Faith: See It Before You See It | Jeremy Prest

Welcome to the Miracle Channel podcast. We're so glad that you're here. Our passion is to spread the hope of Jesus and equip believers throughout Canada and beyond. And it's all possible through the support of donors and partners of the ministry. Now let's dive into today's episode. Proverbs 29 18 where there is no vision the people perish. This verse is it's wild how it's written. Where there is no vision people perish. It doesn't say where there is no vision people don't get what they're hoping to get. It says where there is no vision you die. It's a bit extreme it feels extreme because it is. In Proverbs it's a book of wisdom. It's a book of guiding your life how to handle problems and situations. I can't encourage you enough to read it. And there's this verse is a giant warning for you as a believer. For you as a Christian, even if someone isn't a Christian, a person who has no vision in whatever area of their life. That area will die. At least if you look at it through the lens of the way that God is looking at it. You might think that you're blessing your blessed in one area, your prospering in one area. But that's not even close to what God wants for you in that area if you're not doing it his way. Every area in your life, we tend to try to just muscle our way through these things. But God has so much more in your sex life, in your finances, in your business. And we can tend to do each one of those areas our own way. Primarily push our way through this, push our way through business, lie, cheat, steal, get some money here. And we'll push our way through these things. But it's a perverted example of what God actually intended for your life. Now God's a good God and God can restore and God is God who makes all things new, not just some, all things new. But this idea that if you don't have a vision for your life, this area of your life will die. You know, if I told you all right now, big surprise, my rich auntie or uncle bought us all tickets to Maui. We're going in two hours. And let's pretend that that was real. We're going. I figured out all your plans, your families are all good, everyone's coming with us, we're all going. And if you actually took your mind to the place where you actually believed you were going, and we actually had begs packed, it's all sorted out. And someone did that for you and you were in and realized, okay, all right, I'm going. You can go to Maui. Where are you going to go? Why? Anyway, you would begin to almost instantly have a vision for that trip. And in fact, if I said sorry, actually I didn't pack your bags, go home, pack your bags. You would rush home and you would pack right now for where you are going. And you would prepare clothes, thoughts, because you would already make an itinerary in your head of where you are going. You would pack a bathing suit, hopefully not a speedo. You would pack all sorts of clothes to prepare for what you were planning to do. And in fact, most people plan more detail for their vacation than they do their very life they live in every day. They will plan it with hours, times, bookings, they'll spend more money on that than they will book for themselves to make themselves a better husband, a better wife. They won't resource themselves, they won't plan a date. But when it's run away from my life, vacations are great. But I'm just talking about how we don't prioritize the vision for our life that God is waiting for you to get a fire in your belly about. And this is what this verse means. My people perish. It doesn't say you don't get what you want. It says you perish in that area of your life. Let me put it a different way. Without vision, something dies that God wanted to live. Think about it that way. Without vision, something that God wanted to live in your life, it dies. You know, when I was a teenager, I was 15, 16, 17, somewhere in that range. And this goes, I think this can go for every teenager. But temptation was tough. I remember, like I remember being surrounded by friends and all sorts of friends and the temptation to, I remember being asked if I was a virgin all the time. But as I got closer to 16, 17, depending what circles I was in, and they're going, you guys have been dating how long? And what? Like are you crazy? What? And they were the pressure. And you felt silly. And you felt like, no, it's important to me. And you didn't really want to get into it. But I had a vision for my marriage in the future. The trip down the road, I had an itinerary for before I left. And the marriage that I saw that I knew that was biblical was one that I wanted to save myself for. And I wanted that. And that was something that I knew ahead of time. So this vision gave me the ability to bear the pain today because I knew what tomorrow was going to bring. And so often when you don't have a vision, good luck bearing pain today. What's the point? You won't be able to make it. Why? Why should you make it? There's nothing great tomorrow. Sure. Why not? You can only bear the pain today if you have a future that is bright. So pick an area in your life, marriage, relationships, children, jobs, family, future, debt, trips, anything you want. Each one of those needs a vision, every single one of them. And I'm not talking about an imagination. I'm not talking