When Vision Becomes Cloudy

What happens when life's distractions begin to cloud the vision God has given you? In this episode, Dr. Sharmee Pratt explores the biblical importance of vision, why a distracted life leads to spiritual misalignment, and how unhealed desires can quietly compete with God's purpose. Discover why Proverbs 29:18 declares that "where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint," and learn how renewing your focus is the first step toward walking in the life God has ordained for you. 

Transcript

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Man, it is fine to me. I went back and looked at my notes. I have been here what the twenty was it the twenty-seventh or something of that magnitude of the last few weeks. Uh there's been some various things that have taken place. I actually didn't have a voice, and my voice is now just coming back. It's it's coming back, it's coming back. So my voice is coming back to normal, right? Uh, but in that time, my ball show did a commencement launching celebration too for um Focus Christian University. Um and one of the things that I want to say to all of you guys, God is so faithful. He's faithful, he's faithful, he's faithful. And today I am going to be discussing when vision becomes cloudy, the danger of a distracted life. Can somebody say that? When vision becomes cloudy, the danger of a distracted life. So today we're going to talk about a topic that many have overlooked, and yet it is one of the greatest keys to life. Can somebody say this is a key to my life? This is truly a key to life. Without it, the Bible is clear that people cast off restraint. In the book of Proverbs, scripture tells us that without vision, a person cannot help but misstep in their walk with God. The Bible says, where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint. But he that keepeth the law, happy is he. Proverbs 29:18. For many believers, vision is not something that is emphasized in their spiritual walk. Yet it is one of the most important principles outside of faith itself. Can somebody say vision is one of the most important principles outside of faith itself? Vision is a tool that helps us navigate life without becoming distracted by the many things the world continually places before us. Without clear vision, a person cannot help but drift outside of God's will instead of remaining aligned with it. One of the greatest misconceptions within Christianity is believing that you can truly walk by faith without vision. This is why understanding the kingdom is vitally important. The word vision here refers to mental sight, it refers to revelation, prophetic insight, or divine communication. It is God's ability to allow us to see what He sees before it becomes UNI reality. This is why vision is absolutely essential in the life of every believer. Again, without vision, the people cast off restraint. So where there is no vision, you and I truly are not able to truly walk by faith. Many believers spend years strengthening their faith while neglecting their vision. They learn how to pray, they learn how to fast and how to trust God through some difficult seasons of life, yet they never develop the ability to protect the vision God has placed before them. Faith without vision eventually becomes movement without direction. Again, faith without vision eventually becomes movement without any direction. A person may be active in ministry, busy with responsibilities, and even committed to serving God, yet still find themselves walking outside of the assignment God originally intended because they lost sight of what he revealed. This is exactly why vision matters. Vision is not simply about seeing where you are going, it is about remaining aligned with God, with what he has already spoken to you and I. Vision becomes the compass that keeps us moving toward purpose, even when life attempts to redirect us. Again, what is vision? It's the compass. Vision is you and my compass for life. That even when things happen, we cannot veer off because why? We have a clear vision. Listen, think about Jesus for a moment. Because of vision, he didn't allow people's desires nor his desires to get in the way of the purpose of his life. Without that compass, every distraction begins looking like an opportunity, every open door appears to be God's will for your life, and every desire feels justified simply because it exists. Every desire will begin to be justified because the desire exists within. One of Satan's greatest strategies is not always to attack our faith directly. Instead, he works to cloud our vision. Tell me what Satan does. This is why a distracted life always becomes a cloudy life. And a cloudy life eventually produces a misaligned life. If you want to know why you are misaligned or you're no longer in alignment, here's why. Your vision has become cloudy. Because of the distractions of life. Vision is more than seeing. Can somebody say that? Vision is more than seeing. One of the greatest misunderstandings surrounding vision is believing that it simply refers to dreams, goals, or ambitions. While those things certainly have their place in life, biblical vision reaches much deeper than personal aspirations. Vision is not what we decide for ourselves, vision is what God reveals to you and I. It is heaven's perspective concerning you and my life. Before God ever asks us to walk by faith, he first gives us something to work, walk toward. Again, you need to catch that. Before God would ever tell you and I to walk by faith and not by sight, he first gives you and I something that we can begin to walk toward. That something is called vision. See, you have to understand the Hebrew word translated vision in Proverbs 29:18 