VISION, do you have the correct one?
When you hear this verse quoted or displayed on a banner, what is usually being referred to? To make people aware of missions and to raise money for the purpose of missions. The promoters of such a missionary endeavor interpret it to mean, "if we do not have a vision of the unsaved they will perish, or if the unsaved do not get a vision of their lost condition by us sending people to them they will be lost. Now I am not knocking that approach, it does have some effect. But the true meaning of that verse far transcends that interpretation.
The ones who are unsaved are perished already. They are spiritual dead, they are separated from God. Yes it is true, if they do not see a vision of who Christ is they will die in their sins. How are they to see a vision of who Christ is?
The ones who will perish (spiritually) if they do not have a vision is the believer! You, if you do not have a vision, will perish. The church if it does not have a vision will perish. The unsaved, if they do not see the vision of Christ in you will perish in their sins.
What is your vision? Is it to see the lost saved. That is a noble vision, but this vision is not filled by your giving of money to send someone overseas to verbalize the gospel. If the person giving the money and the person being sent does not have a vision of who Christ is and what His purposes and plans are, the lost will not see Jesus. They may see a religion or a denomination but they will not see Jesus in all His fullness.
As a Christian your first and foremost vision ought to be, to become more and more like Jesus in this earth. The only Jesus the lost will see is the Jesus in you. Are you portraying the Bible Jesus? Are you portraying the faith of, the love of, the compassion of, the holiness of, the praying of, the sacrifice of, the joy of, the power of, the miracles of, the forgiveness of, the deliverance of, the commitment of, the concern for the poor of, the praises of, the worship of, and the teachings of Jesus?
God's ultimate plan for the church is: To exhibit through believers all the attributes and power of Jesus Christ.
Eph. 4:11-15 11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-- Christ--
The NASB translates v.15 this way, "...grow in all aspects into Him.... We put such limitations upon our call in God. Yet set before us is the fullness of Jesus--God's grand purpose for our lives.
The depth of His grace toward us has rendered us capable of climbing the hights of holiness! Through the Holy Spirit, the responsibility of Christ's very authority has been delegated to us. Having received the expanse of Christ's love, we are now called to reveal it in its full redemptive power.
Indeed, whatever we see in Jesus is what God plans to reveal in us. It is this vision of attaining Christ likeness that centers us firmly upon the path to doctrinal purity. We will then, not be interested in verbalizing our doctrine, for we will be to busy demonstrating all that Jesus is.
What compels us forward into religious activity is not always the leading of God. If we do not have the vision of conforming to Christ as central to our Christianity, then what may be guiding us is a "wind of doctrine," or a "man-made tradition.
In the church today there are a number of doctrines that have grown bigger than their scriptural proportions and tend to obscure our vision of Christ likeness. Placing over emphasis on any one doctrine will become doctrinal winds that will blow you off course and distract you from the truth that is in Jesus.
Correct and balanced doctrinal understanding is fundamental to our spiritual well being. When our energies are absorbed more with a particular doctrine than with attaining the character of Christ, we are being misled.
God will not excuse pride, especially religious pride that puts traditions, constitutions, and denominational beliefs above the Word of God. It is this religious characteristic of it--by which they are boastful of their achievements, puffed up with their knowledge or judgmental towards others--that has the living God standing in opposition to the churches' of putting of programs.
Indeed, religious pride is the worst idolatry, for it sets mankind in the place of God. If we would truly "learn of Him," then we, like Jesus, would be "meek and lowly of heart" (Matt. 11:29). And God, who gives grace to the humble, would rescue the church from spiritual decline.
Most of us Christians put the cart before the horse: We work hard for God rather than first discerning what God is doing and then letting Him work through us.
So often our approach has been, God we are going to do this for You, and we pray that you will bless our efforts. The Church is very busy, but as can be observed their efforts are not being blessed by God.
I'm tired of doing things for God that He has never initiated. I'm weary of following man-made plans and programs to fulfill God's purposes. I'm sick of church and ministry activities that have nothing to do with the Biblical pattern of what God wants to do in our generation. I am fed up with playing church.
We need the Holy Spirit to disrupt all man-made, business-as-usual religion so Jesus can have His way.
I don't know about you, but I would rather have the Father's agenda then any church program. That is risky of course, because we may discover that doing God's will requires major adjustments on our part. We have to discard all our man-made rules and regulations, all our religious formulas, along with all those "we've always done it this way" excuses. We have to get our priorities straight. Television, sports, recreation and the sensual pleasures of life can no longer have first place in our lives. We must "seek first the kingdom of God."
God want's to interrupt our nominal Christianity, and our normal Sunday morning routine. I hope we aren't so set in our ways that we can't be bothered when the Holy Spirit reveals His plan.
