Dream Big!

God builds your faith by giving you a dream by Rick Warren

"Now glory be to God, who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes." Ephesians 3:20 (LB) "If a dream comes from God, it will be so big in your life that you can't do it on your own. If you could do it on your own, you wouldn't need faith." Faith is like a muscle: it can be strengthened. It can be weak or it can be strong, depending on how much you use it. How does God build your faith? He uses a very predictable pattern that we will look at this week; and, if you understand it, you can cooperate with him in developing greater faith. It's like when the father, seeking help from Jesus for his son, said, "Have pity on us and help us, if you possibly can!" (Mark 9:22 TEV) Jesus replied, "What do you mean, 'If I can'? . . . Anything is possible if a person believes." (Mark 9:23 NLT) The first thing God does to build your faith is give you a dream. When God wants to work in your life, he'll always gives you a dream—about yourself, about what he wants you to do, about how he's going to use your life to impact the world.  There are many examples in the Bible of this. God gave Noah the dream of building an ark. God gave Abraham the dream of being the father of a great nation. God gave Joseph the dream of being a leader that would save his people. God gave Nehemiah the dream of building the wall around Jerusalem. How do you know when a dream is from God or when it's just something you've thought up yourself? The Bible tells us that God, "by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes." (Ephesians 3:20 LB) In other words, if a dream comes from God, it will be so big in your life that you can't do it on your own. If you could do it on your own, you wouldn't need faith. And if you don't have faith you're not pleasing God, because the Bible says whatever is not of faith is sin. (Roman 14:23) God starts to build your faith by giving you a dream. He may be speaking to you now, but you just don't recognize it for what it is. That dream you have—the idea, the concept —that thing you've been thinking about doing that would be of real benefit to other people, where do you think that idea came from? God will never tell you to do something that contradicts his truth. In other words, he won't give you a dream of leaving your family and kids and moving to Hollywood to be a movie star. If you've got that dream, then you can know it is not from God. God starts with a dream as he works within your life to build faith.

“You Cannot Out Dream God”

 

Tuesday, May 18, 2010 Venturing Forth It's better to stay in the safety of the camp than venture forth on a wing and a prayer. Who knows what dangers lie ahead? This was the counsel of the ten faithless spies sent in to have a look at the Promised Land when the Jews came out of Egypt. Only two of the twelve, Joshua and Caleb, saw things differently. Their hearts were captured by a vision of what might be and they urged the people to press on. But their voices were drowned by the fears of the other ten spies and Israel wandered for another forty years. Without the anticipation of better things ahead, we will have no heart for the journey. One of the most poisonous of all Satan's whispers is simply, "Things will never change." That lie kills expectation, trapping our heart forever in the present. To keep desire alive and flourishing, we must renew our vision for what lies ahead. Things will not always be like this. Jesus has promised to "make all things new." Eye has not seen, ear has not heard all that God has in store for his lovers, which does not mean "we have no clue so don't even try to imagine," but rather, you cannot out dream God. Desire is kept alive by imagination, the antidote to resignation. We will need imagination, which is to say, we will need hope. Julia Gatta describes impatience, discouragement, and despair as the "noonday demons" most apt to beset the seasoned traveler. As the road grows long we grow weary; impatience and discouragement tempt us to forsake the way for some easier path. These shortcuts never work, and the guilt we feel for having chosen them only compounds our feelings of despair. (The Sacred Romance , 156-57)