Questions & Answers
Visionary
First posted: June 9, 2008
Question
Please help me with this question. As a friend of mine was listening to the revelation that God had revealed to me a few months back, she said that God told her that I was a "visionary". Then she said, "Go look up that word" because she didn't know what it meant. After getting off the phone with her, I immediately went to look it up. I haven't felt comfortable with any of the meanings that I have found. They all seem so vague. I've seen this word on your website and was hoping you could tell me the meaning.
Answer
In order to understand the spiritual meaning behind the word "visionary", we must first consider its use in Scripture. The Hebrew word for "vision" is roeh, which appears towards the end of the following verse:
"But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment." (Isaiah 28:7)
The word "err" in the phrase "err in vision" was translated from the Hebrew word shagah, which literally means "to stray, swerve, lead astray". Therefore, the word "vision" is used in the context of someone looking at a faraway destination and walking towards it. Thus, "visions" serve as a guiding light, a lighthouse beacon in the distance that you journey towards.
It is no coincidence, therefore, that the word "prophet" is used by the Holy Spirit in the verse above. The word "prophet" is derived from the Greek words pro, meaning "before", and phaino, meaning "to bring forth into the light". Prophetic words are like a distant light that appears before you in the middle of darkness, acting as a guiding indicator of the place you must head towards. In that sense, prophetic rhema words are like the light of day that a baby sees from inside the dark womb at the moment of birth. Prophetic words stir the birth of something new.
The link between visions and prophetic words is emphasised by the following passage:
"7Then said Saul to his servant, But, behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? for the bread is spent in our vessels, and there is not a present to bring to the man of God: what have we? 8And the servant answered Saul again, and said, Behold, I have here at hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver: that will I give to the man of God, to tell us our way. 9(Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to enquire of God, thus he spake, Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer.) 10Then said Saul to his servant, Well said; come, let us go. So they went unto the city where the man of God was." (1 Samuel 9:7-10)
Notice that Saul's servant wanted to hand the fourth of a silver shekel to the man of God so that he would "tell us our way" (v8). This certifies the spiritual connection between prophetic words and a direction to walk towards. Notice also that "prophets" were called "seers" (v9). The word "seer" was translated from the word raah, which is the root from which the word for "vision" (roeh) is derived. God's spiritual visions, which are prophetic in nature, give us a sense of direction, acting as guiding lights that we are to run towards.
As we have shared before, the prophetic anointing is eminently "emotional" in nature, for it often bypasses the visible understanding of the mind to reach into the invisible. Since visions are prophetic, you cannot manufacture a vision with your natural understanding. The vision will suddenly come to you and overtake you from nowhere. It is like an invisible gust of wind that suddenly rushes upon you and drives your soul in a given direction.
"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8)
Since visions are "emotional" rather than "mental", your mind will not be able to see them come or to go to where they are. Therefore, your emotions must be ready for when the vision comes upon you. In other words, you must have an emotional "womb" within you that is ready to conceive the vision when it suddenly comes. Most believers live lives without a "burning vision" because their souls' wombs are sterile, unable and uninterested in conceiving visions from the Lord.
Wombs are inherently related to "longing" (Proverbs 30:16). This is certified by how women develop a sudden longing to have a baby growing inside their wombs. You must long for the vision, even before the vision comes, and even before you have the slightest idea as to its shape and form. As you long for your soul to be impregnated with God's visions for your life, your womb will be ready, and the visions will suddenly come:
"12Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day’s journey. 13And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. 14These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren." (Acts 1:12-14)
"1And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." (Acts 2:1-4)
In between the two passages above is the narration of how Judas was replaced by Matthias. This reveals a spiritual principle: As you set up your womb to receive the vision, God will begin to do a purifying (apostolic) work in your life, preparing your womb for the time when the prophetic vision comes upon you.
As shown by the passages above, the "rushing mighty wind" did not come as the disciples "went about their business", mechanically following their daily routines as if life was nothing more than making it through the day. Instead, they came together in a state of collective longing for "something" to happen. They did not know what that "something" was; they did not know what it looked like. All they knew was that it was something completely different to the current state of things, something that transcended the current structures, something that was so special that it was worth the longing and the waiting. That is the type of womb that conceives visions from above.
Having a longing womb implies exposing yourself to much pain and emptiness. It implies not taking that pain-numbing pill called "mediocrity" and "conformity". As you ready your womb for God's prophetic visions, you must reject all influence from the antithetical spirit of Girgashite earthliness. The Girgashite spirit reduces your life to a mere biological existence; you become little more than a physiological being roaming about the Earth with no vision or purpose. Existence is easier that way, but it guarantees your "dehumanisation", turning you into a "glorified animal" and stripping you from the cloak of God's image and likeness.
