Let us turn first to Proverbs 29:18, the first phrase:
Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint.
Let us also read Hebrews 11, beginning with verse 9:
By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
For he looked for the city which hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive seed when she was past age, since she counted Him faithful Who had promised:
Wherefore also there sprang of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of heaven in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own.
And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.
But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for He hath prepared for them a city.
Amen. Let us have a further word of prayer.
Father, we thank You. We praise You. You are the One Who speaks, even when we learn. Thank You, because it is Your delight to reveal Your Son in our hearts.
We do pray that we may have the right attitude toward Your Word. May we stand in fear and trembling before Your Word.
We say that Your Word is living and operative, and so we place ourselves rightly before Your Word.
This evening, through the Holy Spirit, use Your Word. Send Your Word into our hearts. Reveal to us a true understanding of what You are saying to us.
Because of Your own work in our hearts, may we enter fully into Your Word. Allow us to remain under Your Word, that Your work may indeed be accomplished.
We give You all the praise. We give You all the glory. In Christ’s name. Amen.
What we will be sharing each morning is on this matter of vision. Solomon tells us in Proverbs:
Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint.
This shows us how important vision is to us. Do not assume that we can go on living without vision.
If there is no vision, then we lose all the necessary control. Scripture says that without vision, people cast off restraint. We need vision to control us.
Without vision, there is no possible way for us to be united or to be one-hearted, because there is no centre for us. Some translations say, “Without vision, the people perish.”
In the matter of spiritual life, vision is absolutely necessary. Vision gives meaning to our life. If there is no vision, there is no meaning for living.
Vision also gives us purpose. A vision gives us direction. Vision gives us strength, so that we can rely upon that strength and move forward.
Vision enables us to endure and to be patient. Otherwise, when we encounter difficulties, we fail and retreat. Vision gives us discipline, so that we can gird ourselves and move forward.
Dear brothers and sisters, in this matter of spiritual life, vision is indispensable. Praise God, our God is a God of vision. God is the One Who delights to reveal Himself.
When God reveals Himself to us, we see a vision. In the life of Abraham, it was the God of glory Who first revealed Himself to Abraham. Because the God of glory revealed Himself to him, that was the beginning of Abraham’s spiritual life.
Before that revelation came to Abraham, you could say that he was groping in darkness. But praise God, God saw what was in his heart. He had a longing for truth, and the grace of God came upon him.
The God of glory appeared to Abraham in the land of the Chaldeans and revealed Himself to him. Before that, Abraham did not know God. He had no direct relationship with God.
In his thoughts, he recognized that there must be a God of creation, unlike all the idols he witnessed around him. But with this God, he had no direct contact.
Unless God reveals Himself to us, there is no possible way for us truly to know Him. But that was the experience of Abraham. Because God’s glory was revealed to him, he received a vision.
Vision is an appearing. Vision is God revealing His glory to us.
Even at the beginning, perhaps it is only a little. But as time goes on, this vision enlarges, and we truly see what is in God’s heart.
We discover what is really in God’s heart for us. We begin to see the purpose which He purposed before the foundation of the world.
If we believe and obey, this vision becomes brighter and gets deeper into us. This is what we find in the life of Abraham. This is how God worked in the life of Abraham, and this is the way He will work with each one of us.
Yesterday we shared about what vision is and what was included in the vision that Abraham saw. At the beginning, it was very simple: the God of glory appeared to Abraham.
So Abraham left his own country and his relatives, and he went where God wanted him to go.
When God reveals Himself to us, there is no possible way for us to remain where we were before. We must leave that which is of the past.
We must leave our own home and our own relatives. God will bring us into a new relationship: one that we get away from, and One into Whom we enter.
When Abraham received this revelation, he had no idea where he was to go. God did not tell him everything at once, but God was leading him, just as the pillar of fire and cloud led the Israelites.
Step by step, God led him to the place where God intended him to be. So when God reveals Himself to us, He will do the same work with each one of us.
It is not possible for us to remain where we were before. We cannot remain in the old relationships that we had before.
We must allow this vision to separate us from the past and to bring us into what God wants us to be. In other words, God wants to bring us to Himself.
He wants to bring us to His own glory. He will bring us to His glorious purpose.
When vision comes to us, there is a call with it, because the nature of vision itself is a call.
When the God of glory appeared to Abraham, this call came upon him: “You must leave your own country, you must leave your relatives, and you must go where I want you to go.”
