Fulfilling a vision is a lot like taking a journey and I've used this allegory before, so I'm just bringing things back into focus again because I'm picking up on a subject that I taught before, which I entitled Dealing with Failed Resurrections. I'm going to be approaching that subject from a slightly different viewpoint today, as you'll see. Now, taking a road journey is usually fun, unless you're doing it for work.

We don't do it much these days, but I remember the excitement. We're going to go on holiday. We decided to just go down to Port Elizabeth for the weekend.

Let's hop in the car, or maybe we've planned a journey. I know for kids it's always exciting. For the driver, it's a long toil ahead, but there's always still the excitement, isn't there? So now you need to prepare for the journey.

This is a long one. Your tank needs to be full. You don't hop on the road, go merrily and say, oh dear, we're on reserve already.

I wonder if there's a petrol station somewhere nearby that we can fill up. No, you prepare properly. If you're travelling perhaps by public transport like a train or a plane or whatever, then have you got the money for the fare or has the ticket been paid before you start your journey? Then what are we going to eat along the way? They have this nice expression in Afrikaans, they call it patkos, road food.

You know what? I think I have better memories of stopping along the road and pulling over and having an awesome meal than the actual journey itself. Food along the way just makes the journey fun, doesn't it? Well, have you planned your way? Did you look it up on the map? Is your GPS working? See, all of these things need to be laid out before you take your journey. And then once you've decided you need to get started on the journey, well, you know, it would really be nice to take a weekend off and travel.

When are we going to do it? Well, it's a bit close for this weekend. Maybe next weekend. Oh no, I forgot, next weekend we've got something else on.

When have we got a spare weekend? Well, you know, one of these days, one of these days we'll have a weekend where we can go away. Sometimes we can't make up our minds. Whether we want to take this journey or not, or when we want to take the journey.

Maybe you're just afraid to get going. You think, oh boy, what if something goes wrong along the way? What if the car breaks down? What if something goes wrong? I wonder if it's safe. I wonder if my car will make it.

I wonder whether. I wonder. Some people are very indecisive because they fear what the journey may hold.

Do you plan to take a break along the way? If you're driving a car, do you have somebody else who can drive so you can have a turn to sleep in the back if you trust they're driving? Which is not always easy if it's your spouse. I need to be there to keep an eye on the road in case she gets it wrong, right? But sometimes we need a bit of help along the way of this journey. Can you see the end of the journey? Do you know what's going to happen when you get there? Was it going to be a surprise? Have you got this picture in your mind? And once you're there, what comes next? Well, we finally arrived.

What do we do now? Get in the car and come home again? No. What did you go there for? What's the next step? Well, you know, I'll cross that bridge when we get it. You know, when we arrive, then I'll decide, you know what, perhaps you shouldn't be taking this journey after all.

These are obvious little things when it comes to a normal journey. But when we come to our spiritual journey and fulfilling the visions that God's given us, sometimes we are just as haphazard and disorganized where it's concerned. We wonder why we're having problems along the way.

Now, what I'm speaking about here is not death and resurrection. I covered that in my previous message on failed resurrections. And we looked at the whole subject of how a vision goes through death and then is resurrected.

What I'm speaking about today is different. In these cases, the vision is not dead yet. Okay.

See, our problem isn't always death of a vision. Sometimes we kill our own visions. See, death of a vision is when God brings you to death so he can give you something better.

Sometimes we kill our own visions. You can't blame the Lord for that. Hmm.

Our vision starts out with great gusto and enthusiasm. Well, we never get to the end, do we? We just don't make it through. You know, when I write a book, I often feel I need to put as much into the book as I can.

But, you know, experience shows that very few people read the last chapters of a book. They never get that far. I remember going through a course once.

And as I got to the later modules, the person who made the course said, congratulations, you've made it this far. Take a look around you. The road is lonely.

Not many people get here. You must be special to have reached here. Huh? It's human nature, isn't it? We start out, but we don't finish.

Now, what's involved? Let's look at all of the problems that are involved in getting started on this journey, which is the vision that God gives you. Some people battle to get going. They're too indecisive or too afraid of what's going to happen next, of what could happen next, of what might not happen.

We can't get going. Well, I wonder if I start now, is it the right time? And they get all analytical. Well, you know, I need to get this perfect before I start.

