A spirit of passivity is creeping like a paralyzing fog over the whole land. It is the spirit of this age. Christians can always find reasons or excuses for their passivity and their inattention to what God is doing, but none of those reasons or excuses is really valid.
One thing that affects people today is the lack of vision. Proverbs 29:18a says, Where there is no vision, the people perish. That passage, taken to its final conclusion, contains a warning for us: Where people lack the vision, they are on the road to destruction, on the way to perishing. Just having a vision, however, is not enough in itself. Many people have a vision of what they want in their own personal lives, involving their own ideas, ambitions, desires, or hungers. But that may not be the vision that God has given. We must have a vision with understanding. We must understand what the will of God is, and then walk faithful to that vision.
There are many ways of expressing the vision God has for us, but the basis of it is what He spoke in the very beginning, … Let us make man in our image … Genesis 1:26. The vision of God is that we come forth in His image and likeness.
If you lose that vision, you will lose whatever drive you have of seeing it fulfilled within you. When you no longer have the drive to see yourself come forth in the image and likeness of God, you are on the path to destruction—both individually and collectively as a body of believers. We must have the vision of what God has spoken, and is speaking, over us. God has given visions continually down through the years. This end-time move of God has been blessed with more Living Words than any other move of God in the past, but all of those Words were based upon that vision of God bringing us forth in His image and likeness.
We intercede for an open door and for the door-opener apostle. Why do we want an open door? So that we can move into the likeness and image of God. Yet even when we have the burden or the vision of coming forth in the image of God, we may still have a problem: When God begins creating this vision within us, we tend to argue with Him. We often resist what He is doing or criticize the methods He is using. Who is to say how God should or should not do it? When we become critical of the way God is doing things, we are saying basically that this is not the way He did it in the past. However, God has never been consistent in His actions or deeds in dealing with His people. God does not change, but sometimes His methods do change. The vision does not change, but the means of accomplishing that vision can change constantly.
God cannot deal with us as He dealt with the people when Jesus was upon the earth. People today are different than those who lived then, or fifty years ago, or even five years ago. We are different and our concepts, our ideas, and our environment are all different. We live in a completely different world. Things are constantly changing; therefore, God’s dealings must change. However, the vision and the purpose do not change: God is bringing us forth in His image (Romans 8:29).
When we have the tendency to either say or think, “God does not do it this way” or, “I do not like the way God is doing it,” we are in effect quarreling with our Maker. We are telling Him how to bring us forth. We are telling the Potter how to shape this lump of clay. When we feel the pressure as God begins to mold and shape us, we may have a tendency to quarrel with Him.
The Scriptures have some very disturbing things to say about this attitude. Isaiah 45:9–10 says, “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker—an earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’? Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’ Or to a woman, ‘To what are you giving birth?’ ”
When people criticize the church services or what is happening in their own personal lives, it shows that they have lost the vision of what God purposes to bring forth. Then they argue with God about the methods He is using to bring forth that vision. Remember that when we lose the vision of what God wants to bring forth in us and in the Body of Christ, we are on our way to destruction, to perishing. There is only one way to move ahead in the will and purpose of God: We must have the vision of what God is bringing forth, and then we must wholly and completely commit ourselves into the hand of God. We cannot quarrel with the Maker who is molding and shaping us by the circumstances and situations that we are going through.
When you become bitter because of the things that God is doing in your life, you may protest, “That wasn’t God; that was a friend of mine who did this to me.” You must realize that God used that friend to do it to you. God uses many vessels in many ways to mold and shape us. When you get your eyes upon the method or the thing that is happening, you are getting your eyes off the vision. Do not get your eyes upon the method that God uses. Keep your eyes upon the vision and see why He is doing it. Do not say, “Why did this happen to me?” Look at the vision. Look at the goal. Then you will know why it happened. God is bringing you forth in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:26).
How would you bring forth a lump of clay into the likeness of God? How would you make yourself into the likeness of God? Do you have a better way of doing it than God’s way? If you do not have a better way, then do not criticize God’s way. Until we can tell God a better way, we should not criticize Him for the method He is using. Do not be bitter against God or against the channel or the method He chooses to use. As long as we resist the hand of God upon our lives, His dealings will never do us any good. We are going through the heat and the pressure and the shaping, but we are not coming into God’s image because we are resisting and our spirits are becoming bitter.
