Covenant alongside vision is the key to arrive at our purpose

I have shared some insight on the subject of covenant and vision over a period of time. Now I have gathered it all together in an article. I hope it will be a blessing to my fellow followers of Christ.

We have just had an international gathering of an apostolic team
working together in many parts of the world. We had a most wonderful
time in prayer, fellowship and dialog. I was asked to prepare a paper
on, "Covenant along vision is the key to arrive at our purpose." I will
share it on my blog.
When I worked on the paper I fist asked the question:I will ask
the question: Can the vision of God really be achieved without walking in
covenant? And I will answer immediately and strongly: NO! People may arrive at
their goal independently from God or fellow men. People may even be able to achieve
their own vision at the expense of others. People may become great in this
world, but if they fail to live in covenant, eventually everything they have
built will collapse.

Our frame of reference
determines our perception of life

The
statement we are looking at, Covenant alongside vision is the key to arrive at
our purpose, can only be properly understood when the Triune God is our frame
of reference.

For from him and through him and to him
are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:36)

· All things come from God. We need no additional
principles beyond God in order to explain the existence of the universe. As the
image we see in a mirror can be said to be a representation of the original, we
can say that all things created by God represent him in a way and reflect some
of his divine nature.

· All things exist through God. The entire universe, every
created being, is sustained through his life-giving power. In other words, we
all exist through him only and have no power of life in our selves.

· All things are intended to bring glory to God. All things find
the ultimate intention and purpose of existence in God only.

The three
prepositions from, through, and to will help us to find the right frame
of reference. First, we need to start with God, and then we will see how all
things fall into place when we covenant together to fulfil the eternal purpose
of God, which is our purpose.

In the beginning: God

To be able
to begin to understand the meaning of life and grasp the intention of covenant
as well as vision, we need to go back to the beginning before the beginning of
the world. We need to go back to God who is the source of everything which
exists. Our destiny is only found in our origin. When we go back to God we will
find our future in our beginning in the Father heart of God before the creation
of the world.

God is one and three

The Bible
teaches that God is one and that God is three at the same time. The God whom we
come to know through the revelation of the Bible is the one covenant God
confessed by the community of faith. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
He is the Yahweh, the eternal self-existing I AM. And this one God is three, –
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each of the three is deity, sharing
together in, and together constituting, the one divine essence. The one God
subsists in a multiplicity, the three members of the Triune God. There is no
other God but the triune God. God is none other than Father, Son and Spirit.

This is not
merely a human perception of God, nor are we merely speaking of God as he
chooses to appear to us. The threeness of the one God is eternal as it is the
way God actually is in his essential being. Oneness and threeness, both belongs
to the essence of God, and are part of the very covenant nature of God. There
are three who together comprise the one God throughout all eternity, and there
are three, – Father, Son, and Spirit – who are at work in the world to bring to
fulfilment the original intention for humanity and creation at large.

God is diversity and unity

The one
Triune Covenant God is differentiated and there is diversity within the unity.
The Father, Son, and the Spirit are different from each other, and in the one Covenant
God they differentiate themselves from each other. Teachers of the Bible will often
use the two words, “generation” and “procession” to describe the movement
within the one God. “Generation” is used to differentiate the Father and the
Son. The Father is the one who generates the Son. The Son is the only begotten
Son, as he is eternally generated by the Father. “Procession” is used to
differentiate the Spirit from the Father and from the Son. The Spirit is the
one who proceeds from the Father (and from the Son).

Each of the
three Trinitarian members fulfils a specific role in the one divine program.
The Father functions as the ground of the universe and of the divine plan or
purpose for humanity. The Son functions as the revealer of God, the exemplar
and spokesman of the Father’s will for creation, and the redeemer of humanity.
The Spirit functions as the personal divine power active in the world, the very
completer of the divine plan and purpose.

The one God
of the Bible is in other words a unity. The three persons of the Trinity
comprise a unity which entails diversity. Even though they have different
functions in the one divine program, all are involved in every area of God’s
working in the world. The divine activity is characterized by cooperation. They
always work together, never independent from each other or on their own, as the
words spoken at the creation of humanity show: “Let us make man in our image,
in our likeness” (Genesis 1:26).

