Would you turn with me to a number of Scriptures? First, to the book of Acts, Acts Chapter 7, from Verse 1.
And the high priest said, Are these things so?
And Stephen said, Brethren and fathers, hearken. The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy land, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.
Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Haran: and from thence, when his father was dead, God removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.
And He gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: and He promised that He would give it to him in possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
Then, if you will turn in the Old Testament to Genesis, the book of Genesis, Chapter 12. Genesis Chapter 12, and from Verse 1.
Now the Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto the land that I will show thee:
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing:
And I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
So Abram went, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
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.
And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the oak of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.
And he removed from thence unto the mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Ai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.
Then back in the New Testament, the New Covenant, in Hebrews, the Hebrew letter, Chapter 11, from Verse 8.
By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
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.
Then again, in the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, in the book of Proverbs, Chapter 29, Verse 18:
Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint.
Finally, in the New Testament again, in the Ephesian letter of the Apostle Paul, I will read from Verse 15.
For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which ye show toward all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him;
Having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
And what the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of His might
Which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places,
Far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.
Beloved Lord, we are so thankful, as we have been worshipping You, for the sense that You are here—here in our midst. We, Lord, just want to praise You that, in this world that is so in turmoil and crisis, we are free to be able to come into Your presence and to know You together.
Now, Lord, we are coming to the ministry of Your Word, and we need You. We can use many words, we can outline truths, it can all be very biblical and correct; but Lord, unless You are the anointing upon the speaking and the hearing, it will amount to nothing.
Save our time from being a lecture or a mere sermon. We pray, O Lord, that You will use it to touch our hearts, to speak to us, to do something in us, to deposit something more of Your life—of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are in You—to deposit it in us.
Lord, hear us. We are in great need. We are weak; we are nothing in ourselves, both in the speaking of Your Word and in the hearing of it. We need You, Lord, and in the translation as well.
We thank You that You have provided us with that anointing, and into that anointing, grace, and power we stand now by faith. Let a double portion be upon us all. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
I do not think I need to tell you what the theme of this conference is. I have not been here myself for these last couple of days, but I am pretty sure everybody knows it: “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.”
We are dealing with three characters—or three persons. I hardly like to speak of the Lord Jesus like that—but Abraham, the Messiah Himself, and Paul. My responsibility is Abraham.
I do not know if you noticed the utterly simple declaration that Stephen made: “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was yet in Mesopotamia, in Ur of the Chaldees.”
It was one of the great turning points in human history, and it began, as always, from the throne of God. It did not begin with Abraham, in the same way that your salvation and my salvation do not begin with us. It begins with God. Genuine service always begins with God.
You remember how Isaiah was in the temple in the year that King Uzziah died, and he saw the Lord. He was apprehended for one of the greatest ministries that we have in all sixty-six books of the Bible. It was so with Abraham. God took the initiative.
From Jewish tradition—and not all tradition is nonsense—we know that Abraham’s family were aristocrats, extremely wealthy. They had a huge business in Mesopotamia that was very lucrative: the idol-making business. Abraham was apparently the chief salesman.
At some point—and we do not know more than Stephen said; he said it was before they came to Haran—the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham. What we do know is this: at some point, in that positively successful, profitable, but utterly pagan environment, the God of glory appeared to Abraham and apprehended him.
It was a vision of the glory of God that was to change history. It was the beginning of the corporate purpose of God.
Wherever you turn from Abraham onward, you find the corporate, right away through into the New Testament. God chose Abraham with a people in view: a redeemed people, joined to the Lord, candidates for His glory.
Abraham’s life, Abraham’s character, Abraham’s understanding, and Abraham’s direction were totally changed by this meeting. He was never the same again. It was as if the Lord spoiled him for anything less than the best.
That is exactly what has happened to any human being saved by the grace of God. When God touches the eyes of our heart and gives revelation and illumination, we can never be the same again. Our character is changed, our direction is changed, our life is changed. Everything about us is changed by such communion.
I want to consider the word vision for a while. Tomorrow evening, if the Lord helps me, I will talk about Abraham himself—what we can learn from him. But tonight, I would like to talk a little about vision.
I have no doubt that the other brothers have already spoken about it vividly and powerfully. But it is always good to re-emphasise and reiterate so essential a truth as vision.
What do we mean by this word vision? What does it signify? Is it something merely visible? In other words, Abraham saw—in some way—the Lord appear to him.
There is no doubt about it, and I imagine Damo has already said it, that Paul saw the Lord. It was a physical vision that he saw. But is that what Paul meant when he said, “I have not been disobedient to the heavenly vision”? Did he merely mean something physical, with spiritual significance, but merely physical?
