Foolproof Vision [Part 2]

Allen Wright, pastor, Bible teacher, and author of his latest book, The Power to Bless. What a vision from God does is it puts into you an identity of who you are, why you exist, and where you're going with your life, so that then all competing ideologies and all distractions from your God-given purpose get laid to the side.

In other words, you restrain yourself from all the distractions. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, Foolproof, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Allen Wright Ministries. So as you listen to today's message, go deeper if we're happy to send you today's special offer. Just contact us at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. We'll have more on this special offer later in the program. But now let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Allen Wright. The most important thing I think ever happened to a child would be to get a vision for his or her life, right? That's where your identity comes from. And it's interesting that the spirit of this present age would disagree with what I'm saying right now. Because the spirit of the age would be quick to accuse me of saying, well, you're trying to overly control your child and exert your influence.

You shouldn't do that. Just let the child be who the child's going to be and discover him or herself and let everyone find their own direction. And no one give, restrain anybody by any such type of vision.

That's the cry of the age. And indeed there have been, of course, parents and authority figures who have been selfishly, have selfishly imposed their own agenda onto others. And that's the thing that people want to break free from. I understand that. But the spirit of the age, it says, offer no vision for a child at all is absolutely wrong.

And if you think about it, completely ridiculous. Of course you have a vision for a little child. I'm just using this as an illustration, but as a picture of the bigger issue of vision.

And of course you have a vision. If you have a child that crawls, you have a vision for that child to walk. That's why we take them by their little hands and we hold them up and we straddle them and we walk and show them this is what it feels like to walk.

Because we've got a vision of them not crawling their whole life, but walking. It's why when they're preschoolers, we buy them books and we sit them in our laps and we read them stories because we have a vision of them learning to read. We have a vision. And even people who say they don't have a vision for their children or brothers, they do have a vision. And something happens inside of a soul when you begin to catch the vision because you align your life according to the vision. We're not raising slaves or robots who perform obediently for us, of course not, but the life of obedience is a life that aligns to what is highest and best.

And something that gets planted deep within. So to say where there is no vision or no prophetic revelation, people cast off restraint is to say, if you don't have a God-given vision for your life, there is no inward ruling force that shapes all your decisions and all your behaviors. But what a vision from God does is it puts into you an identity of who you are, why you exist and where you're going with your life.

So that then all competing ideologies and all distractions from your God-given purpose get laid to the side. In other words, you restrain yourselves from all the distractions, including the sin which so easily clings to us. You are made for so much and God is your Father and God is not silent. He is not a cruel father who leaves his children in silence wondering what they're supposed to do. He is a God of revelation. He is a God of the Word. He is a God of the Spirit who deposits his own life inside of you, his own spirit. And I'm just saying, if I had as a father of a newborn baby girl a vision over her life, how much more so does your heavenly Father have a vision for your life?

And he wants you to receive it and catch it. If I spoke prophetic blessing over my children in order to cast a vision for their future so they could grow into it, how much more so does God, by the power of his Word and his Spirit, speak a prophetic revelation over your life, a blessing over your life? That's what his Word is full of. It's telling you a vision for who you are, a vision for why you've been made, a vision for who you are destined to be. It's surprising when in this one little verse that's so famous where there is no prophetic revelation, no prophetic vision that people cast off restraint, that the couplet, the second part of it says, but blessed is he who keeps the law. You might expect that the proverb would say where there is no prophetic vision, the people are discouraged, the people cast off restraint, but where there is revelation, the people flourish.

You might expect it to say that, but that's not what it says. It's a parallel statement. In other words, it's sort of repeating the first statement, but the second statement says blessed is he who keeps the law.

That seems odd at first, but what I want to show you today is just how beautifully, powerfully inseparable these two ideas are. That in other words, my point of this about Raising Abby is that I wanted to put a prophetic revelation over her life of holiness, purity, and love for Christ and of making a difference in the world because once she gets that, then blessed is she who keeps the law. Your obedience is not a drudgery to a slave master.