about what you think. I'm talking about a written down vision. God gives us a clear example about the power of words and written words, just with the example of the Bible. Look at that. It's a love letter from a father to his children saying, this is written down, read it daily, meditate on it, focus on it. It's this beautiful picture. And in Habakkuk 2, 2, 2 verse 2, it says, he's just talking here. And it's just one example I pulled out. And essentially he says, and the Lord answered me, write the vision down, make it plain on tablets. This is God talking to a prophet saying, write it down. He spoke to him and told him, don't make the mistake to think you have it here. Write it down. If you have a vision for your marriage, your relationships, your children, what you want your children to do, become, grow into, start off with writing it down. Once you write it down and you get it off of your imagination, you can begin to actually dream about it because you can add to it. You can think about, pick something, debt, write off, cancel out debt. So it's not just an idea. It's now a written down plan. And you can begin to strategize on it, think about it, add things to it, add new plans to it. Where it's not just this idea, a stress ball in your chest or your gut about debt, but it's now a plan written down. And you can do that with every aspect of your life. But when you write something down, it makes it, I've heard someone say that it allows almost, when you take something from your imagination and you write it down, it brings it into this world of fruition of what you have in front of you to work with. And you can begin to build on that. I go to the sauna as often as I can. I try to go to three, four or five times a week. And it's miserable. It's just awful, I don't recommend it. But it is good for you. It's really, really good for you, which is why I do it. And I try to get to 30 minutes every single time. Sometimes I'm going to be honest, I make it 20, 30, 40 percent of the time I make it to my 30 minute mark. I don't always make it, because sometimes I get so nauseous that I'm going to throw up and there's people around, so I don't want to do that. But the thing is, as I was in it this week, kind of wrestling around with ideas, when I'm there, it's painful. It's hard. In the first few minutes, not bad, and I'll drink some water, and you get through the first few minutes. But as the pain is building, as it's getting more uncomfortable, as my body temperature is rising, you do deep breathing, and I do exercise, and I pray, and I just think through this and stuff. And so I try to make it to this mark, but I had the idea, what if someone were, if I were to watch someone walk up to the door right there with chains and a lock, and I were to watch them lock me in? Immediately, I would freak out, right? Anyone would. Everyone in there would band together to try to get out, because we know I cannot take this for long, I will die if I'm in here, get me out. So as I sat there, I began to think about that, and actually almost experienced it, because I was sitting there going, I'm having a hard trouble time right now, I'm only halfway in 15 minutes in. I can't even imagine if I had, like maybe I could survive an hour, I actually don't know medically, but it doesn't feel like I could. And so if I saw someone do that, I would try to break the window, I would try to get out, I would try to do everything I could to get out, because I know if I don't, I can't handle this pain for long. Because my future just showed up at that door, and it's locked, and I can't get out, so I have no future, if I don't solve this problem. Now let's paint a different picture, me every time I go, get to 22 minutes, 25, brutal, I'm going to throw up, I feel like, come on, you can do it four or five more minutes, come on. 28 minutes, there's two minutes left, I go, I can do this, I can do this, because in two minutes I walk out that door and go, the future is bright. I can cool down, I can jump on a pool, I can walk. Now let's paint a third picture here. Let's pretend that Tim, I don't know why it's Tim, but Tim comes, and he's going to lock me in. So let's pretend I'm in that sauna, and Tim is going to lock me in, but Tim knows that at 30 minutes he's going to unlock it, but I don't know. So 30 minutes he's going to unlock it, which is the same 30 minutes I do every week, all the time. My experience is going to be very, very, very different for that 30 minutes because of my idea of my future, even though at 30 minutes I'm going to go, oh, he actually did open it up, I'm out, I'm free. So for those all 30 minutes, I'm going to be anxious, I'm going to be stressed, I'm going to be probably trying to break through walls or windows and miserable, miserable, miserable. One scenario with no one locking me in and not the idea of being let out, I could just get out just fine and experience it, and maybe be a little bit hot, but I'll be fine, I'll calm and cool down. The second one is I'm losing my mind. Two people experiencing the same thing. One has a bright future because they're aware of it. One, uncertain. And when a person is uncertain about their future, that's why this proverb is warning you, a person without vision, they perish. Because you cannot go from a position of strength, you can't minister