We don't go off half-cocked, you know. We're doing it for the Lord. We've got to do it right.

Which inevitably becomes, we do it never. The little worldly expression which has shades of meaning to it, it says, you don't need to get it right, you just need to get it going. Some people have a real problem getting the vision going.

You say, well, I'm waiting for a sign. Isn't that a lovely cop-out? You know, it's God's fault because he didn't give me a sign. That's what it is, you know.

God said, do this, and you said, okay, Lord, I'll do it as soon as you give me a sign. Didn't you hear him the first time? Were you deaf? Are you like Gideon who needs five signs before you do the simplest thing? Well, you know, I don't want to get it wrong. Fear, fear, fear, that's your problem.

Where's your trust in the Lord? Some people need to get pushed by somebody else. They need somebody to give them a good kick in the rear to get them going. Are you one of those? What happens if there's nobody there to kick your butt when God's given you a vision? God sometimes sends people to do just that, and you know how we respond.

Don't tell me what to do. I will go when I'm ready. Well, God sent me to tell you to get going.

Well, I'm still waiting for the sign. You just got your sign. Well, if you ignore that, God's gonna have to use something else, and it's called circumstances.

You know what? I can't understand why everything has gone wrong. Do you know? I really wanted to serve the Lord. I really wanted to pursue this vision.

I really wanted just to get going and moving with this thing, but everything has gone wrong in my life. You know what? I can't even handle my normal problems. How can I get into the vision? You know what's happening? You're in this big room where you got lots of space to move, and you're getting pushed into a little corner now, and you know when you're in a corner, there's only one way out.

You can't hit the sidewalls. They're blocking you. In the big room, we got long distance to the sidewalls.

When you reach the corner, folks, you either come out of that corner, or you sit there and die. Oh, which is it gonna be? You're gonna sit and die? You're gonna finally wake up and see that God has been speaking to you. He's been giving you the signs.

He's been pushing you, and now he's even forced you through circumstances to finally make the decision. Okay, Lord. You know, a lot of us have got a bit of Jonah in us.

Come on. We got a bit of Jonah in us. But Lord, I don't feel like doing it right now.

The time's not right. The situation's not right. Finances are not right.

People don't like me. We got a pandemic. I will always find something, won't I? Well, some people, they have a problem with resistance to change.

Because God's asked you to do something that's different to what you've been doing for so long that you've got comfortable doing. You know what famous last words are? We never did it that way before. Well, God is telling you to do it that way now.

But you're caught in a rut. You know that English expression, caught in a rut? You know what it means? You know, we use these expressions. Sometimes we don't know what it means.

You know what it means? You know what a rut is? It's when a wheel has been traveling in the same place over and over and eventually begins to dig a hole into the ground. And so when the wheel hits that hole in the ground, which has already been dug, it automatically sticks to that. You know how hard it is to make the wheel jump up out of that and to go in a different knot, but it's so easy just to stick with the rut.

I don't have to think. I just let go and travel. What's your rut? Is God telling you to get out the rut? You say, well, I really want the Lord to bless me and I really want to change my life.

And the Lord says, see there, see there's your destination there. Well, you know, you know, my rut has taken me there. It's so much easier just for me to stay where I'm at.

It's going to take an effort to go there. Well, then don't complain about the end of your journey. Don't complain that you are remaining unsuccessful and poor and lonely and whatever, while somebody else is getting out there and reaching their target.

You know, you know why they're doing it? Because they got out of their ruts. What about other people? Oh, what other people think can be one of the biggest bondages in our lives. Well, you know, in the culture that I grew up in, this is the way we do things.

If I try to change that and do that a different way, do you know what all of my associates are going to think of me? Do you know what all my family is going to think of me, my people, all the people of whose culture I belong? You know what they're going to think of me? We say, you know what? Our ancestors have done this this way for years. Who do you think you are to change it now? Yes, but God told me that I should go in a different direction. Are you sure that was God? Don't you think the voice of those who have gone before is more important? Come on.

Are you afraid to break out of the norms that have been dictated by your culture? Then don't complain when you don't reach those exciting goals that you desire. Family traditions. It doesn't have to be culture.

It can just be family. Now, in our family, this is the way we do things. If I did try to do this different, what are my parents going to think? What are my siblings going to think? What are my aunts and uncles going to think of me? They're going to think I'm just rebellious and I want to do things my own way.

