I want to look at several steps in having vision for you. These are not “magical” ingredients that when you do them your vision automatically appears. When you put these habits into practice along with what we have discussed in the previous chapters, you will be ready for God to work in and through you.

Step One – Pray
Prayer is critical to vision development. Why? Because we see what we are looking for and often miss what we don’t expect to see. Prayer keeps us looking. It keeps our eyes and our hearts in the expectant mode. When God begins to move, we are only going to see it we are ready and watching. Even as we pray about and plan for the vision, it seems overwhelming and impossible. When God puts something on our hearts, it always seems out of reach (because it is). God ordained visions are always too big for us to handle.

When we are not able to see what God is doing around us, it is pretty clear that we do not have God’s vision. You have experienced it before. It is cold, devoid of any form of life. It is a gray place that you avoid because it depletes the life out of you. You may or may not know how you got there; you just know that it is not comfortable, and God is not there. The place I am describing happens when you do not have a life-changing prayer relationship with God.

The goal of the vision is to change you. Along the way, the life of your family, your friends, your readers or your job may be changed, and that is good. But God’s plan is to change you.

Step Two – Take Action
A vision rarely requires immediate action. But it always requires patience. Many people ask, “Why wait?” After all, there are people to rescue. Why not just plunge ahead? Because developing and discovering a vision is a process. Sometimes it’s painful and agonizing. But it is always worth every bit of the agony along the way. Waiting often seems like a waste of time. The assumption is that since we aren’t moving ahead, nothing’s going on. But that is not the case at all. Some important things are taking place while we wait. While not every good idea is vision material, every vision begins as an idea. Not all burdens are vision material, but every vision begins as a burden. Immature visions are weak. They rarely make it in the real world. As we wait, not only does the vision mature, but we also mature and become ready for the vision. Many times the tendency is to assume that since I know what I am to do, I’m ready to do it. But God has to grow us into our vision. Just as a vision must be God ordained, it must also be done according to God’s timetable.

Step Three – Write It Down
As a matter of fact you must write it down. Men, how many times has your wife given you a task that you needed to do and you didn’t write it down? Big mistake! Most people think they don’t need to write things down because they have a great memory or it isn’t that important in the first place. I have learned to write down things that are important; at least the things are that important to my wife.

I have had the opportunity to attend many conferences during my adult life, in both the business world and also as a pastor. At almost every conference I have attended dealing with vision, goals, etc, one of the “keys” to knowing where you are going, is to write out your life/church vision or mission statement. In May of 2004, I attended Ken Davis’ “Dynamic Communication Workshop” in Colorado. While there I met the Director of Operations for Chick-fil-A restaurants. As we exchanged business cards, I was pleasantly surprised to see Chick-fil-A’s corporate purpose statement on their business cards; it starts off with “to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.” To say the least, that totally impressed me about this company. It wasn’t the fact that they had a purpose statement printed on their business cards, but that it started with the phrase “to glorify God.” That statement clearly identifies their purpose, “to glorify God,” and their vision, “to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.”

Some of you might be able to accomplish this task in a matter of minutes. Good for you.

Step Four – Research
There is the mindset that before you do anything, whether in the workplace or in ministry, that you must research, research, research. There is a time to get all the facts you need before you make a decision, but too much research and fact-finding can lead to endless research and fact-finding, which results in nothing. When it comes to this step of finding out what God’s vision is for you, act upon it alone. You are praying, writing it down and now you are going to go beyond the one sentence vision statement and “put legs on it.” The vision statement is what God wants you to do. What you are going to do next is work on the reasons that are necessary for the vision to begin to take shape.

Some people after doing research find out that the vision wasn’t really a vision to begin with. It was a dream founded in their wants, their need for recognition, or it was just an outright lousy idea. We need to be cautious of letting our emotions take over where sensibility and discernment are needed. Do your research; ask lots of questions, follow God’s Word, and get counsel before you commit to a plan that may or may not be God’s vision.