Where There is No Vision, The People Perish

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Short Summary
The discourse centers on the biblical concept of vision, particularly drawing from Proverbs 29:18, which emphasizes the importance of having a vision for purpose and direction in life. It explores various biblical examples of visions received by figures like Daniel, Ezekiel, and Peter, illustrating how these visions transformed their lives and perspectives. The speaker encourages the audience to reflect on their personal visions and how a shared understanding of a divine purpose can inspire and guide them, ultimately linking this vision to God’s overarching plan for humanity and the promise of restoration through Christ.

Long Summary
### Summary of the Discourse on Vision

Title and Central Verse:
– The meditation centers around Proverbs 29:18: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
– The focus is on understanding the meaning of this verse and its application in life.

Understanding Vision:
– Vision from a biblical perspective is defined as a divine revelation or supernatural insight given by God, often experienced through dreams or visual encounters.
– Examples of individuals who received visions include Abraham, Jacob, Noah, Daniel, Ezekiel, and John in Revelation. These experiences often transformed their lives.
– The discourse emphasizes that receiving a vision from God changes one’s perspective and actions.

Impact of Vision:
– The importance of having a vision is highlighted, as it encourages individuals to look forward and gives them purpose in life.
– The speaker cites various biblical figures (Peter, John, and Daniel) who were profoundly affected by their visions.
– The story of Peter during the Transfiguration illustrates how a divine vision can inspire enthusiasm and a desire to remain in the presence of God.

Vision in Contemporary Context:
– Unlike biblical times, God no longer reveals visions directly but communicates through His Word and the Holy Spirit.
– Believers today have a vision of hope and understanding of God’s ultimate plan for mankind, as highlighted in 1 Corinthians 2:9, which speaks of the blessings God has prepared for those who love Him.

Personal Vision and Goals:
– The discourse encourages individuals to reflect on their personal visions and goals, emphasizing the importance of having both short-term and long-term spiritual aspirations.
– The speaker references John 3:16 to illustrate God’s vision for the world and mankind, reminding listeners of God’s love and potential for restoration.

God’s Kingdom:
– The central theme of God’s kingdom is discussed, noting that both John the Baptist and Jesus preached its imminent arrival.
– The narrative of the Bible is framed as a journey from paradise created (Genesis) to paradise restored (Revelation), with Jesus’ sacrifice as the pivotal moment.

Parallels Between Genesis and Revelation:
– The speaker presents 18 parallels between the creation account in Genesis and the new creation in Revelation, showcasing God’s consistent plan:
Creation and New Creation: Genesis 1:1 and Revelation 21:1 reflect God’s original and renewed creation.
Presence of God: God’s dwelling with mankind is emphasized in both accounts (Genesis 3:8 and Revelation 21:3).
Tree of Life: Symbolizing eternal life, it appears in both Genesis and Revelation.
Victory Over Death: Genesis introduces death through sin, while Revelation promises its eternal removal.
Judgment: Both accounts discuss judgment, leading to righteousness and restoration.

Encouragement for Believers:
– The discourse encourages believers to maintain their vision and purpose in life, drawing inspiration from the examples of biblical figures.
– The speaker quotes Hebrews 11:13, emphasizing faith and the hope of future promises.

Final Exhortation:
– The meditation concludes with a call for believers to keep their vision clear and to live lives reflecting the love of Christ.
– Romans 8:35 is referenced, affirming that nothing can separate believers from the love of God.

### Key Themes:
– Divine vision and revelation
– The transformative power of God’s visions
– The significance of personal and collective vision
– The centrality of God’s kingdom in biblical narrative
– The parallels between Genesis and Revelation as a testament to God’s plan
– The encouragement to live in faith, hope, and love through understanding God’s vision for humanity.

Transcript

Title of our meditation this morning that I would like to think about together is from Proverbs 29:18, where there is no vision that people perish, and this is a verse that we are familiar with and won’t necessarily stay to the context too much. We’ll just talk about the meaning of the. The meaning of the verse, and we would like to look at a few aspects of this vision.

