Pro-vision holds hands with vision in the same way a thesis serves as an early discovery process for purpose. The word finds its roots in the Greek “pro-thesis”—meaning purpose—where “pro” speaks of looking ahead or, more poetically, “breathing forward”. Thus, pro-vision is the forward sight that provides everything necessary to advance and fulfill the vision. It is how God brings something into being with the certainty of its existence—His pro-vision is the guarantee that establishes His vision.
Hear this: In God’s mouth, His Word carries holy weight: He speaks a thing into being with divine certainty. His pro-vision is the unbreakable guarantee that His vision will stand.
This is why, when we see God’s preparation (“He prepares a table before me”), we can know there is revealed the sacred order: vision — provision — preparation. There was first a vision and then a pro-vision. God holds a vision for our well-being, releases His pro-vision (providing all that is needed for the accomplishment of that vision), and then brings forth preparation as the visible manifestation of both His vision and His pro-vision. Preparation, the visible beauty of both vision and pro-vision, laid out in glory for all to see.
i do believe though, we often mistake God’s vision as an idea of how it’s going to prosper ourselves, and we take His pro-vision as the things He’s giving us to make us wealthy, comfortable, and living a life of convenience. That’s NOT what He means. He does love that we would do well, of course, but His idea of prosperous and our of prosperous are pretty different. The Lord’s vision for us is to be reconciled to Him, to be healthy and whole, mature, and be filled with the Spirit, bearing out all the fruits and gifts of the Spirit, that’s the vision. His pro-vision is about what He provides us in order that we would prosper His vision. Our error is that we take the wealth of God’s provision and tell ourselves, “it is all for me”, building ourselves large homes, buying huge amounts of property, fancy cars, flashy clothes, when in truth, all along, sometimes, if not often, it all amounts to a misappropriation of His provision, and i consider a misappropriation of Kingdom gifts and benefits to be traitorous. The Lord makes us prosperous not to prosper ourselves but to advance the Body of Christ, yet i do believe many of us have gotten lost in our own self-centered ways, with self-centered meaning, to be centered and focused on ourselves (as if you didn’t know that) … excluding God. Our weight is far more shifted toward ourselves then toward Kingdom purposes. Shift your weight friends.
The eyes see and the soul encourages the little eyes to see again. The mind wants, and the more it sees the more it wants until the heart follows suit and then … gradually, almost unnoticeably, we have lost our relish for righteous things and our relationships with other people have been set adrift, little by little by little, because of the destructive trajectory by which all began in a very subtle place. Many of our errors begin in subtleties, such “small little seemingly nothing things” that don’t appear to make a difference in the now, at the zero point, but out at a distance and over time, the error is staggering. It’s like the teenager who finally decides to take a hit of meth to just try it out for the first time. The first experience is so amazing they decide they’re going to have to try it again. Then again. Shortly, they’re hooked, always trying to relive the original high that will never happen again, ever. Almost all addicts spend all their time chasing that first high. It all began in the turn of a thought in their head that THEY wouldn’t be like THOSE others, that THEY would be able to just try once and stop, that certainly t-h-e-i-r lives would never turn out horribly like the infamous THEY.
In light of all that, it’s a provision all right, but the question is … who made the provision? It wasn’t the Lord. In light of that, we can safely say the vision behind the provision was one of hatred towards God with a full heart of destruction for mankind.
Arthur Bert used to say “Where God’s appointment is, therein is the provision”. Before the Lord made an appointment for you, He already possessed a vision of what He wanted to happen. With His vision of your destiny, in His “looking ahead sight”, He prepared, in advance what you would need to accomplish His purposes. We can completely walk in confidence knowing this: my creative metaphor here, that while you are on your journey, God is already waiting for you just beyond the bend, standing on the path ahead with open arms and a knowing smile. This is why it’s easy to say “the Lord has prepared a table before us”, because in the Hebrew word for “provision”, it comes to us with the idea of “prepare”, as in “from His provision we prepare a meal”. From His provision, the armies of the called prepare for intercession and action. From His provision, we prepare a timely word to the body of Christ. From His provision, we prepare to feed the multitudes of starving and excluded people. He extends us the vision of bringing medical aid to remote places, He makes the pro-vision of supplies, doctors, nurses, vehicles, fuel, food, plane tickets, border passes, and necessary facilities in order to advance the vision, so when we finally get to our destination, we use His provision and prepare to serve with all our heart. David meant something far, far larger than just getting to eat a great meal when He said, “You prepare a table before me.” With vision and pro-vision comes preparing. Isaiah 45:2: “I will go before you and make the crooked places straight…”
In Romans 13:14, Paul writes to “make no provision” for the flesh. In other words don’t use, not one ounce of your “looking ahead sight for the things which advance the vision of sin” which so easily besets us. The Lord’s provision is always tied to His providence, and to use our gifts to advance the vision of ourselves, again, is a misappropriation of God’s provision, Holy Spirit gifts and benefits. i do not want to be an embezzeler of Kingdom wealth. Let us see His vision, use His pro-vision, as a noun, be guided by His purposes which are set in front of us, and prepare, as an action verb, preparing the way of the Lord, making His paths straight.
What do you think?
i’m Social Porter with Living In His Name Ministries.