Without a Vision People Perish

Judges 7: 9-15
That night the Lord said, “Get up! Go down into the Midianite camp, for I have given you victory over them! But if you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah. Listen to what the Midianites are saying, and you will be greatly encouraged. Then you will be eager to attack.”
So Gideon took Purah and went down to the edge of the enemy camp. The armies of Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east had settled in the valley like a swarm of locusts. Their camels were like grains of sand on the seashore—too many to count! Gideon crept up just as a man was telling his companion about a dream. The man said, “I had this dream, and in my dream a loaf of barley bread came tumbling down into the Midianite camp. It hit a tent, turned it over, and knocked it flat!” His companion answered, “Your dream can mean only one thing—God has given Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite, victory over Midian and all its allies!” When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship before the Lord. Then he returned to the Israelite camp and shouted, “Get up! For the Lord has given you victory over the Midianite hordes!”

The promise of God is what we want. When God gives you a promise, like Gideon, He told him “I have given you the victory”. But Gideon did not have enough with God’s promise. So God said ok, the promise is not enough for you. Doesn’t that happen to us sometimes? That God tells us something but we don’t really believe it until we have some proof that it is really going to happen? This is what happen to Gideon. God said in case that you don’t believe be, go down to the Midianite camp.
The promises of God are not self-fulfilling for you. Just because you have promises, doesn’t mean that you will enter in the fulfillment. There must be something that has to happen in your faith. God will give you a promise and he will show you his intentions and he will ask you now what you plan to do?
We need more than a promise. We need a picture. God showed Gideon a picture through the nightmare of the enemy. It wasn’t until Gideon heard the enemy saying the interpretation of this dream. It wasn’t until after he got the picture that he started worshiping. When he saw the picture he realized that God was indeed going to deliver him. That God was going to do what he promised him he would do.

We Must See It
You will never fully process the promise of God until you see it.
God gives the promise, but until it doesn’t provoke a picture in your mind you don’t respond. Gideon responded to the picture. He started worshipping and got everyone ready for battle. He understood it and saw it inwardly. You’re closer to your miracle than you realize. If you can see it, God can do it. But you have to see a picture. If you can see yourself free, healthy, successful. How do you do that? You get promises in God’s word. He begins to renew your mind and you will be filled with promises and he turns it into a picture of who you are. Do you know who you are? Do you have a picture of the cross embedded in your mind? Do you have a picture of what God has done for you and said about you in your mind? Picture it, because until you do, you will not know who you are and who you belong to.

Without a vision people perish. (Proverbs 29:18),
That’s why young people you have to have vision. Distractions of the world can’t take your away from your vision. From your calling, from your identity. When you lose vision, you can no longer see who you really are. You can no longer see where you’re going. But when you have a picture, you see all the things of the world as a distraction.

Pictures are developed in dark rooms.
When you get into the dark areas in your life, that’s when you realize who you really are. God gives you more than a promise; he gives you a picture. You’ve got to get a picture. Do you see yourself blessed? Do you see yourself overcoming? Do you see yourself anointed? Your mind is important!
That’s why Praise is so important, it is a reaction of the picture inside of you. If what’s inside of you is expectant and you know that God has a plan for the rest of your life, YOU WILL WORSHIP. If you believe and you see God’s promise in your life, you will worship.
You have to take hold to God’s promises in your life and turn them into a picture. Everywhere you go, see it and praise Him for it.

We Must Say it
Your life will always move on the direction of what you’re seeing.
God is for you. You have got to get a picture of that. Don’t let bitterness set a place in your heart. Don’t see things for what they really are, see things for what the vision that God has put in your heart is. God promised you something and He will fulfill it. The people of Israel when they were about to go into the promise land they were supposed to get a picture of what they were about to get. When they came back they brought a visual of what was in there. They brought grapes the size of watermelons. How glorious it is to see provision. To see God’s promises being fulfilled and to see the fruit of what we’re about to get. But this is not what the people saw. They saw the worst that could have happened and they didn’t picture God’s promises for them. Instead the picture that they believed was that of the big giants. They should have come back seeing the grapes and how much bigger God was than those giants.
Abraham’s Picture (Genesis 22:17)
God gave Abraham a picture of his seed. For Him it was the sand & stars. He took him to a place of pictures. He gave him something that He could see. Because you won’t believe the promise until you see it.

The problem is that sometimes we walk around without a picture.
We have this Word that we have the promises of God for us, but they have to become a picture in our lives. We have to see it. Jesus gave Peter a picture of overflow in his life. He gave him a picture of a net full of fish. He told him that he would be a fisher of men. He didn’t draw him a picture of an empty net. He drew him a picture of an overflowing of fish. God is giving us a promise: He loves us with everlasting love. He will never leave us. Greater is He that is in you. I am for you. I won’t leave you. Don’t we get it?

Albert Einstein said “Imagination is much greater than knowledge.”
Why? Because your imagination can take you further than the facts. That’s what happened to the woman that had the issue of blood. She had facts that said there was nothing else science could do to heal her. 12 years of facts. 12 years of a problem that she couldn’t get rid of. And that for the doctors, it was impossible for her to get ride of. But then she had a picture “If I could only touch the border of his robe I will be healed”. She saw herself touching the fabric. She saw herself healed. She imagined it. She pictured it. She embraced that picture and went for it. SHE SAID “IF JUST A TOUCH!” Her faith released that healing from Jesus. And you know what? She got it!

Just like that, God can provide a miracle for your life. He can give you the victory.
God has a way in proving that he is greater, stronger and bigger than any enemy or problem we may have through His victory. But before we have a victory we must have a battle. You can’t have a victory without a battle. When time gets hard, you cannot give up. The battle gets hard, but you cannot give in. This woman with the issue of the blood I am sure went through a rough battle that she perhaps thought of quitting. She did everything possible to get to that robe. When it looks like the enemy is going to win, all you have to do is stand still. Get encouraged! All things work for the good of those who love God, who walk according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

There is power in prayer.
There is power in taking your frustrations, fear, discouragement and turning it into prayer. Cry unto God when there is healing to be done. When saving needs to be done. When deliverance needs to come. God draws a picture in the prayer room. God encourages us in the intimacy with him. God starts to bring forth change and you will never want to go back to your old life. You can overcome temptations and the worry/depression/discouragement with speaking life into your life. There’s power in what you see and there’s power in what you say. God has made a promise, but the battle will rise before our victory. But God wants you to continue seeing the promise over your life. God wants you to continue worshiping God and keeping your mind full of God’s promises.
This is what God wants from us. He wants us to get a picture. Sometimes you’re not full of the promises of God and you get bored. But when you get a picture of your future, you see it, and like the woman with the issue of blood, you will get it.

That’s why you must see it, you have won!
When you get a picture your emotions go crazy. It makes your body explode. When you win something big or when you find out some really good news your emotions go crazy. When you draw a picture in your head of something big you explode.
We have won a ticket to the New Jerusalem. We have been redeemed. Bought at a high price. Draw that picture in your head. Your body should explode of emotion of what’s coming. No more pain. No more sorrow. Get the picture? Get excited! Be encouraged! When it gets hard pray your hardest but don’t lose the picture that God already showed you. Don’t lose vision, for if you lose vision, you will perish. Get focused on that promise and don’t see the giants, see the grapes.