We’ll look a little bit of visions in the Bible. We’ll talk about what is our vision, and I know there are different aspects, different probably perspectives, and probably if we would ask each one of you, what is your vision? What’s our vision? I think all our answers might be different, but together they form a good solid answer.

So we’ll cover one aspect, our vision, and then definitely we want to look at the aspect. How does that vision help us? The importance of having a vision in our lives, and that applies to different ages, and I think it’s very important to have that specific vision to look forward to something.

And I know we had a devotion on hope not too long ago and I don’t think we’ll overlap too much on that. So speaking about the vision, a vision from a biblical context is a divine revelation or a supernatural insight given by God to a person. It often comes in the form of a dream or open visual experience. Visions are used by God to communicate his will, reveal future events, provide guidance or give encouragement, and I’m sure as we think about this, we remember the way how God spoke to Abraham, to Jacob, to Noah, and many other faithful prophets.

But more specifically, when we talk about the vision, probably our minds go to Daniel, Ezekiel, probably John with a revelation or Habakkuk. Brother Andrei mentioned last Sunday writing the vision down. Probably that’s where we think a little bit more, because that’s where the meaning of the vision is a little bit more expressed. So as I was thinking about the visions, and I’m sure all of you can agree with that, I would imagine that their lives, those that received a vision from God, was not the same. Their lives were not the same after that.

The way were before to have their encounter with God in a form of a vision, to have something that in a natural way you would not experience, and I think it’s something that even we can see in their lives that after that, that changed their perspective. It changed probably who, how they acted and probably their lives, and definitely that was only by the power of God. I’m sure that we remember when John in Revelation saw the vision of the New Jerusalem we read that he fel down at the knees of the angel.

I don’t know what you would do. Probably I would do the same. Because to receive such a vision and something so magnificent, that was the normal reaction that he did. Of course, the angel told him to raise up because he’s a servant as well and should not bow before him. But we can just see the reaction that he had.

We read about Daniel that when he. He speaks about the angel, when he had spoken such words to me, I turned my face toward the ground and became speechless. That was Daniel’s reaction to that vision, and Daniel received different visions as well, and I would imagine after Daniel receiving the visions of the beasts, and to the degree that he could not even name what kind of the beast, it was definitely that they would leave you speechless.

So we just see how God communicated with his people through these visions, revealing his plans and his will. Jesus saw it important to give a vision to some of his closest apostles, and there was James, Peter and John on the mountain transfiguration, and in their case, it was the same. It was so magnificent that it did capture their attention to the degree that one of them, Peter, said that, lord, it is good for us to be here.

If you wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah, and we can see again the impact of that vision upon Peter, and definitely we noticed that he was so absorbed and we could say that positively encouraged by that vision, that his normal reaction was to be there, to stay there and not to go back to his ordinary life, and I think the lesson for us is as well that when we are with the brethren, when we experience a certain emotional, spiritual, emotional event in our lives, we want to be there for longer periods of time, and I think that is great and the same if we look at another aspect, Peter said that let’s build three tabernacles.

And then we see here a little bit more about Peter, and by the way, the camp, this, the Midwest camp team, is Peter, and those that will be there for the camp will learn more about Peter, and, and we already working on the studies.

I think it will be great studies. But we see something about Peter as well that he did not even bring, probably an idea, but he came up with a plan as well, and he’s like, let’s make those three tabernacles. But again, he was so enthusiastic by that vision that he. When we look at this, he forgot that he needs a tabernacle for himself.

He just thought about Jesus And Elijah and Elisha, and I think that’s again a normal response when we face the power of God. When we have an encounter with God, then we forget about ourselves, and then the priority becomes our Lord Jesus. That probably reminds us when Apostle Paul says that it’s not me, but Christ who lives in me.

