“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” So goes the wise proverb. But it is not just any vision for our lives that ultimately rescues us. It is the vision that our Creator has for us that will serve as the spiritual Rock and Foundation upon which to build our lives.
His vision for us? Nothing less than, as His offspring, to be His heirs and beacons of the Light that He is. His purpose from all eternity is to fully pour Himself out into us His children–that we “might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph 3:19).
But not that we should be a Dead Sea with no outflow. No. But so that He can pour Himself out of us. And that water, His Spirit, will become springs of everlasting love, joy, and peace, poured out on the thirsty ground. We are to let the “love from above flow down and through” us to others (See post “Love from Above–Down and Through”).
That is God’s vision for us. That is a special calling. And now He waits for us to arouse ourselves out of slumber and arise from the dead–arise from the vanity of thoughts that do not share His vision for us.
We who have been born from above have become the “children of God” or the sons and daughters of God. For we “have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). And we know that our Father is the “King of glory.” And we know that the sons and daughters of a king are princes and princesses.
We, then, as His children, are the princes and princesses of the Kingdom of God. This is how God looks at us! And so now we should look at each other with the love and respect given to an heir to the throne of the King. In fact, this is our major responsibility as children of the King–to “let the love of God be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” that dwells within us.
Look–the most practical way that God has of loving humankind on an everyday basis is through us, His princes and princesses. If we are truly His children, then we will put away all of the selfish pettiness and start loving each other. And if we have a tough day where the love is stopped up and can’t get flowing, we’ll call on Him and ask Him to melt our hearts and get that love from above flowing again.
His princes and princesses will lead out by example. They will exemplify their Father’s personality traits. They will be faithful ambassadors of Him, showing the world the Love that God is. They will stride forth matter-of-factly, shining forth as “lights in the midst of the selfish darkness.
And those that sit in darkness will look up from the mundane mire and see this light shining into their dark world of no-love. They will see and hear and feel this light of love-from-above, and they at first will not comprehend it. But as we keep shining, eventually they will awaken out of the night-slumber and will seek the light of love themselves.
“Love from above–down and through” has turned into my motto or credo. Some may wonder where I got it from.
Human beings have one major need: to be loved, especially someone who can give them sincere, pure “love from above.” The love I’m talking about is agape love, or God’s love. And so we humans are looking, looking incessantly for someone that can love us with the love from above.
You take a group of people sitting around over there; they are a microcosm of the entire human race and its condition of “not being loved.” And so we wait and wait–sometimes impatiently–for someone to love us. Some wait their whole life for someone to really love them. And I’m not talking about just romantic love here. I’m talking about the loneliness and the longing solitude and the sadness it can entail. I’m referring to the utter frustration of a friendless existence.
The old adage is true: “Give and it shall be given.” In order to really be loved, we must love them first. Give love to others, and love will be given to you.
Why is that so universally difficult for humans to do? Because the “love” we are talking about–the kind of love everyone is craving, is a spiritual thing that is not in a person’s natural state of existence. Humans cannot love the way they want to be loved because their old nature is selfish. And herein lies the frustration. Mankind is subjected to this by their Creator in hopes that they will return to God for an operation (Romans 8:20).
God is hoping that we will check ourselves into His spiritual hospital and get a heart transplant. Humans in their original earthly state have an old selfish heart and mind. It must be taken out and a new heart and a new spirit from must take its place.
The Great Physician has a stark operating table for this spiritual procedure. And just like our hesitance to go “under the knife” in a physical surgery, so we are hesitant to submit to this spiritual procedure. The operating table is the cross of Christ. It is there that we die with Him, are buried with Him, and through belief in His resurrection, we receive a new heart and new spirit that keeps His laws.
This is how to get that “love from above” flowing on “down and through” us to others. Every thing that blocks His love from flowing through us–every negative aspect like hatred, bitterness, revenge, fear, selfishness, greed, ungratefulness, desiring other people’s things–all these things must die out and be replaced with His Spirit. In fact, in God’s eyes they already have died out. “Knowing this that our old man is crucified with Christ” (Romans 6:6). And God is raising up His sons and daughters, His princes and princesses, to be the channels of the “Love from above” for these last days–to be the channels of Himself, His very essence.