As we have shared before, the Spirit of Philadelphia is the Spirit of God that prompts us to dream big dreams and to visualise great visions, even in the midst of our present smallness. The Spirit of Philadelphia allows us to become aware of greatness and to long to be One with that greatness. This is how a human being can become aware of God's greatness and at the same time dare to believe that he or she can be One with Him.
"1O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. 2Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. 3When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 4What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. 6Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: 7All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; 8The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 9O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!" (Psalm 8)
As we have studied before, the name "Philadelphia" literally means "brotherly love", and it points to a soul that loves and cherishes the spirit nature and the God-potential in those around it. A "Philadelphia" soul is hospitable to the strange things of the Spirit, even without fully comprehending them. Because of this, "Philadelphia souls" are willing to be led by the Spirit to places that seem utterly ludicrous and insensible to the natural soul. This is the reason why you need a strong endowment of the Philadelphia Spirit in order to be a green-horse rider.
The Philadelphia Spirit endowment (whose distortion is the Perizzite spirit) enables believers to see the huge "tree potential" hidden inside man (Mark 8:24), and it prompts believers to go through Sheol in order to see that potential manifested. Philadelphia believers are pregnant with a mighty vision from above, a vision that causes them to see a huge River flowing out from within the depths of "little, insignificant" man below.
In a sense, the Philadelphia endowment encapsulates the 3 "male" spirit endowments, enabling one's weak "female" soul to operate in the strong spirit nature of the "male" spirit:
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The prophetic (Spirit of Smyrna) endowment This endowment enables the soul to see God's vision and to be willing to make the necessary sacrifices to bring it about. In other words, the prophetic endowment allows you to conceive the vision and embrace the pregnancy.
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The apostolic (Spirit of Ephesus) endowment This endowment enables the soul to see God's vision over a foundation of righteous judgements. Most believers who are enamoured with a vision of the latter rain focus solely on the "blessings" that such a "revival" will bring, without any consideration for the drastic judgements required to bring it about. This is why most of the so-called "revivals" last but for a brief season before dissipating harmlessly into the (soul-dominated) air of the Earth.
Because of its focus on righteous judgements, the Philadelphia soul is endowed with the apostolic endurance required to bear the burden of its vision pregnancy until the birth occurs. After they have made their 4th-seal prophetic sacrifice, Philadelphia souls require apostolic endurance to survive the 5th seal and spawn the outbreak of the 6th seal.
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The evangelistic (Spirit of Pergamos) endowment The Philadelphia endowment falls on those who are "poor in spirit", i.e.- those who appear poor and powerless when viewed from the soul perspective, but who are actually rich and powerful when viewed from the Spirit's perspective. As we have shared before, the Perizzite spirit is the Philadelphia endowment "gone bad". Both the Philadelphia believers and the Perizzites are "poor villagers"; the difference, however, is that Philadelphia believers dare to dream after beholding their own smallness, whilst Perizzite believers become blinded by their smallness and resign themselves to a vision-less existence. Perizzites are unable to overcome the hurdle that God has placed between us and His greatness, and that hurdle is our awareness of it. The only way to become One with the Great God of Israel is to understand His greatness and to still have the faith to believe that His love is so great that "little ones" like us can be One with Him. Since we were created in God's image and likeness, we are the only creatures on Earth capable of comprehending the full dimension of God's overwhelming greatness, and, ironically enough, we are also the only creatures who have an inherent, God-given predisposition to aspire to that greatness. That is the predisposition that satan (cursed is he) preyed upon to prompt the fall of the human soul (Genesis 3:5).
From the above, we can safely say that Philadelphia believers have an evangelistic "conquering nature" about them. As they become aware of the King's Greatness and as the longing to be One with the King is awakened in them, these "poor souls" (Matthew 5:3) set out to fulfil man's call to take dominion of the Earth (Genesis 1:26) so that the Kingdom of God may be established on Earth.
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In short, Philadelphia-Spirit visionaries conceive God's Great vision as they surrender in radical prophetic sacrifice, and they bear the trials of the "vision pregnancy" in apostolic endurance, all to forge the evangelistic conquest of the Earth unto God; when that conquest happens, the vision shall have been born.
Those who are and those who aren't
Due to the visitor's question regarding the word "visionary", I felt a bit of curiosity as to where we had mentioned this word on the website. I was surprised to see that we had only used the word a total of 8 times in 7 different postings (prior to this one), which speaks of God's regeneration ("8") of the Earth in 7 days. This correlates with everything shared above.
