The Need for Vision

Prov. 29:18 AMP Where there is no vision [no redemptive revelation of God], the people perish; but he who keeps the law [of God, which includes that of man] --- blessed (happy, fortunate, and enviable) is he. [1 Sam. 3:1; Amos 8:11-12].

Prov. 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law (NAS).

Martin Luther King had a dream or a vision of a country where people were treated equally regardless of race or colour, a country where people lived in freedom. His dream gave people hope. It inspired them to work and pray for a better tomorrow. A vision gives direction, focus, something to aim for, a goal to be achieved. It requires planning, discerning the steps to see the vision fulfilled. I found this quote below, which may seem a little extreme, but holds truth.

“A vision without action is called a daydream; but then again action without a vision is called a nightmare” (Jim Sorenson). We can wander on aimlessly or even camp in the same place for years if we don’t seek the Lord for His redemptive revelation or vision for our lives or our church. If we don’t put ‘legs’ or substance to it, we will keep looking at it from afar but never accomplish even a piece of it.

This is where prayer comes in; seeking the Lord, waiting before Him to see what He will speak into our hearts or what picture he will put into our spirits. Habbakuk knew how to hear from the Lord. He stationed himself to wait and watch for the Lord to reveal his plan.

Hab. 2:1-3 I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart; and I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me, and how I may reply when I am reproved. Then the LORD answered me and said, “Record the vision and inscribe [it] on tablets, that the one who reads it may run. “For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay. (NAU)

The vision had to be clear so that those who read it could run with it. When our vision statement is wordy or vague, people can read it, but they can’t run with it.

A vision is a goal, but we need to set objectives to get to that goal. A vision that is too vague or so immense that we can’t even contemplate how to get there will never be achieved. We may have a vision to save the world, but we need to start one step at a time with our neighbourhood, our town, our province, our country. As the quote says it is only a daydream if we don’t seek the Lord for steps and start acting on them. Scripture says that the steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord, so at each step we need to seek Him for direction.

Alternately if we have no vision, the people are unrestrained; they have no idea where they are heading, each is doing his or her own thing and we are accomplishing nothing. When you look at a town, it has a police station, a fire station, a hospital each functioning in its area of expertise. I see this as a picture of the church, we each have our redemptive purpose in seeing the kingdom come in our area and we need to discern what that is so that we can do it with excellence and effectiveness. I was at a prayer group and one lady was talking about a town where one church had an excellent youth ministry so the pastors from other churches sent their youth there. This group is on fire for God and accomplishing great things among their generation for the Lord. There is no question of ‘sheep stealing,’ just tapping into and utilizing someone’s gifting and expertise to accomplish the goal.

How do we ‘perish?’ We lose direction; we become like the Israelites in spite of the promise of God to give them the Promised Land and the good report of Joshua and Caleb – they couldn’t grasp the vision and were afraid to venture further, so they wandered in circles until that generation perished. Yes, there were giants in the land, but our God is bigger. Yes, there will be opposition to our vision, but the vision that the Lord gives us is not fanciful imagination or a pipe dream and when we press into it, we will have the victory and the provision needed to see it come to pass. Think of all the great inventors, Edison, Newton, Bell, the Wright brothers all had a vision that became a reality in spite of what others said. What seemed impossible became the possible. They gave birth to their vision by taking action on it. We need a vision that takes us out beyond our four walls and our hour and a half on Sunday morning. We need a vision that excites and motivates the people to grow and be challenged. We need a vision that brings people into the kingdom, makes disciples and gives glory to God. Our vision has to go beyond maintaining the building. When we make an account of what we have done, I don’t think those things are going to count for much. What counts is, did His kingdom grow? Did we reach people with the love of Christ? Did we heal the sick, feed the hungry and give to the poor? Did we make a difference in our sphere of influence?

“The photographer should not allow himself to be trapped by something that excites him only as subject; if he does not see the image decisively in his mind’s eye, the result is likely to be disappointing.” (Ansel Adams) We need to not just see what needs to be done, but how we can do it. That comes with conceiving the vision in our hearts and praying it through until we give birth to it in the natural.

What have prophetic words said about you or your church? Where are those words? We need to take ownership of them and as Paul said to Timothy, wage a good warfare with them. Even if we have had no word spoken over us, the ministry that the Lord has given us is laid out clearly in scripture. Make disciples, heal the sick, cast out demons, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead. Somewhere we all fit into this plan, just how do we walk it out?

Prayer gives us the building blocks or stepping stones to reach that goal. Even if we never see the fulfillment of our goal in this life, the foundation we lay will be a place for others to build.

Abraham was given the vision of being the ‘father of many nations.’ He never saw the fulfillment of that, but he believed in it knowing that God was faithful to His word.

David was never able to build the temple although he had the vision for it, but he gathered the treasure that was needed so that his son, Solomon, could build it.

Joshua reached the Promised Land because he believed that our God is able to deliver what He had promised.

(Psalm 37:4-5 AMP) Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust [lean on, rely on, and be confident] also in Him and He will bring it to pass.

He places those desires in our heart and as we commit those things to Him, He will give us clarity and direction. Thus our vision will begin to take shape and as we build into it with prayer and petition it will come to pass and it will not tarry, but will come to fruition in its appointed time.

Jane Jones
National Prayer Coordinator

Jane Jones is an elder at St Peter's Okotoks, Alberta and the National Prayer Coordinator of ARM.

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This page was posted on June 23, 2006.