Every vision is always a challenge. It challenges us. On one side, it tells us to leave behind all that is earthly. We must depart from old traditions and old routines.
But God wants to bring us to that which is heavenly and spiritual. Vision helps us to be delivered from that which is earthly and brings us into that which is heavenly.
Vision frees us from the old man and brings us into all that belongs to God. Praise God.
Abraham went out by faith. The only way we can respond to vision is by faith. If there is no faith, there is nothing with which to follow.
God delights to reveal Himself to us. He delights to unveil His heart to us. But that does not mean that when we see something or hear something, we already possess it.
We have to be careful at this point. Oftentimes, when God reveals something to us and enlightens us, and when we come to see something of Him, we assume that we already possess it.
We have not possessed it yet. We cannot even say that we have entered into the good of it.
When God gives us vision, it is a call. If there is unbelief and disobedience, the call will disappear, and we remain where we were before.
Strictly speaking, this does us great harm. God has already revealed Himself, but there is no response from us. In the end, this becomes our judgment.
Therefore, we must stand in fear and trembling before God’s Word. We cannot take God too lightly.
When God gives us vision, we must believe and we must obey. Then we enter into that vision. This is what we find in the life of Abraham.
Sometimes God enlightens us and gives us a revelation. We are allowed to see something we never saw before, and it is as though we were lifted into the heavens.
Then we assume that we are already in the third heaven. But faith involves obedience. You cannot say, “I believe,” when there is no obedience.
If there is faith and there is disobedience, there is no faith. If you have faith, you have to obey and do it.
When Abraham saw this vision, he heard the call, and he desired to obey. He believed, and he also desired to obey.
Even though, at the beginning, because of the weakness of his flesh, he compromised. He journeyed only halfway and settled in Haran. But praise God, God knew what was in his heart.
In his spirit he was willing, but his flesh was weak. In God’s mercy, God opened a way for him. God removed Terah from him and reminded him, “You must now leave your country, your relatives, and your own home, and go where I have promised you to go.”
Praise God, our God is full of mercy. He knows what we are made of. Because of His love for us, He disciplines us, rescues us, and brings us forward.
That is what we said yesterday.
This morning we share concerning our heavenly vocation. That is our vocation, our work.
Vision must become our vocation. If vision cannot become vocation to us, sooner or later the vision will fade away.
Even though in our minds we may retain something of that vision, we become visionary dreamers, as though the vision is something vague—a mirage.
The purpose of God’s giving vision to us is not merely that we may know it in our minds. If that were the case, we would become proud.
Our God is most practical. When He gives us vision, His purpose is for us to walk in that vision.
His purpose is for the vision to become part of our life. In other words, the vision and our life together must become one.
The vision must become our whole-life vocation. We know what is truly our Christian vocation.
No matter what our avocation may be, we all have an avocation. Before we believed in the Lord, that avocation may have been our true vocation, and we lived for it.
But as we believe in the Lord, are enlightened by God, and see God, the vocation of our past life becomes merely an avocation.
What is our true vocation? Our true vocation is our heavenly vocation, because our calling is heavenly.
We must come to understand that our true vocation is for God. Our right is to worship and serve Him. We live for His will.
We are to live out that vision. That vision becomes our testimony, and all the other things become avocations—something attached to it.
But the substance of our living is to live for that vision, to live for the vision that God gives to us.
We must remember: just having the vision is not enough. The vision must turn into our heavenly vocation.
What we see must become our life. This is what we find in the life of Abraham.
When Abraham left Ur of the Chaldeans, he was already seventy-five years old. He took his wife Sarah and his nephew Lot, and they went to Canaan.
This began his heavenly vocation. He began to walk the way of vision. Vision said, “You must leave behind,” and he left. Vision said, “You must move forward,” and he moved forward.
From the age of seventy-five onward, Abraham walked in the way of that vision. That vision became his very life and his heavenly vocation.
Let us turn to Genesis 12, beginning with verse 5:
And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
From that moment until the end of Genesis 21 was a lengthy period of time. This is what we have just read in Hebrews 11.
For vision to become our life vocation takes our whole life. Abraham used his whole life to allow the vision that he saw to become his life vocation. He began to walk a life of faith.
Today, we have a habit of saying that certain people live by faith, as though the rest of us do not have to live by faith. But strictly speaking, every one of us who is called, every one who has seen the vision, must live a life of faith.
