Where Your Eyes Are Fixed You Will Follow

by Janice F. Baca
(Helotes, Texas)

While driving home I was thinking of all my troubles. Meanwhile, I became distracted by the noise of police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks. As I gazed at the noisy disturbance, my hands did the natural response and began turning the steering wheel in the direction I was gazing. I immediately caught myself and put my gaze, and my vehicle, back in the direction I was supposed to be heading.

The Lord used this minor event to show me all that was happening around me. Many have hurt, betrayed, and abandoned me - basically made a lot of noise to distract me from the original vision God gave me. Therefore, for a period of time, I stared, pondered, and really worked over the place where the noise was coming from. I fixed my gaze on something other than God's vision for my life for a period of time.

An effective military tactic to defeat the enemy is to distract him from his vision. Once that is accomplished, he is then on the run and loses his position of advantage. Basically, he is defeated without his vision. That is why Proverbs 29:18 says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish" (KJV).

Through the holidays things seemed to get worse. As things became worse, I fixed my gaze on unforgiveness, anger, and my own suffering. I began losing the direction of my vision. At the same time I was losing direction, I was losing the course of my vision.

After a while, I became exhausted. If I wasn't fighting the same battle over and over each day in the physical, it played numerous times over and over in my mind. I started losing ground because I was losing hope. It was then I decided to sit still and analyze my situation.

One thing I had to remember is that the enemy doesn't fight fair. The weapons he uses hurt. He will use family, friends, and the closest loved ones to hurt us. These kinds of weapons leave deep gashes and are very painful.

Therefore, to recover from this kind of wound, we still have to go through the healing process, but we also have to


go through the forgiveness process as well.

The healing will occur over time. However, Forgiveness begins with a decision. You may not have the emotion and feelings to help you forgive in the beginning. Although, when you make the decision to forgive, this begins the divine process of your healing.

Without forgiveness, you lose the vision of God for your life. Without the vision, you lose the path for your destiny. Therefore, you run from an enemy who is already defeated. You run from problems, troubles, people, and situations. Eventually, you forget the reason you were fighting for the vision in the first place. Then life becomes empty with no real direction.

This deadly domino effect is designed by the enemy to steal the vision of God for your life. The enemy knows that if you lose the vision you will perish according to Proverbs 29:18. God gave us the vision for life, hope, and purpose. He wants us to have something to look forward to each morning. He wants us to have hope in Him every day.

My drive home gave me a clearer understanding of my next steps. I made the decision to forgive and not focus on who hurt me or why. I can't allow the enemy to defeat me by distracting me from the vision God gave me; it's a classic attack. It's like the basketball player getting a free throw and the crowd is trying to distract the only opportunity he has. He has to have a disciplined focus at a very intense moment. The determination of his focus predicts the end result.

The enemy will never fight fair. He came to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). The noise he makes is to only distract and take our eyes off the purpose God has for us. These times are fragile. He is desperate and afraid. Therefore, he will do all he can to pull us off course.

It takes a determined focus on the vision God. There will be attempts of distractions. Keep a strong disciplined focus on that calling. And always remember, where your eyes are fixed, you will follow.

© 2008-2009, Janice F. Baca, All Rights Reserved