Positive Visioning

“Positive Visioning” not just “Positive Thinking”

Positive Thinking changes your mind but Positive Visioning changes your world A dream is an expression of the desire for something other than what exists; often the desire for a better future and life. A vision is a description of how a person will go about achieving that dream. It includes a purposeful plan to bring into reality that which began as a dream. Therefore, it is our understanding of what God will do through us. However, in what He does through the life of a person God also has a vision of what He wants to do in a life. The simplest and clearest statement of the divine will in us is found in Ro. 8:29 “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”“…all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” God’s vision for every person is to be transformed into the likeness of His Son Jesus. In all that God does through us that is His purpose in us.

God is at work in every circumstance. Consequently, what those circumstances are is not as important as our attitude toward those circumstances. As it is declared in vs.28   In Scripture Hebrew’s chp.11 is a passage that demonstrates the idea of vision. The opening statement of the chapter declares that “…faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is the substance of vision, the evidence the dream will come to pass. Then in v.2 the author states that by this method “the elders” have a record or history that demonstrates the working of this principle. This phrase “the elders” refers to those who had gone before and whose stories are recorded in the Old Testament since the remainder of the chapter from v.4 is a list of the exploits and achievements of these people.

In Heb. 11:3 the writer declares that; “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” The phrase translated “the worlds” generally refers to and is translated as the ages and era’s of humanity rather than the idea of the physical inhabited world. The author of Hebrew’s uses the word kosmos, the usual word translated world, when speaking of the world as a physical entity. Therefore, the writer of Hebrew’s by using this phrase ‘the ages’ directs attention more to the era’s in which we live; our circumstances and history. However, in v.4 the first of these “elders” mentioned is Abel and in the Genesis account the event preceding the story of Abel is the story of the creation of the world. Therefore, the writer of Hebrew’s is drawing a direct parallel to the creation but his reference is to the “eras” that follow the creation. Hence the writer is informing the reader that from the beginning the future of humanity was created by the “word of God” and unfolded from that point; so that “…the things which are seen (the eras in which we live) were not made of things which are visible (our own efforts or circumstances).”

In the account of the creation in Genesis chp.1 the formula for the act of creating is, God spoke His word and the substance or “stuff” of the physical world came into order around that word. That is to say God spoke and it came to pass as He had said, and continues to do so to the present day. Therefore, the way to re-order reality so that there is real change from the present state is to speak the word of God into the situation and watch circumstances re-order themselves around that spoken word. This is also the thrust of 2 Cor. 13-18. The Spirit of faith operates on the principle that what is believed is declared; hence faith gives substance to things hoped for. The apostle Paul states that circumstances will work for us and therefore we will not become discouraged “…while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seem. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Cor. 4:18. Positive visioning is to look into the realm of God and see things His way then declare His word and watch circumstances re-order themselves around that word. If we keep our eyes on the positive vision and not the negative circumstances we will live above circumstances in the realm of faith from where circumstances are changed. Hence, the apostle Paul will go onto to declare in following up this great concept; “…we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Cor. 5:7.