First day of the year, January 1, 2022. There is always an excitement at the start of a new year. We have an opportunity of looking at what we did the year before and set up some goals to fix what needs fixing and establish new goals. I started setting up goals again last year; I think that it is a good thing to do. However, I am learning that what God is asking us to do is beyond goals. 

The Bible tells us “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” Proverbs 29:18 (KJV). However, notice that this verse connects vision with keeping the Law. We are not talking about a simple dream or goals; it is much deeper. 

The word for Vision here is the Hebrew word ḥāzôn meaning “Revelation by means of a vision, an oracle, a divine communication. The primary essence of this word is not so much the vision or dream itself as the message conveyed. It signifies the direct, specific communication between God and people through the prophetic office.”^[1]

The ESV actually does a better job in giving us the essence of what Salomon is communicating here, “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.” Proverbs 29:18 (ESV) Habakkuk encourages us to  “…Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.” Habakkuk 2:2 (ESV) The word for vision is the same Hebrew word ḥāzôn. In this verse Habakkuk make a connection between the prophetic revelation and the people that God will assign to help you make that vision become a reality.

So, as we seek our prophetic vision for 2022 it requires time with the Lord so that He can reveal to us what he wants from us this year.  It is more than a goal or resolution; it is focusing on God’s Word and what we are called to do as believers and then, the specifics, as it relates to us individually. If we establish goals and resolutions without God we are setting ourselves up for failure; if we focus on the prophetic vision from the Lord we will never fail. 

^[1] Warren Baker and Eugene E. Carpenter, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament(Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2003), 325.