Dream On

Imagine for a moment that somebody provided a servant for you. A rich friend just decided to
bless you by hiring someone to help youaround the house, at the office, wherever you need
assistance.
Once you thanked your friend for his kindness, what would you do?

ou!d put that servant to work, that!s what. ou!d give him a list of all the things you!ve
dreamed of getting done but haven!t had time to do yourself. "ousecleaning. #ardening.
$etailing the car. %he list would go on and on&

ou certainly wouldn!t leave the servant sitting on the couch all day with nothing to do. ou
wouldn!t let him idle away his time watching television while you rushed around trying to get
things done by yourself. %hat would be foolish. %hat would be a waste of the servant!s time, and
your friend!s generosity.

'obody in their right mind would do that. et spiritually speaking, we as believers do it all the
time. (e neglect the spiritual assistance we!ve been given. (e leave the servant called faith,
which #od has so graciously provided for us, sitting around idly with nothing to do.

)(ait a minute,* somebody might say. )$id you just call faith our servant?

es, I did. +ut I didn!t come up with the concept myself. I got it from ,esus. "e compared faith
to a servant in -uke ./. (hen the disciples asked "im to increase their faith, "e said,

)If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 0+e pulled up by the roots
and be planted in the sea,! and it would obey you. And which of you, having a servant plowing or
tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 01ome at once and sit down
to eat!? +ut will he not rather say to him, 02repare something for my supper, and gird yourself
and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink!? $oes he thank
that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not* 3verses 456, New
King James Version).
A White-Hot Expectation
Obviously ,esus didn!t view faith the way most people do today. "e didn!t see it as something
fragile and religiousmeant to be used like fancy china, only on special occasions. ,esus
considered faith a workhorse, an able5bodied helper given to us by #od to roll up its sleeves and
get the job done.
78actly what job is faith designed to do?
It is designed to transfer material from the realm of the spirit into this natural realm. 9aith goes
into the spiritual world, lays hold of what is already there and manifests it in the natural world of
matter. "ebrews ..:. says it this way: )'ow faith is the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things not seen.*
9aith is what clothes our #od5given, +ible5based hopes with natural substance. It!s what makes
them become a reality in this material world. ;o when believers don!t cultivate hope in their
hearts, faith is left with nothing to do.
)+ut,* you might say, )I have lots of hope. I!m hoping for a better job. I hope my kids will do
well in school. I!m hoping it won!t rain tomorrow so I can go fishing.*
%hat!s not hoping. %hat!s wishing. %rue +ible hope is much more powerful than that. %he
definition of the #reek words translated hope in the 'ew %estament literally means )an intense,
white5hot e8pectation that something is coming to pass.*
<ost believers have very little of that kind of hope because it!s born out of "oly ;pirit5inspired
dreamsdreams based and built on the promises of #od!s (ord and heaven!s bounty. A dream
becomes hope when the dreamer starts e8pecting it to come to pass.
And there lies the problem. %oo many believers have stopped dreaming.
Not Just Kid Stuff
=enneth 1opeland once told this story, I!ve been a dreamer all my life. As a little boy, I had an
imagination as big as all outdoors. 3I still do. I can entertain myself for hours.> One of my most
enduring dreams began when I was a kid during (orld (ar II. %here was an Army air base just
outside the (est %e8as town where I grew up and they used to fly s?uadrons of 25@/
%hunderbolts out of there. ;ince I was practically born with the desire to fly, I!d lie on my back
porch and imagine what it would be like to be in those planes looking down through the clouds at
my house.
Once when I was about A years old, a man who owned a -ockheed B offered to fly my dad and
me around the city and I got to sit up front with the pilot. I absolutely couldn!t keep my hands off
the yoke. (e ended up sitting on the ground for a while and I spent the whole time in the cockpit
making airplane noises and dreaming about flying that plane.
I realiCe that just sounds like kid stuff to most people, but over the years that dream became a
hope, and by the time I was in my DEs I was flying airplanes for a living. <y dream had become
a reality.
If that was the end of the story, my dream of flying wouldn!t have been of any eternal value. +ut
that wasn!t the end of it because in .64/, that dream ran head5on into the (ord of #od. And a
dream that is based purposely on #od!s (ord and on "is promises becomes more than just a
personal desire. It becomes spiritual seed that is guaranteed to produce fruit for the kingdom of
#od and bring rewards that will last forever.
All Dressed Up and Nowhere to o
,esus taught about that kind of spiritual seed in <ark @. 3;tudy the whole chapter carefully if you
want to see how to take your dreams from hope&to faith&to reality.> "e said: )%o what shall
we liken the kingdom of #od? Or with what parable shall we picture it? It is like a mustard seed
which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earthF but when it is sown,
it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of
the air may nest under its shadeG 3verses HE5HD, New King James Version).
'otice ,esus said that when a divine dream seed is fully grown, others can rest in its shade.
%hat!s the wonder of (ord5based, "oly ;pirit5inspired dreams. %hey not only satisfy the
longings of our own hearts, they glorify #od and bless others as well. %hey bring increase to the
kingdom of #od.
%hat!s what happened with =enneth 1opeland!s childhood dream of flying. It became a spiritual
