Discerning Your Life Vision (Part 1): The Foundation
“For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” ~ Jeremiah 29:11
Time is the most valuable earthly resource that God has provided us. If used wisely, our time has the potential to revolutionize an entire generation. Honoring God with our time is not about setting out a little time for devotions each day but about focusing every waking moment on Christ and the vision He has given to us.
Now to most people that may seem a little radical and even legalistic. If every waking moment is focused on Christ, where do I come in? When do I get time for me? Exactly! In giving every moment of our life to God we begin to gain power over the dominion of darkness because our every second is spent in the realm of light!
We become focused not on our own desires but on the longings of our eternal Father. The more we apply our minds to accomplishing the Father’s purpose, the more He will transform the yearnings of our hearts to match His sovereign will. “Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).
Please note I am not suggesting living a busy and frantic life filled with constant doing. Rather I am emphasizing the position of our heart and mind to be fully committed to Jesus.
Only One Life to Live
Though this life is short in comparison to the expanse of eternity past and future, God has given us breath for a reason. We should not wallow in the fact that our time in these mortal bodies will not endure but should instead use this life to achieve our full potential in Christ. The ancient philosopher Seneca writes with powerful insight on this matter.
It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing. So it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it. Just as when ample and princely wealth falls to a bad owner it is squandered in a moment, but wealth however modest, if entrusted to a good custodian, increases with use, so our lifetime extends amply if you manage it properly.[1]
To echo the words of Seneca, “we are not ill-supplied.” For God has given us one of the most powerful resources in all of creation, the Word of God.
“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17).
Our challenge is to use the Word of God to dictate our every step in order to transform our life. Only after our own hearts have been renewed are we able to give our all to seeing change in others.
The Tragedy Of A Visionless Life
A great mentor of mine and a man that has made a huge contribution to my spiritual walk is Mike Bickle. It was years ago that I heard a sermon of his that set my heart on fire for creating an intentional vision for my own life. As the former director of the International House of Pray in Kansas City, MO, Bickle emphasized his passion to see young people pursue the Lord with reckless abandon.
But it is not always easy to get young people on board with properly managing their time. In one of his Bible teachings, Bickle explains this link between developing discipline and having a vision for your future.
To help somebody establish discipline in their life is help them get a clear vision for their life. It is very difficult to get people disciplined for the sake of discipline … instead of calling them to discipline as a thing of itself, give them a new picture of what they can be, they buy into the picture, they will live disciplined. Undisciplined people have a vision problem, not a laziness problem, as a rule.[2]
Developing a life vision is the key to creating a life focused on using time with excellence. Far too many people spend their lives just drifting about here and there, hoping to stumble across something that will make their lives significant. Most of the time, they continue to be drawn away by whatever looks good in that moment and never fully achieve what they were once called to accomplish.
Proverbs 29:18 warns that “where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained.” Where there is no focus for our lives, we lose control, having no discipline in our pursuit of God’s vision. Instead, the majority of our time and energy is spent chasing after the next best thing.
We must understand that in this context of life focus, it is good to be restrained and to have a vision that we are committed to. By restraining our desires from following the next fad, and focusing our energy on the vision God has given us, we become considerably more effective in increasing the dominion of His kingdom.[3]
Applying Focus to Our Life
It is in focusing our lives that we begin to understand the importance of using our time wisely. God does not dispense tiny, minute visions to His beloved children. Remember that the value of your vision is not always related to the numerical size of your impact. A big vision does not always mean big numbers.
By using the entire body of Christ, God wishes to turn this world upside down and pour out a revival that has the potential to forever shape the history of the earth. We are a key component to that happening.
Too often we settle for the smaller things in life because we fear failure. We fear that if we set out for the large callings that God has for us, we may come up short and be unable to achieve all that we were destined for. I would much rather chase after the mighty vision that God has for my life and come up short than settle for a lesser vision and easily fulfill it.
If I feel that I have the capacity on my own to fulfill a vision that God has given me, will I desperately seek the Lord for help? We must pursue callings that we know full well we cannot achieve in our own strength but only accomplish through the power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is in that understanding of weakness that Christ’s power is perfected (2 Corinthians 12:9). His grace is always sufficient for us (2 Corinthians 12:9), and in partnering with Him we can overcome the impossible (Matthew 19:26).
Managing Our Time for the Glory of God
Recognizing that the Lord does not dole out small visions to His elect, we must also understand the enormous amount of time and energy that goes into seeing these destinies fulfilled. This is why managing our time is so imperative. With large vision comes large responsibility.
After the Holy Spirit plants His vision in our hearts, we then become responsible in spending every waking minute to see that vision come to fulfillment (once again this is not about constant activity or busyness). When the temptation arises to be careless with our time, we must force ourselves to focus on fulfilling our destiny and throw off the lethargy that attempts to swallow us.
Pressing In for Your Vision to Be Revealed
If at this point in your life you are clueless as to what your vision may be, I encourage you not to worry. I promise that God has a vision for every life that He has given breath to. In His timing, God will reveal a personal, holy calling, and will begin to give you strategies on how to achieve it!
In saying this, I am not giving you a free ticket to just sit around hoping to feel inspired. There is a crucial aspect that you play in hearing and pursuing God. If you believe that having a life vision is one of the most essential areas in developing a life worthy of your calling, then I suggest pressing into the face of God and asking Him to confirm this vision within you.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:7, 8).
This pursuit of hearing God’s direction will look different for everyone. When I suggest pressing into the face of God that may mean spending long blocks of time waiting on the Lord in silence. It could mean storming the throne for an answer. It may even include giving up a few meals as you utilize the power of fasting to better hear the Lord for direction.
The important idea for us to comprehend now is that God desires for you to understand your calling even more than you desire to know it for yourself. He is a faithful Father, and as you seek His face, He will begin to pour desires into your heart. These holy longings will eventually guide you toward your life vision. Rick Warren puts it like this:
“This phrase is the ultimate definition of a life well lived. You do the eternal and timeless (God’s Purpose) in a contemporary and timely way (in your generation). That is what the purpose-driven life is all about. Neither past nor future generations can serve God’s purpose in this generation. Only we can. Like Esther, God created you ‘for such a time as this.’”[4]
[1] Seneca, On the Shortness of Life (New York: Penguin Group, 1997), 1-2.
[2] Mike Bickle, “The Power of a Focused Life” (sermon), August 22, 2014, accessed January 24, 2016, http://mikebickle.org/resources/resource/3585?return_url=http%3A%2F%2Fmikebickle.org%2Fresources%2Fseries%2Fthe-power-of-a-focused-life-2/.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I Here For? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), 318.
