David [00:00:00]:
A couple of weeks ago, I shared this message with a group of people at a vision conference. And God has so stirred this in my heart that I felt led to share it with you today. And so I want to open with this request.
David [00:00:40]:
Will you allow me to stretch your imagination for a moment? As we begin this time together today, I want us all to start thinking bigger. The apostle Paul said in Ephesians 320, God is able to do superabundantly far over and above all, we dare ask or think. And that’s from the amplified translation, so think about that. Can you imagine that? God doing super abundantly far over and above all that you dare ask or think? Wow. That word all there in the Greek means all. It means everything. And that word dare there. Wow.
David [00:01:38]:
Do you think God is daring us? I think he is. I have a story about that. Back during COVID we were home. Our three of our children were home with us. They were out of college and out of school and home with us. And so it was rather noisy around the house every day. And so I told Conia, one day, I’m going into our bedroom, into our closet so I can pray and have some quiet time. And so as I walked in, I turned and shut the closet door and turned to begin to pray.
David [00:02:13]:
And I heard the Lord say to me, I dare you to ask me for something big. You’re not thinking big enough, David. I dare you to ask me for something big. Wow. There I was with everything that’s going on in the world, and God is saying, come on, come on, think bigger. Let me ask you that today. What will you dare ask God today? What will you dare think bigger about today? You see, the bigger we think, the bigger God must act to surpass our thinking. And here’s the reality, folks.
David [00:02:59]:
He’s ready and he’s eagerly waiting for this opportunity. That opportunity could go super abundantly far over and above all that you dare ask or think. Let’s read this verse in its entirety, ephesians 320, the classic amplified. Now, to him who buy, and in consequence of the action of his power that is at work within us, is able to carry out his purpose and do superabundantly far over and above all that we dare ask or think infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes or dreams. Now, here’s the reality. That verse doesn’t stop at superabundantly far over and above. No, it goes on to say infinitely beyond. I mean, think about that.
David [00:04:05]:
Infinitely beyond. How do you define infinitely? The hebrew dictionary says it means immeasurable, innumerable, too much to count. God is an infinite being. He’s immeasurable. He’s too much to count or measure. And he does that in and through us when we trust him. This reminds me of back in 1995. I don’t know if you remember the.
David [00:04:42]:
The 1995 movie Toy Story. My oldest daughter loved that movie. The character Buzz Lightyear would declare, to infinity and beyond. And so every night I would go in to tuck my daughter in and talk to her and pray with her, read her little bedtime story, and she would tell me, I love you, daddy. And I said, I love you, Jess. And she goes, I love you more. And she goes, well, I love you four. And I say, I would love you infinity.
David [00:05:25]:
And she goes, I love you infinity and beyond. And I would grin and say, I love you beyond, beyond. And she get this sweet smile on her face and go, oh, daddy. And I still remember that story today. I still kid her about that story. In fact, at her wedding, I told that story, and I told her, I said, here we go beyond, beyond. But when it says infinitely beyond here in Ephesians 320, I always think my father, God, is beyond, beyond. You can’t ask anything of him or think anything that is beyond him.
David [00:06:11]:
As my wife Kanya, likes to say, God is always more and better. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord, for that. More and better. My goal today is to inspire you to begin to think more like God thinks, superabundantly, far over and above, infinitely beyond. In fact, let’s think beyond, beyond and see what God does as we enter this last quarter of 2024, October, November, December, let’s bring our vision for the future into focus. Let’s begin to prepare for a far over and above 2025. So here’s a few things I want you to understand about vision.
David [00:07:08]:
Number one, your vision begins, or your future begins with vision. I was getting ahead of myself there. Your future begins with vision. When God said in Genesis 126, let us make man in our image and according to our likeness, he was casting vision. In fact, everything we see created here in chapter one of Genesis was a result of vision. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, had cast vision for the earth, for the world, the universe, mankind’s future, began with God’s vision. And our future begins with vision. Also.
David [00:08:02]:
There’s a lot we could explore in these verses, but one thing stands out to me. It says, we are created in his image and according to his likeness. Now, that statement right there means a lot to us and for us. But today we’re focusing on vision. And so let me say this. If God is a vision caster, we have the capacity within us to cast vision and see it come to pass. Also because we’re created in his image and after his likeness. As children of God, we are wired for vision.
