When you live your life based on a vision from God instead of just your own desires, what other people think, or the world’s standards, you experience God’s best for you. A vision from any other source besides God can be flawed due to preferences, fears, biases, temptations, distractions, and many other things.

What does having a vision for your life mean for the Christian? In general, a vision is a picture in your mind. When you describe a vision, it can include aspects of what all of your senses would experience.

When you have a plan and goals, you can also tap into the vision you have for how it will look and feel to carry them out.

When you understand God’s purposes for your life as a believer, in your daily life, and as your unique calling, you can also seek His vision for you. This picture will get more specific, detailed and clear over time as God reveals more to you through His Word and His direction.

This vision tells you what it actually looks like to live out what God is calling you to do. Moving beyond just knowing what to do and knowing practically the vision of what the outcome should look like helps you to more accurately and easily take action toward the desired results.

Whether you’re an empty nester, stay-at-home mom, retired or working for an employer or in your own business or ministry, God’s vision for your life has two facets. God has a general life vision for all believers that is based in His desires for all of the major areas of your life. And he also has a specific vision for each individual related to your unique purpose in the world.

When you see the vision of your life the way God sees it, you are able to be intentional to set goals to live out your life in a manner pleasing to Him and useful to be an effective instrument to carry out His plan for your life.

10 Benefits of Living in the Vision of God for Your Life

Without an understanding of the vision from God for who you are to be and what you are to do in your life, left to your own human thoughts, you are pretty much guaranteed to get off track if you are only following desires, emotions, comparisons, expectations, assumptions, and other cues from within yourself or from external influences. And being off the path of what was meant to be by your Creator can lead to frustration, stress, mistakes and pain that could have likely been avoided.

Some of the benefits of choosing to seek and live within the vision from God for your life include:

1. Growing in character to be more Christlike and holy as you align with God’s Word
2. Building relationships that embody the love of God as you reflect God’s heart
3. Reducing stress as you move in the timing and pace God sets instead of the world
4. Decreasing pressure and temptations from the world as you follow God’s leading
5. Experiencing supernatural peace and joy as your choices are led by the Spirit
6. Being led to more opportunities to impact lives with the gospel and God’s love
7. Knowing your identity in Christ so you don’t feel defined by your role or others’ opinions
8. Embracing the uniqueness of who you are as you fill your mind with God’s truth
9. Following the Lord’s direction to prepare to walk effectively in your God-given calling
10. Increasing faith and trust in the Lord as you walk closely with Him in all areas of life

The verse 1 Corinthians 10:23a NASB says, “All things are permitted, but not all things are of benefit.” So if you live “unrestrained” because of not having a vision from God as Proverbs 29:18a NASB warns, then you will permit things in your life and within your heart, spirit and mind that will not benefit you, but instead will hinder your spiritual and personal growth and your ability to fulfill God’s purposes for your life.

But because God gives you free will, it is up to you to be intentional to search His Word and search your heart and deepen your relationship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit so that His will can be revealed to you. And when you surrender to His will and invite His power into all aspects of your life, you will increasingly live out God’s vision for you in character and action.

As you allow God to work in you, you become more of the person God purposed you to be, and in turn you are empowered to fulfill more of His purposes for your life…”for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:13 NIV)

What is the Vision from God for Your Life?

We hear self-help experts giving advice on personal development, relationships, health and wellness, finances, career and even spirituality. But God already has a vision for us in all of these areas and more.

To reach our potential as a person and in life and in our specific life’s work, we need to make pursuing His vision for us a priority. It doesn’t have to be a stressful process. It’s just a dance with the Lord, letting Him lead the steps in His time and pace.

The vision from God for each area of your life is based on His purposes for you in those areas, which you can read about in my post 5 Areas to Seek God to Find Purpose as a Christian Woman. Because your purpose springs from who you are, it’s important to understand God’s purposes for you as a person and what His vision is for you in all the major aspects of life. As you grow, you can more effectively go out into the world and represent God’s love and fulfill His calling for you.

Below I provide insight into some key areas of the vision from God for your daily life so you can faithfully walk in what God’s calling you to every day, as well as prepare from the inside out to effectively pursue your God-given purpose.

Spiritual Life

Embrace the ongoing journey of pursuing depth and breadth in your spiritual life. (Mark 12:30-31 NIV)

• Seek to know Father, Son and Holy Spirit more deeply. Come close to God and He will come close to you. (James 4:8a NASB)
• Seek to follow God’s Word and God’s will more closely. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24 NIV)
• Seek opportunities to reflect God’s love. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. (John 15:8 NIV) Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time if we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. (Galatians 6:9-10 NIV)

Wellness and Self-Care

Commit to the path of caring for your spirit, mind and body to function at your personal best in every season.

• Care for your body – …your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you…therefore glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NASB)
• Reflect God’s thoughts – …take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV)
• Shelter your heart – Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. (Proverbs 4:23 NIV)
• Rest your soul – “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28 NIV)

Relationships and Community

Connect with God more deeply so that His love naturally and abundantly flows through you to nurture your relationships.

