Welcome to a brand new year! The word for this year is “I want you to move forward.” He wants to move you away from this dumb mountain standing in the way of your Promised Land, unfulfilled dreams and visions. There are three reasons why God will do this. First is because that is what He does. It is his character and plan for every believer. Secondly, he has loved you with an everlasting love, and thirdly when you move forward, He gets the glory!
Definition
“Visioneering is the course one follows to make dreams a reality” – Andy Stanley. It is transferring the supernatural into thenatural. It is taking the necessary steps to ensure that what you have seen in your mind’s eye becomes a reality.
Components of Visioneering
Inspiration + Conviction + Action + Determination = Visioneering.
Visioneering has at its core the vision and inspiration which is the redemptive revelation of God, a firm belief in the vision which is basically conviction, actively doing whatever it takes, which is action and then a willingness to stay at it until the harvest arrives which is determination.
Inspiration
Everybody ends up somewhere in life, but very few people end up somewhere on purpose and by strategically planning towards it. Those are the ones with vision.
“As a Man thinketh in his heart so he is.” What you do and become is a product your internal thought processes. Being in Christ is meant to transform us. 2 Corinthians 5:15, “If any man be in Christ He is a new Creature…” The change occurs from the inside out that is why when God wants to bless a man and align him to his real destiny the first thing He does is to give him a ‘vision’. Vision is the picture of a preferred future. It is the revelation of the future now, seeing what God sees or the art of seeing the invisible.
How does Vision come about?
True Vision is a product of two sources:
(1) The Word of God.
(2) Tension/dissatisfaction between the reality around you and what ought to be.
Vision/Inspiration
The challenges, circumstances of life, adversity and troubles around us are defeated by what we have on the inside of us.
The bible says greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. That is why God supplies us with a vision, a Redemptive Revelation; a picture of the future as God would prefer it. The vision must be bigger than us that is why we should draw from the wells inside us. The Vision that the Lord places in our lives is the root of our desire to be better than we are, to fulfil destiny and accomplish purpose. We should consider it serious business.
Conviction
Embrace the Vision so much so that you are convinced of its truth. There are stages involved here.
- You buy into the vision. You cannot run with and accomplish a vision you do not believe in. The pursuit of Vision cannot be half hearted. You must give your all to it.
- You begin to see a picture of the future so vivid and compelling that you cannot sleep or rest until you get it. The desire to fulfil your vision should consume you. It is what keeps you going even in the face of opposition.
- You take possession of the dream or vision; you appropriate it by writing it down. This is an important step because you can only have an accurate step by step plan by documenting your vision and strategically planning to achieve it.
Action
This is doing whatever it takes to get the vision real. Things like preparation or acquiring a skill e.g. Joseph, in Potiphar’s house, acquired skills of administration and planning. Blind Bartimeus in Mark10:46, planned his wait by the road for Christ.
Praying for the vision to be fruitful and for all necessary preconditions to be fulfilled (like Nehemiah did) is also an important action to be carried out.
Deliberately do something that makes the vision real and puts the pieces together. Engage in labour that will create favour or value for others.
Moses had to step out to confront Pharaoh on close to ten occasions otherwise the children of Israel would have been stuck in Egypt. Joseph had to go out into the land of Egypt to collect the food. Blind Bartimaeus had to get up and shout when Jesus was going past. Our Lord Jesus had to offer himself in the Garden of Gethsemane in order to go through the ordeal that would make His vision a reality.
Determination
Determination is a willingness to stay at it until the harvest arrives. It is a needed tool as it will enable you stand and fight any opposition that may arise. The road to vision will not be a smooth one. There will be bumps and misleading detours on the way. Only the thoroughly determined truly succeed.
Why Vision? Why Visioneering?
- The heavens belong to God but the earth He has given to the Sons of men. Therefore when God wants to do stuff on earth, He brings into play His redemptive plans. He looks for men and women with whom He can share His pain and burden and gives them a Vision.
- The internal governs the external. The circumstances of life and obstacles the devil throws at us can only be overcome by the greater one that is in us. That’s why God gives vision. Also, when God wants to promote a man or a people He gives them vision.
A genuine God-given vision alters an existing status quo [an oppressive state of affairs] and creates value and blessing for others than the Visioneer.
Visioneering at its best is God and man working together to bring redemption, blessing, restoration and value to mankind (1 Corinthians 6:9, Gen 12:1 -2, Romans 8:19).
Visioneering brings out your unique gifts and callings that you may not have known you had. The story of the woman at the well of Samaria didn’t start out exactly like a vision, but by the time she went through the process of Visioneering with Christ, she moved into her place of destiny.
My prayer for you this year is that you will make it into the place of destiny and grace will abound to keep you there. Begin to dream out loud; see you at the top.