Dreams

How do you tell the difference between a dream that’s from our own desires and a dream that comes from God? A new friend asked this question a couple of weeks ago on his blog(http://davidscoffeestains.com/) and as I dug into my own thoughts on this, I was surprised by my answer! I believe all dreams originate from God. Any dream you can think of came from a seed planted by God – desires to grow, multiply, flourish, connect. He is the One who creates and inspires, and all good things come from Him. He puts a desire in our heart, with the expectation that we will flesh it out, bring it forth into reality in a way that’s true to our own identity and context. And you can be sure Satan will do what he can to twist, pervert and crush those dreams – that’s why some dreams end up looking so far from what God intended.

God’s ultimate aim in this process is for His Kingdom to be extended on earth. Once He has planted the seed in our heart, whether it goes on to fulfills His purpose or not depends on how we manage the dream. As we recognize the divine origin of the dream, there is a real temptation to cling to the dream, to hold onto it tightly. We want to push it forward, defend it, bind ourselves tightly to it, because here is something concrete that came from God and it is far easier to align ourselves with the concrete dream than with the ethereal God who gave it to us.

I think the process God calls us to in birthing a dream is rooted in submission. Have you seen sports players run down the field side by side, throwing a ball back and forth between them as they run together? This is how I see us working with God. He plants a dream in our heart, and then sets off running alongside us, expectant, arms ready to receive it back from us. He’s looking for us to give up the dream to Him, to say, “God, You are number one in my life. If this dream never happens but I still have You, I’ll be happy.” As we let go of the dream and run further, we will often hear God yell across, “Ready?” and he tosses it back to us.

I love how organic this process is! God takes immense pleasure from seeing us bring our own unique brand of creativity to bear on our dreams, making them a reality in a way that no-one else would do. So if He gives your dream back to you, just be sure to keep running with it! I also think He designed this way of partnering with us to strengthen our relationship with Him. His heart is always for relationship with us.

So how does this view help if I have a dream in front of me and want to know whether to invest in it? I think looking at the dream is always going to show up God’s fingerprints, because He planted it there. What if we instead chose to look at our hearts? Am I submitted to God? Have I given this dream to Him and really let go of it? Am I ready to partner closely with Him on this, His way? A heart submitted to Him is God’s dream, because no matter what state we are in, He can work with that.