The Power of Dreaming – Unlocking Your Full Potential audio video notes. A dream is a place bigger than you are right now. Your dream will keep you going every day. Your dream is something in front of you. It’s what motivates you to get out of bed and do something worthwhile. Your dream makes you special and makes you different.
THE POWER OF…
By Pastor Delbert Young
The Power of Dreaming – Unlocking Your Full Potential
Audio
.
Video
.
WATCH SERMON VIDEO
.
The Power of Dreaming – Unlocking Your Full Potential
Scriptures: 2 Timothy 1:6, 2 Timothy 1:6, Proverbs 18:21, Mark 11:23-24, Hebrews 11:1, Hebrews 11:6, Numbers 13:30, Numbers 13:32-33, Joshua 14:12, Joshua 14:7-13
There are things in life that power our lives. These specific things not only empower us, but they direct where we go and what we do with life. Without these empowering things, we accomplish nothing. We live wasted lives. With them understood and developed, we do great things. They may change completely over the years, but from them, we acquire direction for our lives and a desire to accomplish great things.
Growing up, I loved horses. I had a large horse named “Morning Dew.” Later in life, we acquired some ponies. One of the ponies had twin foals. There were some wild dogs in the area, and they attacked one of the foals seriously injuring the tiny pony. I called the vet. I watched him inject one shot into the tiny helpless pony. It recovered and lived. I thought, “This is what I want to do. I want to be a veterinarian.” However, I don’t know exactly when that desire left, but I remember the influence it had on me at that time. God gives us empowering motivating experiences all through life to do something exceptional.
The Power of Dreaming – Unlocking Your Full Potential
Today I want to talk about the power of a dream. When I say “dream” I don’t necessarily mean when you go to sleep after eating too much chili, and you envision strange things. An empowering dream could happen while you’re sound asleep but what I’m mostly talking about is a goal for your life. A dream goal is a place bigger than you are right now. It will keep you going every day. Your dream is something in front of you. It’s what motivates you to get out of bed and do something worthwhile. A dream is what gives you passion and enthusiasm. We all need a dream. What is your dream?
Your dream today can be being a better mom, a better dad, having a better marriage, getting a degree, beginning a business, breaking a habit, or breaking an addiction. It can be acquiring a promotion, saving money to get out of debt, etc.
However, it seems so many today have lost their dream. It’s pushed down inside. The children messed up. You’ve had heartbreaks – illness, the economy is so bad people feel they can barely survive much less be successful. You had financial embarrassment, divorce, occupational problems, made a horrible mistake, etc. So many things attempt to bury our dreams. If we allow it, we’ll settle for mediocrity when there is so much potential inside. You may have given up, but God didn’t give up. You were created to do something special and great.
The Power of Dreaming – Unlocking Your Full Potential
We’ve got to stir it up. Your dream is not dead. It’s buried under the clutter of life. Timothy’s pastoral dream was pushed down. He had people problems. It seems he had a stomach illness problem.
(KJV) 2 Timothy 1:6 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou STIR UP the GIFT OF GOD…
We don’t think about it this way, but your dream is a gift of God. All your gifts and abilities spring from and are associated with your dream goal.
(NIV) 2 Timothy 1:6 For this reason I remind you to FAN INTO FLAME THE GIFT OF GOD, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
One way a dream is verified is through prayer and spiritual gifts, but my primary point is your dream is not dead. You simply need to stir up the coals and fan into flame your dream pushed down by situations and circumstances throughout life. There will always be something seemingly pushing down your dream. There will always be obstacles and giants, or a Potiphar’s wife standing between you and your dream. The truth is your giants, and Potiphar’s wife will only thrust you toward and direct you toward your dream.
Maybe you’ve tried something, and it didn’t work. It wasn’t failure unless you quit. It was only a part of the process. You learn things through the process you will use later. God will bring good out of it for you. Once I thought I was to open a pet shop. It was actually a tropical fish store with a few other pets. I know it’s difficult seeing me running a pet store, but at the time I enjoyed tropical fish. It worked okay, but you just don’t make much money selling tropical fish in a small town. I eventually closed it, went out of business, and went back to what I was doing before. But, I stepped out, and I did something I wanted to do.
The Power of Dreaming – Unlocking Your Full Potential
Don’t go your entire life then when you get to be eighty-five years old ask, “I wonder what would have happened if I’d followed my dream?” Step out. If it doesn’t work, you can always go back and do what you are doing now or do something else. Don’t be too proud to try. Even if you fail, say, “I thought I was supposed to do it.”
How do you stir up the coals of a dream? How do you fan into flame a dream? 1. Begin talking about it again. There is life and power in your words.
Proverbs 18:21 The tongue has the POWER OF LIFE and death, and THOSE WHO LOVE IT WILL EAT ITS FRUIT.
Those who understand and cherish this will eat its fruit! Talk about it, but be careful with whom you talk. Don’t cast your pearls before swine. Avoid negative people who say, “You can’t do that.” 2. Begin praying about it again and thanking God for bringing it to pass. What?
Mark 11:23-24 “I tell you the truth, IF ANYONE says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but BELIEVES THAT WHAT HE SAYS WILL HAPPEN, IT WILL BE DONE FOR HIM. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, BELIEVE THAT YOU HAVE RECEIVED IT, AND IT WILL BE YOURS.