The essence of God is love

To
understand the original intention of God we need to understand the basic covenant
nature of God which is love according to the apostle John (1.John 4:8). Love is
a relational term which presupposes a subject and an object. There is someone
who loves and someone who is loved. God is as to character truth and love, but
love cannot be God. Love only exists as a relation between the lover and the
beloved. Because God is triune, the divine being already comprehends both
love’s subject and object. Therefore we come to understand that the essence of
God does indeed lie in the relationship between the Father and the Son (love) which
is the Spirit.

In other
words we may say that God is eternal love within himself: The Father loves the
Son; the Son responds with love; and that spirit of love between the Father and
the Son is the Holy Spirit. Through all eternity God is the social Trinity, the
holy society, the community of love. In the Godhead, which is the community of
love, there is an interpenetration of divine interrelation, partnership and
mutual dependence of the members of the Trinity, not only in the workings of
God in the world but even more foundationally in their very existence as the
one God. We find throughout the Bible that the divine unity is comprised by the
reciprocal self-dedication of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Naturally this
corresponds with the New Testament concept of agape, which we may define as the
giving of oneself for the other in covenantal relationship. Indeed, God is
covenant love – the divine essence is love that binds together the triune God,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Love is the motivational
nature of God

Only when
we see that God is covenant love we may begin to grasp some of the inner
dynamics of God, in who and what the divine being is in himself, the dynamic
relationship within the one God, and how our triune God overflows in creating
the universe as the home of humanity and then enters into relationship with his
creation. Love actually makes creation possible. The act of creation is the
overflowing of the eternal love relationship within the triune God. The world
exists because of God’s love. Everything God does is motivated by love or flows
from his own character, which is covenant love.

Before the
beginning of the world, before God created, God held a council within himself.
In love the Father, Son and Holy Spirit planned what to do according to their
own good pleasure. The one God was under no compulsion to create as the love
was already complete within the Trinity. But because God is covenant love, God
is self-giving, and willingly decides to create the world. Creation is God’s
loving act, it is free, voluntary, non-necessary, and fully in keeping with his
character. Since there was perfect love and fellowship among members of the
Trinity for all eternity (John 17:5, 24), God did not create us because he was
lonely or because he needed fellowship with other persons—God did not need us
for any reason.

Man was created in the
image of God for his own glory

The Bible clearly tells us that man was created to glorify God and
bring him joy. God created man for
himself – for his own glory – or “to the praise of his glory” as the
apostle Paul is saying (Ephesians 1:6,12,14) . God tells us through the prophet
Isaiah:

Bring
my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth – everyone who is
called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. (Isaiah
43:6-7)

This fact guarantees that our lives are significant. When we first
realize that God did not need to create us and does not need us for anything,
we could conclude that our lives have no importance at all. But the Bible tells
us that we were created for God’s own glory, indicating that we are important to
God himself. This is the final definition of genuine importance or
significance to our lives: If we are truly important to God for all eternity,
then what greater measure of importance or significance could we want?

Therefore
the original purpose for man is to fulfil the reason for which God created us:
to glorify him. As we glorify God and enjoy him, the Bible tells us that he
rejoices in us. The prophets are saying:

As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
so will your God rejoice over you (Isaiah 62:5)

He will take great delight in you, he
will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah
3:17)

God is the
creator, he had all things, and he deserves all glory. In fact he is worthy of
receiving glory. It would wrong for man to seek glory for himself, but it is
right for God. In fact it would be terrible wrong if he did not receive glory
from all creatures in the universe. The elders around God’s throne continually
give him praise and glory:

"You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your
will they were created and have their being." (Revelation 4:11)

The meaning of “Image of
God”

Out of all
the creatures God made, only man is said to be made in the image of God in the
Genesis account of the creation:

Then God said, "Let us make man in
our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the
birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the
creatures that move along the ground. So God created man in his own image, in
the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed
them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth
and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over
every living creature that moves on the ground." (Genesis 1:26-28).

The fact
that humanity was created in the image of God in the simplest terms means that
humanity is like God and represents God. Since this is the straightforward
meaning of the biblical expressions, the Bible does not need to say something
like, “The fact that man is in the image of God means that man is like God in
the following ways: intellectual ability, moral purity, spiritual nature,
dominion over the earth, creativity, ability to make ethical choices, and
immortality.”

