Valley of Vision

Life is filled with unknowns.  It has times when things are crystal clear, and the path the Lord has for us seems to be lit up as bright as a neon sign.  Yet more than not, our faith's journey is filled with trials, distresses, hardships, sleeplessness, and many other things we may not understand (2 Cor. 6).  Actually, I believe this is how the Lord Jesus intended faith to be.  If all of our relationships were perfectly unified how would His proven character ever be worked out in us? (Rom 5:4) If we saw everyone as "easy to love"  how would we be set apart from the love of this world? (Matt 5:46) If we prayed and got everything we asked for regardless of our heart motive, how would we ever know or be in the will of our Father? (Mark 11:22-26)

The Lord has been working many things out in me, the past two months since we have last met on this blog.  Which can be quite simply stated this way...I am not here for my dreams to be fulfilled, my desires to be met, to be loved by all,  or to have all my prayers answered exactly how I wanted.  I am here for His PURPOSE, I am here to BEAR FRUIT for His glory, I am here to ABIDE and have relationship with Him, I am here to LOVE others not how they want to be loved but how He called me to love, and I am here to ENDURE till the end...when He shall choose to return or call me home.  I don't always fancy the way He wants to use me, the people He wants me to love, the rejection He wants me to embrace and yet I have confidence of this...IF I allow Him full access to my life...He will finish the work He has started. (Phil 1:6)

Don't lose heart when times of weariness come...press on...it's in the Valley of Vision that we discover Jesus the Lover of our soul!  In conclusion, please read these powerful words of two men who were inspired by the Lord to encourage their fellow saints.  Oswald Chambers and Dr. Charles Solomon (my Dad's spiritual father).

OSWALD CHAMBERS ("Utmost for His Highest"-July 6)
 
We always have visions, before a thing is made real. When we realize that although the vision is real, it is not real in us, then is the time that Satan comes in with his temptations, and we are apt to say it is no use to go on. Instead of the vision becoming real, there has come the valley of humiliation.

"Life is not as idle ore,
But iron dug from central gloom,
And batter'd by the shocks of doom
To shape and use." God gives us the vision, then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of the vision, and it is in the valley that so many of us faint and give way. Every vision will be made real if we will have patience. Think of the enormous leisure of God! He is never in a hurry. We are always in such a frantic hurry. In the light of the glory of the vision we go forth to do things, but the vision is not real in us yet; and God has to take us into the valley, and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the place where He can trust us with the veritable reality. Ever since we had the vision God has been at work, getting us into the shape of the ideal, and over and over again we escape from His hand and try to batter ourselves into our own shape.
The vision is not a castle in the air, but a vision of what God wants you to be. Let Him put you on His wheel and whirl you as He likes, and as sure as God is God and you are you, you will turn out exactly in accordance with the vision. Don't lose heart in the process. If you have ever had the vision of God, you may try as you like to be satisfied on a lower level, but God will never let you.

THE VISION LIVES by Dr. Charles Solomon
(The Valley of Decision)

The vision of the mountain top
From realms where angels sing,
Is filled with grandeur so inspiring
‘Twould make the heavens ring.
Though the pinnacle makes for vision,
It provides no dwelling place;
But its memory drives us onward
When the clouds obscure His face.

We all enjoy the mountain tops
And the blessings that they bring--
The thrill of new experiences
As we His glad praises sing.
These are times of preparation
For the valley will surely come;
The valleys, too, are needful
As we wend our journey home.

‘Tis in the valley of decision
Where visions live or die;
What we are is what we do
When faced with the impossible, “Why?”
The enemy’s taunts and temptings
Would separate friend from friend,
And seek to blur the vision
If not bring an untimely end.

Visions which are born of God
Are backed by His promise true;
Come cloud, come rain, come certain pain,
”What I started, that will I do”. (Philippians 1:6)
‘Tis such a comfort that sustains
When the flesh would thwart His plan--
To know that all things work together
For good, when God is shaping a man. (Romans 8:28)

For men God calls, and men God uses
To reach out to those in need--
To take the message of redemption
And do it with all due speed.
“Multitudes, multitudes in the valley” (Joel 3:14)
Where they seek the Savior’s touch;
Will their valley of decision
Affect us little or stir us much?

Yet, Jesus is Lord of the valley,
And through the valley we must go;
He brings victory out of the valley;
Of a certainty, this we know!
One of David’s was his baby
For whom he mourned and wept; (2 Samuel 12:16,17)
But when the baby had departed, (2 Samuel 12:20-23)
He no longer his vigil kept.

Out of the valley and to the heights
We are summoned by our Lord;
No longer to be looking back,
But to move ahead at His Word.
The valley has served its purpose
To unite our hearts as one--
The vision’s not dead; it liveth!
Come, come, let us go on!

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision:

for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.(Joel 3:14)