Do you feel like giving up on a dream? Do you feel like you have dreams but never pursue them?
In his book Beyond Talent, John Maxwell wrote that Walt Disney was rejected by 301 banks before he received a loan to build Disneyland. Just think about it—what if he would have given up on his dream?! His dreaming gave us the first and most famous theme park in history. He has been quoted, “If you can dream it, you can do it!” He wasn’t going to take “no” for an answer—he was determined to succeed.
God calls us to dream BIG dreams, and He’s also calling us to do something with them! Do you have a vision that you want to believe will come true? When God gives us a dream, we need to activate our faith to reach our goals! We must believe that we can achieve what He’s called us to do. God has allotted to each of us a measure of faith! (Romans 12:3) How we respond will bring about failure or victory. “Be it unto you according to your faith!” (Matthew 9:29) The choice is ours.
In Luke 5, we read a story of four men who activated their faith and received a miracle! They not only had faith that Jesus could heal their paralyzed friend, but they also knew that they needed to do something to take their dream to the next level. So, they put a plan together, loaded their friend up on a mat and set out to achieve their goal. But when they arrived at the place Jesus was, they could not get in the door because of the crowd.
What do you do when you have a closed door? What do you do when the enemy sets up hurdles along the way? Are you determined, or do you have a number of excuses give up?
The men could have said, “Oh we can’t get even get our foot in the door, let’s go home!” or “this is useless, we’ll never make this happen.” The paralyzed man could have said, “I knew this was too good to be true, you must all be so tired so you can just take me home.” But they didn’t. In verse 18 we read, “… they sought means to bring him to Jesus (KJV). They sought means. Plural. Instead of giving up, they thought of other ways to accomplish their mission.
“When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.” (v 19 NLT)
Despite all that was against them, they pushed forward. They took their dreams a step up higher and found other means to accomplish their goals. They kept their faith, and they worked hard. Most of the roofs were made up of layers of mud with tiles placed on the top, so this was no easy task for them.
In the end, they were able to witness a miracle. What if we took our faith—and dreams—to the next level? What if we had faith that brought on miracles?
Let’s clear our minds of negative chatter (I can’t do it, it will never happen to me, etc.) Let’s be like these determined friends and not let the hurdles stop us. Let’s believe and then enjoy a miracle!