Such an explanation is unnecessary, because no such list could do
justice to the subject. The text only
needs to affirm that man is like God and the rest of the Bible fills in
more details to explain this. In fact, as we read the Bible, we realise that a
full understanding of man’s likeness to God would require a full understanding
of who God is in his being and in his actions and a full understanding
of who man is and what he does. The more we know about God and man the
more similarities we will recognize, and the more fully we will understand what
the Bible means when it says that man is in the image of God. The expression
refers to every way in which man is like God. Clearly the image of God endows human life with
special dignity and worth.

The
implications of being created in the image of God can be seen in a threefold
covenant relationship:

· Humans are directed towards God. We were
created to respond to God in love and to be responsible to him. All human
relationships are to be seen as dominated and regulated by our relationship
with God. To be a human being in the truest sense, therefore, means to love God
above all, to trust him and obey him, thank him and honour him.

· Humans are directed toward other humans.
We were created for covenant as social beings and not as isolated beings,
complete in ourselves. All men and women need the fellowship of others as no
one is complete apart from others. The very fact that we are told to love our
neighbour as ourselves implies that we need and enrich each other in a covenant
relationship..

· Humans are directed towards nature. God
gave humans the responsibility to rule the created world as his representative.
We are called to develop all the potentialities found i nature and in humankind
as a whole. We must seek to develop agriculture, horticulture, animal
husbandry, science, technology and art in a God-glorifying culture.

God has
placed humanity into all three of these relationships. Each one is as important
and as indispensable as the other two. We cannot exist or function properly
without any of them. These relationships are also interrelated. Humans are
inescapably related to God; this is our most important relationship. But this
relationship does not exist without the two others, and is not realised apart
from them. Our relationship with our fellow human beings is a form in which our
relationship to God realises itself. We show our love for God by means of our
love for others (1 John 4:20). When we love others and when we work responsibly
with God’s creation, we are at the same time serving God.

Man in the image of God
signifies a special standing

Man’s
divinely given destiny begins with a special standing before God in a covenant
relationship. As humans created in the image of God, we are the recipients of
his love; this means that each human being has special worth in God’ sight
(Matthew 6:26). In the covenant with God we are also recipients of God’s
commands, which mean a special responsibility. God entrusted to humanity a
special task with reference to creation, namely, that we serve as his
representatives. Humans are to reflect to creation the covenant nature of God.

Man in the image of God
has a special fellowship

God’s
intention for humanity was that we should respond to his love by loving him and
respond to his commands by obeying because of love. This is the way humans can
experience the true life of fellowship with God for which we were called into
existence. Therefore humans can find no permanent home in this world but are
dependent on God for ultimate fulfilment. God made everything beautiful from
the beginning. He also set eternity in the hearts of men; and they will find no
rest in the temporal world (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Man was created for a special covenant
love relationship with God and to enjoy fellowship with him.

Man in the image of God is
a eschatological reality

In what
sense was the image of God present in Adam? It could not have been fully
present for he was alone and lacking a partner. God is never one single person,
he is always one in three and three in one, as we have seen. When God had
created Eve and presented her to Adam, he became more human and the image of
God became more present. Likewise the fact of the Fall shows us that the first
people not had become what they were intended to be, otherwise their choice in
the garden would have been different. In other words we may say that even that
because humans are created in the image of God they have the potential to
distort that image or to let that image be developed and become more visible.

The
apostolic teaching of the New Testament clearly supports this idea, that each
human person is potentially a participant in the one destiny or purpose God has
for us, in sharing the reality to which the concept of the divine image points.

Man in the image of God is
a special covenant community

The two
creation narratives in Genesis 1 and 2 indicate that the image of God is a
shared, corporate reality. It is fully present only in community. Humans were
created as social beings, created for covenant community. Like we are told that
the woman was created to deliver man from his isolation and loneliness. It was
not good for man to be alone. We should not be surprised that this is the case
and that ultimately the image of God should focus on community. Throughout all
eternity God is a covenant community, that is, the fellowship of Father, Son
and Holy Spirit, who comprise the triune God.

