When God called Abraham, he spoke in pictures: “Look at the stars,"God said to Abraham. “So shall your descendants be.” The image of the massive number of stars was etched in Abraham’s mind’s eye: he who was childless at the time! Every night as he looked up to the skies before falling asleep, he was reminded of the promise, and faith grew on the inside of him and he realized that, “what God has promised, He is able to perform.”
They all saw things in their mind’s eye: Joseph, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, the apostles and Paul: “Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.”
I think that God packages the calling in pictures because pictures have an impact on us. What do you see when you close your eyes?
Every morning when I pray, I see many different things. These things help me to focus. Some of the things I see are as far in the future as 2020, four things in particular:
-We have become a large organization with an effective vision for revival
-We gather millions of people at our crusades and an enormous amount of people turn to God through our ministry
-A large number of orphaned street children have been saved and are now living in our family units in several third world countries
-On TV channels all over the world, we are broadcasting programs about Jesus and what Jesus is doing.
Faith sees! Jesus said that we are to believe. “Whatever you ask for, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.” So you believe that you have it before you receive it.
There are so many things that are vying for our attention. Never in all of history have people been in such an environment where we are continually inundated with a vast amount of information. The greater the information flow, the harder it is to stay focused.
That is why it is important to know where you are going, and to see your goals fulfilled in prayer. Not shadow-boxing, but step by step, in the power of the Holy Spirit, doing work based on the calling and the mission the Lord has given each and every one of us.
It is all about prioritizing, about asking yourself the question: If I continue living and doing as I am today, where am I headed? And is that where I want to go? If you don’t want to go where you are currently headed, then you have to reprioritize your life! Ask yourself the question: Where do I want my life to take me? What is the Holy Spirit whispering on the inside? What is required, what do I have to do, how do I have to prioritize to get there? Once you have received the answers, the rest is easy. You choose your daily actions based on your priorities, and you leave all the rest behind.
Do you understand? If you want to preach for the multitudes, then you can’t stay up watching movies and then sleep in late the next morning! You can’t just decide to pray when you feel like it. You have to start now, and, even in the small things, live the life that is required to reach the goal that draws closer.
So what if other people are doing other things? What does that have to do with you?! If you fill your life with TV shows and Hollywood, your sermons are going to sound like a TV show.
Another thing – and now I might be provoking some of you, but…You have to live that same disciplined life even when you are on vacation! Your relationship with God is the prerequisite for your mission from God, and you can’t take a vacation from God! You don’t take vacation from the one you love! Your relationship with Jesus is far too valuable to take a break from. Quite the opposite, when we can take a vacation from practical work, then we want to spend even more time with Jesus.
Boring? Absolutely not. Carina and I will be spending two weeks in Malta this summer. Those two weeks will be filled with prayer, reading the Bible and Christian books, and I will be writing every day since I am working on a new book. When everyone else goes out to eat and drink, we get ready for bed. When they are on their way home from the bars, we get up. That is when he is there, my God, Jesus. That is when we plan our future crusades, orphanages and evangelization strategies. That is when he teaches us. That is vacation: being with Jesus.
“But now you’re being boring, Tommy,” you say. Then you haven’t understood what I’ve just said. You are what you live! When thousands of demons are cast out at a five day crusade in Zambia, when thousands of people gather to receive Jesus in Rwanda, when an entire community rises to its feet in Ethiopia because of the signs and wonders Jesus is doing, that is not boring!
But all of these things are treasures in jars of clay. He is the one who is doing it. He does it by grace, but the jar of clay has to be genuine. It isn’t about performance, it is faithfulness to the Lamb of God. “I have promised faithfulness to the Lamb of God, with all I am and all I can,” we sing. Faithfulness isn’t what comes forth when things are difficult and we cast ourselves on God. Faithfulness is what comes forth when we have success and life is a breeze – that is when faithfulness makes itself known.
