Vision or Revelation?
Each morning I make it a practice to read the Experiencing God Day By Day daily devotional from Blackaby Ministries International. Earlier this past week, I read the entry that focused on Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint, but happy is he who keeps the law.” I want to quote what the Blackaby’s have said about this proverb:
“The world operates on vision. God’s people live by revelation. The world seeks grand and noble purposes and goals to achieve. Institutions establish goals and then organize themselves to achive them. God’s people function in a radically different way. Christians arrange their lives baed on the revelation of God, regardless of whether it makes sense to them. God does not ask for our opinion about what is best for our future, our family, our church, or our community (or our business); He already knows! What God wants is to get the attention of His people and reveal to us what is on His heart and what His will is, for God’s ways are not our ways.
“Whenever people do not base their lives on God’s revelation, they cast off restraint. That is, they do what is right in their own eyes. They set their goals, arrange their agendas and then pray for God’s blessing. Some Christians are living far outside the will of God, yet they have the audacity to pray and ask God to bless their efforts.
“The only way for you to know God’s will is for Him to reveal it to you. You will never discover it on your own. What you hear from the Father, you have an immediate agenda for your life: obedience. As the writer of this proverb observed, happy is he who keeps the law.”
So, is this saying that goals, resolutions, plans and other tools that help us to stay focused and organized are not appropriate or meaningful? No, I don’t think so. I think what is being said in the Proverb and by the Blackaby’s is that we must first hear a revelation from God before we go off and set our agendas, plans, goals and deliverables.
What is God’s agenda for you? Have you asked Him or taken the time to allow Him to reveal it to you? If you want to learn more about this, my recently published book devotes the first chapter to this topic and it is entitled Setting a Vision. Purchase it here.
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By Mark Oakes, January 14, 2010 @ 10:38 am
Bill,
This is an excellent post. Thanks for sharing it with us!
While I’m in complete agreement that revelation trumps (individual) vision, I also lean on the promise that while ‘man plans his ways God can direct his steps’. I know many believers who lean toward inaction in hopes that a lightning bolt will somehow drop from the sky with a clear answer re: direction. I don’t know many instances where this happens
Rather, his will tends to be ‘revealed’ to us while we’re busy moving down a path.
The loneliest place on earth is ‘out of His will’. I’m the poster child for this one. Yet, He has remained faithful to gently (and sometimes not so gently) nudge the bow of the ship as its steaming through the water.
Blessings
Mark
By billbliss, January 14, 2010 @ 11:13 am
Mark, thanks for the comment. I agree completely with you, especially the comment about believers leaning toward inaction. This, in my opinion, is such a misguided application of seeking the revelation that can only come from God. I, too, have been on the loneliest place on earth at times – perhaps we have met there before!
Bill