discovering your specific dreams with God
part three of the building blocks of dreams
Hey friends, good morning!
We are jumping back into the four part series on the building blocks of dreams. Here’s a quick recap to refresh your mind and bring you up to speed…
intro: the building blocks of dreams:
part one: falling in love with Jesus
The beginning of dream-chasing is really just falling in love with Jesus. It changes everything. He becomes first. Everything else becomes second. As we spend time with him, we become more like him and more in tune with his heart for the world.
part two: God’s BIG dream
God’s BIG dream, to reconcile all nations to himself, is weaved throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. The Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) is God’s plan to bring this dream to life. You and I are invited to spend our lives responding to God’s command to “go and make disciples.”
part three: discovering your specific dreams with God (today’s topic)
part four: coming next week
We’ve talked about the first two major pieces of the building blocks of dreams, but we aren’t done yet. Today, we are going to dive into part three, discovering your specific dreams with God.
I believe it looks something like this:
Your identity in God + God’s BIG dream = your specific dreams with God
In other words, you, rooted and founded in friendship with Jesus, having embraced God’s BIG dream and your role in the Great Commission, are pure capacity for the specific dreams of God.
Let’s talk about that first piece: your identity in God.
Every part of who you are is intentional and hand-crafted by God. All of your quirks and interests, where you were born, how you were raised, and your experiences have all shaped you to be uniquely and wonderfully you. I truly believe that no one can touch the world exactly like you can.
You, fully surrendered to God, are PURE CAPACITY for him. I cannot even imagine what dreams he wants to breathe to life through you. But I know they will be beautiful and big, because God’s dreams are a reflection of his nature: beautiful and big.
Take a second to reflect on what makes you, you:
What are your skills?
What are you passionate about?
What are your priorities?
What are your strengths?
(Remember that God knows you best and loves to highlight the wonderful ways he has made you. If you are having trouble answering these questions, pray. Ask God to show you what he sees in you.)
Now reflect on your current life:
Where do you live?
Who are the people you interact with every day?
What is your job?
Who are you responsible for?
How do you spend your time?
These questions are intended to help you capture the identity piece of the puzzle.
Apart from Christ, people generally stop there. They evaluate these questions only to consider how they might find success or build their personal relationships. But, because of Christ, we are invited to take these questions that define our identity and move them into alignment with God’s BIG dream.
These identity-defining questions, combined with God’s BIG dream, look something like this:
How can you use your skills to reveal God’s heart to people?
How can your passion become an avenue for sharing the gospel?
How can you shift your priorities so that God’s dreams take priority?
How can you use your strengths to lead people to Jesus?
How can you be a part of the Great Commission in your current city?
How can you share Jesus with the people you interact with every day?
How does God want to use you through your job?
How can you reveal Jesus to those you are responsible for?
How can you use your time to invest in discipling God’s people?
Answering these questions is like a big brainstorm session for the specific dreams of God for your life!
These questions will produce ideas that align with God’s BIG dream and who you are! They should fill you with purpose and mission because they are actionable, bite-sized ways to get the Great Commission activated in your life.
Please know, I don’t expect anyone to wake up tomorrow and be able to act on every single idea from this brainstorm sesh! Not at all! That would be overwhelming and, let’s be honest, impossible. But I will challenge you to pick one question to own and act upon.
Take a moment to ask the Lord, “Father, which question do you want me to answer and take ownership of in my life this week?” Pick one question and write it down in your journal.
We will come back to this question in the prompt at the end of today’s newsletter.
Circle Your Jericho
If you remember, last week I invited you to read Joshua 1-6 to prep for this week. If you haven’t read it yet, I encourage you to stop and do that before reading on! At least read Joshua 1 and 6. It’s a story, so it is actually really entertaining and enjoyable to read through :). Today’s newsletter will be insanely good if you have this scripture on your mind.
A little context for Joshua: prior to this book, Israel had spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness because of their disobedience. It is a really heart-breaking story that ultimately points to our need as human beings for a savior! They were unfaithful to God, and an entire generation (including Moses) died without entering the promised land. But God is faithful, and he commissions Joshua to lead the next generation of Israelites out of the wilderness and into the promised land. A land flowing with milk and honey.
From the beginning of this story, we step into an impossible and beautiful dream from God (to bring his once enslaved and nationless people into a land of their own) and a human being (Joshua) to steward that dream on earth.
God dreamed that in leading Israel into the promised land, all the nations would know that he is the one true God! His BIG dream (that all nations would know him) has always been on his heart and he is always moving toward that goal. For this generation, entering the promised land was his means to that end.
No one was going to get in the way of God’s dream from happening, but he still chose to invite both Joshua and the nation of Israel (imperfect and sinful people) to steward it. The Father knows that partnership increases our love and dependence on him, and he wants that for Joshua and for his people, Israel.
Joshua’s story begins with God speaking leadership, authority, and identity over Joshua (the identity piece of the puzzle). Then, Joshua says YES to God’s invitation, aligns himself with God’s BIG dream, and commits himself to working out the how in his own life. This alignment produces many specific dreams for Joshua to partner with God in, but today I specifically want to focus on one: overcoming Jericho (chapter 6).
