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How to Interpret Dreams and Vision by Perry Stone

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  In Acts 2:17, the Lord says He would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, in the last days, and the result would be young men seeing visions and old men dreaming dreams. THE LAST DAYS-TIME TO PIERCE THE VEIL There is a veil covering the physical eyes and our spiritual understanding. from seeing invisible things, even though, these invisible things are in existence. Some people do not believe, at all, in this existence, but this doesn’t stop them from being in existence. Only when this veil is torn or pierced, can we get to see these things. The Bible is full of men who pierced this veil. Elisha could see in this realm. When the Syrian army surrounded him, and his servant, he had to pray for his servant’s eyes to be opened, so he could see the chariots of fire encamped around them. On, earth, our inner vision, which causes the brain to see pictures, at night, can perceive some of these happenings in the invisible world. And God shows us things to prepare us for something, or cause us t
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FINISHING STRONG by STEVE FARRAR

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In this book, Steve Farrar addresses Christian men who want to run the Christian race and finish well.

Part One: The Priority of Finishing Strong

Chapter One: One Out of Ten

Steve starts with the stories of three rookie evangelists who started out in ministry in the year 1945. They were Billy Graham, Chuck Templeton, and Bron Clifford. They were all vibrant young ministers on fire for God. However, from the natural look of things, most would have expected Templeton and Clifford to turn out better than Billy Graham because they were finer preachers.

However, by 1950, Templeton had left the ministry and no longer even believed the validity of Christ's claims. And by 1954, Clifford was done in by alcohol and financial irresponsibility. Only Billy Graham stayed strong until the end.

For a Christian, how you finish is much more important than how you started out.

A Christian man is in ministry full-time.

He says if a man finishes strong, it will only be because he has tapped into strength, wisdom, courage and perseverance from the Lord.

Finishing strong is not impossible, but it is improbable. It requires fixing your eyes on Jesus all the way.

Chapter 2: Finishing So-So

As long as you are a man, you are a leader in some way.

Here, from a study of the finishes of leaders in the Bible, four relevant kinds of possible finishes of leaders are discussed:

  1. Cut off early - taken out of leadership.
  2. Finishing poorly - going downhill in their latter years.
  3. Finishing so-so - leaving some things undone that they should have done and doing some things that they shouldn't have. An example was King David.
  4. Finishing strong - At the end of their lives, they were walking with God personally.

To finish strong means to survive the ambushes the enemy has placed in your path: The ambush of another woman, The ambush of money, and the ambush of a neglected family.

Chapter 3: Staying the Course

Here, the importance of having a personal mission statement is encouraged. A personal mission statement is a statement written by you and for you stating your values and how you want to live your life. Twenty-four attributes of a godly man from The Godly Man’s Picture, by Thomas Watson, are listed. HE termed them "twenty-four stabilizing nails that you can hammer into the character of your life."

Men who finish strong have their eyes on the Lord and they consistently do these four things: they stay in the Scriptures, they stay close to friends they cannot con, they stay away from other women and they stay alert to the tactics of the enemy.

Part Two: The Perils of Finishing Strong

Chapter Four: Dry Shipwreck

King David started well. In the first ten chapters of the book of 2nd Samuel, he had a great life. However, in the 11th chapter, he shipwrecked with Bathsheba. Since then, things turned upside down.

Sin can shipwreck your life and just like shipwrecks, sin will take you farther than you wanted to go, keep you longer than you wanted to stay, and cost you more than you wanted to pay. Just like it did to David.

Chapter Five: The Status Brothers and their Not-Quite Right First Cousin, Pride

King Uzziah in the Bible had it all going well for him and in our times, would be regarded as successful. He became king at sixteen and "he did right in the sight of the LORD." He had potential. Incredible potential. He also had a string of accomplishments as a king. The book of 2 Chronicles 2:6-15 has his accomplishments in detail. He was a great king. However, he became proud and destruction followed soon after. Three possible reasons for Uzziah's fall were that: he began to spend more time and attention on the external rather than the eternal, his character did not keep pace with his accomplishments and he was tripped by his own success.

Pride is destructive. And it is subtle. Some tell-tale signs, however, are an aversion to accountability and arrogance.

Ask God to open your eyes to your pride. Ask Him for the courage to face and crush it every day.

Chapter 6: Unteachable, Unaccountable and Unacceptable

Here, Steve writes about five marks of an "unleader" - one who is not fit to be a leader. They are unwilling to serve, unteachable, unjust, they lack hospitability, and lead an unhappy family.

Part Three: The Prototypes of Finishing Strong

Chapter Seven: Lousy Start, Strong Finish

Manasseh was a king in Bible times who started his race very poorly. The Bible records that he did all manner of evil. Yet, towards the tail end of his life, he realized his wrong and turned completely. God forgave him and in the end, Manasseh finished his race strong. From Manasseh's life, we learn that genuine repentance does not exclude us from God's mercy and our past life does not exclude us from present service.

Chapter 8: Failure that Equips You to Finish

Moses seemed to have a great start. He was adopted into the wealthiest family in Egypt, was highly educated, and was a decorated military leader. But then, when he made the very costly mistake of killing an Egyptian in a bid to defend his kinsman, he fell off his high position and it looked like he would never finish strong. Out of fear, he fled from Egypt to Midian and remained there for forty years. However, God had plans for him. While in Midian, the Lord took him through the necessary training required for him to get an M.C.A (Masters in Character Acquisition) so he could be fit for the Lord's use. While in Midian, his address, vocation, and status changed. God was using all of his circumstances to build his character and prepare him for what lay ahead. In the end, he was ready and fit for God to use to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

Chapter 9: Buck-Nacked Miles to Bighorn

Joseph was the son of Jacob, a Hebrew. His ten elder brothers hated him and sold him off to Egypt, so they could be rid of him. On getting to Egypt, he was sold to Potiphar, a high-rank Egyptian. He impressed Potiphar so well, that he promoted him and left all to his charge. Trouble came when Potiphar's wife started trying to seduce Joseph. He continually tried to put her off, but on a certain day, when they were both alone in the house, she caught him and held him. Out of fear of sinning against God, Joseph fled, leaving his tunic in her hand. When Potiphar returned, she lied to him, telling him Joseph raped her. Potiphar had Joseph put in prison. In prison, he behaved so excellently, that he was soon put in charge of the prison. Through a string of God-orchestrated circumstances, Pharaoh commanded that Joseph be brought out of prison and he made him Prime Minister over all of Egypt.

Joseph loved God wholeheartedly and he was different from all the other leaders Egypt had because he walked with God. He finished strong.

Chapter 10: A Vision for the Finish Line

Finishing strong requires having a vision. Vision will enable you to keep your daily focus, be faithful each day and to fix your eyes on Jesus.

Photo credit: Penguin Random House

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