Earlier I had someone ask me about "the vision."  What is the future holding for us?  Where are we headed?  I love this question as I am all about seeing something great accomplished by God thru very normal and regular people.  What is the vision?  What a great question!!  

But it is also a many faceted question.  What is the vision for what? My life?  My church?  My family?  My world?  So i thought I'd take a few blog entries and write about the shape and substance of the vision that is at least a part of my heart.  Hopefully by the end we will have a very clear image of THE VISION.

Let me start this segment with my favourite subject... Kingdom.  Jesus told us that He'd come to introduce a literally earth shattering new reality, "The Kingdom of God." It is literally the "influence of God" upon earthly realities.  So when Jesus' ministry starts off He begins with this vision statement..."The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, release for the captives, sight for the blind and freedom for the oppressed.  To declare the year of the Lord's favour." Luke 4.

Whatever the vision God has given us it will flow from and apply THIS great aim of Jesus'.  Some movements emphasise one aspect to the detriment of the others but if we are to learn from Jesus, we will make sure everything we do emphasises all four so that we can genuinely see His holistic and practical Kingdom explode in human lives in all of its facets.

Good news to the poor?  Evangelism.  Witness.  By the poor Jesus is talking about the economically poor because they are often associated with the most needy and broken and therefore most open in society but I am not so sure about this anymore.  The modern welfare state has separated that linkage and created "impoverished consumers."  I think the poor ARE closer to God's heart because the fall out of the brokenness of the creation land disproportionately on their heads and our Father is not dispassionate about this tragedy.  He seems to have  a special place for them.  But this Good News is only GOOD for those who are open.  Whether you are rich or poor... it is the open heart that is hungry for rescue that finds in Jesus the news that changes everything and brings a life re-born into Life.

Release for the captives?  We are opposed by a very real enemy.  There IS an enemy of your soul that longs for your destruction because it wounds the One he loathes.  In this battle we need authority and power to fight back.  We need weapons to wage war.  We need keys to unlock chains.  The hearts that are shredded with unforgiveness and scars need balm that brings restoration.  This image was particularly stark to a nation under the thumb of Rome.  The tyrant must be cast down.  They interpreted it nationally.  Jesus meant it personally.  Do you know that "release" or do you live in bondage?

Sight for the blind?  This Kingdom is no gnostic fantasy.  It is not just a spiritual "revelation" because it impacts real bodies.  Sickness and its destruction has never been a part of God's design for His creation.  It is an anomaly that infected things as a result of sin and the Fall.  So when His Kingdom comes to bring rescue from this virus it would naturally displace the reality of sickness in our bodies.  All effects of The Fall are fair game for this Kingdom bazooka!  He came to destroy the works of the devil. Every result of The Fall is one of the enemy's works.  If we are people of The Kingdom Jesus came to announce then healing will accompany our lives.

Freedom for the oppressed?  Justice.  The ones who are squeezed and crushed by the weight of human power systems that perpetuate cycles of oppression in order to insure long term supremacy for one party over another are of keen interest to our God.  He is passionately opposed to these power systems that eventually become embedded in the structures and networks of a society.  Human equality and justice are things of emotion for Yahweh.  He is not stoic about it all, it cuts and hurts His divine heart.  Thus His Kingdom will of course invade and confront and bring down those systems that diminish the humanity and significance of one as opposed to another. Do you weep at the injustice of this world?  Does the advantage of the strong cause you to cry out for the weak?  It does so for your God. 

So what is the vision?  To see my city and my sphere of relationship taste the stuff of His Kingdom.  The vision is to broker His Kingdom into my world.  

How?  Well, that's easy... when asked that question Jesus said the catalytic power of faith is like a tiny little mustard seed which created an enormous tree in which birds could perch.  But the key to small mustard seeds becoming trees?  You gotta plant them.  As we step out and risk (aka plant the seed of faith however weak and tiny) and put a demand on This "Kingdom come" when we see the poor, the captive, the blind or the oppressed in our world we actually are walking in Jesus' vision... to change the world itself.