I don't want to upset these people. I want to keep them liking me because I like people to accept me. And if I were to move out of this, they're not going to accept me anymore.

They're going to kick me out. And, you know, I like people to recognize the things that I'm doing and to praise me and acknowledge me and say, hey, you are doing really great. What happens if everybody says, what the heck are you doing? What possessed you to go that way? Well, you know, I thought I heard the Lord telling me.

You see how these things can stop us from completing our visions? Often they stop us from even starting the visions. And then there are our frail emotions, our feelings that can change like the weather, discouragement along the way. You start out with enthusiasm, you give it your best shot, but you don't get the kind of results you expected.

It just didn't work the way you saw it in your mind. And you're thinking, you know, is this worth even going on? You know, the first try, I fell on my head. First time I opened my mouth, I put my foot in it.

Why should I go on? And everybody around about you is saying the same thing. Why were you so foolish to do that? Couldn't you see that you don't have it in you? Couldn't you see that this is so different to what you've done before, that there's no way you can succeed? Couldn't you see it? You know, we've been talking about it and we've been saying, just watch, she's gonna fail. He's not gonna make it.

This is when everybody comes out and says, I told you so. I told you so. And if you believe that, you're gonna say that we're probably right.

But what happened to the voice of God that told you to do it? You're listening to the voice of people, often inspired by the enemy, instead of maintaining what God told you to do in the first place. And then sometimes, if you're an expressive especially, what seems so exciting when you started out doesn't seem as exciting as it used to be. And suddenly something else appears in your life that seems far more exciting.

And so you have a choice. Will I do the thing that I set my heart to do? Or will I do this new fun thing that has appeared? You don't realize how strong your emotions are. You don't realize that we usually bow to our feelings.

So we have a problem with our feelings. Sometimes the new goal offers an easier way. Why do you want to go and do that the hard way? All that hard work and slog that you've committed yourself to, you know how many years you're going to be working at that before it's done? Look, here's a quicker way, an easier way.

It's going to cost you less. Well, who's going to be so foolish to follow that long, difficult way when there's a new easy one? You know what's going to happen? The moment you choose this new easy one, it becomes the same as that one. Sooner or later, it's not fun anymore.

What started out as excitement just becomes hard work. It's called life. And then we have those who go off half-cocked.

We expressives are very guilty. How about this one? We don't count the cost. Oh, we just get so excited.

I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. What's it going to cost you? Well, let's worry about that later.

You didn't prepare correctly for the journey. Oh no, there's bound to be a petrol station along the way. We'll just go.

We won't bother to fill the tank before we go. I won't check the tire pressure. I'm sure they're okay.

I'm sure we won't have a blowout. Yeah, you might not, but you might. You weren't prepared.

Then we have people who swing to the opposite extreme. You know what? I've got to have this perfect. Well, that person never gets to doing it.

But you get those who say, okay, I've made up my mind. I'm going to do it. Man, I'm so excited about this.

I'm just going to get everything now that I need to fulfill this vision. You know, in business, we have a thing called marketing and we have a practice called selling. And very often people confuse these two together.

A salesperson gets excited about their product and wants to sell it to everybody. But before you try and sell it, maybe you should find out if there are people out there that want to buy it. Well, you know, I love it.

I bought five myself. How many people do you know who want one of these? How many people do you know who speak positively of these things? How many people do you know who can afford one of these? Well, you know, I don't really know anybody, but I'm sure I could find somebody. So we step out boldly.

See, now I'm going to produce this new product. So I'll go out and I buy the equipment and I buy the materials. Set up the factory.

We are ready for production. We can churn these out a hundred a day. But how many can you sell? Well, I'm sure we could sell a few.

A hundred a day? Could you sell a hundred a day? Well, I'm not sure. Then why are you making a hundred a day? You know what? I've done these things. That's why I know what I'm talking about.

I'm going to try something new. I'm going to get into arts. I'm going to go out and buy the pens and pencils and paints and canvases and the whole thing.

Right now, I can't draw a straight line with a ruler. But I'm going to do it. So I'm going to go buy all the materials, set up my easel, like I've seen them do.

And I start, oh man, that's a mess. You know what? I don't think I can do this. I think it was a foolish idea.

