5 keys to re-focus your vision for this year

Posted on by Ken Newton

Whether you’re raring to go at the start of this New Year, wrestling with difficult issues, or both, now is a good time to sharpen your vision.

Vision Pay Binoculars
For a clearer vision, turn to God
Image © istockphoto.com

Over the past five years, along with many highpoints, I’ve experienced several setbacks. I’ve taken hits with family health, with finances and in business. Some dreams were put on hold, but I’m seeing the turnarounds.

What motivates me is the certain knowledge that God will sustain me in all circumstances and, with my co-operation, enable what he has placed and will place on my heart.

How do you and I rekindle the fire of past visions or ignite new ones? ‘Having sorrow’ in his heart and feeling distant from God as he faces one of his hardest trials, King David pleads for revelation:

Consider and hear me, O Lord my God;
Enlighten my eyes.

Knowing well the solution to his plight, he goes on:

But I have trusted in Your mercy;
My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord,
Because He has dealt bountifully with me.¹

Here are five keys, unpacked from these lines and my own experience, for overcoming trials and re-vitalising the vision:

1.  Revelation – look upwards

I am clear about my God-given vision, and am sure that he will supply me with everything I need to see it happen. I also know that he will meet my every need today – not just the big picture stuff.

In asking ‘enlighten my eyes,’ I don’t believe David was looking for more head knowledge, but for his eyes to be opened supernaturally by revelation directly from the Holy Spirit.

For a clearer vision, turn to God – in business, in ministry, in family life, community or finances. He will reveal it to you in ways you don’t always expect.

2.  Remembrance – look back in gratitude

Whether you aim to reach a particular goal or overcome an obstacle this year, recall with gratitude the times when God brought you through a major impasse or favoured you. When he ‘dealt bountifully with you.’

I recall having a hunch after a lean spell in business several years ago to call a former local authority client I hadn’t spoken to for a year or so. As she took my call she was astonished: “That’s really weird! I was just about to phone you today.” That call led to a major contract that would then be replicated by three other Scottish local authorities. I thank God for my hunch – and the four contracts. If he did it before, he’ll do it again.

3.  Reliance – look to and trust God

There’s a strand of popular culture which encourages people to be wholly self-reliant and proclaims the mantra: ‘I can have it all.’ That’s fine for a time, when the job’s going well, you’re in rude health and the new car is in the driveway. But where do you turn when the wheels come off through reduced income, redundancy, workplace pressures, conflicts or illness? Christian culture encourages God-reliance and declares truths such as: ‘We are more than a conquerors though him who loved us’² and ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’³ Not literally anything, but those things he intends for us personally and equips us for.

4.  Rejoicing – look forward in expectation

Just because your dream has perhaps been deferred, don’t defer the hope that will help you to see it realised. Thank God in advance for the breakthroughs that you want to see in your life, your business, your ministry, your family and community; praise him now for the coming fulfilment of the vision he has ‘enlightened your eyes’ with.

5. Reconnection – look to the Life within you

At the heart of new covenant faith is living life in connection with the living God – within us. The apostle Paul describes this ‘once hidden mystery’ as:

Christ in you, the hope of glory† (emphasis mine)

The secret of Christian living is the glorious life and hope of Jesus himself within you. That truth in itself – the Truth himself – keeps my flame burning. May your flame burn brightly in the year ahead too.

Question: what has been put on hold in your life that you feel can now be re-activated and what’s your next step?

¹ Psalm 13:3,4-6 NKJV    ² Romans 8:37 NIV

³ Philippians 4:13 NKJV   † Colossians 1:27 NIV

First posted in January 2013

Why it’s vital to keep your vision visible

Posted on by Ken Newton

‘Who shoots at the midday sun, though he be sure he shall never hit the mark, yet as sure as he is he shall shoot higher than who aims at a bush,’ wrote the poet, Philip Sidney.

Write down the vision on tablets, smartphones, laptops or post-its - whatever it takes.
Write down the vision on tablets, smartphones, laptops or post-its – whatever it takes.

I’ve been spending time of late clarifying what I’m shooting at as my lifetime vision. In the process, I’ve rediscovered how writing that vision down and keeping it visible is energising and encourages me to take steps towards its fulfilment.

The prophet Habbakuk captured this truth when he penned the words: ‘Write down the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.’ (Habbakuk 2:2)

I believe that, with a corporate vision, ‘that he may run’ refers to keeping the vision clear enough to encourage the reader to ‘run and tell others’. And a personal vision needs to be a visible, quickening exhortation to ‘run with it’ and put it into practice.

Connect your Charger

To remind me of my vision, some time ago I typed it onto the lock screen of my tablet so I’d read it every time I used the tablet (a digital one, unlike like the wooden ones of Habbakuk’s day).

After a while I overlooked the vision in my haste to open whatever app. Until one day, with the battery running low, I noticed these words right next to my vision statement: ‘connect your charger. ‘

To bring the vision alive, we need to connect with the Charger, who inspired it in the first place. Discovering or re-energising our vision involves setting aside quiet time and space to engage with God.

Habbakuk declared before receiving God’s instruction to ‘write down the vision’: ‘I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me.’

(I’m writing this on a stormy autumn day in central Scotland, so a rampart perhaps wouldn’t be the most conducive place).

What would living your dream look like?

As I made space to revisit my vision recently, I asked myself the question: “If I was living the dream, what would it look like?”

I already had an overriding lifetime vision, but also wanted to articulate the desires that flow from the dream, so I began to write down what shape these aspirations would take when realised.

Some of the areas were to do with intimacy with God, family, positively impacting others, business, health, good stewardship, relationships and recreation.

You can start living the dream now

What was obvious to me was that I could live out every single one of my desires now. Yes, the grand vision will take some time to manifest fully. But I can be living it now.

For example, if you or I want to influence thousands of people transformationally in our lifetimes, each one is an individual. So how we step out right now to touch lives one by one is part of that vision.

I can draw on divine inspiration right away. I can enjoy a half hour walk on the road to better fitness today (once the storm dies down!). I can reach out to someone to build a stronger bond of friendship. I can bring hope to someone today.

Where will you write your vision and desires to keep them visible? And what steps can you take today to start living the dream?