By Toni Ford
Have you ever read something and realized you might not know all there is to that particular subject and yet you know deep in your soul that if you broadened your vision on the subject, you would gain so much more wisdom, understanding, perspective on life, and even to some degree, a greater freedom? Well, this happened to me while reading Chapter 14 of the Gospel of John this past week. I therefore felt the Lord’s nudging for me to make this a prayer focus for the coming year and to allow the Lord to give me a broader vision in each area.
Broaden my vision to see beyond what is in front of me. At the beginning of the chapter, Jesus is talking to His disciples about heaven. He tells them He is going ahead of them to prepare a place for them, and where He goes they can follow and will be with Him soon. Thomas and Philip just don’t get it and they keep asking Jesus, “how can we follow when we don’t know where you are going?” Their vision is limited, and they can only see what is in front of them because their focus is on the temporal and not the eternal. My prayer is that I not miss the greater plans, the greater promises, the greater truths that the Lord is trying to teach me just because I am not willing to see beyond my current situation. There is a great sentence in the song “Here Now” by Hillsong United that says, “Fix my eyes on things that I can’t see now.” That is my prayer to focus more on what I can’t see rather than what I do see!
Broaden my vision to see God’s agenda and not just my own. Verse 13 says, “You can ask anything in my name and I will do it so that the Son can bring glory to the Father.” Far too many times I go to the Lord in prayer with my agenda in mind rather than His agenda. My prayer is that I would be more aware of what His agenda is and it would be His agenda that directs my prayer life and not my own. As a result, He promises that as I pray His agenda, then He will answer!
Broaden my vision to allow more of the Holy Spirit in my life. Verses 16-17 says, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.” So many people push away the thought of the Holy Spirit, mainly because they have a wrong concept of who the Holy Spirit is. Jesus tells us later in this chapter that the Holy Spirit is our comforter. I am praying for more of the Holy Spirit and His presence in my life this year. I need Him, His power, His comfort, His strength and more of His truth!
I challenge each of you reading this today to allow the Lord to broaden your vision in each of these areas as well. I promise you will experience our Lord on a whole new level.
If you would like for me to join you in prayer please email me at tonif77@gmail.com and I would love to pray for you.