, you should have vision in areas of your life that right now are vacant.
You’re not bad; God said just ask me. Ask me for vision, and I’ll give it generously without finding fault in you. So our prayer all week is this simple song. It just says, „Fill me up.“ Say, „Fill me up.“ There’s something right there—say it—"Fill me with vision for the future, God. Until I have vision for where I serve, vision for my company, my family, my business, my health.» Somebody needs vision for eternity.
See, the crazy thing is we can be praying for vision for all this stuff—it’s temporal; but the reason that God sent Jesus to the Cross was so that we could gain a prophetic vision of eternity—that we could be singing «Holy, Holy, Holy» around the throne and worshiping God all day. I don’t know about you, but I’ve envisioned my mansion in heaven and the streets paved with gold. Y’all have got to read your Bible; it gets really good for us in the future. But to see that vision, there’s something you need to do: you’ve got to ask Jesus to come in and be your Savior and your Lord.
Today, I’m telling you it’s the greatest decision I ever made. It took me from being somebody who was a liar, a manipulator, someone who was addicted to pornography, someone who was a really bad person on the inside—not because I wanted to be, but because of the sinful nature of the world we live in. Things came in, I adapted to them, and I grew them; I let them control my focus. And God said, «Can I give you a new vision of what I see in you?» And when I accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior, according to Romans 10:9, I just confessed that He was who He said He was, and I believed He lived and died for me.
At that moment, by grace through faith—not by works, not by effort, not by energy—by grace through faith, I was saved. My eternity was secure, and today, I just believe there are tons of people watching who want to get a vision for their life here. But this is temporary. The Bible says it’s like a vapor—it’s quick. But for the rest of eternity, get a vision of you worshiping God and being in that great cloud of witnesses—a group of people who are part of the cheering section of faith for everybody else. God says He wants to write your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
On the count of three, if you want to make Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior and get a vision of yourself free—get a vision of yourself not burdened down by all the things that have been trying to trap you. I want you to lift your hands; it’s going to change your life forever. And not just yours, but your family’s. Like, one, you’re making the greatest decision of your life. Two, I’m so proud of you. But more than that, God is going to write your name—oh, He’s going to do it! —and make it a vision for you.
Y’all are preaching this right now! It says He writes your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Three, if you want to make the decision for Jesus, lift your hands all over the world. There are hands in this building—I see you, I see you! There are people online; you can put your hands down. I’m so proud of you. What you’re going to do is just ask God to fill you up. I see it. And at Transformation Church, we say this prayer all together for the benefit of those who are coming to Christ. We’re a family here, and over 32,000 people have made this decision this year—oh, that’s something to celebrate! I said 32,000 people have made the decision that you’re about to make this year. So today, this is nothing to be ashamed of; this is something to be proud of. And watch what God gives you after you make this commitment to Him. Everybody, just close your eyes and say:
God, thank you for sending Jesus just for me. Thank you for having a vision of me healed and free. Today, I give you my life. I believe you lived, you died, and you rose again just for me. And today, I surrender. Change me, renew me, transform me. I’m yours. In Jesus' name, Amen.