Unified Around a God-given Vision

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations(Matthew 28:19, NIV) is what Jesus told them to do. Just before the church went public in Jerusalem the Bible says, “They were all in one accord” (Acts 2:1, KJV). A superficial look at that verse might lead you to believe it means there wasn’t much dissention among them. (That in itself would be a good thing in some churches I’ve been too!) But the original Greek word translated into the phrase one accord is homothumadon, which carries the meaning of a unanimous mind. That tells me they didn’t just get along with each other; they were in complete agreement. In other words, they had a deep sense of unity around their purpose for being together.

Something powerful had happened to them. They caught a vision for their world. It was a vision of seeing the world in love with Jesus. That vision began to define their lives, their life choices, their relationships with one another and with the world around them. They caught a vision of their lives being defined with Jesus at the center and helping others do the same. That vision united them. It led them to sacrifice their very lives. It catapulted them into the world until Jesus’ name spread across the known world in one lifetime. Their unity around a God-given vision changed the course of human history.

The sad reality is, if you were to ask twelve members of the average church today, “What is the vision that unites your church?” you would get at least twelve different answers. You might even get fifteen or twenty as some people would take two or three stabs at it. No wonder the church is struggling.

Solomon wrote, “Without a vision the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18, KJV). The Message paraphrases this, “If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what He reveals, they are most blessed.” If that doesn’t describe what’s happening in the modern church, I don’t know what does.

So ask yourself, What if I caught a fresh vision of what God wants to do in my world? What if I dedicated myself to that God-idea? What if I rallied a group of people around it? I wonder if I could be an agent for change in my world?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *