Tuesday, June 9, 2009

VISION

"Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil".

- James Allen

"We lift ourselves by our thought. We climb upon our vision of ourselves. If you want to enlarge your life, you must first enlarge your thought of it and of yourself. Hold the ideal of yourself as you long to be, always everywhere -- your ideal of what you long attain -- the ideal of health, efficiency, success".

- Orison Swett Marden


"Vision: the art of seeing things invisible". - Jonathan Swift

Where there is no vision, the people perish.
(Proverbs 29:18 - KJV)

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Bishop. Sorry you can't sleep .And onthe other hand gald you are here. Vision it's funny how sometimes a single word can sat it all. I've felt disconnected lately and I've miss more church in the last couple of months than ihave in the last five years. After reading that post I realized I had lost track of my life plan or VISION Some work at hand but thanks for the jump start. Keith

Unknown said...

Pondering the chasm in the space between the dream, the large vision, and the "just as I am" current manifestation...I for one am grateful for those who have been able to, like God, love me anyway and yet meet me at that juncture of failure and success to say, "Keep on keepin' on"...we're in this together.
The Tree of Life..."they will know us by our Love."

Lisa said...

Thanks Bishop I needed that! My last class I took yesterday was finding your element and your tribe so that you stay living in your passion and grow in the prophetic. I was feeling a little lost there because my element seems mundane and 1950's. I need to look at my element differently and grow the vision! Now to really figure out my tribe!
Be Blessed Today!

Brenda said...

I was thinking about a vision I had,seem like so many years ago. It was so real that I had to write it down because it seem so impossible to believe. Over the years the manifestation of that vision has seem so close but it has not come to be. I at times want to give up on it but as I hold it up to the verse in Habakkuk which says "Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but in the end it will speak and it will not lie. Though it tarries wait for it, because it will surely come,my faith becomes renewed to keep on progressing toward the vision. There are times I feel I am not going toward that vision at all but going backward but I do know that each setback is just a set up for God to bring the vision to past against all odd or "In Spite Of" all odds.
Now reading the Blog this morning I'm more determined to hold to the vision and see the invisible that will come to be the visible that all may see. And those that said it would not be and tried to stop it will look in wonderment at how Great Is MY GOD.

SCRIBE said...

Bless the Lord, Oh my Soul and all that is within me. "Write the Vision and make it plain on tablets..." this has been my life's mission, call, and assignment for years now--- not because I say so or simply thought it to be a good idea, but because like the Apostle Paul, I WAS APPREHENDED! (Ha ha) It helps to laugh about it, especially when there is no escaping it.

I perceive the more that we praise, worship, and Thank God, drawing closer to Him in true relationship, OUR VISION becomes so much broader. And then to find that the vision that we may have originally had for our lives seems minuscule in comparison to the God-Ordained, Holy Spirit Breathed Visions that are so large that they shall live on and thrive long after we have passed away into the next dimension / eternity.

While at the Atlanta Jewish Community Center last week, shortly after walking into the main building, then taking a seat to wait for someone, I heard the voice of God say- LOOK UP. And as I looked up towards the ceiling, there was a mural hanging / suspended from the roof that said "You are not obligated to Complete the work, but neither are you free to Abandon It! " Wow, what a revelation and kick in the pants that was, for at that time, I had been feeling worn out and exhausted in my work / assignments of God, feeling as if- why bother, it doesn't seem like things are happening the way they are supposed to and what difference would it make if I just left this thing alone. Meanwhile, GOD hears and knows all things. This was somewhat a reminder to me that as long as I continue to do what I'm assigned to do, then GOD will COMPLETE the Work because He is Obligated to His Word, yet I don't have an option to abandon it. Needless to say, I don't want to be like Jonah and get swallowed up by a Big Fish! (ha ha) God said to me- What makes you think that you can cast aside all that I have said, spoken, and worked out through you just because you happen to be tired and don't see things coming together like you thought they should be. For, this is NOT your show, it is mine, I'm am the Puppet Master and you shall dance and move at the pulling of my strings, you are NOT your own and neither is that which I have hand selected you to work at as I work through you. He says- My Work, My Vision, MY WAY ! Just know that I do not and will not drop the ball on THESE THINGS, yet you are required to stay in the Game. If you need a time out, then find the nearest corner and get on your knees and seek my presence and I shall rejuvenate in you that which is depleted, bringing forth a fresh energy to pick up where we left off without missing a beat! I am the Lord and I will not accept your NO as an answer when it comes to "these things", for it is NOT about you anyway, I'm simply working THROUGH YOU for a greater purpose to reach those that you may never see, may never know, for MY WORD is a Consuming Fire and that which I am doing through you will span the distances and bridge the gaps, going into the places that you may never set foot in. For this is what is meant when I have said that I send MY WORD OUT BEFORE YOU to make all the crooked places straight while setting the captives Free. And they whom the Son has set free are FREE INDEED! Write the Vision and Make it Plain for My WORD shall not return void, but shall establish EVERYTHING that I sent it forth to accomplish.

