Imagine coming to the end of your life and you are presented with an unchecked list all the promptings, prophetic promises, divine direction, dreams and visions, things you wanted to do in your lifetime but failed to see any of them realized. How would you feel? Unfortunately, this is the legacy of many – wasted opportunities, wasted dreams, wasted potentials. There are two kinds of people, in this world – visionaries and dreamers. Which one are you?

A very good friend of mine went home to be with the Lord a few months ago. After I heard about His untimely death, I felt the urge to record a short video of myself singing a song that my friend and most of our friends at one time sang together. The idea was to encourage his family and all our mutual friends. I really felt that it was the Lord impressing this vision upon me. But weeks went by, and still the song had not been recorded. When I finally thought about it, it dawned on me that I had missed a really great opportunity.

Have you ever felt a nudge from the Holy Spirit to do something and you hesitated, procrastinated, or simply just disobeyed? Our common excuse is, well, “that is way out of my comfort zone Lord.”

Have you ever had a promise or a clear direction from the Lord, and you said to yourself, “well, if the Lord wants me to do this or give that to me, He will have to do it himself?

Do you have a list of dreams, visions and goals that are nicely written down in a journal or in your Bible? Do you have prophetic words, prophesies, spoken over your life that are yet to be realized? What are you doing about them?

Too many people are living their lives without an active pursuit of life’s dreams and goals. Too many drift through the lift without setting life goals. What’s the use of having prophetic promises if the only thing we do about them is write them down in a journal and never see them come to pass in your Life? What’s the use of living life only to let it waste?

I understand that sometimes it takes a long time for dreams to come true:

• It took Israel 40 years to reach the promise land.
• It took David several years from the day he was anointed King to actually become king
• It took Joseph 13 years to realize his dream
• Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb.
• Churchill faced many years of politely failures. He was defeated in every election for public office.
• Lincoln started many failed businesses, and was defeated in many races for public office.

These men were not dreamers, they were visionaries. Visionaries are actively focused on turning their vision into reality. Dreamers on the other hand never seem to take concrete steps toward fulfilling their dreams. Visionaries:

• Have learned the art of goal setting
• Pursue passionately and think strategically
• Keep their vision front and center, in focus. Never letting it out of sight
• Hold every vision, dream or prophetic promise close to His fire for discernment or distruction
• See every dream goal, prophetic or calling as an opportunity to be good stewards
• Bathe every dream, goal, promise daily in prayer.
• Choose a path, pursue it, staying close to the heart of Jesus for clarity and direction

To become visionaries, we must understand the process of reaching our goals. Think, dream, plan, listen, use everything in your power to bring yourself one step closer to your destiny. Spend a good part of each day thinking about ways you can turn your vision into reality. But never forget to continue praying diligently and persistently, relying on God to open the doors, move the mountains, fill the valleys.

Those who live this way arrive at the end of their lives fully satisfied. They are able to leave a lasting legacy of no regrets, no missed opportunities, no unfulfilled dreams only because they dare – not only to dream, but also make plan  to fulfill their dreams.

So what is your vision/dream? Do you want to change the world? Do you want to grow in your faith? Do you want to raise a Godly family, build a strong marriage, parent according to the heart of the Father? We can all arrive at the end of our lives satisfied because we did our part and allowed God to do his. So the question remains: Are you a visionary or a dreamer?