IF YOU’RE GOING to run with any vision, run with God’s.
If it is truly from God, it will reach into the lives of millions of people – many of whom have not yet been born.
Reverend Andre Symmonds shared this message with members of The People’s Cathedral recently, as he urged them to play their part in continuing with the vision and work God had entrusted to the church’s founder, Bishop Dr Holmes Williams, who died in December.
Symmonds’ sermon titled, Forwarding The Vision, was based on Habakkuk 2:2-3, where God told the Prophet Habakkuk to write down the vision which had been given him that those who run would read it.
Symmonds, senior pastor of the church in Bishop’s Court Hill, St Michael, said four groups of people were needed in Habakkuk’s story to ensure the vision’s fulfilment: the writers, the runners, the readers and the revealers.
Likewise, he said such people were needed to continue the work of the church’s visionary.
“The vision should never originate with a man but with God. We must be careful not to attribute to man what really is God’s. This is not to cast a shadow or ‘turn the lights down’ on the men and women whom God raised up as visionaries. Truth is, it takes a very special individual to tap into the deep recesses of an all-wise God and extrapolate and effectively communicate to their generation and future generations, the vast mind of God and His specific plans.”
Symmonds added that the writers in God’s vision for the People’s Cathedral were those who had been in the assembly for a long time or from inception, and had joined the founder when the church was being established.
“These persons helped Pastor Holmes to write the vision. They were among the first faithful men and women whom God had promised to give to this house. We laud them. They helped to cast the vision. Like the ‘pen of ready writers’ God used them mightily as they availed themselves to the initial task of writing the vision.”
He added that the runners were those with the capacity and tenacity to run with what God had given.
“I suggest that all of us who love and endear this great work and the existence of this assembly ought to see [ourselves] as runners. The instruction to run is for all of us.”
He noted that “not everyone who writes the vision will necessarily run with the vision”, but the runner must also see himself or herself as the reader.
In describing the revealers, the minister said: “They must incorporate and encourage the presence and participation of effective communicators who can speak the language of a technologically advanced people indifferent to Christ and His Gospel.
“I believe there’s a generation on our heels who, if reached and effectively communicated with, will be the ones in this end-time era to pull back the veil and reveal to a very ‘indifferent’ generation, the great mysteries of the Gospel.
“We are always one generation away from apostasy and if we drop the ball now, generation ‘Z’ will go down to hell in ‘handbag’.”
He told the congregation while he had learnt brilliant things from the church’s pioneer and “would always be deeply grateful” to him,” he would never be him.
“Please don’t expect me to be him,” Symmonds said. “Reverend Jewell [Callender] and I have got to ‘run’ and ‘read’ this vision the way God has empowered us to run it and read it. Like the rest of you, we’ll make mistakes. But we promise you this: we will give to God and to all of you our very best.”
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