Manifesting the Vision

It’s helpful if you can read the Bible passage that precedes my comments.

Nehemiah’s Story
1:1-4

Nehemiah hears a report of the bad condition of his fellow Jews in Jerusalem, and Jerusalem itself, which affects him deeply with weeping and praying.

1:5-10

He repents on behalf of his people, and reminds the Lord of His promise to bring them back and restore all things.

Today, this represents how we receive the Father’s heart for people and become committed to seeing His will be done and His Kingdom established throughout the earth, starting with our own sphere of influence.

1:11 – 2:8

Next he prays for favor to carry out the plan now forming in his mind: rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. His request is granted by the King, and he is given the resources necessary to carry it out.

This beautifully represents how Papa gives us a vision regarding the purpose and destiny of our lives, and what that specifically entails. And just like Nehemiah, our vision always comes with the provision needed to see it manifest.

2:10

Immediately opposition arises to his plan. No surprise there.

2:11-18

He knew he needed a team to accomplish this, so he assessed the situation and began casting vision to those who would listen. He was successful and they began the work.

With respect to KTI, I feel that I’ve done this. In the early years I assembled a team of people who had something valuable to share with the body of Christ, and we presented many different kinds of workshops and classes. More recently, the partnership of the Fields, Gary Fishman and me resulted in a successful mentoring program that ran for 3 ½ years.

In this present season, I feel like I’ve been putting together a new team consisting of many who were helped and trained by KTI along with other seasoned folks who have been with me for years. There’s a new focus, however, of establishing a missions base where we can serve a more diverse population than is possible in a church environment.

2:19-20

The opposition speaks again but he quickly shuts them down by declaring they have no authority.

3:1-32

Much work is accomplished by the various teams.

What I like about this is that each group took specific responsibility for a particular piece of the overall vision. That’s exactly what Papa showed me years ago, that there will be those with specific callings and anointings who will take the reins of the various parts of the vision. Not because they are assigned there by me, but because He already assigned them by virtue of their destiny.

Obviously people are certainly free to do what they’re called to do on their own, without being part of KTI’s overall vision. But the benefit of a shared focus and connection leads to great multiplication, i.e. the sum is greater than the parts.

Perhaps it could be said of us, that we are at a similar point in our journey as Nehemiah and his crew were:

4:6 So we built the wall and the whole wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.

In a similar way, we are “joined together” in our common vision to serve and set people free, but it seems we still have quite a ways to go.

We do not yet have a “place” where we are free to carry out His will for us.

GEN 26:22 He [Isaac] moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it Rehoboth, for he said, “At last the Lord has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

Rehoboth means “wide spaces or streets.” The well Isaac dug here was in the land of the Philistines, who symbolize the world outside of the church, where we are called to reach the lost and see their lives transformed.

4:1 – 4:8
4:9 But we prayed to our God, and because of them we set up a guard against them day and night.

Opposition increased, so they took action.

Right now, what is the “action” we can take to cancel and remove whatever is opposing us? We know there must be “provision for the vision.” I have seen it in the spirit realm, and it is massive.

Our Authority to Take Action

Here are some descriptions of our authority in Christ:

MAT 6:10 ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.’ [This is a declaration, not a request.]

MAR 11:22 And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God.
MAR 11:23 “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.
MAR 11:24 “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.

ROM 4:17 (as it is written, “A father of many nations have I made you”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.

1CO 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,
1CO 2:13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

Our Vision

The vision we have from the Lord is broadly 3 fold:

  1. Giving people encounters with God via meetings, lighthouses, outreach, and through building relationships
  2. Releasing healing and freedom so they can have total health and total freedom in their lives
  3. Educating, mentoring, and launching people into their life purpose through knowing Him

Can you picture that? I have a clear mental image of what that looks like, and I encourage you to do the same. It doesn’t matter that your picture may be different than mine, it only matters that you’re “seeing” something that can serve to empower the vision.

Assuming you’re still with me up to this point, what do we need to do to bring this vision out from the spirit realm and into the physical “here and now?”

First, let’s clear one thing up. It truly is our responsibility to do this, not God’s. Here’s why:

2CO 1:20 For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.

While all His promises to us are certainly ours in Christ, we can’t receive the fulfillment of them unless and until we come into agreement with Him (our Amen). Promises require our Amen, our agreement, to manifest.

HEB 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

JAM 2:17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

God expects us to believe Him concerning what He says or shows us, and take action based on that.

PSA 115:16 The heavens are the heavens of the Lord, But the earth He has given to the sons of men.

Whether or not stuff gets done here on earth is our responsibility, not His.

PRO 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.

Did you notice that the authority scriptures I cited above (Matt. 6:10, Mark 11:22-24, Romans 4:17, 1 Cor. 2:12-13) all deal with what we say?

Binding and Loosing

One major area in which we get to align our authority and speech with His is in the arena of binding and loosing.

MAT 16:19 “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

MAT 18:18 “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.
MAT 18:19 ¶ “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.
MAT 18:20 “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

Unfortunately these passages have been misinterpreted for years by defining “bind” to mean forbid and “loose” to mean permit. Thankfully Papa is so gracious that He takes our heart’s intent into account instead of the literal word meanings when He answers our prayers!

Nonetheless it’s really important we understand accurately and fully what Jesus gave us here, in order to exercise our authority to its maximum extent.

In this context, the word bind has nothing to do with tying something or someone up. It is actually a legal term that speaks of the idea that a law or contract is “legally binding” on the parties involved. So for us to use it and say “I bind this or that,” what we’re actually saying is, “I declare that the word and will of God is legally binding on this situation.” In essence we’re saying, “Be done here on earth as it is in heaven!”

