Bobby Chandler - Do Dreams Come True?
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Summary
In this message, the pastor launches «Communicating with God 2.0» and explores how God speaks through prophetic dreams and visions today. Using biblical examples like Joseph and Daniel, he shows that dreams from God reveal warnings, future events, and hope in hard times. The key takeaway is that God still gives dreams to guide us toward our destiny, but we must choose to trust Him and complete the «puzzle» of His revelations rather than give up when things don’t immediately make sense.
I also want to tell you guys you’re in for a treat today because I’m about to take this series up a notch. All right, we’re going to have some fun. If you’ve been here the last few weeks, we’ve talked about strongholds. Okay, I’ve made it very clear that we are in a spiritual battle. All right, but there is no force in hell that can stop the power of prayer. So keep praying, keep believing, keep moving.
But I’ve told you that the strategy of the enemy is always to put a stronghold over your life. He wants to control what you do. In fact, last week if you were here, we talked about how he wants to torment your mind. Okay, he wants to put anxiety and fear into your mind so that you’re constantly thinking about these things, and you start to get to a point where you no longer believe God can do the impossible. That is a lie from the enemy because he does not want you to walk into your destiny. Okay, and I need you to understand that you’ve been created for a purpose.
But we talked about strongholds over regions; we talked about strongholds over our heart; we talked about strongholds over our sight when you feel like you can’t see what God is doing. Then, last week, we talked about strongholds over the mind. But in the beginning of this series, here’s what I was praying about this week. In the beginning of the series, I told you that I want us to grow as a church in our communication with God, meaning how to hear from God, how to know that when God is speaking to you, you can hear Him clearly, and that He is for you and He’s going to guide you along the path, even though it may not be easy.
So, just for fun, for the next four weeks, we’re going to take it up a notch, and I’m calling this «Communicating with God 2.0.» Okay, 2.0. Why? Because we’re going to be discussing some hard questions. Does God still communicate with you today? Does He still communicate with us today? If so, how would you know, and would it be clear for your life?
God’s Higher Ways
Here’s what’s great about God: we serve a miraculous God, amen? We serve a supernatural God. He doesn’t think the way you think, and that’s a good thing because that means He can show you His love in ways that you couldn’t even fathom or imagine. He’s very creative.
Okay, in Isaiah chapter 55, verses 8 and 9, New Living Translation, it states, God says, «Hey, my thoughts are nothing like your thoughts. Man, you’re worried about a lot of things. You have a lot going on through your mind, or sometimes you don’t see hope in a desperate situation. But hey, my thoughts are not like your thoughts, and I know what I have for you.» He says, «My ways are far beyond anything that you could ever imagine, and just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.»
We serve an almighty, powerful, miraculous God who wants to work on your behalf and help you and guide you. A lot of us will come into this room and be like, «Amen, that’s good news!» But what do we do next? How do I hear from God? Right? Or maybe you felt the presence of God within this room, but Monday comes very quickly; you’re back in your workplace, and you’re like, «God, are you here too?» Because this has been a difficult day, and people are never really that happy. Right? We live in a season right now where everybody has extreme anxiety and they’re just kind of pacing themselves, and you can see it. You can see that pressure; you can see that tension, and you can feel it upon your shoulders.
So let me ask you a fun question: raise your hand if you would love for all of your dreams to come true. Come on! It’s still funny when I ask these types of questions in church. People are like, «Yeah, I would love dreams to come true, but still, I need to be holy, so halfway made me humble, Lord, but please give me that car I’ve been praying for too!»
Okay, all right, come on, let’s be honest. We’re human. We would love for every dream to come true. Any goal, anything that you desire. As kids, we grow up with these goals in our life, and I believe that God created us this way because it’s our vision and our goals that drive us. Right? You ever have one of those really good dreams, and you’re dreaming that everything came to life, like you got the big house? Maybe you’re on vacation; everything is good and peaceful. And then you wake up to a half-naked child jumping on your bed telling you he’s hungry, and you’re like, «Please, Lord, let me go back to sleep forever! Just let me have that dream again; everything will be okay.»
Why? Because, again, the truth is this: our dreams and our visions drive us in life. How do they drive us? They give us hope; they give us something to look forward to, even when life doesn’t make sense or we don’t understand what’s going on. And biblically, what it means is that we have hope in God to step foot into our destiny. And we like that word in church: destiny. That sounds good. God’s got a destiny for me. God’s leading me somewhere. I know that I’m going to be somewhere.
And I see it all the time: either we see it in the youth, like we grow up and we’re excited about these things, or we see a new believer coming to the church, and I’m excited about what God is doing. And then what happens? Over the next few months, reality really sets in. And like I said, you deal with angry people or you go through a frustrating season or you start to see the reality of your life not really lining up with what God spoke over your life, and that becomes difficult to process in your mind.
«God, I feel like you created me for a purpose, but everybody around me tells me I have no purpose, or everybody makes me feel like I’m a nobody.» Right? I try to reach out to people; I just want them to know I care, but it seems like nobody wants to talk to me. Nobody really cares about my situation or what I’m going through, and sometimes we feel completely alone. And this is how the enemy really gets us off track.
But let me encourage you with this, okay? The word says God says He has created you for a specific reason and He does have a destiny for your life. And guess what? As long as you walk in obedience and in faith, He will fulfill that purpose for your life. That’s good news! It’s not up to you to make it happen; it is up to you to be obedient, and I’m going to drill that into your minds every week: it is up to you to be obedient.
God is the one that makes it happen. He’s going to open up doors that you can never open up on your own. But when you walk in obedience and you trust, God is also going to show you His love in miraculous ways. In Psalm chapter 138, verse 8, the ESV version states, «The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me.» Can we say that together? Say it again, say it with me: «The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me.» How many of you believe that? Sometimes it’s a good idea to write it down, put it in your car, in your wallet, your purse, and remember that when you’re having a bad day. «The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me.» Because your steadfast love, O Lord, it endures forever; it never gives up.
God, you never give up on me. You do not forsake the work of your hand. So what I’m telling you today is you may feel exhausted and like you’ve got nothing left, but the truth is, God has a purpose for your life. God has a dream for your life. God has a destiny just for you.
Destiny vs. Distractions
But you know what’s interesting about the term destiny? It can also be translated in a different way; sometimes the word destiny can also be translated as the word desire. So think about that. So we hear it all the time: God has a destiny for your life. Yeah! Now let’s switch it up: God has a desire for your life. God has somewhere that He wants you to go. God has a place that He wants you to be. God has some big things that He wants you to fulfill.
But when there’s a desire in your life, also know this: the truth is you can’t rebel from that desire. You can decide to turn away from the destiny and the desire that God has for your life. Why? Because the truth is this: guess who else has a desire for your life? Satan. The enemy has a desire for your life, and he will do whatever he can to knock you off track. And guess what? His ultimate goal is to kill the dreams and the visions that God has placed inside your heart. And that’s what we experience when we walk in the world and we see things only in a worldly mindset. We feel the heaviness of the sin around us; we feel the heaviness and the weight of the world, and we start to do what? We start to give up on the dreams that God has placed inside our hearts.
But here’s what’s powerful: God will make known to you the path. This is His word. He will make it very clear. He will show you. Hey, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to be easy. Sometimes you’re going to want to walk a different direction, but God is going to make very clear the path that He wants you to take. Psalm chapter 16, verse 11, ESV again, says, «You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is a fullness of joy.» Doesn’t that sound good, though? Think about it. Not only will He make known to you the path of life, but as you walk in that path, no matter what happens, no matter what comes at you, there’s joy in your heart.
That’s why we become the crazy Christians. That’s why people in your workplace don’t understand why you’re so happy all the time. Right? They might even tell you, «Hey, you’re getting on my nerves! You’re always happy! Don’t you know the world is a crazy place right now? And things are happening? And people are losing their jobs?» Yeah, but God is still in control over my life, and there’s a joy in Him that I have that the enemy can never steal or take away. And it doesn’t matter what’s being thrown at me.
But at the same time, Satan is very clever. Nobody chooses to get off track from God. Right? Nobody comes into this church and says, «All right, God, I believe you have a destiny for my life, and I can’t wait to do it!» And then the following week, be like, «You know what? I’m just going to go my own route.» So how does the enemy do it? He’s very clever.