And that is the response when we receive the Holy Spirit makes us to put Jesus first in our lives. That vision that Peter had, this vision left such an impression on him that about 30 years later, when he wrote the second epistle, he writes them. For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty, and this vision that he had gave him the confidence, gave him the strength that later, after he received the Holy Spirit, he became the bold Apostle Peter, and our Lord considered very important to have him there.

And definitely when he spoke about the second coming of our Lord, he spoke it with power because he knew he witnessed that event. So definitely there was not a doubt for him about the power of the second advent of our Lord. When we look at Peter, he received a vision of the kingdom as well. We read in 2nd Corinthians 12:2 that he was taken into the third heaven, and we know that the third heaven, in case of Apostle Paul, was a vision not of a literal heaven, but a vision of the third disposition.

When we look on the chart of the ages, we see that, and I think if we look how special our Heavenly Father treated him because he was a special apostle, and if the other apostles got a vision of the kingdom, he thought that it would be important to give a vision to Apostle Paul as well, and we can see again the strength that he received from that vision of the kingdom when we bring this to our days. I was trying to look from the aspect of how God spoke with his servants.

Nowadays, God doesn’t reveal himself through visions. We read in Hebrews. I think it’s one one where he says that he spoke through the prophets, but now he speaks through the Word and through His Son. Our Heavenly Father doesn’t reveal visions, but through the power of the Holy Spirit and through the Bible that we have, we similarly receive a similar vision, and we were given a vision as well.

We were given a powerful vision that very few in this world get to experience. Very few get a glimpse of what’s on the horizon and what a blessing it is that we are blessed to live in a time when we can see beyond this world what is to come. Through this vision, we get to see what Apostle Paul said when he said that what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived, the things that God has prepared for those who love him, those are the things that God has revealed us by His Spirit, and what a blessing it is to be able to get a glimpse of what our Heavenly Father has in store for us, and we appreciate the time period, as we said, that started at the beginning of the harvest until today.

And we see how the light keeps increasing and we can see more and more building on that foundation. As I was looking through this, it reminded me of a discourse that Brother Carl had, and probably all of you remember the challenge of the fourth generation, and I’ll just quote just a short sentence. He says that usually in this cycle, he speaks about different generations.

We can find the first generation is a generation of vision. They see an object, they see a goal in life and become totally absorbed in accomplishing that. There is a message to be given, and then Brother Carl goes to different generations how different challenges come up. But he traces how important it is to continue having that vision, to continue having that message as something that’s at the foundation of our faith.

And also he reminded me about Brother George Tebeck’s discourse that he had about the 75th anniversary of Chicago, and I know it’s very inspiring when we keep going back and look, and I know probably some of you know these brethren, and as I was looking at this, we can see how the vision that brethren had and the experiences that they went when they separated from the JWs and how they had that strong vision to continue on what they thought is right, to continue on, to witness, to continue on, to serve the Lord and be in unity, and when we look back, definitely it helps us to consider that what a legacy we have. So let’s look at the aspect of what is our vision.

And we would like to start with a verse from John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I know it’s a verse that we all know it’s familiar. But just when we think about this, God loved so much the world, and when we look around, there is less and less lovable things left in the world.

Even ourselves in an imperfect condition. We realize how bad things are and how some things get more and more to the degree that more sinful. But then we read that God loved the world and it makes Us think, what is lovable in this world? What did he love so much? And it makes us appreciate that God has a vision.

He has a vision for the world of mankind. He has a vision for each one of us, and he is able to see the potential that we have, the potential that mankind has after they go through the experience of evil, through the permission of evil, and having that vision enables our Heavenly Father to act in love. That’s why he sent His Son, because He could see the results.

And he could see how one day everyone who ever lived will come back to life and give glory and honor to Him. We read in Psalm 70:16, even the wrath of men shall praise you. It’s probably hard for us to imagine how some of these leaders, probably in the Second World War or that led many evil things in this world, how they will come one day to praise our Heavenly Father. But he can see that. He sees the potential in his creation because he created man.

