Vision

“Then a voice said to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat.” (Acts 10:13)

Peter was a Jew.  Not a perfect man, but a man who tried to live his life according to the law and commandments.  He avoided things he should have stayed away from.  He worshipped when he was supposed to worship.  He celebrated the holy days in the way he was supposed to.  And dietary restrictions, well those he followed to the letter.  No pork chops or lobsters, or shrimp.  No camels, badgers, or rodents.

So, Peter followed everything the way a good Jewish man should.  But then, one day Peter was up on a roof when he fell into a trance.  While in this trance, he saw a large sheet lowered down to him.  A sheet filled with all sorts of unclean restricted animals.  And a voice told him to get up, kill the animals and eat.  Three times this happened to Peter, and each time he refused citing his obedience to having “never eaten anything impure or unclean.”  To which the voice said, “Do not call anything unclean that God has made pure.” 

God was changing Peter’s vision.  Why?  Because it was too small.  God wanted a much larger and broader vision for Peter.  God wanted to change Peter’s narrow perception that focused on Israel, to an expanse that encompassed the whole world.  In asking Peter to kill and eat, God was really asking him to bury his limited vision of ministry, and embrace a much, so much, wider ministry for God.

What do you suppose would be the extent and magnitude of ministry and impact God has for you, if you would put aside your limited vision and embrace the volume of impact in which God wants to use you?  Perhaps God is asking you right now to kill an old vision, an old attitude.  Or maybe he is showing you an old dream, or plan or hope you have held on to for years, that he wants to purge out of you so he can do a new thing in your life.  Perhaps you’re holding on to the phrase that kills a church or a great work for God – “We never did it this way before.”

It’s time to let the old ways die and embrace the new.  It’s time to open our hearts and lift up our eyes to God’s greater ways.  God’s vision for each of us is always bigger and more meaningful than what we can or want to see in the present.  Maybe it’s time to climb up on the roof and allow God to lower a sheet before each of us that is filled with a great future and impact for his glory.  Are you brave enough to make the climb?

                                                           Darlene