Let's just pack it all up and put it away. Now you've got to find a place in your house to store that stuff you bought. And nobody's going to use it.

And you can't sell it to anybody. Sometimes we over-prepare. Without doing our correct marketing, without checking whether this is a possibility, without getting total confirmation of what our journey is going to involve, how long it's going to take us, and what we're going to do when we get there.

We just off we go. Then there are those who are happy to continue while it's exciting. While it's exciting, I can keep this journey going.

Well, you know, if I'm going to take a long journey for a thousand kilometers, say, down to the coast, and there's lots of scenery along the way, that can keep me occupied. But I know if I want to go from here to Cape Town in South Africa, you go through a place called the Karoo, which is flat, miles and miles of nothing. And after you've been through the Karoo for a few hours, you wonder what you're doing here.

They say that runners who run marathons, there's a certain point of the marathon where they're just chugging along, trying to make it up that hill. And the thought enters in their mind, why did I decide to run this marathon in the first place? What a stupid idea it was. It's not fun anymore.

Well, if you're expressive, it's nothing more soul destroying than a routine job where you do the same thing every day. But expressives thrive on exciting new goals and on new challenges. It's easier to start, not so easy to finish.

When the going gets tough, they say, the tough get going. Well, I haven't found that to be true. When the going gets tough, most of us want to give up.

We start going slower and slower and slower. I preached a message once, which I entitled, if you go any slower, you'll be going backwards. What's happened on your journey, folks? What's on those exciting visions that God's given you? Did you start out with great enthusiasm? Now it's become a grind.

It's not so exciting anymore. You've lost the vision. You've lost the passion.

It started you off. And now you're bored. Well, not all of us have that problem, mostly expressives.

We have the drivers or people who have a strong will, and they make up their mind. I'm going to follow this journey. There it is.

There's my goal. I've set my face like a flint, and I'm going to go no matter what stops me. And you're going merrily along your way, and you see a sign that says detour.

I don't have time to detour. I don't go that way. I'm going that way.

I don't trust these roadworks people. I'm just going to go through anyway. You ever tried that? You may end up in the mud.

You may end up with your car ruined. Some people, once they've started this journey, they will not budge. They will not see the signs that say hold it.

There's a change. The journey is not going the way you planned. There are roadworks up ahead.

There's traffic congestion. If you've got a good GPS these days, it'll tell you when there's congestion between you and your destination. And if you are sensible, you'll follow its directions to go around and avoid that.

But you want to be big-headed and say I don't care. You get caught in this traffic where you're sitting for two hours, and you're moaning and groaning and complaining. Well, why didn't you just take heed to the warning? Why didn't you just take heed to the fact that change, oh, change.

You know, change is a swear word to some people. I don't like doing things differently. I don't like changing what I eat.

I don't like changing what time I go to bed and when I get up. I don't like changing what route I go to work. I don't like changing what vehicle I ride in.

Thank the Lord the air doesn't change, otherwise we'd stop breathing. Let's not be stubborn, folks. Sometimes the way to the destination isn't the direction that you thought, because God knows that there's an obstacle there, and he's going to take you around it.

Are you ready to face change when God says, not death of a vision, folks. Let's get this right. It's not death of a vision.

God is not killing your vision. He's changing it. He's saying, for a season, I want you to go this way.

You'll get to the vision eventually, but for now, put it on the back burner. It's not time yet. Sometimes we just ignore our emotions.

If we're an unemotional person, it's the right thing to do. It's the traditional thing to do. This is what my folks would have done.

This is what my friends would do. This is what all sensible people that I know would do. This is what all educated people will do.

I don't want anybody accusing me and saying, you failed. You couldn't make it. So I'll prove to them I can.

And God is saying, no, not now. There's a detour. There's a change.

And Lord forbid, he may actually be saying, let it die. It's time for a day. This vision must die for now, and I will resurrect it later.

That's not the main thrust of my message, but I've just thrown that in. This is one of the possibilities. And then finally, you identified with any of these failures yet? You don't have to show me.

Another mistake that many of us make is we get too many visions. Everything we see excites us. You know what? I want to do this, but I also want to do that.

And you know that other thing is also really exciting. And you know, I'm sure I can fit time in for that one as well. There's only 24 hours in the day, folks.

