God given dreams

Dreams! A word that makes me come alive! Since young, i used to dream alot. Many people call me a dreamer, and there is even one person who told me that i remind him of Joseph in the bible ;)

Well, today my heart is pounding... I'm feeling excited! I'm overjoyed over the message i heard in City Harvest Church today. Everyone of us have a God-given dream! It says in Acts 2:17 "And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young man shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams."

Our ability to dream is a God given gift, and in the last days when the Holy Spirit comes upon a person he/she will dream a dream that it is so enormous that it will stun the world! But yet how do we as Christians know whether a dream is from God or not? Well, from Tommy Barnett's book titled 'Reaching your dreams', he states that we will be able to know if it's God's dream if:

1. It is bigger than you.
2. You can't let it go.
3. You would be willing to give everything for it.
4. It will last forever.
5. It meets a need that nobody else has met.
6. It brings glory to God.

Well, a dreamer like me always dreams. When i'm driving to work, i always think of ways to change the environment of my workplace. I think of systems of the sales department, different pipelines and strategies for improvement. I dream of having my own sales team, whereby every single one of them are successful, knowledgeable, and caring towards clients. I dream of going to different places around the world, teaching people technical solutions towards different kinds of customers, how to identify their needs and offer a solution.

Besides work, i think of my cell group, I dream of a cell group full of members who are vibrant in worship. Cell members who encounter God as their true God! Every single member praying fervently for their friends and family members who are yet to know God! and together as a cell, going out to reach out to orphans, cleaning an old folks home, and genuinely encouraging each other and forming a bond whereby no evil forces can break!

In my family, I dream of my grandmother! I dream of her accepting Jesus Christ as Lord! I dream of the house cleansing ceremony taking place! I dream that instead of hearing chanting of buddhist scriptures first thing in the morning, I will be hearing fervent prayer from a believer crying out to God for the souls of her children who are yet to know the Lord.

I also dream of going into the mission field! Building relationship with locals, setting up a God-centered buisness in the middle of the marketplace. Creating jobs for the locals, and also setting up an organization whereby all money we generate goes to the development of the village we are in. Helping the neighbours who do not have any food to eat, and discipling the local christian believers to take up the challenge to reach out to their own people!

Dreams pour into my mind non-stop. But yet are my dreams a God given dream? By writing my dreams out, it most certainly does. But yet deep down inside... I fear that my dream is not big enough. I lack the discipline to make it happen and I dread the difficulties that i will face in the future.

As i continue to read Tommy Barnett's "Reaching your dreams", He teaches the readers to discover their God given dreams in six steps:

1. Get alone with God - Psalms 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God". From our hectic schedules in life, we must learn to listen to Gods voice.
2. Review your gifts and talents - God has given everyone different gifts and talents. God uses our desire to accomplish what He wants to do on this earth.
   
3. Review your experience - As we grew up, were we brought up different that other people you know? Do you know languages that are unique? Have we had some kind of painful experience that we have overcome that we might be able to counsel people with similar experiences?
4. Decide whats really important in life - Many times, we take too much time on things which are not really important in life. we should narrow down the scope to only focus on things which are really important to us.
5. Begin to export different avenues - If the above steps are done and still do not know where our dreams are taking us, we should explore different ministries, jobs, and other activities until something sparks.
6. Journal your dream - Well... this is the reason why i'm writing this here. Habakuk 2:2 says "Then the Lord answered me and said:"Write the vision down and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it" So therefore i'm writing them down so that it'll be a guiding force in my life.

And as for future posts to come, i hope to find out my new vision and mission statement which will be a guiding force in whatever i do :)