The Importance of Vision, And Why Very Few Have One

I have been following hard after the Lord for more than 30 years. In that time I have heard about the importance of vision too many times to count, and for good reason. Yet, though I knew and agreed about the importance of having a vision, I became sick of hearing about it altogether. Everyone, everywhere, seemed to agree that it’s important to have a vision. But I virtually never heard anyone share a vision that made sense as a vision. Mostly, leaders would not talk about any vision, which I assumed meant they didn’t have one, and most others stamped the word vision on something that clearly wasn’t really a vision, but something more like an exalted hope, yet with no idea whatsoever how to work towards accomplishing it.

Proverbs 29:18

Lest someone isn’t on the same page, unable to agree that vision is important, we only need to look at Proverbs 29:18 to get us there. There are various translations of this verse. I am fond of the King James version because, well, “perish” leaves us no doubts about how serious the matter is!

However, I also very much like the NET Bible translation (which resembles many other more modern translations):

“When there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but the one who keeps the law, blessed is he!”

There are a few ideas about what King Solomon might have had in mind when, moved my the Holy Spirit, he recorded those words. From this short proverb, however, I’m sure we can firmly grasp a couple of basic, foundational truths that the Holy Spirit expected to help guide us wisely in living effectively for God.

This vision, especially being paired with prophetic, has to do with something related to the future, no matter whether imminent or distant. Also, accepting that we are to regard this “prophetic vision” to be authentically prophetic, it is to be considered completely reliable.

So, with that basic understanding we can conclude that if we don’t have a reliable “seeing” into the future, we will not be able to live disciplined lives today. In other words, if we don’t have a reliable goal, by which I mean a worthy goal that we know “God is in,” we will in time begin to lose focus, lose desire, lose discipline, lose endurance, lose courage—all the ingredients necessary to accomplish anything grand. And grand, brothers and sisters, is what we are called to by God.

Big Things

I’d like to say, God doesn’t do little. He is Big and only does big things! I think some might want to argue with that, and they’d have a point. It can reliably be argued that God also does “little” things, too. But, here’s my reply: Yes, God does little things, and that’s because they are important—they are important parts of the Big things He is always doing. And this is kind of the whole issue.

We all, from seasoned ministers to brand new followers of Jesus, can easily and readily dream big and imagine great things happening and have a true desire to see them happen. Unfortunately for us, no one can suddenly jump into a “big” thing.

Consider any large structure near where you live. For me, there is a large bridge across a small bay that I can see (partially) from the top floor of my house. It isn’t super impressive as far as bridges go, but it is big and looks nice, being quite high above the water. It is a “big” thing. It is, relatively, impressive. Now, imagine how many extremely, extremely many small steps were involved in making that bridge. It’s almost a countless number of very small things that were needed in order to make that big bridge a reality.

Next, think about the people involved in the whole process. What do you think would have happened if they were doubtful that the bridge was really going to be built at all? Let’s say for instance, for the most part, the basic planning was in place from town officials. They start discussions with a company that can actually build a bridge. They ask the company to start designing. But, the company isn’t moving with much urgency. They give some simple feedback and rough ideas, but nothing like a real design that can become an actual blueprint. 

Why? Because, “… for the most part, the basic planning was in place…” If you noticed, I didn’t say the plan was definite. I didn’t say that it was finally and officially signed off on. What company is going to commit time and resources to work that they aren’t sure is going to pay? And pay, for the company, means the “result” from their labor (we aren’t looking for money from our labor of love, but we are looking for results).

That scenario is completely understandable to us. Yet we somehow fail to see how the same is true for our Christian ministries. In the example of the bridge, the company that was supposed to begin with designing the bridge, in the grand scheme, was just one small step. Of course it was a necessary step, (as all the steps would be). But how could they be expected to be committed to it?

My example may not be the best one. I think that a minister might read that and start thinking it is meant to explain why members aren’t doing enough to support the “vision” of the church. But that’s not the takeaway! It’s for you! Me! It’s for the leader! It’s why WE aren’t faithful to our own “vision.” And the quotes, in case you are wondering, are to indicate that what we say is our vision is probably not an actual vision, but rather a sort of pie in the sky dream or hope. Those dreams and hopes are fine, by the way, but they are not to be stamped with the holy word vision scripture is talking about until they can be called a “prophetic vision.”

Please get that!

Our dreams and hopes are fine, but they are not to be stamped with the holy word vision that scripture is talking about unless and until they can be said to be a “prophetic vision.”

And until we have a vision like that, no one, not even those promoting the “vision,” will be able to keep themselves from “casting off restraint,” or “dwelling carelessly,” or “perishing,” as various translations have put it.

If we don’t have a reliable vision of the future, a true vision, we will not be faithful in the small things that will build the big thing. The “vision” will not come to be.

Before considering what a true vision might look like and how to get one, let me say that I’m not “calling out” the lack of vision in our churches in a critical or blaming sort of way. I’m not pointing fingers. I’m just greatly saddened because the lack of true vision has created for us a foundation that virtually guarantees discouragement, making it unsurprising that our ministers seem to continually have a large supply of that kryptonite.

Reasons for Lack of Vision

Why is it not common for churches and ministries to have what we would call a true vision?