And some of those, you're sleeping. Some of those, you're in the bathroom. Some of them, you're eating.

And if your vision is to be fulfilled outside of your normal work hours, that doesn't leave you very much at all, does it? There's only so much you can accomplish in the time that's available to you. Now, I've spoken very often in the past about something that I call a core desire. I'd like to modify that now to refer to a core vision.

A core desire is the one desire that has the strongest push and drive in your life. Often, it's something that you wanted to do for many years, something that you perhaps have failed to do, but there's still a deep, strong driving desire. And if I were to get you motivated, all I would need to do is to stir up that desire and remind you of it.

And you think, yes, yes, I still want to do that. You can only fulfill one main core desire or one main core vision. You say, well, does that mean I can't have more than one vision? No, I didn't say that.

I'm saying that if you have more than one vision, they must all join together towards one goal, which is your core desire, your core vision, or if you like, your calling. What has God called you to do? Well, God's called me to reach the world. Well, to do that, you're going to need the knowledge of the word, so maybe you should be looking at some kind of study program.

Well, I'm going to be a great preacher. Well, perhaps you should be looking at opportunities of interacting with groups of people. Well, I'm going to travel the world.

You've got money for the airfares. Perhaps you may have to get involved in some kind of business activity to fund that desire. And you see that there can be very many different aspects of the same core vision, and they all will all feed each other together to finalize that vision.

Now, I want you to look at all the things that you got excited about, and some of the things that you've attempted, and maybe many of the things, many of the journeys you started and you didn't complete them. Can you bring all of those different desires and visions, can you focus them together to one main goal? If you cannot, then you're going to have to let some of them go, because if they're pulling you into two different core desires, you will fail. I'll tell you that now.

There's no human being who can fulfill more than one core desire. That's why it's called a core, because you only got one core. So I really would like to do that as a sideline.

Does it pull you away from your core? Yeah, but at least it's fun. Well, then it's not a vision, it's just social activity, and let it be nothing more. Have fun with it, do not see it as a vision or a goal, and certainly do not relate it to God's purpose for your life.

If you can't relate it to God's purpose for your life, it's not part of your calling, not part of your core, it's not part of the vision that God has given you. It's an extra thing you threw in for some reason. Maybe you may have to just put some of those things totally on the back burner.

Those of you that are still fairly young, you may have to leave some of those for later in life, when you've fulfilled your main goals and you're ready to retire. It may be only then that you'll have the time to do that. Otherwise, you've got to make a choice.

If you're going to make this vision part of your core desire, then you may have to switch your core desire to something different. It's going to take a bit of planning this, it's going to take a bit of analyzing and sorting out. But if you don't do that, you're going to be pulled in 10 directions.

You're going to try and walk 10 roads at the same time, and they're leading to 10 different destinations. Do you know which destination you're going to reach? Zero. You'll never know the joy of attaining that goal and reaching your final destination.

Now we need help. We need help. We need help from people.

We need help from the Lord. You say, well, not me. I'm pretty good.

I'm pretty capable of doing things myself. I see. So you're not human.

Or you may say, well, you know what? I don't need people. I only need the Lord. I'm deeply spiritual.

I can handle it by myself, me and the Lord. The Lord will help me to do it. Tell me, your vision, does it involve you interacting with other people? Does it involve other people in any way? If it doesn't, it's not really a vision, and it's certainly not a ministry, because everything we do in life involves people.

So if other people are involved in your vision, you can't avoid people, folks. Sorry. Don't get so spiritual and think you can do this all by yourself, you and the Lord.

Because if you can't relate to people, you're not going to accomplish it. Okay, so spirit of independence, it's a term I've given to this. I've got a teaching on it.

You don't want the spirit of independence. Nobody succeeds that way. You may need mentorship.

You may need some skills that need to develop by somebody who's really good at them, and it's a temporary thing. What do you need to add to your skill set to accomplish your goal? Perhaps you should find somebody who really can do that well, come under their wing for a while and let them teach you how to do it. You may need coaching.

What does a coach do? Unlike sports coaches, which are there to force people to do what they don't want to do, a true coach is somebody who helps you think things through and identify your inner desires and come to a decision of where you should go. They're like a sounding board. Sometimes they don't even give you advice.