Only through faith can we make that vision become vocation in our lives.
Abraham arrived in Canaan. During those many years, he was a stranger and a foreigner in the land of promise.
If you sum up his whole life, you can sum it up in two matters. On one side, he lived in tents.
Even though the land was promised to him, his whole life he lived as though he were a foreigner in the land. He had no foothold for himself.
There was only one gravesite that he purchased for himself. He lived his whole life in tents.
This means that he was living in the good of that vision. God promised, “This land is to be given to you,” and by faith he lived as a stranger in the promised land.
He knew that even though he himself could not possess the promise, God’s promise would surely be fulfilled. His descendants would possess the promised land.
Therefore, he was willing to remain in the promised land as though he were a foreigner. Hebrews tells us that if he had wanted to go back to his original home, he could have done so.
But he was looking toward that city whose architect and builder is God Himself. He was longing for the heavenly home. Because of faith, he could remain for many years living in tents.
Today we also have seen the vision. We have seen the Lord Himself. We have come to know that everything is in Christ.
Christ is our Lord. He is now in the heavens. We know that He is our true inheritance, and our true inheritance is the New Jerusalem.
While we live on this earth, if we are living in the good of that vision, we ought to live as though we are in tents.
This does not mean that we must literally live in tents. But spiritually, we are pilgrims and foreigners in the promised land.
We do not take our roots down here, because our true heavenly home is where Christ is.
The one who lives in the good of that vision will live as though he were living in tents. Many people sing their roots deep into this earth, as though all their hopes are down here.
All their faith is earthward, and all their inheritance is nothing but earthly. They have forgotten that we are men and women of vision.
We have that vision. Therefore, we live as pilgrims and foreigners in this land. Faith helps us to maintain that life.
As we see how Abraham lived, there is another sign, and that is the altar. Throughout his life, he built altars.
The moment he entered Canaan, Scripture says that the Canaanite was then in the land. This was something contradictory. God had promised that land to be his inheritance, but the land was already occupied.
This was indeed a great challenge to his faith. Was this truly the promised land that God had promised him? Why was it already occupied by others?
At that moment God appeared to him and said, “Unto thy seed will I give this land.”
Even though the land was occupied and Abraham had no heir at that moment, God said, “I will give this land to your descendants.”
Abraham built an altar there to the Lord. This altar speaks of his faith.
Faith is not to look at sight. Faith is to see Him Who is invisible. So he built an altar there to worship God.
Then he moved forward. He came to Bethel on one side and Ai on the other side. There he built a second altar, and there he called upon the name of the Lord.
Later he came to Hebron, where he built another altar and had close fellowship with God Himself.
Finally, when he offered Isaac, he also built an altar there. That speaks of his total consecration to God.
The one who lives in the good of the vision must possess these two signs: tents and altars.
Before God, we have altars. We live a life of worship. We live a life of calling upon the name of the Lord. We live in fellowship with God. We live a life of total consecration.
As far as the world is concerned, we have the sign of tents. Even though we possess the promise to possess the land, by faith and for God’s sake, we live as pilgrims here.
This is how vision becomes our very living and our life.
Today, if you say you have vision, then in your everyday life do you have these two signs? Before God, do you have altars? Do you worship Him? Are you calling upon Him? Are you in close fellowship with Him? Are you consecrating yourself totally to Him?
As far as the world is concerned, do you have the testimony of tents? Are the things of the world no longer occupying your heart because you are seeking that heavenly home?
Praise God. This is how we can turn our vision into our vocation.
Now we will look at this in a more detailed way. To live a life of faith is never easy. Abraham encountered many trials.
We mentioned before that the first obstacle he faced was when he came to Canaan and saw that the promised land was occupied.
He did not doubt God because of what he saw. God appeared to him and confirmed His promise, strengthening his faith that it might not be shaken.
While he was living there, Scripture tells us that he moved gradually toward the south. At that moment he faced a severe famine.
The famine in the land was very severe. Through this, God was testing his faith again. Would his faith remain strong? Would he remain in the promised land and believe that God would supply all his needs?
But he looked at the surroundings, and so he journeyed south toward Egypt.
Before he entered Egypt, he told his wife, “When we enter Egypt, tell the people that I am your brother.”
He feared that the Egyptians would kill him for Sarah’s sake if they discovered that he was her husband.
