Do You See It? ( Pastor: Luz Quinones)

So, as y'all can see, it's a one-man show today.

No, I'm joking.

I'm preaching today.

And today's uh title of the sermon is Do You See It?

So I want you to ask your neighbor, do you see it?

Sorry, do you see it?

She's like, I don't know what you're talking about, girl.

Siri thought I was talking to her, my phone lit up.

So let's start in um one second.

I don't know why I still have my slides up.

All right.

So we're gonna go to Habakkuk, and I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right.

Uh two, verses two and three.

Say, write the vision and make it plain on tablets that he that he may run who reads it.

For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak and it will not lie.

Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

So before I get into the sermon, I'm going to just kind of give you a breakdown, right?

Because we we like context, right?

I'm using these verses for something else, but let's give let me give you the context of what was going on.

So if you read chapter one, Habakkuk is basically like, God, what you what you doing?

You ain't doing nothing.

Like, I don't see you doing nothing, right?

He's looking around, there's violence, injustice, right, wickedness, and he literally says to God, like, How long am I gonna ask you for help?

Because you ain't doing nothing.

That's basically what was going on, right?

So in chapter two, God answers, he is doing something.

He's gonna use the Babylonians, or in this case, it says Chaldeans, but it's pretty much the same group of people, to judge Judah.

But now Habakkuk has another problem because he's like, What you mean you're using the Babylonians?

They're even more wicked.

So Habakkuk struggles to understand how God can use a wicked nation to accomplish something for himself, right?

So God tells Habakkuk to write the vision and make it plain.

So to write a vision, you first have to see the vision.

You can't write something if you don't know what you're writing, right?

If I told Jotty to draw a, I'm gonna just say some a megalodon, she's gonna be like, what's that?

Right?

Like if I be like, oh, it's it's a shark.

She goes, Oh, okay, I know what you're talking about.

Let me draw it, right?

So the word vision used in this text was the Hebrew, and I'm gonna butcher the pronunciation, it's causone, not calzone, causing.

Okay, and the the meaning of this word in Hebrew meant like a mental sight, divine revelation, or a prophetic dream.

Okay, so the fact that God is telling him to make it plain means that it's not just for him.

Make it plain is like saying, make it clear, right?

Everyone should be able to understand.

So he has to make the vision so clear and so precise that anyone who reads it will literally be able to run with it.

This reminds me of instructions.

Y'all ever build something with poor instructions?

You have the ones where you build it and it's like perfect, beautiful, nothing's missing, like you don't have extra pieces, right?

Like it took you, it was quick, and then you got the stuff from Amazon that you be there wanting to break the thing that you're trying to build.

You got pieces left over when you finish, right?

Like the instructions just aren't clear.

Okay, so God says, for the vision is yet for an appointed time.

So that means it's not for right now.

Then he says, But at the end it will speak and it will not lie, meaning it's gonna be fulfilled.

Then he says, Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

Don't that like kind of don't make sense?

It ain't gonna take a long time, wait for it, because it's gonna come and it's not gonna take a long time.

Like it doesn't make sense, right?

But what God is basically saying is that even though you don't see it happening right now, it doesn't mean that I'm not doing anything.

Our sense of what God's timing should be is nowhere near where his timing actually is, right?

So we always say what?

He is a what?

He's an on-time God.

Thank you, MJ.

And we be so literal.

He's not coming when you're stressed out about the situation, or when you're crying about it, or when you're there with palpitations.

He's coming right on time.

The day before your eviction, the day they they buckling up your car to the to the tow truck because it's getting repossessed, when you're down to your last pack of chicken in the fridge, the day before your light about to get cut off.

So when we say he's on time, he's literally like on time.

But let's be real.

I'm like, God, but like, can you be like two weeks on time, like two weeks ahead?

Cause then, like, you know, my emotions could be in check.

But he's like, nope.

And the more I ask God to like hurry up, right?

Like my timing, the more that I learned that everything circles back to faith.

So he says, Do you trust me enough to know that I'm gonna come through?

Faith is something that I have shared with you guys.

Um, you guys know we're very, very transparent.

It's always been a struggle for me.

Always, right?

Some people struggle with a whole bunch of other sins, minus faith, lack thereof, right?

And it's something that I've I've worked on, right?

And clearly, like evangelist Jocelyn knows, today I'm not the same person I was a year ago, right?

So praise God that we're working on it.

But it's enough to where I have to check myself, okay?

So chapter one, Habakkuk is questioning God.

Chapter two, God is like, bro, I got you.

Chapter three, Habakkuk surrenders.

And we're gonna read that chapter three, verses 17 and 18.

Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor the fruit be on the vines, though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food, though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the Lord in the God of my salvation.

