Get The Picture

What is your vision? By that I mean, do you know to what great work God has called you, how he has shaped you with gifts, energies and resources to invest in ways that make a difference, where he has called you to give yourself to a cause that matters both now and for all eternity? What is your vision?

The answer to the vision question is one of the most important issues that we must resolve for a satisfying and successful experience of life. If you never figure that out, you are going to simply be a wandering generality rather than a meaningful specific in your earthly pilgrimage. Without vision, you will waste an infinite amount of precious potential that God invested in you when he gave you life—a waste of resources that will not be satisfying to either God or to you. I like how the Message translates this verse:

“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.”

Why is a God-ordained vision so important for your life? For the simple reason that you will never possess what you cannot picture. That is why envisioning is really an activity of faith. That precisely why the writer of Hebrews says what he does about the function and purpose of faith in Hebrews 11:1.

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.”

In other words, “the ancients” had a picture of what they believed God had for them—and then they passionately pursued it. Romans 4:17 tells us about one of those “ancients,” Abraham, whom God honored because he, “…believed in the God who brings into existence what didn’t exist before.” Abraham got a God-inspired vision for his life!

What Hebrews and Romans reveal is that the visible reality of victory in your life always begins in the invisible realm of faith within your spirit—your vision. That’s why God said to Joshua, “I will give you every place where you set your foot…Everywhere you go I’m going to make you prosperous and successful.” (Joshua 1:3,8) Then in verse 4, God gave Joshua a preview of what he was promising: “I will give you everything from the desert in Lebanon to the great river, the Euphrates…from the Hittite country to the Great Sea…” That’s from the Mediterranean clear over to Iran; from Egypt up to Lebanon.

Did Joshua need all that land? Of course not! But there’s a very important truth at work here telling us something about the nature of God: He always gives in abundance! God wanted Joshua to be inspired by a vision of abundance and victory. Likewise, what God wants for your life is bigger than what you are experiencing now, because God is a God of abundance. That’s why he sent his Son: to give you life more abundantly; life to the full— maximum life! (John 10:10)

One of the greatest steps of faith you can take is to envision that life of abundance. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. You’ve got to see it by faith before you can begin taking the steps to get there because victory is never accomplished without vision!

So again, dear friend, what is your vision? If you don’t have one, ask! God is in the revelation business, I hear.

 “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” ~Helen Keller

Winning At Life:

Memorize John 10:10, and ask the Lord to reveal to you in specific terms what that means for your life beyond salvation.

“The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.
My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”
(New Living Translation)