I am on track for what I posted a year ago .
(This is modified and updated from what I posted March 1, 2021.)
Challenge # 1: Today, write your own "I have a dream" speech. Where do you see God's will for you in 4 years (March, 2026)?
Challenge #2: What must you do TODAY to begin / continue the path to achieve #1?
What needs to happen by...
...One month from now?
...Six months from now?
...One year from now?
Write it down, then go toward your dream. The journey to a dream makes the dream become reality.
Every step of your journey will be one step closer to perhaps even MORE and even BETTER than your dream now. Each step will be your reality.
Stay on the journey.
Don't expect everyone to be excited for your dream: "Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more," Genesis 35:7.
It is not their dream, it is yours. Do not be discouraged.
Stay on the path.
Don't expect it to be easy: Joseph's dream led him to rejection, slavery, and prison. Even after all of that, Joseph went through seven years of plenty before his brothers and eventually his entire family would fulfill his dreams. Joseph stayed on the path on which God was leading. You may even have to go alone. But every hard step is one step closer.
Stay on the map.
Don't expect others to remember. "Yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him," Genesis 40:23. You need to remember and rehearse it in your heart and remind others who are on the journey with you. Make sure your dream lines up with the Word of God and the Will of God. Years later, Joseph could see that his brothers meant it for evil, but God's Will was for Joseph to stay on the map.
Stay in the moment.
Don't expect it right away. "For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay," Habakkuk 2:3. While Joseph was in Egypt, he married and had children, both would ascend to be tribes of Israel (Ephraim and Manasseh)!
Sometimes God's will happens while you are waiting for God's will to happen. Life is a journey and God will walk with you along the path, not just at the destination. We don't live in the past. We don't live in the future. We live in the moment. Enjoy the scenery along the way.
Stay until the end.
Don't say, "It's too late for me!" God saves the best to last! Remember when Jesus turned the water turning to wine? The master said, "You have saved the best for last!" So does God. " 'And it shall come to pass in the last days,' says God, 'I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh...Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions," Joel 2:28 with Acts 2:17.
For Joseph, he could have given up or worse, given in to bitterness. When his brothers arrived, there was some understandable testing from Joseph, to see if his brothers had changed. But it was not vengeful, as seen in his weeping (Genesis 45:2) and forgiveness (45:5). Joseph stayed to the end to see that God indeed meant it for Good (Genesis 50:20).
Stay the course.
Remember God has put eternity on your heart, and God knows no age nor limitations of time. "He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end," Ecclesiastes 3:11.
Had Joseph not stayed the course, he might not have seen his father again or even his little brother Benjamin. What's more, Joseph's father would have gone down to the grave mourning (Genesis 44:29, 31). What joy there is when we stay the course.
Stay with the dream until it is reality.
Don't doubt God may have placed it on your heart. God speaks through dreams. Who do you THINK put that desire in your heart?? If you walk with the Lord, God put it there! Psalm 34:7 says, "Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart." Sometimes God tells you to reach for the sky, just to stretch you. No journey is "as the crow flies"... sometimes the road will head east, west, and sometimes south, so that it can go eventually go north.
Joseph stayed with the dream, even in death. He had his descendants to carry his bones back to the Promised Land, a dream for his children's children and beyond for more than 400 years. Your dream is the future's legacy. Don't let doubt destroy what faith has founded. This verse, Habakkuk 2:3, bears repeating:
For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.
It is never a failure to follow the Lord God. Prepare, expect, and even count on course adjustments.
You don't need to see the destination to arrive there...
...You...
...just ...
...must ...
...trust...
Stay in the faith.
Finally, look to Jesus for your dreams. "For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ," Galatians 1:12.
Jesus not only knows the way; He is THE Way.
Jesus not only knows what is true; He is THE Truth.
Jesus is not just alive, lively, and living; He is THE Life.
If the journey seems dark, just follow your headlights.
Stay with the Lord.