refers to a person's revelation that they get, the prophetic communication, the divine insight, or a message received from God. It's chazon, which is vision in the Hebrew. This immediately changes the way we interpret this passage. Solomon's not teaching about human imagination or even positive thinking, he is speaking about living according to God's revealed direction. Let me ask you a question. Are you living according to God's revealed direction? Or are you living by your own desires? See, you and my desires will produce misalignment. But God gives you an eye the desires that are in his heart and mine. Remember, when there is complete alignment, there is oneness. So when the Bible speaks about God giving you an eye the desires of our heart, it is not speaking about God just giving you the desires that you crave for or the desires that you want. Those are the desires that are in alignment with vision and purpose that God has already declared concerning your life. Oh, come on, somebody. Listen, he is speaking about living according again to God's revealed direction. Vision becomes when vision begins when God speaks, not when we decide. See, we think when the Bible says that God will give us the desires of our heart, that that's talking about the desires that we desire. But when there is oneness of vision in God, then we are purposely aligned with the will of God for our life. Remember, I'm going to get to that, but the Bible says that before he knew us, before we were formed in our mother's womb, that he already knew the plans and the purpose that he thought about us. Remember, God is not trying to decide your life after you were conceived in the womb. Vision was already placed inside of you while you were being created in the womb. God already foreknew you, he already knew the purpose that he called you to in this earth. So when you think about the Bible declaring that he will give you the desires of your heart, let me help the misinterpretation and the miseducation that many people have. No, no, baby. He's talking about the purpose that aligns with the vision that he's already placed inside of you. Your desires will begin to already show up because they are his desires concerning your life. And so now you begin to walk in the desires that he purposed on the inside of you. It's called oneness, it's called covenant, it's called alignment. Oh, come on. I understand when we read a passion passage like that, because of miseducation, because we don't understand the scriptures, we begin to interpret it to believe that the things that we desire that God is just going to give us the desires of our heart. But that's not what that scripture means. It's not. Oh, come on, somebody. Vision. It's more than shame. See, we classify vision based on shame. No, baby. That's now how vision is classified. Where there is no vision, where there is no communication with God. Oh, come on. Where there is no divine insight, where there is no prophetic utterance, you're going to cast off restraint. You're going to do your own thing. That's basically what cast off restraint means, right there. It means that you will live life according to your own blueprint, according to your own desires, according to what you feel. That's what it means to cast off restraint. Oh, come on, let's move on. The same is true for every believer today. God never creates purpose after he creates the individual. Purpose already exists before we are born. Jeremiah 1:5 reminds us before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. Before Jeremiah entered history, heaven already possessed a blueprint for his life. I need you to really take a moment and understand what they just said. Before you were ever thought about, before your mama and daddy ever sat down, laid down, did whatever they did to create you, right? In your mother's womb, before that sperm met with that egg, before it connected, God had already foreknew who you were going to be in this life, in this earthquake. And so we confuse vision with movement. Oh, come on, somebody, with the things that we do. No, no, with the things that we can see. No, no, vision has to do with prophetic utterance. What has God declared about you? But if you have not sat down long enough, if you now have not quiet your soul long enough, you will never find out the real you. So many people are walking around in an identity crisis and they're declaring God is going to give them the desires of their heart. But that's not true. Listen, heaven already possessed a blueprint for your life. The truth should transform the way we think about purpose. Listen, we spend so much of our life asking God to show us his will, yet his will has existed since before our first breath. You want to know the will of God for your life, but the Bible says this. We should know what the will of the Lord is. It literally says that in the Bible. So why is it that many people don't understand the will of God for their lives? Again, because we have not sat still enough, and because we have been so traumatized by life, by circumstances, by upbreakers, by all types of things. Things have come in and influenced our vision. So even when God begins to speak, we wrestle. Many people have an identity crisis, they don't know who they are. And when you don't know who you are, you can't help but to cast off restraint. Remember, casting off restraint that literally means you just live like an individual that's not a citizen of heaven. You live based on the world's blueprint. And so this is why you are in consistent cycles. Listen. Again, it says vision is simply the unveiling of what has always existed in the mind of God. Our responsibility is not to create vision, but to discover it. Nothing is yours until you