Over the last few weeks, while I gratefully experienced rest, I found myself wrestling, not with God, but with my dreams. In hopes of learning both what my dreams are and how to dream again after experiencing disappointment, I began reading ‘Dream Culture’ a book written by Andy and Janine Mason. I’m yet to finish reading, but need to acknowledge that despite only being a third of the way through, what I have read so far has opened me up to be able to hear something new from God, and that is always a blessing.
The way God spoke to me this time was through a message shared at Zion by one of our elders, Phil Brown. In his message, he shared a story from Luke 5 where Jesus instructed fishermen (Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew, who later became his disciples) to throw out their net onto the other side of their boat, they followed his instruction which ultimately resulted in them pulling in a catch far larger than they were capable of managing on their own. The catch in and of itself was a miracle, Jesus had shared with the fishermen a taste of the extravagant provision of His Father, something we all need to be reminded of from time to time.
Phil’s message could have focused on this obvious provision of God, but it didn’t, because God was doing something different, digging deeper, and this is where Holy Spirit gave me the nudge. Phil began sharing how, prior to Jesus’ request that they throw the net out again, it was likely that the fishermen had gone through the process of cleaning and drying the net for the next time they needed it. These were men who had trained for years as fishermen, they had experience in the trade, they knew exactly what was necessary to catch fish, and yet they had returned to shore disappointed. They would have packed away that net knowing that they hadn’t achieved the thing they were specially equipped for, they may have even been considering the effect their failure would have on their family. Phil compared the experience of the fishermen to the hanging up of a dream, and the Holy Spirit nudged me, and then Phil began to speak about writing and the penny dropped.
How many of us have had a dream that despite talent, effort, and even obedience to God fell flat, I know I have. Over the last few years, I have followed God’s prompting (though possibly more slowly than He intended me to) writing books and self-publishing them. I have had plenty of satisfaction in both writing and publishing, and many people have kindly shared with me how much they enjoyed my writing, but my dream of a successful writing career, one that provided an abundant passive income for my family, never came to fruition, instead disappointment at the lack of progress and the necessity to invest my energy into other areas of life prevented me from writing, or at least writing as prolifically as I had been.
Then I started reading ‘Dream Culture’ and though the dreams I had been considering had nothing to do with writing I suddenly found the space to write and I took it. Then a few days into my renewed writing journey Phil stood up in front of Zion and in the process of sharing his own dream, it seemed that he was telling my story too, as though he were reading from my journal, and again the Holy Spirit nudged.
God is doing a new thing, and I am certain I was not the only one receiving a little Holy Spirit nudge, so just in case disappointment has prevented you from feeling that nudge I want to ask you:
What are your dreams?
What were your dreams?
What dreams have you put aside?
How did those dreams serve you?
If you are no longer interested in a dream, what motivated you to pursue it in the first place?
What dream would you like to pick up again?
I want to encourage you to put aside a little bit of time today to have a conversation with the Holy Spirit. Ask Him if there is anything that you’ve forgotten that He wants you to remember. Ask Him if there is a dream you have retired that needs to be dusted off and revitalised. And ask Him to partner with you as you invest in your dream.
As we each consider dreams I want to share one last thing I was reminded of over the holiday period, God cares about our dreams. Like a proud parent, He loves seeing and hearing about all the things that you are passionate about. God isn’t some meany who ignores the things that light you up, He wants to see you shine. So, get out there, put out your net and start shining.
Karla