A RENEWAL OF OUR VISION

Let me quickly give you the four questions again without additional comment just to refresh your memory.

1.) Am I eager to serve YHVH?
2.) Am I enjoying time with YHVH?
3.) Am I growing in relationship with YHVH?
4.) Am I a Godly example for others?

If you answer any or all of these questions, “No” you are in need of renewal. I need to talk about the need to renew our vision for Moshiach and His purpose. Most of you will remember when you first became a believer that you were fired up with a vision to reach people for Moshiach and to see His Kingdom grow. You probably spent considerable time in prayer asking YHVH to use you for His Kingdom and to make you a strong witness to others. You saw yourself as a champion for Moshiach, proclaiming victory in His Name and defeating the enemy with the sword of the Spirit. When you heard sermons or read letters about evangelism and outreach, you got fired up and clearly understood and accepted the fact that YHVH could use you in a mighty way but somehow, over the years or months, since your conversion to Moshiach, somehow that vision has faded and become nothing more than a distant memory. You might still talk about it and you know it is something that should be important to you but if the truth be known, it is the last thing on many your minds these days. Think about this for a minute; in this last week, how much time did you spend pondering the fact that YHVH has a vision for your life and for His followers? If you are like most people, you probably gave it little, if any, thought. I want to try and help change that by letting you in on something. You are an integral part of YHVH’s plan for this world and YHVH wants to give you the ability to fulfil that plan in your life and in your church. YHVH wants us to begin thinking on a much grander scale than we have been thinking and bring to us a personal renewal that focuses on a vision for the future. There are three sentences on your outline that we are going to complete together.

1. YHVH SAYS THAT…:

A.) …I AM COMMISSIONED: When you signed up to be a believer, you were also accepting the challenge of YHVH’s mission for your life. “And Yeshua came and spake unto them, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of Ruach HaKodesh: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:18-20) This commission from Moshiach to make disciples, baptize them and teach them to obey was given to Yeshua’ disciples more than 2,000 years ago and is still given to us today. YHVH is telling us today that we are both individually and corporately accountable for fulfilling the mission He has sent us on. This is for men, women, young people, children, elderly, married, single, widowed, divorced, it is given to everyone and no one is given a pass. The sooner we understand this and take responsibility for it; the sooner we will begin to experience the renewal that YHVH’s wants us to have.

B.) …I AM EMPOWERED: Unlike any government, YHVH does not demand unfunded mandates. Do you know what I mean? Sometimes a government will pass rules, laws or procedures that are passed down to the States, County’s or Provinces, yet there is no funding given. YHVH does not work like that, He never asks us to do anything that He does not also give us the resources necessary to accomplish whatever He asks us to do. “But ye shall receive power, after that Ruach HaKodesh is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) The same power given to the early disciples is available to us today and that power comes from Ruach HaKodesh who indwells every believer. That power was specifically given to accomplish the vision YHVH had given. I can never excuse myself from service by saying that I do not have the resources necessary; YHVH promises me that He will empower me to fulfil the vision.

C. …I AM ENTRUSTED: There is a story that a young man applied for a job as an usher at a theatre. The manager asked him, "What would you do if a fire breaks out?" The young man answered, "Don't worry about me. I would get out easily." That is how we respond sometimes. "What would you do if Yeshua came back tomorrow?" "Oh, don't worry about me. I would be okay." But you are an usher! It is not enough just to get out ourselves; we are responsible for helping others get out! “But as we were allowed of YHVH to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but YHVH, which trieth our hearts.” (1 Thessalonians 2:4) YHVH has entrusted His vision to us as individuals and as a church. There is no other plan in place; YHVH is counting on you and on me to get the job done.

2. I NEED TO…:

A.) …SEE MYSELF AS YHVH SEES ME: I believe that one of the biggest contributors to lack of vision is a misunderstanding of just who we are in YHVH’s eyes. Until I see myself as YHVH sees me, I will not be able to comprehend the vision. In other words, I cannot envision my role in YHVH’s Kingdom until I envision myself as a fully equipped, loved and cared for, child of YHVH. YHVH sees me as a person that can accomplish His will for my life. He does not look at me or you as failures; He looks at us and sees people that can reign victorious in this life. I can remember when I was a kid in school, my mother would go to those parent-teacher meetings and the teacher would always say, “Your son could be a great student if he would just apply himself.” I wonder if YHVH ever looks at us like that. He is looking at us and saying, “I know that he / she has the ability to accomplish great things for My Kingdom, if he / she would just apply the promises that I have made, there would be no limits.” It is clear from the Great Commission that you read earlier that YHVH believes in us. But for some reason we many times do not believe in ourselves. I am not talking about self-confidence, self-esteem or building up a false sense of bravery, I am talking about recognizing that YHVH has instilled within us the supernatural power to accomplish His vision for the Kingdom. And when I am not seeing myself in that Light, I am denying the very promises that YHVH has made to me. We all need to take some positive steps to correct this and the first thing that we can do is continually remind ourselves that we can do what YHVH has asked us to do, not because we are so intelligent, so powerful or such wonderful people, but because YHVH is everything that He claims that He is and if He says I can do it, then I can do it!