Listen, because I feel like in our minds we think, «All right, he’s going to attack me. He’s going to show up and do something crazy.» Biblically, what I see a lot is this: he offers distractions in your life. Where you don’t even know it, but all of a sudden you’ve walked off track. He will distract you all the time. He’ll bring distractions into your life, whether it’s temptations or whether it’s distractions of the world or the things going on. Think about it; how many times have you been like, «God, I’m going to pray today. I’m going to be in your word, ” and then as soon as you get in the word, over and over again, you shut the phone off, something else happens, somebody’s trying to get your attention.
The world is fighting for your attention because if he can keep you distracted, right, he feels like God can never use you, and eventually when that temptation comes, you’re not spiritually ready for it because God wants to pour into you, and a lot of us as Christians are walking around completely empty. We’ve got nothing left in the tank; we’ve got nothing left to give. Why? Because we’re giving all our energy and fuel straight up to the distractions of life.
Mark chapter 4, verses 18 and 19, New Living Translation, says that the seed fell among the thorns, and this represents others who hear the word of God. But listen to this: all too quickly, the message is crowded out. Why? By the worries of life. Worries of life. Would you say right now if you’re dealing with anxiety or stress or even depression, fear, is it because of this statement—the worries of life? —are pulling you down constantly? That’s what’s running in your mind. Again, there’s a stronghold in your mind. All you can think about is what the enemy is doing and never about what God can do, and you’re looking at the worries of life. It says the lure of wealth and the desire for these things—all of these are the tricks of the enemy.
Why? Because I want to make the statement known: you will reject your destiny from God when you are distracted by the desires of Satan. You can reject your destiny from God when you become distracted by the desires of Satan. He is always trying to pull you off track.
And so, in Ephesians chapter 5, verses 15 and 16, it says, „Hey, don’t live like the world. Don’t be like everybody else.“ Right? I know people are going to upset you. These are crazy times. But listen to this: even in these times, in the biblical times, Ephesians 5:15 and 16, „Hey, be careful how you live. I’ll speak like everybody else; don’t look at things like everybody else. Don’t live like fools; it’s foolishness. But live like those who are wise.“ What do the wise do? They make every opportunity; they make the most of every opportunity, even in these evil days.
Let that sink in for a second. Even in these evil days, when people just want to get at you and talk about you and share posts on social media about how bad of a person you are, even in these days, every second, every moment is an opportunity to impact the Kingdom of God. And guess what? You want to talk about a destiny, a desire from God: each step you take in that, you will ultimately be and step foot into the destiny that God has for your life.
Distractions are everywhere, and Satan is trying to get your attention. So the title of today’s message is this: „Do Dreams Come True? Do Dreams Come True?“
And again, I told you I want to talk about how God speaks to us, how you can hear clearly from God. And so I want to talk about prophetic dreams from God. Does God still speak this way? Does God still speak this way? Will He speak to you today? Is there something going on in your life? And all of a sudden you had this dream and you’re like, „Did God speak to me, or did I eat a lot of chocolate? Because I don’t really know.“ All right, so let’s look at the Bible. Let’s look at the word of God; what does it say?
God Speaks Through Dreams
Okay, many examples out of the Bible are prophets of God, the people of God, hearing from Him through dreams. Okay, this is how He’s always acted. Jacob dreamed and he saw a stairway to heaven. Joseph had a dream that one day his family would bow down to him. Now, they didn’t like that dream, okay? But he had a dream from God about that. Daniel dreamed about prophecies of the future. Even Joseph and Mary had a dream, and so they escaped all the way to Egypt with Jesus for safety because they knew that King Herod would come and try to kill Jesus.
And so we see it throughout the Bible, constantly God reaching His people through dreams. And isn’t it magnificent? It’s powerful that God would speak to us in such a way or that we see throughout the Bible that God already has spoken in such a way. In fact, Numbers chapter 12 tells us about the character of God. In Numbers chapter 12, verse 6, it says, „If there were prophets among you, ” guess what? „I, the Lord, would reveal myself through what? Visions. In fact, I would speak to them in dreams.“ It’s fascinating to me!
