Often times we in leadership look to Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) as an indicator of how important vision is to the church:
Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he )that keepeth the law, happy is he.
If there is no vision, people will perish. Wow, that impacts me very hard! First of all, if vision is this important it tells me that I must be reverential in how I handle the vision. If God is going to trust me to be his messenger for a particular vision, I must do my utmost in being faithful to seeing it carried out. If I do not, people will perish.
Of course, God is God and therefore he will have his way done upon the earth whether I cooperate or get distracted or mishandle the vision or whatever. I did not make the statement in order to lay a guilt trip on anyone. Instead, it is a clear sign that God holds the opposite to be true: He gives us the opportunity to deliver his vision to his people in order that they may not perish.
Let us constantly remember that the vision is of God, appointed to us for the right time, and intended for his people. The vision is not ours as leaders of the church, but it is God’s and he has graciously appointed us to see the vision carried out. The message and focus therefore must always be on God and seeing God’s people come to know Christ eternally. It is not about bringing attention to us, the church, or programs and agendas. God has a beautiful, amazing, awesome, unthinkable plan. He uses us because we are predestined to have the faith it takes to see big things of God realized in our human world. He created us to not give up easily and to not make it about us.
I pray that those called and ordained for the work of messengers appointed to set in motion a vision of God to see those in their communities not perish and come to know everlasting life alongside our Heavenly Father will believe in the anointing to be true to the vision and keep the focus on God and his people. May you be encouraged by the task and praise God for all that he is going to take you through for the sake of some to know eternal love and grace and mercy even though we as caretakers of the vision may not feel worthy or equipped to see it through. Trust in the Lord and his choices and be faithful to keeping the vision fresh in the minds of his people daily. Until the time of final peace and joy, I pray in the name of the precious Son Jesus, amen.
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Dave, I guess you can tell that I love this topic. Thanks for covering it.
To perish literally means “to let go”, “loosen”. Therefore when there’s no vision or revelation from God to the people, they will let go of restraint. The NLT says “they run wild”. This is why it is so important that pastors and ministry leaders cast the vision that God has given us so that the people won’t go off unrestrained doing whatever they want to or whatever they think is right!