Is This Vision From God?

L.D. Turner

People are often confused about whether or not one’s vision is from God or whether it is just something generated from within themselves or some other source. This is an important question, but the answers to solve the issue are not all that complicated. Basically, with rigorous honesty examine the vision with the following criteria in mind.

First of all, a genuine God-given vision is something for which you are going to feel a great deal of passion. We all have things that we are interested in, things that capture our attention of a time, and even things that excite us. But a God-inspired vision is different. A God-given vision is something you are super-charged about pursuing and makes you want to get out of bed in the morning. A God-inspired vision may even keep you up at night.

In addition, a vision from God is energizing. It gives you the power and the persistence to God the extra mile, even when things are going the way you expected. In short, a vision from God does not crumble at the first sign of trouble. Instead, when our vision is from God, we continually look for solutions to whatever difficulties may arise. We are able to tap into our resources of creativity and “out-of-the-box” thinking. If our vision is from God, passion and energy are not hard to find.

This doesn’t mean we won’t get tired. On the contrary, we may find ourselves exhausted from time to time, but this tiredness is a positive sense of exhaustion that comes from consistently and persistently applying ourselves to the pursuit of godly goals. In fact, if our vision is truly from God we may have to learn ways to slow ourselves down, relax, and conserve our resources.

Another issue involved in evaluating the source of vision is the Kingdom of God. Is this vision in some direct way involved in helping establish God’s kingdom here on earth? If it is, then chances are it is a God-inspired vision. Inherent in this question is another question: Does this vision help others, inspire others, and in some way build others up? In essence, we also ask: Is this vision unselfish? If you can answer these questions in the affirmative, you can generally assume that your vision is from God.

These are just a few of the initial principles you can use in evaluating a particular vision. There are, of course, other principles that may or may not be involved. For example, we can normally expect to meet with at least a modicum of resistance to pursuing our vision and sometimes this resistance comes from unexpected quarters. For example, our family may find our call to vision not to their liking.

This is where things can get tricky.

I recall, for example, an old friend of mine who we will call Stan. The oldest of five children, Stan had four sisters and an ailing father. Stan’s family was, by local standards, fairly well off. Stan’s great-grandfather had bought several thousand acres of prime farm land way back in the 19th Century. As the city began to grow, especially in the 1970’s, this farm land was the envy of developers far and wide. Stan’s grandfather sold much of the land, made a fortune, and invested wisely. The result was that Stan’s father was a millionaire many times over and owned a highly successful commercial real estate business that was also doing quite well.

It was a given that Stan, the oldest and the only male child, would some day take over the business and look after the family fortune. Stan attended the finest private boys’ school in the state and was accepted into Colgate University, a fine Ivy League institution. Everything was running smoothly until Stan’s junior year.

An Episcopalian since birth, Stan’s religious upbringing was at best window dressing. The family attended church fairly regularly and gave plenty of money to their local parish. Stan’s father, in fact, served for years on the church vestry.
In college, Stan did not attend church and had pretty much relegated his relationship with God to the back burner. He believed in God and tried to live a decent life and, with the exception of an occasional bender after a football game, avoided the life of a typical drunken college student. He had a Bible in his off campus apartment, but had never unpacked it since moving out of the dorm in his sophomore year at Colgate.

Driving home at the conclusion of the fall semester, Stan car began making strange noises and eventually stalled right in the middle of small town in rural Virginia. It was around noon on Saturday and the only mechanic in town told Stan he might as well find a motel, because it would be Monday before he could get the needed parts to fix Stan’s car.

Stan settled in at one of two local motels, phone home to say he would be home on Tuesday, and flipped on the television. Nothing interested Stan so he decided to take a stroll. Just down the street from the motel was a church, which for some odd reason, was packed out on a Saturday night. The parking lot was full to overflowing and people were still arriving. A young couple, walking toward the building from their car, greeted Stan and he asked what was happening. The couple told Stan that this was the closing night of a week long revival and they invited Stan to join them. Figuring he had nothing better to do, Stan decided to take them up on their invitation.