They just ask you some pointed questions to get you thinking in the right direction. Sometimes you need somebody that you can just pour out to, share your whole vision, let them listen. They don't even need to give you advice.

Lord forbid, sometimes they shouldn't give you advice. Find somebody who's a good listener, and you'll be amazed that right in the middle of while you're sharing your vision, you'll suddenly think of something you hadn't thought of. You know what? I should try that.

You say to the person, thanks for helping me. I didn't say a word, but you listened, and you allowed me to talk. See, that's what a coach does.

Then you may need some discipline. This is like the sports coach. It's like the weight coach.

You know, most things in life require a coach of some kind, a person that will help you. You know, all these famous movie stars, they want to lose weight and look like beauty queens. Most of them had to find somebody who'd tell them what to eat and what not to eat, what exercise to do and when to do it before they actually accomplish that.

Sometimes you just need a group of people to do it with. That's why you've got groups like Weight Watchers, where everybody comes together and says, I lost some weight, yay, I lost some weight, yay. We motivate one another.

We need people. Where beliefs are concerned, we need the body of Christ, and it's time the church gets involved in ministering to all of these practical needs. We need accountability.

We need accountability for what we do. Who's going to take responsibility for my actions and for the final results? And above all, we need humility. We need to be humble enough to say, well, you know, I don't think I'm so great, but I'm doing my best with the Lord's help.

If you can maintain all of those attitudes, God will send you people If you're a believer, you already have people, hopefully that you're fellowshipping with, hopefully spiritual leaders that you're under, who can be there to encourage you, to motivate you, to help you along the way. And then we need the Lord. Well, you should be getting into the word, because the word has got an answer to every problem you have.

If you're feeling discouraged, just one word from God, one little scripture can jump out of you and just take away all of that loneliness that you're feeling, all of that negativeness that you're feeling. You need to spend time in prayer. You need to present your petitions to the Lord.

Oh, we all know how to do that in prayer, but then you need to take time to listen. What did he say? Well, Lord, you know, I'd really like to do this. And then we don't listen to what he says for a very simple reason.

We're afraid he might say, I don't think that's a good idea. And we don't want to hear that, do we? Because I made up my mind is what I want to do. The Lord should be in all of it.

Take time to listen. And then he is the only one who can empower you by his spirit to follow through and complete this journey. Without his help, folks, you will fail.

That I can tell you. One of the most powerful activities that we can carry out is a process known as journaling, where we write down our thoughts and the pictures that God gives us as they flow out of our spirit under the influence of the Holy Spirit. It's not a difficult process, but we need to sit down and do it.

So what am I going to write? You know, I'm afraid that I may write a load of nonsense there. You probably will for the first paragraph or two. That's fine.

Just get writing. Eventually the flow will begin to take place. Again, are you afraid of what the Lord's going to say to you? Well, you better face it.

If you fear that perhaps the choice you've made is the wrong one, perhaps it is. Or perhaps all you need is the Lord to assure you and say, no, this was of me. Keep going.

Just that one word is all you need. Get back on the road again and to complete this journey. To fulfill this vision and complete it.

Well, how often should we journal? How often do you need to be lifted up? How often do you need to be reminded? How often do you need motivation? Most of us need it daily. You can go to bed at night feeling on top of the world. Oh, I can't wait to get going on this.

During the night something happens. Maybe it's a negative dream. And you wake up in the morning and all that exciting feeling is gone.

And you're wondering and thinking, was it a mistake? Should I have done that? You need a word. And the best place to get that word is from the Lord himself. Learn to journal, folks.

I'm not going to show you a journal to anybody else. You can write whatever junk you like. It doesn't matter.

But in the middle of all those words, you'll start to see some things come out that you know didn't come from your mind. They came from deeper. They're the word of the Lord to you.

If you don't make time for it, it's not going to happen. Again, I'm just giving one final word to leaders. Did you know that very few people are self-starters? Did you know that? As a leader, sometimes you need to get people going.

You need to start them off, otherwise they may never start. Did you know that very few people are consistent? It's up to you as a leader to help them to remain consistent. Very few people make it through.

As a leader, what are you doing with those under you who have failed to make it through? Are you judging them and saying, I never thought they'd do it anyway? That was all just big talk. I knew it. I saw that coming.

