我們說過，當我們領受了神的計劃的異象以後，接著發生的事情是那異象會死去。原因是我們內心必須先培養出基督徒的品格，神才能夠在我們的生命裡面實現祂的計劃，而這只能夠藉著由神把我們的異象帶到死地來完成。很多基督徒都因為神這個奇特的策略而感到迷惑，神是藉此在我們裡面建立「活像基督」的品格，這再一次給我們說明「生命之先必有死亡」的真理。

請緊記，撒但在這種情況總是特別活躍的，因為牠的目的是讓你以個人的力量來實現那異象。但是當你這樣做的時候，結果只是惱人的衝突。還記得亞伯拉罕遇見甚麼事嗎？他沒有等候神在最好的時候實現異象，而是透過撒拉的使女夏甲來為他誕下兒子以「幫助」神完成祂的應許（創十六3-4）。結果是引起以撒和以實瑪利之間的衝突，這衝突甚至一直延續到今天。

在今天的經文裡面，我們看見彼得被撒但利用，勸耶穌基督不要去面對加略山的死亡，但耶穌看到彼得的意念的真正來源，於是回應他說：「撒但，退我後邊去吧！」有一位作者對這段經文評論說：「撒但往往利用與我們最親密的人來『保護』我們，以防礙我們執行神呼召我們去做的事情。」哪怕我們那些最親密的基督徒朋友有時也不明白這個道理，就是在我們為了神的計劃而活之前，我們必須先對自己死去。

We are seeing that once we have been given a vision of what God wants us to do for Him, the next thing that happens is that the vision dies. The reason for this is that Christian character must be developed in us before God can accomplish His purpose in our lives, and this can only be done by God bringing our vision down into death. Many Christians have been baffled by this strange strategy which God uses to develop Christlikeness in us, but it is yet another illustration of the principle that death must precede life.

An important thing to remember is that Satan is extremely operative at this time, for his purpose is to get you to fulfil the vision by your own human effort. And whenever you do this, you will finish up in conflict. Remember what happened to Abraham? Rather than waiting for God to bring the vision into being at His own time, he tried to "help" God by having a son through Sarah's maidservant, Hagar (Gen. 16:3-4). The result of that was conflict between Isaac and Ishmael - a conflict that has continued to this day.

In our reading today, we see Peter being used by Satan to talk Christ out of facing death on Calvary, but Jesus recognised the true source of his ideas and responded with the words: "Get behind me, Satan!" One writer comments on this passage: "Satan often uses those who are closest to us to 'protect' us from what we know God has called us to do." Even close Christian friends sometimes fail to understand that before we can live for God's purposes, we must die to our own.