Day Three - Big, Crazy, Beautiful Ideas

Take a look back to the time when you had a dream, a purpose in your heart, a plan for your life. That was a great time, a time of optimism, but, if you are like the vast majority of the population, those dreams were from a time gone by. They where the optimism of youth, where, future seems to stretch endlessly before us. If you are one of the small percentage of the population, to whom achievement and greatness occur naturally, you probably will not be reading this, because, you will be one of the few amongst us, who need no encouragement to be successful in your chosen field. YOU will be living your dreams, because you will be driven to accomplish, or you will be an anointed vessel, belonging to that bracket of the gifts given to the church, and your ministry will make room for you.

I want to talk to the rest of us, not the incredibly special, US, the majority, we can have dreams, big crazy beautiful ideas, for our lives, ideas and thoughts about what we want to see happen in our lives, and in the lives of those we love.
I want to talk to those of us, who don't even have a dream any more because now we are all grown up, and life has got us past the moment, for new beginnings. Those of us who thought big once, but now the mortgage needs paid, by the job we don't particularly like, the spiritual ideas of helping others, gone by the way, for the nine to five necessity, and gone also through the negative voices declaring inadequacy, and lack.
I want to talk to those of us who have just never had a dream, never felt that they wanted to achieve anything. The not spoken of majority, who when asked about future, think only of retirement and not of making a difference. Who cannot verbalise success.
Whichever of these is you, or a combo of them all, YOU are who I want to talk to.......

I want to talk about FINDING YOUR DREAM and making it HAPPEN.
No its not impossible, its actually relatively easy.
Its time to stop the lie that is pushed upon us, that mediocrity is the way. Rubbish! All of us who signed up for this Christian life have THE most opportunity clad life ever, don't throw it all away, and just get through life. We have incredible potential on the insides of us, yes thats ALL of us. God is no respecter of persons. He will help you, he will help me, that is who he is..... no you are not to old, as long as you have breath, IT IS NOT TO LATE.
I have simple suggestions for finding your Dreams.... and finding them is the start of making them happen.

One... tedious i know, but you have got to want it, want it with all your heart. Half hearted desire don't work, get your insides longing for a change, lusting for a better.... something. That is what will fuel you, the determination, to see ........The whatever that is going to be your dream.
Two... Get a dream in your heart that will work, get the measure of your faith mixed with good old common sense. The movers and shakers in life don't need to kick start themselves, so admit to yourself that your not one of them, and find out what is good for you. We can follow the pattern of those who are great (in our eyes), but if we were one of them, then we would be getting on with that call, it would burn in our hearts.
Three... Dreams that work, its only an example, but if you are in a really bad job, then reaching for a good one, seems like a pretty good dream to me, especially if it seems beyond the you that is you. Or maybe you need a new house, a partner. Dream of serving God full time, want to be a preacher, start a business, the lists are endless... Don't get all, “Thats not what dreaming dreams means”, on me now. It so is! I am being real, letting you know that God has stuff that is special for you to do, not stuff that is going to be so neck breakingly impossible, that you are just not going to do it no. He has given you, the measure of faith that is right for you, the expectation that is right for you, and best of all, he will empower you to achieve what he puts within you to do.

So lets get busy, putting expectation back in our hearts, reviving old dreams, finding new ones. Then we will be able to have a look at how to get them working in us..... but thats for another time!!!!

Written by Jade

Read Joseph's story in Gen 37:1

Everything begins with a dream, and a hope and a belief that something can come within our reach, that right now might seem impossible or even improbable of ever happening. However when your dream is God inspired, you can be certain that by his power it will be achieved.
The story of Joseph, is an amazing inspiration to us all, of just how far God can take someone, from the lowest pit of life, to the pinnacle of success that only God can bring!