I think it is very interesting that, with both Abraham and Jacob, there was a heavenly visitor. Who was that heavenly visitor who allowed Himself to be wrestled to the ground and overcome, if it was not the Lord Himself?
Jacob described that encounter as, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” Moses saw the Lord. It says that there has never been anyone like Moses, who spoke to the Lord face to face.
There are many others. I could go on with a whole number of them. I could speak of Isaiah, of course, who saw the Lord high and lifted up, His train filling the temple. I have mentioned that already. And, of course, Paul has mentioned him as well.
However, it was not merely a physical vision. Listen carefully: if you forget everything else I say this evening, remember this. It became a prophetic understanding of the heart and mind of God.
It was not just some vision as such, to write a book about or to go on platforms talking about. In these cases, it began with a physical vision, but it became a spiritual understanding. It became a revelation of the heart and mind of God.
This is particularly true of Abraham. More than any other character, Abraham saw far more than many believers in the new and eternal covenant, and that is to our shame.
When he saw the God of glory, he saw within Him the city of God. In some amazing way, he understood that that city was the dwelling place of God. It was eternal. It was, as it were, the focal point in the creation of the universe and in the creation of man.
Abraham saw the Lord Jesus. Jesus Himself says it in John Chapter 8: “He saw My day, and rejoiced.” What does the Lord Jesus mean? After all, He said, “Before Abraham was, I am.”
It is not as if the Lord was merely thinking of Abraham in ancient history. He knew the whole story. The Lord Jesus knew the whole story. In some amazing way, when the God of glory appeared to Abraham, Abraham saw the Lord Jesus in the God of glory. He saw the Messiah. He saw the whole purpose of God centred in the Messiah.
In Galatians it says that the gospel was preached to Abraham. When God said, “In thee, and in thy seed, shall all the families of the earth be blessed,” Paul, by the Spirit of God, says that the gospel was preached to Abraham.
It was not some narrow, insular vision and purpose that Abraham had. He saw in the God of glory the salvation of God for the whole earth—not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles. That is some vision.
In the same way, Paul, not at that point but sometime afterwards, came to the same kind of prophetic understanding of the heart and mind of God in the vision that he had of the risen, glorified Jesus.
When Jesus said to him, “Why persecutest thou Me?” Paul could have said, “I am not persecuting You. I am persecuting Your followers. I do not like what You taught. I am persecuting Your following.”
But in that was the seed that grew into his understanding of the union of the believer with the Lord. He saw, in some amazing way, that we are members of Christ and members one of another. You touch that body of the Lord Jesus; you touch the Lord Jesus.
Now, I must not go any further, because that is someone else’s subject. But all I am trying to get over to you is very simply that, where there was a vision that was exciting, dramatic, and sensational—it was all of that—it was not merely that.
It was not something that became material for a book, or for going around the platforms of the world to say, “When I saw the Lord.” This was a prophetic revelation of the heart and mind of God, the purpose of God in creating the universe and in creating mankind.
We read together that wonderful little statement in Proverbs Chapter 29, Verse 18: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” I have no idea whether this has been quoted in the previous sessions we have had, but I would like simply to say two vital things about this.
This word in Hebrew, chazon, translated in English as vision, is not just an apparition. It is not just seeing physically—of God or of the Lord Jesus.
It has this whole idea within it. It does mean vision, but it means prophetic revelation and understanding. Where there is no prophetic revelation and understanding, the people perish.
Now, that brings it home in an altogether new way. Let me put it in yet another way: where there is no divine communication, the people perish.
Let me put it another way: where there is no living ministry of the Word of God, the people perish.
Let me put it yet another way: where there is no revelation of the Lord to people, people perish.
It is an amazing word. That is why you will notice, in some of your modern versions, that it is translated in different ways: “Where there is no prophetic understanding,” or “where there is no prophetic vision.” There are a whole number of ways, because this Hebrew word chazon really has all this profound meaning within it.
Now let me say the second thing. “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” That word, para, in Hebrew means to let go, or go to pieces, or unravel, or perish.
It does not mean that where there is no vision the people are destroyed. It means perishing in the sense that, if you have ever seen a piece of cloth that has perished, it is full of holes. It cannot be used anymore. It is perhaps a curtain or a covering of a chair. It has got to the place where it tears; it unravels.
Now think again: where there is no prophetic revelation or understanding, the people go to pieces.
