How to Create a Plan for Your Vision That Compels You to Act
Planning is the highest form of faith
Your vision needs a plan. Why? Because when you make a plan, you automatically assume your vision could work out. And, as you work your plan, you begin to believe that it could work out.
There is trust in planning. The simple act of writing down a plan sends a signal to your subconscious phase of mind. That signal says that this — what you are writing on the paper — has a real chance of coming true.
Your writing acts like a form of communication with God. Within it, you are saying to the Divine: “God, I want this thing specifically.”
Your written dreams are the dreams themselves in their incipient form.
Let’s start with a compelling vision
Habakkuk 2:2 Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.
Have you ever read something that made you run?
God, speaking to us, through the prophet Habakkuk says: Write this thing you want down. And, write it so that when you read it, it makes you do something about it.
I swear I’ve read that Scripture several times. But I always thought it said that your vision needs to be clear enough so a runner can read it. Is that what you read?
But that’s not what it says. It clearly reads “so that he may run who reads it.” Does your vision for your life make you run? Or, do you read it and sink a little deeper into the couch you’re sitting on?
What kind of emotion does your vision evoke in you? Do you have a written vision? If not, now would be a good time to grab a piece of paper. Begin to spell out what you want in detail.
Create a defined vision for your life
Speaking to us through the prophet Isaiah (45:11), God says, “…concerning the work of My hands, you command Me.”
What are the works of God’s hands? The works are all the gifts, talents and abilities that God packed you up with before you landed on the planet.
He’s saying to you and me: Concerning what I gave you, you tell Me what You want me to do for you.
So, Serena Williams says, “God, you put the ability in me to dominate the world of tennis. Help me become that.”
Oprah Winfrey says, “God, you gave me the ability to relate to people and make them feel good about themselves. Help me become that.”
Johnnie Colemon says, “God you taught me to heal myself from an incurable disease. Help me tell other people about that.”
Concerning the works of My hands — concerning the stuff I packed inside of you before you were born — you command Me.
December 31, 2021 is coming…
I’ve got news for you. It may only be January 22, 2021 but December 31, 2021 is coming! What will you have done with the gifts, talents and abilities He packed inside of you before you made it on the planet?
Concerning the works of His hands, what will you command Him to do through you? Will your ability to write be at the same stage December 31st as it is today? What about your ability to sing? What about your business skill set?
In the Parable of the Talents (see Matthew 25), there are three servants. One is given five talents, another is given two and the third servant is given one talent. The master goes away for awhile and returns.
When he gets back, the servants report on how they’ve developed what he gave them. The servant with five talents reports that he has turned those five talents into ten. The servant with two talents reports that he has turned those two into four.
But the servant with one talent took the one he had, buried it and returned it to his master with no increase and no improvement. Then what he had was taken from him and given to the one who turned five into ten.
When December 31st arrives, what will you have done with the talents in your possession? Each of us has something but what will we have done with it?
All distractions are equal
It is very easy to let the distraction of what’s happening in the world to capture your attention and lull you into procrastination and inaction. In the US right now, we have a virtual political circus happening. Every day some new silliness appears in the news cycle.
But no matter how many sensational stories appear in the media, December 31st is still coming. Would it be possible for you to write out a vision for your future that is so compelling that it causes you to withdraw your attention from the media and the things that are happening outside of you? Instead of giving your attention to every random happening in your world, you give it wholly and completely to the dreams and visions that live within you.
Can you write out the vision for your 2021 in such a way that you move yourself into action?
Recognizing your mental equivalent
We have a term in the metaphysical or New Thought movement called the “mental equivalent.” Essentially, everything has a non-physical essence.
Nothing exists in the physical until it has a belief to support it in the mental. As soon as the belief goes away, all corresponding physical expressions go away.
For example, collectively, we used to believe in polio and tuberculosis. When our belief system changed, they went away.
You may think, “Well, they came up with a cure.” No, life is lived from the inside out. They came up with a belief and the cure followed. Physical manifestation always follows belief.
Whatever enters your life is but the material expression of some belief in your mind. First, you believe it; then you see it.
The kind of body you have, the kind of home you have, the kind of work you do, the types of people you meet — they all correspond to the mental concepts you hold in mind.
Seeing the mental equivalent in scripture
John 5: Jesus speaks to the man by the pool called Bethesda. He’d been there for 38 years. “When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time He said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well.?’ The sick man answered Him, ‘Sir, I have no man to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.’
“Jesus said to him, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk.’ And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.’”
Can you see his mental equivalent? He had two driving beliefs that kept him out of the water and on the side of the pool.
First, he believed he had no help. He wouldn’t taken action for his own healing because he had no help. He got right up next to where he could get help but then came up with an excuse for why he couldn’t let go of the thing that had been plaguing him for 38 years!
