The 3 Essentials: All You Need for Success in Life by Casey Treat Page B

God has planned for us. If we will meditate on His blessings and His ways day in and day out, then we will make our way toward prosperity and we will experience success. But we must be consistent. We will not be able to build God’s vision for our lives by thinking about it once a week while we are sitting in church. It’s got to be something we do every single day of our lives, because every single day of our lives the world is coming at us through radio, television, billboards, newspapers, and magazines. We can be like Job and spend our days fearing and dreading negative circumstances and everything we don’t want to happen, or we can be like Joshua and fill our minds each day with the good things of God’s Word.
    If we will keep our focus set on God and His Word, we will be able to achieve everything we know God has planned for us.

    Every day I speak God’s Word over my life, the very ones I have given you in the Faith Manual. Thousands and thousands of times I have gone to the Word to see my true self, to define my vision, and to encourage myself with faith to overcome my fears. I have built my vision around what the Word of God says, not the lies the enemy would try to make me believe. As a result, I have been able to experience a rich and fulfilled life, and my life is not even half over! You can do it, too. Any area of your life you are dissatisfied with, you can build a vision through God’s Word and begin to move your life toward that vision, but first let’s talk about a crucial component that will determine your ability to go for the destiny God has designed for you.

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    Vision Killers

    W endy and I had seen many pictures of the famous Sistine Chapel, but it was not until we were actually walking through this amazing church ourselves that we realized no photograph could ever do it justice. The arches and the domes were so much larger than we had imagined, and we could never have anticipated how it would feel to look at some of the most famous artwork in the world. As I stood gazing up at the ceiling, I could not help but wonder how Michelangelo was able to complete the massive work of painting twelve thousand square feet of ceiling space in a matter of only four years. Talk about having a vision . . .
    When an artist like Michelangelo is planning to create a master-piece, I think it would be safe to assume he doesn’t just whip out an 8½ × 11-inch piece of paper and start sketching. When a painter is looking to produce a work he is hoping will become significant, he looks for the perfect canvas. The quality of that material is of utmost importance, and he will wait until he is able to find a complete and whole canvas before he starts to express physically the creative vision he has in his mind. He understands no matter how vivid the vision, without a great canvas, the end result will be flawed.
    Just as the result of the artwork depends upon a strong and high-quality canvas, so our vision is related to our heart. The determining factor of how much of our vision actually manifests in our lifetime is a whole and healthy heart. The book of Proverbs expresses it this way: “My son, attend to my words; consent and submit to my sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart, For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh . Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it springs the issues of life ” (Proverbs 4:20-23, AMP; emphasis added).
    The determining factor of how much of our vision actually manifests in our lifetime is a whole and healthy heart.

    The Bible tells us to guard our hearts with all vigilance, and above all that we guard, because the heart is actually what births everything in our lives: emotional and physical health, finances, and relationships. In one translation, it says that out of the heart flows the “borders” of life. In other words, the borders of our lives—or the