desire

Vision – Do You Have One?

 Like many of you, I was shocked at the sudden passing of Dr. Myles Munroe, his wife and associates last Sunday afternoon.

As I reflected on this, I came to the realization that others have come to – we need to be ready to meet our Creator at any time. Not only that resonated in my heart but the fact that this man was one who lived on purpose for a purpose. Dr. Myles Munroe is known internationally as an author, lecturer, teacher, coach, and leadership mentor. He was rather prolific and had published numerous best-selling books including one that influenced me greatly – The Principles and Power of Vision: Keys to Achieving Personal and Corporate Destiny (Study Guide).

This book helped me to recognize the potential in me and the importance of have a vision for your life. I was challenged know my purpose and have a vision for my life. I read this back in 2008 and was happy to find a notebook I had jot some notes in while reading it. Here are a few notes and quotes from the beginning chapters that I thought to share with you. I hope that they challenge and encourage you.

  • There is gold within me.
  • Lord, help me to see farther than my eyes can look. Give me vision – to see what can be and make it a reality.
  • Vision makes you persistent and persistence leads to the fulfilling of your purpose in life.
  • The vision-less person is the poorest person.
  • The frustrated person is the one with a vision that does not know how to fulfill it.
  • There is no other person like me on this earth. I was designed by God with a distinct and specific purpose to fulfill here in this world. I am unique and my vision is unique.
  • Lord what is that specific vision that I was born to fulfill?
  • My purpose will become my passion in life.
  • Lord, help me to know my gift, stir it up and make use of it that it may make room for me and bring me before great men (Prov. 18:16).
  • I am the sum total of all the choices or decisions I make every day.
  • Nothing can get in the way of God’s purposes – they always come to pass.
  • Purpose is why you were born, the reason God created you.
  • Vision is when you see your purpose by faith in your mind and you begin to imagine it.
  • Vision is as close as the desires of my heart. It is about God. It is about touching others.
  • Vision is unselfish and should always be accompanied by compassion.
  • Corporate vision stirs up personal vision. You don’t receive your vision through others but you are enabled to fulfill it through others.
  • Nothing we are born to do is to be done by ourselves or for ourselves.
  • Lord, help me to know why I’ve been born and to have a vision for my life. Father, reveal to me the deepest desires that you have placed within me.
  • Mission is the general purpose of your life while vision is a specific, very precise statement with defined boundaries.
  • People fail because they don’t know what they want to succeed in.
  • You will be protected from jealousy when you understand your vision. You won’t worry about what the other person is doing.
  • Indecisiveness is a vision killer.
  • Don’t be a professional starter, i.e. starting many things and not finishing any e.g. like reading a book and not completing it and then starting another. Leaving things unfinished discourages you from completing other tasks. The unfinished has a way of haunting your life.
  • The cost of vision is diligence.
  • Success comes in installments.
  • It is more important to know why you are born than to know the fact that you were born.
  • When you decide on a vision don’t sell yourself short.
  • You must choose where you want to go in life and then be decisive and faithful in carrying it out.
  • My true work is what I born to do.
  • Whatever you were born to do will remain deep inside until you do it.
  • Is your true work – your purpose – making it uncomfortable for you to stay in your present job?
  • What is it that I want to do? Lord, make my purpose and my life’s vision clear to me.
  • My vision is a clear conception of what is not yet a reality but which can exist. It is a strong image of a preferred future.
  • Whatever I was born to do I am equipped to do. The resources I need to do my life’s work will become available as soon as I need them.
  • There is provision for the vision God has put in me.
  • Eph. 3:20 – My imagination isn’t big enough for all God wants to do for me.
  • God has placed His vision and His spirit within me and that is more than enough potential for my needs.
  • God has given us the gift of imagination to keep up from focusing only on our present conditions.
  • Responsibility leads to respond-ability or the ability to respond to the requirements of my vision.
  • Everything God gave me to do, I am able to do. For everything God put in my heart to do, I have the corresponding ability to accomplish.
  • God never gives us dreams to frustrate us. He gives us dreams to deliver us from mediocrity and to reveal our true selves to the world.
  • You can always determine what you can do by the dream that is within you.
  • Plant the seed of your vision and begin to act on it and then nurture it by faith.

Just typing out this notes to share with you has reminded me of some important truths- know your purpose, have a vision and live it out to the glory of Jesus our Lord. From what we have seen Myles Munroe, he not only wrote about serving the purpose of God in your generation but he did that himself and it is for all of us to do.

Reading and studying that book as well as another of Dr. Munroe’s books called The Glory of Living: Keys to Releasing Your Personal Glory were the starting points for me in having a clearer vision for my life. I see a lot of what I wrote then being lived out and continually being worked out in me today. I plan to take the time to revisit these books as they helped me to work through the deeper thoughts in my heart.

