The Power of Focus & Obedience
The Harvest of Dreams, Purposes, & Assignments
"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life." Proverbs 13:12 (NKJ)
"I need you to sand down these boards and help stain them." The whole family was working to get a project done by the end of the day. "Sure!" I tackled the first two stacks of boards with eagerness and vision of the finished product. No problems! I finished both stacks in wonderful speed. But now my mind had drifted to the events I had to prepare for the weekend. My focus soon pulled my feet in motion. Gone, was the sanding mission and my role in the team movement. A thousand thoughts raced through my calculating mind. And would I have enough time to accomplish it all?
An hour later... my Dad found me. Excuses were a ridiculous reason for my "butterfly" distractions. It was then that I woke up to something deeper. I perceived my serious error in layers... my character was like an aircraft degrees off course... Readjustment needed. or point B would become a destination far missed in a sea-crash with no gas. No longer did I hear my Dad, but God speaking through his words... and a scene shot before my eyes like a curtain drawn up with a sudden view. "Why did you leave the job I gave you, unfinished?" Those words pierced through the rooms of my heart. "Why was it ok to walk off? You were not where I needed you when the time came; you found something else you would rather do.... I can't depend on you if you if that's your character; I'll have to get someone else to do the job. You can go do what you feel like you need to do..."
I knew he wasn't being mean, he just needed everyone to play their part.
Conviction shuddered through me followed by a surge of gratitude for the wake up call. I threw myself into avid obedience, fully focused. Never, never did I want bad character to cause me setback or a missed opportunity. (I want to note, that the weekend events turned out a huge success. And the true mission revealed was not aborted but won a few weeks later!!)
What is the desire of your heart, the thing God planted deep in you - whether it be school, ministry, marriage, business, becoming debt free, filled with the Spirit, healed, building a house, etc... It's not ok to stop focusing on that end product. Because as your focus drifts, your life drifts from the course to point B. You never finish the job; you never guard the garden unto harvest. You wasted your time. "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life." Proverbs 13:12 (NKJ)
Mark 4:13-14, 18-20
13 And (Jesus) said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?
14 "The sower sows the word (concerning you/ your life).
18 "Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word,
19"and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. (What has God told you to do? Did you first hear the word with a "Yes!"... but things happened.)
20 "But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred." (NKJ)
If you loose your focus on the seed (God's Word), you loose your life. If you let down your guard, you let down your destination. It is costly and dangerous. This is serious business. You will never see that dream come if you keep walking off, loosing your focus. Hope is an anchor like with a ship. It keeps the mind/life from drifting. That doesn't mean there won't be some shaking on the ship, but it won't go anywhere as long as the anchor is not pulled up. (see Hebrews 6:19) What is hope? Hope sees the picture in the future and has a confident expectation for it.
Hebrews 10:35-36 "Therefore do not cast away your confidence (your focus), which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:" (NKJ)
Twenty-four hours after the event I first described, I read this story. It really made the point!
1 Samuel 15:18-19, 22-23
18"Now the LORD sent you on a mission, and said, 'Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.'
19 "Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the LORD?"
22 Then Samuel said: "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he also has rejected you from being king." (NKJ)
Delay is the same as disobedience. Your distractions, simply put, equal rebellion. I stood in horror at how serious this is in God's eyes. The only course of action... REPENT. Repentance is a change of focus and a change of direction.
I heard in my heart, "When I give you a job, you do what it takes to focus until the job is finished. Push passed feelings - you cannot win by them. Live regardless of them - present or not - Your course based on God's word to you, not a fleeting feeling that won't even be the same in the morning.
Delayed obedience still equals dis-obedience. It's not enough to say, 'I will do it. I will do it when this/that happens, or after I do such and such.' That's not obeying."
If you read the whole chapter in I Samuel 15, you will find that King Saul, lost his focus and was moved by a span of images, including the fear of people and the desire for other things.
What makes you loose focus on the word: Another picture playing in your mind's eye! Something more comfortable, easier, more doable. It might be a picture that gives you gratification and what seems to satisfy your desire. There is a way that (appears) right to a man but its end is the way of death. (Proverbs 16:25) Desire comes from looking at a picture (an image in the mind generated by words or visual illustration) If you look at something long enough, you will desire it, and if you desire it long enough, your feet will move you to figure out how to obtain what you desire. This is an action that will lead you somewhere. What are you desiring? Revenge, pleasure, comfort, escape... or God's word concerning you? Whatever you play on the screen of your mind is where your life is heading. This is how we are wired! It's a truth that works both ways - we know the negative side: Murder, sex, theft, anorexia, gluttony, abortion... But the process of desire/lust works the exact same where God's word to you is concerned. If you don't desire it... it is because you are not looking at it. Stare at it, roll the image around in your mind... desire will result.
This is a personal wake up call for you... Don't walk off from the vision, don't leave the dream unfinished. Don't drift from the thing God told you!
You have been born into this time. There is purpose and assignment on your life, but there is a thief that comes to steal your focus, thereby stealing the live seed. If he has your focus, he has your life. What is the value of a mission power included but void of focus? It's useless energy/ power spent running a rat-wheel and getting no where.
Hebrews 12:1-3
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy (of the end result) that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls (mind, will, emotions). (NKJ)
Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. (NKJ)
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