to someone, you can't love on them, you can't accept them, forgive them, just as I even was talking about. Never mind do the ministry of gospel, you can't even handle yourself, because you don't have a plan, you don't have an idea for your relationship, you don't have an idea for your job, a vision, even a clue what you're doing. And because you don't, you can't bear much pain now because of the situation that you're in. We must get to a place where our vision, so the vision that you have in whatever you that you have, it regulates how you behave today. So the vision that I had for my life as a teenager through the word of God, I wasn't perfect by any standard, in fact I almost got expelled multiple times from the very school that is this church runs. I don't know why I threw that in, but not perfect. But I fell in love with the word of God at the age of 16, I think it was. And I remember just reading it on my own, and I just remember being confused, inspired, all sorts, because I was just going, this book is amazing, and I don't get it in this man called Jesus, it seems to be almost like a rule breaker, and he was against culture and people were condemning him and calling him names for hanging with sinners, but he came to help and save sinners. I just remember wrestling with all this, and I remember as a young man just wrestling with this idea, and then it began to just solely transform me, you know, Romans 12, 12 says it all the time, you're going to hear this verse, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And it began to do that to me, and so what it began to do is I actually began as a young man writing down certain things going, I would like to be prosperous as a dad, I want to be able to go on trips and vacations. And I remember writing goals and visions down, and then I would find reinforcing verses to do that, and my God, and so that one of the verses I had every day that went up on my phone, my God will meet all my needs according to his riches, not mine, his glory, not mine, through Christ Jesus, not through me. I would use that to reprogramme every day, and what that did was it gave me a vision for the future of my family, the future of my relationships, so that, and this is what's the deal maker. So that I would regulate how I responded today, so that when I went into today's challenges and tomorrow's challenges, I regulated who was allowed to be in my life. And I don't know who that's for, but there's someone here who needs to know that you've given up on your future, and you've allowed death in the form of words from your relationships that shouldn't be in your life. If you respected your future a little more the way that God is respecting your future, you would block those people out, you would stop gossiping, and you would have the nerve and the guts to say, "I'm sorry, can we just be responsible people and not talk bad about someone? Can we just show some love, some acceptance, and give God a hand." When you get to a place where you value so much your future, you get some guts. I want to say other words, but on one stage, you get some gull in you to just handle. My father-in-law was one of the fiercest men I've ever met in my life, and he had guts. He had guts like you wouldn't believe, because he understood if I handle this now properly, we're going somewhere. Daily, and the enemy is going to try to get you to give up on today, and you're going to go, "What's the point? What's the point? If you just value today a little more, and you stack on it a little by little, there's a harvest coming." And that harvest is big, and harvest is rich, but it's up to you, and it requires work, and if you think you're going to hit your goal, not your goal, if you think you're going to hit God's plan for your life by accident, the enemy has got you, hook, line, and sinker. You're done. You cannot hit God's will by accident. A lot of people might think, "Well, that's no way. Come on. No, I'm telling you. If you don't get into the word of God and allow to reprogram you, the whole Bible is warning you, reprogramming you, telling you. Wait, Pastor, Pastor, it says that God will give me the desires of my heart. No. Let's actually read. It says that, "If you make God the center of your life, I'm just reworking this verse a bit. If you make God the center of your life, your desires will become his desires. They become one." Do you see the difference there? One is you think that God will give you everything, because it's you. Why shouldn't you? And, of course, you're a child of his, and he wants to work through you and live through you and bless you and prosper you, take you to places where he's dreaming to take you. And he wants that. Every parent wants that for their kid. But I ain't going to give my kid a bunch of candy 24/7 because he thinks he wants it. It'll make him sick. What he thinks he wants isn't right, because he just doesn't know better. If he got to talk with me and hang with me and learn from me, and we teach him about food and nutrition and how to handle his body and what's best for him, he'll learn very quickly that, "Oh yeah, my dad does have the best interest for me." Even though in that little moment as that young boy, he goes, "Why does my dad hate me and not let me have candy?" And all of us Christians sit there and go, "God, what