The
creation of humanity in the image of God, therefore, can mean nothing less than,
that humans express the relational dynamic of the God whose representation we
are called to be. Not the individual man, not even man and woman together, but
humanity as a whole is designed to be the fully developed image of God. In
other words, each person can be related to the image of God only within the
context of life in community with others. Only in covenant with others can we
show forth what God is like, for God is the covenant community of love.

The covenant community is
a community of LOVE

The
ultimate basis for our understanding of the covenant community lies in it’s
relationship to the nature of the Triune God himself. The Father loves the Son.
The Son loves the Father. That spirit of love between the Father and the Son is
the Holy Spirit. As covenant people we are to show forth the divine reality
which is love. The new commandment of the New Covenant:

So now I am
giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you
should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that
you are my disciples.

Love is
what binds us all together in perfect harmony. Col.3:14

For God
himself has taught you to love one another. 1Thess.4:9

The covenant community is
a family community

The
marriage covenant confirms a relationship to last for the entire life (Romans
7:2). The family is a covenant relationship of greatest importance to any
healthy community. The family is the basic building block of the covenant
community at large. If the families don’t function, the covenant community
can’t function properly (1 Tim.3:4-5).

Fragmentation
is the order of the secular society. Dysfunctional families seem to explode in
numbers. The family patterns are radically changing in society and changing
society likewise. We are facing a big challenge as new marriage laws are
introduced and the definition of marriage is changed to a gender neutral
relationship. The new covenant is constantly portrait in family terms:

There will
be heard once more the sounds of joy and laughter. The joyful voices of
bridegrooms and brides will be heard again, along with the joyous songs of
people bringing thanksgiving offerings to the Lord.
They will sing,

‘Give
thanks to the Lord Almighty, for
the Lord is good. His faithful
love endures forever!’ Jeremiah
33:10-11

And now the
Lord says: I am returning to

Mount

Zion

,
and I will live in

Jerusalem

.
Then

Jerusalem

will be called the

Faithful

City

; the mountain of the
Lord Almighty will be called the

Holy

Mountain

.
This is what the Lord Almighty
says: Once again old men and women will walk

Jerusalem

’s streets with a cane and sit
together in the city squares. And the streets of the city will be filled with
boys and girls at play. Zechariah 8:3-5

No
generational gap – Age-ism is banned

No
gender gap – Sex-ism is banned

No
leadership gap – Elite-ism is banned

No
social gap – Cast-ism is banned

No
ethnic gap – Racism is banned

(See
Galatians 3:26; Colossians 3:11)

Expressions of covenant in
the community of love

Local
expressions of covenant must take place on many levels in house-churches,
city-churches, regional-churches etc. The church consists of people standing in
voluntary covenant with God, and is making commitments to God. The church also
consists of people making and expressing covenant together on a lateral or
mutual basis, and are committing themselves to one another.

Covenant is
by its nature local, it is an agreement among a particular, visible group of
believers. Where there is no covenanting community there is no church of God,
for the church is a covenant community.

Community
lies at the heart of the church which is people united in the new covenant. The
church is manifested in a visible, local group of believers who covenant to be
the local expression of the community of God, – a kingdom community living by
kingdom principles. Covenant transforms a loosely related group of individuals
into a community of committed people. The Holy Spirit is the facilitator of
covenant life, he is joining us together and teaching us to live and work
together to the glory of God.

The covenant community
works together!

The three
persons in God are always actively working to carry out the divine purpose, but
they never do anything alone – on their own! The Father, Son and Holy Spirit
always work together – with the same purpose, – as they are fully involved in
each other. The Divine Way: Let us make – in our image – in our likeness – a
community to represent us! The human way: I want it my way! I did it my way!
The divine way is always the way of covenant community: Let us! Only a covenant
community can represent God properly – in fullness! Togetherness is the
hallmark of the covenant community! If there is no deep sense of togetherness
we don’t have a covenant community, but only a human organisation!

A community of
reconciliation

Covenant is
a ”coming-together” – the covenant community is about a strong sense of
togetherness

· The
end to animosity

· The
end to alienation

· The
end to a self-centred life

The New
Covenant creates a community of reconciliation and forgiveness. In a covenant
relationship we are reconciling people to God and to one another. Our business
is connecting people – to the reality of God as seen in the covenant community.

