A Vision starts as a Dream

Pst (Dr). Chris OMATSOLA

A chat I had with an older friend and mentor of mine a while back, had me thinking of redefining some of my dreams. The words he shared resonated in my spirit as I went to bed that night. They were what the writer of the book of Hebrews described as “the double edged sword”. It cut right through me!

Almost a year back I suffered a big blow financially and a business partnership that started so well, went up in flames. When this happened, just like it will to anybody, it hit me real hard. I had to start questioning what went wrong and to what extent could we have done things differently. My chat with this older friend later led us to discussing the difference between a dream and a vision and eventually I realized most of what we did in that business venture was never vision led but just a blob of dreams.

The bible says to us in the book of Habakkuk 2:2 “Write the vision and make it plain” For years I have preached and meditated on this scripture and I will say I try my best to live this scripture. However retrospectively I see there are a lot of things I could have succeeded better in if I had not half – lived that scripture.

I believe there is a very thin line between a dream and a vision and not a lot of people have the wisdom to discern the difference. A dream is just a dream but a vision is a dream with a plan and timescales. A dream in its truest nature according to the bible is as a result of activities. (Ecclesiastes 5:3 ) I do not doubt the possibility of God speaking to people in dreams, but I for one try not to subscribe to living ones spiritual life by ‘dreams’. It isn’t the best way to live as a Christian. I’ll rephrase what a pastor once humorously said to his congregation “If God only speaks to you by dreams, he must have been screaming while you were awake but you were too busy to hear.”

A vision is a dream with a skeleton, blood vessels, nerves, a heart, bones and every other organ working together. A vision has a heart and a lifeline. A vision is what separates wishful thinking from successful living. A vision is what makes a team of people follow you and believe in your dream.

In the scripture we see Christ model this by His calculated living. He didn’t just dream about the kingdom of God but He displayed the kingdom of God. He didn’t just dream about healing the man at the pool of Bethesda, He healed him. He made statements like “Go tell that fox, ‘I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’”Luke 13:32 . When talking about His resurrection He followed a divine plan, which was death on the cross with a timescale of only 3 days between the dream and the realization of the dream. (Luke 24:7)

If we stop at just dreaming, we are only living out half of that beautiful scripture in the book of Habakkuk and in the end what we call a vision will evaporate like vapor. We must take the bold step of putting accurate planning in place as Kingdom citizens with a mandate to dominate the earth. In God’s creation story according to the book of Genesis, we see this being modeled so perfectly. God started with light and ended with making man for a prepared garden. He also did everything based on a timescale. I personally believe, that when He spoke out “Let us create man in our own image” He only just verbalized what He had dreamt from the beginning. He didn’t just stumble across the idea of creating man after He created the earth. He had man in mind. Man was the dream that made the plan of creating the earth possible.

I believe it is fair enough to say that a vision surely starts as a dream but it progresses into having a body. The timescales and accurate planning is what makes it a vision.

May God give us wisdom to turn all the dreams He has placed in our hearts to visions that will bring Him glory in the end in Jesus name. May we all shine forth His light in a dying world in Jesus’ name.