Lift your Vision

Lift your vision higher and see the Lord.”  This line from this song keeps playing repeatedly in my head.
We are in the days of choosing to lift our vision higher to a place where we have never seen the Lord before.  We are going to see Him in the areas where we have not allowed Him to be Lord.  We are learning to see the Lord within situations where in times past we have been unable to trust.  As we choose to lift our vision in worship, we begin to see Him in new ways.  It is by His grace we are moved from one place of faith and trust to another.  We are being prepared for a life-style of worship.  He is faithful to show us the high places within our hearts – those places where we do not trust – the places where we have erected altars to other things (gods).
Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.  The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.  Isaiah 43:20-21
Many of us are in a place of choosing not to look back and not to seek Him in the ways that are familiar to us.  We are to move in faith – reaching beyond the past limits of our own experiences; choosing to move to the next level of grace.  It will be easy to become comfortable and not keep moving in faith to a higher place of trust.  If we are seeking Him in the former things, we will not be looking for the new things.  We are to make decisions; choose to move in His new mercies every day.
The enemy seeks to broadside us in plain sight while we watch, causing us to be pushed off course and lose our focus.  We will be so stunned by the action we do not realize what is happening, but we will watch while thinking – what is going on? Why is this happening? The enemy is seeking to have us return to the familiar or to places where we feel confident or comfortable.  The Lord wants us to move forward into new requirements – into increasing levels of faith.  God does not call us to do something because we have ability.  His call is a test of our response to that which we do not understand.  He is looking at our heart; we are looking on the outward appearance and asking how we could possibly make this situation work? Our focus is to remain on the Lord and not to look back.
For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:38-39
The things separating us from the love of God are those things from the past or those things, which have become familiar to us.  We become so comfortable wrapped in loyalty that we continue to look back.  We are to choose to lift our vision higher and see the Lord in a new way, which is beyond our experience and our thinking.  Seek the Lord, the creator, with a new mind set.  When we seek with the old or the familiar, we will not see the new.  When we lift our vision higher, we see the Lord in ways that the limits of our past have placed blinders on us.
We are not to look back to the way it was, the good times, or when He came through for us or we look to previous experiences in God for answers, for He is doing a new thing.  We are to remember the things of old, but not to look to them.  We are not to dwell on those things.  We are to follow the Holy Spirit, with a longing for the higher vision.  Many of us are faced with a choice between that, which looks like it is something God has done in the past, or to choose to go forward with what He is saying now, even when we cannot see what is on the other side – we are to go a way we have never been before.
But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”  And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him.  And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep.  And they went and woke him, saying, “Save, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O men of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.  Matt 8:22-26
Jesus said to follow him as they were going to the other side.  We are not to question the circumstance or what appears to be, but through faith continue to move forward with what the Lord has spoken.  As we move on the power of His spoken word, He will arrange the situations and circumstance to come into alignment with what He is doing.  His word to us is tested, so we have the opportunity to see the areas where need to lift our vision and see the Lord.  It is on the other side of the storms.  We will see how we have been moved from one level of faith to another.
Peter walked on the promise of the word “come” which enabled him to walk on the water.  As long as he kept his vision focused on the Lord, he walked without sinking.