A God-given Vision

A GOD-GIVEN VISION

By Jorgie

A New Spiritual Horizon

The times in which we are living are strange, hard and indeed special. These are end times, perilous times and times of great conflict, upheaval, shaking, of darkness and of frustration. The special character of these times is exemplified by the lives of Simeon and Anna, who lived at a time when the old form and order of the Old Testament was changing to a new order. On the one hand, they faced the power of religion and tradition binding them to the old order, rituals and practices that were mostly outward and peripheral in nature. They had the outward shell of religious things but the inward spiritual essence was missing. Everything took on a legal foothold; there was no vision and there had been no word from God for four hundred years! It must have been very frustrating to devoted people who were holding on to the promises of God concerning the Messiah. On the other hand, however, we see there was something new on the spiritual horizon that was at once challenging and full of hope. In Luke 2 we read that Simeon and Anna were waiting for the consolation of Israel. The Spirit had given a word to Simeon that he would not die until his eyes had seen the Lord. There was an air of hope and expectation as they entered the temple every day. They waited for the Lord to appear. They remembered the prophetic utterance of Malachi’s time, “Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet . . . and he shall turn the hearts of His people.”

So we can see the negative and the positive sides in full operation. While the multitudes faced a time of decay, demoralization, discouragement, moral death and hopelessness, there were also a remnant people, a small group of believers characterized by Simeon and Anna, who had kept the torch of God’s testimony alive. Their lives were focused on the coming Messiah and they looked forward to the move of the Spirit with hope and certainty. It is heartening to note that at a time such as that, God did not give up on man but He continued to work out His purposes in and through a remnant people. God was at work in the midst of all the superficiality, the pretense, the hypocrisy and the facetious priesthood.

The times we face today are much like the times of Simeon and Anna. We live in similar times of general unbelief, disheartenment, despondency and spiritual decay all around. However, God has not given up on man: He is working out His purposes in and through the Holy Spirit in the lives of those whose heart and mind is centered on the ultimate purposes of God.

The Bible reveals that at times such as these the Lord in His mercy imparts a vision to a few saints who would lead the people out of their present predicament. He begins a work of preparation in them well in advance. God reveals His Son in fresh ways to stem the tide of happenings and lend new hope and life to those who trusted Him. In times past the Lord said, “If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself know unto Him in a vision, and will speak to him in a dream” (Num 12:6). A few chosen ones were able to see something of God’s divine purposes and what they beheld was sufficient to keep them moving forward. There were many in the Old Testament, like Abram, Jacob, Moses, David and prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Habakkuk, and Zechariah who imbibed a vision of His purposes. There were many others who received visions of His purposes, but not all were men of vision. Though God was faithful in imparting visions to them, not many were able to identify with the ultimate purposes of God for man. Even when the old order was passing away and a new order was appearing on the scene, when the whole fabric of religious life was under strain and test, when the enemy was doing his best to inculcate a spirit of resistance to the things of God, to establish confusion in rank and file, to threaten, destroy and annihilate the very foundation, God was faithful in imparting a vision to the likes of Simeon and Anna, who stood on the ground of His word. Later, there were men and women like Mary, Ananias, Cornelius, Peter, John and Paul who were burdened with the reality of God’s purposes and intentions for their times. A God-given vision kept those who trusted Him and were prepared to go all the way with Him, whatever the cost.

A Present Vision

Let us remind ourselves that today we have no vision other than that which is centered in God’s Son. God has spoken in and through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ and no other vision can replace the beholding of the Son.

Heb 1:1-3

1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

In these times vision relates and pertains to seeing spiritual things through the eyes of the Spirit. A vision is more of an inward seeing of Christ and the purposes of God in His Son. This is an important change. In olden times vision was more of a supernatural presentation of certain things. Visions (plural) were the norm to the prophets of old, but now the vision is linked to a seeing and a beholding of the Lord and His purposes in His Son. There has been a decided shift from the outward to the inner; from the peripheral to the center; from the natural to the spiritual. In these last days God has spoken to us in His Son. Therefore, our vision needs to be bound up with the Son. The concept of a vision today has become more lively and dynamic. What the Church needs today is a practical, on-going vision that relates to the progressive fulfillment of His purposes. The desperate need of the hour is to have a vision of God’s perspective of the Church, the ministries, and the people.

Watchman Nee writes, “The true work of God with us is not when we consecrate ourselves to Him, but when we see. Consecration should result from spiritual vision, it can never take its place. This is where God’s work begins. Our work may begin at any time; God’s work through us can only spring from divinely given vision.”

Thousands of Christians, longing to serve God wholeheartedly, sincerely, and meaningfully consecrate their lives to God believing that in order to serve God all they need to do is to consecrate themselves. But they lack the vision of God’s ultimate purposes in His Son. Hence, God cannot do a lasting work in their lives. It is true that consecration must begin with an inward seeing or else it will peter out and remain a long lost wish.

In the eyes of men, their work for God can begin whenever they choose to do so. Some will choose to enter into God’s work only after obtaining the right education in divinity; some will choose to obtain the prior support of some organization and some will choose to manipulate and evolve a vision all their own. Only a few are prepared to spend three years in isolation as did the Apostle Paul of Tarsus, to behold the vision in a measure before they consecrate themselves in ministry! God’s work can only begin with a Spirit-initiated or a God-given vision.

Watchman Nee adds, “Without that vision, our service for God follows the impulse of our own ideas but not in accord with God’s plan. When we come to Paul we see that for him this revelation was twofold.

