The Nature of Purpose and Vision

Purpose and vision are two simple concepts that profoundly excites a high level of interest in the hearts of every man because, some way or the other, how rich one’s life and lifestyle turns out depends largely on a firm grasp of these concepts—not necessarily in terms of a fine-sounding definition of them but in terms of having a life and a drive that bespeaks an understanding of the concepts. There are people with heads full of nice definitions of Purpose, Vision and many other nice concepts, mostly gleaned from perhaps great books, but whose approaches to life evince very little of this knowledge. On the other hand, there are some others in history and even in our present society who have accomplished great things for God and mankind in line with their purpose without necessarily putting together any set of fine vocabularies to give definitions to these concepts at any time.  Hence, the aim of this write-up isn’t essentially to establish universal, grammatical or dictionary definitions of these subjects, but rather to express them in simple enough terms such that their application to life becomes very simple and effective. Do not therefore be turned off by any disparity in the definitions from what you must have read from perhaps any renown writer or author. Fix your attention on the content of the message and be blessed as you read. If you have not read my previous post on “The Search for Purpose” I recommend you do before proceeding. It would set the pace and give you a context within which you read this post while supplying the hunger and enthusiasm you need to really grasp these concepts.

What is Purpose?

The purpose of a thing is simply the reason behind the existence of a thing. In the same way, your purpose in life is the reason behind your existence; the “why” behind your being. Until  you find this out, you are merely existing, but not really living. You cannot be independently responsible for deciding what your unique purpose is (apart from God) any more than a product can decide the reason for which it was manufactured apart from the manufacturer. In other words, purpose isn’t something you cook up all by yourself. Rather, it is determined by the Creator of all things—God. The part you play is discovering it and running with a vision that directly shoots out from it. So when you genuinely recognize the reason why you are on this earth, then you’ve found your purpose. It could start out being as broad as realizing that you live to meet the needs of others, to help people with your resources, to be a solution to the problems of many. It is very important at this junction to point out that discovering your distinct purpose (vision) won’t happen overnight. It isn’t a quick-fix thing. It’s the reason many give up or would rather not want to bother themselves with searching it out at all, and instead engage themselves in many distracting frivolities and indulgence that require little or no effort on their part. It takes time and patience, like everything of long-lasting or permanent value that you may know of. But the excitement, the constant sense of fulfilment and the eternal reward that ultimately results from finding it and running with it makes our unrelenting search for it worthwhile. So like aforesaid, it usually starts very broad and not so distinct, but over time—usually with an intentional pursuit—it narrows down until a unique and vivid vision proceeds from the discovery.

Lack of Purpose breeds degeneration…

Life has been designed such that the vigour with which something exists depends on whether or not it is fulfilling the purpose for which it was made. Leave a house uninhabited for a considerable length of time and watch its parts falling off in no time and the whole building starting to collapse in far less time than the expected “shelf life.” It is bespoken by machines, like cars, left unused for a significant length of time as they do not just exactly remain in the functional state they were before being abandoned—many require servicing before they become usable again. It is not any different with humans. Where there is no vision, the Bible says, my people perish. Where there is lack of a picture of what we are working at or aiming at, people undergo degeneration in the form of indulgence, depravity, and all sort of ungodly and sensual things. All this result in consistent sense of a hunger on the inside needing to be satisfied, and unending dissatisfaction. Walking in purpose is the only guarantor of a genuinely fulfilled life.

God’s purpose for man…

The primary purpose of God for man is for personal fellowship with Him and by so doing, He communicates His dominion nature into the physical realm in the form of glorifying good works. Hence, the purpose of God for man can be broadly classified as: 1. Personal fellowship, and 2. Good works. This is the reason why a newly saved person could experience so much joy immediately after salvation. This joy could become so intensified as he engages in spiritual devotions like praying and studying the word. It’s because he has just been introduced into a new life that enables him to engage his purpose in life. However, he soon notices this joyful state to start waning if he stops at this point of receiving the life and merely fellowshipping in His presence. Enthusiasm for praying and reading or studying the word may start to fade also. This is an indication to step into the next role unto which we have been created in Christ—good works. Living with these two perspectives of purpose in view turns loose an endless stream of joy, fulfilment and enthusiasm to stay and fellowship in His presence.

Different between purpose and vision…

However, there are many good works on earth. And no single person has been born to do them all. In fact, if you chose to go about doing all good works or meeting all needs that exist around, you will soon wear yourself down—you will soon die! In other words, God has so designed life in a way that different persons have been configured to meet different specific needs. These are what constitute the unique purpose of each person on earth. Two persons may have similar purposes, but differ in the specific ways in which they fulfil them. A man may for example find out that his purpose is to actively or directly harvest souls for the Kingdom. Another may have similar purpose, but the specific way they will go about accomplishing it will be different—as evangelist, pastor, apostle, or prophet. A purpose is therefore a broad definition of why a person is living. While a vision, which is sometimes referred to as unique purpose in this article, is a vivid or specific picture of what one is to accomplished in furtherance of this purpose. John Ehoche, for example, has found purpose immediately he realized he has been born to help restore sanity to our society. I personally have the same purpose. Olanrewaju Seun Bayonle has the same purpose. Olabisi Olasunbola has similar purpose. But the ways we individually go about them are unique. While John Ehoche’s picture of how to accomplish this is by reaching out to children 10 years old and below, and pregnant women, meeting their basic needs and changing their orientation at an early stage through a platform he founded, JohnGreat Foundation (JGF), with the vision, “to save, educate, and train the child”; Olanrewaju Bayonle Titus on his own part accomplishes similar purpose by reaching out to young people in schools and churches with the vision “giving people advantage in life and destiny” through the platform Leverage Hub, changing their orientations by showing them God’s perspectives to personal growth, societal values and development. In my own case, I founded a leadership organization—LeadIgnite Network International(LINI) with the vision “to be a platform for raising men and women who are devoted to exploiting their gifts, skills and talents for invading the various systems of the world with the values, influence, and light of the Kingdom of God in Leadership, Innovation and Intervention.”  So the point is that purpose might be so broad that it could be peculiar to many people, but vision carves out a niche for you as it defines the specifics of what exactly you want to accomplish which, together with those of other persons in diverse places, will result in the promotion of the Kingdom course—adorning the message of Christ by demonstrating God’s will for mankind, thereby winning men over from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of light. To be continued…