A VISION WILL MARK YOU; MOCK YOU, AND MOLD YOU

“Where there is no VISION, the people perish: but he that keeps the law, happy is he”
…Proverbs 29:18

Knowing God’s law, His commandments, and His precepts paints a VISION (picture) of how God desires for you to live righteous before Him. The moment you become a believer in Christ, the LORD JEHOVAH gives you a VISION—through knowledge of His word and His will—of being an ambassador, His representative, to expand His kingdom as you continue His ministry in this earth (2nd Corinthians 5:17-21). You are given the VISION to be His witness—that God is real and that salvation in Christ delivers from the bondage of sin and the fear of eternal punishment (Acts 1:8; John 1:12-14). God instituted human government with the purpose of maintaining law and order for humans to have a peaceful place to dwell. Therefore, the divine love of God, as seen in a believer’s life, gives you a VISION of being in a place and position of leadership, for all men will be influenced by your moral stand, your just decisions, your honest character…your righteous life that has the smell of the sweet fragrance of Christ (2nd Corinthians 2:14-16; Romans 13:1). The believer is living proof of God’s love. As the believer takes a stand on God’s Word, it sets him apart with VISION for service unto God (1st Timothy 2:1-6; Romans 12:1-2). Salvation gives a person the knowledge of God’s everlasting, unending, and unconditional love of harmony, law and order. Christians have the certain hope of an eternal life with eternal rewards, but God’s plan also includes the damnation of the wicked to those who have rejected God.

MARKED by the blood of Jesus and by His image that is upon you, God gives His Child a VISION! A VISION to be:

• His heavenly ambassador in the earth
• His witness of His salvation, power, and glory before men and before Satan
• His leader in godly government with law and order maintained
• His servant to do the will of God and extend His kingdom.

A VISION marks you before other people. “Love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself” is the divine love image of Christ. You are marked with the love of God and the divine image of the Son of God in front of others. You are marked because you believe a set of laws and precepts that are contrary to the world. You are marked because you believe in an invisible God that speaks and communications with His children through the Holy Spirit. You are marked with “love that works no ill to your neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law in your life (Romans 13:10), and the law of God is what marks your determined path on the Highway of Life.


MOCKED by:

• Circumstances
• God's enemy
• Others’ unbelief
• You own indecisive feelings
  

Circumstances and tribulation will MOCK you when you are believing God’s Word and His vision. Time and circumstances mocked all of the saints in the Old Testament, for they “obtained a good report through faith, yet they did not receive the promise of “the new creation” in their earthly life time. The Apostle Paul was martyred for his faith in Christ Jesus, yet he encourages believers (saints) to “cast not away your confidence, which has great recompense of reward. For you have need of patience that, after you have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise (of eternal life with God and the promise of abundant increase). The just (those justified by faith in Christ Jesus) shall live by faith” (Hebrews 11:39-40; Hebrews 10:35-36, 38). Circumstances and Satan will try to mock and ridicule you to take your eyes off of believing the Word of God, but you must stand firm in your belief, your hope, and your patience in Christ to see the physical manifestation of His promises in your life.

Out of fear, God's enemy Satan will mock you, as you move into your miraculous God destined call. The enemy will try to keep you depressed and confused to keep you from walking in the destiny that God has called you to walk in. The enemy will try to steal God's prophetic Word from your heart to keep you from destroying his kingdom and to keep you from extending God's kingdom in this earth. Satan has put together a make-shift kingdom of ghouls and demons, but Christ Jesus is coming with His angels to rule this world again, as before the fall of mankind. Praise God! He will put Satan under His feet once and for all...very soon!