So if you look up the topic of dreaming dreams out of the Bible, you know it can be found around 115 times—around 115 times out of the Bible God has spoken to somebody through their dreams. In fact, visions can be found around 79 different times. And so we see out of the Bible that God will speak to His people in a miraculous way through dreams and show them visions.
Okay, but the big question is this; everybody’s asking, „But does God still do that today?“ Right? „Does God still do that today?“ Because the only voice that I’m hearing from the cloud comes from my iPhone. It’s a little dab joke. I thought it was clever. Anyway, all right? But you know how it feels, right? You know how it feels to be alone, and you’re asking God to do something, and then you’re reading these stories and you’re like, „God, you did so many incredible things, but did we still see it today?“ Like, I get it, there’s a spiritual warfare around me, but how do I even move if I don’t know how to hear from You to fight it? How do I have the energy to deal with these people that don’t want to hear about Your word? How do I get there?
God says, „I will speak to you in dreams.“ So let me ask you this question: would you agree that we’re getting closer to the last days? Okay, we get excited about that; we’re getting closer to the return of Jesus. Every day is a day closer to that day. What does the Bible say about the end days? Will dreams and visions stop, or will they increase according to His word?
Let’s look together. I like the answers today. You are doing good! Acts chapter 2, verse 17: „In the last days, God says, guess what? I’m going to pour out my Spirit upon all people, and your sons and your daughters are going to be able to prophesy, and your young men, they’re going to see visions, and your old men are going to dream dreams.“ In the last days, God will pour out His Holy Spirit even more. Dreams will not stop; visions will not stop. Why? Because we need direction from God. That’s ultimately what it is. You’ve been praying for an answer.
It’s funny, though. Many of us will pray for an answer, but then when we get it, we’re scared of it: „I don’t want you to do something weird! I just wanted you to say, you know, ‘Maybe through my mom have her call me and tell me everything’s going to be okay.’ You know, God just make it normal.“ But sometimes God says, „No, look, this is too important to be your normal because My thoughts are higher than your thoughts, and you don’t know what’s about to happen. But I’m going to use you because I’m showing you what it’s like to walk into your destiny.“
Three Ways God Uses Dreams
So I want to break this down for you. I want to make it as easy as I can. Biblically, dreams from God reveal three different things according to His word. All right, point A is this: they reveal an important message from God. Dreams from God will reveal an important message from God, meaning specifically over your life, okay, or what you may be going through. A lot of times you see out of the Bible it is a clear warning. „Hey, be careful; do not allow this into your life. Do not allow this person into your life, ” or „Hey, I know you’re about to choose this route; it’s not the best for you.“ Okay? And some of you have had those dreams before.
We see this out of the Bible too with the wise men when they were leaving, okay? To return to their own country, it was in a warning through a dream that told them, „Do not return the same way you came, because if you do, King Herod is looking again to kill Jesus.“ So go a different route in life; plan something new. Here is your warning and your red light: don’t do what you have been doing to get here. Okay? Matthew chapter 2, verse 12: „When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route, for God had warned them in a dream: do not return to Herod. Do not go that route.“
Some of you right now, you’re on a dangerous path. And it’s funny, as humans, it’s just what we do. Even as children, I see it: we’re always trying to push the boundaries. „All right, here’s the line; here’s where God’s telling me to go. But if I just kind of, right there, just one thing right there too”—start playing crisscross, you know what I mean? —and then next thing we know, the line is there and we’re on a totally different path. Right? So how do we get there? It’s because God is going to send you warnings, but you’ve got to listen to these warnings. You can’t just play them off.
And I will always remember this, and I’ve told this story a while back, but it’s so powerful. I remember when my family and I lived in Louisiana. My wife had a dream that just was stuck in my head. Okay? I didn’t forget it. And she told me, „Hey, I had this weird dream that we came home from Walmart, we had the kids in the car, we pulled into our driveway, and we were about to get all the groceries out, but there was this man walking on the street, and he had a bag, and as soon as we parked in the dream, he reached in the back, and when we got out of the car, he pulled a gun and he stole our truck.“ And she didn’t even know in the dream if the kids were still in the truck or what.
