Crab Baskets and your Vision Walk

It’s the most amazing thing, crabs caught in a basket. There they sit, and if one should try to climb up the side to the open top, the others will pull it back down again. While you’re walking out a vision, you will encounter many crab baskets filled with busy crabs. The best way to understand how to deal with both the crabs and the baskets is to learn from the Word and apply that wisdom in the midst of your Vision Walk.

Let’s take a REALLY hard example of a Vision Walk as our object lesson: a virgin with a vision. You can read how it starts in Luke 1:26-38. Triumphantly, Mary took the revelation and the promise from God that the angel Gabriel offered her, believed and through her consent opened the way for the Messiah by declaring “…Behold, the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word…” 

We often stop there without pondering the nine months that followed that history-changing moment. In whom could she confide that God had parted eternity and entered her womb? Who’d believe her? What of the law? No doubt, that young maiden had much to think about and even more to dread from those strict, law-abiding, religious folk who surrounded her. What was she to do with this growing revelation and promise in the face of isolation or death? We discover what Mary wisely chose to do in Luke 1:39-40: “(She)… arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth…’

Know that God walks with you and directs you. You’ll never be alone as you journey. God will be your travelling companion on your Vision Walk. God gave the vision, and He will lead. Expect it and notice His leading. God had let Mary know that Elizabeth was pregnant. And she took note. He’d pointed her in the direction to go. So, take time to carefully consider what the vision is showing you and everything God tells you about it. Ask God for clarity and His leading.

A Vision Walk Companion. Mary hurried away from those who could not understand and who could cost her her life. And hurried toward the one person she knew who’d understand what was happening. When God’s messenger, Gabriel, proclaimed God’s announcement to Mary, he had also given her strategic information: “(Elizabeth)…your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.” Luke 1:36. It showed her the path to take on her Vision Walk - and that path led to support. 

On your Vision Walk journey, as you’re walking out the promise and the revelation, you’ll always be accompanied - God will be with you. And He will provide someone or a cluster of supporters who will share the walk with you. Elizabeth and Mary shared a common experience that created a bond - the announcement by God’s messenger, Gabriel, that they would have God-ordained conception. Elizabeth, when she was past the age of conception and Mary through a unique miracle, as a virgin. 

Mary and Elizabeth were both birthing a single, historical, eternity-changing event. Although it’s not recorded in the Bible, they must have spent much time in those three months encouraging each other and praying for each other. 

Vision Walk expectation. For Elizabeth, as her belly grew, her faith grew. She’d have the resilience to withstand the busy crabs of the crab basket. They’d considered her cursed, or, at least, totally out of favour with God. Why, they’d even called her ‘Barren’.  And even her husband, a servant of God, was less than expectant - until... Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years.” Well, now, Zechariah has given us a lesson on how to offend an angel. Just tell him you don’t believe God’s message. In his heart, he lacked trust in God. With no expectancy or vision, his speech would have been faith-draining. The birth of John, the forerunner to Jesus, was a fixed event in God’s plans. It would happen. But without doubt, Zechariah would be spreading his doubt and unbelief by saying, “I can’t believe…”

The remedy? God prevents his faith-destroying utterances. That messenger had the authority to deal with this: He said to Zechariah, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.” See Luke 1:18-20. What have we just seen? God was dealing with a crab that would have dragged Elizabeth down with his words.

Back to Mary and Elizabeth… Elizabeth was at home, six months pregnant. Her friends and relatives are oddly absent from the biblical narrative. Where were they? What did they do with her quiet joy? How did they explain this reversal of imagined disfavour with God? Within Elizabeth, the forerunner of the Messiah was being knit by God into the voice that would make the paths straight for the coming King. His prophetic destiny already fixed in that tiny body he moved about in. 

Mary arrives: “When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the babe leapt in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit… ‘But why is it granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?... Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfilment of those things which were told her from the Lord.” Luke 1:41-45.  

Her first words are spiritual insight and support for Mary and herself, confirming the Vision Walk. Your Vision Walk of Promise always has God’s confirmation of His word through witnesses. Gabriel, the Messenger of God, appeared to Zechariah and, due to his unbelief, struck him mute as the first sign. The second is Mary’s acceptance of the word of Gabriel and the overshadowing by the Holy Spirit. And next, John, the prophetic voice for Christ, leaps in the womb of Elizabeth, and she prophesies. 

Back to Crab Baskets…Both women faced opposition and had to nurture the vision as well as the child in them. Elizabeth’s neighbours and relatives rejoiced with her - but when? At the birth of her son. When your Vision Walk is done, others catch a glimpse of the promise and the revelation. They will cheer at the finish line. You can expect nothing more from them until then, just like Elizabeth’s joy was celebrated. 

A Pregnant Virgin returns. Mary, a virgin, returns home with a swollen belly, pregnant with the vision of her destiny. She now faces those who haven’t heard and don’t know. Even her just betrothed Joseph struggles with the reality that confronts him. He seeks a way to spare her, even though he didn’t understand. Joseph thought to “…put her away secretly”, so she wouldn’t have to face stoning. God intervenes: “…the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife…” God’s messenger explains why. It’s by the Holy Spirit that she’s conceived. She will give birth to a son who’s to be named Jesus, as He’s the Saviour. 

Joseph’s response? He did what the messenger of God instructed him to do. See Matthew 1:19-25. God intervened in order to prepare Joseph to support Mary during her pregnancy, to help in the birth and to make a loving home for the Child in their care. 

On her Vision Walk, God was with Mary, step by step. He led her to Elizabeth to walk together. He then brought Joseph alongside her on the journey - a journey with Jesus.  Her walk required her to listen and act - respond by doing what she needed to do as the vision unfolded.

Your Vision Walk. Likewise, your Vision Walk begins as you take the first step by believing what God sets before you. Be strong - you’ll face crabs as you climb out of the ordinary and step into walking out the vision. As you hold true to your Vision Walk, God will flesh out the promise and the revelation of the vision until you reach your destination.

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