LEADERS ARE PURPOSEFUL“Where there is ignorance of God, the people run wild.” (Living Bible)
“When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild”
(New Living Translation)Without vision, there is spiritual confusion, social disorder, diffusion of
energy, rebellion of spirit – even anarchy. A vision vacuum is one of the most
dangerous and deadly situations for any person or for any society. John
Maxwell says this about the necessity of vision:
Vision is everything for a leader. It is utterly indispensable. Why? Because
vision leads the leader. It paints the target. It sparks and fuels the fire
within and draws him forward. It is also the fire lighter for others who
follow that leader. Show me a leader without vision, and I’ll show you
someone who isn’t going anywhere.^14Spiritually speaking, a vision comes from God. Since “God is Spirit”
(Jn. 4:24), it follows that a godly vision is spiritual by nature. Spiritual vision
has virtue simply because it comes from God – not from man. In his book,
Leading With Integrity, Fred Smith makes this important distinction
between values and virtue:
We talk about values because subconsciously we like to be in control; we set
values. Virtues, however, hold their authority because they are not under
human control but come from revealed truth. Our society could return
to the values of our forefathers, and we could still have human values.
When we return to virtue, we return to God.^15That’s a crucial distinction! That insight reveals the difference between
much of human vision and spiritual vision. Human vision tends to be based
on human values, while spiritual vision arises from divinely revealed virtues.
Human vision sets forth a human agenda. Authentic spiritual vision sets
forth God’s agenda!
Since a spiritual vision is ethereal and non-tangible by nature, it must be
both visualized and verbalized. A vision must first be clearly crystallized
and visualized in the head of the leader before it can be clearly verbalized
and summarized to the heart of the follower. Stephen Covey notes that “All
things are created twice.”^16 The first creation is in the mind and imagination
of the leader, who in turn re-creates it in the mind of the follower. The
vision must be a clear spiritual and mental picture in the heart and mind