The poorest man reading this today is not a man without money, it's a man without a vision. Let me say this. If you want to do something for God, you must have a vision.

You can go to Bible seminary, speak Greek and Hebrew and have the ability to translate the Bible from its original languages. You can teach, preach, witness, sing and strive in the ministry. But if you don't have a vision, you won't get anywhere. You may say, "Well, I haven't done so bad." But the truth of the matter is this. Whatever you accomplished in your own strength doesn't even compare to what you can accomplish when you have a vision of what God wants you to do.

A minister once said he saw a 16 year old boy walking around with his shirt tail hanging out, long hair, unbathed, slumped over, shoes untied, dirty clothes, and wearing headphones with music so loud that you could hear it several feet away.

Later he saw the same 16 year old boy. He was all cleaned up, shaved, smelled good and had his hair all slicked down. What happened? He'd gotten a vision. He'd seen a UFO. That's an Unidentified Female Object. A vision will change you. It will get you focused.

You can get on a ship, but you shouldn't leave port until you know where you're going. We have too many ships out in the ocean, under full power, but going nowhere. This is probably one of the greatest problems in the church today – ministers without a vision who are leading their flocks nowhere doing the same old thing day after day.

Because of this, many Christians are unfocused, undisciplined and going nowhere. Without a vision, the people perish. Sheep with a shepherd who does not know where he is going are sheep destined for starvation and death.

Of course, some have a vision and are very focused on God's plan for their life, but sadly many do not. We should not settle for man’s best when we can have God's best. We need to get hold of God's plan and God's program instead of wasting our time on man's programs and plans.

God wants us to get a vision for His kingdom. With God's vision working in our lives we can turn the world upside down for Jesus. The best programs our denominations can think up will pale by comparison to what ONE man can do with God's vision working in his life.

I've heard it said that Christopher Columbus typifies church leadership. He didn't know where he was going, he didn't know where he was when he got there, and when he got back he didn't know where he'd been.

We as church leaders need to get a vision. If a pastor of a church doesn't have a clear vision of where God is taking him, the people in the church won't know where to go. The church may have some success. It may have some growth. But it will never have the prosperity and growth it could have had if there was only a vision. How can the people know when they get where God wants them if they don't know where they're going?