If you do not have the revelation that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you to quicken your mortal body so you can live as He did and do what he did, then, you are not interpreting the correct vision of Jesus to the lost of the world.
Let's look at this verse in the NKJV. "Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint...."
The Church is in the mess it is because of a lack of revelation of who Jesus is. Oh, you maybe able to explain who Jesus is, you maybe able to explain the gospel, but if you are not living like Jesus and working like Jesus you are portraying another gospel.
One reason Christians and the Church are in such spiritual apathy is because they have no revelation. If you do not have a revelation of all that Jesus is, if you don't have a revelation of the plan and purposes of God, if you do not have a revelation of who you are in Jesus Christ, if you do not have a revelation of the person of the Holy Spirit, if you do not have a revelation of God's word and become obedient to it you will cast off restraint and you will surely perish spiritually. The lost of the world will not see a true representation of Jesus and all that He is, operating in the Church, therefore, they will go to a lost eternity and God will require their blood on your hands.
VISION: Translated from the Greek word Chazon almost always signifies a means of divine revelation. First, it refers to the means itself, to a prophetic "vision" by which divine messages are communicated: "The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth" Ezek. 12:22. Second, this word represents the message received by prophetic "vision": "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he" Prov. 29:18. It means: "to see or behold" "to see" in a prophetic vision, " avenge, avoid, bare, go back, let, (make) naked, set at naught, perish, refuse, uncover.
If you do not have a revelation of who Jesus is you will not behold Him in all His glory, therefore you will not portray Him to others in all His glory; you will go back to your old ways of doing things, doing what needs to be done by the flesh rather than by the Spirit; you will strip Jesus naked, you will strip Him of his power, miracles, holiness, compassion, love, forgiveness, etc. etc. You will set at naught and make the Word of God of no effect because of your traditions. You will refuse to be obedient to God's Word and instead be obedient to rules and regulations.
You, father and mother need a vision of all that Jesus is, if you don't your family will perish.
You, believer need that vision, if you don't your Christianity is false and your spiritual life will perish.
You, preacher need that vision, if you don't the flock will perish that you believe you are responsible for.
In the Bible, people who had visions were filled with a special consciousness of who God is, of what God wants done and then do what God wants done.
The purpose of vision in a believer's life is so he can portray to the world and to the dead church the resurrected power that is demonstrated because 0f Jesus in us ans we inHim.
But the sad fact is, we find ourselves today in the same condition Samuel did in 1 Sam 3:1, "...And the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation."
When the people are not lead by the heavenly vision, they are left to their own devices: rationality, carnal desires, moral relativism, and unbelief. Where there is a lack of God's Word, there is also a lack of revelation. When the church acts, talks, and thinks like the world, they are definitely not in a position to be protesting the wrongs of the world.
True Christians are those who live by faith in Christ alone--who love their God enough to stand upon His Word, steadfastly and firmly. They will press forward, against the tide of a world system, the ways of the flesh and denominational traditions. They WILL be VICTORIOUS!
We need a revelation of Jesus Christ in all His glory. We need a revelation of Jesus the Savior, Head of the Church, Baptizer, Healer, Deliverer, Bondage Breaker, Santifier, Coming King, and the Anointed One.
Most Christians struggle through life trying to work for God. Yet Jesus calls us to cease from our own labors so the Father can work through us by His Holy Spirit.
You must realize that God has far more in store for your life that just to do something for Him. He wants you to experience an intimate love relationship with Him that is real and personal. The heart of eternal life is for you to know God and to know Jesus Christ.
This "knowing," however does not come through a program, a study, a method or a denomination. It comes through a relationship with a Person. Only through a intimate love relationship with God does he reveal Himself, His purposes and His ways. Then He invites you to join Him where He already is at work.
When you obey, then God accomplishes through you something only He can do. And you come to know God in a more intimate way by experiencing God at work through you. To learn how to know and do the will of God, we can find no better model than Jesus. During His 33 years on earth, He never failed to do the will of God. He perfectly completed every assignment His Father gave Him to do.
How did He know what to do? But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working." Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. "For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does" (John 5:17,19-20).
What Jesus described is not a step by step approach for knowing and doing God's will but a love relationship through which God accomplishes His purposes. When you have an intimate love relationship with God, He will show you what He is doing. Then your job is to follow the example of Jesus and do what the Father is already doing. Watch to see where God is at work and join Him!
A vision without action is merely a dream!
Action without a vision will accomplish nothing!
Vision plus action will change your life, the life of the Church and the world.
How will we be able to receive the revelation of who Jesus is? Only one way, Go all the way with God.
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