Joshua’s identity in God + God’s BIG dream = overcoming Jericho
As Joshua was living in his god-given identity and pursuing God’s BIG dream, God brought him into a specific dream: overcoming Jericho and seeing the walls fall.
Not only is this specific dream HUGE and way bigger than Joshua, the way God tells him to accomplish it is straight wild! They are to march around the city in a very specific way for 6 days. And on the seventh day, they are to march around the city seven times, blow a horn, and shout. Then God will bring the walls down. Israel does this, exactly as God has asked, and the walls do come down, just like God has said!
It blows me away that every single Israelite born into the wilderness season carried God’s BIG dream deeply in their hearts. They knew what their mission and inheritance was, and though they were far from sinless, their whole lives were centered around their identity and participation in God’s dreams for them!
Imagine if Joshua or Israel had refused to partner with God’s BIG dream. Joshua may have still been leading the nation… but into what dreams?? They would have never entered the promised land and their disobedience would have kept them wandering in the wilderness.
Joshua’s identity + his dreams without God = wandering in the wilderness
God had a Jericho for Joshua, but he had to submit to the leadership of God in his life. He had to say YES to God’s BIG dream, and he had to believe that it was worth dropping everything else to pursue.
If we don’t say YES to God’s BIG dream, we trade our Jerichos for wandering in the wilderness.
And guys, God has a Jericho for you.
It is a dream far bigger than yourself and wilder than you would dare believe.
The size of our dreams reflect the size of our God. If God’s BIG dream is to reconcile his people to himself, then we can be absolutely confident that he is going to do it! The same God that brought down the walls of Jericho is moving in your life today. The same God that stopped the flow of the Jordan River so his people could cross is moving in your life today.
The Father’s great love for his people is an invitation to great faith. We can believe that when we align our hearts with his BIG dream, he will show up in BIG ways.
So, as you begin brainstorming God’s specific dreams for your life, let your faith rise to the occasion.
Instead of just dreaming of a steady income so that we can live comfortably, we dream about how to use what we already have to lavishly bless and love the people God has given us!
Instead of just dreaming of having children, we dream of having children that will be disciples and disciple makers, radically in love with Jesus and surrendered to his will!
Instead of just dreaming of our next pay raise or promotion, we dream of our coworkers receiving the Gospel and falling in love with Jesus!
We shift our focus from what we can do to what God can do.
We shift our focus from ourselves to others.
We trade our small-minded, self-focused dreams for God-sized, God-centered dreams.
And we dream BIG!! Because God is worthy of our big faith and our deepest partnership. He is worthy of every dream coming true and every heart knowing him.
Prompt
Alright, let’s take some time to discover our Jerichos, the specific dreams that God has for us today!
Open your journal to the question you wrote down earlier in this newsletter. Take a moment to prayerfully answer this question with the Lord.
I’ll do it with you 💛 but your question and answer will likely look different than mine.
My question: How does God want to use you through your job?
My answer: God is inviting me to become a prayer warrior for my boss and my coworkers, that they might be soft soil, ready to receive the Gospel. I also want to start being more transparent. Letting my boss know I am praying for him, sharing encouragement and scripture with him, sharing the gospel with him (although I am honestly nervous to do that!). If he does accept Jesus, I want to cheer him on by helping him learn to obey the word as he continues life with God!
From our answers, we are going to use the formula below to identify a specific dream for ourselves that aligns with our identity and God’s BIG dream. Don’t forget to dream big 😉
My specific dream: that my boss would receive Jesus and share his faith with his family and everyone who comes to the store!
Go ahead and take some time to write down your answer and your specific dream if you haven’t already.
It’s as simple as that. You have received your Jericho from the Lord! This is your specific dream to circle in faith, pray for, and take action towards! Be faithful to circle this dream, because only you can! And I promise, you will see the walls come down.
I hope your heart is insanely encouraged. Doing this with you guys has filled me with hope and purpose!! I feel so loved by God to be invited into his dreams for me in my current season.
I would love to hear what specific dream God has invited you into today. Please respond to this email and share it with me 💛 It would really encourage me and bless me to hear how God is moving in your life. And I would love to pray with you for this dream to come true!
I also want to invite you to reach out if you are hungry for discipleship or needing encouragement. I would love to meet you for a zoom call, read the word with you, get to know your heart, and encourage you on your journey with Jesus. This is an open invite and totally free! You don’t have to commit to anything long-term, but I would love to meet you and hear how I can serve you on your personal journey with Jesus.
Next week is the fourth and final part of this series: the building blocks of dreams. We are going to be talking about overcoming fears and hurdles to dream-chasing. Hope to see you there!
Love,
ma
Three Things Worth Sharing:
Judah & the Lion | First Fruits - Worship Playlist: GUYS. This playlist is only on youtube and it is SO FLIPPIN’ GOOD. I will have it on repeat this week.
Waterproof New Testament: If you are outdoorsy or, like me, have a military/adventure husband lol, this waterproof new testament is super practical and makes a great gift!
The Greta Ballet Flat from Madewell: This one is for the fashion girlies 😉 I have this flat in black and they are so comfortable and chic. I also really love the ecru color if you’re feeling a lil spunky. A little tip for Madewell: if you bring in a preloved pair of denim you get $20 off a brand-new pair. Talk about a steal!
Loved the prompts!