Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Dreams & Visions Shape Your Destiny

by Rev. James Wong

"'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.” Acts 2:17 (NIV).

‘The Power of Dreams’ is the popular motto of Honda. In real life, there is tremendous power in dreams. The ascension of Jesus Christ ushered in not just an age of grace but an age of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised that when he returned to God the Father he would send the Holy Spirit. (John 16:7). According to Acts 2:17, there are three things that the Holy Spirit will do in the life of the believers. They would preach God’s message and they would see visions and dream dreams.

Sight is what we see with our eyes. Visions and dreams are what we see with our mind and imagination. Vision and dreams operate in the realm of our imagination. Through our imagination we can have a preview of tomorrow. This is how important imagination can be:

Without imagination: man would be completely limited -- virtually robots. All human progress has been born out of imagination -- the ability to "see" things differently than they were. The only way a human can see the past or the future unaided, is through their imagination. Memory uses the imagination. Much of our thinking, whether planning or "jumping to conclusions," involves our imagination. Fear and faith operate in the realm of imagination.” (http://www.believers.org/believe/bel222.htm).

Nothing happens until someone starts dreaming. Virtually everything in the world happens because someone starts dreaming. Every building started as a dream in an architect's mind. Every piece of art or music started in an artist mind. Every design of every product of the world is first conceived in the imagination of the inventor. Napoleon said ‘imagination rules the world.’ Einstein said, ‘imagination is more important than knowledge.’

When God called Moses He gave him a very clear vision, which was to bring the Israelites out of Egypt to a Promised Land that was filled with milk and honey (Ex 3). It was this vision of the Promised Land and the dream of reaching it that kept the nation of Israel alive throughout their 40 years of painful journey in the wilderness. The vision and dream of an unsurpassed future became the driving force behind the survival of a nation.

Talk to God and do the exercise on pages 5 and 6 and make 2011 a year of fruitfulness. Live and serve God with a dream.

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