The covenant
community of reconciliation is the community of the cross. Covenant living is
all about taking up our cross daily. It is about applying the cross in our
personal lives, preferring others to ourselves, putting to death our selfish
desires. We need to be living this out both within and outside the covenant
community.

Through our
covenant relationship with God we have become his people, a covenant community,
to reflect the righteousness and justice of God, as well as his unfailing love
and truth Psalm 89:3-4; 14. Therefore the covenant community acts socially and
politically to represent the righteousness of God:

· Taking
on the sufferings of others

· Being
a voice for the voiceless, defending the oppressed, providing justice for the
poor and needy

Those who
oppress the poor insult their Maker, but those who help the poor honour him
Prov.14:31

He provide
foods for those who fears him, he always remembers his covenant Psalm 111:5

The beauty of the covenant
community is seen in its holiness

Holiness is
being set aside for sacred use, standing apart from sin and evil. Holiness is
the characteristic of God, especially the third person of the trinity – the
Holy Spirit. Holiness is that mysterious “Otherness” – that what makes a
difference, – that which sets us apart from the world. David asked the Lord for
one thing only: living in the house of God and seeing his beauty in the
covenant community Psalm 27:4. The people of God serve willingly, arrayed in
holy garments, or in the beauties of holiness Psalm 110:3. This is not only
about living differently, but also about publicly taking a stand against sin:

– Abortion

– Child
abuse

– Homosexuality

– Evils
of war

– Greed
and corruption

– Lack
of care for the elderly, the disabled etc

You are the
light of the world—like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to
see. Don’t hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let
it shine for all. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to
see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. Matt.5:14-16

The covenant community is
to reflect diversity and variety – not uniformity

People are
longing to be accepted for what they are and for belonging, – being a part of a
community. We are social beings – created in the image of the social Triune God.
It is not good for people to be alone. We are all created for community. True
friendship, fellowship and community are the hallmark of the covenant people of
God

God is
making originals not copies – we are not to be clones of anybody! God loves
variety – he loves a manifold expression of his wonderful nature and character.
Every human person is unique. Each person reflects a unique part of the glory
of God. What we can be together is greater than the sum of what each one of us
can do or be on our own.

In the covenant
community we are enlarged and complemented, and we find fulfilment in serving
one another – we belong! The purpose of God can only be fulfilled through a
corporate body of people.

The covenant community is
colourful like the rainbow

There is a
great variety of spiritual gifts in the church which is the body of Christ. God’s
purpose is to show his wisdom in its rich variety – show his colourful wisdom –
to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, through the covenant
community.

When Jews
and Gentiles, Norwegians and Indians, Americans and Africans, Men and Women,
young and old, are joined together in a colourful, covenant relationship, then
the covenant community is a prophetic sign to the world.

The covenant community
accumulates the wisdom of God

Isaiah
28:23-29

They know
exactly what to do and when to do it. Their God is their teacher. Message

The farmer
knows just what to do, for God has given him understanding. NLT They

The Lord
Almighty is a wonderful teacher, and he gives the farmer great wisdom. NLT

How did God
teach the farmer? How did the farmer come to know exactly what to do? This
wisdom has been gained, refined and accumulated in the farming community. In
the same way there is a tremendous wisdom accumulated in the covenant community
of God’s people!

The Church
Fathers, the saints, the great missionaries, and the poets of faith, represent
a wonderful treasure of spiritual insight and wisdom that we need to make use
of if we want to be wise people! Even among contemporary believers outside of
ourselves there is great wisdom and insight!

If we are
wise we may even learn from people we strongly disagree with! Among each
community of people there is a certain wisdom and insight that we may benefit
from! We need to be readers! The born again believers in

Scandinavia

used to be called READERS because they were constantly reading the Bible and
other books as well!

Hopefully
we will accumulate more wisdom and insight to pass on to the next generation
than we what we were given to start with! If we are working into foreign
cultures we need the wisdom of God to reach them. If we find other believers in
these cultures we will benefit enormously if we learn from their wisdom and
insight.

Wisdom from heaven

But the
wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure. It is also peace loving,
gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and
good deeds. It shows no partiality and is always sincere. And those who are
peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness. James
3:17-18 NLT

Such wisdom
is the fruit of covenant living and fosters community!

Earthly wisdom

For
jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly,
un-spiritual, and motivated by the Devil. For wherever there is jealousy and
selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and every kind of evil. James
3:15-16

Earthly
wisdom destroys community life!

The wisdom of the farming
community

Ploughing
must be followed by sowing

Cultivating
must be followed by planting

The
different seeds must be planted in each own section of the land – don’t mix it!

Don’t
thresh all the crops the same way!

Repeating
one activity is not sufficient!

We must
work systematically – in many ways and fields!

Don’t use
the same method on all situations

People must
be treated individually!

Covenant leadership
attributes

Covenant
leaders are humble and self-effacing because they understand that the way of
the cross is the only way that will produce lasting fruits.

Covenant
leaders are competent both technically and relationally. They understand that
otherwise they will fail. They major on their strengths and Spirit-given
ministry to excel in the anointing as well as working hard to develop their
relationally skills.

Fruitful
covenant leaders stimulate creativity, cause people to dream and empower them
to realise their full potential in Christ. They love to encourage people to
take initiative, and to liberate them to creative expressions of covenant life.

Covenant leaders
are prepared to take calculated risks to be able to lead the people of God
forward and defeat the enemy. They are not afraid of men or traditions. They
are pioneers in the Spirit and love to blaze a new trail and break up new
ground.

Covenant
leaders are trustworthy and trust building. They understand they need trust and
confidence of the people to be able to lead the covenant community according to
the divine pattern and eternal purpose of God.

Covenant
leaders must have courage and calm in the face of adversity and be able to
impart peace to the community in the midst of a storm. They must be men of
faith and vision who envision the covenant community to rise above the
circumstances to attain their destiny in God.

Covenant
leaders inspire the team of ministry gift with them, and they are constantly
recruiting new members to the leadership team. They understand that to develop
a covenant community you must constantly develop new leaders.

Covenant
leaders are inclusive and empowering in their entire framework of ministry in
the covenant community. They understand that one man alone can never achieve
his destiny or fulfil the purpose of God. They appreciate the contribution of
others and believe in the God-given abilities of others to do what they have
been called to do.

Covenant
leaders are patient and persevering in their ministry. Their understanding of
covenant enables them to long term commitment. They don’t easily give up, but
they trust in the power of the Word and the Spirit to produce what God wants in
the end.

Covenant
leaders have respect for and consideration of others. They have learnt to
listen to both advice and critique. They love to honour people because they see
in them the glory of their God.

The covenant community is
a community of light

This is the
message he has given us to announce to you: God is light and there is no
darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God
but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not living in the truth. But if
we are living in the light of God’s presence, just as Christ is, then we have
fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from
every sin. I John 1:5-7

Honesty and
transparency, love and faithfulness are hallmarks of covenant living. These
character features are indispensible if we are to arrive at our purpose! There
is no darkness in God and we cannot allow any work darkness among us if we are
to achieve our vision.

God speaks through dreams
and visions

Throughout
the Bible we find that God reveals himself to people through dreams and
visions. In fact, dreams and visions are used interchangeable in the Bible. The classic passage about this is Job 33:15–16, where we read this: “He speaks in dreams, in visions of
the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds. He
whispers in their ears and terrifies them with warnings.” And how often God spoke through
dreams and visions! Daniel had dreams and visions in the night (Dan.2:19; 7:2,7,13). The apostle Paul also had a dream which he calls a
vision in the night (Ap.gj.16,9; 18,9). As we go back through the Old Testament we find
that God constantly spoke like this. Through these visions and dreams God told
people to do certain things, or warned them of things which He was going to do,
and the result was that they realised that God is. It was God, who gave
them the vision or the dream or the warning or the prophecy, or whatever it
was, and therefore they were revelations, they were proofs of the being of God.

The prophet
Joel is prophesying about the coming Messianic age which is also the age of the
Spirit. In that age the Spirit will be poured out upon all people and dreams,
visions and prophesies are available to young and old, sons and daughters, men
and women alike. We are living in the age when the prayer of Moses is being
fulfilled, “I wish that
all the Lord’s people were
prophets and that the Lord would
put his Spirit upon them all!” God still wants to give many visions and dreams
to his people (Hos. 12:10), for God wants a prophetic people.

