20/20 Vision For 2020
By Joni Ames
JoniAmes@aol.com
http://eepurl.com/gKeM9n

As I look back on my life, I’ve realized something. Every time I’ve had a life changing, defining moment, it’s because I finally chose to define it. The prophesies I received that I so meticulously collected in my journals were like recipes in a recipe book. Nothing happened with them until I added to it the ingredient called me and began to put things together and make things happen.

All too many times we wait on God - or something or somebody else - to come along and wave a magic wand of favor over our head before we step into what God Himself has said He has for us. Meanwhile we way overuse saying we’re “waiting on the Lord.” Truth be known, He’s waiting on us to move on what He’s told us about and even already provided for and given to us.

I have jokingly told many people that if they keep saying they are waiting on the Lord and they die, not having fulfilled their destiny, I will buy their tombstone. I say I will have the inscription put on it, “They waited on the Lord and He came and got them.“

This year I seemed to get stuck. I have had to have a stern talk with myself and remind myself of God’s truths all over again.

As we face the holidays with a brand new year quickly looming ahead of us, many begin to develop “new years resolutions.” Maybe we should start with following through on those we’ve made for the past years that all fell by the wayside.

Not much happens by chance. Most things involve years of preparation and a final moment of deciding we are not going to let life pass us by anymore. We pull up our bootstraps and make ourselves accountable to the talents, favor, and time God has allotted to us. We quit leaving our life altering decisions up to “fate,” and choose to be the deciding factor for our own future.

Nobody follows someone that doesn’t know where they’re going. But everyone gathers behind someone that has a goal who they see meticulously and determinedly moving toward it with passion and purpose.

i’m not talking about following a blabbermouth that produces nothing but empty promises. I’m talking about watching someone who aims at the stars and actually heads for them.

I have had friends in my life that have followed after every multilevel marketing or Ponzi scheme you can imagine and have flopped on their face every time. If only they would have put that much effort into developing a business or dream of their own, they would have been wealthy many times over. Not deceived and defeated many times over.

A dream will remain simply a dream we’ve written down until we actually apply ourself to it. The day we do that is the day we begin to make it come true. It’s the day that we begin to see it become a reality. But we don’t stop there. We must make a step toward it every day. Then every day we live, we are another step closer to the fulfillment of it.

Try that formula. Take one dream in particular and write it down in a journal. Name your book according to your goal. Date it. Every day, do one thing toward that goal. Write down what you did and date that. In one year, take a look and see how it has begun to develop.

Take another dream and write it down in another book. Name and date it. Just look at it and do nothing toward it for a whole year. Maybe pray about it a couple times. At the end of the year, see where you are with that one.

Am I oversimplifying things? No. I am calling you to be practical. Doing nothing about your dreams accomplishes nothing. Period.

Habakkuk 2:2-4 instructs us to write the dream and make it plain so that we may run toward it. The key there is to run toward it after we write it. Not leave our plans in a closed book.

Chance opportunities do occur. But we need to be prepared and ready for them. Just like the church in 2 Chronicles 29:36 was:

”Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced that God had prepared the people, since the events took place so suddenly.”

Preparation is key to your suddenly.

If you are going to take a trip, you prepare by packing your luggage and buying an airline ticket. Then you do not just stay at home. You go to the airport at the appointed time and board your plane.

If you are going to write a book, it doesn’t suddenly appear on your desk in completed form if you haven’t taken the time to write it.

If you want to lose 50 pounds, it doesn’t happen by binging every night for six months.

If you want to learn how to play guitar or piano, you must buy the instrument and then take the time to learn how to play it. Even if you buy the instrument but do not take lessons and practice, you will be no further ahead in one year than you are now.

The lie has been perpetrated too long that has said, “if it’s a true prophecy from God, you don’t have to do anything about it.”

It’s time for the prophetic church to stop waiting for prophetic magic and face reality. Those prophecies you have received will never come to pass until you do something about them. Faith without works is dead. (James 2:20 & 26) And so are your dreams. That’s not a bad confession, it is the cold, hard truth. It’s scriptural truth.

It’s time to hit the reset button. Stop believing the lies and start pursuing the truth. Prepare for your miracles and you will see them appear before you. Keep moving forward, don’t look back, and don’t stop.

God put desires in your heart so that you can achieve them, not so that you can constantly grieve over the death of them.

2020 is the year to have 20/20 vision. The year to see things clearly. The year to see things develop that you have long waited for.

It’s time to live and thrive, not merely survive. It’s time to go for it. Whatever that “it“ is for you.

Don’t waste time lamenting over what could have or should have been. Forget about wasting any more time. Get up and get going and accomplish much in the year ahead. Let us believe together and encourage each other as we go forward.

(12) Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. (13) Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, (14) I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 3:12-14)

Amen.

Blessings,
Joni Ames
JoniAmes@aol.com
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Now to Nov. 30th: Open. Text me asap at (704) 608-1052 or e-mail me at joniames@aol.com to schedule. (Note: Always text with your info before calling because unknown calls get blocked.)

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