are you doing?" And he's going, "Yeah, just read the book, please. Just read the book. The rules. There's principles that are at work that you can use in your life. Whatever age you're at." And the enemy, one of the things you're going to hear, if you look for it, is you're going to hear us preach about identity all the time, all the time. And Eden's message is, and David's mind, Zach's, and Michaela's every message you hear, there's going to be identity wrapped up in there. And the reason for that is because you operate out of who you think you are. If I asked you to come up here and I picked one of you and said, "Hey, I'm done preaching. Take my mic, finish the message." Most of you, not all, most of you would be, "Oh man, no, I can't. I won't. I'm not. That's not who I am. I'm not a public speaker." But that response you have there is based on how you've been, how you think you are, what your track record was, what someone taught you to be, how your skill set has proven it to you or not. You are just going to operate in that moment of fear, how you've been programmed. And so, it's up to you. And one of the things that I find amazing is actually in, I don't even know who said this, someone could find it after, I'll find it after. But essentially, they say that when you conquer fear, when you conquer a spot that you have always worried or been stressed about, but you go and do it anyway, they say that that DNA is actually a spot of you when you conquer fear, that that DNA gets turned on, and now it's on forever. Now, God knew it was there, He designed you with it in you. So, if you stay in a place, in a box, your whole life, and you never step out, you never walk into faith and fear and conquer these things and become apparent and do this, and I didn't know I could, but I tried and I did, and I'm mad in my glad. If you never do those things, you actually aren't discovering who you are physically, literally, physically. So, there's DNA that's waiting to be turned on to handle situations, and that's part of God's design. And scientists are just discovering this, but as believers, I think we've known this for a long time. Where God's been literally guiding you, saying, I'm your helper, I'm leading you, I will give you what you need, I will turn on DNA that you need to get up there and preach and do what you need to do. So, the biggest battles I ever had as a human being, I'll say, was getting up here and preaching, not because public speaking and fear, what do they think, I actually don't really care what people think often, I just don't care, never really have. But what I cared about was, can I represent the Word of God enough properly, so I don't mess someone's salvation, I was terrified of that. So, I just had to get to God's Word and realize, God, I'm surrounding you, if you're going to ask me to do this, okay, I'm going to do it, I'll do what you say, because if you're asking me, I'll do it. But give me what to say, tell me, help me, teach me, don't let me get in the way of this, because another huge lesson for me was, and this is an identity thing. God loves each of us equally, my great, I don't know what the heck, what the heck to call, sorry, I shouldn't say, what is his name, camp haunting, but my wife's grandpa, yeah, sorry. My wife's grandpa used to say, all the time, if you were the only person on earth, Jesus still would have died for you. What that means is, it doesn't say, what that means is he would do it for you no matter what, and it doesn't matter who you are, where you are, what sin you've done, how bad you think you are, you think you're bad? Like, you think you've done, like, Jesus knew every sin he was dying for when he died for them, every sin in the future, and the pass of every person, every single one, he knew, he knew, he knew, and if it was only you, he still would have. So, the point I'm making there is that it's not a love issue with God and us as believers, it's a trust issue, to whom much is given, much is required, what does that mean? It's exposing your values, it's exposing your vision. So, if I'm faithful with the little money I have around here, if I find someone's wallet, and there's a $20 bill sticking out, do I slip that $20 out and put in my pocket and go, hey, someone lost their wallet? Or do I even make them find their wallet? Do I just take it? You might go, well, I need the $20, and if I ask the guy, he'd probably say, yes, yeah, but he didn't. You weren't faithful, trustworthy with it. If I find it, and I'm trustworthy with it, and I hand it, it's not God looking at me differently from a love perspective. But if I'm faithful with the little $20 that I have here, as a father looking down on him, he goes, man, he's got a, I can trust that man with very little, which exposes your values. If you can be trusted with little, you can be trusted with much. And if you have a dream and a goal to be a CEO, CMO, and operate multiple companies in multiple cities and countries and nations, and you have these dreams and goals, that desire is given to you by God. But then you're blaming God, wondering, why aren't you giving it to me, God? But you have not been faithful with the little. Now God's not going to condemn you when the moment you do that. In fact, he's just probably sad that he can't trust you at that moment. He