And he knows if we look at Jesus, what was his vision? Again, I think we can continue on the same line that he created all things with our Heavenly Father. He came here on earth, but in his mind it was the same vision. He could see the world of mankind restored. He could see both phases of the kingdom.

He could see the spiritual phase, the earthly phase, and then a beautiful verse that. I really like it. In Isaiah 53, when we read that he shall see the fruit of his labor and shall rejoice even in the midst of his experiences, he could see that his ransom price will provide a way for mankind to come back in harmony with God, and that gave him joy.

That vision enabled him to continue and to finish his ministry. When we bring this to ourselves, I think we all have spiritual visions or spiritual goals, probably short term, about what we want to accomplish in the next week, in the upcoming weeks or years. But then overall, we have the great vision of the future. We have the vision of what the world will be like, what will it be like if we will be faithful to the end? And that vision helps us and enables us to continue on.

I really like in our fellowship to ask the brethren to ask each other what helps you go through different experiences? And I think that is, I really enjoy hearing from different brethren about their perspective, how the vision, how the goals and the word of God help to give them that hope and that strength to go through these temporary experiences. So again, as we mentioned, speaking about vision, this is general, it’s a very general question, but we were given a vision of who God is. We were given a Vision of God’s attributes and also a vision of God’s ultimate plan for mankind and the ultimate purpose, as we read in Ephesians 1:10, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth, and we’ll take some time today to cover just one aspect of this vision about the ultimate goal of God for us and for the mankind.

And that is God’s kingdom, and I know we can talk a lot about God’s kingdom, but this is so crucial that when we look, it was John the Baptist that started his ministry and we read that he started with these words, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That was his message, the kingdom of heaven. Heaven. Jesus starts his ministry with the same message, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And when he sent his apostles to preach, he told them the second the same thing. Go and preach saying that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He was the primary subject. He was the most important subject of the prophets. That’s what the prophets prophesied about.

And I know sometimes, maybe because we grew up with certain things knowing something, things maybe are not as inspiring, but always when we look, we find something that gives us more insight and it triggers that inspiration and that excitement. So if we look at the main story of the Bible, the Bible starts with the paradise on earth, the paradise that was created, and then if we go all the way back to Revelation, we see the New Jerusalem, or in our words, we see the paradise restored, and in the middle we have our Lord Jesus and his sacrifice, and that is ultimately the story of the Bible.

And if we would like to summarize this, or when we talk with someone, or maybe some students when you are at school, this is the theme of the Bible, that it’s starts with paradise created, the fallen sin, and then with the paradise restored, and it’s only because of the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus that’s in the middle that the paradise restored. It is possible. So looking from this perspective, I would like to go through 18 parallels between the paradise on Earth and the paradise restored. We’ll try to go through them very quick.

We won’t spend a lot of time. But as I was looking through them, it was very inspiring for me to see that this is what we believe. It’s a reality. It’s not something that maybe we come up with, but it is deeply rooted in the Word of God. So we’ll look through all of them.

So the first one is God’s ultimate plan. So when we make this parallel between Genesis and Revelation, we see how close? God’s plan begins with a perfect creation in Genesis, and the first three chapters in Genesis parallel the last three chapters in Revelation, and we look through some details, and they are like, so even the same words are being used.

That gives us even more strength to our faith, and as I was thinking about this, when John wrote the Revelation, I don’t think he was trying to go back and just try to imitate or try to. But that vision that he had was directly from God, and only our heavenly Father can put this together, that these three chapters in Genesis would match the three chapters in Revelation, and this is definitely not a coincidence.

So the creation of heaven and earth we see in Genesis 1:1. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. When we go to Revelation, we see in Revelation 21:1, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. Now, definitely this is symbolic, the new heaven and the new Earth. But we get the symbolism that God creates in the Genesis.

He creates the heavens and the, and in the course of time, sin entered into this world, and not only that, but in heavens as well, with Satan, and then in Revelation, we have a new heaven and a new earth, we have a new society, we have a new government, and we see how Revelation brings this parallel.

