The Vision or the Vision Giver

Thank God for a brand new day.

Following on from the last post, I believe making plans helps us to do the following (and more):

• Keep the vision God has given us close to our hearts and
• Keeping the vision our constant reality
• Establishing or further increasing our desire to know the one who gave us the vision

Let your mind wander for a few minutes. Imagine you are a Project Manager, and you have just been assigned a Business change solution to implement. Your boss tells you go and write up a Project Plan for this solution. The plan should include tasks and actions that you understand is required to assist this project.

It is fair to say that once you have written the plan, you take it back to your boss for him to review and then approve. Once he has approved the plan, from henceforth, you continue to work closely with him. You have regular meetings with him, giving him regular updates, and along the way seeking advice and guidance about the implementation. Making sure that he is happy with the way each task has been actioned and it's output. But, more importantly, you meet up with him to make sure that your implementation plan does not take the project off course, which is to Implement this Business Change solution!

Now, I can safely say that we can liken some elements of this relationship with our boss, to what we should be having with God about our Vision and plans for this year. Yes, He has given us the vision, the reason for the season. He has given us the wisdom to put the plan together, but we need to be close to Him to make sure that our vision and plan does not wander off from the realms and reality of His will.

By reviewing the vision with God daily, constantly, I believe it should fuel our hunger and desire to know the intricacies of who He is, and by doing so, I believe it will help us make conscious efforts to know more about what He wants from us, what He wants to do for us and through us.

But... having constant review meetings with God, should not only be about what we can get from Him; in the scenario, the output of our implementation plan which could include, a successful project, a work award, a pay rise even. Mapping this to our relationship with God, the results usually means blessings, for we know that the plans God has given and has for us are good.

We should aim get close to God simply because we want to know Him.

Lets put on our imagination hat once again; look around you, at work or to people you have studied from afar, or those you might know personally. Have you seen people whose daily aim or ambition is to be around certain type of people - people of power and authority, people of influence. (which in itself is not a bad thing). The problem is they seem to hang around not because they want to get to know them, but simply because of what they could potentially get from being around them - prestige, entrance to the best restaurants, the best bars, the best hotels, or simply to say "I am with him, or her". In today's society, people as such are sometimes called 'Hanger Ons'.

We can relate this to the experience of Jesus in bible, even Jesus had plenty of 'Hanger ons' ' as we see in John6:26-29. This is the story of when Jesus fed the five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish. The crowd that Jesus fed, followed Him ALL the way from Capernaum to the far side of the Sea of Galilee. I mean imagine that!!! I live in England and I envisage this to be people following Jesus from Scotland to central London... on foot!

But then Jesus told them in verse 26 - 27 of the John 6 " 26Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. 27Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. "

And guess what? After Jesus said this, a whole bunch of 'hanger ons' turned back and stopped following Him! This made it evident that they were following the master simply for what could potentially get from Him. They were not following Him because they wanted to know Him in a personal way.

So, here is me encouraging us all, as we try our best through God's grace to stay in the realms of His will, as we keep going back constantly, daily to seek His presence, to seek His help, favour and much more, lets make a conscious decisions that our time in His presence, or our time having conversations with Him is not wrapped in the question or notion of "what can you do for me God"?. Let our encounters with God be from a sincere heart, raised in Hunger to really know the intricacies of our wonderful King.

Have a wonderful time getting to know the Almighty God, the same one that gave you that very vision, and plans you hold in the palm of your hands, that you have hidden in the corners of your heart. Pssst... don't forget to make Him famous as you live out the reality of your day.

Much Love
Remi Banjo ©January 2008