“As a woman with child and about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pain, so were we in your presence, O Lord. We were with child, we writhed in pain, but we gave birth to wind.” (Isaiah 26:17-18, NIV).
Has God given you a spiritual vision that you seem to not be able to bring forth? While talking with Marilynn Griffith yesterday on Today’s Breathing Room I was reminded of my opening text. We were discussing among other things, people who were trying to make their visions come forth before time. There are a lot of people that are keenly aware of the vision but yet in still are not able to execute the vision God has given them.
God wants to give each of us a spiritual vision. He not only wants to give the vision but the purpose and objectives of it. He doesn’t stop there but also wants to reveal the plan on how to bring it to past. First you have to become pregnant with vision and it follows a natural process just like child birth. As you experience the "birth of a vision" you will become a co-creator with Him instead of a spectator.
The natural birthing process which brings a human baby into the world is similar to the process of the birth of a vision in the spirit world. You will experience the following stages as you give birth to spiritual vision."Conception" means to create. A spiritual vision is first created in your spirit by God.
When we first receive a spiritual vision, it is in "embryo" stage. Remember the embryo is a basic cell of life. God develops our spiritual vision as we grow in Him, just like the development of the human embryo. The basic cell of life in the human baby is the embryo, from it all the basic human features are developed. If you try to change the embryo, deformity or death can occur to the child. The same as in the spirit.The vision will grow and develop as you mature spiritually. Its features will not be the same as yesterday, last week, or last month. The same as the child growing within the mother. However never forget the basic vision which is the divine purpose for which you are called.
As the body of a pregnant woman stretches in the natural, so does your spirit house the vision . If the vision does not develop within you it will die. The vision is with you constantly. It becomes a vital, living part of you. It draws from your own life source as well as from the divine source which conceived it.
There are certain things a pregnant woman will deny herself of. These are things that would be detrimental to the development of her child. So to must you do the same as your vision develops. You may have to deny yourself of your own plans and ambitions. You will have to sacrifice time to fast and pray.Ecclesiastes 5:3 says, “For a dream cometh through the multitude of business.” The meaning of the word "multitude" is great. "Business", according to one Hebrew meaning, is travail [difficulty]. So a dream or vision can be seen to come through "great travail.” In natural birth there are facts about travail that parallel the spiritual travail which births a vision. Natural travail is a time of intense, concentrated effort to birth the child. This time of travail is also called "labor.” As in the delivery of a child, a spiritual vision is birthed by intense mental, physical, and spiritual concentration. As you are reading this concentrate on what God wants to birth in your spirit.
I remember with my middle child I was so tired of being pregnant. It was August, the hottest month of the year. I wanted Bryant out by any means necessary! I started thinking like a crazy woman! I created all kinds of scenarios in my mind of how I can get him out NOW! The craziest thought I had was to throw myself down the stairs and that would surly make him come. I told my doctor what I was thinking and she wanted me to be treated for depression. She said plenty of women fell into a depressed state when they were only weeks away from giving birth.
So too are we when the vision the Father has given us is taking to long. By any means necessary becomes our motto. We start rehearsing in our minds ways to bring it to past because we are tired.
So too are we when the vision the Father has given us is taking to long. By any means necessary becomes our motto. We start rehearsing in our minds ways to bring it to past because we are tired.
We know that physically forcing the child into the birth canal before it opens can kill the child. The same is true in the spirit world. Let God take control of your life. If you try to birth the vision in your own strength it will abort the plan of God. Everything within you may cry out to push and bring the spiritual vision forth with natural abilities. But by self-effort you can destroy the vision. Peter cried out to Christ, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man," (Luke 5:8, NIV) when he realized what Christ was calling him to do. He knew the vision was too great for him to fulfill by his natural strength and abilities.
The Time of Transition
In the natural birth process there is a time during labor known as the time of "transition.” It is the most difficult time of travail right before the birth canal is open to permit the birth of the child. Also when God births in you a spiritual vision you will experience a time of transition. All transition means is change. The vision God gives you is going to require change in your life.
It will call for new commitment and dedication. It will call for strength and fortitude. During this time you must remember where your help comes from. We know that it comes from the Lord.
Why should you remember this? Because you will experience pressure in every area of your life. The heat will be turned up 7 times hotter. Everything within you may cry out for relief from the spiritual birth pangs of what God is bringing forth. This is the point where many fail to receive the vision. Over and over again God has brought His people to the time of transition to birth His vision within them. But because this transition was too difficult many have turned back.
They just couldn’t take the pressure. The heat was on! It required changes in their thought patterns and lifestyle, which they were not willing to make. They could not abandon self-effort and the traditional way of doing things. They could not set aside their own ambitions and desires to embrace the plan of God. This is the same thing that happened to the nation of Israel in my opening text.
It will call for new commitment and dedication. It will call for strength and fortitude. During this time you must remember where your help comes from. We know that it comes from the Lord.
Why should you remember this? Because you will experience pressure in every area of your life. The heat will be turned up 7 times hotter. Everything within you may cry out for relief from the spiritual birth pangs of what God is bringing forth. This is the point where many fail to receive the vision. Over and over again God has brought His people to the time of transition to birth His vision within them. But because this transition was too difficult many have turned back.
They just couldn’t take the pressure. The heat was on! It required changes in their thought patterns and lifestyle, which they were not willing to make. They could not abandon self-effort and the traditional way of doing things. They could not set aside their own ambitions and desires to embrace the plan of God. This is the same thing that happened to the nation of Israel in my opening text.
We are told in Isaiah 53:11 that God witnessed the travail of Jesus Christ and was satisfied. A vision was fulfilled that day on Calvary ... a vision that had been promised since the fall of man into sin (Genesis 3:15). Through travail, the vision of redemption from sin became a reality.Travail is a painful experience, but it is only through travail that the vision can be birthed: “... yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children. Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery? Says the Lord. Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery? Says your God?” (Isaiah 66:8-9, NIV).
The Birth
The end of the travail is birth. We must guard against going into labor prematurely as well as a delayed birth. Both of which can result in death, Both in the natural birth process and in the birth of spiritual vision.
After birth in the natural world the child continues to grow and develop. After the birth of your spiritual vision it will continue to grow and develop. It will have new features and form, but they all must develop from that basic cell of spiritual life which is called the vision.
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2007 Candace House, All Rights reserved. Email candace@ruachchayah.org for permission to use.
2007 Candace House, All Rights reserved. Email candace@ruachchayah.org for permission to use.
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