There are three levels of living. First, is there is the see it level which is the bottom level. Anybody can live on this level. Everybody has the opportunity to see. Now, when I say ‘see it,’ I am talking about faith’s opportunity. Some of us are visually acute, but blind opportunities. We can all be looking from the same spot and not see the same thing.
The second level is the ‘say it’ level, and that is what I call faith’s word. To see it, is the opportunity for faith, to say it is the word of faith. That is where we begin to verbally commit ourselves to what has gripped our vision. The Bible is full of say-it faith. The word of God teaches us ‘if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord … you shall be saved (Rom 10:9-10).
The third level is the ‘seize-it’ level of living. This is the level at which faith becomes action. It’s more than verbiage and it’s more than vision. It is a vital action within our hearts and lives. Since everyone starts on level one, the see it level, we all have the opportunity to grab hold of faith’s opportunity.
As you climb the steps, however, fewer people climb with you, when you get to the seize it stage, the action stage, you will find yourself in an elite group. Most people never climb this high because they have missed faith’s opportunity and life’s action.
There is an example in the Bible of a person who reached the seize it level. His name is Caleb. When we pick up Caleb’s story, it was 45 years after he spied out the land of Cannan, that the action yielded a good result. Then the Israelites were in the process of taking the land for their use. In Joshua chapter 14, Caleb talks to the elders, ‘I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadeshbarnea to spy out the Land’ (Vs 7). That’s the see it stage. He had seen the land and Caleb goes on ‘I brought word back to him as it was in my heart’ that’s the say-it stage.
The vision began to seize him. It not only got into his head through his eyes, but it got into his heart. He began to feel what he had seen. Joshua, having seen Caleb’s commitment to the vision 45 years earlier, gave Caleb the land. Caleb seized what he said and saw. Caleb’s vision helped him to accomplish the following.
First it helped him to develop conviction – He says Joshua 14:7 that when he saw the land, he told Moses that his heart seized it. His vision gave him conviction. He was able to stand up against the other spies, to follow through on his vision.
Secondly, His vision helped him obey God – other’s hearts began to melt with fear, but Caleb said, “I followed the Lord my God fully” (Josh 14:8). Why? Because he had a vision.
Fourth, his vision helped him secure the land – He eventually possessed it because he first of all saw it. A big vision will help you overcome any problem, but a small vision or no vision at all will cause the smallest of problems to trip you up and keep you from becoming what you should be.
What do you see God challenging you to do or be in this New Year? How will you approach this goal and make it become a reality? Take time to answer these questions and fashion out actions you are going to take to seize that dream. Pray about it daily until it is actualized.