At that moment Abraham was thinking only for himself. He could not utterly believe God. His faith was weakened, and he used his natural intelligence to figure out his own way.
When he entered Egypt, Sarah was taken into Pharaoh’s palace. Because of this, Pharaoh gave Abraham many gifts, but Abraham’s wife was taken away from him.
He used his own natural wisdom and created his own great problems.
Praise God, God was so merciful. God’s hand was heavy upon the Egyptians, and Pharaoh discovered that what he had done was wrong.
Pharaoh reprimanded Abraham and sent him away. Praise God, God rescued Abraham from that situation.
Many times we are just like Abraham. We ought to believe our God, but oftentimes our faith is weakened. We look at our surroundings, we look at ourselves, and then we rely upon our own ingenuity.
We think that we can rescue ourselves. Unfortunately, we fall deeper into our problems. Unless it is God’s mercy, there is no way we can be rescued.
Thank God, even though we are like this, God can never depart from us. Is this not our own story as well?
When Abraham returned from Egypt, Scripture tells us that he came up with much possession. Lot also acquired much possession.
Because they had so much, there was a quarrel between them, because the land was not able to contain both of them.
The Canaanites were witnessing all this. They were looking at them, and their testimony was being damaged.
In Abraham’s heart, he knew this was not right. He told Lot, “We are brothers. We should not quarrel.”
He said, “Everything is right in front of you. If you go to the east, I will go to the west.”
Lot lifted up his eyes and looked toward the region near the Dead Sea. It was very fertile, like Egypt, and he chose to move in that direction.
What do we see here? We see the difference between one who has vision and one who has no vision.
Lot came to Canaan because Terah brought him out. Lot went with Abraham to Egypt. But he possessed no vision for himself. He simply followed.
Because he had no vision, he had to think for himself. He became a very selfish and self-centred person, because all he thought about was his own good.
He had no respect for his uncle. He chose first for himself, and what he chose was the world. That proved that he had no vision.
If we do not possess a firsthand vision but simply follow, one day that weakness will appear. We cannot endure to the end.
But praise God, Abraham possessed that vision. Because he had vision, he had no fear and no self-concern if others took advantage of him.
He had no self-consideration because he knew everything was in God’s hands. That is the attitude of one who has vision.
The same is true with us. If there is no vision with us, we have to fight for our survival. We struggle.
But if we have vision, thank God, all belongs to our God, and everything also belongs to us. There is no need for us to fight and to gain.
We can let others choose what they want. We can allow them to take advantage of us, because God will be mindful of us.
This was another testing. The root of this testing was disobedience, because at the beginning Abraham had not obeyed fully. He brought Lot out with him.
They went to Egypt, they possessed much possession, and this became one of the greatest tests in Abraham’s life.
Spiritual life is simple. Heavenly life is simple. It is the weakness of our flesh that complicates that life.
Sooner or later, all these things need to be dealt with. Moment by moment, God deals with each one of them. This is the way of the cross.
What makes it possible for vision to become our life vocation? On one side, it is faith. On the other side, it is the work of the cross.
In Abraham’s whole life, God was dealing with him and training him. God would not compromise with him.
God was still removing all that was not of God. One by one, God had to remove these things from Abraham’s life.
It was not until Lot left Abraham that God appeared to him and said, “Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward and eastward and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it.”
What Lot chose could not deprive Abraham, because God would give to him. God said, “Walk through the land. All that you can see and all that you can walk through is given to you.”
God gave this promise to Abraham. But things did not stop there.
Scripture records the battle between the four kings and the five kings. The kings of Sodom were defeated, and Lot, who was living in Sodom, was taken captive with his whole household.
The news came to Abraham. Here was another great test. The one who had taken advantage of him had now been taken captive. What would Abraham’s attitude be?
Would he say, “He gets what he deserves”? If that were the case, he would have fallen away from his vision. He would not be a heavenly person.
But when Abraham heard the news, he took those born in his house and trained by him, pursued the captives, and rescued Lot.
One who has vision is one who has a big heart. People may offend us, but we still embrace them in love, full of mercy and grace.
In this, we see God’s glory. We see God’s character being worked into Abraham’s life.
Again Abraham faced another crisis. God knew how much he could endure. Often, when we have a real victory, there can be a great fall afterward, because we have exhausted all our energy.
God sent the king of Salem to Abraham, bringing bread and wine to refresh him.
