The Danger of a Dream

The Danger of a Dream

Steven Furtick of Elevation Church did a sermon on The Danger of a Dream, here is my thoughts on this topic.

Today I would like to talk about dreams, what I mean by Dreams are those aspirations you feel that God’s purpose for your life is. These can be quit deceiving in times, we as humans tend to see dreams in a world acceptance state. God does not see the dream for life in any manor of world acceptance, he knows the full potential of your life and the completed dream that is your purpose. For some of us these can be so very overwhelming that we feel the need to get confirmation from our family and friends. That’s where a great dream for your purpose through God’s eyes can become dangers. Because when we start to seek confirmation from family and friends, they will most of the time only see you for the past failures you’ve had in your life. You see the people around you and in this world, we live in, will only see your future accomplishments potential for success as limited by your past failures. For us dreamers in life a lot of those failures can be huge! So, in their eyes who are we to drive such a big dream that touches so many lives, we are nobody we are just their brother, sister, son, daughter, friend or just the person that sits in the back rows of the church. As God begins to open your eyes to the dream of his purpose in your life you need to protect it, begin to pray on it and ask for his guidance. You need to be cautious with whom you share your dream with; they may not see you in the same potential and begin to cause you to second guess your potential or even judge you on it. This judgement can lead to dislike, envy, or build into hatred, because who are you to have these dreams of your life’s direction per God, really your just you!!

 Let’s take a look at young Joseph in Genesis 37: 5-11, Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more. So, he said to them, “Please hear this dream which I have dreamed: There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, me sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed, your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf.” And his brothers said to him, “Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us?” So, they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, “Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed down to me.” So, he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?” And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Now what happened to Joseph next seemed to be horrific when looking at the events through or perspective as a people seeing the events through human eyes. Joseph’s brothers took his tunic of many colors from him, pushed him into a pit to die but then decided to sell him to traders for twenty pieces of silver. So, then Joseph becomes a slave of Egypt in the house of Potiphar and the Lord blessed all that Joseph touched and he was given favor in Potiphar’s house. Then the master’s wife caught Joseph in the house with no other men around and grabbed his garment and told him to lay with her and Joseph fled outside but left is garment behind. The master’s wife then lied to him causing him to become angry with Joseph and have him put into the Kings prison. God gives Joseph favor there and he is promoted to handler of all the prisoners. Joseph is blessed by God to interpret the dreams of the Chief Butler of Pharaoh who was in prison. And the Chief Butler is released back to Pharaoh’s house and Joseph’s interpretation of his dream comes to pass. However, two years goes by until Pharaoh has a dream that he needs interpreted and the Chief Butler then tells Pharaoh about Joseph’s ability to understand dreams. Pharaoh sends for Joseph and he explains the dream to Pharaoh, and Pharaoh promotes Joseph over all his house. Joseph was now 30 years old and over all of Egypt and gathers grain over the next seven years in preparation for the coming famine.

Famine has taken over all the lands and Joseph’s father sends his brothers to Egypt for grain, but they do not recognize Joseph as he does them. The brothers have knelt before Joseph with their faces to the earth to beg for grain.  Joseph then demands several things of the brothers before Egypt will help the people of Canaan, to which the brothers comply. Once Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, they are in disbelief, but Joseph reminds them of who he is. Joseph explains that God had protected him and placed him in the house of Pharaoh so that he could be in position to save their lives by a great deliverance. So, they return to Canaan to gather all their belongings and family and tell Jacob their father of Joseph’s place in Egypt. Then return to Egypt to be set in the land of Goshen, for all their days till the famine has passed through the favor of Pharaoh they were saved. This is just a quick rundown of all that happened to Joseph through many years after being sold and then brought out of slavery and into a position of power inside Pharaoh’s land.

What should stand out here is that even when we as God’s children do not understand the full concept of his purpose for us and we express this dream that God has put in us, to the wrong people that would see harm come to us rather than the fulfillment of God’s desire for our life. We can count God to move through our faith in his grace to use the chain of events meant for harm to promote us into the position required to accomplish the purpose that he has placed on our lives for his works. You see he already knows the outcome of all things, and the dream he put into you was designed for you. You only need to except his grace and move in the direction of his purpose without fear. Once you move towards him all other obstacles or challenges will fall in place and everyone can then see God’s hand in your dream for his purpose.

The other side to this concept of God’s purpose for our life, is we tend to be more concerned about how the world will perceive us, than the desire to fulfill God’s purpose. We get so worried about what people will think of us that we shut down and turn away from the dream, we begin to believe that we are not worthy of his grace. That we are not capable of performing the works that are required to build that ministry, to feed those families, to protect those children. We fall into the lies that who are we to step up and be something better in the world, to be different then everyone else. We forget that Jesus was different than everyone, that he was mocked and pointed at, denied, persecuted for being different. In the end he was crucified for us the very people who judged him, and still to this day we as a people continue to judge his works in our world. So, fear of judgment from our family and friends or even strangers that don’t know us from Adam will cause us to turn from the dream God has put in us.

 Here’s my challenge to us all, don’t let the failures of our lives be the definition of our story, step up to the challenge, except the dream, except the purpose and own the failures in your past. That story of a lost child that could do nothing right, that went off the deep end of life, the unqualified people or so they will say. Let these stories be the ones that God moves in, let his hand direct the course of your purpose. Let all the people that disbelieved in your ability to bring that dream to life, let them see and say, “that could only have happened through God’s doing, because I know where they came from and how unqualified they were to accomplish that dream”. Then God will truly get the glory and you will see him move in many lives around you, and his grace overtake you and provide freedom from fear of judgment. Because you are a child of God, and God is good always. Your story starts now, not yesterday, last week, last month, or last year, it starts now.

So, what’s God’s story for your life? How can you bring change to the world?

Jack Shepherd