David [00:08:45]:
In fact, we need a vision. Proverbs 20 918 says this where there is no vision, the people perish, we have no hope. But he that keepeth the law happy is he. Now that law, that word law there in the Hebrew means the instruction and direction of God. So that could read he that keeps the instruction and direction of God happy is hedgest. God inspires vision in us through his word, which is his instruction and direction. He promises to show us the way. In fact, we see this promise in several scriptures throughout the word.
David [00:09:37]:
We are not left alone. We are not on our own. God wants to co labor with us. He wants to partner with us in casting vision and seeing. His purpose for us come to pass, come into reality for us. And so let me share with you four verses here that speak. There’s many more, but let me share these four with you. Psalm 32 eight this is from the amplified I the Lord will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.
David [00:10:16]:
I will counsel you with my eye upon you right there. That is an awesome promise, a great promise for us. That promise should give us peace. It should give us confidence and hope. The Lord says that he’s going to instruct us and teach us in the way we should go. So for every situation in your life, you need to know the way to go. Simply ask God, seek God, get his direction, his instruction. And then this verse goes on to say in psalm 32 eight, I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
David [00:10:58]:
So God will continue to give you understanding, insight, revelation, counsel, and how to move forward in the steps of to take wow, what a great promise. Psalm 32 eight then we have this promise in proverbs three, five and six amplified again. Lean on, trust in and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind, and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways. Know, recognize and acknowledge him, and he will direct and make straight and plain your path. So if we trust in the Lord, if we’re confident in the Lord with all our heart and mind, and if we recognize him in all of our life, every day, acknowledge him and know that he is there with us, he will direct us, he will make straight and plain your paths. There won’t be any question, any doubt. He will be there to guide you and not leave you alone.
David [00:12:21]:
Isaiah 40 817, the amplified. This is one of my favorite verses, but it says this. Thus says, the Lord your redeemer, the holy one of Israel, I am the Lord your God. And God is making a point here. He’s telling you who he is and then saying, that’s me and I am your God. I am the Lord your God. And so he goes on to say this, I am the Lord your God who teaches you to prophet, who leads you in the way you should go. So two things there he’s going to teach us.
David [00:13:02]:
He’s going to lead us. It says he’s going to teach us to profit. Well, let’s understand what that word prophet means here in the Hebrew. Prophet means this. It means to be valuable. So God our Lord is going to teach us to be valuable. Secondly, it means to be useful. So God our Lord is going to teach us to be useful.
David [00:13:27]:
Thirdly, it means to do good. So God our Lord is going to show us how to do it good. Fourth thing it means is to excel. Prophet means to excel. So God is going to teach us, instruct us in how to excel, to come forth with excellence. Next, it means to rise above. So God is going to teach us how to rise above all that is around us. Next, it means to ascend on high.
David [00:14:02]:
Not only are we going to rise above, we’re going to ascend on high. We’re going to keep going up. Next, it means to create, gain. And so God is going to show us how to create, gain, a return on our investment. Next, it means to bring benefit. So God is going to show us how to bring benefit to others. Or it means to receive benefit. So God’s going to show us how to receive benefits from what we’re doing.
David [00:14:38]:
And then the last thing it says, it says it means to avail, which means to overcome, to be victorious, more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah. So God teaches us to profit. He says, I will teach you how to be valuable, to be useful, to do good, to excel, to rise above, to ascend on high, to create gain, to bring benefit or receive benefit, to avail. Wow, that’s powerful. And God is saying, that is for all of his children if we will seek him, trust him, and do what he says. And again, I end with this again, as we said in the beginning, Ephesians 320, the amplified. Now to him who by and in consequence of the action of his power that is at work within us, is able to carry out his purpose and do super abundantly, far over and above all that we dare ask or think infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes or dreams.
David [00:15:48]:
God has something big he wants to do in you. God has something big he wants to do through you. God has something big he wants to do with you. And God has something big he wants to do for you. God has a purpose for you. He has a vision for each of us. And if we seek him, he will inspire us with that vision through his word to us. Let me say this again.
David [00:16:23]:
He desires to work in us, through us, with us, and for us to see the vision come to pass, to see his purpose fulfilled. All right, now I want to get practical here and let’s look at what vision is. And there are three things to consider here. Number one, what is vision? Pure and simple. Vision is simply seeing the number one way we see that creates vision, dreams. Now, I’m not talking about necessarily the dreams you have when you’re sleeping. They also can impact your vision. But I’m talking about that dream in your heart.
