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Authors: Casey Treat

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Vision
A
s we have read, every person has a specific destiny for his or her life, and it begins with the God-given vision within your heart. Right now, as you read this book, you may be feeling completely lost as far as the direction you need to take for your life. Or maybe you are at a crossroads, finishing a very productive season of your life but feeling that God now has something new for you to accomplish.
Many years ago, I was seeking God and asking Him how I could help people not only to understand how to discover the specifics of their destinies but also how to know which ways to go throughout the many seasons of their lives. I wanted to give people a resource that would help them to see their futures through God’s eyes and to be confident their steps were indeed ordered by Him. As I studied, I wrote down ten questions I believe were Holy Spirit-inspired. Not only have I taught these questions around the world and for many years, I have also used them as a guide in my own personal life of ministry. Whenever I am going through a major transition, or our ministry is on the brink of making important decisions, I have applied these ten questions to those situations in order to bring the needed clarity of vision for that next season.
Take time with this Vision Manual. Carefully read and meditate upon these ten questions. Just as they have operated as a guide for my life and the lives of countless others, I am certain God will speak to your heart and enable you to see your life through His eyes.
The 10 Key Questions to Help Discover Your Vision
1. What is the deepest desire of your heart?
“Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).
I see two truths in this verse: First, as I delight in knowing and serving God, He places desires within my heart. He knows the destiny for which He created me, the things that will give me the most joy and satisfaction, and He causes me to desire those things that are in His plan for my life. Second, as I delight in knowing and serving God, He gives the things I desire, and this is in
all
realms: spiritually, emotionally, relationally, physically, and financially. Just as a father on Earth desires to give good gifts to his children, so our Heavenly Father desires to give good gifts to His children.
Some religions try to teach us desires are wrong or evil and should be denied or suppressed. Many who were raised in church feel guilty for having desires and would never expect God to fulfill them, and unfortunately, this is one of the reasons why many people leave the church. They aren’t able to deal with the conflict of having desires and feeling guilty about them.
Desire is not only God given, it is part of the development of destiny in our lives. It’s the very thing that helps us focus our vision! The young man who loves to talk and always gets the teacher’s note “talks too much in class” on his report cards may someday communicate truths that will change the lives of his listeners. The young woman who loves to tell everyone what to do and take control of every situation may someday lead a large company or help to govern the lives of people.
Once I had a conversation with a man in our church about the “evils” of desire. He had been raised in a church that taught whatever the things were that he desired were probably of the flesh or from the devil. Because of this, he was hesitant to give God the reins of his life. In fact, he thought the thing he really didn’t want to do was probably what God was going to ask him to do. In his mind, his destiny was found in the thing he despised the most. By doing what he didn’t really want to do, he felt he was being more “spiritual.”
Dr. Fred Price once said, “It is hard enough for God to get people to be productive Christians by calling them to do what they truly desire. It would be next to impossible to get them to produce good fruit by doing things they don’t desire.” I’ve actually had people say to me, “I don’t want to make Jesus Lord of my life because I’m afraid He might tell me to go become a missionary in Africa. I would hate that!”
God doesn’t work that way. Desire is a God-given force that He uses to help us to focus His vision for our lives and to fulfill our destinies. I’m not saying we are under some form of control by God; He has given us a free will. However, God knows our personality, our gifts, and our talents. He uses those things and causes us to desire the experiences that offer great excitement, fulfillment, and satisfaction.
But what is a “desire”? We all have had whims, fantasies, and wishes throughout our lives. So many times, we mistake the passing fancies of our imaginations for God-given desires. For instance, the little boy who wants to be a baseball player, a fireman, and a policeman all in the same day is “trying on” his dreams and learning to distinguish his desires from his fantasies. As parents we can help him sort out all these things. For the Christian adult, the Holy Spirit will work inside our hearts and help us discern the difference between our true desires and our fantasies. Fantasies come and go, but desires last a lifetime.
The desire you feel to speak, to sing, to create, to manage, or to build is within you because God placed it there. As you separate your deep, heartfelt desires from your fantasies and ideas, you will naturally be drawn to study and prepare to do those things. Desire, as God created it, is a positive and very compelling motivation and can help you unlock the details of your vision. You will discover your destiny as you clarify the things you
really
want.