The next parallel that we have is presence of God with mankind, and when we read in Genesis 3:8, and this verse is, after Adam and Eve sinned, we read that they heard the voice of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. It just made me think how the Creator of the earth, the Creator of the universe, and who created Adam and Eve, he was walking in the garden in the middle of the day. Whatever there is. I don’t think we can fully put our finger what that means, but it just points out that God created mankind, that he can be close to them.

He created mankind that he would enjoy that relationship with them, and of course, that relationship, because of sin, was broken. We go to Revelation 21:3, and I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them. So we see that that presence, that dwelling, is being restored, and that’s again showing us the great desire of our heavenly Father to enjoy that relationship with his creation.

And this word dwell, it is the same word as in John 1:14, where it says, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us. Now, of course, God won’t be made flesh and dwell, but again, it just shows that close relationship that our Heavenly Father has. In the Florida Convention, the theme was along the same line, God’s dwelling with his people, and we can see how even if this dwelling was lost in Genesis, he wanted to build a tabernacle so he can be present there with his people. Then later it was the Temple of Solomon again pointing in the same direction.

And then we have the Ezekiel’s temple again pointing to something that God wants to restore, that dwelling with his people. The next parallel we have is the tree of life, and definitely we remember in Genesis the tree of life being present, symbolizing eternal life. But access to that tree of life was lost after the fall of Adam. In Revelation, we see again the same tree of life, and we have it there.

And maybe might be, literally, might not. The main point is that there is that source of life. There is that source that existed in Genesis and was removed, and now we see it back where people can have life, and brother Russell has a point that the fruit represents the abundance and the instruction and encouragement, mental, moral and physical.

And brethren, if we are faithful, we’ll be part of that tree, so called, to provide instructions for mankind. Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches. The next parallel that we have is the serpent. We see that in Genesis we have the serpent who deceived Adam and Eve, bringing sin into the world. We have in Revelation, the devil or the serpent identified as Satan that is defeated and cast into the lake of fire.

What a beautiful ending we have to the plan of God, that the source that introduced evil. Now that source is being removed, and that’s detailed again in Revelation. Next we have the curse upon Adam’s race and creation versus the blessings we have that God cursed the ground and permits evil because of sin, and the curse had consequences upon mankind, animals, all living beings, including the earth. In Revelation, we have that curse being lifted, and we actually have the same word.

It says, and there shall be no curse anymore, and the throne of God and the Lamb shall be therein, pointing again that that curse that was you will be lifted. We remember in the tabernacle on the day of Atonement, when the blood of the bullock was brought and was poured on the horns of the altar, it poured all the way to the ground, showing that even the earth was restored and was redeemed through Jesus blood. The next parallel we have is we have a marriage theme. In Genesis, we have the first marriage, which is between Adam and Eve, symbolizing the union of man and woman, and we won’t spend too much time on that.

But Then in Revelation, we have the ultimate marriage, which is between Christ and his bride, the church. We won’t read the verses, but we see that the new Jerusalem coming out of heaven for God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. Of course, it reminds us of Revelation 19:7 that we are familiar with about the marriage of the Lamb as well. So we see that in essence, the first Adam and Eve represents the origin of sin and death, while the second Adam and second Eve symbolize redemption, restoration, and the promise of new life through Jesus Christ and his Church. Also another detail we remember, just as a suggestion, we remember when Eve was taken, was taken out of a rib from Adam.

The same parallel when we have Jesus on the cross. One of the soldiers pierced him and there was blood and water that came out. Of course, the main point is that Jesus was dead because the water was separated from the blood. But probably there is a slight lesson there that the church will be born through the blood, through his blood, and through the truth. The next.

And then we have in First Corinthians 15:45, speaking about the first Adam, where it makes that this is the first Adam and Jesus is the second Adam. The next parallel we have is victory over death. In Genesis, we have again seen entering the world through Adam and Eve, bringing death, and then in Revelation we have that death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, and that is something that probably very few can even imagine.

