Why talk about vision?
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.
What is Vision?
- 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.
- Vision is the blueprint for your life.
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.
- Vision determines your destiny.
It doesn’t matter what you currently have or don’t have, as long as you can see what you could have.
- God has given you a unique vision.
Every human being was born to accomplish something specific that no one else can accomplish.
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.
- God planned in advance all that you were born to be and accomplish.
- You were born at the right time.
- You were given a sense of purpose.
- God has placed His eternal purpose in your heart.
- Not only has your purpose been given to you to manifest, but it has also already been completed in eternity.
Isaiah 46:9-10 | NIV (9) Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. (10) I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’
Isaiah 46:10 | NIrV (10) Before something even happens, I announce how it will end. In fact, from times long ago I announced what was still to come. I say, ‘My plan will succeed. I will do anything I want to do.’
These verses say that God does two things:
- He finishes things first in the spiritual realm, and then He goes back and starts them up in the physical realm.
- He reveals the end result of something when it is just beginning.
God establishes the principle that purpose is established before production. He institutes a purpose, then He creates someone or something to fulfill that purpose.
Think about creation. Everything was already completed in God’s mind before He laid the foundation of the world. After He imagined and planned how He wanted it to be, then He initiated the beginning by creating the heavens, the earth and then humankind.
Even we operate this way when we are creating something. We plan it out, see it completed, then build it.
The fact that you were “started” is proof that you are already completed in God because He always finishes before He starts and accomplishes His purposes.
Philippians 1:6 | MSG (6) There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.
You were born to manifest something that is already finished in the heart and mind of God. This is why you must live by faith, looking forward with expectation for what God has already completed; otherwise, you will believe only what you see with your physical eyes rather than the vision you see in your heart.
Let’s clarify and establish the difference between purpose and vision:
- Purpose is when you know and understand what you were born to accomplish
- Vision is when you can see it in your mind by faith and begin to imagine it.
When you are able to see your purpose, your vision comes to life.
Vision is a glimpse of the future God has purposed.
Suppose that you have the money you need to fulfill your vision. God says to you, in effect, “I’ve already been where you are going, and you will have everything you need.”
God doesn’t create something and then decide what to use it for.
He knows what He wants first, and then He assigns someone or something to accomplish it for Him.
How do I begin to receive the vision God has for my life?
- Vision is as close as your deepest desires.
Psalms 37:4 | NKJV (4) Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
This verse does not say God will grant the desires of your heart (although He will as those desires conform to His will). It says He will GIVE you the desires of your heart. The word GIVE in the Hebrew means “to add or place”.
When you are Born Again, God begins to shape the desires of your heart to line up with the purpose for which you were created. The closer you draw to Him, the more those desires will prevail.
All the thoughts, ideas, plans, and dreams that remain constant within you were placed there by God. No matter how much you forget them, they always come back to you.
Vision is the idea that never leaves you, the dream that won’t go away, that passion that won’t subside, and that irritating desire that will not let you sit still.
- Vision is what you keep seeing, even when you close your eyes.
- Vision from God is never going to be selfish, about you. It will always be for the greater plan of God’s Kingdom and will build others up and help humanity.
God’s vision for your life will only be realized as we grow in our relationship with God through the Holy Spirit.
Twelve Principles for Fulfilling Personal Vision:
- Be directed by a clear vision.
To fulfill your vision, you must have a clear, guiding purpose for your life. Moses, Joshua, David, and Nehemiah each had vision that drove them and motivated their actions.
The vision must be clear to you or you will not have anything to aim at, and you will achieve nothing.
- When you can see your purpose in your mind by faith and begin to imagine it, that is vision.
Even Jesus identified a specific life work that was His own and motivated everything He did.
Luke 2:49 | NKJV (49) And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”
- A clear guiding purpose will keep you from being distracted by lesser or non-essential things.
Let’s ask some difficult but necessary questions:
- Have you changed jobs several times in the last few years?
- Do you keep changing your major in college?
- Do you do one thing for a time and then go on to something else because you are bored or dissatisfied?
If so, you may lack vision.
You were not created to be bored and dissatisfied.
- You must choose where you want to go in life and then be decisive and faithful in carrying it out.
Don’t put off the decision or be afraid of it. Moreover, when you’re deciding, make sure not to sell yourself short. Shooting for the clouds is too low. Instead make the clouds your cushion in case you fall.
Pastor John Osteen used to say, “Aim high and hit it sometimes versus aiming too low and hitting it every time.
We are not talking about goals such as buying a house or acquiring financial independence or debt freedom. Having a purpose and a vision has to do with your life’s existence. It enables you to answer the question, “Why was I born?”
While you may not know all the details of your life, you should have a good idea of the purpose He has given you to accomplish on earth. Without it, all you’re doing is existing.
- Your vision will bother you until you take action on it.
Nehemiah 2:1 | NKJV (1) And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before.
If God tells you to build, start, invest, create, or manufacture something, then it will bother you deep inside until you do it.
Your vision is a clear conception of something that is not yet reality, but which can exist. It is a strong image of a preferable future.
A vision demands change by its very nature.
When you keep company with God, you have to keep moving forward.
A clear vision gives us passion that keeps us continually moving forward in life.