In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
Acts 2:17
The vision of God is uplifting and fresh. It is the warm breeze of hope in our hearts in a cold winter of discontent. God’s inspired and inspiring words encourage unlike anything else in the universe. At every stage of life they come to the heart of the believer because the Spirit brings them and whispers them in the recesses of our minds and writes them upon the tablets of our consciousness: God is love and He has not forgotten us. God will in his time and in his way fulfill every promise, and today is the reaffirmation of the dreams and visions of God.
Pouring out the Spirit began at Pentecost, when the time was right, the gospel story was complete, Christ had ascended, and the world was ready for living witnesses filled with the Spirit of God. The vision is of God and rooted in his revelation in Scripture of Himself and his purposes. The vision is not every idea that might enter our imaginations but rather it is those specific affirmations by the Spirit of the truth in his word, and the hope and encouragement they bring to our hearts. Vision personalizes the Christ-centered message that God loves us and his redemptive power is at work in our lives and world.
The dreams of God are not escapism or unrealistic fantasies that entertain us for a while, but they are the voice of God giving a message that is relevant to our circumstances. On Pentecost the people experienced a taste of the divine in their earthly situations and the witness of the Spirit in their hearts. The new day of the Spirit had come and still remains to this day, that all who believe in Christ receive the Spirit who never leaves or forsakes us. The Christian life is life lived in the reality of this hope and optimism, that God touches lives and hearts and whoever receives the Spirit finds a new freedom and deep peace and high joy.
This day there is a message of hope that God wants you to receive, a word that can lighten the burdens you carry, direct you in the paths you walk, and guide you to see the difference Christ makes in your life. The psalmist wrote,
Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
For I will yet praise him,
My Savior and my God.
Psalm 42:5
The vision of God brings hope for others as well, and the message of love compels us to share this with others. Who is on your heart that God would have you encourage? As you share the divine message of hope God will deepen your confidence and love for him.
Prayer:
Lord, in a skeptical and burned out world, hope is a rare thing. But the uplifting encouragement of your Spirit is our daily experience as your people, and we praise you and thank you for touching us with your love. We ask that you would guide our minds to understand clearly the visions you give as we are grounded in your word. Direct us in our paths to the ones with whom we can share your message. Amen.