Category Archives: dreams

Nice versus necessary

Posted by pastorchrisjackson on

It would be nice to have a better year than last year.

I would really like to be happier, healthier, and more financially fit.

It would be awesome to have more family time and to enjoy my life more than I did in 2012.

It would be really nice to please God and reach all of my personal and professional goals.

Unfortunately, most of those things won’t happen this year if they’re only nice wishes. If there is any hope of my 2013 dreams coming true it will be when my nice wishes become absolute necessities. I can keep on living without nice, but I won’t last long without necessary.

When vanity urges us to drop a few pounds it would be nice to lose weight. However when our doctor says, “Change your health and exercise patterns of you’ll die,” fitness becomes a necessity.

When the thought of more family time sounds “nice” it’s not likely that we’ll pay the price to change our family dynamics. However when we learn that we might lose our family if we don’t change, our family focus assumes a drastically greater urgency.

It seems that there are three options where our New Year resolutions are concerned:

  1. Do nothing and continue living the status quo
  2. Wait for bad news to compel us to change
  3. Cast a glorious vision of what life could be like, and then let that vision drive our resolve and direct our calendars in 2013

Let’s opt for the latter. Let’s be visionary men and women fueled by God-honoring dreams.

“…One thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)

Cursing the second voice

Posted by pastorchrisjackson on

Strikes to the head, even while wearing thick ...

I think the Lord spoke to me earlier this week. It started with a whisper in my soul, and then grew in to a confidence that God was encouraging me to dream bigger dreams, and believe Him for some significant answers to prayers. Later in the day a friend contacted me and said, “I’ve been praying for you that all of your wildest dreams would come true.”

I felt incredibly strengthened and encouraged.

My excitement didn’t last; however, because shortly thereafter a second voice chimed in, rehearsing my past failures and current limitations. Before I knew it I had built a case for why my wildest dreams were just that—wild, unrealistic daydreams.

There always seems to be a second voice that undermines God’s word of encouragement, hope, and promise.

  • The first voice says, “I want to use you for my glory!”
  • The second voice says, “That might have been true before you so royally screwed up.”
  • The first voice says, “I want to bless you in unimaginable ways.”
  • The second voice says, “That stuff only happen to other people.”
  • The first voice says, “Isaac will be your inheritance.”
  • The second voice says, “Ishmael’s as good as it gets.”

I think we should muzzle the second voice.

Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,” but what if we’ve embraced as truth the lies from the second voice? If the nature of truth is to liberate, then the nature of lies is to ensnare.

If you can identify any areas where the second voice has trumped the first voice, it’s time for you to lace up your boxing gloves and go to work.

Job 5:3 says, “I saw the foolish taking root, suddenly I cursed (punctured, perforated, punched a hole through) its habitation.”

On-site dreamers

Posted by pastorchrisjackson on

“Behold, the dreamer!” That’s what Joseph’s brothers said about him when he approached them from afar, and I hope it’s what they would say about you and me.

Rock Climbers on High Neb, Stanage Edge

Rock Climbers on High Neb, Stanage Edge (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Whether they’re dreaming of civil rights, women’s suffrage, revival for a generation, cures for ailments, or healing for interpersonal relationships, dreamers are God’s change agents in the world. Indeed, nothing significant happens until someone starts to dream.

Rev. H.B. London Jr. says, “What God wants every church to become must start as a compelling dream for an on-site dreamer.” His sentiment certainly extends beyond a congregation and applies to each of us in our personal lives too—we must be God’s on-site dreamers for ourselves, our loved ones, and for our communities.

What could God do with a roomful of dreamers? What could He accomplish with a group of people who carried His dreams of possibility and then married them with hard work, passion, and determination? Let’s be those people. Let’s rekindle the God-given dream inside us; let’s dream past our pain, our setbacks, the enemy’s lies, and our own perceived shortcomings. He placed us where we are so we could be the catalysts for His agenda, so let’s start dreaming it, and let’s never forget what the angel Gabriel said to Mary, “Nothing is impossible with God.”