Never give up on your Spirit-led dream—your God-ordained core vision. Simply believe.
· It makes you happy.
· It keeps you young.
· It compels you forward.
· It kindles your wonder.
· It is the seat of your love walk—the best you have to give.
Creativity is a thing of beauty that is the hallmark of being made in God’s image—it starts in your spirit, soul, heart and mind when you are connected to God. Like a rebirth, let Him fuel your new thoughts and fresh attitude. Dust off that most valuable thing you have neglected (read about “The Loveless Church” in Revelation 2:1-7, NKJV). Rivers of living water flow from the inside (John 7:37-39).
The Word of God says in both the Old and New Testaments:
AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS…THAT I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS WILL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN WILL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN WILL HAVE DREAMS; AND EVEN ON MY MALE AND FEMALE SERVANTS I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT IN THOSE DAYS, And they will prophesy.
AND I WILL DISPLAY WONDERS IN THE SKY ABOVE AND SIGNS ON THE EARTH BELOW, BLOOD, FIRE, AND VAPOR OF SMOKE. THE SUN WILL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD COMES. AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED (Peter’s Sermon, Acts 2:17-21, NASB).
This is important to God; to His Church; to the unsaved souls who are yet searching. Older people will have God granted dreams—so dream them. Young people will have Holy visions—find a way to communicate them against the modern current. Without prophesy, nations fall into chaos (Acts 13:15, Luke 24:44, Matthew 7:12).
God wants us to consider Him in all of our ways—all.
Christ is the Word and the Word is the Truth—we read it, we live in accordance to it, and we are continually heading toward its fullest manifestation (Revelation 4:6). There is nothing in the Acts passage above that indicates Christians are to “give up” on the dreams and visions (which they believe have come from God and suit His purposes) because such dreams/visions are not understood by the world, or because they do not earn money, or because they are not in accordance with the acceptable, status quo measure of “success”. God is calling out our faithfulness—a term best exemplified all throughout our lifetime. Good things that come from God have both a temporal and eternal quality; miraculously work; are impossible with man; require an enduring faith in God to provide; and make people consider the distinct reality of our one, true, Living God. God wants a vibrant, operative, energizing relationship with you. He is a LIVING God!
Do not settle for a dull, boring, depressing existence;
this is not God’s will for the Christian.
Wake up, Christian!
The Spirit of the Lord God has risen upon you (Isaiah 60:1, 61; Luke 4:18)!
Remember, it is God Whom we serve, not man, and we are to do so with zest and zeal (Colossians 3:23-24, Romans 12:11). God rewards the “faithful” in accordance with His view of the word, not the world’s view of the word. “Well done, My good [agathos] servant” means: inherently (intrinsically) good; describ[ing] what originates from God and is empowered by Him in their life, through faith.[1] “…[F]or you have been faithful [pistos] over little, so I will reward you with much” (Luke 19:17). Pistos means: “persuaded”—properly, faithful (loyalty to faith; literally, fullness of faith); typically, of believing the faith God imparts.[2] So be persuaded by God in your inner man. Enjoy God and have fun with God’s holy assignments and adventuresome journeys. Be determined to see God’s promises manifest from the inside out, even if they take your whole lifetime to come to pass!
Habakkuk 2:2-4 (NKJV) says,
“Then the Lord answered me and said: ‘Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith.’”
Dreams and visions from God are:
1) biblical;
2) divinely timed;
3) humbling;
4) authentic (pure, and stay from youth to old age);
5) private, yet ultimately meant to be shared;
6) inspired by God Himself; and
7) essential to our will to live.
In fact, Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) tells us, “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” Revelation makes us happy! Another translation says: “Without revelation people run wild, but one who follows divine instruction will be happy” (CSB).
If you are like me, you may have “run wild” out ahead of God, pushing everything into the red zone, and you find you are dry, exhausted and, well, unhappy; in need of a good, long rest. If this describes you, it’s okay. I encourage you to take a breath with me and simply readjust your priorities along with me. Allow God to humble you under His mighty hand (1 Peter 5:6). Recommit to follow God’s lead, rather than steal that position from Him through pride and impatience (see Matthew 6, full chapter). Remember, “Without guidance from God law and order disappear” (Proverbs 29:18a, CEV). This happens in our own life when we try to take over the responsibility that belongs only to God as our Lord. We need His guidance. We need His grace. We need to wait on His orders and seek His face.
