Allen Wright, pastor, Bible teacher, and author of his latest book, The Power to Bless. The call, therefore the Christian, is not the drudgery of obey, obey, obey, but rather it is vision, vision, vision.
Revelation, revelation, revelation. 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. 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 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. And she comes back and she says, I think I found a way out.
We said, what? She said, Well, I think you can get 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 enter the parking lot, it is 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, OK, 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. 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 will 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. I have used this example before, but I can't think of a better one. Julia Mancuso was an Olympic gold medalist. She won the giant slalom in 2006 Winter Olympics. She also was a silver medalist in two events in 2010 and a bronze medalist in an event in 2014. But when she was a little girl, Julia drew a crayon picture of herself skiing down a hill winning a gold medal.
I don't remember all of those. I'm just envisioning like some little six or seven, eight-year-old girl, and she put it up on her bedroom wall. She had a vision of herself winning a gold medal. And so what did that mean for her once she had that vision? Did it mean that she sat on the couch and ate potato chips until somebody came and handed her a gold medal?
Of course not. What it meant was it energized her to hit the slopes every day, lift weights, train, and do everything she could to align herself towards that vision. What I'm saying is that a vision, if you get a vision from God for your life, it doesn't invite you to just sort of sit there and just wait on God.
It energizes you to be essentially obedient to that vision. See, a revelation is by its very nature a gift to us because it unveils to us what would have otherwise been veiled. If you open up a present, somebody's wrapped in a beautiful wrap, and you open up the wrappings, when you open it up and you open the box and you look in, it's revealed what the gift is. When you opened it, you didn't create the gift. You just had a revelation of the gift that was there. This is the nature of God. He's the gift giver, and spiritual growth, so much of it, is having an increasing prophetic revelation of the gift of God in Jesus Christ. And it changes you.
It changes everything in your life. Hard work isn't so hard when you have a vision for why you're working so hard. Habakkuk 2, write the vision, make it plain on tablets so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time. It hastens to the end. It will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it will surely come.
It will not delay. The invitation of the Scripture is not run ahead or run behind God, but to wait upon His vision because otherwise we'll just live exhausted lives trying to discover it ourselves. Even the ewes will grow faint and weary and young men will fall exhausted. But those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength and mount up with wings like eagles.
And they'll run and not be weary and they'll walk and not faint. You ever had some kind of work to do in your life in which you didn't know why you're doing it? And so it just felt like drudgery.
I remember the first time this happened to me. I was I was a teenager. I was working that summer. I took a job with the Greensboro City Parks and Recreation Department, and I was assigned to work at the Spencer Love tennis courts at part of the JC Park in Greensboro. And we were employees of the city. Later, I would work directly for that tennis center, some as a kid.
But this summer, one of my first jobs and I worked for the Parks and Recreation and they had several of us. In fact, we had too many of us at the tennis courts. There was not enough for us to do. You sweep the soft courts, the composition courts, you do the things you're supposed to do. But there wasn't that much to be done.
They didn't trust us with the cash register or checking in people or even taking the reservation. So we were just doing kind of grunt work and there was going to be a big job that summer. They were going to be resurfacing the composition courts, the soft courts.
They had this kind of green like sand over it. And we were going to be part of the ones of kind of helping do that. So we were kind of a labor for that.
But before we were ready for that and before the time of the actual resurfacing, one day we were just sitting in there, the four of us guys, and there was just clearly there was nothing for us to do. And our supervisor came and he said, guys, here's what we need to do today. He said, we're going to take this big mound, huge mound of composition material.
It's kind of like this green sand. He said, we're going to take it here. We need to move it over to here. And I'm sitting here looking like, why are we going to move this mound about 20 feet?
Because I know what's going to happen is that later when we resurface these courts, we're going to take all of this stuff and it's going to be going to courts, you know. But what we did was we got our shovels and wheelbars and we spent the entire day moving a mound of sand about 20 feet for no reason. And that was clear.
There was no reason. Do you know how hard it is to make yourself move sand for no reason? It's just drudgery. And then I remember that. But then I was thinking about this last week at the beach and another one of our annual customs is to do some sand sculptures at the beach. And so we dig a big mound of sand and we construct these huge pyramids.