David [00:17:14]:
And dreams in this context is defined as ideas and images in the mind that are meaningful. We feel them, our heart, we have passion for them. It’s what we desire and what we want. The second way we see is through imagination. So dreaming and imagination work together, because imagination is this. It’s the power of the mind by which it conceives and forms ideas of things, communicated to it by the organs of sense. Our imagination can take us to a place, to where we see it, we hear it, we feel it, it’s like we’re touching it, we smell it. And I’m grinning a little here because I’m remembering as a child, imagining going to my grandmother’s house and knowing there’s going to be a piece, a cake, something that she has cooked for us.
David [00:18:24]:
And I could see it, I could taste it, I could smell it before I ever got there. And I’d walk into her house and that fragrance would hit my senses and I would know, ah, mama cooked a pie for us. She made a cake for us. Let’s go see what she’s done. What’s in her safe? Pie safe there in the kitchen. And so that is the way imagination works. Imagination is a powerful, powerful, powerful tool God has given us. The enemy tries to take it and warp it and twist it.
David [00:19:02]:
But the imagination, our imagination in itself is not bad. It’s good. We have to learn and use it for God’s purpose. So we see through dreaming and imagination. The other thing we see is opportunities. An opportunity is the time favorable for a purpose. So this is a good opportunity, a good time for us to move forward on whatever it might be. The other thing we see is possibilities.
David [00:19:36]:
A possibility is the power of something or someone being or existed. When God spoke over Adam and Eve, he blessed them and said, be fruitful, multiply, subdue, fill the earth, take dominion. And so he spoke over them, all those things that he wanted them to be. And so a possibility, again, is the power of something coming into being or existing. And vision is a process, a part of the process of having things come into being. As we see in scripture, Jesus said, and the word says, he calls things that be not as though they were and they are. And we see that throughout creation. And we have that same capacity within us.
David [00:20:35]:
A lot of people call this modeling. And so this process of seeing the vision is called modeling. We model it in our mind, in our heart. We see this in scripture. When God was dealing with Abraham, I call it the Abrahamic principle in this context. God took him, told him, he said, you’re going to have a son, and your descendants are going to be like the stars innumerable. And he took him Outside and he said, look up. So Abraham looks up from where he is and he sees all the stars in the heavens.
David [00:21:12]:
And God said, your descendants are going to be like the stars in the heaven. So he gave him something to look at. He took him to the seashore and said, if you could number them and you can’t, your descendants are going to be like the sand at the seashore. At one point he even said, they’ll be like the dust of the earth. And you can’t count it, you can’t measure it, it’s innumerable. And so God gave him something to look at to empower his vision. A lot of times in our day and time, we call that a vision board. And a vision board is something very powerful that we can create and put before us.
David [00:22:01]:
I was just at a church recently, our friends, pastors, the Logans up in Mason, ohio. And when you walk into their sanctuary, in the back of their sanctuary, they have a vision board up of the things. They’re praying together, believing together, standing in faith together. For, for this year, they had twelve things on that vision board. When I was just there a couple months ago, there were six things already checked off. Wow, look what God’s done already. And they were believing that by the end of the year, the other six would be checked off. And they, they’re going to have a new vision board for 2025.
David [00:22:44]:
But a vision board is a powerful thing. Terry Savelle Foy teaches a lot on this. If you look her up on her website, her ministry, a part of what she does in her ministry is show people how to use a vision board to accomplish the purpose God has for them. And so when we see it and believe it, then we have the capacity to receive it and walk in it and see it come into reality. Romans 417 says this in the amplified as it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. He was appointed our father in the sight of God in whom he believed, he who gives life to the dead and speaks of the non existent things that he has foretold and promised as if they already existed. Now, that was Romans 417. It was referenced in Genesis 17 five.
David [00:23:52]:
Moses confirmed what Paul was saying here in deuteronomy 110 eleven when he was speaking to Israel. And so what we’re seeing here, Paul is saying, this has come to pass. Moses said the same thing to Israel, and this is deuteronomy 110 eleven. This is from the new king James version. The Lord your God has multiplied you, and here you are today as the stars of heaven in multitude. May the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times more than you are, more numerous than you are, and bless you as he has promised you. God wants to bless you today. God wants to make you more.
David [00:24:46]:
God wants you to see, be more, do more, have more, give more. Vision simply is seeing the future, believing it, seeking God, and pursuing it, and we’re going to drill down into that more in a moment. Second thing I want to look at here is this, vision drives our hope and faith. I’m sure you’ve heard an expression like this, hope for tomorrow, faith for today. And so. But we see there in Hebrews, the writer in Hebrews, this faith and hope and love. And so we see that faith and hope work together. And that word hope there in the Greek, means expectation.
