(A
Message as Spoken)
"Where there is
no vision, the people perish" ("the people cast
off restraint" - R.V.). (Proverbs 29:18).
That verse might be
translated, "Where there is no vision, the people
disintegrate" or "fall apart" or "go
to pieces".
Whether that be the
right translation or not, it is quite true in fact. Where
there is no vision, the people go to pieces, and that is
borne out very clearly in the Word of God in quite a
number of places. A very clear instance is that which is
shown in the days of Samuel at the beginning of his
course, where the statement is clearly made, "The
word of God was rare in those days; there was no widely
spread vision" (1 Sam. 3:1): no widely spread
vision; and we know how things were at that time. I am
quite sure that there are many of the Lord's people who
are feeling keenly the truth of these words. Though we
may not have used them or applied them to the present
situation, we are in the experience where these words are
proving to be true. We are finding it necessary to adjust
ourselves a good deal; to get our ideas adjusted, our
outlook adjusted, our attitude adjusted. A great many
things are passing from our horizon as possibilities.
There is a very great deal of closing in and closing
down, stricture and limitation of movement and activity.
Many things that we have been able to do we can no longer
do, and the question that is in the heart of many a child
of God and a servant of God is, What is possible? What is
going to be possible? Where are we going to find
ourselves? All this can have a paralysing effect. It can
bring us to a complete standstill, so that we stand and
know not what to do. We can see nothing, no way.
It is a very sifting
time that we are entering into. The one thing which
perhaps more than anything else that is being tested is
our vision. Is our vision already suffering? Have we
begun to lose our vision, or to lose vision? Are we
already disintegrating, going to pieces, finding
ourselves with no strength of cohesion, no definiteness
and positiveness of purpose? Are we all over the place as
to our work, as to our calling? Of course, I am speaking
now of spiritual things, of our relationship to the
Kingdom of God. Well, in the final issue, the thing which
is going to determine whether we go through and remain in
strength and in a measure of confidence and assurance, or
whether we come to a standstill and then just
disintegrate and go to pieces; the thing which will
determine that issue is vision. There is no doubt about
it, and it is deeply true that where there is no vision,
where the vision has been lost or where the vision has
been a false one, or where there has never been any real
vision, the absence of such true vision will be the cause
of disaster. On the other hand, the presence of a true
vision will be the basis of triumph. When we speak about
vision, of course, we are speaking about Divine vision,
and we mean two or three things.
THE
MEANING OF DIVINE VISION
(a) Seeing God's
Purpose
First of all, by vision we mean the seeing of God's
purpose; and I feel, beloved, that we are right up
against the supreme test of the one thing, namely the
purpose of God, the eternal purpose, the Divine purpose.
We are going to be tested as to whether that is a true
vision with us or whether it is a phrase; whether it is
something that has come to us by the Holy Spirit and has
been entered into by us, as into the supreme meaning of
things, or whether it is a form of words and teaching
which has gone on around us, which perhaps we have
accepted and to which we have assented. The developing
situation is going to challenge us all on this matter of
vision; and when we speak of vision, that is what we
mean, and I believe that is what the Bible means
throughout by vision, God's purpose being seen, having
been made known by God Himself; and where there is no
seeing of God's purpose the people will go to pieces,
they will disintegrate. You and I have no more assurance
of getting through triumphantly and having confidence in
these and in coming days than men of the world have,
unless we see inwardly, have inwardly the vision of God's
purpose. We shall be paralysed and then we shall break
down; our testimony will go, our ministry will go, our
assurance will go. We shall have nothing whatever upon
which to rest in a very little time but what has been
revealed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit as God's
purpose. That is vision.
(b) Seeing the
Principles that Govern God's Purpose
Then, of course, it means in addition to that, the
seeing of the principles which govern that purpose; that
is, seeing how God ordains to reach His purpose; what are
the determined and set laws of God in the reaching of His
end? It is not enough to know what God is after; it is
equally important to know how God will get there. Many
people have glimpsed quite accurately God's end, but they
have gone astray and missed God's end because they have
sought to reach it along wrong lines, by false means. The
principles which govern God's procedure to His end have
not been known and recognised; and vision must mean that.
So prophets who were seers, men who saw, men who had
vision by revelation of God, were able not only to
declare what God required, what God was after, but were
also able to correct men about the way toward God's end,
and to lay down the laws of God's realisation.
(c) Seeing Why and
How Things are Contrary to God's Mind
Well, that carries with it a third thing. Vision
means that we see how and why things are contrary to
God's mind. It is a very important thing. There are many
people today who realise that things have gone wrong, or
that things are not right, that God's end is not being
reached, but they cannot put their finger upon the cause,
they cannot point out why, and so they have to speak in
general terms and they are unable really to be true
helpers.
Vision means these three
things, then: firstly, a seeing of God's purpose;
secondly, a seeing of those ordained principles by which
God realises His purpose; and thirdly, therefore, a
seeing of why it is and how it is that things are
contrary to God's mind. I FEEL THAT THE OBJECT OF THE
LORD JUST NOW IS NOT TO PRESENT THESE THINGS AGAIN, BUT
THAT HE WOULD HAVE US FACE UP TO THE SITUATION.
THE
VISION TESTED
We are being brought
face to face with a very exacting situation, a situation
that is going to test us to our very foundations. The
outlook is going to be extremely perplexing, utterly
bewildering; or so it threatens and promises to be, and
most of us, I think, are already aware of how searching
the developing situation will be, how much it will remove
of that which has had a large place with us. Supposing,
for example, all our outward activities in Christian life
are ended; meetings, ministries, and everything that goes
with the wider activity, and we are simply shut in to
what is personal, so that Christian work, as such,
ceases. It may be that we are to be brought right down to
the place where nothing remains for us but God - God is;
and we have some inward relationship with the Lord, but
there is very little that we can do and we see everything
going into the melting pot; and perhaps worse things than
that, such as a great number of the Lord's people simply
being wiped out, and things which have stood for the Lord
being destroyed. That is possible, because it has already
become actual in many places. Well now, we are moving
into a situation which is capable of testing us right
out.
Now, beloved, what will
be required in that situation to save us will be the
reality of the vision of God's purpose, will it not? What
is God doing? What is the end toward which God is
working? Unless you and I can answer that question in our
hearts by revelation of the Holy Spirit, we are lost, we
are paralysed, we go to pieces. Further, for all
practical purposes, we have to know and see very clearly
those laws and principles which God has ordained and
fixed as the ways by which He reaches His end; and then,
in order to be of any use at all, to have a testimony, to
be of value to others in so far as that is required, we
have to be very clear in our own hearts as to why it is
and how it is that things are so contrary to the mind of
God. That is vision. Those three things comprise vision,
and, where they are lacking, where there is no such
vision, the people go to pieces.
VISION
THE DYNAMIC OF LIFE
So vision resolves
itself into two things. It resolves itself into the very
dynamic of life, the thing which keeps us going, which is
the strength of our hearts. Look at the prophets. Take
Jeremiah, for example. Well, from his own point of view,
Jeremiah had to face a hopeless situation. For him his
ministry was an utter failure right to the end, for
himself. We have got the sequel and can see that others
came into the value generations after; but in his own
lifetime and for himself, his ministry was a failure, and
he knew it. He sometimes turned to the Lord and had
strong things to say to the Lord. At one time he would
tell the Lord that He had deceived him and led him into a
trap by putting him into prophetic ministry, simply
because he realised that his ministry was an utter
failure: and it was destined to be so for his own day.
Another time he cried, Oh that I might get right away
from everything, out of it all, into some place apart
from men, apart from everything! We all know something of
that from time to time. Oh, to get away from everything
and everybody even in this great thing which, at other
times, we realise to be the greatest thing that God could
put us into. We want to get out and away. Why? Because of
the apparent hopelessness of the situation; the slowness
of spiritual growth, or the utter absence of spiritual
growth to our view, to our vision, and many other things.