I hope these notes have inspired you and encouraged you to live out your life purpose. If you want more, then go visit this Amazon page – Myles Munroe – and choose a book or two from this great author and man of God. I am sure that reading his works will propel your life forward as it did mine.

Have you read any of Myles Munroe books, what stood out for you the most? What changed your life? Share a word.

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Never Stop Trying

This is such an inspiration and I thought I’d share it with you.
It’s easier to give up that to keep trying. But to keep trying and achieve your desire is well worth the effort.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.
Never Stop Trying

Explore more visuals like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.
“What matters most is not how many times you fail, but that you never stop trying.” – Abraham Lincoln
“If you want to succeed, you have to learn to make adjustments to the way you do things and try again. Adversity helps to develop that ability.” John C. Maxwell form Failing Forward: How to Make the Most of Your Mistakes
It takes many trials and failures to reach your dreams. But embrace and enjoy the journey of success.
Don’t give up. Keep failing forward!
Think about this: What mistakes have you made in the past that were stepping stones to the successes you are experiencing to today?
[Tweet “It’s easier to give up that to keep trying. But to keep trying and achieve your desire is well worth the effort.”]
[Tweet “”What matters most is not how many times you fail, but that you never stop trying.” – Abraham Lincoln”]
[Tweet “”If you want to succeed, you have to learn to make adjustments to the way you do things and try again.” John C. Maxwell”]

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Your Dream is Not Denied

live your dreams_12077915_s[Tweet “Ever felt like your dream is taking too long to become reality?”] Does it seem like the promises of God are so far away or never reaching?

Recently I was feeling a bit low and began to talk to God about some projects I have been working at for a while that seem not to be bearing the kind of results of wanted. I was also reflecting on the past and wondering if there were areas I could have worked on more diligently to achieve my goals faster. The bottom line is I was wonder why some of my dreams were taking longer to become real than I wanted them to. I was trying to figure out how I could move things along faster. I wanted results and was being quietly impatient before God.

As I reflected on the matter during my prayer time, the Lord reminded me, [Tweet “Your dream is not denied. Delay is not denial.”]  Although the promises of God seem far away, I was being gently and repeatedly reminded that because something takes long to happen doesn’t mean that God has denied it. In other words, it’s just a matter of time. Or in the process of time, what I am seeking will become a reality.

We don’t like waiting no matter how strong we are in the Lord. Waiting can be hard. At times we are patient in the process but at other times we wonder in our hearts, “Lord, when?” or “Lord, how much longer must I wait?”

Today, be encouraged that waiting does mean that God won’t come through for you. However, He will do just what you desire (Ps. 21:2) and more at the right time. During the waiting season we just need to keep ourselves occupied and get ourselves ready for the promise. Every dream that become real to us, every miracle that we experience involves preparation and opportunity.

I took time to study the word and be comforted by the lives of those who waited for the dream. When we think about their lives, they didn’t have hindsight or knew their future; they just had a dream and the faith that it would be fulfilled.

Abraham – believed God for his dream

He was given a wonderful promise – to be the father of many nations. God promised him that because of him all the family of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:1-3). Wow! But he didn’t even have a son at the time. Abraham’s dream was to have his own son. Yet he waited for the promise and God considered him a righteous man for his faith (Gen. 15:1-6). How long do you have to wait? I don’t know. But take strength from Abraham’s life, believe God.

Joseph – Stayed the course to the fulfillment of his dream

Oh, the dreamer or so his family called him. His dreams were a glimpse of a great future and deep within he must have known that one day his dream would become real to all. Even those who mocked him and tried to stop his dream became witnesses to its unfolding (Gen. 45).

People may laugh at your dream. Your dreams may even mock you – that’s when your start second guessing yourself about whether it will happen or not. Your dreams may even cause you to end up where you least expect and cause your hope to fade. But be steadfast like Joseph. When your dream becomes real for all to see, they will glorify God with you.

Jabez – Prayed about his dream

We often look at Jabez’s prayer and think of it a just that – a prayer. I don’t think that one day Jabez just decided to ask God to bless him. He had a dream. He did not want to be known for his name (to be called Pain) but he wanted to be seen as whom he was – an honorable man. He had a dream to be blessed of God and to be blessing. [Tweet “(1 Chron. 4:9-10) His prayer was simply the outward expression to God of his dream.”] Do like Jabez and talk to God about your dream and God will grant your request too.

Be encouraged. Don’t give up hope on your dreams and the promises of God. They will come. Let the word of the Lord comfort you.

Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.    —Joshua 21:45

“Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth. And you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one word of them has failed.          —Joshua 23:14

“Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses.                     —1 Kings 8:56

For the Lord God is a sun and shield; [Tweet “The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. —Psalm 84:11”]

[Tweet “Remember, although the dream for your life may seem long in coming; wait for it, it will happen (Hab. 2:2-4).”]

I’d love to hear from you. Please share and encourage others. What are you doing to keep your dream alive? Do you already live your dream?

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