11 January 2008, 10AM
Apostle Andre Pelser

Motivations for spiritual vision that will help you in every area of your life if you will apply it faithfully.

Gen 13:14-18
What Abram couldn't see, God couldn't give to him.

It will help us to understand that in Gen 12 God spoke to Abram telling him to get out of his country and away from his family. God would show him a land where He would make him a great nation and bless him and make his name great, and bless those who bless him and curse those who curse him, and all the families in the earth shall be blessed because of him. This is a tremendous promise. We call Abraham the father of our faith. We need to understand something about his spiritual vision. We need to understand how we can apply it in our lives.

“Lift up your eyes now” – it means that you must look further than what you can see now. You have to look by faith. The eyes of your understanding need to be enlightened so that you can see further. The world is designed  to entrap your vision into what you can see today, and what you can see and feel around you with your 5 senses. We mostly live according to what we see around us. We mostly live according to our bank balance, and according to what we have. Mostly what we do is we look at what others have, and then we want that; that's as far as we look. Lift your eyes further than that. See further than that. God wants to give you vision concerning your lives.

God gave Abram tremendous promises, and told him to lift his eyes. At that stage Abram was alone. He had no descendants, and then God tells him that all the families in the earth would be blessed because of him. That is a huge promise to someone who has no children.

“…descendants will be as the dust of the earth…” – do you know how long it takes to count just 1 handful of sand? God is saying that we need to expand our vision, and our capacity. How about counting to 1 Million. Just go and sit somewhere and count to 1 Million, and see how long that takes you. And then start believing God for R1 Million. Why must He give you 1 Million if you cannot even count to 1 Million? Most of us don't even know what 1 Billion is. How long will it take you to count to 1 Billion?

Abram to see his sons in every grain of sand. When he laid on his back on a beautiful summer's night, he wanted to see his sons and daughters' faces in the stars. What did he do? He was visualizing God's promise. He was seeing something that God told him to look at.

God wants us to be men and women of vision for as far as you can see, the Lord will give it to you. If you can't see it, He can't give it to you. You want it, but if you can't see it He doesn't know where to fit it in. There is no place to put it. You must make room for it in your thinking. You must first see yourself doing something.

1 Cor 1:26 – you see what God has called you to do.

Eph 1:17-19 – that the eyes of your understanding might be enlightened that you might see or know that hope of His calling.

See yourself doing something before you do it. You have to press in with your imagination. You have to press in with your thinking until it's clear. Do it in prayer and meditation until it's clear to you. Then speak about it, and do something about it. No one loves you that much to make your dream come true. You have to do it. It's not going to happen because you feel sorry for yourself. Mostly when we speak to others we tell them how sorry we feel for ourselves. It's like someone owes us something. Nobody owes us anything! Its your life, and if you want it you must get it.  Go after it. It's not just going to happen because you're moaning about it. You have to get the picture clear.

Mk 11:24 – you must pray about the things you desire. This changes prayer altogether because we think that prayer is a religious duty that we have to perform. And actually, prayer is the birthplace of your visions. Prayer is the place where you put the jig-saw pieces of your life together. God deals with our visions and our dreams. What you see, He will give you. If you can't see it, God can't give it. The more you complain about where you're at, the worse it's going to get. You have to see. 'As far as you can see, I'll do for you.' You have to have it clear in your mind. You need to be specific.

Heb 11:13 – these people died having not received the promise, but they died having seen it afar off. They had no doubt that it would happen. When they were assured of it, they embraced them and confessed them. We only think until the end of the month, or maybe until the end of the year. We should think for generations to come. That is what you and I should be praying about. Think for generations to come. You have to think of your children’s children. If you only think of yourself it's pretty selfish. These people written of in Hebrews saw things afar off that they never had, but they were so convinced of them that they embraced them and they confessed it to their children. We are investing in eternity. For you to come to church is not just because it's Sunday, but you are investing in eternity because time is the coin of heaven. You bought this time to be in church today, but it will bear interest for eternity. You will have eternal rewards for taking an hour or 2 today. Who will give you an investment like that? Not with annual returns but with eternal returns.

God said: 'your family will bless the earth, and through your family all the families of the earth will be blessed…' How can God speak like that to someone who has no children and is 100 years old? That is huge? How does God do that? Gen 18:18

Rom 4:16-23 – God spoke about his family before he could have children. He called it into existence before it was there. Abraham had no hope to have children, but contrary to hope, he believed. Not just the father of a child, but the father of Nations.

The kingdom of God is within. You have to see it first and perceive it before God can even give it to you or do it for you. How we speak about our lives we do the same. God calls those things that don't exist as if they do exist. That is why He could say, “let there be light” before there was anything called light. He knew what He wanted. He could see it. He designed it. He was specific. We are not specific enough when we pray. We just hope that it gets somewhere. If your husband is unsaved, why don't you pray envisioning him in church with you? Why don't you use your sanctified imagination to see the rest of your family serving God with you? You ask and you don't receive. Why don't you receive? Because you ask amiss. Jms 4:3. You ask wrongly. You must ask accurately. 1 Jn 5:15,16 – if we ask according to His will, He hears us. And when we know He hears us, we have the petition or the request we made of Him. We approach the throne of God confidently. Why? Because we know we are asking according to His will. How do we know His will? His Word is His will. It is a written New Testament. If you know His Word, you can ask according to His Word, then you know confidently that you have what you've asked of Him. But there are things that are not written in the Word that you want, well, use the principles that the Word gives you. You have to be accurate, and you have to know what you want. It's like the girl that sat under the tree and prayed: “O Lord, please give me a husband.” There was an owl in the tree that hooted and she thought it was God that asked her, “who”. So