discover it. Nothing. I don't care how much you pray for it, I don't care how much you prophesy about it. It doesn't matter who tells you this, who prophesied this, who declared this, who decreed this. Nothing becomes you and mine until we discover it. Even now, you can listen to everything that I say, but it's not going to become yours until it becomes revelation knowledge to you, until it becomes revealed understanding to you. Our responsibility is not again to create vision, but to discover it, store it, and remain faithful to it. The mind always moves toward what it continually sees. One of the foundation principles of biblical neurotology is understanding that the brain naturally follows whatever consistently holds its attention. God designed the mind to strengthen what is repeatedly focused upon. Neuroscience refers to this as neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to recognize itself through repeated thoughts, behaviors, and experiences. Simply stated, what we continually focus on becomes neurologically stronger. Long before science discovered this principle, God established it within his word. Proverbs 23:7 teaches us, for as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. Romans 12:2 tells us that transformations begin through the renewing of the mind. Isaiah 26 and 3 declares that God keeps us in perfect peace, those whose minds remain stayed upon who? Him. Each of these passages reveals the same spiritual principle. Attention determines direction. Again, attention determines a person's direction in life. But it also reveals that when our minds drift, misalignment follows. The mind cannot continually meditate on one thing while moving toward another thing. Let me repeat that. Whatever consistently occupies our thoughts begins to shape our belief. And this here, sir ma'am, believe uh builds rather a belief system. A belief system is nothing but a collaboration of thoughts. That's all a belief system is. So anytime somebody says that's your belief system, it means that it's your thought pattern. Your thought pattern begins to create a belief system for you and I. Listen, those beliefs influence our decision. Our decisions establish our behaviors, and our behaviors eventually determine the course of our lives. This is why scripture repeatedly commands believers to guard their hearts, renew their minds, and meditate upon God's word, what? Day and night. God understands that whatever consistently captures our attention eventually influences our destiny. This is why many of you have become misaligned. Because something else captured your attention. Anytime things, people, circumstances, trauma, whatever it is, capture our attention. Guess what? Our lives eventually begins to follow that direction. This is precisely why distractions is never harmless. Many people think distractions are simply inconveniences, but spiritually, they are much more dangerous than something that's just an inconvenience. Every distraction competes for the attention God intended to remain fixed upon His voice. Every distraction slowly redirects our mental focus, and whatever redirects our focus eventually redirects our lives. This is why many people come out of alignment. Because those harmless distractions, those harmless thought patterns, you thought you thought they were harmless, those harmless desires, you thought. You thought they were harmless, but they begin to slowly leak in and pull you away from the alignment that you once knew. Jesus emphasized this principle in Matthew 6, 22 through 23, when he declared, the eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, then your whole body will be full of light. Jesus was not merely speaking about physical eyesight, he was revealing a principle concerning spiritual focus. A single eye represents undivided attention. Listen, a single eye represents undivided attention. It describes a life that is fixed upon one purpose rather than divided among many competing desires. When our attention remains fixed upon Christ, our decisions become clear because our perception remains healthy. However, this is where many people are at in the however stage. When our attention becomes divided between God's purpose and our personal desires, clarity begins disappearing. We start questioning what once seems certain. We begin justifying decisions we once knew were outside of God's will for our lives. We slowly lose our sensitivity to Holy Spirit. Not because God stopped speaking to you and I, but because our attention became occupied elsewhere. A distracted life is a cloudy life. One of the greatest dangers of distraction is that it rarely announces itself. People seldom wake up one morning attending to abandon God's purpose. Misalignment always happens gradually. Can somebody say that? Misalignment always happens gradually. It is the result of countless small distractions that slowly reshape the way a person thinks until they no longer recognize how far they have drifted away. Imagine this driving through this fall. The road has not changed, the destination has not changed, the vehicle has not changed. The only thing that has changed is your ability to see clearly. Because your vision has become impaired. Every decision now becomes more difficult. You slow down because you are uncertain. You question whether you are still on the right road. You begin relying upon your own instincts rather than what you can clearly see. Now, here's the thing: you have to you have been down this road countless times. Again, it's not that you have not been down this road. You have been down this road countless times yet. Because of the fog, you now question your ability to see. The same is true with life. The enemy seldom will give you a new