And I remember that just stuck with me. I’m like, „Oh, okay, I remember that one just in case.“ I kid you not, it wasn’t long after we came home from Walmart with the kids in the car. We’re sitting there, and a man is walking upon the street with a bag, and he stops right behind our truck and he stares at us. And at that moment, I remembered her dream, and I said, „We’re getting out of here.“ And so I put it in reverse. I drove around the block for a little while until he was gone. Finally, he left. Guess what? Nothing happened, but I still to this day believe that God showed us something. God was telling us a very important message: „Hey, something bad really could have happened.“
Which also means that God does want to speak to you to save you. He loves you! I need you to understand that He loves you. It’s our culture that has made Christianity normal to blend in; it was never meant to be. We were always meant to be a light in the darkness. Don’t limit God. Don’t tell Him what He can’t do. He can do anything—things that you can’t even imagine or fathom or understand. But He will send you these dreams. And so something that we have done now, especially my wife; she’s the big dreamer—she’ll write them down after she dreams something important. She feels like this could be from God; sometimes it happens right away; sometimes it’s a couple of years, and we look back at those dreams. But guess what? Each time we have a dream, this is how you know it’s a godly message: it offers hope, even when you’re about to go through pain or a hard time. Anytime it’s a message from God, it will offer hope. Why? Because that is a dream; that is a vision to hold on to, to keep moving, and step forward into your destiny.
Point B: Future Events
Point B is this: we receive dreams from God because they also reveal to us future events, future events. We see it a lot out of the Bible that the ruling kings would have troubling dreams. Okay? Two main characters that we know about are Pharaoh and we know about King Nebuchadnezzar. They both had these disturbing dreams, and they would pretty much reach out to their prophets. Okay? They would reach out to their seers; they would reach out to their wise men and these mystics, and they would have these ways of sorcery to try to interpret the dreams that they had. Right? And this hasn’t changed today. All right? There are many books out there that will use the same type of information to try to interpret your dreams.
But we see this out of the Bible; these men who did not know God would still have prophetic dreams. Now let me make this point very, very clear: God allowed a non-believer to have a prophetic dream, but God did not allow a non-believer to understand the meaning. Okay? God allowed a non-believer to have the dream, but God did not allow the non-believer to understand the meaning. Why? Because it’s the Holy Spirit at work upon the prophets of God to be able to reveal the mystery.
I love what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit. He says, „Hey, you need to wait; the Advocate is coming. The Helper is coming. The Comforter is coming.“ All these actions of the Holy Spirit. And you’ve had those moments too. Maybe you’re in here, maybe you’re tired, you’re sleepy, and then all of a sudden something just resonates, and it pulls you in, and it draws you in. What is that? It’s the Holy Spirit pulling upon your heart, pretty much telling you, „Wake up! This is for you! Keep moving!“ Or you’ve been in the Bible, and you’ve seen this scripture that you’ve grown up hearing about over and over again, and then one day you read it like, „Well, how come I’ve never seen that?“ What is that? It’s the Holy Spirit! He’s working on your behalf.
And what I love about God is He reveals the mysteries to His children and He shares with you what the world will never understand or know. And He gives you hope even in hard times. And so let me say it like this: revelation is only revealed by the Spirit of God. Revelation is only revealed by the Spirit of God. And so they had these dreams, and it was Joseph that revealed to Pharaoh, „Hey, you know what? We’re going to have a time where all the crops and all the land are going to produce a lot, but after that, all of a sudden, we’re going to go through extreme famine.“
So during this time, we need to save up, and then other people are going to come up to us and they’re going to want food, and you’re going to prosper out of this. Why? Because it was a dream from God, and it’s revealed to Joseph by the Holy Spirit. The same thing with Daniel and King Nebuchadnezzar. King Nebuchadnezzar had a disturbing dream of the statue. Now, it was a prophetic dream of the future, and he was having dreams of these coming empires that would rule the nations after Babylon. Okay? And there’s a lot to it; it’s really fascinating. But none of his people could understand it, and these kings were ready to kill people. They’ll take out your life if you can’t interpret this dream. They were panicking, and the world is always panicking about what God is telling you, because God will reveal to you a mystery, something powerful, and you will understand it by the power of the Holy Spirit, and I think that’s fascinating.