Perhaps your feeling at a low ebb here at the start of this year. Perhaps everything’s gone wrong, and the dream you once had of a very different life, has been swallowed up in a deep black hole! If so, your not alone, or the only person such circumstances have occurred too.
Joseph was a young man who God gave a dream too, a dream that beggared the minds of those who he told it too, including his brothers and father. His dream ended up angering his brothers and made them jealous enough to want to kill him! (don't expect everyone around you to be supportive of your dreams in life!)
Joseph was his father, Jacobs, favorite son. A son upon whom he bestowed a lot of love, a multicolored coat and the desire to see him prosper in life. But this was not his brothers desire.
In short order all of Joseph's dreams and comfortable environment came crashing down into a deep dark pit!
Lost to all he knew, his coat of favor torn from him and his life hanging in the balance, his circumstances seemed to have taken a terminal dip.
To add to this evil change of events, his brothers go on to sell him into slavery in Egypt by the hand of a bunch of hairy Ishmaelite’s!
However Joseph's story is one of the Bibles ultimate overcoming success stories!
Life may throw you into a pit but if God is with you, then the pit will never determine your destiny! God is the master of our destiny, he's created us to run our life's race through the power and guidance of his Holy Spirit! Even if you feel struck down, don't give up on your dream, don’t give up your fight! Help is on your side, in the shape of Gods amazing spirit!
Joseph might have lain in the pit and felt “it's over for me”. He may have felt when the slave drivers tied him behind the rear end of a camel and dragged him to Egypt, that yes this is how it will end. But the word says that the Lord was with him!
In Egypt he's sold to Potipher the captain of Pharaoh’s guard and God begins to turn around Joseph's situation, till he's into a place of favor in the eyes of this high up official.
Soon everything the man owns is under the hand of Joseph!
This story reads a bit like a roller-coaster of one minute heading up before yet another crash comes.
Potipher’s wife it says, is soon setting her beady eyes upon him, and winds up bringing Joseph down from his position of favor into the worst place he could have ended up in.
A dungeon becomes his new home and this does not come with your modern day privileges, but chains and certain death not far away.
It's amazing how God can still be positioning your life for success even when it looks like you've entered hell.
To the untrained eye, even possibly Joseph's, it appeared that things were heading for bust, but God was not finished, and his dream and destiny were calling even in a dungeon.
If its possible to prosper in the pit, in a dungeon, then Joseph did!
I love these verses in Psalm 105:18-23 that says (speaking of Joseph here) "Who's feet they hurt with fetters and they laid him in iron until his word from the Lord came!"
God gives Joseph favor in the eyes of the chief jailer, and soon Joseph is running the dungeon!! Talk about success in an impossible situation.
The only way to face life, is with the overcoming power of Jesus. It’s his spirit on the inside of you, that will keep stirring you up to fight on, rise above, believe till the mountain moves and the flood water subsides. It's his super abundant help around you, that will work with you, until his word comes for you and calls you out of the pit into the light of his amazing destiny for your life!
In the prison the scene is set for Josephs dream to begin to come to pass. Joseph didn't know it but he was about to be propelled out of darkness to become second to Pharaoh himself, by a set of miraculous God manoeuvres, which battle ungrateful butlers and being forgotten, till he's brought up and out into Gods plan of salvation for his entire family!

Here at the start of this year, you may be staring at the Walls of your pit and your dreams seem lost and out of your reach but I challenge you to believe God once again and stir yourself to make the effort to overcome. Even if your situation is of your own making, if you love God, then the dream is still alive and his plan and destiny are still awaiting you.
Get a vision for that and let's get rid of the things that are bogging your life down. This is a week that's all about getting rid of the mindsets and negative attitudes, the feelings of hopelessness and defeat, and to let an overcoming spirit stir you up to bother to try again.
Joseph ended up after all his uphill struggles and set backs, at the hand of the most powerful king of that day, becoming Gods means of salvation to many people. His dream that had seemed so far away, became a reality!

Written by Dade

Jade

Todays scripture is about finding your dream, and no matter the opposition, believing in it, and God's ability to bring it to pass in your life.

Genisis 37 vs 5: "⁵And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more."

Each day, we will publish a thought to motivate/inspire you. take the thought, and encourage yourself by repeating it within yourself as many times in a day as you can. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." (Proverbs 23 vs 7).
"I am opening my heart to receive dreams, hopes and gifts."

Prayer is really communication with God, so we're including suggestions as to what your could particularly be praying about for today.

1, Pray to be led by God to connect with dreams and talents and gifts that are given by him.
2, Praying over the lives of loved ones, that they connect with God for their own lives
3, That the door of favour will open over the dreams/gifts that you wish to bring forth
4, Ask God to connect with you on motivation, to stir you up, to see that gift grow.