Formed By The Heavenly Vision

What overreaching vision shapes your life? Have you ever did an internal inventory about what you allow to form how you see the world?

May 07, 2025

Christ is risen!

“Vision” has been something of a buzzword in the Leadership Training manual for some time.

Of course, these Leadership gurus get this foundational principle from the Holy Scriptures when King Solomon declared, “Where there is no vision, the people perish; but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” (Proverbs 29:18)

I appreciate how that verse is translated elsewhere, where it is rendered as “the people cast off restraints” instead of “the people perish.”

There is powerful wisdom in the truth that without a controlling vision, a goal, and an understanding of ultimate purpose, we humans will wander aimlessly, trying this or that path, unaware that most of these paths, driven by selfishness, lead us to destruction.

The truth is, you are already living out the “vision” that controls you. Your formation, whether purposefully or haphazardly formed, creates how you “see” the world and your life. But a mature follower of Jesus does the hard work of honestly evaluating what has allowed him to shape his vision of life.

What is your vision? You have one! Is it the right one?

Look at our lesson today in Acts 26:1, 12-20:

Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself.” So Paul stretched out his hand and answered for himself:
“While thus occupied, as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ So I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me. Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance.

Here we have St. Paul, under arrest, as usual, giving his testimony before King Agrippa.

By the way, this stint in jail for Paul will result in an appeal to the Roman Emperor, and he will be sent to Rome for trial. It won’t end well. At least from an earthly perspective!

Paul tells the king that he was once a persecutor of the Christians, but that all changed with the encounter on the Road to Damascus. Paul saw the Risen Jesus and was confronted with Christ. That confrontation, as dramatic and powerful as it was, changed Paul forever. And he got his marching orders from the Lord for the rest of his life!

Paul was to be a Minister and a Witness.

A Minister in the sense that he was to dedicate the rest of his life to making the revelation of Jesus accessible to everyone, even the Gentiles. This radical message given to such a zealous Jew as Paul, who was on a mission to arrest the Christians in Damascus, was indeed a shock. Someone meticulous in obeying the Torah would know that a good Jew had nothing to do with the Gentiles. But now Paul would bring them the Gospel.
A Witness because that is the primary task of someone who has encountered Jesus. Paul is a witness of the resurrected Jesus, and he tells the king, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” And he wasn’t. Paul spent the rest of his life before his martyrdom preaching and establishing churches among the Gentiles.

St. Paul swapped out his shallow vision for the Vision of the Risen Lord, and that change of vision equipped Paul to see his life shaped and formed into that of the Apostle to the Gentiles and a history-changing ministry.

Discussing a vision that changes the world, we recall the vision of the Holy Cross in the sky above Jerusalem in the year 351. St. Cyril, reporting this event to the new Roman Emperor Constantius, the son of St. Constantine the Great, stated that the Cross of light appeared above the city and was visible to the entire population. This vision lingered in the sky all day and was brighter than the sun’s light! When you consider that the Christian Faith was only recently legalized in the Empire, this miraculous vision furthered the growth of the faith throughout the Roman Empire, and its continued influence on history lingers to this day.

Today, how would you describe your encounter with Jesus Christ? Have you ever had one? Of course, most of us won’t have as dramatic an encounter as St. Paul. But every time you hear the Gospel read, you are invited to encounter Christ. Every liturgy you attend, you are invited to encounter Christ. Every icon you see is an invitation to encounter Christ. Even every person you meet! If you are ever going to be a Normal Orthodox Christian, you will allow this “heavenly vision” to shape your life every day!

Formed By The Heavenly Vision

What overreaching vision shapes your life? Have you ever did an internal inventory about what you allow to form how you see the world?

What is your vision? You have one! Is it the right one?

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