WRITE THE VISION

An Open Letter to Christian Authors

Recently God showed me seven interesting facts about our job as Christian authors. Herein is a summary:

Our Purpose

• All Christians we have a general purpose. We have been entrusted with the Ministry of Reconciliation. That is, with the help of the Holy Spirit "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us." (2 Corinthians 5:18, 20 NIV). Generally, as Christians we are to tell the world about our Savior. We are to tell the world who Christ is. We are to tell them about His love (Ephesians 3:17-19; 1 John 4), about His peace (John 14:27), about His power (Ephesians 1:17-23; 2 Corinthians 12:8-10; Luke 10:19) and much more - but especially about His plan for salvation.

• The Bible says, "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." (Hosea 4:6 NIV). We need to take that scripture and expound on it because it also says the reason for the "lack of knowledge" or the lack of knowing God intimately is "Because you have rejected knowledge."

Have you rejected God's knowledge?

Specifically, in Hosea 4:6 God was telling the priests of Israel that they were not doing their jobs and that He would also reject them as priests. The priests were not showing the people how to live and thus the people of Israel were forsaking God and His way of life.

Today, in the 21st century, we can substitute the term "priest" with anyone who knows God but does not share that knowledge. Our job as Christian writers is to make sure that the knowledge of Jesus Christ is presented to the world in our writings.

• We are to know Jesus Christ so intimately ourselves that we become experts at explaining who He is.

• We are to Write the Vision that God gave to each of us to share with the world. We are to share that vision through the tools, talents, abilities, interest, modes of expression and individual creativity that He gifted and equipped each one of us with.

• We are to Write the Vision of God's love for the world and everyone in it.

• We are to Write the Vision of the peace that God sent with His Son.

• We are to Write the Vision of heaven and the plan of salvation.

It all begins and ends with His plan for salvation.

God's Communication

In Habakkuh 2:2 KJV we are told to "Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables so that he may run that readeth it." We have to Write the Vision of God so people can read our publications and run with them.

Look closely at that same scripture from the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible:

Write down the revelation

and make it plain on tablets

so that a herald may run with it.

The NIV uses the term "revelation" where the King James Version (KJV) uses "vision." The meanings are the same and refer to a communication from God. (See the Strong's Concordance #H2377, a Bible Lexicon or Bible Dictionary.)

The Role of the Herald

The NIV usage of the term "herald" is an interesting one. One of the meanings of the word "herald" according to dictionary.com is "a person or thing that proclaims or announces." This indicates that whoever is going to read the Vision that is written is going to pass the message along to others.

Several Bible commentaries explain that God's command to "make it plain on tablets" was a reference to posting His message on stone tables that would be placed in the town square where everyone could see it. The writing was to be so big that anyone who was walking or running by would easily be able to read and understand the message that was inscribed on the "tables."

How is your writing? Is it that big?

Live By The Word of God

We also understand that the underlying reason for any message from God is to give people instructions that should guide their living. This indeed is God's purpose for any Christian author, to pass on the vision or revelation to God's people, to help guide their living.

Let us look at the scripture again - but his time with substitutions from our explanations above:

Write down the [communication from God]

and make it [so big that anyone can see it in public places]

so that [the message can be passed along].

In Proverbs 29:18 KJV we are told that "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Again, the NIV uses different terms than the KJV. It says, "Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint."

Using the substitution technique again, we see that:

Where there is no [communication from God]

the people [have no restraint] and [thus] perish.

There is a second part to that verse that should also be reported:

... but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. (KJV)

... but blessed is he who keeps the law. (NIV)

"The law" of course refers to God's law. Thus, the person who keeps the law or adheres to the communication from God is happy or blessed. Can it be anymore clear than that?

And finally, in 2 Corinthians 4:3-5 New Living Translation (NLT) we are told that:

If the Good News we preach is veiled from anyone, it is a sign that they are perishing.

Satan, the god of this evil world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe, so they are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News that is shining upon them. They don't understand the message we preach about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

Keep in mind that the enemy never sleeps. He is engaged in a non-stop and un-compromising effort to keep people from hearing the message of the Cross. This makes our role as Christian writers even more crucial. We must write what God has given to us - as heralds - to run with.

Thank you for reading this Bible Study Article, Write the Vision. It is my hope that from this article we can clearly see our critical role to Write the Vision of God for all to see. What we as authors do (or do not do) has an impact on the people of this world. Imagine if the Apostle Paul had decided to write something else instead of writing what is now most of the New Testament.

Are you ready?

God's love to all of you, and remember, Write the Vision.

Akili Kumasi

GIL Publications

PublishChristianBooks.com