That is Jeremiah. But nevertheless, through all those
vicissitudes, those changes, those differing moods,
Jeremiah was a man with a fire in his bones, and though
he determined that he would not go on, he could not
refrain. That fire in his bones is only another phrase
for a vision which God had given, and through all, it
held Jeremiah. It held him in the dungeon, it held him in
the pit, it held him in persecution, it held him through
the despair. Although he might today go right down into
the depths of darkness and hopelessness of spirit, he
could not stay there. It was an experience; but he came
out and the fire was still there, burning. The vision was
there to the end.
Beloved, that is how the
knowledge of God's purpose has to be with us. It has to
be something that is stronger than the situation without,
deeper than our own feelings and emotions and emotional
experience. It has to be something that is more than what
we are in our moods, a mightier thing than all that to
which we are subject in our soul life. It has to be able
to bring us up out of our spiritual pits and mire, and
keep us going. Vision is the only adequate dynamic in
days like these and that is going to prove to be so more
and more. With everything going to pieces around us,
everything in the world becoming more and more desperate,
we must be able to say, I have seen God's purpose; I know
what God has in view, what He is working toward. Have you
the Divine vision thus in your heart? Now, there could be
no more utter test and challenge for us than that. It
will not be of any use to any of us to have been taught
about the eternal purpose if that thing has not entered
into us in such a way that, when everything outside is in
a hopeless state, that keeps us going and is capable of
bringing us up out of our own hours of deepest despair;
for I do not hesitate to say that even prophets can go
down into deep despair for a season. But, because they
are prophets, because they are seers, because they have
vision, they come back again, they come up again, and it
is that fire in their bones that brings them back. HAVE
YOU A FIRE IN YOUR BONES, BORN OF THAT EYE-OPENING WORK
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, THAT VISION OF GOD'S PURPOSE?
So vision is the dynamic
of our lives. Thank God for the strength of such a thing!
Were it not for that, where would some of us be today?
Well might we ask the question. I know quite well that I
should not be here, and I expect that is true of many of
you. We have passed through depths of dark despair when
it seemed that everything was failing and no more was
possible. But we have PASSED THROUGH and come to
the end of that tunnel, and what have we found? The fire
of the vision, the old vision, is still there. We have
not been able to abandon that, that has not gone. We have
thought that it was gone, and that we would have to
change our position entirely and give up all for which we
had been standing. But no, it is as strong as ever, and
it carries us on again.
VISION
THE COHESION OF LIFE
Then vision is not only
the dynamic of our lives; vision is the cohesion of life.
Where there is no vision, the people disintegrate, go to
pieces, their cohesiveness breaks down; and, for any real
value in testimony, there must be oneness in vision. I
believe that is the foundation of the Church. I believe
that the Divine foundation of the Church as a whole, is a
revelation, a vision, a "having seen the Lord".
The Church started there, the Church took its rise from a
seeing of the Lord, high and lifted up, exalted at the
right hand of the Majesty on high. The Church went forth
on the basis of that vision as a cohesive testimony, as a
corporate vessel, and what is true of the Church must be
true of the relationship of all believers. You and I can
never hold together by agreements. We can never hold
together by certain rules and regulations, or by a creed.
Nothing objective in that way can hold us; but, if we are
to be a combined testimony and a vessel for effective use
in the Lord's hands, it can only be as we are one in
vision, one in revelation. If this vision is necessary to
hold us together as individuals and to keep us from
falling apart in ourselves, it is equally necessary to
keep us together as the Lord's people, and that is going
to be one of the tests of these days. It is very
important, and the Lord only knows the point at which we
may be standing today. He only knows how soon this must
be pressed through to its practical outworking. There is
a scattering today of the Lord's people, physically and
geographically. Eight countries have been overrun. We do
not know what the conditions in those eight countries
are, but I think we should not be far from the truth if
we said that things are not normal amongst the Lord's
peole, that things are very difficult. The old line of
corporate expression and fellowship may have ceased and
doubtless has in many places. Now, is this scattering,
this breaking up outwardly, going to be the whole thing,
or is there going to be, with all that, a spiritual
cohesion that triumphs over it? Is it going to be seen
that all the work of the Devil, all the destruction and
the havoc and the breaking up and the outward
disintegrating can have no effect upon that, but that
there still remains in the unseen before God in heaven,
and here as a testimony in the earth, that oneness, that
cohesiveness of God's people which Satan cannot destroy,
and which is working effective things against him?
