VISION AND REALITY
And the parched ground shall become a pool. – Isaiah 35:7We always have visions, before a thing is made real. When we realize
that although the vision is real, it is not real in us, then is the
time that Satan comes in with his temptations, and we are apt to say
it is no use to go on. Instead of the vision becoming real, there has
come the valley of humiliation.“Life is not as idle ore,
But iron dug from central gloom,
And batter’d by the shocks of doom
To shape and use.”God gives us the vision, then He takes us down to the valley to
batter us into the shape of the vision, and it is in the valley that
so many of us faint and give way. Every vision will be made real if
we will have patience. Think of the enormous leisure of God! He is
never in a hurry. We are always in such a frantic hurry. In the light
of the glory of the vision we go forth to do things, but the vision
is not real in us yet; and God has to take us into the valley, and
put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get
to the place where He can trust us with the veritable reality. Ever
since we had the vision God has been at work, getting us into the
shape of the ideal, and over and over again we escape from His hand
and try to batter ourselves into our own shape.The vision is not a castle in the air, but a vision of what God wants
you to be. Let Him put you on His wheel and whirl you as He likes,
and as sure as God is God and you are you, you will turn out exactly
in accordance with the vision. Don’t lose heart in the process. If
you have ever had the vision of God, you may try as you like to be
satisfied on a lower level, but God will never let you.