Today, we continue our series entitled “Laser Focus,” emphasizing living with a Laser Focus on the Fixed Purpose God established for us before the world began.
(Proverbs 4:25 TPT)
Set your gaze on the path before you. With fixed purpose, looking straight ahead, ignore life’s distractions.
Scriptures for today:
(James 1:2-4 TPT)
2 My fellow believers, when it seems as though you are facing nothing but difficulties, see it as an invaluable opportunity to experience the greatest joy that you can!
3 For you know that when your faith is tested, it stirs up power within you to endure all things.
4 And then as your endurance grows even stronger it will release perfection into every part of your being until there is nothing missing and nothing lacking.
(Ecc 3:1 ERV)
There is a right time for everything, and everything on earth will happen at the right time.
(Gen 42:9 ERV)
9 Then Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed about his brothers…
So, what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. Never Abort God’s Dream For Your Life!
By the time we get to Genesis 42:9, the ten brothers who betrayed Joseph were in his presence. Since he was the Prime Minister (some would call his role “The Sultan”), they bowed before him with their faces to the ground. The scene must have jogged Joseph’s memory. Our text says that Joseph remembered the dreams.
If you remember the story, Joseph had two dreams. The scene we are dealing with today was the completion of the first. In the first dream, Joseph was with these same ten brothers in a field. They were all gathering bundles of wheat when, all of a sudden, Joseph’s bundle stood straight up, and their bundles circled his and bowed down (Gen 37:7). Then Joseph told his brothers about the dream. When he did, the proverbial “straw broke the camel’s back.” The brothers already did not like Joseph because of the favor he had with their father. But when he openly shared the dream, the Bible tells us that they hated him for it. They hated him so much that they wanted him dead.
Over 20 years later, Joseph looks down at the men who betrayed him. These were the men who contemplated killing him but then opted to throw him into a pit and later sell him off as a slave. Can you picture the scene? He sees them bowing, with their faces to the ground, and he remembers the dream.
More than half his life had expired between the time of the dream and the completion, but he still remembered. He held on to that God-given dream, believing that someday it would pass. Joseph’s “someday” was that day! (Side note: we should all live with the aspiration that our “someday” will manifest in the fullness of God’s timing).
How this applies to you:
— God puts things in your heart with the intent of His desire becoming your desire. Some Christians cannot believe God-sized dreams, so they reject God’s desires because they simply cannot believe what God believes about them.
— For those who are capable of believing the dream, the challenge becomes developing the patience required to see the dream come to fruition. Since God looks at everything through the lens of eternity, it is quite normal for God to put a dream in your heart that may not come to pass for years or even decades. This is why you must add patience to your faith. Faith enables you to believe what God said, but patience helps you to hold on long enough to see it come to pass.
— If you have faith and patience (both in operation in your life), you will see the manifestation of every promise from God.
— No matter how long God requires you to keep your patience engaged, never abort a dream that came from God. If you abort your dream, you will miss out on God’s best, and it will not be God’s fault.
— Trust in God’s timing, understanding that His promises may take years or even decades to come to pass.
— Never give up on what God has placed in your heart, even when circumstances seem contrary. For 13 years, Joseph endured circumstances contrary to his dream, but despite the challenges and delay, he never gave up on the dream!
2. Life is Better For Dreamers!
Are you a dreamer? Do you have a God-given dream? What dreams have yet to come to pass in your life? You can argue that those without a dream are not living but rather just existing. A dream in your heart can become the fuel you need to get up every morning with passion, excitement, expectation, and endless optimism.
I grew up in a neighborhood full of broken homes and broken dreams. Despite this, many of the children I grew up with talked about being great someday. They still had dreams. Within the innocence of a child’s heart, God-given dreams are free to live, to play out over and over again, and to inspire a child, even in the most dire of circumstances.
Crack cocaine was invented when I was in the 7th grade. I remember the introduction of crack vividly. It seemed like the crack epidemic exploded all around me. I saw grown men and women addicted to crack walking around like zombies in my neighborhood. In addition to crack, people were hooked on heroin, LSD, Angel Dust, alcohol, and many other things.
