Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.. (Proverbs 29:18)
Now other versions of this verse read in various ways so understandably you get some varying versions, but there is a similarity between the earlier and the latter part of this verse. That is to say the happy one follows the law and by law we’re not referring to the legislative structures made by man in various ways, but to the law of the Lord. That’s why a word from the Lord (remember, in essence, that is what the law is) can make all the difference.
When you talk of anything prophetic though it can usher an awed gaze of wonder at something that is presumably out there and so awesome that mere mortals only dream of ever witnessing it. Sometimes we invest more mystical magical stuff onto spiritual concepts than they require. If we get hung up on the method of revelation, then we can miss out on the substance of the revelation and the steps we need to take after that. What is worse, though, is having no insight into God’s way at all, that’s why those without a Word from the Lord are likely to just carry on their own way.
This is an apt description of cultures around the world today. Despite being given God’s Word in the law to guide them to Jesus to know the way to God, there’s a rejection of this package in favour of pursuing individual fancies. Yet where God’s Word helped keep us on the straight and narrow with a path set before us and a purpose in mind, forsaking that gives us the broadway option where anything goes.
So it’s no surprise that as we reject God’s guidelines for sexual purity and fulfilment all manner of deviancies are let loose in society awaiting normalisation despite the harrowing effects they do on the structure of society. We reject God’s guidelines for life and allow the senseless killing of millions whether aborted, through unjust warfare, corrupt business practices, polluting pursuits to fill pockets and even the dehumanising treatment of those reaching their golden years and active consideration of ways of ‘ending the suffering’ which is another way for putting someone down as if they’re an animal.
Literally anything goes when we neglect God’s word – where there is no guide, where there is no vision from God as to how things should be is it any wonder we go blind. We literally do not know where we’re going and so follow anyway that seems pleasing to us whatever the consequences and however ineffective that path is.
This is not to say God’s guidelines and restraints are to be seen as crushing the human condition. On the contrary, finding God’s way helps us find out way. Our way to life, our way to love, our way to labour. Realising all of who we are and what we are capable of doing in wonderful, challenging, stretching and fulfilling ways is always on the mind of God. To be conformed into His image would require us to go beyond everything we’ve ever taken for granted about who we are and who better to guide us to that than the One who created us in the first place.
That is why the rejection is so serious, because in as much as there is an effort to convince people that this liberal way is far better, the reality is that people are spiritually worse off. In as much as their gratifications are temporarily satiated, the deep hunger remains. In as much as we feel we’ve achieved independence, we discover the harsh cold climes of isolation away from the source of life. No material enrichment, rights-packed, power-filled brochure can ever fill that which remains when we reject the vision God sets before us in His Word.
It is a word from God that gives us an insight into what He sees so we can take the necessary steps towards them full of praise and thanksgiving for it. If we depend on His Word through life’s journey, the deal is that we will be lead to the way of God where there is fullness of joy and eternal pleasures at His right hand. So it’s no longer something to make a big deal out of in a charismaniac setting, but a substantive guide relevant for where we are in the quest to Him. Thanks be to God that what was a Word written in tablet so long ago took on flesh and lived with us and humbly laid out what it was to be ordered by what God outlines. He now awaits the time when all those visions will be fully realised and we likewise can wait with Him if we choose to be lead by the Word that liberates us from the consequences of life without Him (aka death).
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 