The Power of Dreaming – Unlocking Your Full Potential
It’s a universal principle, not only a Christian principle. Jesus said, “If anyone…” It’s not what you think. It’s what you say will happen. Believe it in your heart by seeing it in your heart. Then Jesus said an amazing thing. “Believe that you HAVE RECEIVED IT, and it will be yours.” See yourself doing your dream. If your dream is to be healed, say you’re healed, but don’t stop there. See yourself healed and doing things you’d do if you were healed. It will be yours. So, #1 – put words to it. Empower it. Give it life. #2 – pray saying it and seeing it in your heart as though you’ve already received it. 3. Step out in faith.
At some point, a dream becomes a “sink or swim” decision. There comes a time when we say, “I’m going for it. This is what I want to do with my life. I’m not going to be eighty-five and say, ‘I wonder what could have been?'” We can’t be dumb and quit our jobs without a plan. Support your family. But at some time a dream becomes a step of faith. It’s what you had to do. It’s what anyone does who lives their dream.
Hebrews chapter 11 is called the “Hall of Faith.” It lists Bible characters all the way back to Abel and how they stepped out in faith following their dreams. The chapter begins by saying this.
(KJV) Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for, the EVIDENCE of things not seen.
The Power of Dreaming – Unlocking Your Full Potential
We step out on the substance we’ve spoken life-given words. We step out on what we’ve prayed saying, and seeing and believing in our hearts. It’s what all the Bible characters in Hebrews 11 did as they followed what they believed God placed into their hearts. These things became their dreams. It’s how they and we please God.
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE TO PLEASE GOD, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that HE REWARDS those who earnestly seek him.
If you step out in your faith, God will reward you. What’s your dream?
You’ve got to see and should know by now, that God is not moved by our complaining, being angry, negative, not being thankful, or our discouragement, etc. God is moved by our powerful positive words, and our praying by saying, seeing, believing we have already received it. He is pleased by our faith. God rewards our faith.
Talk about how good and obedient your child is. See them obedient, loving, and doing great things. The things breaking your heart, see blessing your heart. See yourself healed and doing what you would do healed. You lost a loved one to illness, but God has something more for you. Yes, the economy is bad, but God is good. See yourself out of debt. Speak life-giving words into your dream. Give it power. Pray believing in your heart by seeing your dream as a substance. Believe you have received it and it will be yours. Step out in faith and your mountain will obey you.
The Power of Dreaming – Unlocking Your Full Potential
Don’t die without living out your dreams. God gave the children of Israel a dream of the Promised Land. You remember the story about the twelve spies Moses sent into the Promised Land. Two of those spies were Joshua and his friend Caleb. Here’s their report when they came back from checking out the land.
Numbers 13:30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.
However, the other ten spies already said the opposite. They said the land indeed was amazing. It was a land of milk and honey, but giants were there.
Numbers 13:32-33 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
They were less than a hundred feet from entering into their dream. Yet the ten were able to convince Moses and the people to turn around and not cross the Jordan River. How many people come this close to their dream, but turn around and walk away?
The Power of Dreaming – Unlocking Your Full Potential
Certainly, Caleb was disappointed. His dream seemed shattered. His dream seemed buried by no fault of his own, but Caleb never allowed it to die. Forty years that generation wondered in the wilderness. God said only those twenty years old and younger would have a chance to enter along with Joshua and Caleb. I can imagine Caleb and Joshua keeping a scorecard and a record of how many were left. It was getting close. Caleb began talking about his dream, giving it life and power. He began praying about it seeing in his heart his dream.
He believed as if he had it already. Finally, the last one died. He stirred it. He fanned it. God again brought them a hundred feet from their dream. Moses handled the spy thing differently this time. Moses only sent two spies this time. The children of God did take the land. There was nothing to do now but divide it into portions. Then Caleb, at eighty-five years old, came to Joshua and said, “I want my dream! Give me my mountain! Give me this mountain.”
(KJV) Joshua 14:12 Now therefore GIVE ME THIS MOUNTAIN, whereof the LORD spake in that day…
Joshua 14:7-13 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions, but my brothers who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear. I, however, followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly. So on that day Moses swore to me, ‘The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly.’
“Now then, just as the LORD promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. NOW GIVE ME THIS HILL COUNTRY THAT THE LORD PROMISED ME THAT DAY. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.” Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance.
The Power of Dreaming – Unlocking Your Full Potential
Caleb came back to his same mountain. The mountain was his dream, but there were Anakites (giants) there. There were easier mountains Caleb could have settled to take, but no. Caleb said, “I want my dream. I will fight for my dream. I know there are giants in my dream, but give me my dream!” At eighty-five Caleb conquered his mountain and saw his dream come to be.
What dream has God promised you? Long life? Financial success? Promotion? Great marriage? Children? Success? Maybe you got close, but some people and some giants caused you to turn around. You could settle where you are. No one would fault you. You’ve had a rough time, but is this what you want? You need to stir up the coals. You need to fan it into flame, and you need to give it life and power with your words. Also, you need to pray believing seeing your dream in your heart. See it as if you have it. It will be yours. You need to step out in faith. Be like Caleb. Don’t settle for a smaller dream. Take your mountain. Live your dream.
The Power of Dreaming – Unlocking Your Full Potential
The Power of Dreaming – Unlocking Your Full Potential
Other Related Sermons:
DREAM sermon series video audio notes
Dreaming Until Your Dreams Comes True part 2
Also see: