Sunday Message – Month of Entering Canaan 3 17/9/06

<Acts26:9-23>

VISION – THE LANGUAGE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

• A lot of people are merely asking God to fill or anoint them with the Holy Spirit
or let them hear the voice of the Holy Spirit when they pray. Their prayers are
often filled with mysticism and are subjective. Some of them always prophesise
but the things they prophesised never came true
• Some people are always praising God and asking God to fill them with the Holy
Spirit. However, they cannot let go of their own thoughts and determination
• Do they really receive the anointment and language of the Holy Spirit?
• They do not truly understand the Holy Spirit. What then, is the Holy Spirit?
1) Holy Spirit is Love
• Holy Spirit is here to display the great love of God. People who can hear
the Holy Spirit have love because they have received God’s covenant.
The best gift from God is His covenant
2) Holy Spirit is Power
• The Holy Spirit enables a person who is disheartened or has lost all hope
to stand up again
• The power of the Holy Spirit will come upon us when we are willing to die
and resurrect with Christ
• Some people say that they have power. However, what they have are
their self-will and not the power that comes from death and resurrection
• The power of the Holy Spirit will come only when we let go of ourselves
3) The Holy Spirit gives us Hope
• Though it seems like we do not have anything now but he who finds
hope in God will know that God has already prepared everything for him
• It is similar to how Abraham believed in God when God told him that his
children would be more than the stars in the sky, even when he was
childless then
• Jesus Christ said that those who believe in Him will do greater things
than Him. This gives us hope and expectation
• Those without hope have not heard the language of the Holy Spirit
• A Holy Spirit filled person will have the greatest hope, regardless of his
condition. He has hope because of God’s love and covenant
• We must have vision if we really want to receive conviction from the Holy Spirit
and to hear the Holy Spirit’s voice
• Vision always goes together with the Holy Spirit and it comes from God’s love.
Thus, we can live in joy when we have vision
• A person with vision will be able to stand up when he faces hardship and
trouble. Paul is such a person. He received the vision from God, knowing that
he will testify God in Rome. Thus, he was not afraid when he faced the storm
and was stoned by people.
• Vision will motivate us and make us not give up
• How can we hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, receive the anointment and
power of the Holy Spirit if we do not have vision?
• The conclusion of vision: Vision will make a person live and be filled with hope
• A person with vision knows that he is only a traveller on Earth and he knows
what God has prepared for him
• A person without vision is “dead”. He will be disheartened as soon as he faces
any problem
• Therefore, a person without vision will never receive the language of the Holy
Spirit nor its power. Thus, he will definitely be corrupted.
• A person with vision will see the fulfilment of things that he has hoped for. E.g.
Joseph & Paul
• Let us pray today that we will restore the most accurate vision
• The Bible tells us that God’s people are corrupted because they do not have
vision

Read <Acts 26:9-23>

v9-11 In the past, Paul was only filled with ferventness and was never led by God
v18 This is the greatest vision God gives us
v19 We will not be disobedient if we have received the correct vision
v22 God will definitely help and protect those with vision

• All the things done by a person without vision are corrupted

• A person without vision will live with agony when he faces any problem
because he only tries to tackle the problem. He is not able to see that there are
blessings in his problems and that God can use his failures
• Therefore, a person without vision is not wise as he did not receive convictions
from God. True wisdom comes from God’s conviction
• A person without vision will not love and obey God because he does not know
what God is doing. His concern is only on the carnal and temporary things
• Therefore, a person without vision will not truly love others or be upright when
meeting others
• The Holy Spirit will not be able to build up a person’s spirituality, rationality,
emotions and character if that person does not have vision
• A person without vision is just a “typical person”. Thus, we really need to have
vision

1. Vision – the highest purpose

• Vision should become the highest purpose of a person
• We will remain weak, continue living in agony and get no answer if we
aren’t sure of our highest (i.e. only) purpose
1) Personal Evangelism
• The Holy Spirit will strengthen our hearts and spirit, enabling us to face
any problem if personal evangelism is our highest purpose
• We should not strive to make people understand and love us. We should
strive to tackle our disbeliefs and worries. With that, the Holy Spirit will
convict and direct us, strengthening our hearts and spirits
• We should liven up our lives. We can become the most blissful because
God loves us now. We can have hope because of God’s promises
 • We should tackle ourselves and not the environment

2) Family Evangelism
• If one of our highest purposes is family evangelism, we will see and
explain things differently when we face any family problem. Only then,
can we bless our family members and change their ‘hopelessness’ to
‘being hopeful’
• However, many a times, our purpose is only to make our family
members happier and the children more obedient. By doing this, we will
introduce legalism into the family, beating/ reprimanding our children
when they are disobedient
• If our purpose is not solely on family evangelism , we will be suffering
once we face a problem in the family because our concerns are only on
resolving that one problem
• However, if our purpose is on family evangelism, we will not fear the
safety of our family members. We will not be afraid even when our
children are sick or down with a high fever because we know that they
are protected by God
• Couples without covenant will start to quarrel or fight when their
children are sick
• God will definitely make our family blissful and beautiful if what we want
for our family is family evangelism, to live in God’s promise, and to serve
the Lord. Problems will bring greater testimonies.