I don't know if I got a picture of it or not. A guy in the striped shorts there, he didn't do all the manual labor necessarily, but anyway, I've got strong nephews now, you know, help dig. But I did a lot of the digging for it and it helps. One of my nephews is a structural engineer, but we've got tools and trowels. And the reason we do this is because some years ago, about 15 years ago, we're walking down the beach and we saw somebody built these big pyramids and it was so cool looking. And we said, how did you do that? And he explained it to us, explained how the angles were really important and how to start it and how to get going and the tools that he used to do it. And so we got a vision for it. And so at the beach, you couldn't pay me to dig a hole at home for no reason.
But now the beach or down there digging, your bags getting stored and everything, why? Because you've got a vision of something that you're going to build. I'm just talking about the power of a vision that energizes you. How much more so if you get a vision of your life? It focuses you. This is so much of it. It focuses you when you get revelation from God about your life. It focuses you so powerfully.
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. Professional golfer Jason Day does an interesting thing before he hits a golf shot. He stands behind the ball and he looks down the fairway for a long time and then he closes his eyes.
And he closes his eyes what sometimes seems like a pretty long time, long moments with his eyes closed. And then he steps up to go hit the ball. And he explains that what he's doing is that he is closing his eyes and actually envisioning the actual shot. He envisions the height of the ball as it travels through the air, the curve, whether it's drawing to the left or fading back to the right. He envisions exactly where it wants, he sees it landing on the fairway.
In other words, he gets a vision of the golf shot. And he thinks that's the most important thing for him to do right before he hits it because what does he want to have happen? He wants his entire body to be focused on that one thing. He wants his legs, his arms, his mind, his eyes, every one of his senses. He wants it all focused on that one thing because right now the whole vision is this one golf shot, you see.
Now there are other things that might be interesting or important for him to do with his legs. It might be that he, you know, at another occasion would wander over to a bush and look at a beautiful butterfly. It might be another time that he would be using his eyes to read a good book.
It might be that at times that he should be having a conversation with somebody and using his mouth. But for this moment, everything is focused on this one thing, a vision of a golf shot. So you see, in other words, he restrains himself from every other type of movement in order to be focused on this vision.
That's what vision does. It brings a profound focus to you. There are many other reasonable choices that we might have in life, but what happens when you get a vision from God is it brings this incredible focus. For the Christian, there is such extraordinary good news. If this proverb is to have deep meaning for us, there's such good news for us because if where there is prophetic revelation, then we don't cast off restraint, but we find ourselves restrained and focused towards that and we find ourselves blessed in keeping obedience to that vision. If that's the case, which it is, then we are most blessed because God in Jesus Christ has come to reveal fully who he is and to show you who you are.
And more than that, he has come so that through his sacrifice, he would take the penalty that was due to you so that you could be put in right standing with God so that he could justly not only redeem you, but make you his heir and prove it to you by depositing his own life inside of you. The Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ lives inside the heart of every believer. And Jesus said he's the spirit of truth and he'll guide you into all truth. What I'm saying is that for the Christian, we have an incredible, incredible promise that we're just sheep and he's a shepherd and he's always leading us and he's given us his word and said every promise is yes and amen in Jesus Christ.
So what this means therefore is that our life is simplified. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1 makes it plain. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. In other words, look to Jesus. He is the revelation of God. And so when you read the scripture, look for Jesus, look to Jesus.
When you're meditating, when you're thinking on your life, you look to Jesus. He's the author and the finisher of your faith. When you see Jesus, faith is born. See, this is what the scriptures say this way. God's revelation is what causes faith to spring forth.
Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Jesus is the living word of God. When you look to Jesus and you see what Jesus has done for you, you see your life. You see the value of your life. You see the call on your life. When Zacchaeus met Jesus, this tax collector despised in their culture who was a fraud and a thief.
That's the problem with the tax collectors. And he saw Jesus. He just spent a day with Jesus and Jesus didn't even tell him anything to do. And Zacchaeus just spontaneously said, Lord, I'm going to give half of my goods to the poor. And if I ever defrauded anybody, I'm going to make it up to him fourfold.
