Lifting Your Legacy – Part 4
The Power Of A Dream
Jeremiah 1:4-5 “The LORD gave me this message: “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”
Do you know that God has a plan for your life?
Do you know that God has a dream for you, a vision for your future, and a blueprint for your legacy?
Descriptions Of God’s “Precise Plans” For Each One Of Us:
The “
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The “Big Dream” Jeremiah 1:4-5
5 Basics About Big Dreams:
1) Big Dreams Are in Big
2) God LOVES to
Hope and Enlightenment (Salt & Light) – Matthew 5:13-16,
Real Impact With Real People – John 14:12; Luke 4:16-21,
A Reach That Is Global – Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-20; Acts 1:8
3) Big Dreams Carry Us Through Big
4) The Size of Your Dream Determines Your
5) Big Dreams Are In All Eph.2:10: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Psalm 139:13-18:
“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!”
You were skillfully and wonderfully made with a divine design,
God wrote a book about you and planned your days,
God has precious and valuable thoughts about your future: His Dream!
Let’s look at the sense of dream the Apostle Paul shared in Romans 1:1-3:
“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David.”
God’s Dream:
1. Tells You Who You Are “Paul” (used to be “Saul”),
2. Tells You What You Are “Servant”,
3. Tells You What You Are Supposed To Do “Apostle”,
4. Tells You What You Are Supposed To Be “Set Apart”,
5. Tells You What You Are Worth – “His Son”.
The Power of a Dream…
We can clearly see The Power of a Dream Joseph in Genesis 37:1-19.
Looking at the life of Joseph brings us to a question: How Do We Make Our Dreams Come True?
How to Make Your Dreams Come True:
1. Navigate the Pit: The Place of Discouragement &
Genesis 37:18-25. Anyone who has ever broken out of the status quo to fulfill their dream has been to The Pit: The Place of Discouragement & Abandonment. The Pit is where people talk about you negatively, criticize you, gossip about you, walk out on you, abandon you, and betray you. This is a season of discouragement and despair, where people abandon you and leave you all alone. Even Jesus faced this.
So how do we navigate The Pit: The Place of Discouragement and Abandonment? We overcome it by leaning in to the Presence of God and His promise that He will always be there for us Hebrews 13:5-6; Ezekiel 48:35. See Joseph in Genesis 45:1-8:
“And Joseph said to his brothers… “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life… God sent me before you to preserve later generations for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all of Egypt.”
Genesis 50:20: “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many lives…”
** 2. Navigate Potiphar’s House: The Place of Temptation &
Genesis 39. This is a season of temptation which tests your resolve to fulfill the dream God gave you. Even Jesus went through this for His dream Luke 4:1-21; Matthew 4:1-17.
For each of us, there are personal “Goliaths” we need to overcome before we can successfully fulfill the dream God wants us to. For each of us they are different: sins, weights, selfish desires, unhealthy relationships, addiction, habits, unforgiveness, bitterness, etc. Hebrews 12:1-2 talks about this:
“Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
We need to go through the Place of Temptation & Testing before we can fulfill our dream. But God never tempts us beyond what we can handle in Him – I Corinthians 10:13.
If you do not navigate the Place of Temptation & Testing, you will be forever defined by what overcomes you (i.e. Judas or Esau). On the other hand, if you do overcome, you will be forever defined by what you overcame (i.e. Jesus or David).
3. Navigate the Prison: The Place of Confinement &
Genesis 39-40. Here we face limitations, confinement, and boundaries. These limitations come in 2 ways:
a) Self-Imposed Many intelligent people never move further than the boundaries of their self-imposed limitations. Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save and empower their lives. Are you limiting yourself? The truth is that we will never rise higher than the limitations of our beliefs – Matthew 9:29; Mark 9:23.
b) Others-Imposed Many live within the limitations that other have imposed on them.
When we argue for our limitations, we given them power and they become our reality. When we argue against them, we break their power! So, we need Positive Faith to navigate the Place of Confinement & Limitation. Positive Faith in God and His plans for us Matthew 9:29 “According to your faith be it unto you.”
4. Navigate Postponement: The Place of
Genesis 37-50. Here we face the fact that our dream is not happening on our timetable and it seems to be dragging along. The tragedy is that some pass successfully through the place of discouragement & abandonment, successfully through the place of temptation & testing, and successfully through the place of confinement & limitations - only to falter here. Proverbs 13:12 “Hope deferred makes the heart sick…”
We navigate the Place of Postponement & Delay with Perseverance: the ability to stand firm in Delay:
1 Cor.16:13 (NASB) “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.”
Ephesians 6:13 (NASB) “Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”
James 1:12 (NASB) “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised…”
1 Corinthians 15:58 (NASB) “Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
Hebrews 10:23 (NASB) “Let’s hold firmly to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who
promised is faithful.”
Psalm 31:24 (NASB) “Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord.”
Isaiah 41:10 (NASB) “‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’”
Joshua 1:9 (NASB) “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
1 Thessalonians 3:8 (NASB) “For now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord.”
Psalm 112:7 “He will not fear bad news; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.”
2 Chronicles 20:17 (NASB) “‘You need not fight in this battle; take your position, stand and watch the salvation of the Lord in your behalf, Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not
fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out to face them, for the Lord is with you.”
Psalm 16:8 (NASB) “I have set the Lord continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”
Proverbs 10:25 (NASB) “When the whirlwind passes by, the wicked are no more, But the righteous have an everlasting foundation.”
5. Step Into The Palace: The Place of Fulfilled Dreams
Genesis 50:20 “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many lives…” Joseph fulfilled his dreams! He saw that all he went through, from the Pit (discouragement & abandonment), to Potiphar’s House (temptation & testing), to the Prison (confinement & limitations), to Postponement (delay) was, “…intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
See, all you have gone through has prepared you for where you are going to. Romans 8:28-29 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…”