Sunday, October 2, 2016

Quotes from Visionering by Andy Stanley

Vision gives significance to the otherwise meaningless details of our lives.

Everybody ends up somewhere in life.  A few people end up somewhere on purpose.

As Christians, we do not have the right to take our talents, abilities, experiences, opportunities, and education and run off in any direction we please.  We lost that right at Calvary.

Until we discover God's purpose, there will always be a hole in our soul. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." Ephesians 2:10 

Visions are born in the heart of a man or women who is consumed with the tension between what is and what could be.

Visions form in the hearts of those who are dissatisfied with the status quo.

A vision rarely requires immediate action.  It always requires patience.

A God-ordained vision will eventually feel like a moral imperative.

Missing out on God's plan for our lives might be the greatest tragedy this side of eternity.

Vision is a clear mental picture of what could be, fueled by the conviction that is should be.

Just as you cannot rush the development of a child in the womb, so we cannot rush the development of a vision.

Opportunity apart from preparation results in missed opportunity.

Visions often die during stretches of inactivity.  DO SOMETHING today to push the vision you believe in forward!

Pray for opportunity.  Instead of praying for people to become men and women of character, pray for an opportunity to build character in their lives.

Prayer is critical to vision development.  We see what we are looking for; we often miss what we don't expect to see.

If you are "seeking first" his kingdom where you are, then where you are is where God has you positioned.

Waiting time is not wasted time for anyone in whose heart God has placed a vision.

Sucess is remaining faithful to the process God has laid out for you.

The vision of an organization acts as its magnetic north.

What God originates, He orchestrates.

How is never a problem with God.

Good ideas are limited by our potential, connections, and resources.  God ideas are limited only by God's potential and resources.

If we are not careful, we can HOW a persons vision to death.

God's work done God's way in God's time is always successful.

Faith is confidence that God is who he says he is and that he will do what he has promised.

God inspired visions ultimately lad back to God.  Regardless of our role, we are never the focal point of a genuine God-ordained vision.  He is.

Few things distort our perspective like public success.

How ironic that men and women who credit God with their call to ministry are often slow to give him credit for their success in ministry.

Success has a way of weaning us off our dependency on God.

If your vision is for a year, plant wheat.
If your vision is for ten years, plant a tree.
If your vision is for a lifetime, plant people.
Chinese Proverb

Walk before you talk; ivnvetigage before you initiate.

Compelling Vision Includes 4 Elements:
1) The Problem
2) The Solution
3) The reason something must be done.
4) The reason something must be done, now!

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they are capable of becoming. - Goethe

The most significant visions are not cast by great orators from large stages.  They are cast at the bedsides of children.

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To execute a vision, you will be called upon to give up actual good for the potential best.

The difference between those with a burden for inner-city kids and those who actually do something is not resources.  It is a willingness to take risks and make sacrifices.

In a high stakes, emotionally charged environment, Nehemiah's immediate response was prayer.

Sanballat was not completely wrong in his assessment of the project or its workers.  Of course it was impossible.  Nehemiah believer God was with him.  So he called the people to remember what God had done.

Nehemiah understood the delicate balance between walking by faith and leading strategically.

Don't confused your plans with God's vision.

I have never met anyone or heard of anyone who accomplished anything significant for the kingdom who didn't have to revise plans multiple times before the vision became reality.

Be stubborn to the vision, be flexible with the plan. 

Vision thrive in an environment of unity; they die in an environment of division.

Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing. - Albert Schweitzer

Generally speaking, it is not men and women of position that birth to and deliver great visions.

All the ability, talent, and charisma in the world cannot take the place of moral authority.

Nehemiah did not consciously choose to forgo his rights as governor to gain influence with the people in Jerusalem.  He did what he did in order to maintain a blameless walk before God.

As a leader, you must be willing to do the right thing even if it jeopardizes your vision.  Do I obey God, or do I do what appears to best serve the completion of the vision?

Abandon the vision before you abandon your moral authority.

Spiritual maturity is measured by how readily we respond to the person of God rather than the promises of God.  It involves coming to the place where who is asking is more important than what is being asked.


ideas come from God—but they won't keep.  They have to be acted on.  - Truett Cathy