There is a vision and a goal that God has for you to fulfill—both as an individual and as part of the Body of Christ. You will not bring it forth if you get your eyes on trivial, unimportant matters. God is always warning us about little brushfires. If we are running around putting out brushfires, we are getting our focus off the main thing that He wants us to do. Satan tries to distract us in many ways. He wants us to look at the difficult circumstances in our lives so that we will argue and quarrel, and eventually become critical and bitter about them. If we are doing that, we have missed the goal. Remember: Without a vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29:18). When we get our eyes off the vision, we are on the road to destruction.
God can give us wisdom and understanding (James 1:5). There is no reason why we cannot know and understand completely what He is doing (I Corinthians 2:12). Jesus spoke in parables so that those outside the plane of God’s dealings would hear, yet not understand; they would see, but not perceive (Matthew 13:13). However, God never intended that His own people, His own disciples, be without understanding (Luke 8:10). When Peter asked Jesus to explain a parable to the disciples, Jesus asked, … “Are you also still without understanding?” Matthew 15:16. What God is doing may be mystical and outside the realm of normal understanding, but He never intended it to be outside of our understanding. As long as we do not understand the dealings of God upon us, we put ourselves in the same position as the outsiders.
In John 8:43, Jesus explains why we do not understand. “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word.” When there is no understanding, there is also not a true hearing of the Word. Jesus said that in hearing, men would not hear; and seeing, they would not see (Matthew 13:13). If your spirit is closed to the goal or the vision of what God is doing, and your ears and your heart are closed to the Word that He is speaking, then you will not really hear the Word. Think back to times when you were going through real pressures and dealings of God. You could hear a Word, but you did not actually hear it. The Word seemed to be unfruitful to you. Many times you probably thought, “Everyone is talking about the Word, but I didn’t think it was so fantastic.” There is something wrong in your heart if you are not hearing the Word that God is speaking. When your spirit becomes right, then you hear the Word once again; it becomes alive and real to you.
This principle can be seen in our relationships too. Have you ever had the experience of not being able to get along with a certain individual? You wanted him to change so that you could get along better. Finally God worked upon your spirit until you began to change. At the same time, you thought that the other person had changed. Actually, it was you who had changed. When your spirit is right, then you can flow with those around you.
Sometimes we seem to be in a depression or a drought, and nothing seems to be flowing to us. It is because the dealings of God are in our lives. When we seek God and repent and get our spirits right with Him, then we break through again to the flow of His Word and we understand what God is doing.
God purposes and ordains that we understand what He is speaking in this hour. Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:8: For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light. Once you move out of darkness, and into an acquaintance and a communication with God, then you have the light. The light is there; it belongs to you. It is available to you, but you do not automatically walk in it. People can be in the light and yet not walk in the light. You may be protesting, “I am not of the darkness because I have that union, that oneness with God.” You could be walking in darkness, even though you are not of darkness. God says, “You are of the light; now walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8). You have no excuse, because the light is there; it is available. Now walk in that place which God has made available to you.
Paul continues, (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.
For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Ephesians 5:9–17. I wonder if we would do all the things we are doing (and should not), or fail to do many of the things we are not doing (and should) if we continually kept in mind the vision and goal that God is bringing forth in our lives.
Basically, Paul is telling us to awake and arise from the dead so that we can give ourselves to walk in the light that God has made available to us. God is speaking to us in this hour. He wants us to come forth in the purity of what He is working within us. Accept and believe that everything God is doing in your life is designed to perfect you, to mold you, to shape you—to make you into the image of God.
God will give us understanding. II Timothy 2:7 says, Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. If we give ourselves to the light and walk in the light (Ephesians 5:8), it is not difficult to understand what God is doing. He has made it very clear to us that we are a called and a chosen people, a set-aside people. He is dealing with us as a peculiar people (I Peter 2:9). The dealings of God in your life are not the same as His dealings in someone else’s life. Do you want God to deal with you as He does with an outsider? Or do you want Him to deal with you as a son? (Hebrews 12:5–9.) I am sure that you want God to deal with you as a chosen vessel, one whom He is trying to bring forth in His image.