Well, beloved, the
answer depends upon vision, what we are seeing. I know in
the first place it is seeing the Lord; ever and always it
will be a matter of "looking unto Jesus, the author
and perfecter of faith". That look will ever be
necessary to save us in our suffering, because that
exaltation is connected with sufferings. This is seen
from the words that immediately follow: "who for the
joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the
throne of God". Thus that is a word to help us in
our suffering; but in our testimony we have to see the
purpose of God and how God has determined to realize His
purpose. That is the practical side outwardly. The upward
look has to do with ourselves inwardly in a day of
suffering; the seeing of the purpose has to do with our
testimony to others in a day of suffering, of trouble, of
adversity. Vision is the cohesion of life, and whatever
may come, may it prove that we have seen; not that we
have heard teaching, but that we have seen.
VISION
DEMANDS THE ELIMINATION OF SELF
Vision, beloved, demands
one thing, otherwise it cannot stand; that is, it cannot
save us, cannot bear its fruit, cannot do its work where
we are concerned. Vision demands the absolute elimination
of self. If you or I figure in the vision we have
rendered the vision impotent. Take your place alongside
of Jeremiah. Now say to him, Jeremiah, you can prophesy,
you can appeal, you can weep, you can suffer intensely to
the end of your life, but you will see no fruit of it!
Now, Jeremiah, what are you going to do about it? That is
the test. You are doomed to be a failure, Jeremiah! Yours
is to be the most unpopular ministry in this world: no
one will listen to you and after years of the bitterest
suffering all you yourself will see is the dark side of
your prophecy coming true. As for living fruit from it
unto the glory of God, you will see none of it! Well, if
Jeremiah was standing for the vindication of his own
ministry, if he figured in the vision, to be used
mightily of God to bring in the new age, and to be there
on the spot when it was being done; well, Jeremiah could
not have borne the strain if that was his position, his
mind about it. Do you see what I mean? It is not easy for
us to take this position: We shall not live to see the
fruit of our ministry. All that for which we have
suffered and been poured out, all our testimony, will
bear no positive fruit in our day. Though it be destined
to do so one day, even as God is true, yet we ourselves
will be most unpopular, never accepted. That is the test
of self in the vision, a tremendous test.
Well, we have to face
that test now. Are we prepared to go on to the end
without figuring in things, just being faithful and maybe
dying with nothing more than the knowledge that to have
taken any other course would have been to violate that in
us which most truly represented the Lord? Are we prepared
not to see, not to have a place, not to gain recognition,
and be faithful? You see, vision makes that demand upon
us - true vision. True vision is a most challenging
thing, since for most people, especially young people,
that word "vision" means that, somehow or
other, we are in the picture, we are seeing things
happen, we are in it. That will not do. Vision demands
the elimination of self.
Mark the case of the
Lord Jesus. What had He to show for His life on earth?
See the Apostle Paul, after his long life of service and
suffering, in a prison; his converts, who owe everything
to him spiritually, turning from him; his churches
throwing him over; a lonely man in a prison. Was he a man
of vision? Was the Lord Jesus a Man of vision? Were they
right? Had there been any place for self in their case in
the vision, they would have broken down, they could not
have gone through. All the time they would have been in
controversy with the Lord - Where do I come in! Was that
not the temptation of the Lord Jesus right at the
beginning of His ministry, to figure in things? Was it
not the very essence of His victory over the enemy when
He took the position: The kingdoms of this world and the
glory thereof, yes, but by way of the Cross, by way of
the despairing cry, by way of the unpopular road, by way
of being rejected of men. Had He figured in it, He would
not have gone on. The Lord save us, then, from that
self-interest in Divine things which destroys vision and
therefore leads to our own undoing.
From "This
Ministry" Messages given at Honor Oak, London 1940 -
Volume 1.
First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Sep-Oct 1940, Vol 18-5.