The importance of vision is seen everywhere: a person with a white cane is at a disadvantage. I read once of a submarine that lost its periscope – it had no eye to lift up and it was destroyed. How many planes have been destroyed in snow storms, thunderstorms and fogs because of a lack of vision? Some of the continuing research that is done is in the area of enabling people to have vision: blind people; pilots; ships’ captains; night glasses; satellite navigation; fish finders etc. etc.
Without vision one cannot see where one is going. This is true of business and government, to name just two. There are always researchers finding out trends and needs so that the appropriate company or bureau can direct its path, or the company can find markets for its products.
This is true of man in general: man is blind without revelation – it is not in man that walks to direct his steps (Jer. 10:23; Prov. 14:12). Compare Scripture with Greek philosophy (1 Cor. 2:7,8) Prov. 29:18 speaks of this. So does Hos. 4:6. The NKJV renders “vision” in Prov. 29:18 as “revelation” while the RSV has “prophecy”. The Hebrew word is haza- revelatory visions granted by God to chosen messengers. There were periods of darkness:
1 Sam. 3:1 – the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision.
2 Chron. 15:3 – for a long time Israel had been without the true God, without teacher, priest, without law
Lam. 2:9 – the law is no more, her prophets find no vision from the Lord.
Ezek. 7:26 – then they shall seek a vision of the prophet, but law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients
But we have not been left in the dark (Heb. 1:1,2; Matt.`17:5). But there is more to visions than supernatural visions recorded in the Scriptures. Nobody has supernatural visions today (though many claim them), but we need to use the powers of imagination that God has given to us. Jonathan Swift said, Vision is the art of seeing things invisible. When we moved house years ago, one son was about 4 years old, and for some time he talked about the old house. He said, I can still see it. I asked, How? He replied, In my eye. The power of visualization.
When we set goals we don’t always achieve them, but we will accomplish more than if we didn’t set them and didn’t try. The Fosberry Flop is standard high-jumping technique today. There was a time when we high-jumped scissors style and then the Western Roll. Dick Fosberry set an Olympic record over fifty years ago at the Mexico City Olympics. He used to eye the bar for ten minutes before making the jump. When asked what he was doing he said, I was running each step and jumping the bar in my mind until every step was perfect. When it was just right, I took off running. He indicated that he knew he set the world record before taking his first step. He visualised before he actualised. God has told us to do many things, but He hasn’t told us HOW to do them. He leaves that to us because He made us in His image. We must have vision in three areas:
First we must have God’s view of realities:
Look at realities from the physical angle only and they’ll drown us. Peter walked on water for a while – while he looked at Jesus and not the wind and waves. 2 Cor. 11 lists the problems that Paul faced, enough to drown any man, and yet he survived as more than a conqueror. Why? 2 Cor. 4:16-18. Zech. 1:7-21 tells of a vision that Zechariah had by inspiration. He lived and worked during the time when the Jews had returned from Babylonian exile and were rebuilding the nation. He didn’t see a wall of stone but an angel unable to measure the city dimensions and God descending as a wall of flame to protect it. He looked outside Jerusalem to the hills around and saw more than the myrtle trees that grew there. He saw angels on multi-coloured horses assembling there after patrolling the earth for God. The people could only see trouble with the Samaritans, back-breaking work repairing the wall, and uncertainty, but Zechariah saw four blacksmiths coming to destroy four horns which represented the power of the Gentiles surrounding them.
In 2 Kings 6:8-17, Elisha and his servant are surrounded by Syrian forces in Dothan. The servant is terrified and Elisha wants the Lord to open his eyes. He does and the servant sees angelic forces protecting them. There is an element of the miraculous there, but what was that miraculous element? Only the opening of the eyes! The rest was natural reality (cf. Heb. 1:14; Matt. 28:20).
Next, we must have a proper perspective on problems:
As we continue to strive to restore the N.T. church, are we going to restore the problems with it? The answer to that is “yes”, for it cannot be any other way. Where you have people you have problems. But we must have a vision to see our way through problems: many good works cease because problems occur and the dream is lost. We must have the maturity to understand that every dream must be translated into hard work and problems. As Solomon said, Better is the end of a thing than the beginning. There are no easy solutions to the challenges that confront us – otherwise they wouldn’t be challenges – they wouldn’t develop character, perseverance, patience, longsuffering, refining etc.
And, of course, we need vision for the future:
We need such vision for ourselves. Do you have goals for yourself rather than stagnating along and seeing where life leads you by the nose? We don’t always reach the goals we set for ourselves but we will be better people for the trying. Energy multiplies when you set a desired goal and resolve to work toward that goal (David Joseph Schwartz). If you don’t have a plan you are just treading water (Sally Fox). Alexander the Great lamented that there were no more worlds to conquer.
The great thing about goals, plans and dreams is that anyone can have them (eg. the poor man who delivered the city – Eccles. 9:14,15). Alan Shepherd stepped out on the moon one day because that was what he dreamed about as a boy. God made a huge investment in us, sacrificing His Son to redeem us to Himself. He wants a return on His investment. The idea that I will be baptised, hold certain beliefs in my mind and live my selfish life till I die and then go to heaven is false. I’ve got news and it’s all bad:- the one who saves his life will lose it, and the one who loses his life will save it. We must have visions and goals for our service to the Lord. If we don’t have visions and goals for ourselves then we can’t have them for the church.
We need vision for the church as well. The seven churches of Asia in Revelation 2,3 are not there anymore. Somewhere along the line Christ visited them as He warned and took away their respective candlesticks which represented their congregational life and standing before God. Christ promised them permanence through faithfulness, which raises the point, If the congregations had remained faithful, loyal and energetic would the cities still remain instead of being in ruins for the most part? Remember, ten righteous souls would have saved Sodom from destruction. Christ put before those seven churches open doors, but left it to them to decide what to do.
In what areas do we need vision and goals? We are to be all things to all men so that by all means we might save some. I was reading some statistics on the question, “Why Most People Fail In Goal Setting” and it was interesting to me to find out that one of the reasons was because people don’t write them down! Apparently, the art of writing things down is very helpful. It consciously and subconsciously tells us that these things are important (cf. Deut. 6:9; 24:1; Isa. 49:16).
So what are my goals in evangelism, in education, edification, good works and passing the generational baton?