seed on his very first day in full5time ministry. I!ll never forget that day. I got up early in the
morning, put on the only suit I owned and went to the living room of our little house.
I didn!t have anywhere else to go. 'obody had asked me to preach yet. I was just stepping out in
faith and obeying #od.
As I took out my yellow pad and +ible, I started to dream about what the -ord had told me to do.
"e!d commanded me to preach the uncompromised (ord of #od on every available voice. "e!d
instructed me to preach that ,esus is -ord from the top of the world to the bottom and all the way
around.
;o I began to say it. I stood in my living room and declared, )I!ll preach that ,esus is -ord. I!ll
preach that ,esus saves. I!ll preach that "e baptiCes in the "oly #host and heals. I!ll preach that
"e is our financier, the -ord of the "arvest, and the soon5coming =ing. And I!ll preach it from
the top of the world to the bottom, and all the way around the middleI* =enneth said.
o as !ar as "ou #an
=enneth 1opeland %estimony continues:
%hen it dawned on me. I cant do that without an airplane
Of course, about that time, my old fleshly mind piped up and asked me how I thought I was
going to buy an airplane when I could hardly afford to get out of the living room. +ut I decided
not to pay any attention to it. I said, )I don!t have time to think about that. #lory to #od, I!m too
busy dreaming about going around the worldI I!m too busy seeing myself preaching the (ord of
#od to multiplied thousands of people.*
+efore the end of that first day in ministry, the phone rang and 2astor "arold 'ichols from 9ort
(orth, %e8as, asked me to come to his church and preach. I accepted&and we were on our way.
I didn!t know where I was going after that. +ut I had a dream and a vision. I had hope and I kept
that hope alive by meditating on #od!s promises and feeding continually on "is (ord. I figured
I!d just go as far as I could go and e8pect #od to take care of the rest.
;ure enough, "e did. A few days after I finished the meetings at 2astor 'ichols! church, "ilton
;utton asked me to come preach a meeting at his church in "ouston, %e8as. )(hen can you
come?* he asked.
)Jight nowI* I answered.
+rother ;utton asked me to come for a weekend and we wound up staying three weeks. It was
marvelous.
%he last night of the meeting +rother "ilton!s dad asked me to come to his church in +eaumont,
%e8as.
od $ut a Dreamer in "ou
I charged down to +eaumont full of hope and enthusiasm. I!d been dreaming of preaching to
thousands so I was e8pecting a landslide. +ut what I found when I got there was a mess. A flu
epidemic had hit the church and the first morning the only ones who showed up for the meeting
were the pastor, his wife and two other people. %he ne8t meeting two more people showed up.
At first, I let that get to me. I let it cut off my dream. +ut after I spent some time in prayer, the
-ord showed me I 2eter K:45/: )"umble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of #od, that
he may e8alt you in due time: 1asting all your care upon himF for he careth for you.*
I saw it. I had to roll all the care of the meeting over on "im. 1arrying the care was killing my
dream. %he care said, )%here!s no hope of you having a meeting here.* +ut faith said, )I don!t
have a care. I!ll preach whether anyone comes or not. %hat!s what I!m called to dopreach the
(ord. 2eriodI*
I got back on my feet again. I decided the first thing we needed to do was get these people
healed. ;o the pastor and I took our anointing oil and went out praying for the people. 7very one
of them got healed, e8cept for one man who just refused to get out of bed.
%he ne8t service, I went in and preached like there were .K,EEE people there. I preached all over
the room. I preached up and down the aisles. %here were still less than a doCen people but I was
shouting the victory like the place was full. As I remember, there was one sinner there and the
rest were believers, but that one sinner got saved. As far as I was concerned, that was .EE percent
successwe were having a landslideI
Afterward, somebody said, )%hat poor preacher hasn!t ever been to seminary. "e!s so dumb he
doesn!t know the difference between a landslide and a flopI*
"e didn!t realiCe that I was a dreamer. "e didn!t know that while I was preaching, I was seeing
that place full. I was seeing people crowded in until they were hanging out the windows. +efore
the week was out, that dream had become hope&that hope had clothed itself with faith&and the
building was literally running over with people. It only held about .HE, and by 9riday night they
had to raise the windows so the people outside could hear. (e stayed and held two services a day
for D. days. It was glorious.
%hat was almost @E years ago now, and I!ve been dreaming "oly #host dreams ever since. I!ve
spent my life preaching that ,esus is -ord to multiplied thousands and flying from the top of the
world to the bottom and all the way around. Over the years, my dreams have gotten biggerand
I!m not finished yet.
)eah, that!s just you. ou!re a dreamer.*
;o are you, my friend. If you!re a born5again believer, #od has put dreams inside of you, and
"e!s given you a servant called faith to bring those dreams to pass.
;o stir yourself up. ;tir up your divine imagination and reach out into the heavenlies. Immerse
yourself in the (ord of #od and the fellowship of the "oly ;pirit and dare to dream the dreams
"e gives you. +ring your hope to a higher level by declaring the (ord, and keep meditating that
(ord until your hope is clothed with faith, and that faith reaches into the realm of the spirit and
makes your dream a reality.
$on!t let fear or past disappointments hold you back. 2lant your dream like a mustard seed so it
can grow up and become greater than the impossibilities in your life. 2lant it so it can grow up
and become a source of blessing, encouragement and support for others.
#od is waiting for you to dream. %he people you were born to bless are waiting for you to dream.
;o don!t let the devil stop you. $ream on, my friend. $ream on.