Often what keeps us from our good is a belief — a mental equivalent — that we need just one more thing before we can have it. Oh, if we just had someone to help us.
You know he could have simply jumped in the water while it wasn’t moving. When you want something bad enough, when you have a vision big enough, you get curious. “I know they said only the first one in gets healed but I need a healing. I’m just gonna get in this water and wait and see what happens. When the angel comes, I’ll already be here.”
When you don’t have a vision for where you’re going, you’re content to wait by the edge of the pool thinking, “I don’t have anyone to put me in.” When you have a vision pulling you, you get moving. You either make sure you’re the first one there or if you’re not, you jump in anyway. “Today, this water is gonna heal two people!”
Dropping all excuses to living your vision
The second mental equivalent or belief he had is that someone was always beating him to his good. You know anybody like that? They would have xyz if it weren’t for abc.
I would have more money if it were for the fact that…I would be more healthy except for the fact that…
Jesus asked him, “Do you want to be made well?” You’ve been coming here for 38 years and you haven’t noticed not one thing that could give you a competitive advantage?
I like to shop at Walmart but sometimes it can be a real zoo. But you know what I learned? I learned that a good number of the people who shop at Walmart don’t get up early.
I found out that I get there before 11am, I miss the whole zoo aspect of shopping there. I’ve been going there long enough to notice some things. If I want a better shopping experience, I have to adjust how I show up in order to get a different experience.
If you’ve been going to the same place everyday for 38 years and you haven’t picked up one tip that can put you ahead of the game, then we must ask do you want to be made well?
Whatever you have in your life right now has a mental equivalent that’s supporting it. It’s the excuse you give for why things are the way they are. I’m sure this man has carried on conversations for years with friends and family about why he never makes it to the pool in time to get in the water.
Nothing is standing in your way of your vision
It wasn’t the lack of help that kept him from his healing or the people who kept beating him into the pool once the water stirred. His mental equivalent — the belief he refused to let go of — kept him just at the edge of his good.
It is not the government or your family or who left you or the mistake you made or the choice you didn’t make that explains why things are the way they are for you. It the mental equivalent — the belief you hold — that keeps you right at the edge of your good.
Clarity is key for your vision
We all have habits of thought and action, and we all have business, family, and personal conditions we would like to be rid of. If we rid our mind of the mental equivalent of them, they must go.
What do you really want this year? When December 31, 2021 arrives, what’s the one thing (or two) that you’d like to have which would make you feel like “2021 doesn’t owe me anything?”
Maybe you feel, “I want more money.” Well, that’s too vague. If I give you $0.21 cent, you now have more money than you had before. So be specific: I want to make $100,000 this year!
“I want a life of love and peace and joy.” That’s too vague. It doesn’t really mean anything until you know what brings you love and peace and joy. Get crystal clear: I want to spend time with people I love at least 3–4 times each month. I’d like to spend time in nature at least 1–2 times each month. And, I’d like to take one non-work-related vacation this year where I get to just be!
What’s dreamt in vagueness manifests in vagueness. Flowery words are great for poetry but they mean nothing to your subconscious phase of mind, which needs some specifics so that it can know what to bring you.
Identifying the real blocks to your vision
Now that you are clear on what you want for 2021, write out why you don’t have it. Please be authentic with your answer.
The standard New Thought answer is “Well, it’s my thinking.” Yes, we know if you change your thought, you change your life. But what exactly are you thinking?
Maybe you feel, “I want to start a business selling my pies but I don’t have any start-up capital and I don’t know where to go to get the money I need.” Great! You want a profitable business but the mental equivalent that’s keeping you out of the pool is the belief that you don’t have money and you don’t know where to go to get it.
Now we know what to release.
Go through every area of your vision and get clear on exactly what you’re thinking that’s keeping you from moving forward.
Motivating others through your vision
In reality, we’re all that man at the pool in some area of our lives. Maybe we’re him in our health. We would receive the healing we want in our bodies but…
Or, maybe we’re him in our money. We would have the money we desire but…
I know I was very much like him. Every business I’d start, I’d always go looking for a partner. I always wanted someone to share the responsibility with because I was too afraid to just step out there. I wasted a LOT of time trying to get various people I worked with to bet on the dreams God placed in my heart.
This year I decided to stop being the man by the pool of Bethesda when it comes to my business. I am stepping out on faith. I’m getting in the water. When the angel comes to stir the water, I will already be in it. I’m not worried about anybody beating me to the water. If so, then there will be two miracles!
Right now, I’d like to hear from you. What do you want in 2021? How are you willing to stop being like the man by the pool of Bethesda? What thinking are you releasing so that you can have what you truly want?
