Christians and vision boards can be risky business, but most professing Christians are unaware of the hidden dangers. Many Christians and churches these days promote vision board parties and visualization practices. However,  some say, what is wrong with making a vision for your life and cutting out words and images to accompany your dream? Hopefully, I can share how most Christians misuse visualization.

I encourage you to stick with me to the end. The only way I can share the reality of this vision practice with you is to break down its roots for proper context so that you can walk away with adequate understanding. Is that a deal?

I created a video about this on my YouTube Channel. Also, you can check out Manifesting Goals Through Vision Boards for some ways in which vision boards are used legitimately.

My History with Vision Boards

In my late teens, my goal-setting journey began when my dad gave me a business book by David J. Swartz, The Magic of Thinking Big. Although I credit the Lord for every victory in my life, this book would catapult me onto a journey of dreaming and winning big with some ambitions that I set out to tackle. Clearly defined written goals helped me to focus and eliminate distractions.

I kept success mindset books in rotation. I set goals to read many books within a year because the successful people I read about mentioned reading on their goals list. Additionally, the Bible is about God’s success and our victory through Him, and many practical principles align with even an unbeliever, such as sowing and reaping. I still read my Bible during these years and attended church faithfully, but reading other books was enjoyable and motivational.

Related Reads:

Christians and Zodiac Signs (what the Bible teaches)

Christian Yoga Is it Okay for you to practice it

Black Fatherless Crisis and Spiritual Warfare Hip-Hop Culture

Some of the writers spoke about vision boards and visualization exercises. They taught me to imagine the life I wanted. They advised me to write down where I wanted to live, the amount of money I wanted, the kind of man I wanted to marry, and the like. I learned that successful people put those desires onto a board to look at them every day. The authors shared success stories of how everything they visualized came to fruition through working hard, seeing it as already happening, and goal setting.

The New Age Connection

The new age is so broad and combines every kind of spiritual practice under the sun, such as yoga, witchcraft, astrology, and meditation, to name a few. New age practice is common among professing Christians and those practicing all kinds of religions, including Satanism. Wikipedia defines the new age as a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in the Western world during the 1970s.

In The Second Coming of the New Age, the Hidden Dangers of Alternative Spirituality in Contemporary America and its Churches describes the new age as a collection of beliefs and practices aimed at bringing enlightenment. “The goal, at an individual level, is to “raise the consciousness” to a “higher density or a higher vibration,” meaning that knowledge of self, combined with divination and occult practices, can elevate our spiritual condition to a level of self-identity.”

The book also describes “the new age as a spiritual system of thought and practice composed of beliefs, values, and traditions from various schools and religions.”

Christians and Vision Boards – Video

Law of Attraction

Vision boards come into the equation due to their connection with spiritual /transpersonal psychology. Transpersonal psychology is a sub-field of psychology and connects to the law of attraction/manifesting. It thrives on explaining the spiritual side of the human experience to the modern framework of psychology. Self-development also plays a massive part in this equation. The law of attraction and manifesting tie in with the god of “self.”

New Thought, as it’s often called, is a spiritual movement. Wikipedia defines it like, “the Law of Attraction is a pseudoscience based on the belief that positive or negative thoughts bring positive or negative experiences into a person’s life. The belief is based on the idea that people and their thoughts are made from “pure energy” and that a process of like energy attracting like energy exists through which a person can improve their health, wealth, and personal relationships.”

Know Truth

Knowing truth is serious and like the Apostle John, we must stand strong against the errors.

1 John 4:4-6 NKJV says, You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. ⁵ They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. ⁶ We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Many people spoke lies about Jesus’ deity, resurrection, and authority after His death. Many people that professed faith in Jesus left the faith and taught lies about God. Therefore, the apostle John had to write 1^st-3^rd John to defend Christ’s death, resurrection, Lordship, and the Christian faith. He spoke harshly about false prophets and those that deny Christ and everything He taught.

New age practices oppose Christ’s deity and teachings of the cross. Please don’t willingly fall into this trap to work against God. If you’re of God, your eternal blessings are more significant than any of these demonic spiritual practices. Christ is light, and we don’t need hidden things, craftiness, or to handle the Word deceitfully (2 Cor 4:1-4). Listen to the people our Father ordained to teach His sound truth and take each thought captive to make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor 10:5).

The Occult

Vision and Attraction depend on specific energy to bring things to fruition. If whatever you’re doing is not rooted in God’s truth based upon His inerrant and infallible Word—it’s evil. We watch and listen to many things that masquerade as light, but the hidden agenda is dark. What appears good to your uncured soul can be downright wrong!

Isaiah 5:20 KJV says, Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

The Traveling Witch website has a post, How to use Vision Boards with your Witchcraft. The author states, “basically, a vision board is a tool to manifest your goals. This tool works based on the Law of Attraction principle —like attracts like, meaning if you are vibrating at a certain frequency, you will attract people and things that are also vibrating at a similar frequency”.

The blogger later shared the witchy way to make a vision board, how to weave witchcraft into one, how to perform spells, and ways to connect with fellow witches to make them together.

Many Christians take so many new age practices and attempt to Christianize them.

The focus on Self-Vision

If we look at Genesis 3, where Eve ate of the fruit, the enemy made sure to point out, “you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Do you notice the words you-will? Now replace you-will with “I” or myself-will.

