Vision and Dreams
How many of you make it a habit to write out your vision and dreams? I believe that there are probably a great many of us that believe this is important to do but don’t. We understand the theory and the promise behind this exercise but often times when it comes right down to putting it into practice, we fail big time! We fail to take advantage of what’s offered in our vision and dreams. Maybe not all of you… ok well, just me then (smile)! I want to take a quick few minutes to talk about why (If you’re like me about transformative envisioning), it is vital to the process of growth that we write out our vision and dreams and make them plain.
I honestly and truly believe with all my heart that when God’s word tells me that as a man thinketh, or believes about himself, so is he or so he will become. I believe this. I take it literally because it comes from the Word of God, but I also believe it because there have been too many respected scholars and philosophers who have affirmed this basic, fundamental principle through various teachings and writings. We experience visions and dreams for a reason. Our minds really don’t stop processing information when we close our eyes at night (see Nature, The Journal of Neuroscience). I believe our best work occurs when we focus and experience vision and dreams.
Now, I believe that this essential truth is often mislabeled or misapplied by the secular world but there is no denying how true this is (see Nature 2). For example, scientist can explain the color of the sky but I believe its hue comes from the finger of God. Does this mean that the science is wrong? Of course not. We may quibble over attribution and credit but the central tenant remains true, the sky is blue!
So when the Lord says that I am what I think, that my thoughts have the power of transformation, I believe it completely. When He says to me that the power of life and death is in my tongue, I don’t quibble with that statement. I take it as fact. When He says that salvation is as near as the words out of my mouth, that if I will confess Him as Lord and Savior, I will be saved, I doubt nothing! I rejoice!!! I see the evidence of this every time I look in the mirror and recognize that but for the grace of God…
Yes, this all works fine and dandy for Christian believers but what if you’re not of that belief? What if you haven’t come to that revelation of faith? What should I know or care about vision and dreams? You can still be transformed by the things you say! The tone of your day is often set by the very first thing you experience or say in the morning. Have you ever stubbed your toe getting out of bed or walking to the restroom? Do things tend to go downhill afterwards? Think about it. What was your reaction when you stubbed your toe? Those words shape what follows!
This is what this post is about and this is why I say to you that vision and dreams are very but what you also have to put into motion are your words! Faith without work is dead!! The work affirms your faith and gives substance to your faith. You put your words into motion by writing! Write your visions and dreams out. Write down your visions and dreams and revisit them often. Make it a daily habit to write WHAT YOU want to SEE HAPPEN. Your visual cortex is directly impacted by what you write and vice versa. One reinforces the other and when you write the vision you really do make it plain. In other words, making it plain actually means to make material, to make real, to bring what was invisible into the visible realm.
This is what I want you to do every morning and it is very simple…even a caveman could do it (sorry if I have offended any local Neanderthals). After you pray, meditate or conduct your devotion, sit down for a brief moment in peace. Don’t get started on the next thing, just give peace a moment to settle on you. Take out a piece of paper, tablet, cell phone or any device that will allow you to write. Think in your mind of one thing that you really want to see happen, be completed, or achieved in that day. One goal, start with one and write it down. Concentrate on that one thing and nothing else. Don’t worry about any other aspect of what you want to see happen, i.e. what it will take to accomplish, how much, how long, whom will need to get involved, etc. Now write your thought out just as it was formed in your mind. Write it a second time. Write it five more times for a total of seven. Try to keep the vision to a sentence or two and later you can expand that as needed. By keeping it short you don’t get distracted with unnecessary verbiage. Short and sweet and to the point!
What you have just done is given your vision and dream some preliminary form. As you see it and read it, your vision will continue to gain clarity and that is what you need. The clearer the vision the stronger the transformation from the immaterial to the material will be. This is why when we sometimes ask God for help or assistance, our aid doesn’t seem to come or when it does come it is in a form that we hadn’t even imagined. Of course, when we get the help we seek, we’re probably satisfied to get it in whatever form it comes! What I am sharing with you is how to achieve specifically that very thing you hope for with specificity. You have to be specific and focused when it comes to receiving the thing you want. If you ask God for anything, any kind of way, then don’t be surprised to receive whatever!
Our Master said to ask and it would be given, to seek and it would be found, to knock and it would be opened (see Matthew 7:7). You have to ask specifically for the specific thing with specificity. You have to seek with intensity in order to find exactly what you want. Last, you have to knock on the door, the right door, in order to enter the room you intend to be in. All of these things come from a focused clarity and intent. This is how you begin to actualize your vision and dreams. Write them down, revise them with specific intent and focus on the dream some more. The vision will continue to become clearer and clearer until what you are writing is laser focused and on target. After that you’ve done the most important part. In the past perhaps you did not receive what you asked for because you didn’t ask and when you did you may have asked incorrectly. It’s time to change all of that!!! Gain a strong foothold on your future and write the vision, make it plain. Once the vision has taken form and become material, it’s much easier to run with it and receive it!!!! Vision and Dreams have a real purpose in your life so don’t neglect the gift that God has given to us.
VisionFlow 