I like to help people to discover what God is asking of them and how they can do it. We have the privilege of dreaming today, maybe much more so than the average person a few centuries ago. Life has become so much easier for many of us and we don’t often consider how people used to work hard from dawn to dusk just to put food on the table and keep a roof over their family. Today, many of us have the privilege of time for entertainment, and time to get bored, but we also have time to dream. We have time and energy to dream about what we could do with our lives.

As someone who has put my faith in God, my starting point for dreaming is God and His desires for me.  While a bucket list of things we might like to do or see or experience is fun, I find it gives me greater purpose in my life to know that I am responsible to God and He knows best for my life. As a child of God, I can trust that my Father knows best.

What a privilege –  to dream about what could be.

When students graduate from high school, well-meaning parents and teachers tell them a lie. “You can be anything you want to be.” That is absolutely not true. Yes, you can dream big and pursue many different options, but we all have certain limitations. If you can’t carry a tune you will not be a backup singer for Taylor Swift. If you have poor eyesight, you will not be flying fighter jets. There are many things that limit our ability to choose to do anything we want. But if you are listening to God, you can do anything that God wants you to do. When we reorient ourselves to the will of God, He opens the doors to possibilities that we may not have imagined.

I have seen God give me opportunities that I never expected. He has opened doors I would never have tried to open. As Ephesians 3:20 says, I have experienced God doing more than I can ask or imagine. For example, I have gone on trips that I would never have thought possible, and serve rural churches and pastors beyond my local church.

We have the privilege of asking God for His dreams, so when we dream, our imagination is guided and informed by God Himself. Now our dreams flow from a heart surrendered to Him rather than focused on us and what we can do or experience.

I believe that we need to look forward with hope and excitement. We need to see that God has put opportunities in our path. He has called us to certain responsibilities and wants to help us do our best with them.

Right now, God has called me to serve as a Transition Pastor, serving different churches for about a year or so, helping them to be as healthy as possible as they prepare to welcome their next full-time lead pastor. I believe God gave me this dream even before I knew exactly what it looked like. I believed I was to help churches, so I started taking some courses and reading books on coaching and consulting with churches. As I was doing that, God opened doors for my first Transitional Pastor position. As God gave me a dream, He opened doors to fulfill that dream.

Rather than focusing on our own hopes and desires, I believe that we need to ask God to direct our dreams and give each of us a vision for the future. We need to pray and ask God to speak to us and help us to hear clearly as we choose what to focus our life on.

In my experience, dreaming God-given dreams is not static, but ongoing as I continually come back to what God wants. Over the years He has adjusted the dreams for me and redirected me to other opportunities that I had not anticipated.

Keep on dreaming. Keep on listening to the voice of God. Keep on obeying and pursuing His dreams for you.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe