For centuries the focus of the Church has been on Satan. People are more in fear of the devil than they are in possession of a reverential fear of the Lord. What we are totally failing to comprehend is the awesome, greatness of God. What we don't realize is that the devil can only attack a believer as long as there is an area in the believer's life that has not yet been brought into subjection to God. Any area where our intellect or will or emotions are still in control, where we are not surrendered to the will of God but think we can handle this area ourselves - that is where the enemy of our souls finds a target. Self is the weak spot in the armor. Once we have put the carnal man within down, and given the Spirit control in every area of our life, the enemy has no more avenue by which to attack us. Christ is living in and through us, and the devil must flee.

The traditions of men are just as difficult to overcome. "Why, we've always done it this way," "Everyone knows this is right," "How dare you criticize our worship." We have much tradition, but very little life. There is no shortage of form and ritual, pomp and circumstance, tried and trusted methods and techniques, but no anointing. Our traditions are what we settle for when we choose the comforts of the familiar and reject a personal relationship with God. We are surrounded with answer men, who have everything all figured out, and self-proclaimed prophets prophesying out of their own imaginations. The Bible says 'the people love to have it so.' What is the vision of the Church today; more specifically, what are our individual expectations? What are we looking forward to, what do we anticipate that God is going to do? Despite the multitude of seers promising that God only wants to bless you, that God is only love and we will never be held accountable, many people still have a nagging little fear, "What if they are wrong?" We have all kinds of visions today. For the most part they are carnal. We should understand that not everything is of God, simply because it is talking about God. Everyone is using the same lingo. We all have the same limiting words (vocabulary) to express our visions with. What is having a vision? In the opening verse vision is: to see or have mental sight, that is a dream, a revelation, an oracle. We have many with great visions of grandeur, of building great ministries. How many of us are in possession of the vision of God? Since God's perspective is the only one that matters, why aren't we seeking to see as God sees? All of our visions are little more than shadowy wisps of smoke, they have no real spiritual substance or value if they are not in absolute alignment with the will and purposes of God. We can know the will and purposes of God if we are walking in the vital, living, personal relationship with Him that we have been called to walk in. Man is supremely adept at proclaiming what God wants or doesn't want. Do we realize that we can do nothing of ourselves to promote the Kingdom of God in this world? If we are caught up in doing great works using the name of Jesus Christ, then we need to know we will be called to give an accounting before Christ for all that we have said and done using his name.

What does it mean to perish? We see that without the proper vision the people perish. Perish means to expose, make naked, uncover, set at nought. We desperately need to know that our righteousness is as filthy rags. Self-righteousness is an abomination. We see with carnal eyes. There is only one way we can see with spiritual eyes, and that is by being led by the spirit instead of the flesh. Our carnal thinking must be brought into total subjection to the mind of Christ. There is no other way. If we don't want to be found standing naked and exposed before the world, we must be clothed with the righteousness that comes from above.

Man is forever attempting to bring spiritual things to pass by the arm of the flesh. Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. What is our vision today? Is our vision to become the sons of God in this world, to be lights in the midst of gross darkness? Or is our vision to build a name for ourselves as a man of God, to be lifted up and admired by men? Without a relationship we cannot discern one from the other. We can be deceived into thinking that we are doing God's will when the spiritual reality is that we are working in opposition to God, while using His name. That should be a very sobering realization. Everything we do in our own strength, from our own mind, is flesh. All of our wonderful good works are nothing more than wood, hay and stubble and will be consumed by fire at his appearing.

Only what is done under the unction and guidance of the Spirit of God will remain. The standards of this world are not the standards we are called to meet. The world already has it's own ideas and organizations to do good works. Christians are called to attain to a far superior standard than that set by the world. We are called to zealously strive to be as Christ is in the world. 1 John 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. Not to imitate Christ in our own strength, but to die to our flesh and live by the Spirit within, allowing Christ to live through us.

We will never comprehend the mysteries of God with our carnal understanding. 1 Cor. 2:13,14 (Amplified) And we are setting these truths forth in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Holy Spirit, combining and interpreting spiritual truths with spiritual language to those who possess the Holy Spirit). But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense to him); and he in incapable of knowing them (of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them) because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated.

It is only by the Spirit of God that we can hope to know the mind of God. 1 Corinthians 2:16 For who has know or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But we have the mind of Christ and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart. God doesn't need our ideas to help Him win the world. He requires our obedience to all of His commandments. He requires of us that we deny the world and all that is associated with the world (the lusts of the eyes, the lusts of the flesh, the pride of life) and live by the Spirit. Know that we can live in this physical world, in these physical bodies and yet be dead to the world. Know that we can be just as alive by the Spirit as Christ Jesus was on this earth. The spiritual must supersede and vanquish the carnal in our lives. When this happens we will live a spirit led life. When we are no longer longing after anything this world has to offer, is when we become an instrument through which the Spirit of God can set the captives free. But he that keepeth the law, happy is he. Keepeth means to guard, protect, attend to, take heed, observe, preserve. Law is a precept or statute. All of Jesus' commandments are the Law of Christ that we must keep. Happy or blessed is he.

The carnal mind cannot receive or comprehend the things of the spirit. We all want blessings in our life, and wonder why our backward approach fails to bring the desired results. The flesh will always try to find another way, any way other than the death of the cross, the death of our fleshly, carnal nature. We wonder why we aren't blessed and happy? It is because we are seeking after the things of the world rather than the things of the Spirit. We cannot comprehend that to spiritually live we must first carnally die. Many are convinced that they are doing the will of God, that they are walking in full accordance with God's plan. And just as many are deceived. Romans 8:14, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God". We have a choice before us. We must choose which voice we will listen to; which path we will walk; whether or not we will suffer for the sake of the Gospel of Christ. Our life is not our own, we have been bought with a price.

Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. The freedom we so earnestly desire is found when we embrace the commandments of Christ, when we lovingly guard them in our hearts. As we do this, we are no longer subject to feeding the desires of the flesh, our flesh has been made subservient to the Spirit of God within our inner man. Self no longer sits on the throne of our hearts. Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. If we are not led by the Spirit, how can we call ourselves sons? Phil. 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. We already saw in Corinthians that we can have the mind of Christ. There are many voices today that will try and tell you otherwise. The carnally minded way is to discourage you from even seeking to know God personally.

The way of the (religious) world is to immerse you in works and activities that originated in the hearts and minds of men, not in actions that originated from the throne room of God. The way of the world is to reinforce the belief that we can never be perfect, so why even try. Unconsciously perhaps, many believe that it is not possible to attain any degree of Godliness while in this world, that somehow after we get to heaven we will suddenly be free to be Christ like. That is a lie from the pits of hell. We can be led by the Spirit of God while still living in these earthen bodies. We can grow up to be full stature sons of God in the midst of the gross darkness of this world. The only hindrance to growing up in Christ is unbelief, and refusal to die to self. People today have a greater fear of the devil than they have of God. They have a greater fear of being rejected by others than of failing to walk in Christ's commandments.

What is our vision today? What is God's vision? If we would have the mind of Christ, then we will have to surrender our thoughts and ideas, our preconceived expectations, our wants and desires and bring them into alignment with God's purposes. Why do we find it so difficult to let go of the things we have been taught? Why are we so threatened by the possibility that what we have been taught could be wrong? Do we really want to cling to something that is not of God? Look down through history. It is only in our own minds that we see ourselves as more enlightened than all those who have gone before us. From leadership on down mankind has never had it right when it comes to properly discerning a prophesied move of God. From the exodus from Egypt to the coming of the Messiah man's expectations and God's visitation have always been at odds.

We know from the Word that God's ways are not man's ways, yet we consistently continue to think we know what God is about and how it will happen, and we are always wrong. There is only one way to be in possession of God's vision for the world, and that is by zealously pressing into a personal, spirit controlled relationship with the Savior. Stop trying to have all the answers and seek to know the source of all life. We can't change ourselves, but He can change us from within, by His Spirit. We can't figure out the mysteries of God, but He has promised to be all things to us if we will but walk in obedience. One day at a time is all we can handle. The choice is ours as to what we will believe, whose voice we will heed. Without a vision the people perish. May we all humbly seek God's face, may we be in possession of God's vision.

1 Corinthians 3:1-3 (Amplified) However brethren, I could not talk to you as to spiritual men, but as to nonspiritual men of the flesh, in whom the carnal nature predominates, as to mere infants in the new life in Christ unable to talk yet! I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not yet strong enough to be ready for it; but even yet you are not strong enough to be ready for it, for you are still unspiritual, having the nature of the flesh under the control of the ordinary impulses. For as long as there are envying and jealousy and wrangling and factions among you, are you not unspiritual and of the flesh, behaving yourselves after a human standard and like mere unchanged men?

I Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside. As long as we refuse to die to the flesh, as long as we fail to live by the Holy Spirit within, we are operating carnally. This is the reason we see such pitiful results for all of our valiant efforts to accomplish spiritual things. It is not that God's arm is shortened. It is not the lie that God doesn't do miracles today. It is that we are not as righteous as we assume we are. We have not grown up in Christ, but are still babes unable to digest the meat of the Word. Be not deceived, there is a price we must pay. It is equally true that the rewards for laying down this self-life so far exceed the cost as to make it seem totally irrelevant. So what will it be? Will we be content to trust in the interpretations and traditional beliefs handed down to us by the religious organizations of men, or will we seek to know the truth as revealed by the Holy Spirit directly to our hearts from the throne room of God? Now is the time to decide what your vision is. May we choose wisely.