September 6, 2008

Grocery Store Vision

Mark 8:34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."




I recently had a vision/picture/revelation where Jesus was leading children through a grocery store and they were struggling to follow. They would grab items off the shelf that were not theirs (or at least not meant for them yet). Jesus was loading a cart full of canned goods and was occasionally giving them out to the children once they had walked out of the store.

The significance of this vision was in our (His kids) inability to follow Christ without being side-tracked by so many things on the shelf. Those things being "stored up" for us by Jesus represent those times where we DO obey and in turn, bear fruit. The fruit is collected and stored in heaven. The items being handed out by Jesus represent the gifts that He gives us to live our lives completely focused on fruit that will last. One day, we'll have the entire cart full of every good gift and we'll see clearly the fruit of our labors.

Jesus, would you teach us what it means to follow hard after you, to take up our crosses DAILY and to deny ourselves. We confess the struggles of being easily distracted. Please put us on your path towards righteousness that we would glorify you in every area of our lives. Teach us to lose our lives so that we might gain them forevermore. Teach us to boldly live as kids committed to following a worthy King. We are kids in desperate need of your power to turn us away from foolishness. Do your work in our lives. We invite your presence to rearrange our priorities. Holy Spirit give us gifts that point others towards genuine love.

6 comments:

Stephanne Marsh said...

Chad,
I just had to write you. I have been reading your blog and am just awed and amazed at the way God is speaking through you. You are doing an awesome job conveying thoughts that I have struggled to put into words. Thanks for being a blessing. Love to you and Beth
Stephanne Morris Marsh

Patrick Copeland said...

I think this is a perfect vision to help us see what distracts us (me personally). I feel that in life media distracts me. In a grocery store however, it's the Cap'n Crunch. Gotta love them crunch berries.

iamdavid said...

man..i dont know you. but what God is showing you is such a fresh perspective, to my life.
i love it! all the way over here in aus.
keep it up...

The Stalcup Journey said...

Lord, teach us to lve a fasted life, to eat only what you give us... give us Lord our daily bread... oh, Father, that we would not feed ourselves...

Anonymous said...

wow...thanks for sharing your thoughts, im really challenged and moved. what a vision. another aussie heart moved. how awesome is it that we can encourage total strangers on the other side of the planet? for me i find it hard striking the balance though and one major distraction for me is spending too much time on the net. so thanks again. God bless.

Chad Johnson said...

Thanks for such kind words, everyone. So encouraging to see that God will work in us regardless of where we live in the world. Exciting times these are. Blessings.