0706 異象變為真實
乾渴之地，要變為泉源…《以賽亞書 35:7》
我們在某事實現之前總是先有一個異象【願景】。當我們意識到這個異象是真實的，但在我們身上尚未成真時，撒旦就帶着試探而來，我們傾向於說：即使繼續嘗試也是沒有意義的。我們的異象不但沒有成為現實，我們反而進入了羞辱的低谷。
生命並非僅是閑置的礦石，
但從地心陰暗中開採出鐵，
經受厄運衝擊
方成塑形工具。
【英國著名詩人丁尼生Alfred, Lord Tennyson，1809年8月6日—1892年10月6日】
神給了我們一個異象，然後祂帶我們到低谷，打造我們成那個異象的形狀；正是在那低谷中，我們許多人放棄消沉了。只要我們有耐心，每一個神賜予的異象都將會成真。想想神擁有多麼多的空閑時間！祂從不着急，然而我們總是如此緊張、慌亂、忙碌。當我們還在異象榮耀之光時，我們就迫不及待去行動，但異象尚未在我們身上成真，神必須帶我們進入低谷，讓我們經歷水火磨練，重塑我們成形，直到我們達到祂可信託我們將異象實現的程度。自從神給我們異象以來，祂就一直在工作；祂正在把我們塑造成祂為我們所設定的目標的形狀，然而我們卻一次又一次地試圖逃離這位雕刻家之手，努力把自己打造成我們自己的目標的形狀。
神所賜的異象不是高不可及的空中樓閣，而是神要你就在這裡成為的異象。讓這位陶匠將你放在祂的輪子上，並隨其意旋轉你；之後，正如神是神，你是你，你至終必將成為與異象一模一樣的形狀；但在此過程中不要灰心喪氣。如果你曾經有過從神而來的異象，你可能試着滿足於一個較低的層次，但神絕不會允許這種狀況發生。
來自章伯斯的智慧
耶穌基督總是不屈服於我對自己權利的要求。我們的主關於門徒訓練的所有教導中，唯一一個基本要素就是捨棄、沒有計算、沒有任何自私的痕迹。《真的門徒》
0706 Visions Becoming Reality
The parched ground shall become a pool… —Isaiah 35:7
We always have a vision of something before it actually becomes real to us. When we realize that the vision is real, but is not yet real in us, Satan comes to us with his temptations, and we are inclined to say that there is no point in even trying to continue. Instead of the vision becoming real to us, we have entered into a valley of humiliation.
Life is not as idle ore,
But iron dug from central gloom,
And battered by the shocks of doom
To shape and use.
God gives us a vision, and then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of that vision. It is in the valley that so many of us give up and faint. Every God-given vision will become real if we will only have patience. Just think of the enormous amount of free time God has! He is never in a hurry. Yet we are always in such a frantic hurry. While still in the light of the glory of the vision, we go right out to do things, but the vision is not yet real in us. 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 point where He can trust us with the reality of the vision. Ever since God gave us the vision, He has been at work. He is getting us into the shape of the goal He has for us, and yet over and over again we try to escape from the Sculptor’s hand in an effort to batter ourselves into the shape of our own goal.
The vision that God gives is not some unattainable castle in the sky, but a vision of what God wants you to be down here. Allow the Potter to put you on His wheel and whirl you around as He desires. Then as surely as God is God, and you are you, you will turn out as an exact likeness of the vision. But don’t lose heart in the process. If you have ever had a vision from God, you may try as you will to be satisfied on a lower level, but God will never allow it.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Crhist is always unyiedlding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest. —Disciples Indeed, 395 L