Likewise, to “loose” means to legally cancel and annul any law or contract that had previously been made binding on someone or something, i.e. to set free from anything that is clearly illegal in heaven. This would apply to any situation in which the enemy is hindering or preventing God’s will from being done, or where he is keeping someone in bondage in any way. He has no authority in himself here on earth, so anything he’s doing is always to be considered illegal.

I believe our understanding of these two functions is absolutely critical if we’re going to see the vision of God manifest in our lives through our agreement and declaration.

Aligning our Hearts, Minds and Mouths with His

So what will we begin to specifically say together, in one accord (see Acts 4:23-31 for an example), in order that what we are seeing in the spirit realm starts to manifest here?

To understand this, we need to dive deep into Papa’s mode of creating.

Isaiah 55:8-13
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace; The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up, And instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up, And it will be a memorial to the Lord, For an everlasting sign which will not be cut off.”

He has absolutely no doubts about the outcome when He opens His mouth to speak. As His sons & daughters, neither should we. Next, let’s look at the best example we have of this principle in Genesis 1:

3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
6 Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters…
9 Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.
11 Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation… and it was so.
14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens…
20 Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures…
24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind… and it was so.

Translators often have a difficult job conveying the original languages in a way that protects and expresses the impact of the original, and that’s true here.

In the Hebrew, the word which is translated “Let there be” is hayah. This word means “to be” or “to exist.”

It’s written in the imperfect tense, which adds the following meaning to the word:

The imperfect is used to describe a single (as opposed to a repeated) action in the past; it differs from the perfect tense in being more vivid and pictorial. The perfect expresses the “fact,” the imperfect adds color and movement by suggesting the “process” preliminary to its completion. For example:

• he put forth his hand to the door
• it came to a halt
• I began to hear

Why is this important? Because it beautifully expresses how Papa first imagined a powerful form of energy that He called light, then gathered together all the necessary resources at His disposal, and finally manifested the outcome through the words and sound of His voice!

What does this kind of process look like for us? Basically it’s everything we’ve been looking at and learning about: receiving a vision, believing His promises, speaking His words after Him, and seeing it manifest.

Vision is where we imagine and “see” what He shows us about our purpose and destiny. Our resource is our faith, our ability to believe Him in what He says. Our verbal expressions of agreement with all of that release His power to make it happen.

To more accurately convey the power behind His words in Genesis 1:3, we need to remove the words “let there,” because they’re not consistent with the meaning of hayah. Instead, it should be written as a straight up command:

Light be! Or, Light exist! Or, Light manifest!

Here’s one more fascinating tidbit: hayah is only used in verse 3 and not in any of the subsequent creation verses I listed above.

That means He didn’t say “let there be” for any other of His creative acts. Instead, He simply spoke the word that represented the object He was creating. With that understanding, we can now feel the force of how He said these things:

6 Then God said, “Expanse in the midst of the waters…
9 Then God said, “Waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, dry land appear”; and it was so.
11 Then God said, “Earth sprout vegetation… and it was so.
14 Then God said, “Lights in the expanse of the heavens…
20 Then God said, “Waters teem with swarms of living creatures…
24 Then God said, “Earth bring forth living creatures after their kind… and it was so.

Wow, truly awesome! But what does this mean for us and how we make declarations?

I believe He is now offering us an upgrade in how we exercise the authority He gave us to bring the things of heaven to earth.

You see, for us to truly be His sons & daughters, made in His image with creative abilities, we need to emulate Him in the way He got things done, by aligning our declaratory style with His.

So with respect to KTI and our common vision, I believe we should use our voices and do what Papa did (and still does) with His, and start making declarations like these:

  • “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, right here and right now!”
  • “KTI missions base be!”
  • “Every mountain covering or blocking strategic relationships, resources and land, we command you now to ‘be taken up and cast into the sea’!”
  • “Lands and buildings that were assigned to us by our Father from eternity past, we bind you now to His will and His Kingdom. We now declare you restored to Him, your rightful Owner, and to us, His appointed stewards.”
  • “Lands and buildings that were assigned to us by our Father from eternity past, we hereby cancel and annul all illegal laws, contracts, or covenants previously established by the evil one to hold you or keep you hidden in order to hinder God’s Kingdom. We release you now from all such bondage and command all associated spirits to leave now and go to the feet of Jesus.”
  • ”Financial resources that were assigned to us by our Father from eternity past, we bind you now to His will and His Kingdom. We hereby cancel and annul all illegal laws, contracts, or covenants previously established by the evil one to hold you or keep you hidden in order to hinder God’s Kingdom. We release you now from all such bondage and command all associated spirits to leave now and go to the feet of Jesus. We command you, transfer to us now in abundance, more than enough to supply and maintain the needs of our team, the building and all our Kingdom assignments!”
  • “Humans or other entities who are currently the earthly owners of any resources assigned to us by our Father from eternity past, we hereby cancel, annul and release you from all schemes, devices or operations of the evil one that have prevented you from releasing those resources for God’s Kingdom purposes. You are now free to obey what He spoke to you.”
  • “Team of anointed and passionate lovers of Jesus, come together now to serve in this mission with your gifts and calling!”
  • “We, the sons and daughters of the King, set ourselves in agreement and declare these things for the sake of Christ and the glory of His Kingdom, in Jesus’ name, Amen!”

What else are you hearing that we can add to these?

Please give me your feedback (you can do so privately).

I believe this new level of exercising our authority in Christ will soon lead us to be able to say with Nehemiah:

6:15 So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.

52 days!?! That’s miraculously quick, but totally possible when God’s in it.

Thanks for reading and engaging with me in this.

Russ

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