What is Your Vision? What is Your Dream? What is Your Purpose?
God has created every person with a purpose and that purpose flows from His Spirit, which gives life to all mankind. People are born with God’s Divine purpose for their lives and He has given dreams and visions as to what is their created purpose. Everyone must take time to understand their purpose so that they see the vision and dream God has placed in them. We are to obtain our vision, dreams and purpose from God and His word.
Jeremiah 29:11-14 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. NIV
When people are without a vision or dream, though they may recognize purpose, they may not have a visualization, concept or mental image as how to accomplish their purpose. They are lost without a plan, drive or the knowhow to be able to undertake and realize their goals or vision. God has given us a template as how we are to carry out our plans. We are to write the vision, make it plain and simple to that we can read them, look at them, and run with the plan.
Habakkuk 2:2 Then the LORD answered me and said, “Write the vision And engrave it plainly on [clay] tablets So that the one who reads it will run. AMP
When we were young, many of us may have had visions and dreams for doing something great, or becoming someone important or maybe just to live a happy and fulfilled life. Young children are often asked what do you want to be when you grow up? It is in their response that we are reminded of the innocence, purity, naivety and unworldliness that all children are born with, before the cruelty, malice, meanness and brutality of the world influences them.
Though we may never fully know or fully understand God’sspecific purpose for every individual, we do know God’s call to all humanity is to turn from their rebellion and return to their God, their Father and their Creator.
The first Adam’s body was created from earth, God breathedinto him breath of life and Adam became a living-being, withthe image and the Spirit of God upon him. Mankind is a tri-part being one whose body is of the earth, who has a living soul from God and who bares the image and the Spirit of the Eternal God.
First, God gave Adam purpose, to be fruitful and increase and rule over every living thing.
Genesis 1:27-28 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Secondly, God assigned Adam work and a task to do, which was to name all the living creatures.
Genesis 2:19-20 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
Then, God gave Adam a vision and a command. God placed Adam in the beautiful garden of Eden, full of green trees, delicious fruits, plants and beautiful flowers and vines to eat and enjoy. What a marvelous sight and vision it must have been, to have been given access to all that God had created for them to have, to adore and to experience. All this came with just one command and statement of warning, do not eat of the one tree that will open your eyes to all the evilness of the worldand not just the good.
Genesis 2:15-17 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
God’s purpose for mankind has not changed. We are created to bear the image and spirit of God. We are tasked with the purpose of being His glory in the earth. We are all given a choice to accept or reject the command of the Living Eternal God our Father. We were created for such a time as this, that we are now in to influence and bear witness to the goodness and the glory of God to those who are in our sphere of influence, be it our friends, family, colleagues and even our enemies.
This is God’s appointed time for us, as this is the time He has given us and placed us on the earth to live. God has given us His vision for us, that we might love one another as He has loved us. His vision written in His word for us so that we can run with the vision in mind, toward the goal and the purpose of His calling, because His word will not fail. Though it may take a while, in God’s perfect timing, and in God’s divine purpose, God’s desire will be accomplished in and through us.
John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. NIV
Habakkuk 2:3 “For the vision is yet for the appointed [future] time It hurries toward the goal [of fulfillment]; it will not fail. Even though it delays, wait [patiently] for it, Because it will certainly come; it will not delay. AMP
What is our God given dream, vision and purpose? That the world may know Him by the love we have for one another.
Dream: May we walk humbly before God, to do the right thing, to be known for our character of integrity.
Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. NIV
Vision: The world will know and see the love of God and that we are disciples of Jesus because of the love we have for one another.
John13:34-35 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” NIV
Purpose: To “be” the glory of God and to display His image on the earth, one that God can point to and say, “have you considered my servant….”
Job 1:8 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” NIV
Our vision, dream and purpose are to look like Christ. Just as we have borne the likeness of our earthly parents, handed down through their genes and chromosomes so we will alsobear the image of our Heavenly Father. Through the life-giving Holy Spirit that lives within us and is transforming us into the image of God’s Son.
2 Corinthians3:18 But we all, with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. NAS
Integrity- People of God 