Whenever we hear someone mention dreams, they could be speaking about what many people experience at night when they’re asleep. Then again, they could be referring to a fantasy. On the other hand, a dream is a desire that people have, such as a dream of owning a home, or of attaining another goal that they’ve sought after sometimes their entire life. So, as you probably can figure out, I’m not going to talk about our experiences at night, and I’m definitely not concerned with any fantasies. That, then, narrows it down to the third one.
You see, the Lord can speak to us, and often does, in ways that we completely disregard. We get wrapped up in our daily lives and the normal routines that accompany it, and we don’t heed Him when He very subtly reveals things to us. And if we actually take note of what we hear, we tend to have a difficult time accepting it. After all, He doesn’t reveal something that we either are already doing or are capable of doing. Rather, He speaks about what He wants to do in us and through us; and it nearly always goes beyond what we can fathom. What we need to understand, though, is that He’s speaking of those things that He placed within us when we were born, and which are actually the true dreams and desires of our heart. The tragedy is that far too many never come to the realization of them, but, instead, spend their lives searching unsuccessfully and ultimately settle for drastically less than they’ve been created for. There are those, however, who have an ear to hear; and the Lord is able to do the work in them that He’s intended.
There’s something I want to mention here that the Lord is trying to say to us through the above portion of Scripture. When He speaks to us, or gives us revelation either in a dream or a vision or otherwise, it overwhelms us and quite rightfully stirs the desire within us to share it with others. We have to be careful with this. Though we’d like to believe that all of God’s people who know us would be overjoyed for our sake, the reality is that we’d be mistaken. That would be the response of some, but definitely not of all. Whatever reason they have for their response, they’ll nonetheless take offense. For the most part it’ll be subtle, but it’ll still be the reaction of many. Consequently, unless the Lord instructs us to bring forth what He showed us or spoke to us, we need to hold our peace.
So, we have to understand this: since the Lord instilled the desire for His specific individual purposes in us from birth, then everything we’ll go through is intended to bring those purposes to fruition, often before we ever come to realize it. Also, the enemy is aware of what the Lord is doing; and he’s trying his best to deter us and to bring us down. Therefore, one of the biggest battles we fight is to remain faithful to what the Lord has put in us. Far too many believers start out with the intention of fulfilling God’s purposes in their lives; yet, things change when the rubber meets the road. You see, He gave us the desire from birth, but there’s a price to pay. No matter what the purposes, He requires the exact same thing from each person: our lives. If we want to see His purposes come to its fulness in us, we have to give everything we are every day. Jesus did; so, if we claim that we want to be like Him, then why would we have to give anything less? But far too often, over time, many of those who were enthusiastically professing their undying devotion to the Lord and His purposes for their lives reach a point of apathy as a result of what it takes to attain those purposes.
Consider this, though. Peter had vowed to Jesus, “Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee” (Matthew 26:35); but we know what happened when he was confronted with being a follower. He had convinced himself that he would have the fortitude and conviction to stand through whatever came. Does that sound familiar? The vast majority of us are in the exact same boat. Confidence comes so easily during times of ease. However, not only was Peter accepted after the resurrection, He ultimately was recognized as one of the chief leaders of that new sect called Christians. The point I’m making here is that we can get overly confident regarding our ability to stand strong in the Lord, until He allows us to face some trials that kicks those claims to the curb.
There are two things that are important here regarding those times. First: when we experience times of what we see as failures on our part, we need to realize that the Lord sees them as opportunities to learn some things that can’t be learned any other way. We can’t allow the enemy to gaslight us through his lies to believe that we’ve gone too far. He’ll be extremely convincing, and his accusations will seem to make sense; but God, Who is no liar, has declared us to be His children. Case closed. And the second thing has a direct relationship with the first. Can we, like Joseph, go through the tests and trials that are guaranteed to come our way, and fall at various times, but still hang onto the dream, the vision, that He gave us and instilled in us at birth? If we can and are willing to pay the price, to endure the accusations of the enemy, but give them no credence, when we inevitably fall, and to believe God’s possibilities, then we have the opportunity to obtain Him.