Vision and Reality
A moving experience!
For many years, I have looked forward to the early morning hours of July 6. I return again and again to Oswald Chambers (My Utmost for His Highest) on this day, pausing in the midst of whatever I have going on to read and reflect. Chambers’ entry for July 6 is entitled “Vision and Reality.” He has in mind the story of Jesus’ transfiguration, where Jesus takes three disciples up the mountain. There Jesus is revealed in his glory. After this revelation, Jesus leads his disciples back down into the valley where they immediately encounter a demon-possessed child. It’s as if the vision never took place.
Chambers makes the point that when God gives us a vision, we are not immediately ready to receive that vision. So God may give you a deep longing for your life to be a certain way, but you are not ready to receive that life. God needs to bring you down into the “demon-possessed valley” to be battered into shape to receive the reality of the vision.
In other words, when my God-given visions don’t seem to be coming true, I am most likely the problem. My own lack of capacity, my inability to complete the necessary tasks, are usually the issue. If I could see clearly, I would understand that I’m not big enough to hold what God wants to give me. God uses an array of (usually) unpleasant problems to expand my capacity and capability.
Of course, God’s good work in me feels to me like suffering. I just want the pleasantness of the vision. I don’t really want to be more than I am. All that stretching is uncomfortable.
On July 6 each year, Oswald reminds me that God has given a good vision, and he is doing good work to make that vision a reality. Looking back over the past decade or so, I see how the most difficult things I’ve endured have expanded my capacity to receive the vision God wants to give.
My life is full of examples. One obvious example is the process of purchasing, preparing, and moving a house onto this property. Purchasing the property itself, along with the excruciating task of cleaning it up and making it livable, is another example. Publishing my books is another example. There are more.
Do you have a vision for where God wants to take you? Are you frustrated that the vision seems so clear, and yet so unattainable? Here is Oswald’s entry for July 6:
Vision And Reality
And the parched ground shall become a pool. ISAIAH 35:7
We always have visions before a thing is made real. When we realize that although the vision is real, it is not real in us, then is the time that Satan comes in with his temptations, and we are apt to say it is no use to go on. Instead of the vision becoming real, there has come the valley of humiliation…
God gives us the vision, then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of the vision, and it is in the valley that so many of us faint and give way. Every vision will be made real if we will have patience. Think of the enormous leisure of God! He is never in a hurry. We are always in such a frantic hurry. In the light of the glory of the vision we go forth to do things, but the vision is not real in us yet; and God has to take us into the valley, and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the place where He can trust us with the veritable reality. Ever since we had the vision God has been at work, getting us into the shape of the ideal, and over and over again we escape from His hand and try to batter ourselves into our own shape.
The vision is not a castle in the air, but a vision of what God wants you to be. Let Him put you on His wheel and whirl you as He likes, and as sure as God is God and you are you, you will turn out exactly in accordance with the vision. Don’t lose heart in the process. If you have ever had the vision of God, you may try as you like to be satisfied on a lower level, but God will never let you.