Well, are you there to take that person under your wing and help them? Take the time. Get your eyes off yourself and think of those that God has made you responsible for. Sit them down and do what it takes to get them going again and to fulfill that vision, which you know was of God.

Instead of trying to be a pacesetter yourself, why don't you become a shepherd? Oh, you know, I'm a shepherd. I go before the sheep. I'm a pacesetter.

Come on, sheep. And these sheep are slow. Here I am over the next hill and the sheep are still sitting in the grass a couple of miles back.

What kind of sheep are these? What kind of shepherd are you? Have you been looking out for the 99th one that went astray? Well, you know, but that's just the use of the sheep. I don't want them in my flock. They can't keep the pace.

They're not good enough for my group. Is that the kind of leader you are? Put aside your own needs for once and start looking to the needs of others, because that's what true leadership is about. And so in conclusion, nothing is better than a completed vision.

Scripture says in Ecclesiastes chapter 7 and verse 8, better is the end of a thing than the beginning of it. There's another part there too, which I suppose we could put in, but I won't. Just that part of the verses, you know.

And so I'd like to say, examine where you are right now. What visions has the Lord given? Are you still trying to decide to keep going? Are you striving to keep going now that you've started? Have you wondered why you started at all? What have you been doing along the way? Have you asked for help from others? Or do you think you've got to do this by yourself? Have you heeded any of the advice that other people have given you? Or did you think you know better? Have you hit a roadblock and now you're not sure what to do? You can't go any further. You don't know what to do.

So you're sitting waiting. Well, nobody ever got through a roadblock by waiting. Yeah, I know car roadblocks eventually clear, but it's a long wait.

If something fell across the road and there's somebody's called to remove it, trust me, you're staying there. Now, what steps can you take? Well, the first one is stop. Take time out for a moment.

Stop what you are. Review and evaluate your situation. Write down all the difficulties that you are facing right now in fulfilling that vision.

And once you've got your list, see if you can identify a way of solving each one of those difficulties. And write down next to each one a possible solution. Do you need to let this go? Be honest.

Do you need to do something that you don't really feel like? Yeah, it is quite common. Do you need input from somebody else? What? There's no shame in asking for help and saying, you know, I'm struggling with this. What do you think? Can you help me? Do you need a word from the Lord? He's more than willing to give it to you either through another believer directly by the spirit, but especially through journaling.

If you'll take the time. Do you need motivation or encouragement? Same answer. Find somebody who will motivate you and encourage you.

Find a word, a scripture, a passage that's motivational. Journal. I've never yet had the Lord condemn me or say something negative to me in my journals.

It's against his nature. He's always positive. And then, what action should I take? And I'll qualify that by saying, what massive action must I take? Yeah, well, you know, I should give this a try.

Maybe it'll work. It's not going to work. You must make up your mind and commit yourself to that action and say, I'm going to do this.

I'm going to do this and I'm going to overcome this problem. What then are the rewards for completing your vision? What are the rewards? I want to tell you what happens when you set your mind to follow a vision, a vision that's from God. Because if you receive a vision from God, God intends to use you and he intends to promote you and lift you up and exalt you.

Let me give you an example. Supposing you decided you would like to have more of God's power in your life. You'd like to see God use you more in the supernatural.

You'd like to see signs and wonders and miracles. You'd like to see people healed when you pray for them. You'd like to see God doing amazing things by his power.

That's a wonderful vision to have, isn't it? That's a great journey to start. Let me tell you what's going to happen. It's going to be a matter of time and Satan is going to attack you and test you.

That's not fair. You know what? I wanted to serve the Lord. I wanted to do something good for God and now everything has gone wrong in my life.

Lord, where are you? Lord, why did you allow the devil to attack me like this? I want you to look at the verse I read right at the beginning. I'm going to read it for you again quickly and I'm going to end on this because I want you to understand this and I want you to understand it well. James 1 verse 12, it says, blessed is the man that perseveres under trial.

Now the Greek word there, and I've put it in the GBM version, is the Greek word paratso. Paratso is a trial which is designed to expose weaknesses. If you've made a product and you want to test how strong it is, you apply pressure to it until it breaks to see how much pressure it takes to break it.

That's paratso. The purpose is to make it fail, to find out what it'll take to make it fail. That word, that kind of test is never applied by God.