Godly dreams require partnership with God,
full dependence upon Him, and
a faith-filled, patient attitude.
God manages and fulfills the dreams and visions He gives us in His own way and time. It is important to note that Jesus Christ Himself is the breakthrough. He just has to move and it is all done; we are off to the next thing. What authority and power He has!
As we live as Christians, as we continue in the faith, the Word of the Lord comes true in both the temporal and eternal sense. Order and beauty reappear from the former chaos and spiritual neglect, like a Gardner tends an overgrown plot of land and causes it to yield produce useful to life. But this takes time. The DNA written on the heart of the seed takes many seasons to emerge as fruit. We need God’s tending. We need to trust the “fallow-ground” years are for our ultimate benefit—they are not a sign of failure, but of God’s careful maintenance.[3]
Often the “tarrying” of our vision is God waiting until we reconnect
relationally and spiritually with Him;
then we can move on.
If you are in a period of waiting or recovery, you have been given this time, by God, to rest as part of His orders and His custodial grace:
So there remains a [full and complete] Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has once entered His rest has also rested from [the weariness and pain of] his [human] labors, just as God rested from [those labors uniquely] His own. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for ourselves], so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience [as those who died in the wilderness] (Hebrews 4:9-11, AMP).
We have come so far…we don’t want to die in the wilderness! Rather, we want to lead people out, into the Promised Land, but we cannot do so until the Holy Spirit of God leads us out (Matthew 4:1-17). Our “effort” in the Hebrews passage above is one of stillness and obedience and simply knowing God—found when we make quality time for the One Whom we truly love! It really is no “effort” at all; rather, it is respect (Psalm 46:10). He puts in the effort and heals us. Engaging with God from the core of our interior soul is proof and evidence that we are continuing to believe upon Him. It is revitalizing in every possible way, for then we can receive.
Believing—sheer enjoyment of God—opens the flood gates
so that the blessing and justice of God can flow in!
Consider the “rest of John”—John is the disciple whom Jesus loves, and John was not ashamed to openly admit it in his writings (John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20, AMP). The sole purpose of man is to glorify and “know God” and we can only do so through love (John 3:16, 1 John 4:7-21). Of all the New Testament writers, John seemed to intimately understand the loving character of God through Christ Jesus, and indeed, among the Gospel books, the term “love” is overwhelmingly used by John.
The love of Christ is our purpose.
John, so at rest in God’s love for him, had been granted a vibrant holy imagination by God—the latter word not falsely/modernly/loosely defined as “fiction” but rather as mental and spiritual divine imagery, prophesy (i.e., interpreting the meanings of God’s voice/methods/acts/will), seeing visions and dreams as provided by God. John’s holy vision of God is and will come absolutely TRUE (Revelation 19:11, AMP).[4]
We are also the disciples whom Jesus loves.
We need God’s rest, too, so we can receive His guidance. We have been given the mind of Christ, to hold the purposes of His beautiful, kind heart (1 Corinthians 2:16, AMPC), to act according to God’s will. It is noteworthy that John spent a great deal of time with Jesus. In one scene, he leans back on Jesus’ chest, physically and in every way—spiritually, mentally, financially, healthily, emotionally, relationally, perceptually, futuristically—as is the very definition of faith (to lean and rely upon Jesus with our whole personality, depending upon Him IN ENTIRETY, all our life through) (John 13:23). But to experience this sort of everlasting trust while living in the fallen world—this absolute leaning and continual sabbatical rest—God asks us to keep on believing. We must continually believe in order to continually receive Jesus’ love—a continual flow of living water. In other words, doubt or unbelief creeps in, creates anxiety and conflict, and chokes out the Word, making it unfruitful and inoperative (seemingly of no result) (Mark 4:18-20).
Christ’s love is our vision.
It never expires.
And, it does produce results.