A world where death will not exist. But we do have the promise that while this death entered into the world, it will be removed. Next we have and then Revelation 21:4 saying the same thing, we have human dominion. In Genesis, God gave dominion to Adam over the earth, and he was able to name animals. He.

He was so called the king of the world. But of course, this was lost as well, and then in the course of time, we see that Satan became the prince in this world. However, time has come for this dominion to be transferred to Christ and the church, who will be kings and priests on the earth. But mankind will have the dominion as well.

And in one sense they will be restored that dominion and that kingship on earth, and we read in Psalms 86 that you gave him dominion over the works of your hands. David says about man, who is man, that you think of him. Another translation actually uses the word king here as well, and then we have Revelation 22:5, and there shall be no night no more.

There shall be night no more, and they need no light of lamp, neither light of sun. For the Lord God shall give them light and they shall reign forever and ever. In reprint 35 72, we read that the whole world of perfect men will be a world of kings, though doubtless one of their number shall serve particularly as general representatives. So Brother Russell applies this, that even if the Church with Christ will be kings, they will have the dominion as well, and they will be restored.

Next we have river of life where we have waters. In Genesis, we have a river flowing out of Eden, and then in Revelation we have again the same concept. We have another river that flows from the throne of God in the New Jerusalem. It represents the blessings of refreshments and restitution which will issue forth from the New Jerusalem in the kingdom of Messiah.

And Jesus says that whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him today shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life. Pointing to that river that flows in the revelation that it is from, it is basically the faithful ones that during this period of time follow him, and then, of course, we have the river in Ezekiel’s temple flowing from under the temple, going toward the east, east, representing the earthly phase of the kingdom. We have God’s light. In Genesis, God creates the light, separating it from the darkness.

In Revelation, we read that there is no need for the sun or moon because God himself is the light. So we have the light concept in both places. God created the light, but symbolically that light was covered soon by darkness, and then in the restored kingdom, mankind will rejoice not only of the natural light, but of the eternal perfect light of glory of our Heavenly Father. We have mankind’s relationship with God, and probably some of them overlap to a certain degree.

But there is an interesting point in each one of them that mankind’s relationship with God got broken because of sin again. But we see in Revelation 22:4, they shall see his face and his name shall be on their foreheads, showing again that relationship that Adam lost will be restored, and as I was thinking about this, it reminded me of Job that after he went through the experiences that he had, at the end, he says something very, very beautiful and important. He says that my years have heard of thee, but now my eyes can see you, and we know that we are looking forward to the time when the whole world of mankind will be able to say the same thing that we’ve heard about a God.

But now we can see his face. Now we can see him. Of course, the experience of Job could represent probably the experience of mankind of sin and death. We have the theme of judgment, that Adam and Eve and the serpent are judged for their disobedience. In Revelation we have Satan and his followers, and the rest of mankind are judged as well.

And of course, this judgment of mankind leads to life, not to death anymore. In Isaiah 26:9, we read that when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness, and what a righteous judgment will be compared to what people have envisioned of what judgment is. We have the paradise lost and regained. Of course, the garden itself was lost.

And then we have in Revelation, that garden being restored, and not only probably in one part of the world where the Garden of Eden was, but it will be all over the world. It will be everywhere. We have the concept of a lamb in Genesis, where the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them, and of course we believe that he was a lamb.

He took a sacrifice to do that. We have in Revelation the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city. We have the Lamb there as well, and of course we know that this is the Lamb of God that was slain before the foundation of the world. We have the divine rest concept we have in Genesis that God created all things and then he rested.

In Revelation, we have again the concept of resting as well, and of course it starts with the church that those who believe entered into his rest. It’s in Hebrews, but then we read that a full rest we enter when we finish our course, and we believe that ultimately the whole world of mankind will enter into God’s rest as well. We have in Genesis the cherubim that was guarding the way so mankind won’t go back and eat of the tree, so they won’t leave.