3）Regional Evangelism
• We will not be too bothered by our social status or career success if our
purpose is placed on regional evangelism. Our concerns will only be how
much testimonies we are able to collect
• This is because we know that we can add on the testimonies in glorifying
God whether we are faced with good or bad things/situations
• This does not mean that we cannot have success in society. However, if
our purpose is not correct, the more successful we are, the greater the
bondage we will be in. Similarly, if we do not have vision, the more
relationships we have, the greater the bondage we will be in because we
will have more people to entertain

4）World Evangelism
• The reason for us to build a family or a church, to work and to rise
children is all for world evangelism
• We will become corrupted if we do not restored God’s highest standard
as stated in <Matt 28:18-20>

• Having a vision is very important

• We will use our failures when we have a vision
• We are able to pull ourselves up in the midst of problems if we have a vision
• Visions contain everything we ever need and we will only get the best
 • How then, can we have such a vision?
• In order for a person to have the most accurate vision, he will have to see
the greatest problem and greatest darkness daily

2．The greatest problem, the greatest darkness

• We will not have a vision if we do not see any problem
• Both Peter and Paul had seen problems. What sort of problems have they
seen and what must we see then?
• Our highest purpose will depend on the greatest problems that we are able
to see
1) The Greatest Problem: Problem of <Genesis 3>
(1) Everyone disbelieves → darkness, sins, authority of Satan <Gen 3:1-6>
• The greatest problem is not about having no food to eat. The
greatest problem is everyone disbelieves
• Jesus Christ did not ask Paul to solve the problem of food shortage.
He wants Paul to set free those with broken families
• The Lord asked Paul to lead people from darkness to the light, to
cleanse and set free those bounded by sins and to rescue people
from the authority of Satan
• However, nobody believes this. Not even those in the church. Thus,
this is the greatest problem and darkness
(2) People are being judged → mental illness <Gen 3:7-14>
• Those who disbelieve will face judgment and their sins are already
judged
• However, this does not only refer to matters after death. The hearts
and spirits of those who do not believe are already judged now
• Therefore, people will feel inferior, guilty, jealousy, hated, lousy, etc.
• Men’s hearts and minds are tortured. Satan’s accusation, lies and
persecution will only lead to mental illnesses
• As a result, man will begin to have insomnia, paranoia, or be in self-
denial etc
• Their paranoia and accusations received from Satan will develop in to
all kinds of mental illnesses because they cannot believe in the
promises given by God
(3) All the problems of the flesh and living <Gen 3:16-19>
• Mental illnesses will be passed on to the children
• We can tell that a person is having problems from their facial
expression even before they really have physical illnesses
• You cannot see any joy from their expressions. Their faces are filled
with inferiority and guiltiness. All these will slowly but surely develop
into physical/mental illnesses
• The problems of being accursed will worsen. They can see more and
more problems and illness on themselves and their family members
• Of course, we are not perfect and we face accusations too. However,
if we continue to receive grace even when we are accursed, it is
alright
 2) The greatest darkness: nobody has an answer for all these problems. The
church has no answer!
• The greatest darkness is not having all these problems but that nobody
has an answer
• By right, the people who know God should provide the answer. However,
even those in the church also do not believe. Thus, this is truly the
greatest darkness
• <Matthew 24:15> → This greatest problem and darkness has resulted
in the altar and believers losing God’s promise and vision!
• The believers do not want to hear message regarding God’s promise and
vision anymore. They are only interested in the theories of man
• The seriousness of this problem has reached a point where everyone is
in such darkness but they do not feel anything bad about it
• We are often in agony because of the little problems faced by our family
members. However, if we ourselves cannot receive grace or sustain our
lives, how can we expect our family members to do the same?
• If we do not have a vision and become more successful, we will be even
more bounded by our career. The words of our bosses will be many times
more important than God’s words spoken through the preacher or pastor. In
such a situation, we have become slaves to our companies
• Those who are still young should only start a relationship after receiving a
vision

3．The most accurate vision

* We won’t become disobedient to the vision from above only when we have
received the most accurate vision
• Paul said that he has not been disobedient to the vision from above. Thus,
he is able to testify to the king and has victories over many hardships.
However, this does not mean that Paul is a great person or one who can
really endure. It is because Paul had received the accurate vision.
• A lot of Missionaries gave up their missionary works because they did not
have an accurate vision to start off with
• The biggest problem of man is disbelief. Therefore, the most accurate vision
is to tackle ourselves first
• I want to love and believe in God even when the world does not do so
• We should not be afraid that nobody will follow us. We should be afraid that
we do not follow God
• We must really believe that God is with us. God wants to use those who
really believe
• In the church, we must have main streams who hold on to the same
covenant, use the same method (i.e. prayers) and receive the same vision,
as us
• They are God’s elite soldiers. When such people gather, a church is formed
• My bestowed grace and the main streams (God’s elite soldiers) → receive
the most evangelized family, most evangelized inheritance and most
evangelized ministry
 • The most evangelized family must believe in the covenant, and it is built by
the Holy Spirit. It will not fear any problems. Everything done will be relied
on God and the Holy Spirit
• The most evangelized inheritance is one where your career can be used by
God and to be used for the Gospel
• The most evangelized ministry is one that is centered upon lives and word
movement
• The most accurate vision must have the above system and sequence
* This is what Paul had done in <Acts>

Prayers and Sharing Topics

1. Confirm: Is it my highest purpose to have personal, family, regional
and world evangelism? If so, do I always receive the love of the Holy
Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit and the hope in the Holy Spirit
because of this “highest purpose”? Re-confirm the highest purpose in
your life that God has given you in your prayers this week

2. I must really understand that “greatest problem, greatest darkness”

in order to have better assurance of the highest purpose that God has
given me. Do I really understand the problem of <Gen 3>? Am I able
to connect all my problems with the problems of <Gen 3>? Is the
church’s darkness stated in <Matthew 24:15> real?

3. What calling do I receive after I’d confirmed the “greatest problem

and greatest darkness” in my personal life, my family, my region and
my era? What is the sequence of the vision that God has given me?
Please discover the accurate vision from above in your prayers this
week. How then should I obey and follow this vision with my current
timetable?