Yes, we as God’s children, as His spiritual offspring, as His mortal heirs of all that He has, is, or ever shall be–yes, we are walking down a long road to get to his Celestial City.
And it is a tough, lonely road at times, fraught with danger and temptation. Our great poet/prophet/King David knew of the perils of this walk we are on. “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” (Psalm 23:4). Here he places the very road we must travel directly through a valley, which is a low place where death’s shadow casts its silhouette on our every step.
Yesterday family, friends, and I are sitting just inside the dry sand on the beach of Waimea Bay. Quicksilver camera crews are hooked up and ready to film. It’s 6:00 a.m., an hour before sunrise.
It’s the Eddie Big Wave Surfing Competition, and we feel the mist of the white froth kiss our cheeks, and as we talk, we begin to see the waves and their turbulence rushing towards us. The waves are pounding the beach not 50 feet in front of us.
My daughter Hannah and I are ironically, not speaking about water, ocean, waves, or anything remotely wet. Somehow we get off into dreams-about-flying–where you are in the air, moving about without benefit of a flying-machine.
“You’ve had that dream?” she asks.
“You would be surprised at all the people with similar dreams. I’ve talked to many people who have had a dream where they are lighter than air and fly around. It’s pretty common. What was your dream like?” She’s becoming animated and her smile outshines the breaking light that now kisses the tops of the waves.
“I don’t know exactly how to talk about it. In the dream I raise up and have the sensation of staying just above my regular body. It is an incredibly beautiful feeling–no worries, no cares. I guess you’d call it levitating.” She laughs a little girl joy-laugh, free for now to confide in me something very precious to her.
She laughs. “What do you think it means?” she asks.
Anyway, the conversation shifted to waves, or rather to the lack of proper big waves to hold the competition. And so we all drifted back to our cars and went to get some breakfast.
that you have inklings about.
from the earthy chains of flesh.
being that celestial that you are called to be.
breathing into eternal lungs that which breeds immortal thought.
Oh, you have had glimpses.
the precious seeds of immortality.
Upon coming to the stark realization that we have been duped and deceived–especially in the deeper matters of the heart–we tend to throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water. How could I have been such a fool? we ask ourselves, and then we turn our back on the offending entity.
Burned by a woman, a man can become bitter and cynical towards women in general, looking at the entire gender as if they all were like the one that hurt him. Of course, it can work both ways.
The same scenario can happen in a religious sense. It happened to me. I was raised by a mother who took me to church and taught me Bible verses. Mom and Dad took us to church. But the things spoken by the preacher–those things of hope, love, and joy in God–these things were not happening in my home life. Dad and Mom could not get along. The fussing and fighting led to a divorce.
The brunt of all this came crashing down on me at 11 years of age. “Uh, son. Your mother is leaving today with your sister. We are going to leave it up to you. Which one of us do you want to live with?
“What?” I stood there in shock. Just yesterday, my name was in the newspaper on top of the standings, the Little League Baseball’s leading hitter–the batting champ! Known and loved by all. And now my Mom is moving out and I’ve got to choose which one to be loyal to basically. I mean, this is 1958, for crying out loud. It’s supposed to be like a Leave it to Beaver type family.
So I looked at Mom, standing there clutching my 8 year old sister, and I looked at Dad, standing there resolute, firm-jawed, justified in his ossified stand, and not wanting Dad to be alone, I chose to stay with Dad.
And that was the last time I went to a church house for several years. Ten years later at 21, right after I got back from Vietnam, I started in earnest my quest for the truth–about God, about world affairs, about everything–but I did not go back to the denominational churches. I turned first to the major Eastern religions. But I did not find in them what I knew was true even then, in that the old self had to die. The old nature that we are born with was selfish and it needed to go. But nowhere in the Eastern religions is this problem directly addressed.
I began to drift into nihilism’s abyss of nothingness, and had the sickening thought that the truth was this: that there was no absolute truth.
And he said, yes, that it has already died on the cross with Christ along with all its sins and sinning nature. And if you believe in Christ’s resurrection in you, you can be raised to walk in a newness of life.
And I went, Wow! This is life changing. This is what I’ve been searching for. And that very day started a 14 year missionary period in my life.