When we look in Revelation, we have angels and cherubims welcomed the creation of God, welcoming back, and what a beautiful parallel we have, and the last one, brethren, it’s sorrow and pain through death and sin. We have sorrow and pain that he entered into this world, and we won’t read the Scriptures, but we are familiar with them.

We read a beautiful scripture that is very dear to each one of us in Revelation 21:4, that he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things have passed away, and we can see again the same word, the pain that he entered into the world. That pain will be removed.

And as we can see, Genesis marks the beginning of God’s creation and mankind’s fall. While Revelation brings God’s Plan to a full circle showing the ultimate redemption and restoration of his creation, and in the middle of it we have the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus. So brethren, I just as I was thinking about this, I was thinking to go over this just to. Because for me it’s strengthening to realize that what we believe, the vision, it is real.

It’s again, it’s not something that we just maybe heard of it, but it’s deeply rooted in the word of God. I would like to close, but not close. We still have a few minutes. But close this session with a very familiar quote from volume one, and you are very familiar with it and probably some of you have seen a short video of it from volume one, page 192.

Brother Russell says, close your eyes for a moment to the sins of misery and war, degradation and sorrow that yet prevail on account of sin, and picture before your mental vision the glory of the perfect earth. Not a stain of sin marks the harmony and peace of a perfect society. Not a beer at nor an unkind look or word. Love welling up from every heart meets a kindred response in every other heart.

And benevolence marks every act. Their sickness shall be no more, nor ache, nor a pain, nor any evidence of decay, not even the fear of such things. Think of the pictures of comparative health and beauty of human form and feature that feature that you have ever seen, and know that the perfect humanity will be still surpassing loveliness. The inward purity and mental and moral perfection will stamp and glorify every radiant countenance.

Such will the earth society be, and weeping bereaved ones will have their tears all wiped away when thus they realize the resurrection work complete and the Revelation 21:4. I think we will rejoice in this vision and in this promise that we have. Spending a few minutes on the importance of vision, I want to read from reprint 4934. The Greater of our faith, the more earnest should be our zeal in the race for the prize set before us.

If by God’s grace we discern with clear vision the goal of glory, honor and immortality in association with our Redeemer in the glorious work of his messianic kingdom of a thousand years, what manner of persons are you to be in all holy living and godliness while awaiting the consummation? What a beautiful paragraph, and this is even regarding in our lives, and I’m glad that we have some young people here, some students, and I think it is important just to draw a parallel. When you go to study for something you have that vision of what you want to be in life, what you want your life to be.

And of course, it’s not only about a career, but how do you want to spend a few years that you have, what kind of lifestyle you want to have, and having that vision enables you to study, and Justin was telling me yesterday how many exams he has and how hard it is to study, and I spent some time with Jonathan, was nice talking with you, and I think it’s great because having a vision of who you want to be in life enables you to study and to go through all of this.

And probably they don’t feel that hard anymore, and the same is about our life and our spiritual welfare as well. Having a vision of where we will be one day enables us to fight the battle of faith as well. Postal Paul when he was before King Agrippa, he told him about the vision that he received from the Lord and the purpose of that vision. We’ll read just a few scriptures here.

This is the vision, of course. Apostle Paul quotes what he was told. It says, but rise and stand up thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people and from Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee to open their eyes and to turn them from the darkness to light. So we see God telling him why he’s called, almost giving him a vision of the purpose of why he was called, and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness and sin and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me, and he says, where Pano King Agrippa was not, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.

Can we imagine Apostle Paul saying that with so much confidence that I received that vision and I was not disobedient to that vision? And it just gives us strength and to know that similar to Apostle Paul, we received the same vision and the same mission and whatever we can do, in whatever part we can do, let’s do it. So we won’t be. We’ll be able to say, like Apostle Paul at the end of our lives, that we were not disobedient to the heavenly vision. Prophet Daniel wrote about the and that I was thinking about Apostle Paul.

That enabled Apostle Paul to say that everything is a loss for him and he considers everything as garbage compared to the heavenly vision that he received. Daniel 12:3. We read that if we are faithful that they shall be wise, shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they shall turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever again. The concept of turning people to righteousness. This is what Jesus said when he said that you will do greater things.

