The Local Church needs Divine Visions

Solomon said, "Where there is no vision (no redemptive revelations of God), the people perish; ...." (proverbs 29:18, The Amplified Bible).

The word "vision" comes from the Hebrew word "chazown" which means a dream, a mental sight, revelation or oracle.

The truth is that, all God's people both in the Old Testament and the New Testament need visions. In my opinion, the type of vision that the Local Church needs to seek is a continuing, on going, relevant revelation of God's will and purpose at any given time and in any situation. In other words, the Church of Jesus Christ always need to be hearing from God and to do what He says.

The writer of Hebrews said, "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe" (Hebrews 1:1,2, NIV, emphasis added).

In other words, in Old Testament time God spoke to His people through His prophets of old. But, in the last days, or at the present time Jesus spoke directly to Christians through the Spirit of God. It follows that any Christian Group or Local Church fails to hear from Jesus when He has spoken, there is something wrong somewhere!

The following verses of Scripture show that God wants His people to hear His voice and obey what He says at all times:

Moses said to Israel, "If you will listen diligently to the voice of the Lord your God, being watchful to do all His commandments which I command you this day, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth" (Deut. 28:1, The Amplified Bible).

God said to His people through Jeremiah, "But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you" (Jeremiah 7:23, NKJV).

Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27, NKJV).

In other words, Jesus Himself says that those who are known by Him will follow Him when they hear His voice. It is obvious that only a true Christian will hear His voice, because any person who does not hear His voice is not his sheep. If the Christian fails to hear his voice he cannot follow Him and He does not know him. Therefore the true Church must be able to hear Him continuosly and able to discern the revelation or vision given by Him at any particular moment of time.

I believe God has an on-going vison for any particular group or congregation of the Local Church, and any particular ministry, at any particular situation. God usaully gives a different vision for different Local Church groups at a particular time under different situations. What is a correct vision for a group is not necessarily correct for another group. Each Local Church needs to seek fresh visions from God to do God's will. In other words, there is no such thing as a "success formula" for all Local Churches to follow!

What happens when there is no Vision

Let us look at a situation in the Old Testament to see what happened when God's people failed to hear from God.

A good example is at the time when Samuel was called:

"The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions" (1 Samuel 3:1, NIV, emphasis added).

Notice that there were not many visions before Samuel was called because the Lord was silent. During the time of "Judges" the nation of Israel has sunk to a low ebb in which moral authority was no higher than self-will. The inspired Scripture sums up it up with a disappointing epitaph - the last verse of the Book of Judges:

"In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes" Judges 21:25, NKJV).

I believe when God's people start to do what is right in his own eyes, the end result is backsliding. Israel had the Law, they had the tabernacle, the priesthood and everything that religion could offer. None of these things kept them from backsliding. It is the same with the Church. Any Local Church group that does not have visions will backslide, in a religious way - they are missing God. They do what is right in their own eyes and not what is right in God's eyes. They seek after man's teaching and man's method because they lack spiritual discernment.

Lampstand and the Olive Trees

We need to understand that everywhere in Scripture Lampstand typifies the Church and Olive Old typifies the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the Olive Tree typifies the source of the Holy Spirit.

Zechariah saw a vision of a lampstand with two olive trees beside it (Zechariah 4).

"Then I answered and said to him, 'What are these two olive trees - at the right of the lampstand and at the left?' So he said, 'These are the two anointed ones, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth'" (Zech. 4:11 and 14, NKJV).

The lamp depends on the oil to give light. A continuous supply of fresh olive oil flows from the olive tree is needed to keep the lamp burning. In fact, verse 13 says that the oil is so fresh that it actually comes directly out from either sides of lampstand.

Now, let us refer to the book of Revelation. John described the two witnesses in Chapter 11 in this way:

The angel said to John, "And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth" (Rev. 11:3,4, NKJV, emphasis added).

I believe the "olive trees" speaks of the prophetic function in relationship to the Church of Jesus Christ. It is the prophetic function of the Local Church that keep the fresh oil flowing into the lampstand to give light to the world. In other words, we the Church must not live on "stale" vision or revelation, not on stale bread and stale activities.

God has something new to say to the Church today! Do we have the ears to hear?