 

2. What stirs your passion?
Passion is the zeal, fire, excitement, and intensity you feel about things that are important to you. Passion is powerful. In John 2:15, there is an amazing account of how Jesus single-handedly cleansed the temple, Indiana Jones-style. With only a whip, He drove out the sellers of sacrificial animals, as well as the moneychangers, and He overturned their tables because they were turning something that was supposed to be holy into a means to make a greedy profit. Jesus was consumed with such a passion for the sacredness of the house of God he became violent. Later, the disciples remembered the verse from Psalm 69:9—“Zeal for Your house has eaten me up”—and they knew they had just witnessed this scripture come to life.
Passion stirs us to action; it causes us to
do
something. A passion for song, praise, and worship motivates us to learn, practice, and bring forth the music God has put in our hearts. A passion for children motivates us to reach out to young ones and to bring them up in the nurturing and admonishing teachings of the Lord. A passion for building stirs us to be concerned with the smallest detail of construction, making sure everything is done perfectly. A passion for numbers may lead us to accounting. A passion for words inspires us to write. A passion for helping others makes us decide to become nurses, social workers, or counselors.
One of the ways we can confirm the vision in our hearts is by answering the question “What makes me the most upset?” If we care to the point of anger about something, it may be a part of our heart. Sometimes we see issues that we couldn’t care less about, but the person next to us is livid over them; other times we encounter situations and cannot understand why everyone is not as stirred up about them as we are. It all comes down to your passion.
Many great enterprises, businesses, ministries, schools, and movements have been started because of someone’s anger. The late Lester Sumrall’s Feed the Hungry program took root when he thought about God’s people praying “Give us this day our daily bread” while many millions still suffered from hunger. This image would not leave his mind, and his compassion and pain drove him to this destiny.
Schools have been founded by teachers who could not stand the plight of underprivileged children. Businesses have been launched because someone was frustrated by inferior service from existing companies. All these things show the power of passion.
There is
something
that stirs your passion. Is it a desire to see the office work done more efficiently? To have people communicating more clearly? To hear truth being taught? To change a part of your city or government? The desires of your heart offer clues to the destiny for your life.
Discover your passion!
It runs through you like a stream. Perhaps now it is a small trickle, but with time, it can become a great river. What motivates you to do something, to actually get up off the couch and engage? What will you argue about, get stirred about, be upset about? This is a clue to your destiny.

 

