We are meditating on the stages of development in spiritual vision. Yesterday we reflected on conception and development. The next steps are travail and transition, then comes the birth of the vision.

Travail: In the King James version, Ecclesiastes 5:3 states, “For a dream cometh through the multitude of business.” The meaning of the word “multitude” here is “great.” According to one Hebrew definition, “business” means travail or difficulty. So a dream or vision comes through “great travail” or difficulty.

In the natural birth process, the time of travail parallels the spiritual travail which is necessary to birth vision. Natural travail is a time of intense, concentrated effort to birth a child which is commonly called “labor.” As in the delivery of a baby, spiritual vision is born by similarly intense mental, physical, and spiritual concentration.

But just as in the natural birth process, it takes greater effort to intensify. One of the things that is so important to a vision is focus. Like a mother giving birth, you must remain focused. You must remain concentrated on what God says, His promises and His prophecies.

As a mother in travail hides herself from public gaze, so those in travail spiritually must get alone with God and prepare themselves to receive the vision God has for their life and ministry.

Transition: In the natural birth process there is a time during labor known as the time of transition. It is the most difficult time of travail right before the birth canal is opened to permit the birth of the child. When God births spiritual vision, there is also a time of transition. Transition means change. The spiritual vision God wants to instill in your life will require change. It will call for new commitment and dedication. During this time of transition while you are preparing to receive the new flow of God's power, you will experience pressure in every area of your life. Everything within you may cry out for relief from the spiritual birth pangs of what God is bringing forth.

Birth: Travail is a difficult experience, but it leads to the birth which brings joy:

A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. (John 16:21)

Let God birth new visions in your spiritual womb this year.

Thank You, God, for the new thing You are birthing in me.