The unbelief of others will try to pull you down and away from believing the VISION that God has given you. Trusting God to fulfill your vision is to remember that a Christian’s success is not measured by worldly standards of material profit. The successful Christian measures his success “in spiritual fruit.” Nehemiah had a VISION to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem (around 539 BC) after war with a Babylonian king had torn them down. Neighboring Arab people, jealous of the plan to rebuild Jerusalem for Jews, verbally ridiculed and laughed at the people and tried to discourage the work on the walls. Then the enemy tried to force Nehemiah to stop the work on the walls by attacking them with arms while the Jewish people were working on the walls. Nehemiah armed his people and continued the work. Since a direct attack did not work, some of the unbelieving leaders attempted to lure Nehemiah to a place for “negotiation” with them to kill him. However, Nehemiah refused to compromise the task God has given him by meeting with unbelievers that had no authority over Jerusalem. Then the enemy enlisted two Jewish men to tell Nehemiah of a plot to take his life, and then they urged Nehemiah to hide in the Temple. He recognized “the fear” the enemy wanted to put on him. He also recognized that—not being a Levite—hiding in the Temple would break God’s law and destroy his honest, moral testimony before the Jewish people. This trickery did not pull Nehemiah away from his God-given VISION or his moral, upright leadership either. Finally, the enemy resorted to slandering Nehemiah to King Artaxerxes and all the people by circulating an open letter accusing Nehemiah of rebelling against the king. King Artaxerxes discovered that King Cyrus had much earlier given permission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, and then the mouth of the enemy was stilled. With the cooperation of God’s people, Nehemiah completed his God-given task of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and established the people in returning to serve and live for Jehovah God.

Feelings come and go. Happiness is a temporal feeling over particular situations. Real joy is knowing that you belong to Jehovah God and that He will take you through any situation. Joy is to embrace all that God means to you, and rejoice that your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. At times your own unbelief, your indecisive feelings, must be dealt with, as the enemy tries to spread lies about God into your thinking. Your own feelings will try to mock you and take away the VISION that God has given you. Did God really say? That is always the enemies question to try to put vain thoughts in your mind about God Almighty. The enemy of your soul Satan will try to make you feel so guilt and so unworthy of doing God’s will when you have made a mistake and veered from God’s Word. Then is the time to quickly repent of any wrongdoing and receive your forgiveness from God Almighty. Wash your feet in the Word of God, abide strong in Christ, and begin with God again. Jesus Christ is the Christian’s lawyer/advocate when he repents. Jesus accepts your prayers when they are sincere and forgives. He then puts your sins from you as far as the east is from the west. Jesus will never cross-examine you about sins that have been forgiven. Satan is the accuser of Christian brethren. God wants to see you receive the light of His Word that you may grow and mature “in Christ” to become a “son” that can see clearly the things of God and be trusted with the heavenly things of the kingdom.

MOLDED by:

• God’s precepts, laws, and commandments
• Reading God’s Word
• Talking and fellowshipping with God in prayer
• Abiding (continuing) in Christ Jesus, the Vine, brings knowledge
• Godly Habits formed from wisdom and knowledge
• Faithful Character of Integrity
• Joyous, purposeful Lifestyle of person that mirrors and imitates Christ Jesus
  

A Christian is molded by the principles of God’s Word and by the VISION that he (or she) walks in. God has given His precepts, laws, and commandments that a Christian might have a plain, clear path in which to walk in the blessings and abundance of God Almighty. As a person learns the divine things of Almighty God by reading His Word and by fellowshipping with Him in prayer, one is molded into a mature image of Jesus Christ, the Vine. Abiding in the vine molds one into having a natural habit of talking with God everyday and reading the Bible. Daily abiding in Him molds one into a faithful, godly person of character of integrity with honesty, sincerity, righteousness, and holiness, which molds a person into a godly lifestyle. That lifestyle separates you and sets you apart from the world, but it also separates and sets you apart as a child of God to receive His blessings of increase and to extend the kingdom of God.

A VISION of “who you are in Christ” marks you for service unto Jehovah God, as His ambassador, His witness, His leader, and His servant to extend the kingdom. Satan will try to mock the Word of God living in you through circumstances, other’s unbelief, and, at times, through your own indecisive feelings. The Word of God and His principles will mold you into the mature son of God that God can use to do great exploits and extend His kingdom. The Apostle Paul in Philippians 4:9 declares, “Those things, which you have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.”

The Word will mark you and separate you unto the Lord from the world. Then for a little season, the enemy will mock you to see if you will continue to stand for God and His principles. All doubt has to be brought in submission to God and His will. The Word of God will mold you into the stature of the “man” that God wants you to be…in Christ.

EPHESIANS 4:11-16
“He (God) gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some evangelists;
and some, pastor and teachers;
For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Till we all come in the unity of the faith,
And of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man,
Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro,
And carried about with every wind of doctrine,
By the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
But speak the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things,
which is the head, even Christ:
From whom the whole body (body of Christ) fitly joined together
and compacted by that which every joint (every Christian) supplies,
according to the effectual working in the measure of every part,
Maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”

LOVE ONE ANOTHER.