Another thing that drew my attention was that the Lord had us use the word "visionary" in reference to specific individuals a total of 5 times (prior to this posting) ... 3 times in a positive sense and 2 times in a negative sense, which points to the 3 "male" ministries (which minister to the spirit) and to the 2 "female" ministries (which minister to the soul). This emphasises the fact that the regeneration of the Earth requires believers who are spirit-centred and who see the current state of soul-centredness in a negative way.
A third thing that drew my attention was the fact that the 3 persons for whom we used the word "visionary" in a positive sense are all dead (JFK, Bruce Lee, and Anthony Wayne) and that the 2 persons for whom we used the word in a negative sense are alive (the Korean pastor with the "largest congregation" in the world and Barack Obama). This emphasises the fact that true visionaries expose themselves to death on behalf of their vision, whilst pseudo-visionaries do enough to appear visionary but not enough to make the vision a reality.
A fourth thing that drew my attention was the fact that the 2 politicians in the list of 5 persons happen to be JFK and Barack Obama. As you may know, the radical left-wing media in America have done much to equate Barack Obama with JFK. However, a closer look at Obama reveals that he is a man of much talk and little substance, a man who knows how to stir a crowd by saying things that are pleasant to the natural ear but who has few ideas on how to make his generalities a reality. He represents the type of "visionary" who is very strong on the emotional element but who is very weak in the area of righteous judgements. As we said above, this is the flaw in most prophetically-inclined believers in America who are enamoured with the latter rain. Obama's lack of judgement and wisdom depth are evident in many of his deeds, such as the fact that he could comfortably remain for 20 years in a congregation that blatantly preaches misguided racial resentment; it can also be seen in his friendship with William Ayers, an unrepentant left-wing extremist and terrorist, and it can be seen in the fact that he allowed a man known for his shady property dealings (Tony Rezko) to be an important member of his campaign finance committee as he ran for the US Senate in 2003, going to the point of buying adjacent pieces of property in a deal that has some very questionable elements.
{You can read more on the relationship between Tony Rezko and Obama at www.suntimes.com}
Obama's serious lack of judgement can also be seen in his opposition to the Iraq war, even from before the start of the war. As we have said before, the Iraq war was prompted by the Lord; He had us praying in earnest for the ousting of Saddam Hussein even from 2002 because his ousting would be a spiritual victory in the heavenlies in the war against the matriarchal spirit. As we have also said before, the problems with the Iraq war arose from Bush's Gedaliah-style naiveté, a fence-straddling naiveté that made him unaware of the danger of unsecured borders. Bush not only began the war 6 months too late, but he also failed to confront Syria in a more serious way. Had he moved troops towards the Syrian and Jordanian border, there would have been no influx of terrorists from the western borders of Iraq shortly after the invasion, and Iraq would have stabilised much more quickly, allowing both coalition and Iraqi troops to focus on securing the eastern border of Iraq to prevent the influx of Iranian destabilisers. The problem with the Iraq war was not its conception but its implementation. Left-wing liberals like Obama (who by definition are fiercely anti-judgement, since judgements are right-handed) are completely unable to understand all of this.
{Interestingly enough, Tony Rezko is a Syrian-born businessman, as indicated on bbc.co.uk}
{As a parenthesis, it is worth commenting that Scott McClellan's recent book was God's way of exposing Bush's naive inability to recognise the treacherous Ishmaels around him, for which reason his presidency is ending in disrepute (much like his father's). He was unable to see the military danger of the Syrians and Iranians around Iraq; he was unable to see the spiritual danger of illegal immigration; and he was unable to see the political danger of the left-wing critics around him.}
Flowers draw bees; excrement draws flies. You can often discern the substance of a person by the people he attracts. The fact that the left-wing loons in America's media are in love with Obama. Some might dare to argue that Jesus had "sinners" around Him and was criticised for it, yet those who would make such a silly analogy fail to understand that those "sinners" had to repent to be around Jesus. They could not comfortably abide in their unrighteousness and expect Jesus to be comfortable with them, as shown by the following words:
"1There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 3Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? 5Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 8The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. 9Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? 10Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? 11Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness." (John 3:1-11)
[Notice how Jesus pummelled Nicodemus with harsh words (v10), even after Nicodemus had "taken the time" to go visit Him. In other words, Jesus was saying to him, "If you want to be around Me, there are certain issues in your heart that you must deal with straightaway; you are totally lacking in your spiritual understanding".]
"25And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither? 26Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. 27Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed." (John 6:25-27)
[The crowd Jesus is speaking to wanted to make him king (John 6:15), and were after Him only because of the food He could supernaturally provide. Instead of embracing them and tolerating their presence, Jesus began to dish out words that were intolerable to their ears, to the point that they separated themselves from Him a short time later (John 6:66).]
