How to ruin a God-given dream …

Throughout my ministry career and various leadership positions, a key measure of knowing I was on track in pursuing turning a dream into a reality was when some people told me I was unrealistic.

That’s because one of the fastest ways to ruin a dream God has given you is by allowing others to re-size it.

It kind of works like this …

… out of the blue, God has given you an “Aha!” moment by providing you with a dream He wants you to turn into reality. He has given you great clarity about what He wants you to accomplish. So, with great enthusiasm, you launch out on your new endeavor.

As you share with a friend the news of your new adventure with God, and fill him in on the details, he responds, “That’s awesome! Such a great idea, I can’t wait until it’s finally going! However …”

… that “however” is the point where a human being attempts to step into a dream given to you by God and tries to improve on it with their own human mind …

“… this is really a huge venture, if you really want to get this going you should be realistic and start much smaller. Not everyone will support starting at such a high level. Take just a few steps, just kind of get things rolling, and over time you can eventually add to your efforts …”

To many people, that advice sounds like it has the merit of practicality. The problem is, it is changing God’s design of the dream He gave you. If God wants you to start at a certain level, start there. By scaling back and being more humanly “practical” according to the advice of others, you suck out the faith you originally had in God to supply what is necessary to achieve the dream he gave you as He gave it to you.

The mistake many people make when listening to someone share about a dream God has given them is converting what they hear into human capacities and human equations. But when God gives us a vision for something to do for Him, He does not limit it only to what we are capable of. In fact, He usually gives us visions, dreams, and missions that specifically require Him to be at the center and the primary source for “success” because the task is bigger than our capacity.

We quickly ruin a God-given dream when we allow others (or ourselves) to become the architect of the dream rather than the laborer who does the work. To achieve what God inspires requires that God remain the architect, and for us to have the faith to implement the vision He’s given us the way He has given it to us.

Scotty