No Vision

"Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he" (Proverbs 29:18). Popular theology loves to use the preceding scripture to anchor a theology steeped in secular doctrine. Preachers that embrace this, tell their congregations to create strategic life plans, to be purpose driven, to reposition themselves, to live life without limits, to live their best life now. The various strategic plan templates ask you to document your skills, strengths, personality preferences, values, and interests. In addition, you will be asked to document your strengths and weaknesses, and to document any known opportunities and threats. "O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps" (Jeremiah 10:23). Finally, you will be asked to document your vision, mission, goals, actions, timeline and costs. While this may be highly recommended in a self-directed secular world, as a Christian, be not deceived. For "ye know not what shall be on the morrow" (James 4:14); "for we know in part, and we prophesy in part" (1 Corinthians 13:9). All plans based on temporal things are subject to change; however, plans based on the eternal will remain "the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever" (Hebrews 13:8). Christians already have a strategic life plan, the Word of God: "he that keepeth the law, happy is he."

We are not advocating no planning; but, rather, prayer and putting the Lord first in everything (faith). Jesus advocated planning: "And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one" (Luke 22:35-36). He told his disciples to "prepare" before going forth and, most importantly, buy a sword. Of course, not a physical sword—he later rebuked Peter's use of one (John 18:10-11); rather, sword is symbolic of the Word of God (Proverbs 23:23; Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12). "Man's goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way" (Proverbs 20:24)? The Lord already has a plan and all we need to do is to have faith and diligently seek him.

For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. (Isaiah 64:4)

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. (Jeremiah 29:11)

Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. (James 4:13-15)

As a soldier of the Lord our direction comes from the Lord; we, through prayer, can determine the Lord's perfect will for a plan of execution; "not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:9). For you "are bought with a price" (1 Corinthians 6:20); therefore, "deny [yourself], and take up [your] cross, and follow [Jesus]" (Mark 8:34). "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier" (2 Timothy 2:4). "One of the difficulties in Christian work" says Oswald Chambers,

is this question—"What do you expect to do?" You do not know what you are going to do; the only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing. Continually revise your attitude towards God and see if it is a going out of everything, trusting in God entirely. It is this attitude that keeps you in perpetual wonder - you do not know what God is going to do next. Each morning you wake it is to be a "going out," building in confidence on God. "Take no thought for your life ... nor yet for your body" –take no thought for the things for which you did take thought before you "went out."

Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell you. God does not tell you what He is going to do; He reveals to you Who He is. Do you believe in a miracle-working God, and will you go out in surrender to Him until you are not surprised an atom at anything He does?¹⁴⁶

In the old church—the church in the wilderness, God gave the church visions through a few selected people (prophets and prophetesses). With Moses he spoke with him face to face but other prophets, in visions and dreams. "And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream" (Numbers 12:6). Visions should be recorded (write the vision) and shared (that he may run that readeth it). Visions are for a specified time in the future (the vision is yet for an appointed time), and since God gives them, they will come to pass (it will surely come).

I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. (Habakkuk 2:1-3)

In the New Testament church, the body of Christ, visions are more widespread. The Holy Ghost "will shew you things to come" (John 16:13) and is available to all those that are born again. "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit" (Joel 2:28-29). The Word of God is itself a vision and if we follow its instructions, "happy are ye if ye do them" (John 13:17). "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Thus, where there is no Word of God, the people perish: "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee" (Psalm 119:11). So, as Christians study and obey the Word of God, we are studying a written vision that is guaranteed to come to pass at an appointed time according to our faith. Habakkuk indicates that those reading the vision will be able to run. The question is, run where? "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. (James 5:7-8)

Run (endure without yielding) to the end of the vision (the return of Jesus); for the vision, though it tarry will surely come to pass. "Tenacity is more than endurance, it is endurance combined with the absolute certainty that what we are looking for is going to transpire. Tenacity is more than hanging on, which may be but the weakness of being too afraid to fall off. Tenacity is the supreme effort of a man refusing to believe that his hero is going to be conquered. The greatest fear a man has is not that he will be damned, but that Jesus Christ will be worsted, that the things He stood for—love and justice and forgiveness and kindness among men—will not win out in the end; the things He stands for look like will-o'-the-wisps. Then comes the call to spiritual tenacity, not to hang on and do nothing, but to work deliberately on the certainty that God is not going to be worsted."¹⁴⁷

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