Why Put Your Spirtual Vision In Touch With Reality by John King

Greetings from Ephesus, the city in Turkiye where the apostle’s Paul and John built up a Body of believers.

It is rather intriguing for me to be staying in the shadow of the ruins of this ancient city. The conference centre that we are holding this LMC at, is located amidst the farms and villages that now occupy the silted in harbour to the city. There is no evidence of there ever being a harbour here now. Even the huge city was buried and lost for generations. I spent some time in the ruins of the 40,000 seat amphitheatre where Paul confronted the mob who spent two hours shouting about how great their gods were. I wandered along the now unearthed street where the silversmiths had their shops and looked off toward the nearby Isle of Patmos. As I turn the pages of the New Testament to read the enduring words of both John and Paul, I'm awed by what our Father preserves and what He allows to crumble. That gives a unique perspective on what 'reality' is.

In a study that I'm currently working through called 'The Vision of the Leader', Bruce Wilkinson (Walk Thru the Bible) makes a statement comparing long and short visions. He says, "We can have a vision for 500 years from now with ability to look back with God’s perspective." He enlarged my perspective on the Seven Year Letter that we wrote ... and even on expanding my Life Management Plan to consider my 'after life' portion of existence. That is a big spiritual vision and is probably more in touch with reality.

When John wrote the prophetic words of Jesus “turn back to me …. If you don’t, I will come and remove your lampstand …” (Rev 2:5) it’s likely that he could hardly believe that not just a church but a whole city would disappear when the light went out. But the very things that I would class as being fairly permanent, did disappear.

Jeremiah was so frustrated with the spiritual state of his people that he was called the weeping prophet. His vision was so far beyond his times that he never saw it realized. Yet 500 years later, people were still so aware of his mourning that they wondered if Jesus was actually Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s ‘after life’ existence was still making an impact.

I’m taking a longer look at my Seven Year Letter !

On behalf of the ITA team

John King