An Invitation to Dream with God

The Bible is, in many ways, a book about dreaming. 

Genesis 1 presents a dream of the way God intended the world to be – good, true, and beautiful.

The Israelites are led through the wilderness by the dream of what life could look like in the Promised Land – a land flowing with milk and honey.

The Old Testament prophets frequently invite their listeners to dream about an age to come – an age of feasting, delight, joy, and fulfillment. 

Jesus paints visionary pictures of what life in the kingdom of God is meant to look like – a place where the meek inherit the earth, a place that’s like a mustard seed (it starts small but grows big), and a place that’s like a treasure in a field (worth everything when we find it).

Revelation is a picture of the way the world will be at the end of time – a place where God’s presence runs like a river through the streets, all the sick are healed, and all the wrong things are made right. 

Ultimately, the Bible is a book about God’s dream for the way the world should be – from his original intention, to the way that things fell short of his dream, to the restoration plan, to the glorified finale when all is right again. 

Our God is a creative and visionary dreamer, and as humans made in his image, I want to say that we are too!

God made you to dream.

What is your relationship with dreaming about the future? 

For some of us, the future is something to be avoided. Change can be scary, and dreaming even more so – because what if it doesn’t come true? What if we are disappointed? What about how hard the past season was? Others of us grew up in situations of scarcity where dreaming felt like a luxury – something someone else could do but not us. 

For others of us, the future is something to be idolized. We are always chasing some dream or goal so much that we avoid the present. For some of us, it is because we are ashamed of our past. For others of us, we never learned to grieve our unfulfilled dreams and losses, and thus there is always another mountain to be climbed, another goal to be achieved, or another season that will be better than the one we are in!

The wild invitation of the Bible is somewhere in the middle – the future is neither something to be feared nor something to be idolized; rather, it is something we are invited to dream about with God so that we can partner with him to bring it into the present. 

In my opinion, Paul communicates this most clearly in his letter to the Ephesians. 

Paul writes of God’s grand scheme of restoration for heaven and earth:

The mystery of God’s will, Paul says, is that heaven and earth would become one, and that this is why Jesus died on the cross. 

This one verse communicates the whole grand story of Scripture – God’s vision from Genesis to Revelation is that heaven and earth would become one, and it’s for this reason that Jesus died on the cross – to reconcile us to God as the first step that we might join him in the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21). 

Then Paul says:

Here, Paul communicates that we have been given an inheritance in this big plan. According to his purposes and will, we have a part to play in this big story. This is wild news!

Finally, he says:

Every believer in Jesus is given the promised seal of the Holy Spirit as the pledge of this inheritance. The Holy Spirit is given as a down payment of our inheritance in the big plan of God to bring heaven to earth and restore all things. 

To put it simply:

1. God has a dream to bring heaven to earth. 

2. You have a role to play in this story.

3. The Holy Spirit is here to help you find your part to play!

I believe that one of the primary ways that the Holy Spirit helps us to find our role in the story is through dreaming. 

God is a Creator and a Visionary, and if we are made in his image, I believe that he has put on the inside of us imago dei imprints to help us to find our role in his big story.

For us to step fully into our role in this story, into our kingdom assignment, into the unique place God has for us in this story, we have to dream. We have to invite the Holy Spirit to unlock kingdom creativity in our hearts. 

I am inviting you to dream with God. We want to invite the Holy Spirit to unlock dreaming in our hearts. The world needs you to dream – what are you waiting for? 

Take a few deep breaths. Maybe as you breathe in, pray “Come,” and as you breathe out, pray “Holy Spirit.” 

• Today, I’d love to invite you to reflect on how God might be inviting you to dream about the future.

• What is your relationship with dreaming about the future? How did your family of origin think about dreaming, envisioning, and setting goals?

• Do you tend to avoid the future or romanticize the future?

• What is one way you hope that God might heal, restore, or renew your relationship with dreaming about the future today?

• What is the wildest dream you can dream about the future?

Ryan

P.S. I am overjoyed to share that we have just released a brand new prayer resource — Come, Holy Spirit: 30 Days of Growing in Friendship with God. What would it feel like to live in a daily, interactive, conversational relationship with God the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit lives on the inside of us, and yet we can’t see him or hear him audibly. Audaciously, Jesus promises that it would be better if he leaves and the Holy Spirit comes! This 30-day devotional is based on 30 attributes of the Holy Spirit revealed throughout the storyline of Scripture to help us discover the treasure of friendship with God on the inside of us and grow in a daily, interactive relationship with him. Check it out at restlessheartsrestingplaces.com/store.