David [00:25:28]:
In fact, there are three ways they describe it and define it. Number one, they say hope is active expectation. It’s not sitting around wishing and waiting. Our vision drives our hope to get up with expectation every day, taking action, praying, believing, God, declaring the word, seeing it come to pass, calling it forth, all these things. Active expectation. Vision drives our hope. The second thing, the way it defines hope here, is confident expectation. So we have active expectation, but we’ve got confident expectation.
David [00:26:15]:
Now, I’ve taught on this before, but that word confident there in the Latin means this. The con means with the fi. In confidence means faith, and the de in confidence means today. So it means with faith for today. So when we come with confident expectation, we’re coming with faith for today. Confidence is faith, and faith is extreme confidence. Someone or something. See how it’s working together there.
David [00:26:56]:
Faith and hope are beginning to work together here. In this, the third way they define hope is unshakable expectations. So we’ve got active expectation. We got confident expectation. We have unshakable expectation, which means no matter what the circumstances are, I know that. I know that. I know. And like it says of Abraham, and I believe, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.
David [00:27:28]:
We believe what the Lord puts in our heart, what he says to us, how he leads us, and we walk in unshakable expectation, our faith and hope working together, and we will see it fulfilled. Now, here’s a principle you need to understand, and don’t let this deter you or discourage you. Vision runs ahead of your ability to fulfill it. When God gives you the vision, it’s usually big, and you go, oh, wow, Lord, how am I going to do this? How are we going to what, what has to happen for this to happen? Kind of like Abraham and Sarah. They were going, we’re going to do what in our old age? We’re going to have what? A baby? Come on. And so, but God said, is anything too hard for me? There in chapter 18 of Genesis, he looks at Abraham, says, is anything too hard to me? I’m telling you, next year, this time, Sarah will have a baby. And the Lord, we see that in Genesis, God brought it to pass. God brought it to pass because Sarah, it says, and Sarah had Isaac.
David [00:28:54]:
Hallelujah. So hope. Vision feeds our hope and faith. Next thing to think about is creation flows out of vision. Vision sparks creativity. We saw this in Genesis, chapter one. We said this earlier today. Creation flowed out of God’s vision for mankind.
David [00:29:26]:
And so vision sparks creativity. And it calls it forth in Habakkuk. Two, two, we see this. This is from the new king James version. Then the Lord answered me and said, write the vision and make it plain on tablets that he may run. Who reads it? Hallelujah. We want to make the vision plain. We want to write it out.
David [00:29:54]:
We want to share it with those around us that God’s called around us to help us accomplish it. So they who read it, get it, they understand it, and they can run with it and do their part. And so this is one of the things I taught at the vision conference. We were at a couple weeks ago is that we want to write the vision and make it plain. And there’s four things we do when we write the vision and make it plain. The first one is this is reflection. Reflection is simply attentive consideration. It’s meditation and contemplation.
David [00:30:32]:
Where have we come from? Where are we today? What has worked? What has went well? What were the challenges? Did we do something we shouldn’t have done? Did we not do something we should have done? What will we do different as we move forward? And so I encourage them. We’re talking about 90 day vision and doing a quarterly plan. And so I was saying, you know, what will you do different over the next 90 days than you did in the previous 90? And so we want to take some time to reflect and think and let the Lord speak to us. The second thing in writing the vision and making it plan after reflection is planning. And planning is important. Planning is something to be done, existing in the mind. So we have all those things in our mind existing in our mind that need to be done with several paths, adjusted as ideas, expressed in words, and committed to writing. And that last thing is the important part.
David [00:31:46]:
Write the vision and make it plain. We got to take all these ideas, all this plan, all, everything that exists in our mind about this vision, and put it on paper. Make it clear. Make it clear so those who need to know what to do can run with it. And so we want to dump it out. Here’s what research shows. When you get it all out of your head and on paper, your mind goes, oh, I know where that is. And it gives you even more creativity.
David [00:32:21]:
You can go deeper, and now that you’ve got it on paper, you can go back and do some more reflection. Okay, I’ve got this on paper. What’s the best way to do this? Who do I need to know that can help me with this? What do I need to accomplish this? And so we start planning. The third part is what we call preparing. And preparing is making ready and providing what’s needed for execution. And so planning and preparing go together, too. And so we’re thinking, what do we need to make this happen? Who do we need to. How much do we need? And so we start making preparation for taking action.
