BE THOU MY VISION

Where there is no vision (prophetic revelation), the people perish... Proverbs 29:18  

I hear a call going out in our land in this day for men and women of vision as never before. It is a desperate call, really more of a cry for leaders with a vision that will inspire us to reach for higher heights than ever before. This cry seems to manifest itself most clearly in the political arena as aspiring leaders and candidates assure us of the great vision they have for our nation and its future.

Being a person of vision has always been important to me as I have found hope and encouragement flows from having a vision for life and ministry. I have found that vision-less people are direction-less people without much hope for the future and no plan to get where they aren't going. On the other hand, I have found that many people are calling their own dreams, presumptions and desires, a vision from God, and are therefore setting themselves up for big disappointment. Take a few minutes with me and look at the most important and fulfilling aspect of “getting a vision”, namely an encounter with the living God.

A number of years ago as my wife and I drove to Spokane to attend a conference, we were enjoying a great worship tape when a line to a song jumped into my heart and the Lord seemed to speak to me about vision.  The line I refer to is from a Vineyard song on the HUNGRY CD called, “BE THE CENTRE.”  The third verse starts, “Jesus, be my vision.”  As I heard this verse it suddenly struck me, as things often do with God, that the Lord has been refocusing me on Himself as the “center” and “vision” of my life. 

As I thought about these things, I began to revisit the disappointments of ministry, the “hope deferred that makes the heart sick” and the lack of fulfilled vision in my own life.  I realized that Jesus is the essence of all I have ever wanted to be and that knowing Him intimately is the greatest vision a person could ever have.  These things may seem obvious to you the reader, as they did and do to me, but at that moment they became a revelation to me of the greatest pursuit and adventure to life.  These things have become more real to me as I have noticed the general lack of vision many of God’s people have to know God intimately.  Jesus himself must become our vision.  As He fills our gaze, we will see the things that are important to Him and He will call us to become involved with Him in the things that make His heart beat.

Consider with me several Biblical examples of this truth as we gaze into the Scriptures.  Moses had truly experienced what it meant to be broken and brought to the point of having very little self confidence.  Educated in Egypt by the best educators of his time, “mighty in word and deed”, Moses somehow came into contact with his ethnic background and heritage.  This revelation brought him into a great conflict one day as he observed his own people being oppressed in their slavery and decided to deliver them in his own strength.  In a moment of rage Moses was downgraded in status from possible ruler of Egypt to a hunted fugitive! 

After fleeing Egypt he became a shepherd on the back side of the desert and learned the lessons of waiting, trusting and contentment.  After forty years of leading sheep around the desert he encountered a bush that would forever change his life as well as ours.  As he stared at a bush that was burning and yet not consumed, the voice of the one true God began to speak to him and call him to a special work.  Moses would be the one who would deliver the people of God out of Egypt and into the promise land.  When most of us read this account, we miss the most important aspect of the story, specifically the fact that God first identified Himself and called Moses to remove his sandals and worship on Holy Ground. 

Before Moses could ever become a deliverer he had to first encounter the Great Deliverer Himself, the I Am.  This one vision and the many that would follow would become the springboard for the most powerful and important ministry of the entire Old Testament.  This encounter ruined Moses and caused him to continually seek the presence of the Lord to the point where he had the audacity to ask to see the Glory of the Lord!  This vision of the Person of the Lord led to a revelation of the Purpose of the Lord.  This is the clear Biblical pattern and still the way our God manifests Himself today. 

            This pattern continues throughout the Scriptures with Joshua as he sees the Captain of the Lord’s armies and worships on Holy ground.  This happened before receiving instructions to conquer Jericho, the gateway to the rest of the Promise land.  Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up before he heard, “who will go for us...?”  Jeremiah had a revelation of God the rejected Lover, before he could go forth into a ministry of rejection, sorrow and destruction.  Only the open revelation of the Lord could keep him through the persecution and sorrow he would have to endure. 

            The Apostle Paul gives us another example of this truth as he stands before the angry mob in Jerusalem and recounts his conversion; Acts 22:6-10 - 6 “As I was on the road, nearing Damascus, about noon a very bright light from heaven suddenly shone around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ 8 “ ‘Who are you, sir?’ I asked. And he replied, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, the one you are persecuting.’  9 The people with me saw the light but didn't hear the voice.  10 “I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord told me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that you are to do.’  Paul understood the proper order when he asked, “Who are you, sir?” before, “What shall I do, Lord?”  We often get these questions backwards as we zealously seek to do something for God instead of concentrating on knowing His Person first.  A true vision for ministry will always issue from an encounter with the Lord in private as we seek to know Him and see His beauty and glory

        I close these thoughts with a Psalm and a classic Hymn that both capture the heart of being God-vision seekers far better than I can.  Psalm 27:4 - One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.  The third verse of, “Be Thou My Vision” really speaks to this thought beautifully.  Read, meditate and enjoy the Presence of the Lord.  “Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise - Thou mine inheritance, now and always; Thou and Thou only, first in my heart - High King of heaven, my Treasure Thou art.”  May the Lord bless your seeking hearts!

Tags: Jesus Christ, religion, Christianity, visions, purpose, life direction