He pointed to this great work that Apostle Paul was given in each one of us, and of course, in the future as well, and this vision and hope will help us and will fully understand what Apostle Paul said when he says, rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I tell you, rejoice. Because this vision gives us that joy, gives us that satisfaction, and you all know this.

This is not anything new. But joy stands for Jesus first, others second, and yourself last, and if we go back to that vision that Peter had on the mountain of transfiguration, that’s what Peter did. He even. He put himself all the way at the bottom.

He put Jesus first, others, and then he forgot about himself, and I think that is the message that that is the normal reaction of somebody who receives the Holy Spirit in a true, an honest heart.

Where is no vision. The people perish. Perish. In this context doesn’t necessarily mean that people die. Other translations say that people are without order.

Actually that’s the Romanian main translation, and others say the same. Or that people cast off restraint. It simply means that without a revelation of God, without a godly vision, how their life can be a purposeless life. It means that people lose their strength, less zeal, and probably the things of the world can overcome and more worries and being overcharged by the things of the world.

And that’s what it says, that the stronger the vision will be, the more encouraged will be. Brethren. You know that somebody said, I have a dream, and there was Martin Luther King. Imagine that for the fact of.

For the thousands of years, people were segregated by the color of the skin, and here somebody rises and says that I have a dream that my four little children would one day live in a nation where they will be not judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. Can we imagine the vision that he had to be able to break that barrier that was built there for thousands of years, and of course his dream came true.

And we can say that partially true, because even if that prejudice, as we said that was built, he did not disappear, and will not disappear until sin will completely be removed. But the same for us as we see many people, not only him, but many people that did many reforms in the this world, they did it because they had these visions and they accomplished them, and the same for us, and our vision is based on something true. It’s based on something that’s solid.

And we know that the Creator himself will perform this work, and the question is, do we make this vision a reality for us? Do we let this vision lead our lives and change our lives, that when we wake up in the morning, we’ll be able to say, like my morning resolve, my earliest star I desire shall be. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? We should be able to look beyond the daily affairs or the daily experiences or the daily pains that we have and put things in perspective.

And we should just think that this is another day toward the glorious kingdom that we are hoping for. We also have that vision that every valley should be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low. The crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places smooth, and actually, that was a scripture that he quoted as well. Martin Luther Brother Andrei talked about last Sunday about Habakkuk 2, 3.

For the vision is yet for an appointed time. But at the end it shows speak and not lie. Though it teary, wait for it, because it will surely come. He will not tarry, and if, if we think about this, if we think about the Dark Ages and how little the faithful Christians had, and if we look at the time that we are living today, what a blessing it is to be able to live at the time of the end.

Because you will speak at the time of the end, and though it tearing my tearing my feel that it takes too long, and maybe life experiences can just be so many that we maybe lose a little bit sight of this vision. But the promise it is that if it feels like it will tearing, it will not, and our Heavenly Father knows better when to bring and what to accomplish in His.

Actually, I was listening this week. There is a very beautiful Christian song in his time. Very beautiful song. First John 3. 3.

All who have this hope in him purify themselves just as he is pure. This vision will lead us to pure ourselves and to separate ourselves from the world. I was thinking about Hebrews 11:13, as we conclude this about the apostle Paul goes through the ancient world is that lived, and he says that all these died in faith without receiving the promises. But having seen and welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

And when we think of us that they just saw them from these prophecies, saw these visions that they were given from a far distance. But we don’t see them anymore. We are living in the middle of them, and actually, probably some of them are already fulfilled what they were looking for and the purpose of this Apostle Paul continues to say that since we have and we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Brethren, let’s use everything that we have, and let’s let the promises and the vision of the kingdom lead our lives as well. The kingdom is truly at hand, and we’ll Conclude with Romans 8:35.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness or danger or sword. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any power, neither the height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. May the Lord bless and help each one of us.

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