God Vision- Handle with Care

When Ceaser and I had been married only two years, we began to feel a burden to trust God for a home of our own. The conversation about one-day buying land and building our own home was one we had had before we were married. On one such occasion, the conversation got heated enough for me to passionately blurt out, “I can’t marry someone who isn’t on the same page with me on this.” Yep, I said that, and I meant it too. We had taken one of our usual lunchtime walks and were returning to the office building where we both worked. After staring at each other silently for what felt longer than a few seconds, we parted ways back to our desks for the rest of the work day. Those days, after work, Ceaser would drive me to the nearby mall where my mother worked. Most days we would continue chatting in his car for the additional hour before my mother got off work, and then off to Chilanga it would be. That day we parted ways immediately as I opted to wait with my mother instead. You see when I returned to my desk, after lunch, I shared with the Holy Spirit how I felt and I remember feeling Him say, “Give it to me. Don’t bring it up again for a while, just give it to me.” I knew if I stayed in the car with Ceaser that afternoon I would not be able to hold my tongue, so I politely said goodbye instead.

I’ll save you the details of how God helped us get on the same page about this, but He did. It was a sign to me that the vision God had given me for my future family was legitimate and He would help me protect it. I married young, younger than I would have planned for myself, yet I am thankful that I had a few specific things God had shown me about my future that were non-negotiables. As I navigated finding myself and my voice, this vision became my foundation. That day, standing outside our workplace I was taking a stand on that foundation. Even though I had fallen deeply in love with Ceaser, I knew that we could not walk together if his life’s vision didn’t align with mine. Thank God that by the time Ceaser got down on one knee, many more conversations had already indicated to us both that we were headed in the same direction. We have both grown a lot since then and continue to have courageous conversations about the vision for our family and the legacy we want to leave long after we’re gone.

Despite beginning to dream before our wedding, and feeling more strongly about this particular desire for our lives after two years in marriage, we only managed to purchase our first plot of land at the beginning of 2016, four-and-a-half years in marriage. Believe it or not, after our initial visit to this land, we didn’t step foot there for almost two years. Despite having the land, the vision to build seemed beyond us, too big, like it would never happen. I write this sitting in our home office, based on a blueprint we found and saved a few months before we were engaged. I will tell you more about how we got here next week. Oh, what the Lord can do when we handle His vision with care.

For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it lingers, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.

~ Habakkuk 2:3 (NIV)

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. ~ Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT)

Vision is a revelation from God, a glimpse into the wonderous plans God has for us. Many of us have this revelation concerning different areas of our lives, but we don’t esteem them as visions. Let me give you an example. When I was in high school I knew in the depth of my heart that I didn’t want to be with a man who drinks alcohol. This is not something any adult had taken the time to advise me on. I had seen, in my own home, the peace of an alcohol-free environment first by my mother and then later also by my stepfather. This was a vision God had given me. I was too young to understand it as such back then and so I foolishly dated young men who participated in the lifestyle I knew I didn’t want for myself. These competing interests bred conflict in those juvenile relationships until I was wise enough to take a stand. When you look back on your own life, can you relate?

Jeremiah 29:11 is a beautiful scripture to quote, but often what we don’t realise is that there are some corresponding actions we need to take for that verse to become a reality in our lives. Many times we miss out on what God has for us because we don’t esteem His revelations to us as a vision for our future. When we do this, there is great potential for us to casually make decisions that directly contradict this vision. I can certainly say that over the years there have been times I have been that careless, and by nothing other than the mercy of God, I have had to regroup and get back on track. During such times, I have found four things to be true, that is; prayer, patience, planning and protection. I didn’t intend for them to all begin with the letter p but there you have it. Allow me to break these down.

Pray often

I’ll be honest, until 2018, I used to take prayer too casually for my own good. I prayed quite all right, but I didn’t practice a daily dedicated time to worship and pray. I am thankful that despite this, God met me where I was and taught me better. While I grew up learning that my spiritual growth was dependent on me reading my Bible and praying every day, I never really had an example of fervent prayer in my life. My mother prayed, and still does, don’t get me wrong, but it was never structured or in my presence. As an adult, I easily recognise her silent whispers as prayer, but as a child, I was too young to pay much attention. Now a mother myself, I realise how important it is that I am deliberate about modelling prayer every day and about everything. it is a big responsibility and a necessary one at that. I say all this to say that if we don’t build the muscle of praying over seemingly small things, when the vision comes we will not have the discipline to pray over that either. And boy, do we need to pray! As ones who have a future and a hope set aside for us, we must pray all the more. I encourage you to start small, just like I did. Set aside ten minutes every day, first thing in the morning, during your lunch break or before bed at night. Whatever you decide, make sure you stay consistent at it. When we have an appointed time each day that we make room for God, He honours that. As you grow stronger in this area, allow yourself to extend the time. Listen, it is not about spending hours and hours on end in prayer. Yes, there is a time and space for that and I pray that you experience such moments with the Lord as He leads you, but recognise also that God sees where you are. As a mother of middles, I can’t have uninterrupted time to pray first thing in the morning because my children wake up very early. So I had to adjust, and I now have my prayer time after they have left for school, even if it means it’s in the car before I walk into the office.  The main thing is that it stays consistent and sincere. Not a religious practice we do to avoid punishment but a date we keep with our Lord because we enjoy spending time with Him and hearing what is on His heart. To handle His vision for you with care, we must pray often, about all things and specifically about whatever revelation He has given.

