Part One of “God-Inspired Dreams”
Sometimes God gives us a dream. A wonderful, amazing dream.
Maybe it’s a dream to do something unique, something special for God: A calling to sing, or to write, or starting a ministry.
Or it could be something personal, like the dream of having children, or embarking on a fulfilling career, or marrying a spouse that qualifies as a bonafide “soul mate.”
Yet, I’ve noticed something about the dreams that God gives to His children, and it’s something very surprising:
When God gives a special dream to one of His children …
He often lets it die.
Before you click away, let me ask you a few questions:
- Has this ever happened to you?
- Has God breathed a special dream into your heart?
- Have you been blessed with a a glimpse of attaining that dream, reaching for it … only to have it sift through your fingers like sand?
- Have you given up (or all but given up) on that dream?
If this has happened to you, then you are in very good company. I, too, have been given a special dream. I’ve seen it, touched it and tasted it … only to have it disappear and wither away.
Or so it seemed.
I have to be honest, this has happened not just once, but several times. Each time I saw evidence of reaching the dream, and then the reality of it vanished before my eyes.
I became frustrated. Then despondent. And yes, even angry at times … that is until I looked into Scripture and found that I was not alone.
In fact, God’s been inspiring dreams—and taking them away—for centuries. But always for a very special reason.
And typically, before the story was done, God had a surprise twist in the end that changed everything.
If the dream that God has placed in your heart seems
impossibly far away… even to the point of death …
you just might be CLOSER to it than ever before.
God is up to something HUGE in your life … Are you ready for it?
Read Part Two of God-Inspired Dreams here!
Blessings,
Kelly
Hi Kelly, boy is this me and my husband. We had started a great prayer ministry in our home town, my husband lost his job and we were forced to move to another state and therefore leaving behind the ministry which we loved and have always dreamed about….we are still asking why, how can this happen, has God forgotten us so much…..thanks for your article….but it still hurts quite a bit and having a hard time understanding it also. Thanks
Hi, Lillian. There is so much more to this story, so I hope you read the posts to come. God often gives us the very dream He inspired, but in a unique way that can only be His. So be encouraged…the story is not yet done!
I have just helped my Mum publish a book in which she has a chapter “Death of a promise” – it is touching the lives of many… and one of them said that the day she read the chapter she also found this comment on your blog. God is in the business of touching lives…. mine more so than ever before…. may God richly bless others through the work you are doing… and My Mum as she finds the fulfilment of a dream she thought dead… in 1974 she wrote some stories – it will be the next book I publish for her – what a privilege! Her first is titled “In All Things” – based on Romans 8:28 – a verse we heard again and again as children…. but we have had to watch her promises die… and yet she remains strong. Oh, that we,the next generation would take heart – and hold fast to Him… when our dreams die… I wonder what will become of my dreams?
How perfect is this example of your Mum’s dream! This is exactly how I believe God works. He is granting that dream for her, but in God’s way, He has a specific timing. He is the One Who is orchestrating this, and blessing you to be a part of it. How wonderful is that? Thanks for sharing. This is exactly what I will be sharing in posts to come.
.. God’s timing… God’s way… if only we were still enough to hear His voice more often and …. if only we were not so frightened of putting our hand in his… oh to feel his fingers entwined with ours… our paths merge with His… and then to relax in His way for us… Kelly – I am now 47 years old… a divorce behind me…two adopted children…. and a path leading out ahead of me… with art work I am producing… books that are gushing out… publishing books for others…. without knowing where it is all leading…no marketing and no sales.. but happy to follow a quiet whisper… that ‘With Me it is safe’… and ….. willing to let Him take me by the hand and say… ‘Trust Me… with your dreams… and tomorrow’… Oh that I might be found to be faithful in this generation.
I am 47, too. You are inspiring me to keep on going. I know exactly how you feel. Blessing to you, and I hope you will share the rest of your story…. because God IS moving in it. I’m certain of this. Trust me … with your dreams … and tomorrow. Yes, yes, yes!
http://www.facebook.com/suthomasartist
My word… posting the idea that God sometimes takes away dreams on my own private facebook page has caused some interesting responses including: what do I personally think about it… that caused me to wonder what I really do think about it… and my response:
I don’t think it is only God who takes dreams away… I think it is sometimes the world we live in; sometimes our own choice or that of other people. But what I do know is that when a dream dies that is when we let go of the dream so that our hands are free to hold on to God alone. Not even questioning – WHAT ABOUT MY DREAM? but – LORD, I WILL TRUST YOU DESPITE. Like with Job – Satan is not going to shake me because my dream has gone…. I will cling all the tighter to the God who created me and will not destroy me…. My life – in His hands. What safer place is there? Lord, bring my dream back… if it will bless all of us…. keep me free of my dream if it will not be of help to me…. open my eyes to see new dreams… and help me walk towards them until I fall into your footsteps.
Maybe the terminology I used is shaking things up. You have captured where I am going with this, though. It’s not really that God gives a dream and wants it to die….but rather, He will often ask that it be SURRENDERED to Him. So often, the dream itself becomes the focus of our life… instead of God.
I haven’t read your Facebook comments, but I hope I haven’t caused you any grief…I think you know what I mean. I am going to go through scriptures to explain it more in the next few weeks. For example, through Samuel, God gave a young David the dream of being a king. It took many years for the dream to become real. Even as King Saul sought to kill David, David did not take the situation into His own hands. At times, hiding in caves fearing his life, David must have thought the dream to be all but dead. David surrendered his God-given dream to God Himself, and in time, God was the one who made it happen.
The more I looked, the more I found this to be God’s way…. I can think of many Biblical stories where a dream seemed impossible, but that’s just it: When God gives a dream, it is often an impossible one…but not to God.
And that is the wonderful, amazing beauty of it all. God is glorified in giving us that impossible dream, but it always requires surrender.
By the way, your art is breath-taking!
… what about Joseph!!!! -Thank you for your comment about the art… I am about to publish my next children’s picture book with a wonderful illustrator… I have dreams… oh I have dreams… but I know that at this moment in my life I need my focus to be, not on my dreams but on my Lord. It would be wonderful to see the art sell, to market the books… but I don’t want the dream to blind me from seeing Jesus… I also know at the moment – that while I learn to listen to Him (and I need to learn it!), while I find time each day to listen to His voice… I also need to be active… so I am not stopping the painting or the writing or the publishing – but I am not pursuing the marketing or the selling… not at all… I have so many pictures now,…. and the next three books ready… and I find it strange that I am not worried about the tomorrow… all I know is that the dream has to take second place…. a thought as I wrote earlier and then lost my message to you… was that I want to tiptoe with my Lord into the future… and then I thought.. actually I want to leap …. and the picture I had was … I wonder how we will react when we see Him.. will we tiptoe towards Him or leap? Surely that has to be our focus… not our dreams .. but the ultimate moment when we come face to face……………………. and Jesus says to us that He is happy with the way we coped / dealt with / responded to / accepted / rejoiced in… the life He gave us to live. A life different from the life He gave anyone else – a life moulded by the creator of the universe – just for us – just for me. My story? you mentioned that I should write my story….. maybe one day….. but for now I am learning to enjoy the present! Be encouraged Kelly… you cannot cause us grief … grief is a thing of the past.. and even if is appears again tomorrow… there are some of us out here who will face it… as we have faced it before. – HEAD ON! in HIS strength….. Su
GOD loves giving us dreams and then shattering them. Great is it not !!!
That is not so.