In this series, we are going to talk about:
- What is vision?
- Where does vision come from?
- How do we maintain vision?
- How do I accomplish my vision?
What brought me to this place in life and ministry?
If you allow them to, past failures, mistakes, frustrations, fatigue, negative circumstances, and more can cause you to lose your vision and get what is called tunnel vision.
What is tunnel-vision? It is defective sight in which objects cannot be properly seen if not close to the center of the field of view.
Proverbs 29:18 | TPT When there is no clear prophetic vision, people quickly wander astray. But when you follow the revelation of the word, heaven’s bliss fills your soul.
Proverbs 29:18 | MSG If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed.
- When you have no vision, you will simply relive the past with its disappointments and failures.
I have had to go back to square one of my calling and what our church is called to accomplish and let God re-establish vision for my life personally, as a pastor and minister of the Gospel, and leader of our church.
What is Vision?
- The greatest gift ever given to mankind is not the gift of sight, but the gift of vision.
- Sight is a function of the eyes; vision is a function of the heart.
- Vision is the ability to see farther than your physical eyes can look – to see not just what is, but also what can be and to make it a reality.
- Vision is seeing the future before it comes into being. God gave humanity the gift of vision so we would not have to live only by what we see.
Vision sets you free from the limitations of what the eyes can see and allows you to enter the liberty of what the heart can feel.
It is vision that makes the unseen visible and the unknown possible.
Vision generates hope in the midst of despair and provides endurance in tribulation.
What we can see is not necessarily what really is.
Many of us are living as clay vessels when, in reality, we are pure gold inside.
- Vision is the source of hope and life.
Without vision you have no hope. Vision is the blueprint for your life.
Hebrews 11:1 | NKJV Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1 | TPT Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen.
To paraphrase, faith is the substance of things you hope to accomplish, the evidence of things you can see even when others cannot.
Where there is a dream, there’s hope, and where there’s hope, there’s faith – and faith is the substance, or fulfillment of what you are hoping for
- Vision determines your destiny.
When you can see what is possible and believe that it can come to pass, it makes you capable of doing the impossible.
Most people have no vision beyond their current circumstances. Without a vision for the future, life loses its meaning. An absence of meaning then leads to lack of hope. It makes one feel as if they are wasting their lives.
It doesn’t matter what you currently have or don’t have, as long as you can see what you could have.
The most frustrated person in the world is someone who has a dream but doesn’t know how to bring it to pass.
- You were born to be distinct and unique.
- You are one of a kind – irreplaceable, and original.
Ephesians 2:10 | NLT For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Things that are originals are high in value because of their uniqueness. The value of natural things is determined by how rare it is. (diamonds, pearls, gold, etc.)
God wanted you to be perpetually valuable so he made you permanently rare. He created you as one of a kind.
- God has given you a unique vision.
Every human being was born to accomplish something specific that no one else can accomplish.
God loves dreamers. He gives big visions and He is attracted to people who love to dream big.
As long as a person can hold on to his vision, then there is always a chance for him to move out of his present circumstances and toward the fulfillment of his purpose.
Vision Comes from Purpose
Do you know why you exist?
Psalms 33:11 | NIV But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.
Isaiah 14:24 | AMPC The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, Surely, as I have thought and planned, so shall it come to pass, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand–
- God planned in advance all that you were born to be and accomplish.
Ephesians 1:3-5 | TPT Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus—all because he sees us wrapped into Christ. This is why we celebrate him with all our hearts! (4) And he chose us to be his very own, joining us to himself even before he laid the foundation of the universe! Because of his great love, he ordained us, so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with an unstained innocence. (5) (5-6) For it was always in his perfect plan to adopt us as his delightful children, through our union with Jesus, the Anointed One, so that his tremendous love that cascades over us would glorify his grace—for the same love he has for his Beloved One, Jesus, he has for us. And this unfolding plan brings him great pleasure!
- You were born at the right time.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 | NKJV To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:
Your purpose can be fulfilled only during the time you are given on earth to accomplish it.
You were born at the right time to accomplish your vision during your generation.
- You were given a sense of purpose.
Ecclesiastes 3:10 | NKJV I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied.
“God-given task” in the Hebrew could be translated as a “responsible urge”.
There is something already in you that God has placed in you because of His purpose.
- God has placed His eternal purpose in your heart.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 | AMPC He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
Although you and I are limited by time and space, our eternal God Who is not limited by time and space has put something into our hearts that calls the unseen into the seen.
What God has placed into your heart is also what is in His own heart.
He lives in eternity, yet He has specifically placed you in time so that others on the earth will be able to see a piece of eternity in Him though you.
Ephesians 2:10 | TPT We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it!
It is that piece of eternity that makes you uncomfortable or dissatisfied with your present life because you are not yet manifesting your purpose.