SCRIBE said...

When the Vision / Work that God has given is bigger than us and has a Life all its own, then we must know for certain that it is GOD's Work and Vision for Our life, whereas if we would be able to do it entirely on our own, then it would be a work of the flesh! Let everything that have breath Praise Ye' the Lord- for I am GOD in the Highest. Let there be Praise and Thanksgiving lifted up today from My People- for My Spirit is Alive and Well, Thriving and Perfecting Every Excellent Work. Do not judge the work by what it looks like now, says God, for when the pieces come together and are Divinely aligned / arranged- all will know and then rejoice, declaring SURELY, "THE LORD IS IN THIS PLACE, and was HERE ALL THE TIME! Selah...Amen.

Bishop Jim Swilley said...

Hey Keith...glad the fruit of my insomnia proved to be a blessing...

We're all working out our own salvation...

Stay strong...

Bishop Jim Swilley said...

Wow...you really waxed profoundly poetic on that one, Avatar...

Bishop Jim Swilley said...

Interesting concept, Lisa...staying in the now doesn't happen by accident...it requires some real effort...

Bishop Jim Swilley said...

You go, Brenda...

Bishop Jim Swilley said...

Thanks, Scribe...you really are a scribe (the good kind)...peace...

karl cobos said...

Holy Spirit also confirmed to me about VISION this morning...as I was getting ready to read the AYITN for the day(which if you haven't read it guys, is about vision and writing it down-Habakkuk 2:2,3)

...I was stuffing back some pages falling out and the first one on top was also HABAKKUK 2:1-3, THE SAME PASSAGE, from AYITN August 27, about running with the VISION. Go read that one, too.
Definite confirmation and rhema for me today!

That is what is in my spirit this morning and now...RUN WITH THE VISION!
RUN AGGRESSIVELY
RUN CONSISTENTLY
RUN COURAGEOUSLY
RUN FAITHFULLY
RUN WELL
...it will surely come.

Unknown said...

Thanks, Bishop. Sometimes I can get what's in my heart's vision out...sometimes not.

too funny. wordver is "extri"..."extricate"

Very cool, eyeball picture...couldn't see the quote on my small screen, but NOW..."to the limits of the impossible"...also very cool.

karl cobos said...

...a reminder...

Have I not set you on a drive called Iris Drive.
The brighter the light, the brighter the colors...Let there be light!

Northern Light said...

Iris.....seeing............vision
Iris Dr.......CITN........vision

Cool, Karl ~

Peace,
NL

tracy said...

Vision = Sight, a) the physical sense by which light stimuli received by the LIGHT are received by the brain and constructed into a representation of the position, shape, brightness and usually color of objects in space b)mental or spiritual perception c) mental view---Sight=vision cannot exist without LIGHT. As John Mayer sings in "Gravity" KEEP ME WHERE THE LIGHT IS".

tracy said...

On that whole "iris" thing- did ya'll know the function of the iris is actually to control the amount of light the eye receives? Heard that somewhere , if it is correct how cool is that? I will ask my eye Dr. in a couple of weeks when I bless his business with a few hundred bucks in trade for him blessing me with 20/20.

River said...

Vision

Seeing what others can’t see
Living a dream that others can't believe
Going to places that are in our mind
Releasing the thoughts that are trapped inside
Pictures talk louder than words
Life at times is absurd
The picture is cloudy
Focus
The vision is in your view
Clear thoughts
Everything is New
The Vision Is Up To You

By Laura Benson
6-9-2009

Skincleanzr said...

Vision..
Eye Candy...
Sweet Dreams!

Anonymous said...

Vision is an ongoing process of getting the big picture by allowing time for the eye to communicate what it is focusing on to the mind until the various parts of the big picture begin to be realized.

Two examples of this are; (1) lying on my back in an area free from city lights and atmospheric vapors and starring at the wispy cloud of stars in the sky until the individual lights begin to show themselves within the cloud. (2) standing on the south rim of the grand canyon looking at the whole display of terraces that at first sight appear to be part of the same thing until the eye finds a thread of blue somewhere in the middle of the vision that once the mind realizes is the colorado river begins the process of understanding the dimensions that are being viewed. In both cases there is way more information than can be processed in a single viewing and furthermore for those that have written books on those subjects seems to be more than they could process in their lifetimes. It is like that with all things related to life and probably the same with the Tree of Life. There is so much to be grateful for and in the moment one feels the great awe of Father's Love revealed in Life and there is one more detail of Love that casts out some part of fear, there is yet another part to the big picture about to be revealed for the eye to focus on. For me that is what Reign was talking about with the simple statement, "eye candy"

Thanks for your artful gift of inspiration Bish and blessings to all

Son of Zadok said...

Going to go watch how the Reds game ends, but just wanted to say what a homerun you hit tonight.

I wish the whole world could understand tonight's message along with each other. They will.

You did so good tonight. Thank You.

More to say later on the message.