Write The Vision
We all have dreams, visions, plans and ideas. But then what crucial steps must we take next?
This article is a follow up to a previous article titled Purpose, Calling & Dreams. Feel free to read that first or proceed with this one
Write The Vision…
Write the vision and make it plain on tablets… Habakkuk 2:2
This is a scriptural and irrefutable principle of life.
The first stage is to conceive it (or receive it). The second stage — document it! Write it down in details, even if it changes later. Learn to take your dreams serious. Write down those visions of the future in your heart: spiritual calling, ministry outreaches, business ideas, financial ideas, philanthropic organizations, fashion companies, and technological breakthroughs, name it….WRITE THEM ALL DOWN!
The Clearer Your Goals, The Greater Your Faith. Mike Murdock
When you write them down, they start to look feasible, then you edit, you fine tune, and you modify. What was initially on God’s mind starts to find earthly manifestation. The sons of the Kingdom start to become instrumentations to making the earth a better place — God’s own way. Hallelujah!
Think on them, ponder on the dreams, and subject it to the scrutiny & illumination of the Holy Spirit with the help of the Word of God. The greatest dreams all began with a thought. If it is birthed in the place of the Holy Ghost, it is a future miracle begging for manifestation! I personally testify that the greatest breakthroughs and solutions I have had in software development (an area of gifting) have come, usually during a service, during my quiet time or just while thinking! Please, write them down, they may never come back again that way.
Run Of The Vision…
…that he may run who reads it. Habakkuk 2:2
A Mentor once wrote, “You will never make significant success with something until it becomes an obsession”. Start doing something about those dreams & visions. Add them to your daily schedule. Make sure no day ends without you doing something (no matter how little) that contributes to the fulfilment of that dream, even if it is just writing down a thought! Read about it. Prepare for it. Learn about it. Let it have permanent residence in your heart.
Run along with the Spirit of God…
The preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits. Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established. Proverbs 16:1–3 (with author’s emphasis)
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5–6
Regularly lay it before the Holy Spirit. A moment with Him will reveal the flaws of your most carefully laid plans. Talk about it to other Christians, who will support it and encourage you. Most importantly, spend time with God’s Word, studying scriptural examples, admonitions, warnings & illuminations. Take out time to pray. Pray in tongues. Pray concerning your fears, doubts; discuss freely with God. His presence is the proper place to receive confirmation about the validity and authenticity of your dreams, if it is of Him or not. Your spiritual sensitivity and obedience is crucial at this stage.
The Holy Spirit will lead you every step of the way and supernaturally open doors of opportunity before you. When He does, make use of them! He will bring the right people your way, right connections. He will schedule timely instructions as well as timely warnings. Please do not take either lightly! Disobedience or disregard of warnings (i.e. chastisements, rebukes and/or intentional delays) can cost you dearly!
- Some people can discourage you simply because they do not understand your dreams and visions and so they do not appreciate them. Notwithstanding, make use of wonderful people around you.
- Acquire or develop skills you may require. They may be mental, physical, emotional or spiritual.
- Learn about things you do not know about, such as forming/building organizations, raising/managing people, raising funds, etc.
- Build up your most holy faith in the Holy Ghost. Deal with your weaknesses; study His Word like never before; soar in the Spirit on the wings of prayer.
- Support other people’s dreams & visions; appreciate them, encourage them and sow into them.
This is your youth — the morning part of your days, the time for purpose, preparation, planning & process. Before the flood of circumstances begin to sweep many away, embrace your destiny in God and partner with divinity. Shod your feet with the boots of vision-enhanced stamina. Launch out into life with a sense of direction towards purpose, abundance and fulfilment.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but in the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Habakkuk 2:3
Importance of Vision
Having a vision of the future gives you focus. Focus is being ‘un-distracted’ by the many distractions in life. Focus is one of the most important ingredients for outstanding and extraordinary success in life. You cannot stay focused unless you have something to look unto — a reason to live; a reason to press on; a reason to wake up each day and a reason to work on, despite the bad situations of things at the present.
Your vision is of an expected end. This God approves of:
For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope (or an expected end). Jeremiah 29:11 (with author’s emphasis)
The fear of the wicked will come upon him, and the desire of the righteous will be granted. Proverbs 10:24 (with author’s emphasis)
My son, eat honey because it is good, and honeycomb which is sweet to your taste; so shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul; if you have found it, there is prospect, and your hope will not be cut off. Proverbs 24:13–14
The dreams of the future that you have are little scenes from the big pictures of God’s thoughts. They might not look feasible. The dreams may not be the complete picture because visions of the future only get clearer and brighter as you mature and advance in your partaking of God’s thinking pattern.
But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines brighter unto the perfect day. Proverbs 4:18
For we know in part … For we now see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. 1 Corinthians 13:9, 12
Having a vision keeps you from envy, jealousy and comparing yourself to others. Your God-given vision fully gives expression to your God-given potentials and talents — the best of you and what you were actually created to be. You have to stay focused in training to attain that picture that the Lord has for you. Even when other vessels of God are gloriously manifesting His excellence in their God-given callings, you are not envious. Instead, you are challenged to step up and continue in what He has specifically called you to be in its God-given fullness.
Having a vision also helps in one of the most important decisions in life — the choice of a life partner, i.e. marriage. In the second chapter of Genesis, while Adam was in the garden, God saw need to provide a helper meet (fit, proper and comparable) to him. A helper meet for his assignment and his person. As a man, when you have started walking in the fulfilment of God’s purpose, I believe recognising a helper comparable to you is easier. The same also goes for the woman of purpose. It is until then that she can recognise the man with the calling and potentials to husband her life. The commandment to multiply; fill the earth and subdue it was given to both man and woman. We equally have a calling to fulfil purpose in our lives.
The reason why life seems so ordinary for so many is this: If your heart cannot picture a future, your person cannot achieve (or manage) it. Some say, if you can dream it, you can achieve it. An older and well-established lawyer friend once told me (along with another colleague), “God works with the picture you have in your mind”. It's like, when you see far, you give God work to do in bringing it to fulfilment.
You however, must not lose the caution of subjecting every thought, dream and aspiration to the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to ascertain whether they were of Him in the very first place.
Thus He showed me: Behold, the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand. And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said: “Behold, I am setting a plumb line In the midst of My people Israel; I will not pass by them anymore. Amos 7: 7–8 (with author’s emphasis)
And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are — northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. Genesis 13: 14–15 (with author’s emphasis)
So God brings the picture. Then asks what you see. Then works with WHAT YOU SEE.
Stop being too busy. Stop the hustle. Stop tagging along with people who don’t know where they are going? We must step out of the rat-race of life, out of the confusion of “following with the trend” and away from the lie of “going the vibes”.
What do you see?!
