The Permission to Dream Again...

Some time ago, our pastor asked us on a Sunday morning, “If you could do anything you wanted to do, and time and/or money was not an object, what would you do?”

The dreamers among us immediately began to make lists of the dreams on their hearts: to paint – create works of art as a full time job; to travel anywhere and everywhere; to pay off all of my friends’ mortgages and car loans; to join Heidi Baker loving the children of Mozambique…

But my first reaction to the pastor’s words was to freeze and go blank.  And I dare say that I was not alone in my reaction.  For some of us have not allowed ourselves to dream for so long that we don’t know what to do with an offer like that. 

Sometimes it seems I believe in “the God of the second shoe”.  Yes, there are blessings in my life, but there’s this nagging thought at the back of my mind saying “Just wait – don’t get too excited.  That second shoe will drop.  It’s not a matter of ‘if’, but ‘when’.”

Yet I have seen what happens when someone begins to dream again.  One evening at Shore Vineyard Destiny Healing Rooms, a quiet young man came for prayer for severe depression.  He was way too young to be stuck, with his whole life ahead of him.  We prayed for him for a while.  Then I asked him, “what would you really like to do, if you could do anything you wanted?”, and it was as if a light switch was turned on in his face.  He began to smile as he told us the dreams of his heart, what he really wanted to do with his life.  Then we prayed again with him.  We prayed that the God who loved him and loved the dreams of his heart, the one who had created him for that very thing that made him feel alive, would fulfill those dreams and desires in his life.

I believe God has a word for his kids as 2014 ends and 2015 begins.  I believe he is saying “You have my permission to dream again.  You are not too old, too young, too frail, too sick, too soiled, too anything.  It’s not too late.  It’s time to dream again.  I am not the God of the second shoe!  I am the God who created you to dream with me, and see those dreams come to life.  For I am right here, dreaming alongside you.  

Some of you will paint pictures that will touch thousands of people, because my Spirit will communicate through peoples’ eye gates as they gaze on what you have painted.  Some of you will lay your hands on people with pancreatic cancer and see them healed before your eyes.  Others will travel the world praying and changing people and places by powerful words and prayers straight from your heart, and mine.  Some will get that reconciliation in your families that you have wept and prayed for in your secret time with me.  Some of you mamas will see the joy you prayed for – I have no greater joy than this, than to see my children walking in the truth.  There will be books published that touch people with my glory around the world.  You will feed the hungry.  You will release captives and teach them to abide in my freedom.  You will carry my presence wherever you go.  Signs and wonder will follow you, as you follow me.

You have my permission, my command.  Dream!  Dream big.  I am dreaming with and in you.  I love you and I love your dreams.  I’ll tweak them if I need to, but don’t hold anything back.  Dream huge, dream often, dream with me.  You have my permission to dream again."

Come and dream with me!