It is an alignment to a revelation that has come from your father. Let me start with this to try to explain further how sad and empty and dangerous it is where there is no vision or there's a misguided vision. So the spirit of the age would tell you that you are more free when there's no one telling you what to do.

That's the spirit of the age. Freedom is proportionate to how little restraint you have on your life. That is categorically the opposite of the biblical picture of what freedom actually is.

Freedom, powerful, beautiful freedom in biblical faith comes where there is vision and revelation and the word of the Lord. And in fact, in biblical faith, where there is no present revelation, there is deep mourning. So in the old covenant, you see over and over this theme that there is a great grief if there is no vision. Proverbs 11 14 says where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in abundance of counselors, there's safety. 1 Samuel 3, when little Samuel gets called into the ministry, verse 1 says, Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli, and the word of the Lord was rare in those days.

There was no frequent vision. See, this is a grievous thing in the heart of Israel if there was no frequent vision. Amos 8 describes one of the most painful forms of judgment that the Lord ever brought in the old covenant. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread nor thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east. They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.

It's the most grievous thing if you didn't have a transcendent revelation giving you instruction for your life. Part of it, lamentations, the lament of the exiled people is for this very thing. Lamentations 2 and 9, her gates have sunk into the ground, she's ruined and broken her bars.

Her kings and princes are among the nations. The law is no more. The Torah, our word from God, where is it? We don't have it. We're not surrounded by it.

We're not. And her prophets find no vision from the Lord. It's one of the greatest forms of grief in the life of Israel. Hosea 4 says it plainly, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. All of biblical faith hinges on this. God reveals himself. And if you don't have revelation from God, then you are stuck or you're in danger. How contrary to our modern notions. It is a gift, listen to this, it is the most precious gift if someone who knows more than you do gives you a word of wisdom, revelation and vision that you can trust.

What a gift. And if you don't have it, you're stuck, paralyzed or in peril. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Ever feel like something's holding you back, as if you lack an important key that could change everything?

Is there someone you love who seems stuck? You'd like to help them, but how? What's missing? Blessing. We all need a positive faith-filled vision spoken over our lives. You can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing through Pastor Alan Wright's new book, The Power to Bless, which quickly became an Amazon number one bestseller after its recent release. Until now, the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales, but this month, Alan Wright Ministries wants to send you the book as our thank you for your donation. When you give this month, you'll not only receive the bestselling book, but you'll also receive a free five-session video course in which Pastor Alan teaches how to bless and covers content not found in the book.

The video course includes a detailed study guide perfect for personal growth or small group discussion. Make your gift today and discover the power to bless. The Gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. Had a fresh example of this recent beach trip, more raw than it is fresh. Our family decided we were going to branch out, Ann's family at the beach.

Didn't have all the cousins this year, but we had 10 of us. So we decided to branch out, go to a new restaurant. Ann and I had seen a sign for Snookies on the inlet at Little River. And we said, let's go check it out. Advertised waterfront dining, went down and looked at it.

And we didn't eat. We just went out and saw it. It's beautiful. It's quaint. It's got outdoor seating. It's covered. It's got some indoor seating. And it looks over a beautiful marina, an inlet from the waterway. And so we mentioned to the family, looked at the menu, everybody said, let's go try it. And of course things get crowded down at the beach this time of year.

And so they don't take reservations. So wisely we were going to leave at 6.30. I called right at 6.30. I said, how much of a wait do you have?

They said, no more than about 10 minutes. I said, great. And I said, we're going to be coming that way. And then also because a lot of the seating is outdoor seating, I looked on the weather app to see that, okay, there are some storms in the area to the south.

And to the west, but they're not predicted to hit Little River. Let's go. We'll enjoy it. Well, you know how the treadmill works to try to get 10 people together. And at 7.15 before we leave, we get there at 7.35. So now two things have changed.

There's now a 40-minute wait. And I noticed as we went to walk, that's no problem. We'll go walk amongst the yachts and look at them at the marina, wait on the table. I noticed the black clouds that had seemed like they were really in the distance were moving rapidly towards us. And I said to the kids, let's go get up under the sheltered area there. We'll just kind of stand around other people that are eating their food because it's going to rain. And it started raining. It started pouring. It started blowing sideways rain so that it wasn't good enough just to stand under the covered shelter at the edge. We had to kind of crowd in and just hover over the shoulders of other people eating fried shrimp. And the lightning started.