Point C: Revelation and Hope
Point C is this: dreams of revelation. Dreams of revelation. Let me ask you this question: have there ever been times in your life where you’re looking at everything going on around you and you’re like, „Man, my life is really messed up. I have a lot of problems; I have a lot of issues“? All right? There are things happening right now in my life that I don’t understand. Yet, you still have hope that God is in control. And you know that feeling when you look at everything, and you don’t understand why you would have hope, but you know that God is there and you feel that?
See, the Bible is very clear; it says that there are children of the world and that there are children of the light. And here’s the big major difference about the power of the Holy Spirit: the children of the world will never understand real hope. So don’t believe the lies from the world because constantly everything you listen to, everything you watch, right? It’s going to tell you, „Hey, put your hope in this. If you just had this amount of money, man, you’ll be good. If you have this relationship and you’re able to take these pictures on Instagram, hey, good for you! Let’s hope.“ No! People are completely disappointed because hope in the world is temporary—constantly temporary. We’re always chasing what’s next, what’s better, what’s bigger, what’s greener on the other side, and then we’re disappointed again, and we just can’t get enough of the world until finally, the track is so off-path: we’re so off-path of the track that God has for us, we no longer believe that He’s speaking to us. And that’s when depression really sinks in, and we don’t understand.
Luke chapter 16, verse 8: it is true that the children of the world are more shrewd, meaning that they easily cast judgment—they easily judge—they don’t see the hope, but they see negative out of everything and are dealing with the world around them. But we are different. Why? Because we are children of the light. And you know what it’s like to be around somebody like that that has a worldly mindset? You know why they’re constantly negative about everything? Everything. „I think the situation’s going to get better.“ „No, I think we’re going to be okay.“ „We’re going to make it.“ „No, you’re dumb! You’re stupid!“ And you hear these things, and I’ve had these things even spoken in our life and in Christian minds—life about what God was telling us—and people will be like, „Man, you’re dumb! Why would you believe something like that, that God could do something?“ What you’re doing is too risky. You really think God would use somebody like you?
Remember, even Jesus wasn’t welcome in His hometown, and sometimes we listen to the lies of the enemy, and I’m telling you, keep the dream of God alive in your heart! Don’t give up because that’s the destiny that is spoken over you. And I don’t know what it looks like; it may look different from mine. It doesn’t mean you’re going into ministry, but it may mean that God’s gonna start a business through you that makes an impact for the Kingdom. It may mean that God gives you a promotion, sets you around people that you don’t even like, but you’re able to change their life. You never know what God is doing. Why? Because you’re children of the light, meaning take control of every opportunity in this evil time to still glorify God.
Let me give you one example of this: Joseph had a dream, right? He dreamed that his family was bowing down to him. Side note, okay? If you have a dream like that, you might want to keep it to yourself for a little bit. You might make people angry. His brothers didn’t like the dream—even his dad! His dad didn’t like it either. He’s pretty much saying, „You know what? You had a dream that we’re gonna bow down to you? I don’t think so!“ I don’t know about this. But as he started to ponder, he also remembered, „Hey, I had a dream too a long time ago, and God showed me something miraculous. I saw a stairway to heaven, and I saw angels coming down to earth, and I know that when God shows you these things, He’s also revealing something to you.“
So he pondered the meaning while his brothers were negative and sold him into slavery. Isn’t that crazy? That’s what a stronghold will do to you. You don’t take care of it; you leave that door wide open, and it just gets worse and worse and worse. Let me show you this: Genesis chapter 37, verse 11: „But while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father wondered about what the dream meant.“ Now why would his father think that? Because at first, if you read the passage before, his father is like, „Are you saying we’re going to bow down to you?“ Because I don’t think so. I don’t know about this. But as he started to ponder, he also remembered, „Hey, I had a dream too a long time ago, and God showed me something miraculous.“
So he pondered the meaning while his brothers were negative and sold him into slavery. But did God take care of Joseph? It doesn’t matter what the world throws at you. It doesn’t matter what people say about you or how they try to hurt you. You keep following God; He’s going to lead you to your destiny every time.