3. What flows naturally out of you?
Your course of destiny will feel right and natural as you discover it. People who have identified their vision and have found their place in God’s plan are doing what is natural to them. Of course it is exciting, challenging, and inspiring, but there is also something natural about it. Walking your God-given course will be like striding in the pair of shoes that fits perfectly, sitting in the cozy chair that feels better than any other, or wearing your favorite jacket. It may be too big or too small for someone else, but to you it is just right.
Sometimes this feeling that everything is just coming too easily is the very issue that keeps people from recognizing their gifts. They keep looking for something special, something unique and out of the ordinary, so they overlook the things they do best and avoid the things that come naturally. They keep trying to come up with something difficult.
I went to Bible school with a man named Terry Tarsiuk, and he became one of my best friends and a fellow minister. At that time, his vision was to become a pastor, and he tried for years to become a pastor and to start his own church. We had trained together for that purpose, and we both set out to make it happen. However, Terry was an amazing pianist and song writer, and I always wondered why he didn’t develop that area of ministry further. Several years after college, Terry came to be a part of Christian Faith Center as he prepared to start a church in Canada. After some time, he became a leader in our music ministry and had a profound impact on our church. Finally, his wife and others began to challenge him about what he was really called to do. We all sensed the great impact his music ministry was having on people, but he didn’t see it.
From Terry’s perspective, music was too easy. He’d played the piano all his life, and his musicality flowed so freely from him that he couldn’t see just how unique his gift truly was. It took a little while, but finally he began to feel a sense of destiny about it. He realized everything he really wanted to give to people was happening via his music ministry; he didn’t need to start a church. In fact, many aspects of pastoring weren’t even exciting or interesting to him. He soon changed his course, refocused his vision, and became part of our leadership team. After almost thirty years, Terry’s ministry has touched thousands of people and he is a great blessing around the world.
Terry almost missed his God-given destiny because he was so close to it; it felt too natural and normal to him. He had grown up knowing he was called to the ministry, and to him that meant he was to be a pastor. As a result, this was the direction he was heading, but God had called him to be something else. When you hear Terry tell of this process today, you’ll hear him thank God (and his wife) for helping him plug into his real destiny. Pastoring would not have been successful for him—at least not as successful as his music ministry is now. Terry is now using his gifts and performing the function for which he was designed. He is living out his destiny!
Romans 12:4-6 says, “For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them.”
God has given you grace to do what He has gifted you to do. With that gift, comes grace. Whatever part of His body you are, your function will flow naturally, because you have the grace for it.
Your feet are designed to keep the body upright and to walk, run, and dance; they have what it takes to do their job without difficulty. You can walk on your hands and knees, but it isn’t natural, efficient, or comfortable. Your hands don’t have the grace for walking, but your feet do. Every part of your physical body has a natural function. Similarly, you are a part of the body of Christ. There is a place where you will function in the church and the world without strain. You have the grace and the gifts to get the job done. Not that you don’t have to work and apply yourself, but there will be a natural feeling about what you are doing.
Teaching, preaching, working with leaders, managing money, and building new buildings feel so good to me because they are all part of my function. People have asked me, “Aren’t you going crazy with all these activities? How do you handle the pressure?” To me it is not pressure; it is a joy. I have the grace and the gifts to perform my duties as a pastor because this is my destiny.
Your
calling is the specific thing you do—a career or job or ministry in which God has placed you as you seek to accomplish a purpose, fulfill a vision, and complete your course of destiny.
A teacher can handle twenty-five active minds and bodies, the builder can decipher complex blueprints, and the salesman can handle the resistant customers because that is their calling. It is their destiny!
Find what flows naturally—what feels normal. This is likely your calling on the road of destiny. It may be big or small; the size of the task doesn’t matter. You may think it’s easy, but to others it would be difficult. If the shoe fits, wear it, and stop looking for your destiny in the wrong places.

 

4. Where do you bring forth fruit or produce good results?
“A tree is known by its fruit” (Matthew 12:33). If it’s God’s plan, a tree will be fruitful.
Jesus told a parable of an orchard with a fig tree that wasn’t bearing any fruit (Luke 13:6-9). The owner gave the orchard keeper one year to make it productive. If it didn’t bring forth fruit, he said, “Cut it down—what use is it to just take up the ground?” God isn’t interested in things that don’t work and are not producing any results. If you’ve been leading a church for ten years and have twenty-five people, I’d say you are not living your destiny—unless, of course, you live in a town with a population of fifty.
If your business hasn’t made a profit in a very long time, then it’s time to “fertilize” that tree and make whatever adjustments are appropriate to turn that thing around. But if you keep going backward year after year, then shut that business down and get on to something more productive. Look deep within to uncover the true vision in your heart. Too many Christians are wasting their time (and talents) trying to do things that for them are irrelevant and unproductive. You owe it to yourself and your Lord to be fruitful.
The exciting thing about your vision and your destiny is the Bible tells us we were designed in the counsel of God’s will (Ephesians 1:11). He created you for a very specific purpose. God had a person or people He needed to affect in the world in some way—and so you were born. It’s not that you were born and then God came up with something for you to do. It’s the exact opposite: God had something for you to do
before
the foundation of the world, and you were born to do it! Your purpose was established—
then
your existence was established. God has a productive and prosperous life planned for you, a life of meaning and purpose that will make a difference in the lives of others and in His Kingdom. It may be to affect one person or family who then go on to affect many others. It may be to raise great kids and then help other parents do the same (what a tremendous need
that
is in today’s world). It may be to assist someone who is touching other lives and to help make that ministry or business a success.

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