Foolproof Vision [Part 1]

Alan Wright, pastor, Bible teacher, and author of his latest book, The Power to Bless. The most important thing I think ever happened to a child would be to get a vision for his or her life. That's where your identity comes from. 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. 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 Alan 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 PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.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 Alan Wright. Are you ready for some good news? God is not a slave master who is in forcing you to obey as if it were your duty of drudgery.

He's a father. And as such, He has a vision for your life that is more beautiful than anything you could envision for yourself. And what happens when the revelation of God's love and His plans for your life emerges in your heart is the more vividly that you see that, the more vividly you have that revelation, the more everything in your life aligns to it.

And that does change all of your thoughts and all your behaviors. We're just looking at one verse today in our new study on Proverbs. We call it the study foolproof because Proverbs is about the wisdom that overcomes our folly. And today, one of the most famous Proverbs in Proverbs chapter 29 verse 18, just this one verse. Where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint. The more famous version of this from the King James, where there is no vision, the people perish. And the second part of the verse, but blessed is he who keeps the law.

Where there's no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint, or they're discouraged, or there's anarchy, or they perish. These are the translations. But blessed is he who keeps the law. For some reason, after I had prepared most of this message, I just started thinking, have I ever preached on this text before? Such an important text. And I don't really know how it happened, but I just went back, opened up a drawer full of files, and I saw a message about vision. I pulled out the folder, and it was on this text. And as far as I know, it was the only other time I preached on this text. Why? I haven't preached on this text more.

I don't know. But the folder I pulled out had a sermon manuscript in it that I preached in October of 1998. And what was interesting about it when I pulled it out, it was kind of a little sentimental trip for me, because it was just two and a half weeks after our daughter Abigail had been born.

She was born on a Tuesday, September 29, 1998, and a couple of Sundays later, I was preaching on this text. And I just had to look at it, since there was a manuscript, and say, what did I have to say? What was on my mind as I was preaching maybe for the first or second time after our baby girl had come into the world? What was on my mind as a father for the second time? And I just had such a chuckle out of it. This is verbatim from my introduction to that sermon 19 years ago, right after Abbie was born.

It began this way. I have acquired an application for permission to date my daughter form. The applicant must fill it out before taking Abigail on a date. Remember, she's two weeks old when I'm preaching this. Of course, she will be 21 years of age before she has a first date. The form begins with this basic information, name, height, weight, IQ, GPA, anticipated graduate study program to be pursued after college, hours spent in Bible study and prayer daily, just general information like that for the applicant, followed by a simple yes or no section.

The applicant has to fill out. Yes or no. Do you own a van? Yes or no. Do you own a truck with oversized tires? Yes or no.

Do you own a waterbed? I don't think we have those anymore. Yes or no.

Do you have a nose ring, belly button ring or any other ring attached to something it should not be attached to? Yes or no. And then that form says, if answer to any of the above questions is yes, then discontinue the application, leave the premises immediately. The next section of the application, listen, I'm reading verbatim from my sermon 19 years ago. The next application of that section of the application to date my daughter is a narrative section with these instructors and 50 words or less.

What does do not touch my daughter mean to you? Then there are a few other questions on the form, like when would be the best time to interview your father, mother and pastor at the end of the form? The applicant signs and has the document notarized with the statement, to the best of my knowledge, under penalty of death, dismemberment, electrocution, Chinese water torture and or a red hot poker. All statements included herein are true. And my favorite part of the form concludes by saying thank you for your interest.

Please allow four to six years for processing. And that sermon continued, first sermon I preached after Abby was born, it continued like this. I'm reading from the manuscript. I have a vision for my daughter's life and it is not for her to date certain kinds of men. A parent loves the child and begins to have a picture over the child's life and visions how it will be for her. For Abigail, I envision her to be, as the Bible describes her namesake, a beautiful and wise woman. I want her to be beautiful inwardly, full of the joy, peace, gentleness and vitality of the Holy Spirit. I want her to grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and with men. I want her to love God with all of her heart. I want her to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. Because I have a vision of purity over her life, it means that some things just don't fit that vision.

Of course, there are pieces of this picture that I don't really know how they will actually be lived out. I don't know what the ultimate color of her hair will be. I know there will be plenty of surprises in her personality along the way, things I would have never guessed. And I believe that she will accomplish things that I currently am not able to imagine that she will accomplish. That was 19 years ago, and here I am on Father's Day.

And thankfully, we're still two years away from being allowed to fill out the application to date her. But as I had envisioned when I first held her in my arms, she has indeed grown in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and man. She is, as her mother and I dreamed, a wise and beautiful woman. There was so much that I didn't know at that time and couldn't have known, of course. I didn't know that the early part of her life that she would not live in a lighthearted home, but in a home that was heavy with sorrow over the advanced cancer that would take Abigail's aunt Mary away from the earth, and that her photos as a one-year-old seldom had smiles.

She had breathed in some of the weightiness of grief in our home that year. And I didn't know when Abigail was born and I held her in my arms that I would have to join my wife in praying for a miracle to heal her of the threat of melancholy that had tried to infect her tiny soul. And I didn't know that God would answer our prayer in such a glorious, overflowing manner, such that delight and joy and laughter and silliness would become Abby's chief calling cards. I didn't know that she would be such a wonderful mixture, a little girl that loved to wear frilly, girly dresses, and also loved to climb trees and go on adventures. I didn't know she would love dogs and every animal and dancing classical ballet and live for a chance to be on a horse. I didn't know that she would develop such a snarky, quick wit, such that she was the one in our house when one day she was little, and I said, I think, Abby, I'm looking a little too fat, and she looked at me seriously.

She said, Daddy, you don't look fat with a shirt on. I didn't know that this was the way it was going to be. I didn't know that she would try to dodge math and science but win national speech contests.

I didn't know all of these things. But I had a vision for her life, a vision of good things, of purity, of holiness, of love for Jesus, and the fruit of the Holy Spirit in her life, these things I knew for sure. I had a vision for her life because that's what a father does. 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. 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 can 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 that 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. 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's a God of revelation. He's a God of the Word. He's 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, is 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's no guidance, a people falls, but in abundance of counselors, there's safety. 1 Samuel 3, when little Samuel is 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, is 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. 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, 6 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. 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. If 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. Alan, we're back here in the studio, and you have a parting good news thought for today as we have this series on foolproof, and if someone feels like they have trouble receiving this gift from someone, is it because maybe they've got an authority problem that, well, if they're paranoid about something like that, like, who are you to tell me what to do?

Yeah, right. Well, I'll tell you one thing. You know, as we were talking in yesterday's broadcast that our capacity to hear from God is intimately related to our capacity to trust God. And that's why when you immerse yourself in the good news of the gospel, trust grows and you hear from God. But what we're seeing today will continue is that God has a visionary destiny for each one of us. And so much of what happens when you get direction for your life is that you are gaining a sense of God's vision. And it's rooted in Scripture, but it is also rooted in God's interaction with you as your Father. And that vision, as we'll see, energizes us to work, to obey, and to excel. So instead of focusing on, oh, I need to work harder or I need to do something more to excel, focus more on being filled with the vision of God for your life and His focus will come into your heart. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.