If you say, “God, I want to be in Your image,” then do not question, “Why are You putting the pressure on me? Why are You treating me this way?” We must have the vision with understanding. We must understand what the will of God is (Ephesians 5:17) and what the dealings of God are for. We must understand that God deals with us because He loves us (Hebrews 12:6). No chastening is pleasant for the moment (Hebrews 12:11), but when you understand and realize why it comes, then you thank God for it.
Do you thank God for every dealing in your life? Every time God corrects you for something, do you realize once again that He loves you, that He has a place for you? Do you want to walk in that place? Do you want to walk on this earth in the image and likeness of God because that is what He called you to do? Do you want to see all the people of God moving in that calling of God? We all want to see that vision come forth. We want that goal to be realized, do we not?
If you lose sight of the vision, you will make all kinds of excuses: “I was too tired; I had too much to do.” No excuse is valid; it merely indicates that you lost the vision and the hope for what God is bringing forth. May God restore unto us the vision of what He is bringing forth, so that we will see ourselves as a people who are wholly dedicated and wholly giving themselves. We will not argue about the method that God is using in our own personal lives, or in a worship service, or in anything else. These are side issues. It is the goal and the vision that is the real issue. Without a vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29:18). Without that vision, we are on the road to destruction. May God renew to us the vision of what He is doing today.
The apostolic word opens the door for us to grow and to come creatively into the image of God. It is the Living Word that will do it. Paul wrote, … Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. I Corinthians 2:9–10a. That understanding is very important. Paul told the Ephesians, “Pray that the eyes of your understanding will be opened, so that you will see what God is doing” (Ephesians 1:18).
Let us focus on what this move of God is all about. Some people will always be disturbed by what they see happening around them—whether it is the music, the intensity of the prayer in the service or something else—until they have the revelation of what God is trying to bring forth. Perhaps you need to pray, “Lord, I do not understand what is going on here. I see many little things happening, but I do not see the whole picture. I do not have the revelation of what You are doing in my church, in Shiloh, in the earth. Show me, Lord.” We must have the revelation of that vision. Paul continues in I Corinthians 2: Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know (really know and understand) the things freely given to us by God. Verse 12.
Do you ever feel that if you were God, you probably would have done things a lot differently? First of all, you probably would not have chosen the Jews to bring forth revelation, would you? This is not to say anything against the Jews; they have an advantage—to them were given the oracles of God (Romans 3:1–2). Yet we probably feel that God could have chosen a more submissive group of people who would not have rebelled. Also, does it seem sensible and practical for God to have His Son born in such a lowly place as a stable and then have Him laid in a manger? (Luke 2:7.) Should He not at least have announced His arrival with some trumpets? In every generation it seems that God uses ways which are completely unacceptable to men. He does this because He wants the understanding of our hearts to be open (Ephesians 1:18).
When Paul wrote to the Colossians, he was writing to some people he had never seen. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf, and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding (you must understand the wealth of what He has for you), resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. Colossians 2:1–3, 6–7.
You need the instruction, the teaching, and the understanding to bring you into the will of God. What is the purpose of the Living Word? Is it to give us superior sermons? Not at all! A Living Word is coming in this day for one purpose: to bring you into the marvelous creative work that God is doing in the earth.
Proverbs says that God by His wisdom founded the earth and laid the pillars of it (Proverbs 3:19; 9:1). By His wisdom, by the teaching, He is doing the same thing in the world which He is bringing forth today. We are not exalting ordinary teaching. We are exalting the knowledge that the Lord is bringing to our hearts of what this is all about. There is nothing that we need more. Ask God to open your eyes to see what He is doing, lest you become bogged down in the tedious things of your life, or you try to evaluate your circumstances and what you are going through, and then become bitter and discouraged. Let the Word open your heart. Let the Word show you what it is all about. We cry to God for understanding. That is the real struggle. As we walk along, many things may disturb us until the day when the Holy Spirit brings a Word like this, and we open our hearts and say, “Yes, I see it. Lord, I see it!”
