Most of the people in your life cannot see their own potential in the Kingdom of God.  I would be willing to bet that most of the believers around us have not had someone look deeply into their life and taken the time to help them see that potential. Yet, that was one of the first things Jesus did with his followers and what he continued to do over the course of 3 years.

We see this at the beginning in Matthew 5:13-16 when Jesus says “You are the salt of the earth….You are the light of the world….let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Then we see it at the end in Matthew 28:19, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.” Jesus was constantly helping the disciples see life beyond themselves. He was telling them things that were probably hard for them to believe about themselves. But, imagine the sense of wonder and confidence that must have overcome them when Jesus loved them enough to look them in the eye and tell them the possibilities He saw in their lives.

I call this The Moment of Vision. It is you helping a person see their identity and potential in the Kingdom of God. It is helping someone see that they are defined by God’s truth about them not what anyone else says. It is helping them see the things they don’t see about themselves. It is helping them replace lies that they believe about themselves with the Truth of God. It is helping them see that their life is about more than they may realize. 

When moments of vision are approached with love it can change a person’s life.

How do you grow as a person who casts this kind of vision into people’s lives? 

One key to casting vision is slowing down to build friendship.  We need to slow down enough with people in order to really get to know them. We need to build genuine friendships of trust and love. It takes time to know the heart of another person and to gain the trust to speak into their life. There is only a small number of people that I give permission to cast vision into my life.  I consider all of them true friends who I know want whatever God wants for me. They have gone slow with me.

Another key to casting vision is learning to ask good questions.  It is easy to jump to advice too soon.  I was sitting with a young man this week for the first time to talk about his spiritual life. The efficient approach would have been just giving him advice on what he should do or not do.  But being efficient is not always right.  As we were talking I asked, “Is it ok if I ask you a few questions.  That will just help me know how I can help you the best.”  After listening for a while I had a better understanding of what was going on in his life but I still need to get to know him more.  Here is what I have learned, the right question at the right time can help unlock what is going on deep inside of someone.

If you slow down and ask good questions, the Holy Spirit will help you know how to cast vision.

If you need some questions to get you started, try these.

1. What is your spiritual story?
2. What do you think it means to follow Jesus?
3. How do you think God could use you in your current circumstances.
4. If you could do anything and be guaranteed success, what would you do?
5. What would your friends say are your greatest strengths?
6. What do you think could hinder you from being all that God wants you to be?

Who can you help see God’s vision for their life? Make some time to soon to have a vision conversation with them.  It may change their life.