A prophetic
people, a covenant community, are living in an intimate relationship with God
and know what he is thinking about the present situation and what he is
planning to do in days ahead. The prophetic community are hearing and
understanding what God is saying now, and they are living the word of God as
well as preaching it to people around them. The prophetic community dream
dreams from the heart of God and see visions of God. They are governed by
prophetic visions and are zealous for God in everything they do.

God’s dream for humanity

God doesn’t
sleep or dream like we humans do, but still the entire Bible is all about God’s
great dream for humanity. Now we are using dream in the sense of longing, wish,
vision, plan or intention for days ahead. For us dreams and visions are about a
better reality than the one we live in. For God, who knows the end from the
beginning and is outside time and space, the dream or his vision is the
motivating, creative love at work throughout history. God’s dream is his
eternal purpose, what he has determined from eternity, the mystery of his will,
that which is governing everything he does and is centered on Christ, God’s
eternal Son (Eph 1:9-11; 3:5-11). This dream has been hidden from the beginning of time but now in the last days it has been made known
by the Holy Spirit to apostles and prophets and eventually all the covenant
community.

Through the
gospel of Jesus Christ the dream of God is brought into focus and we become
partakers of the mystery of God. The light that shines through the gospel of
the glory of Christ, who is the image and representation of God, is throwing
light over stories, psalms, prophesies, or all the literature in the Scripture,
and creates a overwhelming great colourful panorama through the mosaic of the books in the Bible.

When God
fulfilled in Christ what he had purposed form eternity, he brought his plan of
salvation into the light. Now we can read about Adam and Eve, Enoch, Noah,
Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Joseph, Moses and Joshua, Ruth
and Hannah, Samuel and David, Isaiah and Jeremiah in a new light. We read about
countless prophets, kings, everyday heroes, and ordinary people, who are
carrying a hope and dreaming a dream they don’t fully understand, but
nevertheless are trying to express in words while they are pursuing the
unspeakable vision of God in their heart.

When we
read the stories about these people who heard from God through dreams and
visions, we can see a connection it must have been impossible for them to
grasp. When we read psalms, wisdom literature or prophesies, that was written
over a period of at least fifteen hundred years, we see how they all belong
together and have a red thread leading forward to the age in which we live. The
red thread is God’s dream for humanity, his eternal plan of salvation and
limitless love.

Dream and vision as
motivation

Those who
are carrying a dream are rich for they own the future. Those who have lost
their dream own nothing, even if they have a bank full of money. What would
life be without dreams and visions?

Scientific
research shows that human beings cannot live without hope. It became very
visible in the concentrations camps during the war. The prisoners who didn’t
have a hope, a dream or a vision of a future quickly deteriorated, but those
who dreamed about the life after imprisonment had a strength that enabled them
to endure great sufferings and hardships.

Throughout
the Bible we meet ordinary people who are dreaming dreams from the heart of God
and rise to action and do great exploits for God. Their vision was the
motivation that released faith and courage to start a journey towards a goal
far beyond their human condition. The dream carried them through life and
helped them overcome great challenges and to solve unsolvable difficulties.
Hope is one of the most important sources for vitality and courage to live for
people. The dream helps people to cut the ties to that which binds us to the
physical and corruptible, and shows that the spirit in people are more related
to eternity than to the present world. Without dreams the heart stop beating,
but when dreams are living in the heart, people are really living, even if they
loose their life on the torture bench.

I love the
story of Joseph. This young man may be one of the most famous dreamers in the
Bible. Neither his brothers nor his parents were very happy about the dreams he
had. They thought he had too big thoughts about himself. His dreams caused
problems for him. When he in innocent joy told what he had dreamed his brothers
got angry at him. One day they found the opportunity to get rid of him by
selling him as a slave to some Arabs passing by. He was taken to Egypt and sold
again. In Egypt he faced many difficulties. He had to face false accusations
and was thrown into prison. He stayed there a long time. There was no signs of
his dreams was going to be fulfilled.

