The Vision: From slavery to freedom

By Kacey Chapman

2020, the year of perfect vision. This was the prophetic call at the beginning of the year and 3 months in, a global pandemic wreaked havoc and had everyone asking, “Where is the Lord?” How could this be the year of Jubilee? It seemed so distant...
The discouragement and doubt are as real as ever, yet God doesn’t wait for us to get on board with His plan before He puts it into action. Perspective is important.
The ways God illustrates His plans are not for us to understand, but if you will trust Him, He will show you. Are you ready?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
• Release date: Oct 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781662914355

Book preview

one – The Potter

Be careful what you pray for.

I’m sure everyone has had the familiarity of praying for patience. Suddenly, the saint that is sending this prayer up to Heaven is now experiencing the situation meant to give them patience.

We seem to forget how God answers prayers.

It is not a miraculous dose of patience.

It’s a test.

God is not a genie, He’s a Teacher.

I tend to forget what I pray for. Then when I venture into God’s answer I become frustrated at how impossible it seems and I blame God for what He is putting me through. He so graciously reminds me of what I prayed for and what He is trying to accomplish within my spirit to make me more like Him, to prune me, and to make me better.

We all just want to get better.

There are a few characteristics that I know about God and I know them because He has told me in His Word. That’s one of the amazing traits about Him. He tells us something in His Word and then He demonstrates it to us through something that is personal. One of the most proven aspects of God is that He will never force you to do something. He will strongly advise it but He will always give you a choice. It’s a beautiful attribute of our Lord but perhaps very dangerous for us. Simply based on our choices we can either please God or cause His anger to ignite.

We are all familiar with the mercies of God but what about His wrath?

Surely God wouldn’t punish me, because He is Love. You are right. God is Love, and He loves us so much He will chastise us in order for us to learn what is right and to grow. Have you ever experienced God’s righteous anger?

It is a complicated emotion that is covered in love, but hurts immensely. I have heard it many times, the phrase, It hurts so good. With God it doesn’t hurt so good, it just hurts... But it is for our good.

God has revealed to me recently that He is Creator, Good, Just, and Love. First and foremost, He is the perfect Creator in a physical sense and in a spiritual sense. He created the Heavens and the earth as shown in Genesis 1. Then as we read the backstory in Matthew 1, God still demonstrates Himself as a Perfect Creator even though these books are thousands of years apart.

We live out this divine Creation.

The Lord created inside Joseph divine revelation, peace, and a submissive spirit; because of this, Joseph took Mary as his wife. In Ezra 1, the Lord created within a heathen King the desire to rebuild a house in Jerusalem. Our decisions, notably the good ones, are due to God’s Perfect Creation within us. God’s ability is perfect and His instruments are diverse. Whether it be a non-human earth, a virgin woman, or a heathen king, if we are willing to be created, God will create us.

It’s interesting.

The Lord takes something old, perhaps even evil, and establishes His creation within to make it new through the Holy Spirit. If we are willing to wait on His perfect timing, we will indeed receive His perfect creation. Lord, create me! Take my old, and let me be willing for You to make it new. God is a Creator!

Secondly, God has displayed that He is Good. Deuteronomy 10:21 says, He is thy praise, and He is thy God; that has done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen. When the Lord promised the land flowing with milk and honey to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He spoke the truth. Although it took a little longer than expected, the promise did come to fruition. The Israelites had to remember what God had already done so that He could do something new.

For God to take you somewhere new, you have to remember where God is bringing you from.

There is no point in God teaching us lessons if we are just going to turn around and forget them. God has a way of teaching us a lesson that we will remember. We must go through it so we can have a testimony once we get to the other side. It is important to remember the deeds that God has done for us but we cannot limit God on how He did it. Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. God brought the Israelites out of Egypt and out of bondage by a prophet that had an experience with Him. The Lord went to drastic measures to turn the heart of Moses, put confidence in him enough to march up to Pharaoh, orchestrate a game plan of how they would convince Pharaoh to free God’s people, and retrieve the Israelites by escaping through impossible circumstances. By this time, the Lord had sent a captive Israel a prophet that reminded them of all the past events that God had done, yet He told them to forget it.

Why?

Pastor Steven Furtick from Elevation Church explained it like this, God wants us to have faith that He will make a way in the wilderness, but He will not deliver us the same way each time. If we are looking for God to set us free the way He did 10 years ago, we will miss the unique way God is planning to set us free this time. God says, Behold, I will do a new thing Instead of parting the Red Sea through a prophet, I am going to lead you through the wilderness.

All this proves that God is Good.

He does not let us stay in bondage, instead, He Creates personal ways to set us free that are specifically tailored for us. God wants us to know that He will come through, but the way He does it is entirely up to Him.

Another attribute God has declared is that He is Just.

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. There are certain situations in life that seem unfair.

This being said, when God gives gifts, it’s because it is in His nature.

God gives each of us a different calling which requires different training per sè. It’s not that He desires to give us trouble and tribulations, but rather, He is preparing us for His Will. This looks different for everyone, but different is not necessarily better or worse.

It’s just different.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations. Jeremiah 1:5. We all have a calling in life. Whether you know what it is or not, you have a purpose here on earth. That’s why you woke up this morning. God’s not through with you.

This is true for everyone.

Now, it is a choice of obedience. Will you obey the calling? We can’t blame God for giving someone a better life because it’s simply not true.

God gives different callings not better lives.

With this knowledge, we can go through this life with confidence knowing for an absolute fact that God has chosen us for a specific task. What an amazing feeling it is to know that God sees all that we go through and has divinely organized every step, even our mistakes, into a beautifully designed path.

The next attribute is probably the most important.

God is Love.

God shows His love for us in many ways but possibly one of the most memorable is that He never leaves us or forsakes us. Ironically, He proved this by forsaking His Son for us. By forsaking His only Son and sending Him to pay the price for our sin, He demonstrates that He loves us more than we could ever imagine. He went to the highest degree so that we could trust that when we need Him, He will be there.

Thank You, Father, for always being there.

There’s a tip for life that I am confident God wants us to remember. Whatever you know about God, whatever He has taught you through His Word and your experiences, apply that knowledge to your situation right now. I have to practice this in my current situation because I am struggling.

I feel like my health is deteriorating and I am tempted to believe that I may never be healed. I have put myself in a situation that is my fault, have gone too far, and now, surrounded by fear, I can’t seem to see the end.

I have no hope.

The good news?

God doesn’t work from my emotions. Praise the Lord. In fact, God will rebuke your emotions in order to get you to the place where He wants you to be.

Okay, Lord, I don’t see how anything good could come out of this, but I know You’re Good.

I do not know why I am going through this, but I know You’re Just.

I don’t know what You are doing, but I know that You are Love.

I’m afraid, but You’re My Strength and because of this, I trust You. I have to. I know for a fact that without You, I would not be alive. If by some miracle I was alive, I would be depressed, anxious, overtaken by fear and worry, and I would have no hope, but praise be to God that You taught me about who You are. You are my Comfort in my time of need and I can, in return, trust You and when I do, I have found all the hope that I need.

God is all of these qualities and more. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, He’s our Shepherd, our Counsellor, our Hope, Comfort, King, and Friend. He is a Good, Good Father and He is the best Potter that has ever been. I’m reminded of Jeremiah 18:1-6, The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause them to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made from clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the Potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this Potter? Saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. It wasn’t until a few days ago that I began to understand and appreciate this illustration.

What a beautiful representation of the Lord.

Notice that the Word tells us that the clay was marred. The clay was battered but it was still in the hand of the Potter. God doesn’t throw away the imperfect clay. He makes it into something new. We are reminded in 2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things become new. God is the God of the new. He loves it. He is a Creator so creating something new is His favorite thing to do.

Especially with His children.

As I read this story I thought to myself, Why didn’t God just tell Jeremiah right where he was? Why did he have to get up and go somewhere? I have found that God will use you where you are, but He must reveal the matters of the Spirit through experience. God took Jeremiah to give him an experience so that he would always remember not only what God said, but what He illustrated.

I can’t tell you my sufferings and expect you to understand who God is. I pray you allow God to bring to your memory all that He has shown you through your own experiences. Mark 8:27-29, "And Jesus went out, and His disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way He asked His disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am? And they answered, John the Baptist: but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets. And He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the