This is the third week in our 'Yes, I Can' series! This is based on the reality that God loves us and has a good plan for us. Today, I want to move forward in our series to speak on ... 'Yes, I can dream again!'
We may be holding on to and accomplishing those God-given dreams and desires, thoughts and goals that are deep within our hearts. How many of us have some things that we want to accomplish for God? I am talking about the vision of God for your life. When He reveals His dream for you, you must remember three things:
Dreams are specific, not general; personal, not public. God will not give someone else your dream. He will give it to you. Dreams are usually bigger than us; outside the realm of the expected. Often, your dream will cause others to say, "You've got to be kidding!" Remember, that is their opinion, not God's. With God, all things are possible - Yes, you can!
Dreams can separate you from others. Dreams require risk. Dreams will separate the risk-takers from the caretakers and the undertakers.Those who walk by sight will always outnumber those who walk by faith.
Oftentimes, through the circumstances in life and the obstacles we face, these dreams get pushed aside. Yes, I can gets replaced by NO, I CAN'T! But I challenge you today to never let go of your God-sized dream. He puts the true dreams and desires in us, and they're the start of getting into His perfect will. That's why He put them there.
One example of someone who followed a God-sized dream was Michael Dell. His dream was to build and sell computers. He had a passion for computers and would take them apart and rebuild them. He discovered that he could build them for one-fourth of the price, even adding more memory, bigger monitors, and faster modems, and would be able to sell them cheaper with a handsome profit.
After his freshman year in university, he dropped out of school and started Dell Computer Company with $1,000. Three years later, the company did a private placement offering stock to a small group of investors. At that time, Michael Dell was 22 years old and Dell Computers had US$150 million in annual sales. Today, Dell Computers is a multibillion-dollar company and one of the leading companies in the United States. When asked, Michael Dell said, "I followed my dream. I learned by doing and by making mistakes."
Now is the time to feed our dreams and stir up the gift within us. We need to make our lives count. We need to chase our dreams and not just sit back in our comfort zones or we're never going to be all God wants us to be. We must never settle for less.
The Israelites, at one time, decided to settle. In 1 Samuel 13, the Israelite army was in a spot where they were not accomplishing the dream given by God and they were in the position of settling. God had said possess the land. Joshua had instructed that the plan and the baton was now in Saul's hand to carry on.
But then, they found themselves in overwhelming odds. The Israelites were at war with the Philistines. In this text, the Philistines came with everything they had. The Philistine force was made up of "3,000 chariots, 6,000 charioteers, and as many warriors as the grains of sand on the seashore!" 1 Samuel 13:5 NLT. They were overwhelming.
After a series of unsuccessful attempts to drive them away, Saul's army was now down to only 600 men against the might of this powerful invading army. It's no surprise that we see Saul hiding in the farthest place that he could find to get away from the enemy. He was camped out, probably, in a fortified position on the opposite side of the Philistines. He forgot God's promise.
But how did they get to this position? Over time, Saul had been drifting away from God. When we drift away from God, we drift away from His vision and His dream for us. Saul's life was filled with little compromises, which caused him to be staring at defeat with no hope.
Things were so bad that the Bible says only King Saul and his son, Jonathan, had a sword in the whole camp of Israel. When you consider that the Philistines had 3,000 chariots (the equivalent of modern-day tanks and armoured vehicles) and Israel only had two swords (the equivalent of two guns), there just didn't seem to be much chance of Saul defeating the Philistines.
When we find ourselves in this position, we need to remember that God is the one who gave the vision and the dream, because once God has said it, we can do it. It doesn't matter if the odds are overwhelming or not, our response has to be ... "Yes, I can!"
Join us again next week as we continue to look at reclaiming our dreams. During this week, I encourage and challenge you to commit to memory and adopt as your personal encouragement, Philippians 4:13 Amplified: "I can do all things [which He has called me to do] through Him who strengthens and empowers me [to fulfil His purposeI am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency; I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses me with inner strength and confident peace.]"