“Where there is no vision, the people perish ….” (Prov. 29:18).  What am I doing here?  What is the purpose of this life?  Without THE vision supplied by the Lord one will never be able to answer those very important questions.  As I stated in the series titled Preparing for Eternity: The Purpose of Life, the sole purpose of this life is to prepare for eternity.  Everyone who seeks salvation and follows the church-prescribed rules of engagement believes that he/she is preparing for the next life.  The problem is that the Institutional Church does not know how to prepare and therefore is not doing so.  As the Scriptures declare repeatedly, and as I have written and stated repeatedly, being a super Christian according to professing Christendom’s definition does not prepare one for the future.  Rather, such a life (“walk”) prepares one for failure to make the cut upon the return of Jesus Christ to earth to establish His Father’s kingdom.  The reason for the soon coming mass failure of the Catholic/Protestant religious community is that they were not told God’s Truth about the vision of holiness one must seek from Him, receive from Him, believe and manifest in word, thought and deed during this life.  Only those who know what to do and do it will rise to meet Jesus in the air, descend to the Mt. of Olives, walk into Jerusalem and there help Him establish the Kingdom of God, rule over that kingdom for 1000 years, then become caretakers of the universe for eternity.  Read The Three Resurrections, The Kingdom of God, and God’s Very Elect: Future Caretakers of the Universe.  Key words–“Three,” “Kingdom” and “Caretakers” respectively.

A “vision” is defined as a mental representation.  Visions come in various forms and for various reasons.  For example, the Apostle’s John’s vision was a mental picture of what life will be like during the final 3 1/2 years of this era.  Another type of vision concerns the present (Acts 9:10-18).  Such a vision was experienced by two men–Ananias and Paul–concerning each other.  In another instance Disciples Peter, James and John saw in a vision Jesus, Moses and Elijah in their born again bodies.  This vision revealed the appearance of God’s saints following their rebirth which will take place upon Christ’s return to earth (Mat. 17:1-9).  Read Born Again and Hope and Salvation.  Key words–“Born” and “Hope” respectively.

Then there is the type of spiritual vision that must be manifested in terms of words, thoughts and deeds (one’s “walk”) by those who see it.  Such a vision is written about in Hebrews 2:1-3:1 and has a two-fold application.  First, it describes Jesus of Nazareth during His human life (“walk”).  Second, it describes the walk of God’s people during their human lives.  Let us examine this breath-taking passage of Scripture that tells us so much about the future of God’s Very Elect and the type of life they must live in order to become His Very Elect.  This passage will answer the two questions posed in the second sentence of this message.  Let us now carefully examine this passage that is normally overlooked by Bible readers and dismissed by those who do happen to read it.   However, it paints a most beautiful picture of the future of God’s obedient saints. We will approach the Apostle Paul’s message to the Hebrew Christians verse-by-verse because what lies therein gives us a vision of what God’s true saints will be, what they will do and what they will inherit in the not-too-distant future.  We will proceed carefully in order glean each of the lessons God wants to teach us in this important passage.

I will introduce this part of the study by turning to the first two verses of Hebrews chapter one where we are told that in ancient times God spoke in various ways to the Israelite fathers through His prophets.  More recently He spoke to the descendants of Jacob’s son Judah (the Jews) through Jesus of Nazareth by Whom He (God) created the universe and Whom He (Jesus) made the HEIR OF EVERYTHING HE (JESUS) CREATED (remember this Truth).  An heir is one who will inherit something in the future.  An inheritor is one who has received the inheritance.  Jesus is the heir of the universe.  However,  He is not alone concerning that inheritance.  Now let us turn to the focal passage–Hebrews 2:1-3:1.

Verses 1-4:  Here Paul tells Truth seekers to take seriously what the apostles have told them.  In verse 3 he brings up the subject of SALVATION and ties it directly to the Words spoken and written by God’s messengers who had heard those same Words from Jesus Himself.  Jesus confirmed the apostles’ Words through signs, wonders and miracles which He wrought through them by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Verse 5:  Paul states that God has NOT given the WORLD TO COME–the Kingdom of God–to ANGELS.  It was about that world that Paul and the other apostles spoke and wrote.  That world, the universe in which it rests and what one must do to inherit them that comprise the subject of this series.  Without THE vision one will fail to inherit them.

Verse 6,7:  Here Paul quotes Psalms 8:4 where King David asks His Lord (the Word Who became Jesus of Nazareth–Jn. 1:1-4,14), “What is man(kind), that You take note of him? or the son of man(kind), that you visit  him?  (to “visit” means to speak to and deal with on a one-to-one basis)  You made him a little lower than the angels (in this life). (At his creation) You crowned him with glory and honor, and sat him over (placed him in control of) the works of your hands–the universe.  Note it: God placed man over–in control of–everything He had created.  We will return to creation week where we will get a godly grasp of this astounding Truth which only a minutely few within professing Christianity believe is in effect today.

God has shown me that the vast majority of church people are perishing because they do not have the vision necessary to bring His promises, including salvation, to fruition.  He confirms this in Hosea 4:6 where He says: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”  Notice that He did not say “some” of His people were being destroyed.  Without knowledge of God’s Word (will) one cannot have a vision of His Word being manifested in one’s life.  Having received the vision, one must then duplicate the vision in one’s life/walk.  Having the vision is not enough.  Unless one walks–manifests in words, thoughts and deeds–the vision, one will be destroyed by the destroyer–Satan (1 Cor. 10:5-12).  Being uber-religious, preaching, witnessing, studying, etc. will have no effect on the situation.  As James 2 tells us six times, faith without WORKS (obedience to God’s Word) is DEAD.  In that one lives by one’s faith, having dead faith means that one is dead.

The first chapter of Genesis details the creation of the universe and everything in it.  That God created it through the Word Who became Jesus of Nazareth has been made clear.  Also made clear is the fact that Jesus is the heir of everything He created.  He has a few “friends” (Jn. 15:13,14) / “brethren” (Mat. 12:46-50) who will also be included in that inheritance.  The one thing His friends/ brethren have in common is that they OBEY HIS FATHER’S WORD/LAW/TRUTH/ GOSPEL, JUST AS DID JESUS CHRIST WHEN HE WALKED THE EARTH.  L.J.

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