“Your young men will see visions; your old men will dream dreams.” Acts 2:17 NIV.
A dream can profoundly change your life and impact others.
My thoughts and comments today are about, “the power of a dream.”
In your spirit, God can place a dream persuasive enough to profoundly change your life and powerfully impact others’ lives. Dreams are valuable, but also vulnerable. I define such dreams as: “An inner vision that both guides your life and guards your heart.” An “inner vision” provides direction, invests meaning into daily labor, and supplies motivation amid challenges. But your dream is also vulnerable to daily realities that conspire to diminish or destroy dreams through neglect, or the erosion of time and delays, or the disappointment and discouragement that results when your dream seems opposed or blocked. The Bible says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” Proverbs 13:12 NIV.
Your dream must be cherished, sheltered, and nurtured. Such a dream contributes direction and meaning, protecting your life from aimlessness. Because a dream is composed of intangibles, subject to subjective feelings, and always involves an element of time, it can be unwittingly surrendered during adversity, or bartered away by compromises – as Esau exchanged his birthright for momentary satisfaction. See Hebrews 12:16-17 NIV/Genesis 25:29-34.
Three concepts – expectation, aspiration, and inspiration – help me better understand the composition of dreams. Expectations can be little more than your assumption of the way things will be, ill-founded and unrealistic, more the product of wishes than work. Usually, dreams of this category fail to consider the practical cost of a dream and its achievement.
Aspirations are a bit nobler, incorporating hopes and longings. They encompass the hopes and plans you have for the way you want things to be. These usually include a greater level of commitment and effort toward their realization. These are possible to achieve, but not assured. You bear a significant responsibility for choices and behavior consistent with your aspirations.
The more important is inspiration, the realm in which God places into your heart what is in His heart. In the midst of the ordinary comes the possibility of what is extraordinary and life enriching. Inspiration is birthed by a promise from God of the way things could be. “I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh . . your young men will see visions; your old men will dream dreams.” Acts 2:17 NIV. Herein lies the secret of inspired lives infused with spiritual dynamic, tenacity, and enthusiasm.
Any consideration of dreams must include Joseph. His life story is punctuated with both his and others’ dreams. The animosity of Joseph’s brothers toward him is clear in their words, “Here comes that dreamer. Let’s kill him. Then we’ll see what will become of his dream.” Genesis 37:19-20 NIV. The enemy of your soul hates the dreams God inspires in your heart. He can only destroy the dream by destroying the dreamer.
Are the dreams you once held, intact or in shambles? Your dream may have been for your personal walk with God, or your sense of career or calling, or your marriage and family, or your goals and accomplishments. Time and trouble leave dreams quite tattered. Whether your plans have gone awry, a present circumstance perplexing, or your personal life in distress, Jesus restores and empowers dreams. While you hold onto your dream, God will hold on to you. Read Psalm 27:4-6/91:1-4 NKJV.
My prayer for you today is that you never sacrifice the dream God puts in your heart.