So he's basically to paraphrase, he's saying, It don't matter what goes around around me, or lack thereof, like everything could die.

I don't have food, I don't have nothing, but I'm gonna continue to rejoice in the Lord, right?

So today I ask you, what are you believing God for?

Is it a house, a car, salvation for your family, a new job, healing, your ministry, your marriage?

So over the last two weeks, God has really been placing in my heart uh vision boards or vision books.

Everyone does it differently.

Some people have an actual board, some people have books where they put their vision on isolated pages of paper.

Now, y'all know that we go to school here.

Babe, we need like a school bell for when I pray.

School's in session.

So that's been heavy for like the last two weeks.

And so the more I meditated on it, I'm like, all right, let me study why having a vision is so important, right?

And so when we talk about vision, we're talking about something that that you're aspiring, a goal, right?

Something that you can see it with your imagination, but you'll be like, bro, I don't know how I'm gonna get there, but it's it's here, okay?

So we see thousands of things every day, but your brain can't consciously process all of them.

Your brain filters 951 billion bits of sensory information from your eyes, ears, skin, and nose.

That blew my mind.

Your brain has a filter.

Listen to this, y'all.

Okay, I need y'all to.

This is why when the Bible says Romans 12, 2, renewing of the mind is literal.

Okay, your brain has a filter called the reticular activating system.

It filters out millions of pieces of useless information and only lets you notice what you focus on.

That made me think of Pastor Les, and I will tell you why.

Y'all know we be blowing spots here.

Now, the other day I said so, I don't even remember what it was.

It's been a it was a while ago, it feels like the other day.

I was like, Yeah, just corner caddy it.

And he was like, You want me to what?

I said, corner caddy it.

He's like, what does that mean?

And I'm like, corner caddy, like put it in the corner, like you know, corner caddy, corner caddy.

And he's like, why do you even know that word?

And I was like, it's in my head, I don't know.

I was like, Jocelyn says it all the time, maybe that's why, right?

And he's like, but why?

He's like, okay, but why did you store?

Like, why is that word important to you?

And it didn't make sense to me.

I'm like, what do you mean?

Now I understand that word to him.

I bet you he probably still don't remember what corner caddy is because it ain't important to Pastor Less what corner caddy means, right?

So that made me think of that.

So basically, your brain blocks out 99% of signals before you even receive them.

So by creating goals or a vision, you can influence what you notice.

For example, Eli helped me on this part.

I said, give me a type of car.

He's like Mustang, perfect.

Okay, so let's use this as an example.

You want to buy a car, you want to buy a Mustang, precisely.

All of a sudden, you see everybody and their mom got a Mustang.

You'll be like, Dang, my neighbor had a Mustang.

I didn't even know that they had a Mustang.

I've been living here six years, ain't never noticed.

But because you want a Mustang, now you notice the Mustang.

The Mustang didn't become more common.

Your brain highlighted it because it's like, yeah, we want that.

Okay.

So I want y'all to tell me this week on next Sunday, tell me how many Mustangs y'all y'all noticed this week, because I done highlighted it in your brain.

Okay?

So your goals and visions start to affect also your choices.

You unconsciously align yourself with what you're trying to accomplish.

In this case, we're trying to buy the Mustang, right?

So we need to save up for the Mustang.

So you be like, oh, do I really want Chick-fil-A?

I need that down payment money, so maybe not.

Right?

Like, that's a decision that your brain made on its own because you want the Mustang.

Okay?

So today's choices will affect tomorrow's goals.

Your brain pays more attention to things that are important to you.

When you keep seeing your goal, you're reminding your brain that it's important.

Then you start noticing opportunities related to that goal and making choices that move you closer to it.

So the picture doesn't necessarily make the goal happen, right?

Like this ain't no, we don't serve a genie, right?

God don't do that.

But subconsciously, it makes you start moving in that direction, if that makes sense.

Another thing that I learned, right?

Because Pastor Les blew my spot and said that on Thursday, I was like, so I'm like, okay, I will pace myself on Sunday.

Did you know that your brain cannot tell the difference between a reality and an imaginary scenario?

Did y'all know that?

No, I didn't either until yesterday.

And full transparency, I was like, Dawn, is it true that your brain?

I'm like, I gotta fact check this before I say this all Sunday because this wow.

Okay.

So when you realize achieving your goals, your brain starts believing it's possible, and it creates a positive feedback loop that motivates action.

Okay, so seeing your vision board or book regularly helps normalize your goals, reducing your brain's fear response to change.

Right?

Because we we've talked about this before.

We do the same thing over and over and over again.

So there comes a point where you have to break the loop.

Because if you just continue the cycle, that's what your brain wants.