You’ve now placed yourself into the position of a god!

the little god

Do you want to be a little god? As a bible believing Christian, it’s essential to understand that there is one master will, which should be God’s. Anything that places the self in place of God’s will is sin—yes, even your free choice. But, most do not know this because modern churches are more focused on filling the pews, teaching you to live your best life and make ungodly choices.

I bolded parts of the text to reflect what I mean.

Isaiah 12:14-15 NKJV says,

“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
¹³ For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.’
¹⁵ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit.

Lucifer had a vision for his life, and he still does. He works through many to bring about his plans. Imagination is so powerful. After all, the pornographic impressions left in the viewer’s mind after seeing pornography causes lasting damage long after seeing the image. Nonetheless, we need teachings on how to see ourselves and our lives through God’s holy intentions.

Focus on Right Things

Proverbs 29:18 KJV says, Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

Correct vision is abundant in the God we worship—in His perfect law. Without God’s excellent instructions, the people cast off restraints and go all over the place with no guidance. Many high achievers will end up in hell because their vision leads them there—yet the world knows them.

Carrying out the vision God plants in us through His perfect law is what makes you successful—not your self-righteousness.

I talked about my quest for goals and success and how the Lord stripped me of everything I obtained right here in my testimony. Watch it right here.

Pin Me:

The little God of self

A strong desire to be Godlike has been present and rampant since the fall in Eden. Sadly, most Christians don’t realize they are trapped in self-worship because it feels natural and harmless.

I didn’t know there was anything wrong with most of my goals and vision boards in the past until I learned more about the soul (mind, will, and emotions) and how that soul part of us interacts with the flesh and the spirit. I created a mini-vision board with some Christian ladies just three years ago.

When you’re feeling superb and euphoric, you think your soul is on target, especially when a preacher connects scripture into the mix or a fellow Believer encourages you. There is so much new-age promotion of self and prosperity teachings in the church, and it’s so easy to see how so many get tangled up in this “go-getter get what God can give you mindset.” Prosperity teachings sound true because they appeal to the flesh and the soul.

Don’t be misled soulful.

Self-help, self-development, self-esteem, self-love, self-care, and any high focus on self is not biblical or Godly.

A high emphasis on self can quickly get out of alignment if God is not the reason for your endeavors. Yes, we should take care of the temple God has gifted us with, live confidently in Christ, and exhibit discipline. It’s wise to use your time wisely to steward these aspirations with well-thought-out plans and guidelines.

Vision Boards and Dangers

So why is it dangerous to create a vision board? We need to ask God if there is anything wrong with my vision. There is much wrong with your sight if your spiritual view does not align with scripture.

It took years for me to realize that many scriptures used in church to teach success have improper use. Take, for instance, Philippians 4:13, Jeremiah 29:11, and Habakkuk 2:2; these scriptures have nothing to do with you doing all you want to accomplish, writing out your vision, and God giving you everything you put on a vision board.

Although I use the highly popular sacred scriptures in my Dream Big Goal setting guide, I share them because I want to display God’s planning holistically. I still make plans and have a vision for my life (see more in my conclusion).

You Can’t Make it Godly

No matter how many positive affirmations and scriptures you add to the vision board, if it’s not God’s vision for your life, it’s going to be worthless. Additionally, you’ll be living life and acquiring all sorts of things (that you will manifest) that are not God’s desire for you.

It’s important to note that just because you acquire wealth, your dream spouse, succeed as an entrepreneur, and get to travel the world does not mean God gave or blessed it.

There are tons of people with worldly success that have no belief in God. Those in the occult, such as dark arts and witchcraft, use vision casting to get what they want.

I highly encourage planning and setting goals with flexibility towards the interruption and leading of the Holy Spirit. Please don’t just make a goal and vision board and then tack God and scriptures onto it and declare and decree the blessing.

Satan cast a vision when

Vision casting is a tool of the enemy. He tempted Jesus at the high point and offered to give Him the world if He worships Him (Matthew 4:1-11). Jesus rejected it and used Holy Scripture (Jesus is the living Word).

God wants us to have desires, but the heart is not always right with God. Sometimes you get drawn off into your flesh and needs. When we get clothed with our new life in Christ, we must let the Holy Spirit renew and transform our minds. Before we got justice from Christ, we were used to our soul making the decisions. Often, these decisions felt right, but they were incomplete opposition against our Lord and Savior.

New thought promotion of self has crept so far into the church, and it sounds right when the preacher pulls scripture into the teaching.

Conclusion

New age practices are dangerous and lead you away from the cross of Christ. I still set goals and make plans for my life to this day and here’s a video I made that encourages you to press towards the vision. I just set goals differently, adjust as the Holy Spirit leads, and ask for God’s will be done above my plans. The closer I’ve gotten to my Lord and Savior, He is still showing me areas where He has to get the teachings out of me I’ve learned in my early years.

Our path is unique, and God allowed me to walk mine to ultimately teach and minister to others in this kind of way. My prayer is that you are open to learning. Don’t discount this writing and continue with your plans. It feels good to make plans and win in life, but knowing if God approves the methods is vital.

Soul Actions:

Pray and ask the Father to show you what He wants you to do with your time.

Make the best use of your time by planning it out but remain flexible.

Show up to do the assignment called you to. Pray for God’s vision, strength, and focus to carry it out.

Soulful, I appreciate you reading this to the end. If this teaching has blessed you in any way, please share it with two friends. You can also download the Dream Big Goal Setting Guide I created right here.