It is Not Enough to Know Where You Want to Go

Very often leaders believe it is enough just to know where they want to go. The fact is that "the where" must be accompanied by a clear "how to get there."

The Reverend Billy Graham tells a story of a time early in his ministry when he arrived in a small town to preach. Wanting to mail a letter, he asked a young boy where the post office was Located.

After the boy had told him, Rev. Graham thanked him and said, “If you’ll come to the Church this evening, you can hear me telling everyone about God and how to get to Heaven.”

“I don’t think I’ll be there,” the boy said. “Can you really get me to heaven, mister, if you don’t even know your way to the post office”

I am a believer that God-sized visions need to be combined with God-sized plans and men and women of God who are willing to work. I mean really work - God-sized work.

I love Isaiah 32:8. "But the noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands."

I also want to caution leaders from getting the false idea that we are to seek God for the where and then figure out the how on our own, as if we were really that smart.

No, God is in the where and the how.

Some leaders use the term of being "aligned" with God's vision and plans. I want to be painted on them. I do not want to be alongside aligned. I want to be painted on so well that to remove me from God's vision and plans someone will have to work hard to scrape me off. I want my life to be one and the same with God's vision and plans for me to serve Him.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jer 29:11,NIV)


So, it seems fairly simple - - Get a vision and get to work. Or, as Pastor Mark Batterson stated as one of the NCC core values, "Pray like it depends on God and then work like it depends on you."