It was one of the worst electrical storms I've ever actually been in. It was so bad, I said to kids, we got to go stand inside. We'll just go stand inside the door. There's hardly any room in there.

It's a little place. So we all, 10 of us, we go in, we stand inside. The lightning is crashing. And it's that kind of thunder and lightning that are happening simultaneously so you know this is right on top of us.

Fireworks in the sky. And now we've been waiting 35 minutes. And we're much relieved to see that there's some people getting ready to leave.

Our tables are going to be set up inside because you don't want to sit outside of the storm. I mean it's like electrocution is on our mind. And so all of a sudden, kaboom. And the lights went out in the restaurant. And everybody went, oh. And we're like, oh. And then all of a sudden they came back on and everybody cheered.

Hoorah. They're cleaning our tables. And then just right about the time they're taking us to the table, the manager came over and he said, I'm so sorry. He said, the lightning has taken out our ventilation system. And we can no longer cook any food.

We're shutting the kitchen down. I'm sorry. And now we've been there 45 minutes. The weather app on my phone had a little indicator of how far away the lightning strikes were. And it said they are 0.0 miles. It was every five seconds lightning.

The skies were just lit up. One of the problems with Snookies is there are only six parking places that are up close. The others are 100 yards away.

We're in the 100 yard plus range. You have to go down exterior steep stairs out into the parking lot and then a football field to get to the car. It was simply impossible to go without risking death. I said, honey, we just – I would like to go get the car for everybody.

My brother-in-law wanted to go get the car. She said, we just can't right now. She said, you're right. No way. You can go. Let's just let this thing pass. For an hour and 15 or 20 minutes I sat there looking at this waiting for it to pass and lightning stood still on top of Snookies. I said, do you have any cold food we could eat? He said, no.

And the cash register doesn't work anyway. So we sat there until finally the app said the lightning is now 0.4 miles away. That was good enough. I made a dash for the car. Kevin made a dash for the car. We got in it. I was so scared of the lightning I slammed the door on my own left hand as I got in.

Still cartilage is damaged but I'm all right. And we brought the cars up, successfully got all 10 people in the cars and we had been at Snookies for two hours with no food. It's 9.35. And we're thankfully going to pull out and get some Domino's pizza. And as we're pulling out the single lane road, which is the only way out of Snookies, we came to the first little intersection and there's a dip in the road. And I was going slowly and I thought that's a lot of standing water. And I looked up in the car who had done just like we'd done, waited until the lightning stopped enough to get in the car. I looked in front of me, had stopped in the midst of the standing water and I realized had stalled out and that there was a flood on the street. I called Snookies, I said the street is flooded. Is there another way out?

They said no. People's temperaments are a little different when they haven't had any food. And we're sitting there. Kevin's behind me and I just started backing up to get off of this water.

Kevin's like, what is going on? And I realized as I announced to the car, folks, it is raining torrentially. So the flash flooding is not going to improve until the rain stops. And the rain is forecast to continue for the next hour. So I don't know when or how we're going to get out of here. And we just sat there. If you want to know the picture of what life is like where there is no revelation, that's it. There's a flood in front of me.

I'm nearly starving. And I don't know if we're just going to sleep in the car here until the flood subsides. I have no way of knowing whether if I pull through the water, will it carry me away? You see these videos of these stupid people that drive through the stuff. And I'm like, that seems foolish, but I'm very tempted to try it. How nice it would be for someone that knew something more about the situation to tell me.

Could I make it through this water? I'd like to know. I don't know.

Is there any other way around it? I don't know. I'd like to know. Well, eventually after sitting there for some time, my niece, Anna Catherine, bravely got out in her shorts and bare feet and said, I'm going out to explore and see. I said, Anna Catherine, I don't think you should. It's still lightning in the area. And it has subsided some, but she got out there to start waiting to see how deep. I would have done it, but I had long pants on. So I couldn't, I just threw my niece to the wolves out there and she goes and she kind of wades in. I realize this stuff's knee deep. You can't go through it. It's not like it's a flood.

