threefold vision

"A vision without a task makes a visionary; a task without a vision is drudgery; a vision with a task makes a missionary.

Isaiah had a vision in three dimensions.  It was an upward vision - he saw the Lord; an inward vision - he saw himself, and an outward vision- he saw the world.

It was a vision of height- he saw the Lord high and lifted up.  A vision of depth- he saw recesses of his own heart.  And a vision of breadth - he saw the world.

A vision of holiness.  Oh, beloved! How this generation of believers needs the vision of God in all His holiness!  A vision of hellishness - 'I am undone... unclean!'  and a vision of hopelessness- implied by the words 'who will go for us?'

In this hour - when the average church knows more about promotion than prayer, has forgotten consecration by fostering competition, and has substituted propaganda for propagation - this threefold vision is imperative."

Leonard Ravenhill - Why Revival Tarries Bethany House: Minneapolis, 1959, 28-29.