The Eyes of Our Heart - Visions and Dreams - David Mitts

Breakthrough Equipping Spiritual Training, B.E.S.T.

Week 11: The Eyes of Our Heart

'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. (Acts 2:17-18 NIV)

One of the keys to Breakthrough is focus.  A light bulb and a laser, both emit light.  One is diffused and one is coherent.  With coherent or focused light, things can happen that cannot happen with diffused light.

Listen to The Eyes of Our Heart

It is also important to recognize the hour we live in and what is possible that wasn’t possible in an earlier time.  For example, today an individual can go to a web site and arrange an illicit rendezvous.  I know people who have destroyed their families with the click of a mouse.  Contrast that with just 200 years ago.  200 years ago there were no telephones, no internet, and limited opportunities to destroy families and destinies.  I am not saying those were better times, just different ones.  They had their own problems, like slavery and other issues of sin.

We however do live in unique times.  Never before have we had access to so much and to whom much is given much more is required. The character quality that we must cultivate through the Holy Spirit is focus.

So, here we are in the latter days and God is pouring out His Spirit as declared in this scripture.  The purpose is for dreams and visions. What do I mean by dreams and visions?  I mean that there is an anointing for seeing with eyes of the heart that is facilitated by the times we live in.  These days have great potential to see both for God and for evil.  
Turn with me to Ephesians 1:15-19:

For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might (Ephesians 1:15-19 NASB)

The Apostle Paul prays for eyes of the heart to be enlightened so that we would know the hope or promise of our calling.  That calling is what he called the riches of the “glory” of God’s own inheritance through us, his saints or children.
Remember that we said a few weeks ago that Glory is a special word which means what statement a person’s life makes into reality.  It is in truest sense the opinion that one holds to be true.  In human terms our opinion is our vote in the matter.  We have a very fickle opinion.  God’s opinion however is settled.  His opinion is His Word.  When we align our opinion with His opinion, then our lives work according to what He has said about a matter and our lives then validate His opinion and this is called bringing Him Glory!

We call this “coming into agreement” with His Word, or faith.  Faith is bringing our whole being, our entire personality into agreement with His reality.  This alignment brings us into harmony with His power and in that place our eyes of our heart are enlightened and the hope of our calling is activated!!

So, it all begins in the heart and with vision!
Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the law God’s opinion), happy is he. (Proverbs 29:18 KJV)
Another translation says without vision people cast off restraint.  Restraint is what the bible calls meekness which is consciously choosing to constrain our choices to what is right and good instead of what is possible.  Just because we can do something, does not mean we should do something.

Today many Christian use circumstance faith.  Circumstance faith is when we come from the place of putting all responsibility on circumstances for God’s will in an area rather than His Word and learning to activate ourselves in faith. They think if God hasn’t stopped them from doing something, He must be for what they are doing.  So if God doesn’t stop them from leaving their spouse then He must be OK with it, etc… This is a prescription for disaster and hardness of heart.

No, with increased choices/resources comes greater accountability in how we use those resources in light of God’s opinion or His Glory.  This is why the Scripture tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  If we have no fear of God and what His opinion is on a matter, then we will do whatever seems right in our own sight.

There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. (Proverbs 16:25 NKJV)
So vision becomes a key, a huge key.  And since we live in the time of many choices where we place our attention, which is another word for vision, we want to align our vision with God’s vision for our lives and through our lives, which is the promise or “hope of our calling.”
What perishes when our vision or dream is not anointed by God?  Our heart and our ability to believe, or have faith.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12 NKJV)
Our heart’s very health is determined by our hope, our vision and our manifestation into that vision.  As we delay our vision and its accomplishment, our heart begins to sicken.  What does it mean to have a sick heart?  Well the heart is where we believe.

For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:10 NKJV)
So, one way of looking at this is, when we stop having dreams and visions then we are truly dead, even if our physical body is going through the motions of life.  We become the undead, a zombie.
Zombies are super popular now because I believe they resonate with a condition in the heart of man.

So it is time to recover our vision.  Vision and dreams and the corresponding plan to accomplish them will bring a laser focus back into our lives.  Desires fulfilled are literally a tree of life.  The Gospel is as much about dreams and visions being fulfilled as it is about salvation and heaven.  If the Gospel was about salvation and heaven then it should only be preached at the end of a person’s life.  No it is about the Kingdom coming NOW!

Activation:
First we are going to pray for the anointing for visions and dreams. God has already poured out His Spirit but we have to take our place as sons and daughters.  Let’s pair up and pray and share what God puts on our hearts for our future.  This is the time to allow yourself to shoot for the moon.  Dream impossible dreams.  Those will require God to be involved.
Next, I want to give you homework which I learned from Steven Scott called the Vision Mapping Process.  5 Steps to a new reality.  This will be on the web site also.
Begin by following these 5 steps in the vision mapping process:
#1
Start with your most important dream and write a clear and precise description of that dream. Describe your dream in a few sentences and use pictures to show what your dream would look like.
#2
Create a Goals page for that dream, and make a list of the specific and intermediate goals that has to be achieved to meet that dream.
#3
Create a Goals to Steps page for each goal, and list the steps that need to be taken to achieve that goal.
#4
Create a Steps to Tasks page for any complex step in your list of steps that requires more than one task to complete it. List the specific tasks that need to be completed to take that step.
#5
Assign completion dates to each task and step. Work on achieving each goal one task or step at a time, until you have achieved your dream.
This simple 5-step vision mapping process would help you to break down your dream into small tasks and steps that you can work on every day until you finally converted vision into reality.

Your life will begin to take the form of your vision and you will operate in the anointing of God.

"You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration"
-James Allen