Reflection Questions: Dreams: By Faith: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1. Have you ever considered what God’s vision is for you?

2. Do you find it difficult to see yourself through His eyes for you? Why?

3. What are some ways in which believers settle for some much less than a full walk with the Lord? Which apply to you personally?

Share: What is a blessing the God has given you when you followed a desire that came from Him?

Dreams: By Faith: Prayers and Poetry

Hebrews 11:16, “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.”

Dreams

There is a portion in the poem Dreams, by Langston Hughes, that says: For if dreams die/Life is a broken-winged bird/That cannot fly.

Through life we often learn to keep our dreams close to us to protect them from public ridicule. Sometimes we even have to keep them from well meaning family and friends. However when we keep them even from ourselves, we can begin to live with a meager perspective.

How can we understand the difference between humility and fear when God puts gifts and blessings into our lives and encourages us to use them, but we don’t? Instead, is it non-acceptance of His grace—which none of us deserve anyway.

Does shame sneak into our lives when we don’t lift our sight high enough to desire and believe and act with obedience to a love that turned the world’s definition of blessings upside down.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly,” says Jesus.

Lord, please keep Your heaven in our souls so that our heart’s desires match with Yours and we live in Your abundance instead of our limitations. Keep us longing to dream of Your city.

Your thoughts,

Visions: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

           

           Visions

            Holy Spirit poured out

            flowing like water

            over everyone, just as

            Joel prophesied

            new visions—new dreams

            fresh from God’s heart

           

            as a returning sunrise

            brings dawn into day

            so arrives this beginning.

Reflections: Dreams: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     Why do we need to Biblically confirm dreams and visions when they come into our lives?

2.     Do you think that sometimes we become so committed to verification that we ruin or manipulate God’s words? How?

3.     How does Paul’s example free us to recognize checks and balances without giving up?

Share: How have you received a confirmation in the past from the Holy Spirit?

Dreams: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: Acts 2:17

“In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”

Just like the Israelites we believe in God’s prophecies and we know there are concrete stories of His revealed plans in visions and dreams. And yet often we hesitate to expect them into our everyday plans or even in quiet retreats for ourselves.

Or we do accept the dreams and visions and then promptly begin to second-guess our interpretation. The path to the vision is not the way we have chosen; it doesn’t seem to be well planned. It really doesn’t make practical sense. We are too young or too old. The cost might be too high.

We have an abundance of worrying barriers that we set up as our litmus test which too often wears us into such weariness that we give up before we even let the match light the fire. We forget that God will break through our ignorance and our misunderstandings.

At the end of his second missionary journey, after a sharp disagreement that separated Paul and Barnabus, Paul, along with Timothy, began a return trip through the towns and cities that had growing churches. However they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia and were not permitted to go to Bithynia. Can’t help but wonder if Paul questioned this sweep of barricades.

And then Paul received a vision of a man in Macedonia appealing for help. “..immediately we sought to go…concluding that God had caused us to preach the gospel to them.” Acts 16:10 NAS

Paul didn’t worry over the closed and opened doors. He just kept moving. His heart was set solidly on going wherever God led him regardless of practicality, presumed common sense, or cost. He had learned to live actively into God’s words—His flow in His time—His vision.

Lord, help us all to see the dreams You inspire, and then, seek Your Spirit to guide us moment by moment.

Psalm of Worship: Genesis 1:17

“God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth,”

Faith Seeds: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     Have you ever considered what God’s vision is for you?

2.     Do you find it difficult to see yourself through His eyes for you? Why?

3.     What are some ways in which believers settle for some much less than a full walk with the Lord? Which apply to you personally?

Share: What is a blessing the God has given you when you followed a desire that came from Him?

Faith Seeds: Prayers and Poetry

Hebrews 11:16, “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.”

There is a portion in the poem Dreams, by Langston Hughes, that says: For if dreams die/Life is a broken-winged bird/That cannot fly.

Through life we often learn to keep our dreams close to us to protect them from public ridicule. Sometimes we even have to keep them from well meaning family and friends. However when we keep them even from ourselves, we can begin to live with a meager perspective.

How can we understand the difference between humility and fear when God puts gifts and blessings into our lives and encourages us to use them, but we don’t? Instead, is it non-acceptance of His grace—which none of us deserve anyway.

Does shame sneak into our lives when we don’t lift our sight high enough to desire and believe and act with obedience to a love that turned the world’s definition of blessings upside down.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly,” says Jesus.

Lord, please keep Your heaven in our souls so that our heart’s desires match with Yours and we live in Your abundance instead of our limitations. Keep us longing to dream of Your city.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 63:8

“My soul clings to Thee; Thy right hand upholds me.”