Isn’t our Lord beautiful? In contrast, the world, under satanic influence, would try to delude the mature saint, con them into thinking, acting and behaving in a way that is void of all emotion. A tomb full of dead, dry bones. Such believers shut down the very life they are to channel to the fallen world. “I once felt” they say of their relationship with Christ. “It used to be…” as if Christ were past tense. “I had high hopes but..,” this or that triviality happened and it turned their heart to stone. Or, “When I was a new believer I experienced such amazing things…” Such elation is not over. It has barely begun. Hear the Word of the Lord and you shall live!
The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!
This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army (Ezekiel 37:1-10, NIV).
Note, the Spirit of God put the prophet into a very dry valley, full of dead bones. God and the prophet first had a connection, a conversation. The prophet showed humility—Only You know, Lord. The prophet did the ridiculous—spoke to the bones like God requested; but not once, twice. Perhaps you are reading this today because God is asking you to try it again!
When the enemy tells Christians there is no hope, he is banking on our adoption of the lie that Jesus has moved on and left us all barren. The result of believing a lie over the truth of God's Word is that people perish. People do die without a biblical vision (Proverbs 29:18). However, our job as Christians is to keep the vision in front of us, not drop Jesus’ hand (Habakkuk 2:2-4). Remember, Satan is the father of all lies and deception. He came to steal, kill and destroy. But Jesus came that we might have life, to the full, until it overflows (John 10:10). Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, and to protect and elevate you (1 John 3:8). Jesus wins this war on an eternal and colossal scale, and He will win it where you are concerned.
Stay in love with the One Who Saves you.
John 3:16 (KJV) says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Believeth, or pisteuō, is not past tense. It is present, active, ongoing tense.[5] If you are lacking emotion, feeling nothing, even becoming cynical as you mature—believe all the more in God, and rekindle your childlike faith and endurance. LOVE is right there when you do.
However many moments or years you have before you stand in front of God’s throne, be determined to enjoy them to the full. Let the world complain all it wants to. You get the honorary stance of perpetual joy and love coming straight from God, through Christ, to you. God does not change His mind about you. Sometimes, however, we just need to allow Him to change ours and give us a fresh, clean, holy vision.
Christ is bold, Christ is confident, when He asks an amateur in Luke 10:26 (AMPC): “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” Jesus cares and He asks, What do you think? More importantly, here is what He thinks:
“Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, keep My commandments…”
One of these commands of His is to simply believe in the One Whom God sent:
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me” (John 14:1, NKJV).
He continues…
“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:13-17, NKJV).
If it seems your life is on hold, God is waiting for you to rest and receive His healing energy. It is good for the soul, health for the mind and body. God is saying to you right now, “I love you. There is no one like you on the earth.” Through the love of Jesus Christ, your path is clear. Your reasons are full. Your satisfaction is rich. Your means are provided for. Love can accomplish great things. Never, ever lose your Joy in the Lord. It is your strength.
Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass (Psalm 37:4-5, NKJV).
Dream the impossible dream and do not let anything shut it down. Via complete and utter dependance on the Holy Spirit of God, the Word was written and by the same Holy Spirit of God, the Word is received. While faith without works is dead, a life lived apart from God’s love is void of the holy energy, anointing, and unction of the Holy Spirit we so desperately need, not only to carry out God’s divine purposes on the earth, but to have and maintain our joy for living! You see, God made us with emotion. Love is an emotion, as well as an act, and a Person (God is love). E-motion can be defined quite clearly as “Eternal Motion”—the Way, the Truth, and the Life Whom we follow all our life through.
Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord’” (Ezekiel 37:11-14, NIV).
Keep the vision in front of you and may God continue to bless you.
TRANSLATIONS:
Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMP), Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified Bible (AMPC), Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
Scripture quotations marked (CEV) are from the Contemporary English Version Copyright © 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
Scripture quotations marked (CSB) have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
King James, public domain.
Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®, Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.TM Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
REFERENCES:
[1] Helps Word Studies. Agathos. Retrieved September 4, 2023 at https://biblehub.com/greek/18.htm
[2] Ibid. Pistos. Retrieved September 4, 2023 at https://biblehub.com/greek/4103.htm
[3] “Fallow Year — Among the Hebrews every seventh year was a sabbath of rest to the land. The commencement of this year was on the first day of the seventh month, Tisri=October. There was neither sowing nor reaping; the vines and the olives were not pruned; there was no gathering of fruits; for all spontaneous productions were left to the poor, the traveler, and the wild beast (Le 25:1-7; De 15:1-10). The sabbatical year was instituted in order that the land might be improved, and that the Hebrews might be taught economy and foresight, and also invited to exercise a large degree of trust in the providence of Jehovah their king. During this year they could fish, hunt, take care of their bees and flocks, repair their buildings, manufacture furniture and cloths, and carry on commerce. Debts, on account of there being no income from the soil, were not collected (De 15:9; De 31:10-13). Nor were servants manumitted on this year, but at the end of the sixth year of their service (Ex 21:2; De 15:12; Jer 34:14). The Hebrews remained longer in the tabernacle or temple this year, during which the whole Mosaic law was read, in order to be instructed in religious and moral duties, the history of their nation, and the wonderful works and blessings of God (De 31:10-13). When Jehovah gave the Hebrews this remarkable institute, in order to guard them against the apprehension of famine, he promised, on the condition of their obedience, so great plenty in every sixth harvest that it alone would suffice for three years (Le 25:20-22). However, through the avarice of the Hebrews, this seventh year's rest, as Moses had apprehended (Le 26:34-35), was for a long time utterly neglected (2Ch 36:21); for in all the history of the Hebrew kings there is no mention of the sabbatical year, nor of the year of jubilee. The period when this wise and advantageous law fell into disuse may probably be understood from the prediction of Moses in Le 26:33-34,43; comp. with 2Ch 36:21; Jer 25:11. Thus was it foretold that the Hebrews, for the violation of this law, should go into captivity: "To fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had paid off her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years." Here it is taken for granted that seventy sabbatical years, including the jubilee years which succeeded every seventh sabbatical year, had been neglected by the unfaithful people. The Hebrews were frequently weary of the law; and at different periods during the commonwealth they appear to have utterly neglected the fallow or sabbatical years. Hence it appears that the captivity of the Hebrews and the desolation of their country was an act of retributive Providence, brought upon them for this very reason, that the land might pay off those sabbatical years of rest, of which the Hebrews had deprived it, in neglecting the statute of Jehovah their king (Le 26:43). After the exile the fallow or sabbatical year appears to have been more scrupulously observed, as we learn from Josephus (Ant. 11:11, 8). SEE JUBILEE.” Excerpt taken from The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature. James Strong and John McClintock; Haper and Brothers; NY; 1880. Retrieved September 4, 2023 at https://www.biblicalcyclopedia.com/F/fallow-year.htm
[4] IMAGINA'TION, noun [Latin imaginatio.] The power or faculty of the mind by which it conceives and forms ideas of things communicated to it by the organs of sense.
Imagination I understand to be the representation of an individual thought.
Our simple apprehension of corporeal objects, if present, is sense; if absent, is imagination [conception.]
Imagination, in its proper sense, signifies a lively conception of objects of sight. It is distinguished from conception, as a part from a whole.
The business of conception is to present us with an exact transcript of what we have felt or perceived. But we have also a power of modifying our conceptions, by combining the parts of different ones so as to form new wholes of our own creation. I shall employ the word imagination to express this power. I apprehend this to be the proper sense of the word, if imagination be the power which gives birth to the productions of the poet and the painter.
We would define imagination to be the will working on the materials of memory; not satisfied with following the order prescribed by nature, or suggested by accident, it selects the parts of different conceptions, or objects of memory, to form a whole more pleasing, more terrible, or more awful, than has ever been presented in the ordinary course of nature.
The two latter definitions give the true sense of the word, as now understood.
1. Conception; image in the mind; idea.
Sometimes despair darkens all her imaginations.
His imaginations were often as just as they were bold and strong.
2. Contrivance; scheme formed in the mind; device.
Thou hast seen all their vengeance, and all their imaginations against me. Lamentations 3:60.
3. Conceit; an unsolid or fanciful opinion.
We are apt to think that space, in itself, is actually boundless; to which imagination the idea of space of itself leads us.
4. First motion or purpose of the mind. Genesis 6:5.
[5] Blue Letter Bible. Strong’s G4100. Retrieved September 4, 2023 at https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/jhn/3/16/t_conc_1000016
Comentarios