But we know
the story of how everything turned out for Joseph. In spite of great
difficulties and bad living conditions he kept on to his dream and his
faithfulness to the Lord that had spoken to him through what he dreamt. One day
his faithfulness was rewarded. The dream was fulfilled and he became a great
blessing to many people. Because he never gave up his hope, but held on to his
dream, he saved the life of countless people. Those who was angry at him and
wanted to hurt him, because they didn’t understand his dream, was also richly
blessed when the dream was fulfilled.

The dream about the Promised Land caused
millions of people to start on a journey from Egypt, through the Sinai desert
to the land of Canaan. Many lost faith and perished during the long and
difficult journey. Actually a whole generation died in the wilderness where
they wandered for forty years. At last the day arrived when a new generation
was ready to realize the dream and cross the Jordan to take possession of that
which was promised. Not everyone who break up from their present situation to
follow their dream have that enduring faith that enables them to experience
what they are longing for. But even if they only succeeded in passing on their
dream to a new generation, their departure was not in vain.

The prophets in the Old Testament are a mixture
of different personalities. They came from many different backgrounds, had
different style and behavior, but they had one thing in common, they imparted
visions and dreams. They passed on hope to the depressed. They created faith in
the discouraged. They caused weak people to rise as strong giants. They caused
tyrants to tremble with fear by the thought of people could be caught by the
dream the prophets preached and fleshed out in their lives.

I love spending time with these prophets. Their
dream visions have a strange power in them. They are using images and metaphors
that don’t belong to my digital day, but they are timeless and challenging. The
prophets cause me to dream while I am fully awake. The dreams and the visions
they impart find resonance deep in my heart, and creates new dreams and
visions. These dreams have upheld me and given me courage and strength to
endure adversity and hardships. The dreams of the prophets cause me to contemplate
and meditate. The prophetic dreams water the imagination in my innermost being
and help me to grasp that which lay on the heart of God. The prophetic visions
help me to see things from God’s perspective. That is why the dream of the
Kingdom of God and the vision of the Bride of Christ are the motivational force
in my life.

Our Vision

We see a covenant church that
   is a strong and healthy Kingdom community of those who are being changed
   as they follow Jesus in every area of their lives, and who covenant
   together and work with a common sense of vision and purpose.
We see a covenant church where
God is worshipped passionately and freely, and where the presence and
power of God are experienced in big as well as small gatherings.
We see a covenant church that
   is a community governed in its beliefs and practices by the Word of God
   and the Spirit of God, and not by human customs, traditions or
   personalities.
We see a covenant community
where its members are fully committed to one another and to God’s purpose
for his world.
We see a covenant community
that is full of life and faith, where the people are free, happy, vibrant
and enjoying the goodness of God in their everyday life.
We see a covenant community in
which there are real and close friendships, warm relationships, and openness
to all people from whatever background.
We see a covenant church that
   is not built around meetings or a building, but is centred on Christ and on
   relationships of the Spirit, and a shared community life as we meet from
   home to home and in big gatherings.
We see a covenant church that
is influencing and impacting its surrounding community and that doesn’t
retreat into a safe Christian ghetto.
We see a covenant community
   that is committed to what God is doing right across the nations of the
   world and is in real relationship with apostolic and other ministries to
   advance God’s kingdom throughout the world.
We see a covenant community
   that has a credible voice to speak into all the issues which face our
   society, and that is actively demonstrating a positive and godly example
   to that society.
We see a covenant community
that is growing and reproducing itself across the whole region, nation and
the world.
We see a covenant community
where everyone is learning to play their part and to do so gladly with
faith, commitment and integrity.

Covenant

We covenant to live every part
of our lives in obedience to God.
We covenant to serve God and
his purpose in whatever way he calls us.
We covenant to encourage, help,
challenge, correct and serve each other so that we each can live for and
serve God better.
We covenant to follow the
vision and teaching of the apostolic leadership of the work.
We covenant to honesty,
integrity, loyalty and love in our relationships with each other.
We covenant to deal with
disagreements and conflicts that arise between us in a godly and honest
way.
We covenant to support the work
of God in the giving of our time, our effort, our gifts and our finance.
We covenant to being open to be
discipled by others and willing to disciple others.
We covenant to see the common
vision fulfilled whatever the cost and however long it takes.