Have patience

I am not the most patent person, especially when it comes to waiting on God. Let’s just say He is still doing a work in me. Somehow, I find it easier to wait in line, where I can see the reason for my delay and the movement happening, however slow, one person at a time. When it comes to waiting on the vision from God to mature in my life, I struggle. Most times as I find myself crying in God’s presence about why a certain something hasn’t happened yet or hasn’t happened how I planned, I am reminded by God that patience is one of His fruits and I must learn to walk with Him if that fruit is to yield in my life. “Patience is a fruit of my Spirit,” I often hear from within me. I have found myself saying this to my children when they are impatient, which is all the time. As long as you are walking in step with God’s Spirit, being obedient to His promptings and listening for His guidance, His revelation will come to pass in our lives at the appointed time. It is a matter of time and of trust in the One who promised. This isn’t always fun, and there can even be frustration in the waiting, but when we look back, it always makes perfect sense.

Have a plan

Being patient doesn’t mean idly sitting by waiting for the vision to materialise in your lap. You’ll remember at the beginning of this I hinted about a blueprint plan that Ceaser and I had for our house before we even got married. That was a long wait! But we were planning in the meantime. Planning for the vision God has given you helps produce an emotional connection to what God is doing. From that emotional connection, more trust in God is built. We had floor plans before we had the land, but this plan allowed us to trust God for the ideal place to break ground for what we needed. The plan helped us envision the parameters God was giving us as we continued to trust Him. Your vision may be vastly different from ours, but whatever it is, I encourage you to begin to plan for it. At the very least write down whatever details you feel God has revealed to you and as He shows you more, write more. Be very careful here not to plan God out of the equation. Plan with God. Submit whatever you are planning to Him, get His opinion and make tweaks along the way.

I’ll share something very practical here. It was very telling when our floor plan idea was finally given to an architect to properly layout according to Zambian standards. Seeing the blueprints to our specifications allowed us to notice certain things we needed to change. One of those things was a very large balcony space that occupied the top floor of our building. Seeing how big the space would be allowed us to decide to make a few changes to the plan. Those changes translated into space for a home office and a playroom. Only the Holy Spirit could have guided us along those lines because we didn’t know what awaited us in 2020. We had no idea we would be working from home and the children would need a designated place to go wild with their toys so that we could all function with some level of sanity. Fast forward a little bit, we didn’t know there would be a Famous Warrior and we would need a space to record videos. God knew, but He could not have guided us if we didn’t have the plan to serve as a point of reference.

Protect the vision

When I was sixteen years old, one of our youth leaders preached a sermon one Saturday afternoon that God refers back to even now, all these years later. It was a sermon about Nehemiah and the principles he used as he obeyed God’s instruction to rebuild the city walls of Jerusalem. One of the principles he used was that he protected the vision by watching whom he shared the details with. When we embarked on our construction journey the Holy Spirit compelled us to do the same. He made it very clear who we were to tell and when. Anyone not mentioned remained blissfully unaware. As we approached the time for us to move, which was a huge leap of faith, His instructions began to make sense. We slipped and excitedly told a friend who was not on the list of people to tell. At this point, we figured it didn’t matter because we were days away from moving and that particular friend would find out soon enough anyways. Their comments spoke death over our plans to move in faith as God had instructed. They didn’t intentionally do this, and I doubt they even know what they did, they simply shared thoughts based on their personal experience, their vantage point and their level of faith. As we concluded the conversation, Ceaser and I looked at each other knowingly and fully recognising our error, we repented and asked God to renew our strength. He mercifully did. It was a learning curve for sure. Sometimes even well-meaning people, people we know to love us dearly, can speak against God’s vision for our lives. Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean we should not seek out the wisdom of others, because in this case we certainly did. However, we had to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us as He limited whom we went to for wisdom and when. This was true for Nehemiah and it may certainly be true even for you.

The devil knows that you are unstoppable when God gives you a vision and His favour to accomplish it. For this reason, he will try to distract, deter or discourage you from seeing that vision come to pass. Don’t allow that to happen. Esteem whatever revelation God gives you, no matter how small you think it may be. Get into the habit of writing down what He shows or tells you. As you do, pray over it as often as He reminds you about it. Begin to make small plans concerning the vision and be open to adjusting along the way. I pray God gives you a deep sense of responsibility to bring to pass those visions and with a protective instinct just as He gave Nehemiah.