Dreamlands! (Don't let go of your dreams!)

"And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even n my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. (Joel 2:28-29)

So this morning I awake at precisely 5.45 am.

I awoke with an incredible urgency.

I had been dreaming a dream, for what seemed to me like all night, and it had been a bit of a frustrating dream.

I dreamed that I was chasing a pearl. It was a giant shining pearl, beautifully translucent, smooth and perfect in its roundness.

It was about the size of a football.

I'd been chasing it all night. I so wanted to grab it, but every time I got near it, it would just shoot away from me into the distance.

As I opened my eyes at 5.45 am, my head was full of thoughts. Not a confusion of thoughts, but a crystal like clarity of voice speaking into my mind.

The thoughts had crossed the divide from sleep to being awake in a seamless progression.

The voice explained that the pearl represented the dreams and visions of people in the church.

Joel 2: 28-29 was also right there in amongst the thoughts.

I lay awake, partly because I didn't really want to get up, but mostly because my head was full of this dream. In this time, My thoughts travelled back to the last month or so. I've had the immense privilege of doing a bit of travelling and speaking in the first month of 2013. I have prayed and chatted with loads of people in that time, and I realised that what they were sharing with me had a common thread.

It was this.

They all wanted to share dreams with me.

I had one lady share a dream that she had to build an alternative venue for students to gather, a place that offered an alternative to the trappings of the student night club scene that sees so much tragedy and harm attached to it. Another lady shared with me this amazing dream of creating a social network for rurally isolated people to connect to a wider prayer community. I prayed with a guy who had a dream to convert his basement in his city apartment into a prayer room that would be accessible 24/7.

And there were many others.

I hadn't really thought about it as such.

But this morning? God brought it to my attention.

So much so that I felt I specifically had to blog it today.

Because.

In all of this common thread of people sharing dreams and wanting prayer for their dreams and visions, my attention was drawn to another common thread that seems to be occurring when people dream.

There seems to be a stifling of dreams going on.

From so called authorities, leaders, families. Friends, acquaintances, people who seem to think these dreams and visions aren't worth bringing to fruition.

Even though dreams and visions are really the only hope of true change in the church's approach as a response to the world in which we live.

Why do I say that?

Sounds a bit dramatic Gary?

Probably because the Spirit is being poured out on us.

A prophet of our time, said in recent years, that, "Jesus is the vision!" He's right.

All of the dreams and visions that have been shared with me, have all had justice and release at the heart of them. In other words they all had the unmistakable heart of Jesus in them. They were all aimed at helping a needy world.

All of them.

Jesus is the vision.

The trouble is so many people feel like they are chasing their dreams and visions.

And it frustrates the life out of them.

I knew that was what my dream was about last night.

The pearl represented the dreams and visions of Church in desperate need of release.

Release from the stiflers.

Those who would crush people's dreams like a nut in a nut cracker.

For what?

Only those who do that really sad stuff can answer that.

So here's the thing.

To the stiflers I speak this message.

Bless you.

But shift.

Move out of the way.

Move.

You are in the way.

Do the right thing.

To those who are chasing the pearl.

Stick with your dreams.

Share them, pray for them, pray about them, line them up with the living word of God, enthuse about them, do not let go of them.

People say the church is dying.

No.

God is pouring out his Spirit on us.

There are dreams in the hearts of the many.

The stiflers will never win.

Never.

So dreamers rise.

Sons and daughters of the King of Kings, prophesy, speak out your dreams and visions, fruition them. Pray them to fruition.

Never let go.

Church, we cannot chase the pearl (as it applies to my dream!) forever.

Grab it.

Build the change into our approach. Jesus is the vision, he is the change, and that dream you have, that exciting idea, that picture in your heart? Make it happen.

Take your dreams to a burnt out world and let our creativity be laced with the saving power of Jesus Christ.

It may mean the difference between life and death in every way for someone who needs a saviour.