The less choices that your brain has to do a day, that's the route that it's gonna take.

Your brain's lazy.

It's like, nah, let's go this way because I already know what this looked like.

Okay.

So when you do this with your brain, when you're training your brain to see new things, now you're looking for opportunity, right?

Where you probably didn't look for it before.

Have you guys ever had something going on and out of nowhere you'd be like, oh, you do that too?

Oh, you know about that too.

And it's like it just it just comes to you, right?

That happens to me all the time.

And that's kind of like how it is.

So if y'all don't know the type of person I am, I am a I don't even know what the word is.

I just love finding new opportunities.

Like, I'm the person that you tell me I want to do this, I'll be like, okay, come on.

Like, I started a cleaning company, right?

Evangelist Jocelyn and I have our decor company.

Like, you can't tell me I can't do nothing because I'm gonna do it, right?

Like, that's just me, that's how I am.

So I'm always looking for opportunity.

That's me, that's in me, right?

But not everyone is like that.

So we have to train our brains to see opportunity all around us.

And I'm gonna use this as an example because God did this to Abraham.

Let's go to Genesis 15, 5.

It says, Then he brought him outside and said, Look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them.

And he said to him, So shall your descendants be.

What was God doing?

Giving him a vision.

Right?

He needed to see.

God didn't just say, he didn't just say, Your descendants are gonna be as numerous as the stars.

No, he was like, I need you to come, come here real quick.

I need you to come see this.

You see, can you count them?

No, right?

Because there's a lot, all right.

That's how big your descendants are gonna be.

He needed visualization.

Okay, so let's talk about what making your vision plain looks like.

The vision.

What do I ultimately want?

But because we're believers, it's not just about what you want.

What does God want?

The why.

Why does it matter to me?

The obstacle, what is gonna get in my way?

And then the action.

What am I gonna do to accomplish said goal?

Even though not everything will be a you action, because there's things in our lives that are beyond our control, and it will literally take a move of God for us to accomplish it, and that's where faith comes in.

James 2:17 says, Thus, although faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

James 2:17

We've all preached this verse how many times?

I know everybody in their mom know that verse.

So ask your neighbor, is your faith alive?

What does it mean to have living faith?

Right?

Because that's like faith don't got lungs, it don't breathe.

Like, what do you what are you talking about, Pastor?

I'm gonna get there.

So, when we decided to move to Ohio, again, I'm the type of person, well, I uh you guys don't know this, I'm the type of person that I tell God, and this is my relationship with God, and it's always been like this, and not everyone is like me, and that's okay.

I say, I'm gonna walk, and if it's not your will, you tell me to stop, right?

Because the way I see it is if a child is not doing anything wrong, you're not gonna correct them.

If you're walking, if they're not in danger, they're not going to the street, you're not gonna be like, oh, right?

They just walking, they chilling.

So that's how my relationship is with God.

So we decided to move to Ohio.

Nobody knew about it.

We started painting the house, fixing the house.

We had a house in Jersey.

And we looked for a realtor.

Mind you, God ain't say nothing.

We like, Lord, this is what we're gonna do.

And you let me know if it's if it's a no.

We come back to church, this was during COVID.

We come back to the first service after they opened up everything in um, it was in August.

And out of all the people, the church we used to go to was pretty big, I would say about 300-ish people.

And the pastor's wife is like, Lucy Lester, and we were like, Oh, we haven't been to church in that long.

What happened?

And she's like, Thus says the Lord, He gives you the desires of your heart, go in peace, you're gonna be a blessing over there.

And he said some more stuff, but I didn't need that confirmation.

I genuinely did not.

I personally feel like God did that so the church knew that it was his will for us to leave.

We were leaders there, right?

So we that's just my assumption, and I could be wrong, but I'm gonna go with what I think it is.

So us moving to Ohio wasn't a living faith.

We did everything before God even spoke.

So that's what it means to have living faith is that you're working towards something, expecting that God is gonna make a way for you to get through to the other side.

Hebrews 11:1 says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1

So God designed your imagination to be a canvas where faith takes root before it manifests in physical reality.

Y'all got that?

Your imagination is a canvas.

So if you give Jotty Bingy Ringabingas, you give her a blank piece of paper, she's gonna draw whatever a whole bunch of craziness, right?

Because she just has a huge imagination.

But to her, that's like, look at what I did, look at this, do you see this?

And I'm like, yeah, she's she's super talented in drawing, if y'all didn't know that.

So faith is needed for things that we can't physically see with our eyes, with our human eyes.

Faith is a willingness to trust and rely on God.

So it's a God, I don't know how it is gonna happen, but I trust that you're gonna make a way so that it will happen.

I write down all any prophecy that is given to me.

That's something that I've always done.