This, I believe, gets us to the heart of this whole matter of heavenly vision. Such genuine vision—heavenly vision—leads to total commitment, to absolute devotion, to discipline, to cohesion, to togetherness.
Where there is no such prophetic understanding, people just unravel. This word is sometimes used of women in ancient days, when they had incredibly long hair and rolled it all up at the back. But when they came to go to bed, they took everything out, and the whole thing fell like a curtain—unravelled.
I do not want to belabour this anymore, but I think it says a tremendous amount about the state of the church nowadays. Where there is no prophetic understanding, no revelation, it is not just a question of getting converted. It is a question of understanding the heart and mind of God, understanding the purpose of God.
Why did He go to such lengths to save us? Why did He not just finish with it and start all over again? It would have saved Him an awful lot of trouble. But instead, the Lord persevered. Why?
I fear very greatly for the United States. I do not want to get into this, but all I want simply to say is this: I would thank God if there were prophetic understanding and revelation in the church in the United States.
The United States is like the Titanic—seemingly unsinkable, glorious, huge, dancing, singing, eating, enjoying, and without any knowledge that they are heading into an iceberg. So it will sink. Where are we now?
It is because there is no prophetic understanding, no revelation, that the church is Laodicean. It is tepid, lukewarm. It is neither hot nor cold.
Now I hear everywhere I go people saying to me, “Oh dear, those charismatics are so overboard. They are so extreme.” But the Lord said He wished we were either hot or cold—that is, dead and lifeless, or absolutely full of power.
Sometimes I think the Lord can do more with people when they are intense and overboard than He can when they are lifeless. When they are lifeless, the only thing you can do is bury them.
But when there is at least hotness! Yet we are in the Laodicean condition. We cannot even hear the voice of the Lord, or the knocking of the Lord.
Is that not amazing? He said, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice.” I always see that as one of the most plaintive things the Lord Jesus ever said.
He did not say, “I stand at the door and knock. If there are those who will hear Me and open the door, I will come.” But it is only one: “If any man hear My voice.”
Is that what the church is—a living evangelical church, Bible-believing, with the Lord’s table, Bible studies, prayer meetings, evangelistic outreach, wall-to-wall carpeting, choirs, music directors, and I do not know what else? All of that, and the Head of the church and the Saviour of the body is outside the whole thing, knocking on the door.
He does not even say, “If there are a whole lot of you who hear Me.” He says, “If any man hear My voice.”
That is what is meant by this word: where there is no prophetic understanding or revelation, no divine communication, the people go to pieces. They do their own thing. They run after this, they run after that, and they run after something else.
There are reasons why the Lord is speaking, or seeking to speak, to the United States, and I believe to Britain. Europe is basically pagan.
The European Commission will not even consider that the Bible and the gospel were a source of European civilisation. Pope John Paul II pleaded with the Commission, “At least, at least mention that the gospel and the Bible were a source of European civilisation.”
Pope Benedict XVI also appealed to them to consider it. They will not consider it. They say the source of European civilisation is pagan Hellenism. That is why they legalise abortion, euthanasia, homosexual rights, homosexual marriage, and everything else with it.
I remember years ago Derek Prince saying, “When God judges a nation or an empire, He begins very gently and waits to see if they will listen. But if they do not, then comes the next, more severe wave. Then comes the third, more intense wave, until at last it is catastrophic.”
That is what I believe is happening here in North America: the floods, the fires, and everything else. We are told all the time, “This is the worst on record. This has never happened before.” Fires such as we have never heard of or seen; floods that we have not seen before.
It seems as if it is too late; it seems to keep coming. But there is a death note—not just in secular America, but in the church.
No wonder Paul placed such emphasis on this kind of vision. I read from Ephesians Chapter 1, Verses 15 to 21.
Do you not think this is amazing? This greatest of all his letters contains, perhaps, a depth and height of revelation that few others have. Maybe because there was a depth in the church in Ephesus, and they were just there, that enabled the apostle to unburden himself.
But what is interesting to me is that he reaches this point where he feels he cannot go any further without telling them what he is praying for them. His prayer is very interesting.
His prayer is that this may not be just theology. This may not just be truth outlined—truth. This may not just be the definition of God’s purpose.
His prayer is that the Father of glory would give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. I find it so interesting: knowledge is just fact; wisdom is what to do with the fact, how to handle the fact.
The apostle prays not that they may merely have knowledge and simply know the fact, but that they might have wisdom. They may know how to handle this truth, how to handle this revelation, how to handle the understanding given to them.
That the Father of glory may grant to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation. When something is revealed to us from the Word of God, when God takes this Book and, by the Spirit of the Lord, reveals something to us, it is ours. It enters into us.
Suddenly, if I may put it this way, it leaps out of the pages and becomes flesh and blood. What was once before an objective and impersonal truth now becomes your lifeblood.
Have you not had this experience, where something in the Word of God that you did not understand before, suddenly you see it? And when that happens, your life is changed.
How are you to handle your family? How are you to handle your professional life, your workaday life? How are you to handle the service of God? How are you to handle church life? How are you to handle relationships? You need wisdom.
Then, as if to reinforce this whole thing, he says, “The eyes of your heart.” Did you know you had eyes in your heart? It is another word for spirit: “the eyes of your heart being enlightened.”
That you may know—listen to it—what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.
How few believers have any idea of their calling. What is the certain hope of that calling of God? Do you think the Lord just saved you to say a few prayers, read your Bible from time to time, go to meetings, and sit listening to a preacher like me?
Is that what it is all about? It is pathetic if that is Christianity. Understand me; keep it—but it is religion.
What is the difference between that and Hinduism, or Islam, or Buddhism, or Shintoism? They all have prayers. They all have books. They all have a routine. They have a certain form of coming together.
This is something altogether different: the hope of His calling. What is the hope of this calling? To be changed into His likeness and to know His glory.
And the God of all grace, who called you unto His eternal glory in Christ, after that ye have suffered a little while, shall Himself perfect, stablish, strengthen you.
I say, when the eyes of your heart are enlightened, you do not merely know about the hope of your poor living; you know what is the hope of His calling.
You will know what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. Do you know what His inheritance in the saints is? I do not think most people have ever really thought about it. What is His inheritance? We sometimes hear about our inheritance, but this is His inheritance—His inheritance.
Then here is the third thing. These other two truths, in one sense, may be wonderful and fill you with joy and exuberant jubilation, but you need the third: “What the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe,” which He wrought in Christ Jesus when He raised Him from the dead.
We need that. We need that kind of exceeding greatness of His power.
This vision of the glory of God that Abraham had—it was this kind of prophetic revelation that changed and redirected Abraham’s whole life. It led him to become the father of all who believe.
From that point, when the God of glory appeared, Abraham was totally devoted to God, to the Messiah, to the eternal purpose of God.
It does not mean that he was not very human. We have the whole record of the lapses of his faith. We think of faithful Abraham, but the lapses of Abraham’s faith are amazing. I will talk about that another evening.
He had lapses of faith—not once, but twice in the same matter. And the worst lapse of faith altogether produced Ishmael. No good blaming it on Sarah. Abraham had to take responsibility in this matter. Sarah never suggested it without Abraham’s agreement. It was Abraham’s responsibility.
I would have thought that would put him off. Abraham was not some picture-perfect Hollywood star, some kind of cardboard cut-out saint. He was very human. He had fears—terrible fears—that led him to take action from unbelief.
Yet the amazing thing is that Abraham never, ever turned back. If it is any comfort to anyone here, God is so merciful—God of grace, of loyal, steadfast, persistent, enduring, merciful love, covenant love—that He will not let you go once you are fully committed.
Francis Ridley Havergal wrote a wonderful old hymn, and in the very last line she says:
Those who trust Him wholly
Find Him wholly true.
That is absolutely right. Those who trust Him wholly—that is, you are committed to Him, you are devoted to Him, in spite of your failings and weaknesses and lapses of faith—you are committed. Those who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true.
It is quite amazing, when you think about it: he never looked back, even when he sinned. He never looked back. He never went back to Ur of the Chaldees. He never went back to regain the family property and the family business. He never looked back.
If that is a comfort to anyone, I am glad. Because as we get older, we become more and more aware of our failings, our weaknesses, how easily we let the Lord down, and how selfish and egocentric we are.
He never looked back. If I may put it this way, in the end he took all the baggage with him, and the Lord little by little divested him of it all.
It is also amazing to me that he never possessed a single foot of that promised land. Can you imagine this? How would you feel if the God of glory appeared to you and told you to get out of your family and out of your nation, and go to a place that you did not even know where you were being led?
You were to receive there an inheritance. It was a progressive thing, you know. It was not just one single appearance of the Lord; the Lord appeared to him a number of times.
In one of them, the Lord says:
Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
Thank You, Lord. But he did not have a single inch of the promised land.
Do you not think the devil was just as real then as he is today? Do you not think the devil came to him and said, “What are you doing? You have left everything—money, position, popularity, a great business, lots of relatives. You have left them all.”
You took Terah with you, and you took Lot, did you? There are other parts for you to say Lot was a lot of trouble.