"8This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. 9But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." (Matthew 15:8-9)
"21Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. 22And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. 23But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. 24But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 25Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. 26But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs." (Matthew 15:21-26)
[The woman was drawn to Jesus because of the miracles He could perform, but Jesus was not about to have her around Him without confronting her wide-gate attitude. Instead of tolerating her presence, He called her a "dog" in no uncertain terms (v26). It was only because she accepted His judgements against her that her daughter was healed.]
Unlike Jesus, the left-wing George-Soros crowd that encircles Obama is comfortable in their hideous unrighteousness. Obama has not acted as an agent of change in their way of thinking or behaving. Instead, they see Obama as a useful instrument to promote their misguided agenda. Obama was able to hang around and tolerate arrogant bastards such as "pastor" Jeremiah Wright for 20 years without effecting any change in them (I use harsh words against Wright because he dares to speak blasphemies from the pulpit in the name of the Lord, thus profaning His Holy Name, and he even dares to defiantly mock those who dare to judge him, in typical Ammonite fashion ... Ammonites abound around people who tolerate unrighteousness).
As I look into Barack Obama's eyes, I see the blank stare of a little child, a child who is trying to learn as he goes along but who has no fervent understanding as to the direction he is going. He is a (semi-)skilled orator, but he offers little more than the traditional left-wing solutions whenever he tries to detail how he will solve America's problems. Those who fall for Obama's charm are falling prey to a spirit of deceit, a spirit that passes up for "visionary" when it is actually blind and clueless. In the spirit realm, it is a known fact that Obama is a mixture of Jimmy Carter ineptness and Warren G. Harding opportunism.
By contrast, JFK had the elements of a true "visionary". Even though he was a flawed man, he was a true "visionary" in the making, a man with burning conviction in his belly who was willing to make the necessary judgements required to make his visions come about. Instead of engaging in "pleasant" dialogue with the little Cuban dictator (à la Obama) during the missile crisis, JFK was willing to challenge the Soviet Union in a duel that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. JFK was also willing to openly speak in unflinching support of Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement at a time when such support by a Democrat was "politically unwise", since Democrats had a grip on the racially biased South at the time. To quote a Democratic vice-presidential candidate from the 1980s who spoke these words to another "child Senator",
"Senator, You are no Jack Kennedy!"
{You can read more on the quote above on wikipedia.org}
In the previous section, we spoke about the connection between being a "visionary" and the Spirit of Philadelphia. As you may know, the American city of Philadelphia is in the state of Pennsylvania. It is no spiritual coincidence, therefore, that Obama lost the state of Pennsylvania during the Democratic primaries, and it is no coincidence that his comments in (left-wing) San Francisco about Pennsylvania voters were the ones that got him into so much trouble during the Democratic race; those comments exposed the spirit of elitism that was already obvious to those who could see past his external humility. Those with the Philadelphia spirit are quick to see the value of the "little ones", for they themselves are "little ones". We are to be like children with regard to purposelessness, not with regard to our spiritual vision:
"19Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue. 20Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men." (1 Corinthians 14:19-20)
[Notice that it is better to speak "5 words" with understanding that are full of teacher-like details than 10,000 emotionally-based words that lead to no new spiritual understanding. In that sense, Hillary Clinton was far superior to Obama, for she always detailed a list of concrete "bullet points" in her speeches, and you could see visionary fire in her eyes. Misguided as she may have been, she would definitely make a far superior president than Obama.
The word "malice" in verse 20 was translated from the Greek word kakos, which, as we have seen before, speaks of prophetic purposelessness. This means that we are not to allow ourselves to be wooed by things that hide Hittite purposelessness simply because they speak to a personal agenda. "Children" have no such agenda, so it is more difficult for them to accept deceit in order to support an ulterior motive because their level of reasoning is not developed enough to operate in the art of "cunning".]
The measure of a visionary goes beyond the emotional excitement he or she may stir up. True visionaries have substance behind them once the emotion wears away. True visionaries are "price-payers"; they are willing to pay the prophetic and apostolic prices required to make their visions a reality, and their track records will reveal a willingness to pay that price. They will be willing to be guided to strange places and to operate in things that seem ridiculous and out-of-place to others. They will be willing to dish out the straight talk required to destroy the unrighteous roots that hold back the vision, because the vision is more important than anyone's political or emotional support.
"10Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words. 11For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land. 12Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: 13But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court. 14Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit: 15And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel. 16Now therefore hear thou the word of the LORD: Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac. 17Therefore thus saith the LORD; Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land." (Amos 7:10-17)
[The word "seer" in verse 12 was translated from the Hebrew word chozeh, which is derived from the verb chazah; this verb has the connotation of "seeing" in an "ecstatic" state that is partially based on experience or "intelligence", which means that it is prophetic vision that is not entirely based on emotionalism, but which has elements of "thinking" and "judging" that is Spirit-based.]