And on August 31st, 2025, God told us our building was coming.

So what did we do?

We started looking.

We had no money, jaws.

We had money.

We had no money at the time.

Thank you, Jesus.

We got money.

I'm declaring it.

We got money.

So we started looking.

We moved here in February of 2026.

But I know that this is not the building that God was talking about.

This is just the stepping stone, okay, to prepare us for what's coming.

So as I sat and I started medit meditating on everything that I wanted to put on my vision board, because we did make one with my mom, Maribel, um, but this one's gonna be a little different.

And so the Lord reminded me of our building.

Pastor Les and I have our own idea of what we we would like the building to look like.

We don't have blueprints, we don't got land.

We currently are in between blessings, if you know what I mean.

But what we do have is faith.

So I know some people be like, that's the devil.

But I use my bestie ChatGPT to create an image.

Yes, I did.

And I want to share it with you.

So this picture is what we're believing God for.

So you're either with the vision or you're not.

Right?

Like, but this is what we believe in God for.

And like I said, in the natural, we ain't got building money in the bank account.

We barely got rent money in the bank account.

But God said it.

He said it was coming.

And then he confirmed it through someone else.

And we was like, okay, that means it's coming soon.

So I don't know how soon, but it's coming.

Y'all get ready.

It's coming.

Right?

So that's what we're believing God for.

And I'm sharing that because you guys are inspired.

Right?

This vision doesn't just belong to Pastor Les and I.

It belongs to anyone who decides to join themselves with the vision of inspire.

And so, although this isn't your vision, I'm sharing how big when you make your visions and your goals, this is how big it should be.

Like, God, I don't got money for this, but you're gonna make a way.

Right?

So I don't know if you guys know how most churches run, but it's completely off the generosity of people.

And so I want to personally thank each and every one of you.

And I say, I know Pastor Les is gonna be like, what happened with me?

You weren't here when I was writing the sermon.

Pastor Les and I would like to thank every single one of you who have believed in the ministry?

I was mixing ministry and vision together in one word in my brain.

The ministry and the vision.

Inspired is an independent church.

We're not a part of association.

We don't have a parent church.

Inspired started with two people who believed God's word and took a leap of faith.

Two people that, regardless of how empty the church was, still had service.

Two people that showed up, preached to empty chairs, sang to empty chairs.

Two people that didn't allow the lack of support to determine their outcome.

Two people that cried tears that only God understand but kept believing.

Two people that continue to confess we're in sowing season.

We're planting seeds.

Jos, is that the truth?

We're planting seeds.

So God told us May of 2025, and then again in June of 2025, that our next season season would be reaping season.

And we've seen exactly that.

Prior to moving to this building, we had Evangelist Jocelyn, Vincent, Titi Lili, who's not here, my mom, Kaylee and Orlando.

That's it.

What?

Right before we moved into this building, God presented us with uh Clarissa and Thomas.

Literally, we met them in December and we moved here February.

So right around Christmas time, we met Clarissa and Thomas.

So it was almost like we already had the build, like we were already looking.

And it was almost like God was like, Yep, you're going in the right direction.

Here's some, here's some of that harvest that I was telling you about back in May.

Here's a little bit of it.

And when we moved here, more people joined, right?

Our first service, MJ walked right through that door, right?

And so, and God has continued to show us that this we're in his will.

So I know sometimes I'll be like, We're a mega church up in here, because that's how I feel.

When you preach the empty chairs and you got people, you be like, Yes, house of praise, right?

So it's time to dust off our imaginations.

The ones that we haven't used since childhood.

Because when was the last time that you genuinely imagined something?

Right?

I feel like Jaws, you imagine things all the time.

Don't nobody like, well, not nobody, but her brain is rare.

Because Evangelist Jocelyn's brain, she'd be like, look, we're gonna do da da da da da.

And I'm like, and she's like, let me show you.

And then she shows you a picture.

I'm like, oh, that's nice.

I love it.

But she had it in her brain.

I don't know what your brain is coming up with, right?

It's time for us to believe the impossible.

That this building, to anybody else outside of here, they like, they crazy.

They crazy, right?

But I'm not crazy.

My God is crazy.

He could do the impossible, he be doing crazy stuff, right?

It's time for us to really trust God.

And I ask you, can you put your unbelief aside and ask God for the impossible?

Do you trust, and I spoke about father, friend, and judge on Thursday.

Do you trust your father, your friend, and judge enough to give you the desires of your heart?

So I ask you one last time.

Do you see it?

I shared our vision as a church, but I want you guys to really sit down and think of where you want to go.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a faith thing, it could be anything, right?

Your mind can literally go anywhere that you allow it to, but we have to allow it to and align our desires with God's will.