The Year of Hazon Vision

Overview

Introduction: God has many beautiful days ahead of you.

This year, God wants to give you Hazon Vision—His prophetic vision for your life.

Whenever God wants to do something good in your life, He first gives you Hazon Vision.

God gives you Hazon Vision by filling your heart with faith pictures for your future.

What you see in your heart is what you will see manifest in your life.

God’s Hazon Vision for us during this Coronavirus pandemic: Reach out to unbelievers with His love.

This year, live life loved by the Lord and live life loving others.

Ask for and receive God’s Hazon Vision, and experience His divine wisdom and answers for your life.

Introduction: God has many beautiful days ahead of you

This year, the Lord will do a new and unprecedented thing.

We will see many changes and transitions happening this year—
and they’re going to be for the good of God’s people.

Last year, the theme was “Time and Space,”
 and we saw the Lord transcend time and space in many ways.

In this new year, God is not replacing last year’s theme but adding to it.
 We will still see Him transcend time and space for us.

Why is having a theme for the year important?

Even though God is outside of time, He works with time.

There are two Greek words for “time”:

• Chronos — linear time
• Kairos — good seasons of favor

God works with days, weeks, months, and years.

The Bible tells us to learn to be wise so that we can redeem the time.
 "See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time..."
 — Ephesians 5:15–16

God can even restore the years that the locusts have eaten.
"I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten."
 — Joel 2:25

Recap of last week’s message:

"So it was that he (Simon Peter) stayed many days in Joppa with Simon, a tanner."
 — Acts 9:43

The name “Joppa” means “Beautiful.”

This verse is a picture of how the Lord wants His people to live out many beautiful days in 2021.

There are two people called Simon in this verse—Simon Peter and Simon the tanner.

The name “Simon” means “hearing.”

This double hearing is significant.

We see a parallel in Deuteronomy 28:1—

"If you hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord your God..."

In Hebrew, the words “hearken” and “diligently” are actually the same word: “shama”—which means “listen.”

So “hearken diligently” is really saying “listen, listen”—or double hearing.

The secret to enjoying many beautiful days is found in:

Hearing... and hearing... the Word of God.

Finding present-day truths in Bible stories

The Bible is filled with stories that speak about the times we are in.

Both the Old Testament and New Testament contain stories that reveal God’s present-day truths.

Often, we can understand these stories by studying:

• The names of people
• The names of places

For example:

Last week, we saw how Peter went to Joppa (Beautiful) and raised Tabitha from the dead.

This is a picture of how:

• The Lord’s resurrection life can come into a dead situation.
• We can enjoy many beautiful days.

Today’s sermon: uncovering truths in Acts 10

"There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment."
 — Acts 10:1

Caesarea means "severance."

Cornelius, a centurion—Centurions in the New Testament are often seen in a positive light.

• There was a centurion at the foot of the cross who said:
  "Truly this was the Son of God!"
   — Matthew 27:54
• Another centurion had greater faith than anyone in Israel.
  — Matthew 8:5–13

The name "Cornelius" means “that which pertains to the horn or the crown.”

• The word “cornu” in Latin means “crown”—the same root word as “Coronavirus.”
• The virus was named "Coronavirus" because it has crown-like spikes.

In the Bible, a horn represents kingly authority.

"He will give strength to His king, and exalt the horn of His anointed."
 — 1 Samuel 2:10

In Hebrew, the word for horn is "ceren."
 In Latin, it is "cornu."

So in English, if your name is Karen, your name means "kingly authority."