The simplest and clearest answer as to why ministries, churches and pastors today don’t have vision is because we are following the traditions handed down to us—traditions without vision. We grew up in such churches and ministries and under such pastors. We were given the tools to clone those churches, ministries and pastors. We don’t even know that we are missing something because everyone else was and is missing it too.

Now, don’t go blaming anyone here. I would say we all have some responsibility for the lack of vision. But to point blame at a church or pastor, for example, would be totally wrong. The fact is, that church or pastor we might be tempted to point at was following the church and pastor before them. And they were all likewise doing the same. It’s useless to point fingers. And it doesn’t help us figure out what to do about it now anyway.

But, there is one more reason we lack vision, and this gets more at the root of the problem. And it’s something we can do something about.

The other reason we lack vision is because it will cost us something to get it. I think you understand that now, when I say vision, I am talking about true vision, prophetic vision.

And if we are talking about prophetic vision, what should be an obvious question to ask is: How did actual prophets get their actual visions?

Makes sense, no?

And what is so nice about asking that obvious question is that the answer is just as obvious: They prayed and they spent time with God—a lot!

And when we start thinking along those lines, of praying and prophets, the ever convicting James 5:17 might come to mind, which does not say, “Elijah prayed earnestly that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months.” That wouldn’t be so convicting. But that isn’t how it reads.

It reads, “Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed earnestly… ”

You and I and every other believer have the same access to the same God as Elijah. The conclusion is, if we want prophetic vision, we must engage in prophetic praying! I.E., we must pray like a prophet prays.

If we want true vision, we must get with God and remain with God. For how long? Until He releases you with a vision—no sooner. And that is costly. Frankly, that may not seem to “jive” with our current routines and the way we work and minister.

A reason that we may not want to pay that cost concerns something else I write about on this site, SMC, or Sunday Morning (traditional) Church. With the obligatory (and true) disclaimer that I love SMC, this is one more way in which it tends to hinder big, prophetic vision stuff.

There is a lot that we can do without a vision. It doesn’t take much motivation or discipline—that results from vision—to go to the local convenience store. I don’t need to pray much about that. I can manage in my own power just fine (not that I should, just that I can). When we feel we can accomplish things on our own, without much help or prayer or hassle, we usually do exactly that. We do it on our own.

We can also do church on our own. “Woah now!” did I hear you exclaim? Yeah, that statement might stir the hornets nest a bit. But before anyone commences with the stinging (and by the way, I really did stir a hornets nest once when I was in high-school… just once…), I didn’t say we can do church well on our own, just that we can do it on our own. And, sadly, the majority of churches really do, even though they would claim that they don’t.

I have no way of knowing who will read these words I am typing. But if you, lovely reader, have been a Christian for a while and have looked around the Christian landscape, there’s a fair chance that there are a lot of Christian circles that you, to one degree or other, reject. This church, that church. This denomination, that denomination. This minister, that minister. This teaching, that teaching. I’d be willing to bet that more than 90% of relatively seasoned believers have a pretty strong aversion to some flavor of what other believers think is mainstream and thoroughly biblically grounded truth with a capital “T”.

But that sort of lets the cat out of the bag, as it were. If you or I object to what other ministers are doing in their big fancy churches and ministries, claiming that it can’t possibly be biblical, and all the while they have a church that looks and functions for all intents and purposes just like our own… doesn’t that mean that we agree that church can be done “in our own power?” In other words, if we are so sure that another pastor and their church isn’t really following God and working in His true power, they must, according to our belief, be doing church in their own power. And they are “succeeding,” to boot (if they didn’t succeed we wouldn’t know they existed).

So yeah, we really all agree that church can be done in our own power. I imagine that a whole lot aren’t willing to agree with me that doing church in our own power is predominantly how it actually is being done, but I’ll let everyone wrestle with God on that one for themselves.

So how does this reflect on having a prophetic vision? Well, if church can be done, and by many people’s standards done well (how many big churches and ministries do we disagree with?), in our own power, and getting a prophetic vision will cost us prophetic praying, how many people realistically are going to pay such a high price for something that they aren’t even sure looks like success to them anyway? Answer: Very, very few. I can “go to the convenience store in my own power.” So if going to the convenience store seems like success to me, that’s probably what I’ll do.

Prophetic vision requires prophetic praying. Prophetic praying costs us something. Doing ministry like it’s “always been done” is easy. We can “be successful” doing it the easy way. So with that, voila! An overabundance of churches without prophetic vision that dwell carelessly, throw off restraint, or, as one translation puts it, “run wild.” 

And the result of that is ministry with barely any fruit and discouraged leaders.

In fact, going by church attendance statistics, the indication is that the King James rendering of the verse is, well, prophetic. We seem to be perishing.

Becoming Envisioned

How can we go about fixing this lack of vision?

Well, identifying the problem has already led us to the solution. We must be on our faces, for years if need be (and that’s often the case), seeking God and praying for His vision for our lives and ministries. There’s no easier way. There’s no shortcut.

God has plenty of time. Do you? Do I? Do we?

We get excited about the going and doing part. It makes us feel good. We struggle with waiting in Jerusalem. But that’s where the Fire is decreed to fall.