.”"Where there is no vision, the people perish; but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. "-Proverbs 29:18.
I have often felt that we do much better as Christians if we have vision.
MArtin Luther King once said I have a dream - it simply changed a nation.
Vision genuine vision will attract followers.
Napolean once said – I found the crown of France rolling in the gutter and I picked it up with my sword.
The crown of Holiness in this world is rolling in the gutter and we need to pick it up with the sword of the Spirit.
Derek Prince.
To live the Christian life we need vision – vision how to live a Godly and good life.
This week two athletes – 16 year olds won bronze medals at the Winter Olympics – as we listened to these athletes we find that all their efforts in recent times has been driven by the vision of success at the Olympics.
For the Christian we need a clear and understandable vision – Paul talks about
Winning a crown in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
Well there is a vision – a crown in heaven – the crown of holiness might be rolling in the gutters of this world but in heaven there is a crown waiting for you – there is a vision and that vision is worth living for.
Our vision is to be a caring church family who will do whatever we can to help people to become wholehearted followers of Jesus Christ.
Vision is important - What caused 41,000 people to flock to a paddock at Waimumu in recent weeks? It was vision – the vision of a sense of belonging to the rural community a vision of new innovations a better life with better equipment and a vision of free lunches. That kind of vision works but it is temporary.
When you meet a new Christian they are excited and happy – why? Because they had hope but now they have hope and they are infused with vision!!!
Philippians 1:6 New International Version (NIV)
6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. God can complete his vision
This confidence of Paul stretches forward with a vision of God’s , began in his listener’s, will be completed.
Where does Paul’s confidence come from – I believe it finds it’s source lying flat on his face on a road to Damascus where he encounters Jesus.
It is the revisioning of Paul that propels him right through his life – How is Paul revisioned?
He hears the voice of Jesus and it isn’t what Paul wants to hear – I think many of us lack vision because we may be uncomfortable at what we are hearing.
In the book of Isaiah chapter 6 we find Isaiah who is a believer and gifted prophetically but without direction.
But something happens. He sums up that something with – “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord.” This is a ground changing moment in Isaiah’s life – He saw God – Some people have amazing Spiritual moments that envision them for the rest of their lives. But we should not ignore the less ordinary experiences we have for example:
There was a businessman who lived during the depression. In one moment he lost his business, his family, his wife, and house. The only thing he had left to hold on to was his faith. While out walking one day he observed some construction workers building a stone church. One man had a triangular shaped piece of rock in his hand and was working with a chisel. “What are you going to do with that piece of rock?” asked my friend. “You see that space way up near the spire” he said, “I’m shaping this down here so it’ll fit in up there”. Isn’t that like God to shape our thinking, believing, following, obeying, doing, walking, talking, seeing down here among the mediocre and mundane so it’ll fit in up there where there is the vision of God waiting for us to catch hold of it? Up there to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple, i. e., to seek him. Up there vision is ripe for the taking by the one who has that deep abiding ache for it. You see this man’s friend had to come understand why he was going through this ordeal at this time. He left that construction with tears in his eyes and thanked God for the message from this construction worker.
How you get your vision isn’t important but who you get it from is.
Isaiah got his vision from God – It was an amazing Spiritual experience. There were a number of things about the vision that convinced him it was God.
Here is what happened
Isaiah’s Commission
6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
Seraphim – are there – Derek Prince was saying two wings covered their faces which is worship two covered their feet which is worship and two wings were flying he was saying – two thirds of their time was going into worship and one third into service. We kind of think of Seraphim like cute little cratures but the word Seraph in Hebrew means fire – God’s train fills the temple – this is a dramatic glimpse into heaven and Isaiah is stunned.
There can be no doubt that what is about to follow will be from God and need to be followed closely – The same with Paul – there is no doubt in his mind as he lay in the dust on the Dmascus road that he is meeting with God.
1.We need to establish a life vision that comes from God.
Sometimes it is a still quiet voice – sometimes it is an interesting incident sometimes it is a prophetic word – sometimes it is something direct from God but we need to know it is from God and of course the absolute important test is to test it with the bible – Strong Christian leaders and our own Spirits.
When vision is released Isaiah is confronted with his own humanity – and so are we.
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
Currently the Christian church is in the season that is celebrated as lent – preparing ourselves for the easter celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus. This encounter that Isaiah has predicts the death of Jesus – it predicts the fact that Jesus, God’s son, whose glory is revealed to Isaiah will come as an ordinary man and take our place. It is only as this incredible exchange takes place that we are able to receive vision. Isaiah rightly declares I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. Paul thought he was doing the right thing by persecuting the Christians – but it is only as he becomes blind that he is able to see the truth – He later wrote – Romans chapter 6 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. 10The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. 11So you too must count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
When this transaction between God and us takes place then we are enabled to get God’s vision for our lives..
Hudson Taylor got a vision to be a missionary to china.
God birthed in Hudson Taylor a vision that would change the history of the largest nation on earth. The moment came on Lord’s day in June, 1865 on the Brighton beach in, England, which he describes like this.
On Sunday, June 25th, 1865, unable to bear the sight of a congregation of a thousand or more Christian people rejoicing in their own security, while millions were perishing for lack of knowledge, I wandered out on the sands alone, in great spiritual agony; and there the LORD conquered my unbelief, and I surrendered myself to GOD for this service. I told Him that all the responsibility as to issues and consequences must rest with Him; that as His servant, it was mine to obey and to follow Him — His, to direct, to care for, and to guide me and those who might labour with me. Need I say that peace at once flowed into my burdened heart?
Unbelief and calling were at war inside Hudson Taylor and it was when God won the battle that vision flowed.
When the battle between humanity and God’s call is won then we are able to see our way clear to birth God’s vision in our lives. God birthed in Hudson Taylor a vision that would change the history of the largest nation on earth.
1 Thessalonians 4:1, “As you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, do so more and more.”
3. Commit to God’s vision for your life - Walk in the vision
Famous evangelist Billy Graham who passed away this week once said - “I urge each of you to invest your lives, not just spend them,” he told another group of young people. “Each of us is given the exact same amount of seconds, minutes and hours per day as anyone else. The difference is how we redeem [them]. … You cannot count your days, but you can make your days count.” A good life and a good time were not the same.
Once it is apparent that God is speaking and that redemption salvation is available then Isaiah commits to his calling – Here am I send me. His argument of I am a man of unclean lips is removed by grace and he then commits.
Can you remember a moment in your life when you said – Here am I send me?
The need has been revealed – when we read – verse 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Who shall we send? Isaiah says pick me.
Paul thought he was following God before he was blinded on the road to Dmascus
Isaiah was following God but it all got much clearer after the events recorded in Isaiah chapter 6
I was reading about Rheinhard Bonke and it seems that his call became clearer with time. The son of a pastor, Reinhard gave his life to the Lord at age nine, and heard the call to the African mission field before he was even a teenager. After attending Bible College in Wales, and his ordination in Germany he pastored a church and then went on to start missionary work in Africa. It was there, in the small mountain kingdom of Lesotho, that God placed upon his heart the vision of ‘the continent of Africa, being washed in the precious Blood of Jesus’ — an entire continent, from Cape Town to Cairo and from Dakar to Djibouti that needed to be reached and to hear the proclamation of the signs-following the Gospel. His meetings grew and grew until at their peak up to 1.6 million people were attending his meetings with the use of giant sound towers.
The subsequent vision though began after he started to walk with what he had got from God.
Isn’t that the key today – walk with what you have.
I often think of James White – on his Wheelchair sharing and praying around Riversale from the electric wheelchair that he drove around. James would walk with what he had.
9 He said, “Go and tell this people:
“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
10
Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.[a]
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”
11 Then I said, “For how long, Lord?”
And he answered:
“Until the cities lie ruined
and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted
and the fields ruined and ravaged,
12
until the Lord has sent everyone far away
and the land is utterly forsaken.
13
