"Oh Lord, I want a vision. Oh Lord, please give me a vision."

I would read in the Bible how Peter went into a trance and saw things. Paul and all the great guys had visions. You hear evangelists and the big preachers standing up and saying,

"I had a vision of the Lord, and in my vision I saw this and that and the other thing."

So I used to say,

"Oh Lord, I wish I could have a vision."

People close to me began to say,

"I had this vision from the Lord."

My Dad began to have powerful visions. I said,

"Oh Lord, why can't you give it to me? Why do I not have visions, Lord?"

Then one day the Lord showed me that I had been seeing visions for a long time. But I did not know that visions don't always take the same form.

What is a vision? A vision is simply, as I said earlier, an influence coming up out of your spirit and coming into your mind. The difference is that it takes place while you are awake.

It is really just a dream while you are awake, depending on whether that vision really is a play like a dream. And if it is a play like a dream, then it will come to you just like a dream, except while you are awake.

Trance Visions

Now sometimes in order for that to take place, your natural senses have to be put into a state of suspension. That is what the Scripture refers to as falling into a trance, or a trance vision.

A trance vision is simply an influence that is so strong on you, that your natural senses are suspended. This means that you do not see or hear anything that is going on about you. You are taken up with the vision just like you would be with a dream.

Most people do not have trance visions. If you are a prophet and you have not had a trance vision, do not worry about it. Do not say,

"Well I must be a second‐rate prophet then because everybody else has trance visions and I don't."

No, it could be that you are able to hear from your spirit without having your senses knocked out. I have heard folks say,

"Well I went forward for prayer and everybody was knocked out under the power except me."

Have you ever wondered why people fall under the power? I love the description that was given by the first evangelist that I ever saw manifesting that in his ministry. It happened while I was still a youngster years ago.

He was an American evangelist that came traveling around years ago. He was a healing evangelist, and when he prayed for people they would fall under the power.

He said, "I don't know why this happens. It just started to happen in my ministry."

This was long before the days when it began to happen everywhere.

He said, "I can only come to one conclusion. When you go to the doctor and he operates on you, he puts you under anesthetic first before he can operate. I can only conclude that this is God's anesthetic. God has to put people under anesthetic so that He can operate on them.

"So if I pray for you and you go down, don't worry about it. You are just under anesthetic. When God is finished operating on you, you will come round. You will be fine."

I loved that explanation. I still do love it. I think it is brilliant. I think if you have to fall under the power there is something that has to be knocked out.

Some people do not need anesthetic. I remember going to the dentist and he would use psychology on me. He would say,

"You are a big boy, aren't you? You don't need an injection."

Not that I could argue with him! Oh, I used to hate the dentist, because he did not give me an anesthetic and I would feel all the pain.

Well maybe you do not need an anesthetic. Maybe you are open enough to the Spirit of God that He can speak to you without having to knock your senses out. Maybe you are able to hear from within your spirit.

Maybe you have the kind of control where you can close your eyes and shut out your vision; where you can shut out your hearing. If you have a lot of kids you should have learned how to do that by now. It is easy. You just pretend you do not hear them when they make a noise.

But you see not everybody has to go into a trance vision in order to receive such a strong influence in their spirits. And not all visions are active little plays. Visions can be stills as well. They can be slides. They are not always movies.

You can receive a vision that is simply a picture that is printed on your mind. It may be an active picture, but it may just be a still picture. It is still a vision. It is still an influence that has come up from within your spirit.

Every one of us, not just the prophets, has the capability of receiving those pictures. You just need to close your eyes and calm your thoughts. Worship the Lord and let your mind go freely, and you will be amazed at the stuff that comes up into your mind.

Some people experience that as they are going to sleep at night. It is like they have started dreaming before they have fallen asleep. Have you ever had that?

Have you ever started dreaming before you fell asleep? Your mind goes mad, it goes wild, and all these pictures start to roll through it. Where do you suppose that is coming from? It is coming from the same place your dreams come from. It is coming up from within you.

A lot of the time what comes up are pictures and symbols; sometimes spiritual symbols. Sometimes you even get revelation from the Lord, and you may not even realize it. You probably thought,

"I wish I could get a hold of my mind. Man, you should see some of the things I am seeing! I have never thought of things like this before. Where is this coming from?"

It is coming from inside you. Stop and listen. Say,

"Hold it. What is going on here?"

You might have been seeing visions and didn't even know it. You would be amazed at the pictures that come up out of your mind.

