DAILY BYTE
‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young people will see visions, your old people will dream dreams’. (Acts 2. 17)
Dreaming big dreams and having large visions is one of the first effects of being filled the Holy Spirit. As our minds, hearts and souls are consumed by the wind and fire of God’s presence; and as we see the greatness of God’s character in all his glory and give voice to that in worship, it is then, perhaps for the very first time that we SEE.
We see beyond ourselves and our own selfish concerns; we see that life’s purposes are far higher and greater than can ever be contained in money or power or anything that we were concerned about before. We see endless Godly and heavenly possibilities where once before we saw only pain or defeat or loss of hope.
We see!!
All things begin to take on new perspectives when we look at life from God’s perspective. To be Spirit filled is to have our imaginations stretched by the promises of God instead of being confined by the conditions of our present.
My little daughter was born just over 2 years ago. I remember clearly that when she was only a couple of months old, she used to stare around at things with the greatest of interest. It was her favourite hobby – just behind pooping. She could spend hours staring just at one thing because she was seeing it for the first time and it fascinated her. She used to especially love to stare at the leaves of a tree or bush.
Now I have seen literally millions of leaves, but her interest got me looking again. I began to look carefully at what she was staring at, and I think I managed to slowly get what was fascinating her. I gradually started to see what she sees. She was not just seeing leaves, but hundreds of beautifully and carefully shaped objects that were still shining and shimmering with the touch of their Creator’s hand.
The Holy Spirit does that to us. He opens our eyes anew to things that we may have already seen a thousand times or more. The Holy Spirit allows us to re dream and revision old hurtful experiences; and gives us new perspectives on broken, wounded situations. The Holy Spirit gives us new hope by opening our eyes to the way God sees things.
In what ways might God be challenging you to see with a new perspectives? What kind of Godly or heavenly possibilities might now be opened to you where before you saw only defeat or loss of hope? Try to write down some of the ways in which God might be challenging you and pray about them.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord, fill us with your Spirit and help us to truly see. Help us to re dream and revision our lives with your eyes. Help us to see how the objects of our everyday lives still shimmer with the touch of your hand. Stretch our imaginations and shape them around your promises, and not on the limitations of our present situations. Amen.
FOCUS
Acts 2:17 21 (NIV)
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.
I will show wonders in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.
