As our series continues on recognizing your season in your walk with God, I’d like to encourage you to resist comparing your life walk with the journey of those around you. Dying as a caterpillar is not an option! As you navigate through life with Christ, you may find yourself in 1 of 3 seasons: The Waiting season, The Writing season, or The Working season.
This article will focus on the Writing Season: Why Write, What to Write, and How to Write.
Put the Vision on Paper? Why?
Writing is an Act of Obedience.
The Word of the Lord in Habakkuk 2:2 instructs us to write the vision. Writing the vision is obedience to what God has asked us to do. The simple act of doing what the Word of God says shifts us from being a passive, laid-back hearer to an active, engaged doer. Acting on God’s instruction puts us in a position to receive His best.
Brings Clarity
Writing also brings a sense of clarity to our thoughts. Clarity is important because it provides focus.
Instead of wandering aimlessly, writing allows us to zero in on our heart’s desire. Putting pen to paper brings our desire center stage.
Once focus is achieved, it is much easier to make plans in order to bring the desire to pass. Moving the idea from your mind to paper creates a physical representation of what is to come.
God is pleased when we write in faith. Although we may not know all of the how-to’s of our process, He helps us fill in the gaps as we trust him and are obedient in small steps.
Hebrews 11:1 says Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Your writing, by faith, is the material that your future victory is made of!
Helps us to not Forget
Writing also helps you to remember what’s important. When things are difficult, revisiting the vision will help you stay the course. Writing down the vision spoken to you by God will be a visual reminder of your future win.
Matthew 4:1-11 recounts Jesus being tempted by satan:
After 40 days of fasting, the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the enemy. Naturally, after 40 days without food, Jesus was hungry. The enemy tempted him three times. First with bread, then with the pride of proving who He was, and finally with the wealth of the world. Each time Jesus battled the deception of the enemy with ‘It is written’.
You can put the practice of putting pen to paper to create your own ‘It is written‘ to fight the enemy’s whispers of defeat. Writing God’s vision for your life gives you something solid to look back on. You can use your own version of ‘It is written‘ to help you in times of doubt and discouragement. Looking back at your own ‘It is written‘ will help you endure the difficult times.
What am I Writing?
All of this business of write the vision sounds great, but what if you have no idea what to write? What if you don’t know what the vision is?
Write God’s Vision for Your Life
Getting into God’s Word is key to knowing His mind. God expresses His thoughts through His Word. The Bible is God’s mind in written form. By spending time in God’s Word, we can find the direction and the vision that He wants for our lives.
We develop our natural relationships by spending time with a person, talking to them, and learning their likes and dislikes. It is in this same way that we nurture our relationship with God – by spending time with Him, talking to Him and by meditating on His word.
So, how do you find out God’s vision for your life?
It’s simple: Ask Him.
“God, what is your vision for my life?
What do you want me to do?
How do you want to use me?”
Ask God what He wants to do through you. His vision for our lives is far beyond what we know. Jeremiah 29:11 says that God knows the plans He has for us. Jeremiah 33:3 says that we can call Him and that He will reveal things that we do not know. Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds us to trust Him, and to acknowledge Him in everything we do. His Word says that He will direct our steps. When we pray and totally surrender ourselves to His will, He can do amazing things in our lives.
After you ask God what He wants for your life, you will have to do this one thing to hear the answer.
How to Be Still
In order to get the answers you need from God, it will be important that you silence all the noise around you. That means you will have to turn off the TV. You will have to power down your cell phone. You’ll have to put away the iPad. This silence will require you to turn off the newsfeed in your mind – that means no Twitter feeds, no Facebook timeline, no Instagram scrolling, and certainly no Periscope live streams.
If you really want to hear from God, you will have to be intentional about shutting out all outside distractions. Too many times we are listening to everything and everybody else – but God. In the middle of all this noise, God may have already been speaking. Often we miss it because we don’t allow ourselves any time for quiet. We never take the time to silence the incoming noise in our minds.
Replacing my Plan with His Vision
If I can be transparent, I too have been in this place. I knew I needed to be still. I needed God’s direction for my life, but I felt like I had to keep up the pace of what I already knew. I was familiar with my confusion and comfortable in my chaos. I didn’t want to slow down for direction because I thought I had it. I didn’t want to admit that my life was going too fast and…
I was falling apart.
A serious surgery finally forced me to be still. I was physically unable to do anything other than be still. It was during this time that I recognized that I was nothing without Him. All of the things that I was doing meant nothing without God’s guidance. Although I thought I was on the right path, I was on my path, following my own direction. Frustrated with my life, I was running on fumes, burnt-out, and unfulfilled without Him.
As tears of pain, frustration, and exhaustion rolled down my face, I cried out to God. I gave up my own plan for my life and asked for His. It was during this time that I was able to re-write the plan for my life. I replaced my plan with His vision for me. I am far from perfect, but God continues to work on me and to reveal His plan day by day.
The same peace and direction that I have can also be yours.
So, what is the play call?
As you take control of the atmosphere around you, may I encourage you to be silent to see what the Lord will impress on your heart? You may not hear a thunderous voice coming down from the clouds outside your bedroom window, but you may hear Him speaking in quiet impressions on your heart.
As you sit in His presence, God-inspired thoughts will fill your mind. He will give you brilliant God-ideas that you could not come up with on your own. This is what you need to write.
It may take some time to develop this new discipline of being still before God and writing the vision. It does not happen overnight, but God blesses us in our consistency. Small consistent steps toward Him will steadily move you closer.
In life, we are all parts of various “teams.” Whether those are literal athletic teams or figurative ones such as families, circles of friends, churches, or business offices, these teams all operate on the same concept of working together as a group and offering mutual support.
As I continued cleaning, I found clothes that I no longer wore and stuff I didn’t use anymore. It was time to get rid of it. 
One morning, I was trying to knock any thoughts of her out of my head when I heard the Spirit, “
How do we rid ourselves of these “bad habits”? In Mark 9, Jesus tells us that we must cut off the causes of our sin in order to build a stronger relationship with Him: “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off,” and “if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.” But when our minds are the sources of our sins, how do we cut it off?
It’s crazy that we can feel something so strongly and yet it couldn’t be any farther from the truth. There are many reasons that our emotions and moods fluctuate. It could be our diet, lack of sleep, external situations that arise, etc.
I want to encourage you, Team Jesus. if you’re feeling disconnected from God, remove yourself from the equation. We love God because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). We follow Him because He is the way the truth and the life (John 14:6). The Bible says that God inhabits the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3). So praise Him when you’re feeling far and know that He is near. And remember Proverbs 15:3 – the eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching good and evil.
It’s one of those play calls for Team Jesus that has challenged the best and most upright Pastor, Church Mother, and saint at one point or another. When we are hurt, damaged, or betrayed by someone, it’s not in our human nature to naturally forgive.
