Dream - Seize Your Tomorrow Today
Dream: Seizing Your Tomorrow Today
Forward - Part 1
A lot of the great and wonderful things that we see today started with a simple dream.
From spectacular movies like Star Wars, Marvels, Disney’s, to cellphones and iPads like Mac, to theme parks, to giant malls like SM and Ayala and business centres. They all started from a person who had a dream.
As followers of Christ, we can cultivate a dream for our lives that outlasts the world, transforms time, changes eternity, and advances His cause and His kingdom for His glory. In fact, that’s the story of the Bible. The Bible is filled with people who saw what life could look like in God’s kingdom and then moved forward in faith.
Abraham dreamed of a great nation when he was yet childless. Moses envisioned a free people when the Israelites were still in Egypt. Joshua envisioned an occupied Promised land; David, a temple on a hill. Nehemiah built miles of reconstructed walls in his prayers before a single stone was laid. Daniel glimpsed a future kingdom; Peter, an established church; Paul, a global mission.
All these stories—the dreams of men and women of God thousands of years ago—still inspire, guide, and affect us more than we know. And they remind us God wants to do the same with you and me.
God has the master plan of all God-glorifying dreams.
In Christ we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, (Eph. 1:11)
God is working out all things towards the fulfilment of His eternal plans. And you and I are part of those plans. The Lord’s dreams for us are just as real, and the process of finding and fulfilling them hasn’t changed. That’s what this series is all about.
How do you stay focused on tomorrow, letting go of the past and moving forward to the future? What’s the role of prayer? How do you figure out the next step? What’s the risk? And what’s waiting for you at the end of it all? In the new series, I want to share with you these things—and more. There’s always more out in front of us. Always a reason to look forward to tomorrow.
Typically, it all starts with a dream. That’s the first step in this process of moving forward.
When I talk about a dream, I’m not talking about your dream house or dream vacation or dream car. And I’m not using the word as the ancient prophets did when they had supernatural visions of inspired revelation. I’m not talking about seeing heavenly creatures or having apocalyptic dreams. Instead, I’m talking about envisioning the next step or stage of your life as God wanted it to be.
A dream or a vision is simply a vision or a picture of what you think God wants you to do next.
What about you? What’s your dream? Can you envision God’s next step in your life? What does He want to do through you this year, in the coming years, and in the remaining time He gives you in this life?
The Power of a Dream
“Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Prov. 29:18 KJV).
“Vision” here refers to revelations from God received by prophets. Where there is ignorance or rejection of God’s divine revelation and instruction, people will perish.
Without a blueprint, you can’t build a house; and without an idea of what kind of house you want, a blueprint can’t be drawn. The same is true when it comes to making plans for the future. If you don’t have a clear idea about where you want to go—and why you want to go there—it’s difficult to sustain forward momentum.
Without a dream, we drift through life without ever catching the current of God. Many of us fill the majority of our hours with diversions and only a few with dreams. But our world is shaped by determined dreamers, by men and women of vision. Like them, we need a dream to achieve God’s goal for our lives.
How to Build Our Dream
[Story] Lillian Trasher. At the beginning of the last century, Lillian was working in an orphanage in North Carolina when she felt God’s call to pursue missionary work in Egypt. The call was so strong that she broke off her engagement when her fiancé did not share her vision. She sold her belongings and boldly booked passage to a foreign country, arriving with less than a hundred dollars in her purse. One day she was asked to go to the bedside of a dying young widow, who begged Lillian to care for her malnourished baby girl. Lillian agreed, and so began the first orphanage in Egypt. Those first years were filled with great difficulty and limited support, but Lillian persevered to realize her vision of not only an orphanage but also schools and evangelistic ministries. By the time of her death in 1961, Lillian had cared for more than eight thousand orphans and touched thousands of others. The organization she founded, the Lillian Trasher Orphanage, still serves the needy in Egypt today.
The best part of Lillian’s story was the prayer she offered to the Lord when yet a child. She never forgot it, nor did the Lord. She said: “Lord, I want to be your little girl. Lord, if ever I can do anything for You, just let me know and I’ll do it!”
