Until a person sees there can be no action – no action that is right. For this reason the apostle Paul cried out to God that He may grant sight to the Church.
He said, “I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe according to the working of his great might” (Ephesians 1:16-19). God has called the believer to a great hope. The believer has a glorious inheritance. God’s power dwells in the believer in an immeasurable measure. These things are there. They have been given. However, the believer must see. Unless he sees, what he has is useless to him, for he will live and die like someone who does not have these things. Vision is having the eyes of the heart enlightened. Without this, all that God has done and given is useless.
Take salvation for example. Christ has indeed died for all men. The salary for the sin of all men was taken away. But men perish. Why? Their eyes are not opened to that which was done for them, and therefore they cannot enter into it. When the eyes of the heart are enlightened, the person will see immediately, turn to Jesus and be saved. Without this enlightenment, a person may hear the facts of the gospel but they will remain meaningless to him. They may even sound foolish. He may hear them and approve of them, but not become involved. He may have a mental grasp of the facts, make an intellectual acknowledgement and commitment to the Christ about whom he has heard, and yet not be saved. However, when the Spirit of God opens the eyes of his heart, the Christ of the Bible will become the living Christ to him and he is saved.
Take sin for another example. Many believers theorize about sin. They can tell you how bad it is. They can tell you how badly it will affect their relationship with God, but after that they will still commit sin. They know the facts, but the truth has not been revealed to them. If the eyes of the hearts are opened to see sin as it is, and the Lord Jesus as He is, they will not only talk about sin, they will hate it with a perfect hatred.
Take another example. Many say that they believe that Jesus is the only way and that all who do not know Him are lost eternally. They do not really believe. They only acknowledge the facts of the Bible, and that is why they can acknowledge them and then live as if those facts were not true. If the Spirit of God opens a man’s eyes to the fact that Jesus Christ is God’s only way of salvation, he will commit himself without reservation to the Lord; he will commit all that he is to the Lord; he will commit all that he has to the Lord, and he will not rest until he has filled the whole world with that knowledge.
- The answer to the unbelief of the world is a revelation of God.
- The answer to the divided hearts of the saints is a revelation of God.
- The answer to sin among believers is a revelation of God.
- The answer to low-level commitment is a revelation of God.
- The answer to all the needs of the world and the church is the vision of what God has done, for God has done all that needs to be done.
Vision Makes The Difference
Why do some believers love the Lord while others love the world. The answer is that those who love the Lord have received a vision of who He is and a corresponding vision of what the world is. They know the Lord Jesus for who He is and they know the world for what it is. They know the future of the Lord Jesus and they know the future of the world. With that revelation knowledge, they give their all to Jesus and they take everything that they can out of the world. No one can have a vision and a continuing vision of what the world is and who the Lord is and fail to be totally committed to the one and hostile to the other.
Why do some love the Lord increasingly? The answer is that the eyes of their hearts receive increasing enlightenment as to who He is. We said that vision was a living thing. When it grows, light increases. But some love the Lord Jesus less and less, becoming more and more engrossed with the passions and lusts of the world. This is the result of a dying vision.
The one need of the world is vision.
The one need of the church is vision
My one need is vision
Your one need is vision.
Without Vision the People Perish.
Because vision shows what God wants and where the need is, without vision the people will perish. Can you imagine a person who does not know what God wants and does not see the needs of the people around? He will jump from one thing to another without a sense of direction and then he will fail.
There are many people like that. They are going nowhere. They are committed to nothing. They are doing nothing. They have already perished.