road to take. He works on familiarity and just wraps it up to look differently. Spiritually, the same thing happens when distraction clouds our vision. God's purpose has not changed. His promises have not changed. His calling concerning you has not changed. The only thing that has changed is your perception. That's the only thing that has changed. Remember, the road was the same road you traveled on for years. The thing that caused you to start questioning your direction was the fog. Therefore, it causes a person to start interpreting life through confusion rather than revelation. Many people are interpreting their life through a lens of confusion and not revelation. Again, where there is no vision, you cast off restraint. Vision has to do with revelation. And where there is no revelation, you can't help but to live based on your own interpretation, your own desires. Why? Because you have cast off restraint. Oh, come on. You stopped walking in vision and reveal knowledge. You slowly stopped doing the things that you used to do. It didn't happen all at once. It is a gradual thing. See, first it seemed harmless. First, it seemed like you were still connected until. Never forget this. And I say this consistently. This is when a person starts to make emotional decisions instead of spiritual ones because clarity has been replaced by uncertainty. The enemy understands that if he cannot remove God's calling from your life, he will simply attempt to cloud your vision until you no longer recognize what you were called to do. You begin to question your own steps, you begin to question even your reality, your existence, everything about you. You start to question. How did you get there? It was the little foxes, it was the little distractions. Remember, the Bible says it's the little foxes that destroyed the whole vineyard in the book of Solomon. Listen, I'm talking about a principle here. See, you can use that principle about the little foxes destroying the vineyard. See, it's the little things in life, it's those little distractions, it's those little things, those things that don't seem hard. It's those little conversations. It's the little time you start spending with him or her. See, it didn't start big, it was the little conversations that you were having. See, it's the little things that causes us to drift away. And then before you know it, you stop connecting to the vine. See, the vine is still there. You begin to drift away from the vine. The vine never drifts away from you. Oh, come on, somebody. The vine never drifts away, it never departs from us. We begin to depart from the vine. The vine, listen, the vine is stable, it's sturdy. Listen, remember, oh my god, Jesus is the vine, his father is the vine dresser. Oh, come on, somebody. See, the vine never drifts, it was your drifting. You begin to have those little conversations, you begin to entertain those little thoughts, you begin to desire it just a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more. And so your desires now became to overcome. They have overwhelmed you, and now you have drifted so far you don't even know who you are. Oh come on, am I talking to you? Let's move on. Listen. This strategy is for more subtle than open rebellion because the believer often continues attending church, praying, serving, and reading scripture while simultaneously drifting away from God's original assignment. Oh my God. Until eventually those distractions causes you to drift outside of the one who called you. Externally, everything appeared to be healthy, but internally, vision was becoming obscured. Perhaps one of the clearest examples of this principle is found in Matthew 14. When Peter stepped out of the boat to walk on the water. Remember that? Peter accomplished the impossible because his attention remained fixed upon Jesus. As long as his vision remained clear, he continued walking above circumstances that should have overwhelmed him. The moment his attention shifted toward the wind and the waves, fear entered his thinking. And what entered his thinking immediately affected his behavior. Did you just hear what I said? What entered your thinking, whatever enters your thinking, whatever enters your thinking will eventually or immediately affect your behavior. Notice that the storm did not suddenly become stronger, it was already strong. The waves had been present before the beginning. The waves and the storms were already boisterous. They just didn't start when Peter stepped out on the water. Remember, it was already boisterous. Remember, they were already like toasting to and fro on the sea. Remember that. It did not just happen. Nothing just happens. Oh, come on. Listen, the storm was already brewing. The only thing that changed was Peter's focus. His vision became cloudy by what surrounded him instead of remaining fixed upon the one who called him. See, that's many of our problems. We get distracted by our surroundings instead of remaining fixed or focused or in alignment with who called us. So when you're talking about vision, vision is more than just natural sight. I remember back in 2020, everybody was proclaiming this was the year of vision, this was the year of vision, this was the year of vision, 2020, the year of vision, 2020, the year of vision. But here's the thing: when you study vision in the natural, 2020 is just normal vision, superb vision is 2010. That's ego-eyed vision. See, many people remain normal because they adapted to the 2020 vision rule. See, if you want, oh God, I'll hear you, Holy Ghost. If you want to become abnormal, then you have to stay connected to the vine. You have to stay connected to the one who's able to give you 2010 vision. That 2010 vision is revelation vision. You begin