David [00:33:09]:
And then that fourth step in this, in writing the vision and making it plain, is execution. It’s the act of doing or accomplishing a strategy that brings about a desired result. So what’s the plan for this 90 days? What’s the strategy for this 90 days that’s going to carry us forward toward accomplishing this vision. So we reflect, we plan, we prepare, we execute. And how often do we do that? David? We do it daily, we do it weekly. We do it monthly, and we do it quarterly, and then we do it yearly. And so we encourage the people that we work with and teach and. And coach daily.
David [00:33:58]:
Take 15 minutes and reflect. Look at the plan. Okay, let’s edit that out to be daily. Take 15 minutes and reflect. Look at your plan. And I, how do I prepare for tomorrow at the end of every week, take, say, 30 minutes or an hour and reflect and plan and prepare again. What do I accomplish this week? How did this week go? What challenges did we face? Is there anything we need to do differently next week? At the end of every month, take a half day and do that. At the end of every quarter, take a couple days, go away somewhere, take a couple days, two or three days, and reflect, plan and prepare for the next quarter.
David [00:34:58]:
And write out your plan for the next quarter. And then once a year, my mentor taught me this. He would go away for a week at the end of the year, the first week of the year, he’d go away somewhere for a week and pray and seek God for the coming year. And he would reflect, he would plan. He would prepare so he could bring that back to his team, and so we could take it and run with it and execute it quarter by quarter that whole year. Guys, God knew what he was talking about when he said, here in the back, write the plan and make. Write the vision and make it plain. We get so much more done when we’ve got it before us.
David [00:35:52]:
Now, the last thing I want to say is this. We want to be faithful to the vision. And then that next verse there in habakkuk. Habakkuk, two, three. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, and it hastens to the end, or it hastens to fulfill fulfillment. It will not deceive or disappoint, though it tarry, wait earnestly for it, because it will surely come. It will not be behind on its appointed day. Now, I want to say this.
David [00:36:25]:
That word wait there in the Hebrew doesn’t mean to sit idly by just waiting. Okay, it’s coming. I know it’s coming. Well, I hope it comes today. No, that word wait means to long for it. It goes back to what we were saying about hope, that active expectation. It’s getting up every day looking for it, actively expecting. It’s longing for it.
David [00:36:52]:
It’s that longing in our heart that God gives us. So though it tarry long, earnestly for it, because it will surely come. It will not be behind on its appointed day. If we are reflecting, planning, preparing and executing, it’s going to come so long for it. Dream of it. Imagine it, see it, look at your vision board every day. Thank God for it. Rejoice in it before you see it fully manifested.
David [00:37:36]:
Last night I was praying about something Conia and I are believing for, and I was just dancing around in our living room down there. Thank you, Jesus. I know it’s. And I don’t dance. You know, I think we said that before, but I’m not a dancer dancer. I play keyboard, but I don’t dance. And so anyway, but I was dancing around, running around, rejoicing for what was coming because I know it’s done. I know it’s done.
David [00:38:07]:
So over the next few days, I want to challenge you to seek God for his direction for this last quarter and what’s coming in 2025. Write the vision. Make it plain so that you can execute the vision. Execute the vision. And I want to invite you to join with me in being faithful to the vision and commit that you’re going to be faithful to the vision God gives you and we will actively, confidently and shake it expected to come and see it happen. God has a plan, a purpose for you, and he wants to fulfill it in you and through you doing super, abundantly, far over and above anything you can dare ask or think infinitely beyond your highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes or dreams. Wow. God is a God of vision and he made you his child to be a person of vision also.
David [00:39:20]:
Let’s bow our head in prayer. Father, we thank you today for this word. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for what you’ve planted and put within us, that we may work with you, Lord, to see your kingdom come. Your will be done here in the earth as it is in heaven. Thank you for desiring to partner with us, to co labor with us, to collaborate with us, Lord, in all things. Thank you, Lord, for your promise of teaching us and instructing us and showing us the way. God, we surrender ourselves to you and lean on you, Lord, and thank you for your direction today. We give ourselves to you that your will and purpose may be accomplished in us, through us, with us, and for us.
David [00:40:10]:
And we thank you for it, Father God, in Jesus name. Amen. Well, praise God. You’re a visionary. Pastor Conia is coming with a closing word in prayer. God bless you. Have a blessed week.