Melchizedek reminded him that it was God Who gave him the victory, so that Abraham would not become proud. Abraham offered a tenth of all that he had.
Later, the king of Sodom came and said, “Give me the people, and take all the possessions for yourself.”
This was a great temptation. But thank God, Abraham refused what was offered to him, so that the king of Sodom could not say, “I have made Abraham rich.”
We will not allow the king of Sodom to enrich us in any way. Our riches are in our Lord Himself.
All the fullness of God dwells bodily in the person of Jesus Christ, and in Him we are made full and complete.
After this event, we come to Genesis 15. There was another crisis in Abraham’s life. God knew the condition in which Abraham was at that very moment, and God appeared to him again.
God said to Abraham, “Do not fear, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.”
Abraham had refused what the king of Sodom offered, but God Himself became his great reward. He did not need to fear what might come afterward, because God was his shield.
At that moment, Abraham was indeed very weak. Even though he had received refreshment after the victory, he was weakened in himself.
He said, “God, how are You going to bless me? What are all these blessings for? I have no heir. The one who is going to inherit my possessions is the servant from Damascus.”
He was weakened to a very low degree. But God said, “He that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.”
God took him outside and asked him to look up into the sky. God used the stars in heaven as a sign: “So shall thy seed be.”
Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. God also made a covenant with him concerning the promised land.
God said that after four hundred years, his descendants would return and possess the land—from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.
Our God is most gracious. He knows our true condition. He does all He can to protect us. That is our comfort, and that is our true rest.
The life of faith is never easy. There were other crises along the way.
Abraham and Sarah had now dwelt in the promised land for about ten years, but Abraham had no heir. God’s promise had not yet been fulfilled.
Sarah had an idea. She said, “I cannot give birth. I have a maid. Take Hagar, and perhaps she will give birth to a child.”
Sometimes when our faith weakens, we try to help God out. We say, “God is not doing the work, so at least we will sacrifice something on our part.”
To Sarah, this was a great sacrifice. She thought that somehow God’s purpose would be fulfilled, and so she tried to help God out.
Abraham accepted Sarah’s suggestion. But where did Hagar come from? She came from Egypt.
We can see that what we acquire when we have fallen away from God’s way may appear externally to be an increase, but in reality it is a great decrease.
Hagar gave birth to a son, Ishmael. But that child was not God’s promise.
God will never accept a substitute. God’s work, He Himself will do. Man cannot substitute for His work.
This child was not the child of the covenant. It was not what God had promised, and in the end it brought forth many problems.
This is a great lesson we need to learn. We wait and wait, and it seems as though God is not making any move. We become restless and move.
Out of our good intentions, we even try to help God out. But the more we help, the more problems we create. We create many, many problems.
All these things are not within that one vision. One day, everything outside that vision will disappear.
Only what is from God will remain eventually. All the flesh, all the good intentions of the flesh, all the activities of the flesh, all the things of this world, and all that is not of God cannot become our vocation.
The cross will do its work until all these things are taken away. Only the work of the cross can turn our vision and make it our vocation.
We should not assume that because we have seen something, we already possess it. If we can see something, it is all mercy.
It tells us that God now wants to begin a work in us. From the moment we see something, we must believe and walk in the way of the cross.
That is why the one who possesses vision will have to go through many trials in life.
Through all these trials, God takes away what is not of Himself, so that vision may become our true vocation.
At the end, Abraham became the father of faith. His faith was tested and became more precious than gold.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, do not despair. Do not be disappointed. Since God has given us vision, He will take us through many crises in life.
Your life of faith will never be simple again, but all these are blessings in disguise. God knows how much you can endure.
He is there, mindful of you. He is there remembering you. He is there supporting you.
You must believe—believe to the end. We must receive and accept the dealings of the cross.
If we avoid the cross, the vision becomes merely a visionary vision. It will never become our true life vocation. It will never become our true testimony.
So we ask God to be merciful to us, that by the grace of God we may remain faithful to Him to the end.
Lord, we thank You. We praise You. You have not only appeared to us and allowed us to see Your glory; You want to lead us to walk the way of faith, to take up the cross, and to follow You.
May what is revealed to us become life in us. Lord, thank You. We praise You.
You have already chosen us. You will not let us go. You will surely fulfil Your will.
May Your work be accomplished, Your will be done, and may You be glorified. In Christ’s name.