Mark preached from Psalm 126 last night, looking at ‘living the dream’. God can speak to us through dreams and puts dreams in our hearts. Our heartfelt desires often determine our dreams and yet those dreams often seem impossible or die, fading away in the stresses of life.
God gave Jacob a vision of heaven in a dream (Genesis 28:10-21) and spoke a promise for many generations into his life through this dream. Joseph was probably the character best associated with dreams (Genesis 37:5-11), but it took years for those dreams to be fulfilled. Dreams can be ways in which the Lord encoruages or warns us (see Joseph’s dreams in Matthew 1:20-24 and Matthew 2:13-14 or Paul’s visions in Acts 16:9-10 and Acts 18:9-10). Many, many characters in the Bible experienced God’s input into their lives through dreams (Abimelech, Eliphaz and Solomon, to name just a few), with dreams providing both physical and spiritual direction.
How many of us have a dream in our hearts which we know is from God? Has it come to pass yet? Do we still believe it is from God? Maybe the dream seems too big for us and it has died. God is able to give us dreams in the first place and is able to keep those dreams alive. The difference between ordinary dreams and dreams given by God is that God is able to fufil the things He promises. We need to understand that our lives are made up of more than the mundane. May God help us to live the dreams inspired by Him!