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
What is your vision for this year? What do you need to do to implement your vision? Does your vision agree with God’s design for your life? If not, what adjustments need to be made? Are you willing to make the necessary adjustments? Vision is more than thinking about your future. Vision is seeing where we want to go or what we want to do from God’s perspective. Vision is seeing God’s design for our lives and the impact we were created to have on society. Vision is seeing the untapped potential and possibilities of our lives.
Vision requires planning. Without planning, you risk spending all of your time thinking about what you want to do without having any real plan to achieve it. This only results in uncertainty and delay about what to do or how to do it and you don’t get anywhere. Vision is about taking the future seriously. If God has planned for your future self, shouldn’t you strive to discern and follow His plan? What are the necessary steps to secure the future God has designed for you?
Effective leaders are visionary leaders. They spend time reflecting upon and planning their future. These leaders regard their vision as God’s ultimate design for their lives and they are unwilling to navigate in any direction that does not lead them to the future God has shown them. Vision releases a leader’s passion, and the pursuit of purpose. It creates a dissatisfaction with the status quo and the mediocre. In effect, vision energizes and draws a leader forward into life far beyond the ordinary.
Unfortunately, leaders without a vision are frequently passionless and purposeless. With no real plan to become who God has designed them to be, leaders without vision give in to mediocrity and cannot break out of the cycle of the mundane. They can’t recognize that to be a real leader they have to be more. If they truly believe they were designed to be leaders, then they have to dare to be extraordinary.
12 Vision Basics:
- Vision begins when we connect with God’s design for our lives. It is an internal process.
- Vision includes our past and present. Every life experience has an impact on vision. Each of us is the sum of previous life events and decisions. In the hands of God, these events become a powerful catalyst to vision.
- Vision is about your future, not your present. Vision is about seeing your future according to God’s plan while life is about right now.
- Vision is about seeing how our lives are intended to impact the lives of others. Self-centered vision cannot produce feelings of contentment and satisfaction.
- Vision requires a team. God-given vision is most often comprehensive and larger than one person can accomplish alone. Visionary leaders must commit to working with a team rather than trying to fulfill vision alone.
- Vision has an appointed time. Each phase of vision requires planning and execution and is not accomplished overnight. As you faithfully and consistently execute your vision plan, you will accomplish each phase.
- Vision requires commitment. Vision is not accomplished overnight. There must be a daily commitment to the vision God has given to you. The vision requires you to resist busyness and the urgency of life and commit to seeing the picture of your future through God’s eyes, fulfilled.
- Vision is not free. Vision requires sacrifice and risk. Fear of failure keeps too many leaders from fully implementing God’s plan for their lives. In Matthew chapter 14, Peter asked for permission to walk on the water with Jesus. Peter first had to envision himself walking on the water with Jesus. He had to be willing to leave the safety of the boat. To accomplish vision, you must be willing to leave your comfortable boat and walk on the water with the Lord, keeping your eyes fixed on Him.
- Vision requires faith. God-given vision is larger than anything you can accomplish alone. God’s dream for you is big, requiring you to depend on God every step of the way. God stretches us beyond our comfort zones into the place of faith.
- Vision requires courage and confidence. When you are fearful, you are unable and unwilling to take the necessary risks to see vision fulfilled. One of the traits of visionary leaders is the willingness to take calculated risks. To these leaders, failure is a learning opportunity.
- Vision is not a single, once-and-for-all accomplishment. Each time a portion of your vision is fulfilled, the Lord will always show you another phase. Vision is fluid and moves with us throughout our lifetime.
- Vision is generational. God is generational. We see him represented in scripture as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Vision positions future generations to continue “visioning,” taking our accomplishments and going beyond them.
Vision of Benefits:
- Impact. The vision God has given you will impact everyone who connects to you. People are not looking for average leaders. Visionary leaders are extraordinary individuals who have capacity to see beyond their current circumstance, maximizing their potential and the potential of those connected to them, for great impact.
- Attraction. Visionary leaders attract, unite and challenge people to break out of self-imposed limitations. The greater the vision, the more people are attracted to visionary leaders.
- Leadership Synergy. Vision creates a synergy of movement around visionary leaders and attracts individuals who are willing to use their gifts and abilities to see the vision fulfilled.
Yes, vision is often risky but when a vision comes from God, it is protective too, and it creates boundaries that guide the visionary along the path God has given without loss or delay. It’s time to awaken the vision of God for your life. Let’s go.
Venner Alston is the author of Next Level Spiritual Warfare: Advance Strategies for Defeating the Enemy. To purchase your copy or to learn more about VJ Alston Ministries, contact https://drvjalston.org
