Do You Have Vision

Do You Have Vision?
Irene Shokan

It's a new year and I'm sure everyone is making their plans for the year and setting the goals they desire to achieve this year. It's natural to do this, it seems like a fresh start and another chance to go for it and really achieve what you wish to achieved. This is emphasized in many churches all over. I can see it now. The congregation motivated and focused on the year ahead, writing down their goals and praying and agreeing on them with their pastors. Believing that if the pastor touches that piece of paper then it adds weight to the agreement. "This year!" The people shout, "I believe God for it to happen, THIS YEAR!" "Claim it!", "call it into being" "this is the authority the believer has!" This is usually the tone in many churches around the beginning of the year.

One scripture I often hear preached all year round but I've been hearing it a lot this new year is, 'without a vision the people perish' (Prov 29:18). I've heard this scripture used to stress how important it is to have "vision". Those without vision lose hope when troubles come or when it doesn't look good. They give up too easily. They may decide to go down the wrong path because they have no "vision", no focus, nothing to aim for. They therefore become distracted and weighed down with the troubles of this world and they may stop coming to church as a result and revert back to things that are unfruitful, thus they "perish". Another scripture I often hear quoted is "write the vision and make it plain" (Habakkuk 2:2). Well if you write it down you are more likely to achieve it I've heard, after all the bible instructs us to write it down, doesn't it? So we should do it. I once went to these financial seminars (when I was still chasing my destiny) and they said research shows that those who write down their goals are more likely to achieve them, 'wow even the world is catching on', I enthused at the time. I suppose it is because writing them down gives you a focal point (or and idol!). Anyway lets examine these scriptures and ask ourselves what they mean. Where in scripture are they? They are stated as just a sentence each but they were written in a whole verse, chapter and book! They were not simply one sentence statements stated randomly.

Without a vision the people perish

Proverbs 29:18 says: Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he (KJV)
The New King James translation says: Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law.

When this scripture is quoted it is rarely quoted in full. If it was read in full it would be clear to see that it is not referring to a person's dreams and ambitions, destiny or goals. "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the LAW, happy is he. What is this scripture saying is the remedy for this lack of vision? Keeping the law. When the word vision is used in the KJV what is it referring to? The Hebrew word for vision is 'chazown' meaning a sight (mentally) or revelation. This is why other translations such as the NKJV states that 'where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint. The law is the word of God and the key here is keeping to the Word of God. James 1:25 says ' But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does'. The word vision does not refer to a person's dreams and ambitions. It does not mean if you do not have 'a vision' about where your life is going, what your destiny is or what you want to achieve, you will perish. This is a perversion of the scripture in an attempt to use the word of God to encourage people to be spiritually ambitious and to support this false gospel of prosperity and destiny and whatever else these harlot churches are going after. WHERE THERE IS NO CONCEPT OF THE WORD OF GOD THE PEOPLE BECOME LESS ABLE TO RESTRAIN THEMSELVES FROM DEVIATING FROM GOD'S LAW. THEY NO LONGER BOTHER TO ERR ON THE SIDE OF CAUTION IN REGARDS TO THEIR ACTIONS.

The Hebrew word for 'perish' in this verse is 'para' which means to loosen or dismiss. Are we loosening our restraint? I am seeing this before my very eyes, while people are 'chasing their destinies', serving mammon rather than God, submitting to men rather than to Jesus Christ, all because they do not have a true understanding of the word or they are not submitted to the word of God. I see so called Christians engage in worldly practices like clubbing, getting drunk, dating unsaved people and listening to music God abhors all whilst 'playing church'. They show no restraint when it comes to engaging in these revelries, they act first in the flesh and try to make up for it by attending church on sunday and lifting up their hands, paying lip service to God: 'Where there is no revelation (of the word of God) the people cast off restraint, BUT HAPPY IS HE WHO KEEPS THE LAW'. We must know God's word by relying on our Teacher, the Holy Spirit, to continue to teach us all things concerning the word. Then we must submit to the word of God and stick to it, happy is he who does this. Those that are relying on a man who they have made into an idol will not have revelation, only the words of man.

Write the down the vision and make it plain - Habakkuk 2:2

You only have to read the whole chapter which contains this sentence to know the true context in which it was written in. Habakkuk was a prophet, God gave him a vision (prophecy, not a goal or a dream to fulfil) and simply told him to write this down. Why has this one sentence been used to make a fable? We do not write down our dreams and ambitions, WE DIE TO THEM and say Lord, not my will but YOUR will be done. We don't write down our selfish desires (which most of them are, sorry to say) and demand that God honours them and makes them into a reality. Putting our hand on the piece of paper and babbling over it like pagans! What sort of witchcraft are we engaging in. 1 Samuel 15:23 says 'for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry'. If it is not in God's will we need to die to it and let it go, not call it into being which by the way the bible does NOT say we have the authority to do. Please read that scripture again, HE calls those things which do not exist as though they did (Romans 4:17). He! Not us, He, the Lord, God the Father. Where did we get that we do this. If only we had just read the scripture for ourselves we would know this. If you have been engaging in these practices I urge you to be honest with yourself and most importantly with God and repent. He is merciful. We need to repent for engaging in these unbiblical practices. Stop this folly and start eating some meat. Year after year we do the same thing. I've heard of groundhog day but what about groundhog year, the same fables we learn and practice year after year. Are we any better off as a result? No, we are still on milk, lets grow up this year, less we perish.