“How To Develop A Vertical Life Plan” – Part 1
April 26, 2025 – Dr. David P. Craig, Founder, Vertical Living Ministries
I want to share with you about why its beneficial to have a written plan for your life. More specifically, why it’s important to develop what I call a Vertical Life Plan.
Let me ask you an extremely important question. Do you believe that the Bible is about you or Jesus? If you think it’s about you – the Bible actually says the opposite. In Luke 24 Jesus appears to His disciples and repeats twice to them that everything in the Scriptures is about Him and points to Him.
An illustration I like to use in regard to this is that I like to see every aspect of thinking in terms of a triangle. I may have two views of something and if I have trouble deciding I simply ask which choice follows the teachings and modeling of Jesus. What leads to the central focal point at the pinnacle of the top of the triangle. Is the leaning of one side or the other going away from the central vertical point?
Another illustration I like to think about is having a vision of something that drives my thinking, and plan of attack for being productive in living for that which will last for eternity. In it is the idea that is conveyed by the biblical prophets Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and the apostle Paul in the New Testament. They all encountered Theophanies or Christophanies – visual manifestations of God in Christ.
In my favorite book aside from the Bible, but based on the Bible – The Holiness of God, by R.C. Sproul – the author delves into the vision that Isaiah had of the pre incarnate Christ in Isaiah 6. Isaiah finds himself in a huge crises – the King of the nation for the past 52 years has died and he goes to the temple to grieve. According to the apostle John in the NT his vision is of Jesus. Moses, Ezekiel, and Paul also experience similar visions of God’s glory. When they have these visions of Jesus it radically changes their lives. They all write about their experiences with the glory of God and then they go on to live productive and effective lives by knowing God and applying the scriptures to their lives.
I have been writing out what I call Vertical Life Plans every year for the past 26 years. Its sort of like the Captain of a ship having a map and compass in the wide open sea. How in the world can he know where he is and where he is going without these tools? How can he measure his progress if he doesn’t know where he is on the map or where he is going. Unfortunately, this is the way most people live. And, metaphorically they make little progress, because they don’t even know where they are, or where they are going.
A Vertical life plan is an intentional written strategy where you map out in writing: why I’m here – this answers the question of meaning; what is most important in life – what I call your Vertical vision – making Jesus the central and highest priority in your life; you ask the question what does Jesus value and do I value what He values; and then how can I implement what He values in my own life? How can I practically spend my time in ways that eliminate the weeds and waste of my time so that I maximize living for that which prioritizes what Jesus prioritized and implement those values in my own life? Today we are going to just look at the first two steps in developing your Vertical Life Plan.
Step One: In one to three sentences (a short paragraph) write out your life calling. Answer this question: What is your personal mission that you would like to accomplish with your life before you die?
Example: David P. Craig’s Calling: “My purpose in life is to passionately pursue a relationship with God through a deep study of His Word and in the process be transformed by the Holy Spirit so that I bear the image of Jesus and thus glorify Him by reflecting Him to my wife, family, church, and community, thus bearing the fruit for which I was made a new creation – resulting in making multiplying disciples and leaders of my Lord and Savior – Jesus Christ.” ~ Vertical Life Plan, 2011
Step Two: Come up with a life verse/s to write out and memorize to remind yourself regularly of your life’s calling (I recommend finding an OT and a NT verse and write them out under your Life’s calling.
Examples from the Legacy Standard Bible:
Psalm 37:4, Delight yourself in Yahweh; And He will give you the desires of your heart.
Proverbs 3:5-6,Trust in Yahweh with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.
1 Timothy 4:16, Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.
Acts 20:24, But I do not make my life of any account nor dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.
- I also recommend writing some of your favorite quotes or mottos here under Your Life Calling:
Examples:
- A.W. Tozer, “God will only use those with whom His glory is safe.”
- John Piper, “God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him.”
- David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Holiness is not something we are called upon to do in order that we may become something; it is something we are to do because of what we already are.”
- F.F. Bruce, “The soul’s deepest thirst is for God Himself, who has made us so that we can never be satisfied without Him.”
- Paul David Tripp, “Don’t be satisfied with anything less than what God’s powerful grace is able to produce in you and through you.”
- “We are called to live Coram Deo, defined as: before the presence of God, under the authority of God and to the glory of God.” ~ R. C. Sproul
What do all these verses and quotes have in common? They reiterate the concept of the Verticality of life. However, they also help me to emphasize verticality in my horizontal relationships with people. They remind me that if my relationship with God is first and of the uttermost importance to me then I will also become more like Jesus as I spend time with Him. So in Part 2 of developing a Vertical Life Plan I’m going to talk about our top priority in life – in the next article we are going to look at how to write an intentional strategy to make our number one priority in life our relationship with Jesus. I’m going to help you to have a larger vision of Jesus than any other person in your life. The third step in the Vertical Life Plan is in how we can spend time with Jesus; what to do in that time with Him; and how to plan our time with Jesus so that we can make a vertical impact in our horizontal relationships in our sphere of influence.
Let me leave you with this Scripture which totally captures the idea of thinking vertically in a horizontal culture from the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 10:5-7, “as we tear down speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is fulfilled. You are looking at things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we.”
~ Dr. David P. Craig
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