• Love one another – Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. (Romans 12:10 NIV)
• Bear one another’s burdens – Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2 NIV)
• Pursue peace with one another – If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. (Romans 12:18 NIV)
• Forgive one another – Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32 NIV)

Work

Represent godly values whether in the role of working at home caring for your family or household, or working in your own business or for an employer.

• Work to honor God – Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. (Colossians 3:23 NIV)
• Work to help others – Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives. (Titus 3:14 NIV)
• Work with balance – So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God. (Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 NIV)

Finances

Manage your financial and material resources as tools God gifted to you to steward to do His will, provide for yourself and bless others.

• Be content – Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5-6 NIV)  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. (1 Timothy 6:10 NIV) No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.  (Matthew 6:24 NIV)
• Be discerning – Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? (Luke 14:28 NIV) The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty. (Proverbs 21:5 NIV)
• Be responsible – Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. (Romans 13:7 NIV)
• Be giving – Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. (1 Timothy 6:18-19 NIV)

Purpose and Calling

Remember that you are first a citizen of heaven (Philippians 3:20-21 NIV) and ambassador for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20-21 NIV) and all that you are and that you do must ultimately lead to fulfilling God’s purposes.

• Know identity and your value – I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. (Psalm 139:14 NIV)
• Serve with your unique gifts and abilities – From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:16 NIV)  “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:21 NIV)
• Pursue your calling, or specific God-given purpose – For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10 NIV)

Your unique God-given purpose will be revealed to you in God’s timing, usually in parts over time. And as you learn more about it, you can seek God for His vision of how best for you to carry out what He has called you to do. You can find guidance on uncovering your calling in my post Practical Steps to Fulfilling Your God-Given Purpose.

Pursuing your specific, unique purpose will look different in every season. It’s not always a major activity. It can start as subtly as touching one person’s life in your unique way.

Your special way of expressing yourself and making your mark on the world will become more clear as you draw closer to God, mature in your spiritual walk, and increase in holiness and obedience as the Spirit prompts you.

The vision of God for all the major areas of your life is discovered in His Word. And the details of how He specifically wants you to carry out His will is accessible through connecting with Him for wisdom and direction.

And taking time to understand your authentic self and the season you’re in will help you to take steps in ways that work for you so you can be more likely to stay consistent and build momentum. Seeking Christian life balance will also be helpful to create space within your mind and your days to be intentional to seek God’s vision.

Obstacles to Living Out the Vision from God for Your Life

As you work toward taking steps to align with God’s vision for your life, you’ll encounter obstacles in the world and within yourself. Those within your own spirit, heart and mind will be the  easiest to fall victim to as well as the hardest to overcome. So being intentional to recognize and plan ahead to overcome them is important to your progress.

• Comparison to others can cause you to do what wasn’t meant for you or won’t work for you.
• Temptations and messages from the world can lead you astray from God’s values
• The company you keep can cause you to conform to their habits and lifestyles
• Distractions can cause you to choose what’s good over what’s actually best
• Fear (even FOMO – fear of missing out) can cause you to resist change
• Not wanting to be inconvenienced can keep you from taking on new challenges
• Choosing to not get out of your comfort zone can stop you before you even start

Learning to listen to your thoughts, observe your behaviors, and understand your choices can help you to know what types of values, influences and pressures affect you and make changes where necessary.

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2 NIV)

7 Steps to Stay Within God’s Vision for Your Life

When God gives you a vision, it’s so important to be proactive to stay in step with how He is leading you so that you can “live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” (Ephesians 4:1b NIV)

“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25 NIV) because “From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Ephesians 4:16 NIV)

How can you keep in step with the Spirit to live the purposeful life that God has called you to live in Christ?

1. Stay in prayer and in God’s Word so you’ll be able to discern how to recognize a vision from God and walk in it.
2. Pursue your purpose and calling even in the smallest ways just expressing your unique self with those around you.
3. Evaluate your character and life on a regular basis in comparison to God’s Word so you can continue maturing in the faith.
4. See where and how God is working within you and around you in your life so that you can join Him.
5. Step out in what God is calling you to do by putting faith over fear so that you can progress in producing fruit.
6. Focus on progress over perfection by giving yourself permission to do things slowly in God’s timing and pace so you can have peace.
7. Seek support and accountability where you feel fearful, unequipped or stuck so that you can overcome obstacles that are within your control.

If you need support and accountability to get clarity on what God’s calling you to do right now in your life and figure out what your next doable action steps are to move closer to His vision and purpose for you, I invite you to contact me for a complimentary “From Tired to Inspired” Strategy Session dedicated to helping you to close the gap between where you are and where God wants you to be.

You don’t have to go it alone. God meant for us to walk together. And it just so happens that is what I’m most passionate about doing and is part of my purpose–walking with women like you who want to step fully into ALL God destined you to become and fulfill.