to have revealed knowledge, you begin to see things by the spirit and not by sight. Oh, come on, somebody. The same principle governs our lives today. The distractions themselves are not always new, but the people may be new. Oh, come on. Financial pressures, relationship difficulties, disappointments, failures, and unexpected hardships have always existed. What determines whether we remain aligned is not the existence of the storm, but the condition of our vision. When our eyes remain fixed upon God's revelation, distractions lose their ability to redirect our destiny. When our vision becomes cloudy, however, even small distractions can slowly move us away from the very purpose God ordained before the foundation of the world. As we conclude today's teaching, I want to leave you with this thought. Every life is moving in the direction of its vision. Every life. Whether we realize it or not, what consistently holds our attention will ultimately shape our thoughts, influence our decisions, and determine the course of our lives. This is why the enemy fights us so aggressively for our focus. He understands that if we, if he can cloud you and my vision, he can gradually redirect our destiny. Perhaps today we have recognized areas where your vision, listen, has become clouded. Maybe life disappointments, maybe distractions, maybe responsibilities or even unfulfilled desires have slowly pulled your attention away from what God originally revealed to you. The encouraging news is that God has not changed his mind concerning his purpose for your life. His calling is still intact. His promises are still true concerning you. His vision for your life has not disappeared simply because your perception has become a little bit cloudy or very cloudy. The first step towards restoration is not trying harder, it is to see clearer. See, you have a seeing problem, a vision problem. That's what's going on. Your vision is too cloudy. But here's the thing: in order for your vision to be clear, then that means there has to be a reconnection with purpose and truth. When our minds are renewed by the truth of God's word, our vision begins to sharpen, our discernment is restored, and we once again become aligned with the direction he established for our lives. God has never stopped leading us. Often we simply need to remove the distractions that have kept us from seeing him clearly. My question to you today: are you willing to remove the things that are distractions in your life? Even if it feels like it's going to break your heart, even if it feels like it's going to cause pain to you? Are you willing to align in clarity and in truth? As you reflect on today's teaching, ask yourself this question: What has been occupying your attention? What desires have been competing with God's vision for your life? Have you been pursuing God's purpose or have you slowly began pursuing what your unhealed emotion desired? These are not questions of condemnation, but this is an examination because God always reveals in order to restore. Again, God will always reveal, always reveal in order to restore. I will say that again. Remember, and I'll leave you with this. Remember the man at the uh pool up at the end. Remember the man at the pool. Remember this. Remember how the Bible talks about how he sat there and remember Jesus came and Jesus asked him a question. Did he want to be made whole? Did he want to be healed? Remember that. And remember, he began to give all the the you know these excuses, which is really what they were. He began to give excuses or his interpretation, rather, let's just call it interpretation. Because many of our interpretations really sound like excuses to God. But he began to give his own interpretation on why he could not be healed. And Jesus said, Listen, do you want to be well? Do you want to be healed? And when the man said yes, you know, he wanted to be healed, Jesus simply said, Pick up your mat and walk. The man simply picked up his mat and walked. He walked. Are you ready to pick up your mat and walk? That's my question to you today. Are you ready to be healed? Do thou want to be made holy? Do you want to be healed? I had a course and it was called Will I Will thou be made holy? Do you want to be made holy? Because one thing that I've learned in all of these decades of walking with Christ is he's not going to force healing upon you. He's not going to force wholeness to you. He's already done it. Remember, in his mind, you already completed it. The problem is many people just don't walk off at completion here in the earthquake. Don't be that individual that did not fulfill purpose because your desires spoke louder than the word of God. Next week, we're going to pick up on this. So stay tuned for next week. We're going to talk about part two of vision when vision becomes cloudy. We began uncovering the hidden enemies of vision by examining how unhealed desires silently compete with God's revealed purpose. What Solomon truly meant when he said that the people cast off restraint and how to how and how a lack of understanding traps many believers in repeated cycles. They keep them from fulfilling God's divine assignment. If you've ever wondered why you keep finding yourself in these same patterns, making the same decisions or facing the same struggles despite your desire to serve God. You don't want to miss next week's session. You don't want to miss it. We'll discover how renewing the mind restores vision, breaks destructive cycles, and realigns us with the purpose God established before the foundations of the world. Until next time, remember this. Protect your vision, guard your mind, and never allow temporary distractions to cause you to lose sight of God's eternal purposes.