But the interesting thing about this whole story is that dear Abraham committed himself to the Lord and devoted himself to the Lord, and the Lord never gave him an inch of that promised land.
He saw a city, and in his lifetime he never entered it.
Would you not have thought the enemy would come and say, “Your life is misspent. You are deluded. You have gone out on a limb, and not one single thing that you say the Lord said to you has come to pass”?
I think of the Lord saying again and again, “Your seed, your seed, your seed, your seed.” Here was Abraham. It says he believed the Lord, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. I am amazed.
Here was a man who was childless. His wife was barren. He had no children, and the Lord was all the time saying, “You see the stars? Such shall thy seed be. You see the sand? Thy seed.”
And in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
Do you not think the enemy could have come to Abraham and said, “Abraham, you are deluded. You are eighty-five years of age. You have no child. I mean, this is a joke.”
That is when Sarah came in with her amazingly simple solution. And we still have the trouble from it today.
Thank God, the seed of Ishmael can be saved as much as I can. But all these mistakes, how they follow us all the way through life.
Then the Lord came, seemingly three people—two angels and the Lord Himself. I always find that amazing. Abraham ran forward to meet them and said, “Oh, do stay with us. I will tell my wife to cook a meal.” And they said, “Okay.”
And there, you know the story. Then the Lord said, “Abraham, about this time next year, your wife Sarah will have a child.”
Abraham laughed. He said in his heart—he laughed in his heart—“Is it possible? I am ninety-nine.”
Sarah was cooking, preparing the meal in the tent, with the flap down. She laughed out loud. I always find it one of the most wonderfully humorous stories. The Lord has such humour. He just said, “Sarah, you laughed.”
And Sarah said, without opening the tent flap, “I did not laugh.”
And the Lord said, “Within a year, you will bear a child.” According to the New Testament, Sarah believed the Lord. Amazing. Quite amazing.
This man never possessed an inch of that land—only a burial plot. Listen to this: this is the kind of thing the Lord does. He takes those who are devoted, who are totally committed to Him, who are extreme.
You would have thought the Lord would have given dear Abraham favour in the eyes of those people who owned that field. Do not be taken in by all that thing about, “We want to give it to you. Please take it, please take it.”
That is the way things are done in the Middle East. You say, “No, no, no, no,” and then you have to say, “Oh no, I must pay.” “No, no, no, no, we are friends. We are friends. You do not have to pay. Please do not consider it.” Then you say, “No, no, no. It is a question of honour. I must pay.”
“Well, a fair price would be fifty dollars.” Do not be taken in by that. They were not giving him anything.
You would have thought the Lord would have stepped in and said, “Well, dear Abraham, you have given your whole life to the possession of your inheritance in this land, and you do not have an inch of it—nothing to put your foot on.”
The Lord could have, at least when Sarah died, said, “I will work it so that you get the field.” But no. Abraham had to pay for it.
So Abraham had to pay. And even when Isaac was born, then the Lord said to him, “Abraham, take thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest.” “Yes, Lord, I do love him.” “I want you to take him and sacrifice him.”
The ways of the Lord! Where those who love Him are concerned, the ways of the Lord are something beyond.
Well, I think that is enough for one evening.
How utterly fundamental is the declaration: “The God of glory appeared.” Well, Father, we have heard that meeting of the Lord with Abraham was one of the great turning points in human history.
And Abraham, with all his failings, with all his weaknesses, with all his faults, never turned back.
Even when he went down into Egypt stupidly, and missed a very great experience of the Lord providing for him in famine; even when he was weak, the Lord never gave him up.
Remember when he lied about dear Sarah, and the Lord shut up the whole house of Pharaoh and brought a plague upon it? Can you imagine it? The Lord did it.
Thus the Lord said, “Well, you know, you should not be here, Abraham, but anyway I will get you out of this.” Can you do it?
Dear child of God, dear people of God, we are not playing with truth when we talk about heavenly vision. It is essential.
It is not an elite luxury, something you can have but which is not necessary. Vision is absolutely necessary.
You can even see it in such a term as the lamp of the body. There is a way to see the world there. It is one thing to believe Jesus says it; it is another thing for it to be revealed by the Spirit to your heart.
Then your salvation becomes a reality as faith enters into it. And so it is with everything else.
May the Lord touch our hearts in these days in which we are living. How long have we got? The whole world is in crisis. I mean it—far more intense than at most points in your life. How long have we got?
We should be people who are people of vision, who have an understanding of the times, and who know what Israel ought to do.
May the Lord touch us.