The Vision of Prayer

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Proverbs 29:18

“By faith, he [Moses] forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” Hebrews 11:26

Great things have been accomplished by mighty men of God who, as Moses did, were able to “see” God even though He was invisible to their mortal eyes. Great things have been lost by the unbelieving masses, who because of their “blindness” [lack of faith] could NOT “see” God.

Remember that old saying: Seeing is believing? That saying was birthed here on earth. The opposite of that saying, birthed in heavenly places, must be: Believing is seeing.

Because we believe who God is, we see things differently than those around us who do not know God at all.

The book of Hebrews tell us that the Israelites, following Moses in the desert as he led them to the “promised land”, “could not enter in because of unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:19) They had left Egypt, a place of hard toil, a life of slavery and poverty, and were on their way to the “land of milk and honey”, a new home promised to them by the same God who dwelt among them in the tabernacle, who led them by day with a miraculous cloud, and by night with a miraculous flame.

And the only thing that prevented them from entering into their promised land, from entering into the “rest” that only the Lord could provide, was their unbelief. They could not trust God, and could not be thankful to God, for they saw only the hardships of the desert, and so they died in the desert. They could not see the goodness of God, they saw only their no-frills desert life, no worse than what they had in Egypt, but so much better because they were free! But their eyes did not look ahead, they only looked back, so that they longed for what they once had. Those who died in the desert had no forward “vision”; how could they possibly enter into a land they could not even “see”? How could they “see” the land ahead, when they only looked back? All because they could not believe God’s promise to deliver them to the land where they could rest. All because they could not SEE. All because they had no FAITH.

The true man (or woman) of God sees what those who do not yet know God cannot see. This is what makes their prayers so powerful.

“And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! How shall we do? And he [Elisha] answered, Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” 2 Kings 6:15-17

Lest we misunderstand, this is not an example of positive thinking! Positive thinking has nothing to do with KNOWING GOD OR TRUSTING IN HIS PROMISES. Do not be led astray by positive thinking and so much other new age heretical thinking. Positive thinking and other false religion beliefs, are based on wishful thinking or on belief that we are some form of gods ourselves. They have nothing to do with our God who is also our Father.. These cultic stances are not based on faith in God OR on His promises.

The example of Elisha and his servant demonstrates the “vision”, the “sight” , that is given only to us who are born again. Jesus said we could not even “see” the kingdom of God, until we are born again, not of flesh, but of the Spirit of God. [See John 3:3]

Our flesh cannot see the kingdom of God, our flesh cannot see the promises of God, our flesh cannot pray the promises of God down from the heavenly places into our physical realm no matter how fervent, long or eloquent our prayer!

We see this proven over and over again, when we attempt to share with an unbeliever the powerful things of God. Sometimes, no matter what we say, or how we say it, what is so simple for us to understand, they cannot grasp, and they look at us like we’re from another planet. [We are! A heavenly one!] It isn’t that they don’t want to “see” it, it’s that they cannot see it until they have been given the “eyes” that we are given when we first believe and trust in Jesus, when we are born again. It is as though the Word of God is written in a foreign language (spiritually speaking) to those who have not been born again. But once we are born again, the Holy Spirit becomes our interpreter, and we see it all clearly.

And once we are born again, even though our bodies are still living, we are to “reckon” ourselves dead to the flesh, Paul says, and alive to the Spirit of God. Faith means that we have left the realm of the senses. If we have done this, then we no longer judge what is true according to what our five senses tell us. We now have only one sense, the spiritual sense called faith that produces 20/20 vision in the supernatural realm. This is not blind faith, as some like to call it, implying that we have no knowledge or understanding or intelligence. It is because we understand who God is that our faith is not blind, but sees. And it is by this faith that we determine what is true…..IF we have reckoned ourselves dead to the flesh, and alive in the Spirit. Jesus, the Word, is the TRUTH. Nothing else is.

"What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Mark 11:24

When we pray, we ask according to the Word, the Truth, for things that are not. For if they already were, we would have no need to ask for them. But, even before we ask for them, it is critical that we believe they are already, all because God has so promised, all because we have faith in who God is and we have faith in His promises to us. The things we ask may not be here physically at the time of our prayers, but we know already that they exist, and are given to us at the moment of our asking. And at the moment of our asking, we stop relying on our senses, we rely only on faith. And we watch for the manifestation to come, never doubting for a moment that it will.

When Jesus cursed the fig tree for not giving Him fruit, it did not shrivel up and die instantly. But the curse took effect instantly, only at the root of the tree, which could not be seen. By the next day, the power of death that had gripped the root, had spread to the entire tree, and its death was visible to the disciples. They could not see that death grip when Jesus cursed it...not til the following day. But because they did not see any immediate evidence of it, did not mean that it wasn’t cursed just as Jesus said it was.

That is how our prayers work. We have instantly what we ask, even if we don’t immediately see the manifestation or evidence of it.

But the following scripture is key to prayer’s success:

“But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.” (James 1:6-7)

We must hold fast to that which we can see only by faith, nothing wavering. No doubting. Only solid confidence, because we see it already, because we know God has given it already, because we know God keeps His promises to us, until it has been manifested for all to see.

That is the vision of prayer.