Let it Flow

Try it some time. Sit down with a pen and paper. Let your mind just tick over and let it go. Then write down every picture, symbol, vision and thought - everything that comes up into your mind.

Write it down. You will be amazed to find as you look through them, how many of them actually have spiritual significance and could be interpreted just like your dreams. It could be God speaking to you internally.

You can learn to develop this. As you recognize it, still your mind and your thoughts, and shut out what is going on round about you, you will learn to perceive the pictures that come up from within.

Then you will learn to do it while you are praying with people and while you are praying for somebody in intercession. You will learn to develop this capacity to where eventually your inner vision becomes so clear and distinct that it is as clear as if you were having a dream.

For many folks the visions that they see are so clear and distinct that it appears that they have gone into a trance vision, but actually they have not. They are simply able to shut out the external influences and draw into themselves.

And often those who experience this tend to be people who are more introverted. They are not outwardly expressive. They tend to be very much loners and draw into themselves. They tend to live in their thoughts and live in a daydream world a lot. They have developed this capacity of living in a fantasy world.

People like that very often have a greater capacity to receive visions and to shut out what is going on round about them. We tend to reprove a person like that by saying,

"Come on down out of the clouds!"

I remember my folks saying to me,

"You are too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good. Just get down and come here! Come and join us."

But they didn't know what God was preparing me for. He was teaching me to 'switch off.' Sometimes people misunderstand me when I switch off.

They say, "You are ignoring me."

And I say, "No I'm not, I am just ignoring you!"

I am shutting out and shutting in; coming to the place where I am listening to what is going on in my heart and my spirit. Sometimes you need to be alone somewhere to do that. Learn to shut it out, learn to listen, and learn to look and see the visions that come up out of your heart.

Open Visions

There is one other kind of vision. This one is even more powerful in a sense, in that it is imprinted over the natural senses. It is what the Bible calls an open vision.

Open vision is when you can look at your surroundings, and you see something else superimposed on those surroundings. Many of those who have seen a vision of the Lord Himself have seen that kind of vision, to the extent that they have actually seen the Lord sitting in a chair next to them.

They have seen the Lord standing in the corner. They have seen everything round about them, and superimposed on top of that is the character or whatever it is that your vision is revealing.

That is the open vision. It can happen. It depends on the individual. It depends on how sensitive you are. It also depends on how you can shut out your senses, and whether God has to knock you out or not.

You are able to receive that influence in your mind in dreams and visions. It does not have to be a trance vision. You could see this in your mind, while your eyes are open. And you know for example that an angel is standing before you, and you know where he is standing.

Usually when I see the Lord or an angel, I can tell you exactly where He is standing. Because I can 'see' it in my mind's eye while my eyes are open.

A Practical Project For Visions

Dreams and visions are very similar but not the same. Do not confuse them, but also learn to interpret them in the same way. They always contain symbolic information, and the persons, places and things in your vision are mostly symbolic.

Here is a simple project to try on a daily basis to develop your ability to see visions:

1. Get alone somewhere with writing materials.

2. Close your eyes and relax and let your mind go.

3. Write down the pictures that you see in your mind. Start with simple objects rather than events.

4. After you have written down a list of different objects that you can 'see' in your mind, allow your mind to move to events.

5. Now write down each event that you see. The first ones that you see will likely be simple events. For example you might see a car riding down the road. You could see someone riding a bicycle, or a baby crying.

6. Do not look for full stories in your visions. Most of them will be like slide shows rather than movies. And even if you see a 'movie' vision, it will likely be similar to a short advertisement on TV, where it runs for about 10 to 30 seconds and it is over.

Look for Symbolic Meanings to Your Vision

Just as you did with dreams, try to see if you can come up with a spiritual meaning for each of the things that you saw in your vision. In this way, you will learn in future to understand pictures that come to your mind. This will really help you if the Lord gives you a prophetic word. You will know what the pictures mean as you prophesy.

True visions come in a similar way to a word of prophecy. But you will find that you do not get words to express them spontaneously as you do in prophesying. Instead you will share your vision by explaining what you saw, and what you believe the Lord is saying through these pictures.

Do It Daily

Practice this every day and soon you will become more sensitive to what you see in your mind. You will learn to recognize what comes from your spirit within, and what is just junk coming up into your mind.

In this way, you will learn to make good use of visions, both for yourself and for others that you are ministering to.

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