Can you think of a simpler prayer than that? Try it! Lord, if ever I can do anything for You, just let me know and I’ll do it.
So if vision is so important, how do you build your own? There are many biblical models you could follow, but I believe the best example of dream-building in the Bible is the story of King David’s vision to build a temple for the Lord atop Jerusalem’s Mount Moriah.
For hundreds of years, Israel had worshipped around the frayed remains of the tabernacle, the elaborate tent constructed in the days of Moses as a portable house of worship. But now the nation was occupying the land God had promised, and Jerusalem as its capital. So David began dreaming of a permanent place where people could worship for centuries to come. David’s story reveals the principles you and I can follow as we build our own dreams for God’s purpose.
1. Root Your Dream in the Creator
In 2 Samuel 7:2
“he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”
Nathan’s initial reaction was positive—go ahead and do it. So David grabbed hold of his dream and began moving forward to see its fulfilment. But David’s idea to build a temple didn’t just “poof” into his head like an exploding nebula. It was rooted in the history of Israel. Centuries before, God told Abraham to offer his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice and burnt offering on a distant mountain. And God was specific about the mountain. Not just any hilltop would do. It had to be Mount Moriah.
Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you. (Gen. 22:2)
A thousand years later, when David and then Solomon planned to build the Jewish temple, they placed it on that very mountain, Mount Moriah (2 Chron. 3:1). David’s vision for the location of his temple had roots as deep as Genesis 22. It was grounded in the story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only begotten son as a burnt offering (Heb. 11:17–19).
It’s no coincidence that a thousand years after David, Jesus Christ gave Himself as an offering for sin on or near this very ridge. From Abraham and his son to David and his temple, to Christ and His cross—everything was linked, and each event had its roots in the one that preceded it. The best dreams don’t start with us but instead are planted in us by God. If it isn’t rooted, it’s rotten. We stand on the shoulders of others. We are links in a chain, and we build on what others have done, even as future generations will build on the work we have done.
2. Reproduce Your Dream in a Canvas
As ideas and intentions bubble up in your heart and mind, you need to figure out where to begin and how to implement your dream. You have to nudge the abstract burden into a real-life plan.
After all, for your vision to touch others, it must become as practical as Esther’s dinner, David’s slingshot, Gideon’s torches, the boy’s lunch of bread and fish, the Good Samaritan’s wine and oil, Philemon’s hospitality, Dorcas’s robes, and Paul’s pen and parchment. We never know how a single detail, born from a visionary mind, will be used by the Lord in helping this world.
Visionaries have an uncanny ability to “see” their dreams and convey them in images. That’s how David built the impetus needed for his temple project. As we have seen, David’s dream began when he told the prophet Nathan,
“See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside tent curtains.” (2 Sam. 7:2)
The temple wasn’t an abstract concept but a vision that filled his mind in technicolour. He was able to convey that image to others and motivate them to action by drawing a contrast: “Look at my palace with its panelled walls and glorious bulwarks, and look at that frayed tent called the tabernacle. Shouldn’t God’s house be better than any home of yours or mine?” The ability to see what could be is essential to straining forward toward the realization of your dream.
3. Reinforce Your Dream with Commitment
David also discovered that every dream faces discouragement. That’s part of the process of proving its validity. David’s dream for the temple excited him like nothing else in his life. He was fired up, ready to go, eager to lead the campaign to build. He could see it in his mind’s eye every time he looked from his palace rooftop toward Mount Moriah.
But then the roof caved in, so to speak. God told David he would not be allowed to build the temple because of his violent past:
“You shall not build a house for My name, because you have been a man of war and have shed blood. . . . It is your son Solomon who shall build My house and My courts” (1 Chron. 28:3, 6).
Talk about the death of a dream! Oh, how many of my dreams have died, and each time it feels like a small part of my heart dies. But David didn’t pout for long, if at all. He told himself something like this: “Well, if I can’t do it myself, and if God has appointed the task for my son Solomon, then I’ll do all I can to help him succeed.”
Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the portico of the temple, its buildings, its storerooms, its upper parts, its inner rooms and the place of atonement. He gave him the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of the temple of the LORD and all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the temple of God and for the treasuries for the dedicated things. He designated the weight of gold for all the gold articles to be used in various kinds of service, and the weight of silver for all the silver articles to be used in various kinds of service: (1 Chron. 28:11-12, 14)
In refusing to give up on the project because he was taken out of the driver’s seat, David illustrated a core value of dream building: no dream is ever realized without a huge measure of determination.
Having a deep conviction of what we feel God wants us to do for eternity will make us men and women of devotion, dedication, and determination. When we are determined to do our part for God, the pieces of the puzzle magnificently come together.
4. Reconcile Your Dream with Its Cost
As you build your vision, be willing to sacrifice. Dreams are costly, as David found out when God led him to purchase some land for the temple at a high spot in the area. It was owned by Araunah the Jebusite, who used the high location for its winds to thresh out his wheat. The chaff would blow away, and the grains of wheat would be collected and sold. David approached Araunah for this valuable site, the most desirable location in Jerusalem.
Because he was the venerable king of Israel, David could have seized the land, and that may be why Araunah offered to donate it to him. But David said,
“No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me nothing” (2 Sam. 24:24)
Big dreams are expensive. If you’ve experienced a fulfilled dream, you know what I’m talking about. The cost comes in money, energy, criticism, unbelief, unplanned obstructions, unfaithful helpers, and a multitude of other discouraging things.
I think Jesus was trying to help us with all of this when He wrote these words:
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.” (Luke 14:28, 33)
Your dream might not involve building a tower or going to war, but there is still a cost involved if you want to see it through. Not understanding that cost up front can cause you to give up on your dream when you hit the first hurdle.
5. Release Your Dream to Your Children
Looking back on this period of Israel’s history, one thing jumps out at me: this was David’s dream, but it ended up being called Solomon’s temple. Amazingly, David not only accepted that—he made it happen.
David refused to allow his dream to die when he died. And although he was not allowed to build the temple, the Lord nevertheless gave him the construction details, which he passed on to his son Solomon.
1 Chronicles 28:10–12: “Consider now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong, and do it.”
Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the vestibule, its houses, its treasuries, its upper chambers, its inner chambers, and the place of the mercy seat; and the plans for all that he had by the Spirit, of the courts of the house of the LORD, of all the chambers all around, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries for the dedicated things.
The Holy Spirit had instructed David with the specific details of the temple, and David in turn passed them on to his son. I can imagine David transferring the information from God onto an architectural blueprint, then laying it out before Solomon and saying, “Here it is. God gave this to me. This is what you are to build.” David had dreamed of building a permanent place where God could be worshipped, and he determined to leave something behind that would honour the Lord.
It was his dream and the resources he put in place that allowed his son Solomon to move quickly toward the construction of the temple. David’s instructions to Solomon have been a charge to pastors, missionaries, and Christian workers ever since:
“Be strong and of good courage, and do it; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the LORD God—my God—will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you, until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the LORD” (1 Chron. 28:20).
This story also illustrates how it’s possible to achieve something after your death that could not have been achieved during your life. Before he died, David decided to pass on something that would live on after him.
From his life, we can learn the great importance of dreaming beyond the span of our years. How can God use you and your dream for the growth of His kingdom? For the growth of our church? What is something He could do through each of us after we are gone?
Brethren, as I close, let me leave you with these simple steps.
Dream Big for God
Set Goals for God
Take Actions for God
You Can Trust God with Your Dreams
I remember back in my high school days, during Saturday mornings I constantly listened to DYFR FM morning programs, particularly Bro. Mel’s Cloud of Glory. As I listened to his sermons, it seemed God used it to spark in me a dream of becoming a preacher. I whispered, “Lord can I preach like him?” And the rest is HIStory.
So you can see that God did not call me into the ministry to take my dream away. He called me into the ministry because my dream was way too small! He had a much better and much bigger plan for my life. As a result, I’ve learned I can trust God with my dreams even as I move forward toward His plans for my life. And so can you.
Brethren, I challenge you today. What is your dream for your Christian life this year that will radically affect your family, your workplace, your community and our church?
Moving forward starts with a dream. Dream big for God. Amen.
Source:
Forward, Dr. David Jeremiah