James says God doesn't test us with evil. God never allows us to face pressure to expose our weaknesses and our failures, but Satan does. Satan does.

It's what he mages on. Now James says blessed is the person who perseveres when they face that trial which is coming from Satan. Well, what's perseverance? It means you don't pull the car over and idle for a bit.

It means you don't turn off the engine and get out and say, oh no, oh no. You say, but the going's tough, it's uphill. Change the gears down.

The lower gears are stronger going up the hill. You may be going five k's an hour, but you're going still up the hill. Persevere, but it's tough.

Persevere. But Satan has thrown everything at me. God, all things are possible.

Persevere. Keep pushing through. Work against your feelings.

Why is that? Because the trial and the test that Satan is bringing you, God is waiting for you to pass it so he can promote you. And so it says, blessed is the man that perseveres under trial for when he has been approved. Now this word approved is another kind of a test.

It's the Greek word dokimasu and it means to qualify by passing a test. When God gives you a test, it's not to expose your weaknesses, it's to give you an opportunity for promotion. He's given you an exam to write, which when you pass qualifies you to move higher.

Now, unfortunately, sometimes that exam is facing the trial of Satan. You will persevere in the midst of your trial of everything going wrong in your life, of finances being attacked, of your body being attacked, of your friendships and relations being attacked, of everything that Satan can throw at you if you will keep going, if you will press on and not give up. It's a matter of time when you will break through that test and suddenly you will find yourself at a new higher level because you would have qualified for God to move you up higher.

So you want to pray for the sick and see them healed. The first person you pray for dies. You pray for yourself and you get sicker.

You pray for your family and they get worse. In there? You are being tested. You are being tried by the enemy.

It obviously doesn't work. It was a stupid idea. God's never going to use me.

I'm not going to waste my time. No, folks, keep going. Do not be moved.

Do not be moved. Maintain. Keep going.

You will finally reach that place where the trial of Satan is over because he can't expose any weaknesses in you because you refuse to respond to them. And now suddenly you find God comes along and he says, well done, my faithful servant. I can see that I can trust you.

I can see that you are faithful, even in the most difficult circumstances. And I know that I can use you and I can trust you with my power. Here it is.

Bam. And now suddenly you go and pray for somebody and you pray a simple prayer. Lord, I ask you to touch my brother in Jesus name.

And suddenly, bam, he says, I'm healed. You what? I'm healed. Well, you know, I tried this a few times before and it hasn't got worse.

Why are they getting healed now? Did you have greater faith now? Did you pray better prayer? No, no. You've just moved to a new level. See, I just use that as an example.

I use it especially for those that have enrolled in the school of the supernatural, because you're all facing the trials. You're wondering why the power hasn't come yet? Because you haven't maintained. Keep going.

It's going to come. Don't give up the vision. Don't stop the journey.

Keep traveling. Even if it's the Karoo and it's boring. Even if it's uphill and it's a struggle.

Even if everybody's against you. Even if you feel a failure. Keep going.

That's the one word that the Lord has for you today. To complete your vision. Keep going.

Keep going. Do not be moved by what you see. Do not be moved by what you hear.

Do not be moved by what you feel. You're moved only by his promise and his word to you. Go and reach the destination.

Jesus told his disciples to cross the sea to the other side. And they were excited. They got in the boat and suddenly a storm came up.

So Satan threw the test. He threw the test and they failed it gloriously. Lord, Lord, what are we going to do? Lord, we're dying.

We're going to drown. You know what? They too could have stood up and said, peace be still, because they built their faith. Later on, they learned how to do that, but that was not one of the times.

You too can rise up and see your destination and fulfill that vision and see all the things that you've waited and hoped for, for so long. If you'll just continue with the vision God gave you and complete it, it'll be worth it. The reward in the end will be worth the price that you pay.

Amen. Thank you, Father, for your word. I thank you for each one that heard it.

I thank you for each one of your people that's been struggling to complete the vision that you gave them, Lord. And I pray that this word has challenged them afresh, that has motivated them and encouraged them, done whatever it needs to get done to get them to get back on the road, to follow through, and to reach the destination. May each one of us not allow ourselves to be sidetracked in any way.

Maybe complete the path that you have laid out before us. Maybe reach the destination that you set for us, Lord. I ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

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