forgives you, he forgives you. The moment you sin, forgiven, as a believer, forgiven, forgiven, forgiven, he doesn't see you any different. The Bible says when he looks at you, he sees Jesus, which means the perfect sacrificial lamb Jesus paid for every sin. He doesn't even see this in. But what happens is you want to walk into the next season of your life, but there's a trust issue. You don't have the ability or the capacity to be able to be trusted. So someone like my father-in-law, who in my opinion is probably the most trustworthy man I've ever met in my life, I've watched him handle so many things. Organizations and people and businesses and things where they were bankrupt and they got brought to him on his plate. And so many people, I remember people asking, "Why do these things always happen to him?" And that is why. He was a trustworthy man when it came to the kingdom living life that he lived. God trusted him. And you look at every leader in the Bible. Look at Moses, look at anyone. It's not a love issue. These are very flawed, flawed, flawed people. They, King David, Paul, used to be Saul. All these people, very flawed people. Most of those people, if they were living today, wouldn't be able to write parts of the Bible because they'd be in jail. They would. Extremely flawed people. Doesn't matter though. He didn't see the flaw. He didn't see the sin. He saw trust. So once they broke through the trust issue and began to just lean on God. Moses, stuttering, incapable, doubting, unsure if he could even begin to lead one of the largest groups. I think the Bible even just talks about multi-million people through the desert. Imagine the pain that comes with that. Imagine if you were appointed to handle the bathroom situation for five million people. No, thank you. No tractors. No trucks. Nothing. Good luck sorting that one out. But you have to handle every problem that comes with handling millions of people who are doubting and in the desert. And he was handling every step along the way. And it was just a trust issue. So you look through the Bible and you realize that it's just a trust issue. And if you get this vision for your life and you write it down and you allow God's word to be the inspiration for the vision in whatever area, anything, any vision. Treat it like the vacation that you're probably going to go on and that you're hoping to go on. Treat it like that with that level of intentional design for your future, for your family, for your relationships. Because if you get to a place where you do that, you're going to get to the place where you're going to get to a place where you're reaping a harvest and you look back going, oh, man, this is amazing. This is amazing. When people preach about walking in God's grace, another interpretation for God's grace is God's ability. And that's exactly what it is. There's almost this effortless ease because you're reaping a harvest of seeds planted decades ago. And you're now just reaping it. It's going, man, this is great. This is awesome. It doesn't mean it's flawless. It doesn't mean it's no problems. It means you're walking in his ability today. And you continue to build the future tomorrow. And that's God's grace all over your life. You know, 2 Corinthians 9-6. I'm out of time already here and I want to just point this verse out. This is one of the coolest things. And again, this deals with identity. And it's just this first part here. And this is about giving, the cheerful giver. Most people use this verse when it comes to offering and giving and tithes. But this is just talking about giving in general. That heart that is open to giving. And it says here in 2 Corinthians 9-6. The point is this, whoever so sparingly will also reap sparingly. Let's stop there. We flew over a word that I want to point out. But the point is the person who's got it all figured out and so sparingly will also reap sparingly. No. The person who is perfect, so sparingly. No. Who so ever so sparingly. It's literally saying anyone, whoever, anyone who soes, that principle will work for you. Negative, gossip, pain, destruction, sin. No. Go ahead so sparingly. See what harvest you will have. But life, love, acceptance, God's word. You reap that harvest down the road and you just watch and see what God will do through you and what he wants for you. You know, one of my main points I'm not going to get to and I touched on it the first is that we need to have faith like a farmer. A farmer when they're prepping for the season to plant the seeds has to have so much preparation leading up to that moment, but they do it confidently knowing what is to come. They have to have the money in the bank to buy the seeds to plan the prep to get up early, put in the work, get the machines working, prep the soil, plant the seeds and then water it forever feels like until they finally get to the place where they can reap it. Cut it off the ground, sell it and then reap the benefits of their hard work. You need to get to a place that you treat the vision for your life like a farmer would. Right now, it's work. But you know, confidently knowing that the future in front of you is bright. The future in your relationship is bright, your marriage, your family, your finances, the vision in front of you, it's bright, which gives you the strength to handle it