Why? Because he had a vision of Jesus and everything just started aligning to that. When the apostle Paul, who was originally called Saul, was on the road to Damascus, a blinding light came and a voice came and said, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And he said, who is it? And he said, it's Jesus. And he had a revelation, a vision of Jesus. And everything in his life changed so that he never, ever, ever departed from that. And it's so telling when he was meeting with King Agrippa and he described his whole testimony about what had happened to him and how the voice had come and said, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And he came to verse 19 in Acts 26 and he said, therefore, O King Agrippa, therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.
In other words, a vision of Jesus changed everything in his life. This is what happens. You are energized. You are empowered. You are strengthened and your whole life starts getting aligned to this, which means I can leave you with several pieces of practical good news.
The first is this. The call, therefore, the Christian is not the drudgery of obey, obey, obey, but rather it is vision, vision, vision, revelation, revelation, revelation. If you don't have willpower or discipline, you're not alone in that. God's plan is not for you to try to live the obedient life out of your own willpower, but out of a vision of Christ and out of a vision for your life. And it is to say this, secondly, that you are no longer under an old covenant in which prophets would speak from time to time, but you're under a new covenant in which every single person in Christ is given the Holy Spirit. You remember what happened at Pentecost when Peter recognized that people are prophesying, people are speaking in unknown languages, people are being filled with the Spirit, and then you remember what was prophesied by Joel, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. All the people will start having encounters with God.
People will, all kinds of people, not just the official prophets, will start having visions from God and dreams from God and hearing from God. This is the nature of the Christian life. It's, we have God speaking to us. And what this means for us also is that you can help others receive vision for their lives because all of us have a ministry of encouragement to one another. And we can bless one another the same way we bless our kids and we speak a positive, godly, biblical vision over their lives. That's encouragement. That is a part of the prophetic revelation that we bring towards one another in the body of Christ, is we bless one another into the positive future that God has for them. We're actually helping people. So you can see people flourish through this.
This is what this means to us. So Abby had been born and two weeks later, I'm writing down at least part of the vision I had for her life because I wanted the vision and identity to go into her soul and then everything else will align to it. I didn't follow her along all through her life and say, don't date the wrong kind of boys. Don't become promiscuous.
Don't become infatuated with boys that don't have good intentions. I didn't follow her along. I don't even think I ever said that to her.
I never said this single time to her. What you do is you start speaking a destiny about who you are. And then what happens, it just becomes part of the person. And she's making her own decisions that align with that. In other words, she restrains herself.
If you are holy, you will restrain yourself from all that's unholy. But if you don't have a vision of your life, you'll cast off that restraint. And I know this is the case because I noticed that she was paying attention to the recent royal wedding.
And she looked at me with all seriousness and she said, you know, Daddy, you know, marrying a prince is still on the table. And I realize her vision has now exceeded mine. Where there is no prophetic revelation, people are lost, trapped in a flood, and they just do anything that feels right. But where there's a vision from God, there's a rich blessing that comes because you just automatically align yourself to that vision. Blessed is he who keeps the vision of God. And that's the gospel. Alan Wright and today's teaching, Full Proof Vision.
It's in our series also titled Full Proof. And Alan is back with us in the studio as he shares his parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. 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. Alan, as we're back here with a parting good news thought for the day and putting a bookmark here at the end of Full Proof Vision, as we move continuing in this series on Full Proof, it's a lot about wisdom here, right? And the wisdom that comes from God and how blessed we are that we have it. Part of the wisdom of God that we see in the Proverbs is rooted in this. God has a vision for your life. And here's what I want to leave our listeners with today, Daniel. Don't settle for a vision for your life that's less than the highest and best that God has bought for you in Jesus Christ. Your life is infinitely valuable and laden with purpose in Christ.
Don't settle for anything less than that. It doesn't mean your name will be in light. It doesn't mean you'll be rich and famous. It doesn't mean all of that. But it means that he has a very high vision. And there's a tendency to settle for something less. No, trust in him and let that vision energize every aspect of your life. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
