Vision Season is the time of year to celebrate what the world will look like when Jesus returns to take charge in person. In today's disintegrating and pessimistic world, we shine as people who see the real future, the dream future that Jesus will bring about.
Is this mere wishful thinking? No, because the glorious future is already dawning inside us, and dawn doesn't lie. The sun is coming.
The big idea, the Vision Rhythm we focus on during Vision Season
God has promised that Jesus will come back, take charge as King of the world, and create a permanently perfect world.
Wouldn't you love it if all presidents, prime ministers, dictators, generals, and bosses had to report to Jesus the Messiah about how they were doing in their positions?
Wouldn't you love to see how much better your life became as they changed their ways or got replaced by new power holders Jesus appointed?
That is God's vision for the future, shared with us through the Bible--a world ruled by Jesus the Messiah. The campaign to connect, heal, and bless the world is guaranteed to be a magnificent success under his leadership. The story of our world will have a happy ending.
The other half of the big idea of Vision Season
Living under Christ's rule, we are "beings from the future."
Wild as it sounds, Jesus has taken part of the future and put it into us already by his Holy Spirit. We are not just waiting for his future; we are living the future already!
In the future, he will reign over all territories, all political powers, and all ethnic groups. But he already reigns over us who honor him as our King, and he is already gradually changing us the way he will finally change the whole world when he rules it all.
What change is that? He is reconnecting heaven to earth, rewiring us so we are more like Jesus inside. He turns our, "That's the way I am," into "That's the way I was." Our new me walks in on our old me. The future me starts arriving now.
Bottom line of the big idea
We "see ourselves in Christ" as trailers for a movie about the coming world of peace and joy.
When you SYNC (See Yourself iN Christ), you also see Christ inside you, and that gives you unshakeable hope of reaching your destiny in a new world of peace and joy. This is "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1.27).
In SYNC with Jesus, we are never behind the times. We are ahead of the game! That's our focus for Vision Season.
When you SYNC (See Yourself iN Christ) as a trailer for God's movie about the future, you see the direct life-changing connection between your life and the destiny of the world. It's not like we are helpless, unworthy, stuck with all kinds of weaknesses now, but everything will magically be perfect later.
In Christ some of that future perfection is already arriving, and it's working. Those who are not in Christ can see it working on us, and some of them ask, "What's up with that? What's got into you?" The future has got into us! We are living the dream!
Our role as trailers for the movie about life in the kingdom of Jesus
The Messiah never told us what day, year, or century his return would occur, but he did tell us how to avoid being caught off guard when he comes. "Watch out!" was the key theme of his final parables and teaching.
Watch out for what? When he arrives he will check whether his campaign team members are busy doing their assignments, especially their main work as recruiters. Slackers will get caught taking it easy, thinking they had more time.
Their hearts were never in the work. They never realized that God's whole public awareness campaign between now and his return may be seen as a "Kingdom Citizenship Drive".
In order to persuade people to register as citizens, Jesus wants everyone to get a preview of how good life is in his kingdom. We are that preview, the trailer for the movie about life in his kingdom.
We need to serve our purpose. We have to be as persuasive a preview of heavenly life as God can make us. That is why we love to repeat the Vision Declaration:
I see myself in Christ as a trailer for a movie about the coming world of peace. I see today as a day of the Coming King, a day to live in the dawn of his glory.
That is not to imply that we have to be perfect examples of the perfect future, of course. We might look like a trailer that was shot by an amateur cameramen and pasted together by a child. But we can't be slackers, unconcerned about showing any preview to anybody.
On the other hand, neither can we get so ambitious about recruiting people that we use force or manipulation on them. Our goal is to get the authentic campaign message out--Jesus is the present and future Messiah--not to secure the maximum number of recruits by any means.
We are supposed to make it very clear to potential recruits that citizenship in Jesus's kingdom is effective immediately. Citizens have to start living like Jesus has already arrived, because among citizens, he has arrived by his Spirit. Nobody can sign up now and postpone the activation of their citizenship until later when Jesus arrives in person.
What about the rejectors?
In the previous season, Worth Season, we saw that many people reject the vision of a future ruled by Jesus and they go after us for promoting it. They set themselves up as roadblocks to God's campaign, which is very sad really. They will fall like a house of cards when Jesus returns.
That is what he promised, and Jesus is a man of his word. His return will be a great day for citizens of his kingdom but doomsday for those who rejected him.
That does not mean we look down on the rejectors. We love everyone, even the rejectors. Jesus has not come back in person yet, which means the window to register for citizenship is still open even for rejectors who need a second or third chance.
The trouble is that we don't know how much time we have left. Let's work twice as hard, twice as fast, twice as smart to get the campaign message out. In our vision even rejectors come flocking to Jesus.
With that attitude we can be sure that on the day Jesus returns, he will find us in SYNC with his future, faithfully doing his campaign work in the present.
How Vision Season fits into the SYNC annual cycle
Vision Season is the final season in the SYNC annual cycle.
First season (Life) -- All creation had a glorious start but human disobedience to the Creator put everything under a curse
Second season (Roots) -- God reveals his vision of replacing the curse with blessing through the descendants of Abraham
Third season (Freedom) -- Jesus announces that the vision is coming true through him, he gives his life to set us free from the curse, and he is raised from death to show the curse is broken
Fourth season (Power) -- Jesus takes power on the throne in heaven and sends power down on us by his Spirit so we can show that the vision is coming true
Fifth season (Mercy) -- The vision works by mercy not by force; the sacrifice of Jesus wins our hearts so we willingly join his campaign
Sixth season (Worth) -- Like Jesus carrying his cross, we stay true to the vision though we suffer for it
Seventh season (Vision) -- Jesus comes back to declare the final victory of God's campaign to connect, heal, and bless the world; all enemies of the campaign collapse, every knee bows
In the previous season (Worth Season) we saw ourselves as worthy finishers, enduring the opposition we get as we represent Jesus. Now in Vision Season we see ourselves as trailers for a movie about the perfect world that Jesus will bring into being.
Everything will come together. Mission accomplished! Vision fulfilled! Jesus the Messiah rightly hailed by everyone everywhere.