5 Clues That Your Dreams Matter
Growing up I had a variety of things I wanted to do, each time my parents, or some other responsible adult asked me about my future plans I was pretty sure I told them all something different. Yet, even though I seemed to be jumping from one dream to another, there had always been a constant in my life, it just wasn’t clear to me what role it played in God’s plans for me. In keeping with the resounding sentiments of this blog, this post is about 5 ways that you can tell that your dreams matter. Whether your dreams matter is an important consideration in keeping with the theme of purpose, and the understanding that some dreams come from our own desires, from selfishness, hate, jealousy, a desire for revenge, some dreams arise because someone put them there. The dreams that really matter though, are the ones that come from a deeper and enduring source, a source that knows our beginning, our end and all the places in between. That source is God. God said to Jeremiah in the book of Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” (NIV) and Jeremiah replied, “Alas, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, Because I am a youth.” God is saying the same thing to us, He is calling us to our assignments on this earth and it can be pretty scary but it doesn’t change the fact that He has given us what it takes to do it. . So here goes, five clues that your dreams matter.
1. It’s all you think about
A very important and powerful indication that your dream matters is how much is nags you. Whatever you’re doing, you always find yourself thinking about, or doing this particular thing. And I’m not talking about bad habits, I’m not talking about that one sin that you can’t get enough of.
What I am talking about are interests, and passions that you can’t shake. Psalms 37:4 says ‘take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart’, a spin on this first point is that it must be all you think about after you’ve given your heart to Christ. This is the act of surrendering to God, of saying and meaning ‘come into my life Lord, change my heart toward you and towards others’. This is important, because when we do this and we start taking delight in the Lord, in His word and ways, we can then have confidence that what we’re thinking about all the time is aligned with His will. Because when we delight in Him, He doesn’t just give us what we want, but we start wanting what He has called us to want.
In some cases you may find that even before you knew Christ you had a passion for something, for me even before I was a Christian I had an interest in people, their interactions with each other and how I could recreate that in my stories. After God did that spiritual heart transplant, my passion became a little clearer to me, and now it’s not just about creating realistic characters.
2. It scares you
Now you’re probably thinking, why would I want to do something that scares me? To that I’ll say, because it’s not about you. A dream that matters is a dream that isn’t all about what you want and what makes you happy. I’m not saying that doing what God wants you to do leaves you grumpy and angry all the time, quite the opposite, you will find joy in it, lasting joy that takes you through the difficult times.
A great portion of what we fear has to do with learning, we learn to fear, we learn to doubt ourselves, we learn to distrust others, it’s part of our humanity but it isn’t a guide to who we’re supposed to be. Matthew 18:3 says “And he [Jesus] said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” A baby is very dependent, trusting and impressionable, a baby is open to new experiences and learning.
This is what Christ means when he says become like little children, He desires for us to trust Him like a child trusts his/her mother when she says ‘come on, you can do it’ and stretches out her hand. Don’t be too grown up for your dreams. That’s why when a dream that we have in our hearts, that we think about all the time, scares us, it might indicate that it matters, mostly because it will drive us to our heavenly Father.
3. There is opposition
As I always like to say, we do not exist in isolation, in little impenetrable bubbles, rather we are influenced by and influence those we encounter every day. Even the homeless man on the street influences us. By our interactions with him, we learn things about ourselves, things we may want to change or develop.
The bible says ‘for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.’ [Ephesians 6:12]. We would be fooling ourselves if we believe that our adversary (the devil) would just sit down and allow us to fulfill our purposes on this earth, to save lives, to share the truth of who God is and what He desires. As scary as this might be it is a good indication that we’re on the right track, in the same way the enemy doesn’t allow us to work out our salvation unhindered. When Jesus was preparing to start His ministry, He had a run in with the devil himself, trying to distract Him from what He was sent to do [Matt 4:1-11].
Joseph in the old testament received revelations in his dreams of where God would take him, but before he could get there, he had to endure betrayal, imprisonment and more. Look at how the Christians in the new testament faced powerful, merciless opposition.
The thing is though, that when you have a dream that you know is from God, opposition fuels you, James 1:2-3 says ‘Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.’
Now I just want to clarify one thing about opposition, when we’re talking about this, we’re not talking about your parents telling you that what you’re doing is wrong, or your pastor or teacher correcting you. Always test the source and ask “Lord is this opposition from you to stop me from heading in the wrong direction, or is this opposition from the enemy to stop me from heading where you want me to go.’ If you constantly think about it, it scares you and the enemy is trying to stop you, these may be clues that you’re on the right track.
4. It finds you
Have you ever had the experience where, no matter where you go you always find yourself doing similar things. It’s like it finds you, you go to a new church, you go to a different country or parish, you go on vacation; it just keeps finding you.
Let’s go back to Joseph, looking at life from his perspective when he was imprisoned, you would think the guy would give up on the whole family bowing down to him thing, like why would your family bow down to a prisoner, a servant, a reject? But God had equipped Joseph with the tools he needed to fulfill his assignment, and that was dream interpretation, it found him in the darkest dungeon and then it pulled him out. Literally, dreams found him[Gen 37], he didn’t go around shouting “behold my name is Joseph, dreamer of dreams and interpreter of dreams, bring me your dreams and I will show thee!”. Instead he was sitting in his cell waiting for God to faithfully do what he had promised, when the opportunity presented itself.
If you find yourself experiencing this; you can’t seem to outrun it, it may be a clue that this dream, this calling matters. Ask Jonah, he thought he could run from God and ended up in a storm, the belly of a whale and then lying in vomit on the seashore of where he was supposed to be in the first place.
5. It redefines you
When you come face to face with your true purpose it changes things, it changes your perspective, it changes how you view yourself, how you view others. In most cases old habits die and new ones being to develop, with work of course.
You can be certain that if you avail yourself to God this happens one way or the other. The bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 ‘This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!’ True salvation comes with new purpose, it may take some time to work through all the dirt and grime that’s been built up. However, if you stick to Christ and His redeeming work you will begin to remember the face you see in the mirror but it won’t belong to the same person you were when you first started looking.
So these, I imagine, is by no means all there is to it, but these are some pretty good indicators. If it‘s something you always think about, yet it scares you, it’s met with opposition, the source of which is clear to you and no matter where you go it seems to find you only to change the way you look at yourself and life in general, then it could be that this dream of yours matters. Its source comes from the Most High God, who formed you and who knew you even before anyone else did.
So take some time and really assess the things you’ve been running after, because you don’t want to run after them in vain, you want to run the race set before you well and as John Piper puts it, laying aside every thing that keeps you from running isn’t just about sin, but about anything that doesn’t help you run and run well.
Nice talk guys, 🙂
If you liked this post or it has blessed you in any way, like, share, subscribe, leave a comment. What was an indicator to you that you were going in the right direction? Would love to hear from you.
Be a blessing,
KellyP
Originally posted on kapurnum.wordpress.com
Kelly is the founder of Royalty Press United. Author of the Gemstone Royals fantasy series, Twist of Faith and Crossroads. Counseling psychologist, proud Grenadian and devoted follower of Christ.
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