As a child, my friends and I played tag and other games in abandoned buildings. Many times, we saw people who were strung out on crack, sleeping in the buildings. Think about the picture this was painting for children. The buildings were abandoned and seemingly lifeless. The Apartments, once full of people, vibrance, music, laughter, food, and good times, were now empty, and most were condemned. Inside these empty shells were people who were strung out on drugs, living empty lives. And I grew up around that. I played games in this environment.
To make a bad situation worse, we had to deal with the constant fear of violence. Most of us saw murders committed in front of us before the age of 12. But what’s amazing to me is that no matter how harsh the environment, children dream. I know I dreamed of getting out of East New York, Brooklyn. I had dreams. My friends had dreams. As children, we all dream.
The challenge for dreams comes later, when “real life” catches up with you. Most of my friends gave up on their dreams. They buckled under the pressure of our harsh environment and the realities of life. A good portion of the young men I grew up with wound up dead or in jail before the age of 18. And even then, the majority of those still alive and not in jail stopped dreaming.
Here’s the good news: some people keep their dreams alive no matter the circumstances! Joseph was one of those people. What kept him going during the years he was a slave and the years he spent in prison were the dreams God placed in his heart. You would have thought that the pit and the prison would have made him abort his destiny, but amazingly enough, he held on to God’s dream. Many years later, after numerous challenging situations, Joseph looked down at his brothers and remembered the dream.
How this applies to you:
— We all have our challenges. We all go through whatever we have to go through in order to see God’s best manifest in our lives. But my message for you this morning is simple: your life will be better if you hold on to your dream! You will still have to go through what you need to go through, but if you hold on to your dream, if you keep the dream alive in your heart as Joseph did, you will be able to not just ENDURE the journey but you can actually ENJOY IT!
— When Joseph’s brothers betrayed him, it was because he was a dreamer. Never stop being a dreamer!
— Open your heart to God-sized dreams (things you receive from God that you know you could never do without Him) and live your life with an expectation that God will do what He implanted in your heart and mind! Life is much better when you are a dreamer!
— Hold on to your dreams, knowing they will sustain you through difficult times.
— Embrace your God-given dreams and let them inspire you to keep going, even when life gets tough.
— Refuse to give up on your dreams, no matter how long it takes for them to come to pass.
— Understand that your dreams are a source of motivation and joy, keeping you positive as you seek to enjoy the journey to your God-ordained destination.
3. We serve a God who can resurrect dead dreams.
Do you remember your dream? Are you still expecting it to come to pass? Or have you allowed your God-given dreams to die?
Here’s the good news: even if you have allowed your God-given dream to die in your heart, we serve a God who gives life to the dead! One of the major things God resurrects in our lives is dead dreams. While you read this, my prayer is that God will bring things back to the forefront of your mind (right now, at this moment): things that you had forgotten about, things that you had given up on. God is bringing them back up because He still wants to manifest them. You may have given up on God, but He never gave up on you. If you are remembering a dead dream right now, it is because God is ready to speak life into it!
How this applies to you:
— Trust that God can resurrect dreams you thought were dead and bring them to life.
— Believe that God has not given up on your dreams, even if you have.
— Open your heart to the possibility of God reviving forgotten dreams.
— Ask God to bring back to your memory the dreams He placed in your heart, reigniting your faith.
— Allow God to breathe new life into your dreams, restoring your hope and expectation.
— While you are called and commanded to walk and live by faith, you will never exercise faith for something you believe is dead.
— Once a dream ALIVE AGAIN in your heart, you are open to hearing what God is saying to you concerning it. Once you hear God’s voice concerning it and you are willing to do (by faith) whatever He leads you to do, you are on your way to experiencing the manifestation.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I will never abort the dreams You have placed in my heart.
I hold on to Your promises with unwavering faith and patience.
I trust Your timing, knowing that every dream will come to pass at the right time.
I embrace my challenges, believing they refine and prepare me for my destiny.
I refuse to give up on my God-given dreams, no matter how long it takes.
I let go of past hurts and embrace Your healing for my heart.
I choose forgiveness over bitterness, reflecting Your love and grace.
I am a dreamer, inspired by Your vision and sustained by Your power.
I believe in Your ability to resurrect dreams I thought were dead.
I live with the expectation of manifestation, knowing that GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!
I declare this by faith! In Jesus’ name. Amen!
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