“It pleased God to reveal His Son in me.” (Gal 1:15, 16). That was an inner revelation, subjective if you like the term.”

“I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” (Acts 26:19). This was the outer vision, objective, concrete and practical.

“The inner and the outer working together make perfect completeness, whereas either is insufficient without the other.

“And this is the need of the Church, of the people of God today. Inward revelation must go along with outward vision: not only knowing the Lord within, but knowing also God’s eternal purpose; not stopping at the foundation, but understanding too how to build upon it. God is not satisfied with our just doing odds and ends of work; that is what servants do. We are His friends, and His friends know His plans.”

What concerns each one of us is to receive not only an inward revelation of Christ but also a vision of God’s purposes in the Son, in this day and age. O may the Lord apply eye salve to our eyes to not only behold Him but to also see His eternal purposes. And let me say that the inward beholding of the Lord must precede the outward seeing. Only in seeing Him shall we also be able to visualize His purpose for the Church which is the Body of Christ.

Let me provoke your thinking with this question: “Did Jesus Christ visit the earth only because Adam had sinned, due to which posterity was born in sin? Would Jesus have come had Adam not sinned?

The answer to this question will truly test your vision of God’s purposes. Your answer to this question will reflect your understanding of God’s purpose in the Son.

Evangelistic Christianity has long been encumbered with the sin problem. All their teaching is related to seeing the purpose of God in terms of redemption. For them, salvation is mainly a sin problem. In their mind everything stems from Adam’s disobedience. Therefore, their time-perspective is limited to the time of man’s sin. They are not able to relate to the eternal purpose of the Father that was formed from the foundation of the world. For the Bible says, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:” (Eph 1:4).

It is tremendous when one is able to see the truth hidden here. God’s eternal purpose for His people goes deeper than the sin issue. We have to see the incarnation and redemption phases in their proper relationship to God’s eternal purpose. God’s vision for His people does not begin in God’s Son dying for the forgiveness of our sins. Note how the apostle Paul starts the revelation of God’s purpose in the Son with the eternal Father and not with the fall of man. This is the viewpoint of God from His eternal vantage point or perspective. Paul saw this and opened the epistle to the Ephesians by taking them back to the Father’s heart where the desire, purpose and intention of God the Father, cherished before the foundation of the world, is made known.

This does not mean that redemption has no place in the life of a Christian, for we know that Christ died upon the cross of Calvary for the forgiveness of our sins. The effect of the first Adam’s sin had to be washed out. But we need to also put redemption in proper perspective according to the plan of the Father. God is looking for a vital union between God and man and this had to come from the sacrifice of His Son but we need to go beyond and see that the Father’s eternal purpose was to fill the earth with His sons.

The Apostle Paul saw that the goal towards which the Holy Spirit is working is to have all things in Christ.

Eph 1:9-11

9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

The Father determined that His Son becomes the means to bring in a vast family of sons into the glorious measure of His full stature. This is the vision-perspective that we must come to. This does not mean that we minimize the importance of redemption and that we should take sin more lightly than we do. Only as we see redemption rightly related to God’s purpose and plan can we truly appreciate what Christ did on the cross for mankind. This was also Paul’s advice to his spiritual son Timothy,

2 Tim 1:7-10

7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;
9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
10 But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:

We have been saved, by His grace and not according to our works, not only for the forgiveness of our sins but according to God’s purpose and grace for something which God had upon His mind before the world began.

A Growing Vision

What we think we see at the beginning of our Christian life is only a dim reality compared to what we shall see and understand at the end of our lives in Christ.

When Abram received a divine vision at Ur of the Chaldees, he was not really aware of the tremendous depths of that promise of God. God had called him and said, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” (Gen 12:1-3). These tremendous promises of God were just a small bud within Abram. The vision had yet to blossom into the fullness that is now made clear to us by His Spirit. Only towards the end of Abraham’s life was he able to see in some measure the promise of God that he had received at Ur. This is because the vision is invariably tied and bound up with separation, suffering and adjustment. It is wonderful to see that the vision God gave to Abraham in miniature concerning his family is unfolded to us in greater magnitude in the book of Revelation.

The example of the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus is also a case in point. The Lord had opened Paul’s spiritual eyes in a measure. It was the beginning of a life that went on to see much greater things in God’s economy. The vision began as a small flowering bud but grew in stature and depths as Paul was subjected to the cross in his life. Twenty seven years later Paul was able to tell King Agrippa that the purpose of the vision was to make him a witness both of the things which he had seen and of the things which he will yet appear to him (Acts 26:16). The Lord appeared to him again and again and enlarged his vision of His purposes, and Paul was able to say, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” (Acts 26:19).

Beloved Saints, the vision that God gives increases as we remain obedient to His Spirit. He will enlarge and He will give an on-going revelation that knows no end. That bud within must blossom into the fulfillment of the divine purpose of God in the Son. It happened with Paul and it can certainly happen with any of us if we give ourselves to the workings of the Holy Spirit in complete obedience. Let us be those who are able to say, like Simeon of old, “Mine eyes have seen.” No man can impart a Spirit-born vision to us. The Lord alone will put us into His vision and His vision into us. If it is not so, we will always remain mere passengers and parasites in the Body of Christ, depending on the vision that others have seen. God desires each one of us to have the vision that God has for His Church and for His people.

In this day and age when a great deal is collapsing all around us spiritually, let us be those who find strength in the vision that God has imparted to us in whatever small dimension. And let us move along with the things of the Spirit, for God alone can enlarge and broaden the vision that He has initiated.

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