April 4, 2008 Where There Is No Vision Kathleen Maples

Pro 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is
he.

What is the one thing that Christians who plan to make it to heaven need more
than any other? It's a combination of two things, actually. They need an ever
increasing Divine revelation of who Jesus Christ is which can only be had as the
Holy Spirit gives it to the hungry Christian. Hunger is required to have this
revelation. The casual, "this far and no farther" Christian will never have this.
They will never seek after it. But it is essential. Necessary. It's very dangerous to
any body of believers who do not have this vision. What this Scripture means is
when people are spiritually blind, and do not have their own personal revelation
of who Jesus Christ is, there will be some vital things lacking. Remember, this
Holy Bible was written originally in Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek (New
Testament), so the King James Version, beloved though it is, is not the original
Bible. In the Hebrew, that word "perish" means to loosen, or let go that which was
previously held as truth, to lack control, or throw off restraint, making one naked
or vulnerable to judgment.

One translation says "When the Word of God is not preached, the people perish"
and that is from 1568, Bishops' translation. Another translation says "Without
guidance from God, law and order disappears, but God blesses everyone who
obeys His law." Another says "without revelation, the people run wild but one who
keeps the law will be happy."

Those who do not have a clear understanding of the Lord will not fear Him, will
not reverence Him, and they will hold His truth in unrighteousness and be light
and casual about the Holy things of God. Some can be arrogant, and harsh and
critical about how they deal with God's people. True faith, combined with
understanding, will cause people to tremble at His Holy Word, and reverence Him
in His House. They will also love Him enough that they will refuse to do what they
know offends Him-not because somebody laid a list of do's and don'ts on them.
How can we know what offends Him and hurts His heart if we don't take time to
get in His Word and pray for understanding, (Psa_119:18; Jer_33:3, Pro_28:5 ) so we
can learn?

So, let's travel back through time, and see a vivid illustration of what happens
when God's people lose sight of Him. I pray the Lord's Holy Spirit will lead us,
open our understanding, and challenge our hearts. God grant us grace to yield
ourselves fully to Your Truth..and it's eternal Lordship. (Joh_14:6).

When God brought His people out of Egypt, He took them into the wilderness, led
them to an impossible place. It was a place where there was no hope and no help
lest GOD intervene and rescue. He did. He called the leadership out and up into the
heavenlies where Moses got a revelation of heavenly things. God gave him
instructions, according to a heavenly pattern on how to build a dwelling place
where God could come among His people and minister to their needs. Everything
had to be prepared according to the pattern He revealed to Moses of heavenly
things. Repeatedly He warned Moses not to deviate from the pattern he was shown
on the mount during that 40 days He was shut in with God. They were kept out of
the promises of God for 40 years because of failure to believe and obey God. When
they finally did enter in, it was their children who went in. The Tabernacle, or Tent
of Meeting, went with them and was finally settled at a place called Shiloh, which
means rest. (Joshua 18:1) That takes us to 1 Samuel 1.

Shiloh was to become the center of worship and ministry to and for the Lord and
His people for the next several generations. By the time of Hannah, around 1064
BC, it had degenerated. There had arisen a generation of people who did not know
the Lord, after the death of Joshua. These had not seen the miracles, had not seen
the power of God on display as had their forefathers. Judges 2 tells us, in verse 10
after the elders who outlived Joshua died, the people began to do evil, just as God
told Moses they would. They began to follow the ways of the world and forsake
God. Time and time again, they would do right in their own eyes, and get into
trouble, and have to cry out to God and He was faithful to send them a deliverer,
but that deliverer would also judge them and warn and instruct them.

Things continued to deteriorate in Israel. Jdg_21:25 tellls us in those days there was
no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes. The
Tabernacle was in Shiloh, and the presence of God was indeed still there. The
priesthood was corrupt, however. The people under a backslidden priest had
begun to despise the offerings of the Lord. The conduct of the leadership caused the
people to sin. The priest, Eli, was lazy, spiritually blind and selfish. He did not
know God, nor could he instruct the people in the ways and laws of God with any
credibility because his sons were profaning the sacrifices, and carrying on
adulterous affairs with no shame. They were taking what belonged to the Lord and
consuming it themselves.

In Leviticus, and Exodus, there were several offerings described, both how they
were to be performed and what they were for. One, in particular, was the peace or
felllowship offering. This meant the worshiper who come up to the Tabernacle to
present themselves to the Lord, would a free-will gift offering to the Lord, brought
by the one who would offer it. They would bring a bull, male or female, from their
herd, without defect, to the priest, and he would kill it at the door of the tabernacle
and sacrifice it as the Lord had instructed.

Concerning the peace offering, God was to have the fat, or most choice portion
(the fat) of the animal, which was to be burnt by fire on the altar with the burnt
offering. The priest was to have the breast part, and the priests sons the right
shoulder. The worshiper was to partake of the sacrifice, eating what was left. It
was normally divided up between the the worshiper and his family. This
symbolized a sharing between God, his mediator, and the worshiper. It symbolized
fellowship, sharing, with God, and His mediator, the priest. This was a very
special sacrifice.

1Sa_2:12-17 tells us Eli's sons were wicked men who didn't know the Lord, and didn't
care to follow the instructions of the Lord. When the people would come to the
Tabernacle to offer their offerings, they would send servants to the worshiper and
demand the Lord's portion which was the fat, or best of the sacrifice, and take it by
force if necessary. They were forbidden under the law from eating any fat from
any animal. This word means the richest or choice part of the animal. This
disheartened the people, and left them with great discouragement and dread when
they came to the Tabernacle. There was a remnant in Israel that did love God, and
want what was right but it was hard to come to the Tabernacle and see such
ungodliness flourishing. Eli received a report from the people about his son's
conduct, and affairs with the women who served in the Tabernacle. He goes to his
sons, with a feeble reprimand, and tells them, if you sin against a man, the judge
(Eli) could help you, but if you sin against God, who can help you? (1Sa_2:25). He
did not have a heart for the people-not even his own children. When Israel sinned
under the leadership of Moses, he went on his face before the Lord and pleaded for
them. They sinned against God and Moses interceded. Not Eli. He didn't even have
a burden for his own sons, and they would soon be destroyed for their sin. Because
they "profaned the sacrifice of the Lord" God would never allow their sin to be
atoned for with sacrifice. (1Sa_3:14)

In the midst of all this apostasy and disobedience, there comes a little woman
named Hannah. Her name means grace and mercy. Her husband had another
wife, who was her adversary. The Scripture says in 1Sa_1:6-7 her adversary
provoked her sore, to make her fret because the Lord had shut up her womb and
she could not bear children. Whenever she went to the house of the Lord, still
barren, her adversary provoked her. She would cry and not eat, even though her
husband who truly loved her, would offer her a double portion of the sacrifice that
he'd offered. Even under corrupt leadership, there was someone who wanted God.
There was a cry in her heart, and a hunger. She saw the sin in the Tabernacle and
in her nation of people. She comes into the Tabernacle, greived and heart broken.
She doesn't take her request to her husband, or to the priest. She goes straight to
God.

Eli is sitting by the post of the temple of the Lord, and he is able to see her as she
prays within her heart to the Lord. She doesn't speak out loud, but she does pour
out her heart, her desperate desire for new life, a new and consecrated life, to the
Lord. She didn't want a life for herself, she wanted a life that would be devoted to
the purposes and pleasure of the Lord Himself. No wonder He shut up her womb
until He could produce this cry in her heart. The priest judges by the sight of his
eyes, with his human reasoning, and accuses her of being drunk. He's so far from
God, he doesn't even recognize a broken and contrite spirit when he sees one on
display before him.

This woman comes into the Tabernacle with the taunts of her adversary ringing in
her ears, for it was a reproach on a woman who could not bear children for her
husband. Church, today, it's a reproach on the living God for his people to be
without the fruit of the Spirit manifested in their lives. She was hungry but could
not put this life within herself. Her adversary had many children. The world, the
devil, the flesh, and the carnal church world have many children. But those who
are born of the Spirit and full of the Spirit of Christ are few in comparison. What
conditions she had to press through to get her petition before the Lord. Something
happened in that altar that day she prayed, because God saw the sincerity of her
heart, the desperate desire within her, and her cry come up before Him on His
throne. He answered her prayers and granted her a child she named Samuel.
Surely, her faith in God was strong for when this child was 2 or 3 years old and
fully weaned she returned him to the temple, to serve under a corrupt priesthood,
trusting that God would keep this child for himself. God kept Samuel's heart, and
life holy. That gives me hope for my children in this wicked and adulterous
generation.

Eli is a type of religion, and a backslidden believer who has lost his vision or
understanding of who God is. As a result, he moves without fear, or concern and so
do his children and a large number of the people of Israel. He has no burden for the
people, not even his own children. He has no concern for the honor of God. God
sends a man to warn Eli, and Eli reacts with calm acceptance, without humbling
himself and repenting. He just accepts it, and goes on. How complacent he was.
That makes me want to cry out to God and ask WHY did Eli react this way? Was he
so hard? How could he hear such dire warnings directed at not only himself but his
future descendants and just go on like nothing had changed? He condemned his
own children! Then God speaks to the child Samuel, and reveals coming judgment
on Eli's house for judgment must begin at the house of God. (1Pe_4:17; Eze_9:6) He
also reveals Himself to Samuel by His Word. (1Sa_3:21).

The sad thing is, not only Eli and his 2 sons paid a price for this complacent
attitude toward sin. The Philistines come after Israel, and in the battle, 34,000
men died. The Bible says in 1 Sam 4:10 that there was a very great slaughter of the
men of Israel. This is such a tragic story. First they go up against their enemies,
and are smitten before them and lose 4,000 men. (1 Sam 4:2) Do they humble
themselves before the Lord and ask what happened? Didnt' He warn them by the
mouth of Moses the only way or time they would be smitten before their enemies is
when He allowed it because of sin? They didn't cry out to God in repentance. They
didn't seek direction, forgiveness, or to clear up that which had caused God to
allow this. No, they in their arrogant blindness go get the ark of the covenant-
turning that which represents the presence of God and send it before them.

1Sa 4:4 So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the
covenant of the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims: and the two sons
of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

They send a message to Eli at Shiloh, and have the ark taken out of the Tabernacle
and brought to them, thinking arrogantly this would ensure their victory. They
had taken the very thing that provided a connection, a place of offered forgiveness
to to the humble and repentant, and fellowship with a Holy God, and turned it into
an idol. To their minds, the ark was the power, not the God who had chosen to
dwell among His people. This is idolatry and their error would be very costly.

Truly, where there is no understanding, no vision of the holiness of God, the purity
of God, men and women will perish because they will throw off restraint, they will
neglect the truth they once knew and they will do as seems good in their own eyes.
God forsook Shiloh and turned it over to the enemy because it was defiled.

Jer 7:9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto
Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;
Jer 7:10 And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say,
We are delivered to do all these abominations?
Jer 7:11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?
 Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.
Jer 7:12 But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first,
and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

That same God who told Jeremiah to warn his people Israel generations later, not
long before the armies of Babylon would come in just as the Philistines had and
conquer and destroy, that this kind of behavior He will judge harshly. The world
needs to see Jesus Christ manifested and on display in the House of God, in the
lives of those who name His name. It's dangerous to play games with God, or to
allow flesh to try to take the place of the Holy Spirit and run things. Achan caused
his family to be destroyed in Joshua 7 because he disobeyed and took what was to
be set apart for God. 3000 men died at Ai because Achan sinned. When we sin, it
does have an affect on others. When we say one thing and do another, it does
damage. It gives the enemy a place to attack us, and in the process wound others
who see our inconsistency.

We see much of the religious world in the same condition today. The glory has
departed, the services are dry and predicatable, the young people are leaving in
droves because they haven't seen this exciting, magnificent, breath taking Christ
on display. But there is hope! There is a way to change all that but we can't do it.
We have to let HIM be Lord, and trust Him to change it. HOW? Now comes the
good part, the best part!!!! Look up, beloved, with hopeful, trusting eyes to your
Savior, who can change this!!!

We are to represent Christ, and we cannot do this without fully yielding ourselves
into His mighty hand and learning Him as the Holy Spirit would teach us...if we
just present ourselves to Him, a living sacrifice, He would fill us and make us holy
and acceptable to the Lord and prove what is right and good with God. In
presenting ourselves as a sacrifice to the Lord, WE don't LOSE, NO!! We GAIN!!!
Paul said to live is Christ and to die is gain!! Gain what? you ask, HIM is the
answer! If we die to self, and this world, we gain HIM...

Php 3:7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Php 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them
but dung, that I may win Christ,
Php 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but
that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
Php 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his
sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

This is what it is all about...everything we have in this life, our traditions,

thoughts, ways, plans, our whole self needs to be brought to Him so He can kill it.
It's filthy rags in His holy eyes anyway. He is so much more than we are, so
different than we are. Everything we would hold on to and consider necessary is
just another thing that separates us from Him! But to give all that up to know
HIM, to have Him, to possess and be possessed BY HIM, that is the supreme prize!
It's the high calling of God on each and every one of us! That when He comes, we
are found IN Him, not having our own righteousness (Isa_64:6) which would be
filthy rags, but having HIS righteousness which is perfect and complete covering
us. That we may understand, be intimately acquainted with Him through faith,
and a divine work of the Holy Ghost He sent to dwell with and in us. His
resurrection was a mighty miracle, a supernatural work of the Spirit who
quickened Him and brought Him victorious out of the tomb.

Php 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are
before,
Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

God told Abraham not to fear, that HE was his shield, and exceeding great reward.
All through the pages of Scripture the Lord God of Hosts holds up the pattern, the
illustration, the revelation of His precious, beloved Son for us. He lifts Him up,
invites us to come in through His Son, for fellowship and for life. He wants us to
allow His Spirit to make us conformable to the image of His Son, to be like Jesus.
We can't get there just by reading the Scriptures, or some new age "christian"
book on Jesus. It's a work of the Holy Spirit that can only happen when we bring
ourselves to the altar, hungry to see and know Him. It was the Priest who killed
the sacrifice and offered it to God. Is not Christ our High Priest? Every sacrifice
had to be brought to the door of the Tabernacle to be slain, then put on the altar
and offered. Jesus is the Door. We can't crucify ourselves anymore than He could
Himself. But if we sincerely hunger and thirst to know Him, that attraction, that
lure to the prize of just knowing HIM, will become more vital to us than those
things we clutch like little children, not wanting to release.

When we let God and come to the Door, and the Holy Spirit takes the sacrifice (us)
and shows us a revelation of Jesus Christ-just like He did Isaiah (Isa_6:1-7) it's
going to kill us. It's going to show how pathetic and how foolish are all our
attempts to "dress holiness, look holiness, talk holiness, be holiness". All these
things are done in the name of religion, for the only way to truly be holiness unto
the Lord is to be filled with the Spirit of Jesus Christ-that precious Holy Ghost who
cares not for things of this world, but the souls of men, and that Jesus Christ be
glorified, and on display for this hurting and lost world to see. Then, the
motivation for what we do and how we look will be rooted in truth and reverence
for this Holy God we love because He has brought us down to despair and death by
showing us how hopelessly inadequate and different we are from Him, and yet He
loves us. We owe Him everything! We are fools if we hold back anything from His
Lordship! We give up the pathetic things of this temporary life that are corruptible
and He gives us that which is glorious and incorruptible-the knowledge of and
intimate friendship with Himself! What could be more precious? NOTHING!!!

Aren't you getting hungry to know Him? Aren't you dissatisfied with the same old
routine in church and not seeing any results? Aren't you tired of empty seats in the
House of God, while sin and the devil wreak havoc in the lives of those you know
and love? The secret power is knowing HIM!! The devil could not run over the
disciples, over Paul, because like he said "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who
are you?" The seven sons of Sceva in Acts 19 were just being religious but they
didn't know HIM. They hadn't surrendered to Him. Those who fully surrender to
HIM-when the devil comes, like Jesus said, he finds nothing in them he can exploit.
In short, he runs smack into a wall. The definition of insanity is for the church to
continue in her routine and expect different results. You watch the young people
flee out the doors as soon as they're old enough to do so, you see the services all
turn out pretty much the same. People let any excuse keep them out of the House of
God, because they feel they won't miss anything or it's not important for them to
be there. Occaisionally somebody will get a momentary relief and begin to cry and
get emotional and lift their hands to heaven, but the next day that pressure is back.
I'm sick of it all. Knowing Jesus Christ is the secret power and the secret place! The
Church can't show a needy world Christ if she doesn't know Him herself! That is
what the world needs to see is CHRIST on display in His house! That knowledge in
the hearts and minds of His Bride will put a glow on her face, a spring in her step,
a smile in her eyes, and confidence and authority in her words.

But, there is a cost. You must give up everything you are and count it as dung, so
you may know HIM and become as He is in this world. Being like Jesus will cost
you dearly. Do you love Him more than these things you hold on to? Is He not
more precious than anything else? YES....it takes faith to bring yourself to the
Door and trust that when He sees the sincerity of your heart, He will give you that
revelation of Himself that will kill the sacrifice. It will kill all hope of ever finding
anything good enough in yourself to bring to Him. It will kill all hope of ever
making it to heaven in your own strength or by religious works. It will kill all
desire to be anything but His.

Psa 27:5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his
tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
Psa 31:20 Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou
shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.

This is in Christ! He's the Rock! He's the strong tower the righteous run into and
are safe!

Psa 91:1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow
of the Almighty.

That place, beloved is in Jesus Christ-and in Him alone. He's calling us, if you hear
Him, please come, without delay...please come and see! Come and die, come and
know, come and find true life...and love and liberty and everything you will ever
need! It's all found in HIM.. Col 2:10 says we are complete in HIM. He is everything
we aren't, He has everything we lack, He is everything we need.

Rev 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And
let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.