now. And that's God's, that's what God wants for you. That's why that verse is so intense that my people perish when they have no vision. That is why it's so intense to say just, just get it right so that you can just build your life the way that I want to design it for you. Would you all bow your heads? Lord, we just thank you for every person here, Lord, I thank you, Lord, that you have a bright future for them, that you have plans to give them an incredible hope and a future, not to harm them, Lord God, but you've got incredible plans for each person here. Lord, I just thank you that you're doing an incredible work in their families, in their relationships. Lord God, I just thank you that you are, Lord, changing their identity to the way that you see them. We just ask right now, Lord, that you just break chains of doubt, break chains of anxiety, break chains of depression, on the minds of every person in here, Lord God. We rebuke the attack of the enemy, and we just thank you that the assignment is dead, the assignment is gone from the enemy, and we thank you, Lord, that you are moving mountains here today, Lord God. That worry, if you are dominating this mind, we cast it gone. We thank you, Lord, for life on the bodies that need to be healed, healthy, and whole, and we give it to you in Jesus' name. We thank you for restoration on organs, on tissue, and we just thank you, Lord, that our identity isn't coming from a sick person, it's coming from a child of the king, the most high. And we praise you in advance for the victories to come, in the vision that you painted for each of us, in Jesus' mighty name. If you agree with me, and you say, Amen, and Amen, you know, if one thing we do every single week is that we give an opportunity for every person to accept Jesus in their heart, and it sounds all big, but it's probably the best decision you'll ever make. Next to the person you're going to marry, this decision is the most important, because this decision is an eternal decision. You know, in Gladiator, he says, what we do in this life echoes into eternity, and it's a beautiful line, because it is so, so, so, true. What we do in this life will echo into eternity, it'll make a difference now, but a very decision to accept Jesus into our heart, an amazing thing happens. An angel, I think it's an angel, will grab a pen and write your name in the book of life, so that when your time comes, you punch out, you clock out of life, you step into eternity, and you walk up to the gates, and you can unknowingly, doubting, not sure if your name's in that book, go and ask and see. Or you can confidently walk up and give your full name, excited to walk through the gates into heaven, where this beautiful eternity of family members, loved ones, Bible characters are all there, and Jesus is there waiting for you going, well done, I'm so proud of you. It's the greatest thing. And as a preacher, my goal is to teach us to just not operate in the confines of our mind and our doubts and our beliefs. It's to just try to get you to shifting to the gear that God has for you, so that you don't even, you don't even see who you are, you just see what God sees. And that when you walk out, and there's an opportunity in front of you, you approach it the way God wants you to, and that's it. And you're just a sacrificial living. That's what the Bible talks about. You just sacrificial walk into daily life, so that God can use you and work through you. And it's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing when a believer does that, guided and living in that beautiful way. But when it comes to eternity, I hope you know the peace that you have in that, and I hope it's guaranteed. And Jesus came so that we can have that, but he's a gentleman. He's not going to force you to make that decision. The Bible says that if we don't reach every person with that message, that creation will cry out to profess the name of Jesus. So as a pastor, that's my job, one of my roles, as believers, as our roles to go out, and just give people the hope of Christ, not only to live a great life, but to make heaven. And that's that beautiful safety net of Jesus, that we can step into eternity with confidence and boldness and excited. So with every head bowed, I'd love to pray that prayer with you. If you've never prayed that prayer, and you want to be sure today, would you just look at me with every head bowed, look up at me and give me a quick wave, and we'll pray with you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Awesome. It's hard to see. So just give me a nice wave so I can see. One last look around. For anyone joining us on screen as well, we're going to pray with you. It doesn't matter that there's a TV screen in between us. God is there. God is working. God is real. It's one last look around. If you want to pray that prayer, let's all pray together. Awesome. Would you all repeat after me and say, "Dear God, I thank you for sending your son Jesus." Right now I ask you to be my Lord and my Savior. Forgive me of everything I've done wrong. All of it. From today and on, I'm following you in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for listening to the Miracle Channel podcast. If you'd like to partner with us and support our many outreages, click the link in our show notes to donate today.