How to Get Vision

How to Get Vision

Habakkuk 2:2, “Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.”

 Vision is the awareness of God’s purpose for your life ministry.  God is a God of purpose (reason, cause, plan, and strategy).  Nothing has or will ever be done by God without purpose.  He made each of us on purpose and for a purpose.  It is our individual responsibility to seek, and it is the Holy Spirit’s job to inform us of, our God-assigned purpose for life.  When someone is called into fivefold ministry, God reveals, confirms, and enacts within the person’s spirit the vision He has for him and the person’s service to Him (ministry).  Like a child that never attends school, he may be very intelligent, but he lacks knowledge; so it is with our calling when we do not submit to its priority in our life (vision).  Even Jesus had to grow in knowledge and wisdom because of His humanity; so we must be ready and willing to follow the vision God has planted in our heart and grow in its understanding.  Those who feel aimless or fruitless in life are not lacking talent or opportunity; their destiny becomes frustrated by not recognizing their purpose (vision) in life.

The call upon your life is the “official” track upon which it will run its race.  The vision must be discovered, just like the talent to play the piano.  It must first be discovered and then practiced daily.  Again, like playing a piano, you start with very simple tunes, and as you progress, your music becomes more intricate and involved.  So it is with vision and ministry.  To keep the analogy going, you would be wasting time to take a piano lesson and then practice all week long on a tuba; yet many that are called wind up doing just this.  There are teachers who should be on the mission field, pastors who are called to be evangelists or prophets, those in the ministry who were never called, and many, many who are called but will not submit to it.

When I was called, I knew how to do nothing.  The only thing I did know was that God had a purpose for my life, and I was relentless in trying to find it.  Slowly, step by step, it became clear.  I knew I was God’s for Him to do with as He willed, and I was as determined as a Louisiana mosquito to find it and do it!  The more I prayed and served, the clearer it became: I was to be full-time.  I was to teach.  I was to put in and keep in order the work of the ministry (my whole system reeked with order and government from my earliest memory and all through my military service prior to entering into the ministry).  It turned out to be a long journey, and much of the territory I passed through was unfamiliar; but in His timing, I arrived at the home base of my calling: doing the work of an apostle.  It’s like a singer: He doesn’t need an opera house to sing in; he sings in the shower, he sings on the street, he sings everywhere he goes.  He just sings!

Now concerning you and your vision, you were called to fulfill your purpose in God.  With the call comes the vision.  What do you see yourself doing?  What do you do best that is God-honoring?  What do you like to do?  What is the very burden of your heart?  When you finally saw your wife, your personal life’s destiny was fixed; so it is with your vision.

Then write your vision down.  Seek confirmation of it through your pastor.  Stand by, for somewhere along the way the prophet will also bring clear confirmation.  As you write it down, begin to make it clear and brief; it now becomes the slogan for your life.  It becomes a passion; it is all you see and want to talk about.  Now it is time to let the Spirit of God give you the strategy (method) to make your dream become reality.

Your vision has arrived.  You know who you are and what God’s purpose is for your life.  As Paul explained, we all have our specific lane on the track in the race of life; others are also running, but you are running the race that God has set before you.  With this vision, you now have direction and are equipped to lead your ministry.

Just a word about what vision is not: Vision is more than a strategy or a method or even a plan.  God anoints vision; it is through vision that the anointing comes upon the plan, strategy, or method.  This is why you can go to a conference and learn about someone’s successful strategy and hurry home to try this fantastic idea, only to find that it does not work.  When you just copy someone else’s plan, method, or strategy without having the vision, there is no anointing; it is like trying to bake a cake in a cold oven.  It worked for him because it was his vision that provided the anointing upon the strategy that gave him the blessed results.

There are no anointed strategies or methods outside of a God-given vision.  Do not start your ministry based upon a popular strategy, but rather begin your ministry with God-given vision that is based upon your God-given purpose in life.