Stan had never been to a revival before and nothing could have prepared him for what he had walked into. Not only was this a revival, it was a Pentecostal revival, complete with loud praise music, jumping, yelling, and most bizarre, tongue speaking.
Fast forward to the end of the school year when Stan returned home to inform his parents that he wouldn’t be returning to Colgate for his senior year and instead, would be transferring to some small Bible College in Missouri, where he would enter seminary and become a preacher in the Assemblies of God denomination.
Stan’s mother literally passed out and his father went absolutely berserk. After much prayer Stan was still convinced that the vision he had was indeed from God and, although he met much resistance from every member of his family, he followed through with his plans and his ministry has blessed many people over the years, including his mother and two sisters who became active members of the same denomination as Stan.

The opposite can also be true. There are times when someone feels a genuine call from God to pursue a particular course of action, when in fact, the call may not be genuine. Janice, an old and dear friend, felt that God was calling her to go the mission field in China. She asked that she be placed on one of the LifeBrook China teams and planned to initially go to western China for a two-year stint as a nurse.
I had a few reservations about the “call” that Janice felt and discussed those with her. She was open to what I had to say, but said she was convinced that this was what God wanted her to do. I told her we had a medical team leaving for a short trip, three months, and why not try that on for size first.

My concerns stemmed from the fact that Janice had a two-year-old Downs Syndrome son and if she left for the mission field, it would leave the full burden of caring for this child, not to mention their other two kids, on Hank, her husband. I just felt it odd that God would call her away when all of this was going on at home.
As it turned out, Janice went with the three-month mission, but returned at the end of the first month. She found life in China too rough and harsh, and was not able to make the necessary sacrifices that such a calling requires. It was a tough lesson, but she grew a great deal from it.

In most cases, a calling to a vision, if it comes from God, will always involve compassion. It will also most often involve some degree of sacrifice on your part and it will sometimes also necessitate sacrifice from those who are close to you. However, I don’t think a genuine vision from God is going to put your loved ones in harms way.

As I said earlier, in evaluating whether or not a particular vision is from God a key principle involves whether or not the vision creates a vital sense of passion in your life. If the dream you are entertaining brings you to life and gets your engine running at maximum efficiency, then there is a good chance that vision has a divine origin.

I clearly recall when I began to explore the possibility of going to the mission field in China I felt not only a great excitement, but the passion I felt for this calling gave me a renewed sense of purpose, direction, and usefulness. I had just come through a major health crisis, and the thought of going to China was not even on my radar screen. But it was on God’s screen and once I discovered it and got on board, my life once again moved forward with great passion.

Dr. Myles Munroe speaks clearly about the connection between passion, purpose, and vision:


Most people have an interest in their destinies, but they have no passion or drive to fulfill them. They don’t really believe the dreams God has put in their hearts. If they do believe them, they don’t do the things that will take them in the direction of fulfilling them. Yet that is what separates the people who make an impact in the world and those who just exist on the planet……Finding something you can put your whole self into will fill your life with new hope and purpose…..When you discover you vision, it will give you energy and passion. Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” The vision in your heart is the spark that will enable you to pursue your dream because, unless you do so with all your enthusiasm and strength, it will not happen. I believe this Scripture expresses a truth that most people miss: You accomplish only what you fight for. Again, if you are merely interested in your dream, it will never come to pass. However, if you are willing to put all your energy into it, then nobody can stop it from succeeding.

In closing, let me also add that it is vital that when you are evaluating the source of a particular dream or vision, don’t press yourself too hard and try to proceed with unnecessary haste. If you want to truly succeed at your life’s calling, you have to consecrate your entire being to that calling. Half-measures will avail you nothing. When you commit yourself to the Master, you commit your total being. The same principle holds true when you commit yourself to his calling on your life. So, please, take your time and thoroughly evaluate your situation.

Trust that if this calling is from God, he will let you know it without equivocation.

© L. D. Turner 2009/ All Rights Reserved