What Would You Attempt to Do if You Knew You Wouldn’t Fail?

When faced with a barren field dream the dreams of Jesus. A few years back I found myself sleeping in Lums Pond State Park near Newark, Delaware. Some months earlier I’d lost my job.

Oh, I knew where my job hid—in a cubicle in Bangalore, India. But I wasn’t flying halfway around the world to bring it home. I couldn’t afford the plane ticket. Couldn’t afford a room at the Howard Johnson in Newark, Delaware, either. So, the afternoon before the start of the Delaware Christian Writers Conference I pitched my tent on hard-packed dirt, unloaded my gear and drove my twenty-year-old Toyota hatchback up the road to the University of Delaware campus. I had a dream and a manuscript and not much else.

Dreams Have a Life of Their Own

Dreams come alive when we are not watching. While we’re going about life with all its worries, our dreams slip off and—if blessed by God—come alive. My dream sat in the passenger seat staring out the window. My dream dreamed of sailing the islands, surfing reef breaks and writing a best-selling novel. My dream was a big time dreamer.

Before I left the house that morning I’d “prayed on” the breastplate of righteousness. I’d asked God to keep my thoughts pure and my dreams secure. Righteous thoughts are the lifeblood of Christians. What we hold in our hearts, we speak with our mouth. And what we speak often come to life because our words carry life and death (Proverbs 18:21).

Lust long enough and you take what’s not yours. Meditate on God’s Word and your spirit aligns with his Spirit and his Spirit creates.

God knows the plans He has for us (Jeremiah 29:11). Plans for good not ill, plans for a future and hope. One of the dreams God placed in my heart was to write for Him.

The last night of the writers conference the John Riddle called my name. My manuscript Bahama Breeze had won first place. With award came a $1000 check. Minutes later, sitting in my beater car, I wept. God’s affirmation that my dream was also his dream meant more to me than a thousand dollars.

Dreaming the Dreams of Jesus Pays Off

But a thousand dollars is still a thousand dollars, so… when I returned to my campsite and found my tent in a soaking heap and my sleeping bag drenched, I threw it all in the trunk, crawled behind the wheel and said to my dream in the passenger seat, “Come on, dream. We’re checking into a hotel. God has upgraded us.”

A good many act as if Jesus came to kill, steal and destroy, but that’s the other guy. Jesus came to heal, fill and restore. Jesus is not a genie whose head we can rub to get what we want. But when our heart aligns with His and His dreams for us re-align our spirit to His, small and great things will spring forth.

This vision you have in your heart? Is it a dream of dreams from Jesus? Ask Jesus if it’s from him or the enemy. And if it’s from him, believe he will bring it to life.