B.) …REALIZE THAT I AM ONE PART OF THE WHOLE: “For as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office: so, we being many, are one body in Moshiach, and everyone member’s one of another.” (Romans 12:4-5) When I first went into ministry I did not really understand this passage. I thought that if I personally preached well enough and worked hard enough, that YHVH’s vision would be fulfilled in my life and the life of the ministry. You could say that I thought everything depended completely on me. I have since learned that I am just one piece of a gigantic puzzle. Everything does not rise or fall with me or my abilities, it rises or falls depending upon whether we are each doing our part for the greater good. There are literally millions of believers throughout this world and they are from many different nations, they have many different colours of skin, they speak many different languages and belong to many different denominations. YHVH has put together a mosaic of people who, working together, will fulfil the vision that He has for His church. My and your part in the vision is realizing that we are part of the whole and that our own personal application of YHVH’s vision, combined with that of others on our faith-based social media platforms and millions of others throughout the world will manifest itself in an unstoppable force called the Body of Yeshua Moshiach. What I and you must do, is realize what piece of the puzzle YHVH has called me to be and place myself in the picture of YHVH’s overall will for His church. Paul said, “We are all one Body in Moshiach, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others.” (There is no room for an independent or isolationist spirit)

C. …ENCOURAGE VISION IN OTHERS: I discovered that everything does not rise or fall on me. One of the most important duties that I have as a believer is to encourage the development of vision in other people’s lives. And once that vision is embedded in your very bones, you need to spread it to others around you. If I am encouraging you and you are encouraging others around you and they are encouraging others, we will find ourselves well on the way to renewal. When I did a faith-based social media platform survey a few months back, I was pleased to find out that the vast majority of the truth platforms both understood and agreed with their vision and spreading the Gospel. Many of the platforms are doing a good job of vision casting and encouragement, but I think it is time that we take this thing to the next level. It is encouraging to know that YHVH is leading us to truth faith-based platforms where we can communicate and worship, but what is even more encouraging is knowing that the platforms will be used as a tool where YHVH’s vision for us can be implemented at an even greater level than ever before.

3. WITH MY PARTICIPATION…:

It is one thing to say we believe in YHVH’s vision; it is quite another to participate in the vision that YHVH is giving us. In my years of lecturing and ministry, people that had the most complaints were invariably the people that were the least involved in the work of the ministry. Do you know why that is? Those that sit on the side-lines and do not roll up their sleeves and help to fulfil the vision do not have the ability to focus on what YHVH is doing in our midst. The renewal process involves getting off the side-lines and getting into the game. There are no armchair players allowed on YHVH’s play field. And if I do not participate in YHVH’s plan, I cannot expect to hear a word from YHVH. The coach does not share His plays with those that are not in the game and YHVH does not speak to those that are not willing to help faith-based platforms fulfil His vision. If you are not feeling renewed in your spiritual walk today, perhaps it is because you have been standing on the side-lines for too long. The problem that we sometimes have is that we end up with a few people doing all the work for the many that do not want to get involved. My challenge for those of you that are not participating in spreading the Gospel is to start doing so today; it is not right for you to depend on everyone else to always be ministering for you, you need to do your part and YHVH expects you to do it. If every single person in the church would find his or her area of ministry and do their best at it, we would see renewal take place like we cannot even imagine. With each of us participating, four things will happen.

A.) …THE TRUTHFUL FAITH-BASED PLATFORMS WILL GROW SPIRITUALLY: Part of the great commission that Yeshua gave involves continued spiritual growth. We are not only called to win people to Moshiach, but to disciple and teach them. When you are doing your part and I am doing my part, the result is a group of fully dedicated disciples that are growing in their spiritual walk with Adonai. This stuff becomes contagious when we join together with YHVH’s vision.

B. …THE TRUTHFUL FAITH-BASED PLATFORMS WILL GROW NUMERICALLY: It is YHVH’s vision that all faith-based groups grow numerically. Over and over again throughout the book of Acts YHVH records for us the numerical growth of the church. I always find it kind of ironic when people say they prefer small faith-based platforms, because they cannot find any platform like that in the Bible! The faith-based platforms that are in tune with YHVH is growing, in fact if a faith-based platform is not experiencing numerical growth there has to be something wrong. With each one of us participating, this will happen.

C. …THE TRUTHFUL FAITH-BASED PLATFORMS WILL GROW FINANCIALLY: It is impossible to experience spiritual renewal if we are not giving financially to YHVH’s work to cover the high costs of the internet. As each person contributes as YHVH has instructed, the platforms will be blessed as a whole and each individual will also be blessed. This is YHVH’s plan and a part of His vision for the church and when YHVH is behind it we know that is going to work.

D. …THE TRUTHFUL FAITH-BASED PLATFORMS WILL GROW GEOGRAPHICALLY: Part of social media platforms plans are to expand internationally; they want to spread out as far and wide as they can as they implement YHVH’s vision. Perhaps you will be a person that they will ask to help with their new faith-based platforms as a core group and help us to fulfil YHVH’s vision. Yeshua said: “But ye shall receive power, after that Ruach HaKodesh is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) One of these days He is going to be saying, “You will receive power and will tell people about Me in England, in Africa, in Europe, to your neighbouring countries and beyond.” With your participation and mine, this will happen and we will continually experience the renewal that YHVH has planned for us. It is easy for us to get so wrapped up in plans, finances and programs, that we can lose sight of the vision that started a faith-based social media platform. While we are building a tool, it is a tool and it is not the vision itself. It is simply a means to fulfil the vision that YHVH has given to each one of us. While we must do all the work that is necessary to get the tool built, we cannot and must not lose sight of the fact that YHVH has called us to something much greater than just build a faith-based platform. YHVH has called us, all of us, to fulfil the dream that He has placed in our hearts to win people to Moshiach and to disciple them to maturity. If you do not dream that dream on a regular basis, you are in need of personal renewal and YHVH will give it to you, if you simply follow the steps above.