Touré Roberts - Pruned to Prosper

The theme of today, under the banner of the Perspective Series, is «Pruned to Prosper.» So, I think this year, what God is going to do is for some of you— all of the things that God has been speaking to you, not just in 2018, but for years— for some of you, you are going to be empowered because you’re going to master your ability to walk in the perspective that God has been aiming to convince you of for a long time. I’m saying again that God has been talking to you, and for some of you, it clicked this year: «I am who God says I am; I’m going to do what God says I can do.» All the promises and all the benefits that God has been speaking over your life will begin to be embraced as truth. Because as a man thinks, so is he. It does not say the truth shall set you free; the Bible says, «You shall know the truth, and then the truth can set you free.» In other words, a lack of perspective can keep you from freedom. It is not that God has not done it; it is not that God has not delivered you; it is not that God has not gone ahead of you and made crooked paths straight. It has absolutely nothing to do with that. The issue sometimes is: «Shall you not know it?» I just quoted Isaiah: «Behold, I do a new thing.» Right? There is a declaration. He says in Isaiah 49:18, «Behold, I do a new thing.» That is perspective. But then he warns us with a question; he says, «Shall you not know it? Shall you not perceive it?» Oftentimes, perspective is the byproduct of hindsight. Can I take my time and teach today? Sometimes, you see in the text, these two passages of Scripture represent three levels of perspective. The first level of perspective is man’s initial perspective about a challenge. We’ll get to that: man’s final perspective about the same challenge—in other words, how you see now may be different than how you see later. O, you stay with me; I won’t lose you today. Man’s initial perspective about a challenge, man’s final perspective about that same challenge, and God’s steadfast perspective about the challenge the whole time. Oftentimes, what happens is perspective is acquired by the revelation that comes from hindsight. Just turn to someone and say, «Hindsight!» You’ve heard it said that hindsight is 20/20. 20/20 is about perspective. So sometimes, perspective shows up when you are late to the party that God started. There are three types of sight, and maybe I’ll give you a bonus one. The first type of sight is sight; it’s the sight that Paul talks about when he says we walk by faith and not by sight. The first type of sight is man’s perspective. You’ve got to understand this; I’m trying to teach you to understand your eyes. The three types of sight: the first type of sight is just sight; it is man’s perspective. It’s based on what he sees, what he thinks, his or her experiences, and that creates sight. That is the lowest level of perspective. The second type of perspective is foresight. Foresight is God’s perspective. God knows the end from the beginning; he sees the end at the beginning. So he can speak something to you when there is nothing around you that represents its existence. Can I talk to you about perspective? Foresight—God has foresight. «Before I formed you in your mother’s womb, I knew you.» So he has foresight; that’s why we trust what he says. We don’t trust what we see. We don’t walk by sight; we walk by faith. In fact, I’m a little afraid of relying on sight. Oh God, because nowadays, you don’t even really know what you’re looking at. Can we keep it 100? We’ve got filters that can do just about anything! You will become a completely different individual by the filter! I can’t trust sight, for sight is a deception. Holy Spirit, I hope you’re listening. Foresight is what God gives you. Every time God speaks to you, he’s speaking to you from a place of foresight, and what happens is we try to regulate, or rather predicate, the validity of what God said by sight. So we weigh foresight by sight, and you can’t weigh foresight by sight, because foresight is greater than sight. Foresight is factoring in things that you weren’t around for when God started them. Are you tracking with me? Three types of sight and a bonus: we have sight, which is man’s perspective; foresight, which is God’s perspective; and then hindsight. Hindsight is man’s perspective catching up to God. That’s why hindsight is 20/20! You’re like, «Oh, now I get it!» Well, now you’re getting what God already knew. Are you tracking with me? So it is dangerous to live by sight because that is the lowest level of perspective. People who live by sight will never fully walk out what God has for them because what God wants to do is use you to manifest what he foreknew. Oh, you don’t get it today! So here’s the bonus: the bonus one is insight. Insight is when you are crazy enough to believe that even though you don’t see it, you trust God’s foresight. You allow it to be inside; it becomes inspiration, and it moves you toward what God has for you. Do I have anybody with some insight in here? Come on, somebody! You don’t see it yet, but there’s something inside of you that is letting you know that it exists!