Acts 9:10-11 Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.”
If Ananias had not believed God and acted on this vision God gave him, Paul the Apostle might have remained blind. But Ananias did go and lay hands-on Saul, and Saul became Paul the Apostle.
When we do not move when God says to move, our life becomes stagnant. Then before long our spiritual walk that is supposed to be deep and rich takes on an attitude about serving God. It becomes stagnant and dead.
It is time to move.
Do you believe God has shown you some moves He wants you to make? What have you done? I believe churches have digressed into holding people back from serving more than they are compelling people to serve. It is only when we start losing members and our sanctuaries are getting empty that we realize we need “people!” What does it take to get a born-again believer to serve? It takes a shared vision.
Give me your definition of a “shared vision.” My definition of a shared vision is God’s people connected in power and purpose to follow the Vision Maker Jesus in reaching a lost and dying world.
The Apostle Paul brought all of this into focus in 1 Corinthians 12 where He says 12 For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
*One Spirit means our spirits are unified for serving Jesus and the Holy Spirit is the one who connects us all toward a shared vision and that is accomplished by the Vision Maker Jesus. Many leaders of today have lost sight of what it takes to see a church “come alive” and begin to reach people again.
Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus and said this in Chapter 4:11And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. We don't have to pray about whether we should be growing churches because it is in God's Word and part of God's plan. Now you have to accept it and MOVE!!
The Pilgrimage Continues
David Warren