Keep the vision steady

People follow a leader in part because of his life’s direction. When he’s going where the people want to go, and they believe the leader can help get them there, they’ll follow him to the end ({maxwell-minutes}, pg. 235). Thousands were willing to follow Gideon into battle against the occupying armies of the Midianites, although they had feared them for years (ESV, Judges 7).

If a leader loses focus on the vision or switches to another vision, his followers may disband. They may lose confidence in him and decide either to stop following or to elect a new leader who will take them where they want to go. This was the case of King Saul.

After Saul mustered all Israel to rescue the Jabesh-Gileadites, the people unanimously chose him as king (ESV, 1 Samuel 11). They believed this was the one who would “judge us and go out before us and fight our battles (ESV, 1 Samuel 8:20).” When Saul’s actions proved he didn’t share the people’s vision, they lost faith in him. Later, David’s actions proved that he did share their vision, and soon nearly all of Israel was ready to follow him instead.

Importance

A business leader must be confident in his vision before he begins to ask others to realize it. Followers can withstand pivots to the method a vision is executed, but changes to its substance lead to confusion and mutiny.

A leader may be tempted to gather followers before he’s convinced of the vision, but a leader may also lose focus on the vision when it' has been accomplished. Gideon’s temptation, in the beginning, was to shrink back from the risk of action, but at the end, he was tempted to keep the power he’d gained over others for himself (ESV, Judges 8:22-23). Therefore it is equally important to pronounce the vision fulfilled and await a new vision.

Application

I hear both an encouragement and a warning in this insight. The encouragement is that, like Gideon, obedience to God has no limitations. A business launched in obedience to God, founded on his promises and attentive to his vision can’t be stopped. Obstacles only serve to highlight God’s faithfulness and power. The warning is, a business launched before vision is given can wander and die alone in the wilderness. Vision is a gift bestowed by God as well as ‘caught’ by the experience of human need. My application is to stay the course and wait for the vision.

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