It's a flood. And then she's gone. She turns kind of this little parking lot that's right next to us. She turned that and then she comes back and she says, I think I found a way out.

We said, what? She said, well, I think you can turn right into this little parking lot. And the water's not as deep right here as you get into the parking lot.

And then once you're in the parking lot, it's pretty dry. And there's a place where you come to a concrete barrier before you start getting out to the marina. And there's a little opening where you can drive up to the left, up just a little bit onto a grassy area. And I think you can drive across that grassy area and it'll bring you out to the road just beyond where the flood is. And we said, well, you feel pretty confident about it?

She said, yeah, we could certainly just drive there and check it out. And we said, okay, we'll take that as a revelation. And sure enough, we turned back in there and we went up the hill, the grassy thing.

We didn't get stuck on it. We pulled right out. And then other people saw we were doing it.

They all started doing it. And we all got out of the flood. And I was going to get out and help the man who was stuck in the flood, but I had long pants on. And a fireman was coming. A fire truck was there. A fire truck was there. And he had rubber boots.

He had rubber boots. So anyway, we all got out. So think about how silly would it be, right, if we had a revelation about how we could get out of this situation in a way that we can move forward beyond the flood. How silly it would be if I said, well, nobody's going to tell me what to do. I'm just going to drive right on through the water if I want to. Well, I'll just sit right here and tell me what to do. I don't want to put a restraint on me like I got to turn right into a parking lot and go up on some grass.

I don't feel like going up on any grass right now. Now, that's just stupid. I mean, you wouldn't do that. Why? Because you've got a revelation of something. So what happens when you get a revelation, when you get a word about something that is information that was transcendent that you did not know beforehand but now you do know, you just align your life to that. Right? So blessed is the one who turns right in the parking lot and goes up the grassy area and then gets out.

And then we went and got our Domino's Pizza. You see, that's what the picture is. Blessed is he who keeps the law. Blessed is the one who gets a prophetic revelation and then lets their whole life be aligned to that. That's the way that it works. That's the nature of God's Word to us. That's the way God's desire for a vision for our life works. It doesn't just give you meaningless stuff that you're supposed to do to be obedient because you're a slave.

Instead, He's your Father and He knows the direction for you. It's a vision that energizes us to actually move in the direction that we need to move. Allen Wright.

In today's teaching from the series on foolproof, it's foolproof vision. Allen is back with us in the studio here in just a moment, sharing a parting good news thought for the day. Stay with us. Do you ever feel like something's holding you back, as if you lack an important key that could change everything?

Is there someone you love who seems stuck? You'd like to help them, but how? What's missing? Blessing. We all need a positive, faith-filled vision spoken over our lives. You can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing through Pastor Alan Wright's new book, The Power to Bless, which quickly became an Amazon number one bestseller after its recent release. Now, the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales, but this month, Allen Wright Ministries wants to send you the book as our thank you for your donation. When you give this month, you'll not only receive the bestselling book, but you'll also receive a free five-session video course in which Pastor Alan teaches how to bless and covers content not found in the book.

The video course includes a detailed study guide perfect for personal growth or small group discussion. Make your gift today and discover the power to bless. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Back here in the studio to share Allen's parting good news thought for the day and with the foolproof vision. If it really is a foolproof vision, I think that's going to be exciting and as you say, energizing, right?

It's energizing. You think, as we'll see tomorrow, when you think of someone like Paul and what energized him and gave him such perseverance, what was it? It was Paul had a vision of Jesus.

A blinding light came, a voice spoke, and the chief persecutor of the Christians became the gospel's chief preacher. And so it's like when in Acts 26, when Paul is making his defense before the king, he essentially just says, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. Well, that's just an example of how powerful vision is. So as we'll see tomorrow, the focus of our lives should not be obey, obey, obey. As important as our obedience is, the focus is vision, vision, vision. And out of that vision, obedience will flow. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.