Enjoying God and Other Rare Events - Steve Sampson

Enjoying God and Other Rare Events
that not to seek a vision of God’s purpose for our life is defiant
rebellion! A visionless and lukewarm heart says,
“Lord, I’m excited about my job, my house, my wife, my
family, my new car, and my favorite hobby, but you, Lord, are
not worth getting excited about.”
The Bible says, “Without a vision, the people perish.” It
does not say without prayer, without church, without Bible study
(of course, these are of utmost importance), but without a vision,
we perish!
The devil trembles over our vision more than anything else.
We may be saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, but without a
vision for the increase of the kingdom of God, we are little threat
to the forces of darkness. But when our vision is enlarged to
increase God’s kingdom, the devil has trouble on his hands.
Our vision has to be far greater than how to get our needs
met. It has to be greater than being a church member. How easy
it is to fall into the rut of being a “hand-to-mouth” Christian. He
is similar to the person who does not manage his life financially,
by planning for retirement and making investments, but lives
only for his paycheck from week to week. The Christian who
sees no “plan” for his life other than getting his needs met will
never know God any more intimately than someone he calls
upon in the midst of a crisis.
How Large a Vision?
A vision limited only to making heaven (with nothing for the
present life), is similar to a woman marrying a man because she
is crazy about his house. Her only desire is to live in his house.
What a poor marriage that would be! Equally, we have rejoiced
over heaven and neglected to fall head-over-heels in love with
Jesus. Heaven is a byproduct of fellowship and “marriage” to the
King of kings.
Recently I was ministering in a city where a good friend of
mine lives. He called me early one morning to help him unload
some of his books that had arrived from the printer. The truck
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