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.
Twelve Principles for Fulfilling Vision:
Be directed by a clear vision.
Even Jesus identified a specific life work that was His own and motivated everything He did.
John 18:37 | BBE (37) Then Pilate said to him, Are you then a king? Jesus made answer, You say that I am a king. For this purpose was I given birth, and for this purpose I came into the world, that I might give witness to what is true. Every lover of what is true gives ear to my voice.
- A clear guiding purpose will keep you from being distracted by lesser or non-essential things.
- Know your potential for fulfilling your vision.
Your potential is determined by the assignment God has given you.
- Whatever you were born to do, you are equipped to do.
- When you discover your dream, you will also discover your ability.
- Potential is hidden capacity, untapped power, unreleased energy. It is all you could be but haven’t yet become.
- Potential is who you are, in accordance with your vision, even if you don’t know it yet. Potential is the person inside you who is waiting to get out.
Ephesians 3:20 | NIV (20) Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,
God put His vision AND His Spirit within us and that is more than enough potential for our needs.
This means that what you are able to accomplish has nothing to do with your upbringing, your environment, your past, etc. It has to do with the power at work in you.
Your imagination is not big enough for all God wants to do in you, for you, and through you!
You must understand that God will never call you to do something that He hasn’t already given you the ability to do or that He won’t give you the ability to do when the time comes.
Your potential isn’t dependent on what you perceive as your limitations. You are perfect for your purpose.
- Develop a concrete plan for your vision.
As we delight ourselves in the Lord, He places those desires in us that are part of His plan and vision for our lives. We begin to make plans to head towards that vision.
God will direct your steps once you make a plan to move towards that desire He put inside you.
Proverbs 16:9 | TPT Within your heart you can make plans for your future, but the Lord chooses the steps you take to get there.
When ideas are cultivated, they become imagination. Imaginations, if it is watered and developed, becomes a plan. Finally, if a plan is followed, it becomes a reality.
- When you lack a plan, you miss opportunities!
Let’s say you have a vision to start a business. If you have not developed a plan and begun to prepare for the business, If God brought an investor across your path, you would not be ready and prepared for the opportunity.
Like blueprints to a contractor, the plans keep you on track.
- A vision becomes a plan when it is captured, fleshed out, and written down.
- Making a plan is a description of the way you will end up in life, not the beginning.
A plan gives you substance to your prayers. If you have a plan, there will never be enough time for prayer. You can’t pray over it enough!
- Possess the passion of vision.
You will never be successful without passion. Passionate people are people that have discovered something more important than life itself.
How badly do you want what you are going after? Passion is stamina that says, “I’m going to go after this, no matter what happens or how long it takes.”
- You must have a purpose that produces passion.
- You must put your whole heart into your vision.
Nehemiah 4:6 | AMPC (6) So we built the wall, and all [of it] was joined together to half its height, for the people had a heart and mind to work.
Nehemiah 4:6 | NIV (6) So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.
Remember, your vision should cause you to be dissatisfied and unsettled.
- The majority of people in the earth have no passion for life because there is no vision in their hearts.
You are passionate and you are real if you stay steady under pressure. The Apostle Paul proved this in all the hardships he endured.
It’s easy to get excited about a vision, but it is much harder to be faithful to it.
- Purpose feeds passion and passion feeds persistence and persistence is what will keep you moving forward.
- Passion is a desire to win that is bigger than a desire to quit.
- Develop the faith of vision.
- Sight is a function of the eyes, vision is a function of the heart.
A reporter once asked Helen Keller, “Miss Keller, is there anything worse than being blind?” She paused for a moment and, in her unique way of talking, said, “What’s worse than being blind is having sight without vision.”
Physical sight sees things as they are. Vision is the capacity to see things as they could be through the eyes of faith.
- Never let what your eyes see determine what your heart believes.
Hebrews 11:1 | TPT (1) 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.
- God gave us vision so we would not have to live by what we see.
- The vision of our heart is greater than our environments.
As a believer, if you try and function in any other way than faith, you will malfunction.
How does God operate? God created everything by speaking His thoughts into being.
- Thoughts are the most important but words are the most powerful. Why? Because thoughts design a future, words create that future.
- You can undermine your vision through negative thoughts and words.
- You don’t need to be big to think great thoughts, but you need to think great thoughts to become big.
Your success or failure is determined by how you see.