We have come to a new level of understanding, a new level of revelation. Where there is no vision, the people perish. Proverbs 29:18a. The Hebrew word for that kind of vision means “the prophet’s sight.” It is more than just some deep insight. You will never understand the will of God until you are in a place where there is a prophetic flow—where the prophets, the apostles, the men of God are speaking. Then the understanding that Paul wrote about (Colossians 2:2)—the full wealth, the full assurance of understanding—hits you and you exclaim, “That’s it! That’s it! My eye did not see it. My ear did not hear it. It never entered my heart. But now the Spirit of God has revealed it to me (I Corinthians 2:9–10). I know what is mine! I know what I can do!”
We need to intercede for those who think they know what this move of God is all about; yet they do not really have a vision of what God is doing in the earth right now. Nine-tenths of your problems would disappear if you could see what God is doing. You do not want to be as imperceptive as Balaam. When an angel stood in his way to prevent him from going the way he wanted to go, his donkey saw the angel, but Balaam did not (Numbers 22:21–31). This shows that if you allow the wrong thing to be in your spirit, it is darkness from there on. You will not receive any more revelation. Everything turns into darkness.
You have to know that God is speaking to your heart. Someway God has to get your attention. In Psalm 119 David wrote, “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things out of Thy Word” (verse 18). “Before You chastened me, I went astray. Now I have learned Thy commandments” (verse 67). God grant that we do not wait until we experience His deep dealings before we demand, “Show me what this is all about. Give me a revelation of it, Lord. Open my understanding!” Do not boast if you have some revelation. In the arrogance of a little revelation, you can sometimes be more of a problem than someone who has none at all. The quicker we all get into the full understanding, the quicker we will flow together. Ask the Lord to open your heart to see what He is doing in the earth today.
It is amazing how the vision and the dedication with which you began becomes inadequate as you walk on with God. The revelation you had six months ago is not enough today. You can become so engrossed with the circumstances of your life that they become like thorns that choke out the Word (Matthew 13:7), and it is no longer coming alive to your heart. You cannot let that happen! If you allow life’s affairs to choke out the Word, you are on the road to destruction. You must open your heart and say, “Lord, You are speaking all the time and I am listening. I want the understanding of my heart to be opened up to Your perfect will (Ephesians 1:18). Show me Your will.”
The Scripture says, “Be not foolish but wise, understanding what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:17). If God commands something, it means that we can do it. By His grace we can have it. Anyone who is limited can look up to God and say, “Lord, I lack wisdom. Give it to me.” And God will not upbraid you, but He will give to you liberally (James 1:5). It takes humility to say, “Teach me, Lord. Teach me Thy ways.” As long as all the people feel this way, a church is in no danger. But if every church, every heart, every single one of us does not feel this way, we will be in danger because God is calling, “Walk with Me. Walk with Me.”
There must be a new vision every day. One of the first Scriptures that was opened up to us at the beginning of this move of God was Proverbs 4:18: But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. When we look back to the light we had then, we realize that it was just a fragment of what we have now. Each day we must have more light. Each day we must cry out for more light. When we have an openness of heart, a right and teachable spirit that says, “I must learn,” then we will have understanding. In no way can we draw back. When we fail to understand what is happening, let us not react like the horse who kicks and rears up on his hind legs when he has a “burr under the saddle.” Instead, we had better stop and ask, “Am I really seeing the whole picture?”
Even if we can say that we are ninety-five percent right, that is not enough. I think Judas may have seemed to have been ninety-five percent “right.” We must get rid of that last reservation which can block the revelation of the Lord. A reservation can block full revelation (Kingdom Proverb). Just one reservation can stop the perfection of revelation in your life.
God forbid that we judge one another (Matthew 7:1). God forbid that we judge what He is doing in the earth; that is even worse. God is opening the door to many who have been on the fringe and ready to give up. The problem is not what is going on in the church services. The problem is the extent of the dedication of your spirit to walk with God. Maybe that always has been a question with you. Maybe you never were set to wait on God. Before you get excited and criticize something that you may know nothing about, review the past five years of your spiritual life. How many hours have you waited on God? How often have you sought His face? How much have you fasted and prayed? By pure neglect, you may have put yourself in a place where there is no escape. It does not matter how excited you can get during a jubilee service. The mechanics of your worship do not matter. All that matters is your focus. Are you really seeking God?
One thing we want is reality. We want reality! Our walk with God must be real to us. We want to love Him, serve Him, and lay everything at His feet. Let us not bog down trying to understand the little details. Let us have the vision with understanding of what the Lord is doing.