So to recap some of the things that we just learned: dreams from God reveal to us what? An important message; they reveal to us future events and revelations. But here’s what I notice. I start to talk about this subject; people are like, „Pastor, I don’t know. I don’t know. I mean, I get it that it’s in the Bible, but you know, I never had that type of dream before. At least I don’t know about it.“ And like I said, maybe I watched something weird on Netflix one night and I had that dream. Like, I don’t know if I believe that God speaks to us in this type of way.
Here’s what I find out every time I dive deeper into the conversation, and I realize that people stop believing that God can communicate, and they stop believing in dreams from God when the reality around them doesn’t seem to line up with what God spoke over them, and they become disappointed. „God, He spoke this over me! I had a pastor come, and he prayed over me, and he said things were going to get better, but it completely contradicts everything that I’m seeing in my life!“
People stop believing in dreams from God because it contradicts the path that they are on today sometimes. And you think, „Well, it doesn’t line up.“ For example, there are some people that I’ve seen that say, „You know what? God told me this year I’m gonna be restored!“ So why am I going through a divorce if God spoke that over me right now? Why am I still going through a divorce? Or, „This year a pastor prayed over me, and he says, ‘I’m gonna grow.’ And I really believed it because I heard it from God too, and it was a powerful moment, and God said I’m going to grow, but instead, I got let go of my job!“
So how does this line up together? How does this make sense in our life? So I want to open up your eyes today and give you two points before we leave. I have an illustration I’m going to ask you guys to come up here real quick because here’s what I notice out of the Bible, and here’s what I’ve also witnessed in my own life.
The Puzzle Illustration
You guys can stand right there. All right? And do we have the pieces? Go ahead and bring those up. See, I’ve noticed a lot of us, when we pray to God, say, „God, I want the answer now!“ All of it. The truth is, you can’t really handle all the answer at one time, let’s be honest. And for some of you, many of us, we’ve had an answer—we didn’t like it! All right? I don’t want to accept that answer! I don’t want to go there!
And so I realized—go ahead and hand them the puzzle pieces—that a lot of times God speaks to us like a puzzle. Now, does He do this to be mean? No! But what happens is He speaks to us a little bit, and He shows us something out of His glory, and He reveals it, and it becomes a mystery. And what happens is we start seeking God more, and guess what? That increases in your life: faith! So the next time you don’t have the answer, you don’t give up, and that’s powerful, and that every time will restore you and help you walk into your destiny.
And so I want to give an example real quick, okay? So here’s an example out of the Bible. All right. Jeremiah predicted—go ahead, if you have the Jeremiah puzzle piece. Now, I wrote it on here, but we should have it on the screen too because you might not be able to see it. But Jeremiah gave a prophecy to King Zedekiah, and he spoke over him and said, „You know what? God is going to take you to Babylon. You’re going to go into captivity and God is going to bring you into Babylon. This is going to be your destiny if you keep rebelling against God.“
Okay? King Zedekiah was not a good king. All right? He was rebelling against God, so this was a warning. Yet, at the same time, let’s go ahead and turn the other one, and let me read Jeremiah 32:5. „He would take Zedekiah to Babylon, and I will deal with him there, ” says the Lord. Now, Ezekiel also gave a prophecy, „You will not see Babylon.“ Okay? Jeremiah: God will take you to Babylon. Ezekiel: You will not see Babylon. See, sometimes God speaks to us in this way, and we’re like, „Um, I don’t get it. It’s almost like it doesn’t add up. It doesn’t fit together.“ Right?
Let me read Ezekiel chapter 12, verse 13: „It does say I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Babylonians, though he will not see it; he’ll never see it; he’ll die there.“ And so it’s even thought that maybe King Zedekiah did not believe the warning or the prophecy because he thought they contradicted each other. Maybe he thought, „Nothing’s going to happen to me; I’m going to be okay; I’m not worried about any of this.“ But do you know what happened? See, there’s another puzzle piece. See, first of all, God was testing: would he repent? Would he obey the Lord?
See, God is going to speak a word into your life that doesn’t always make sense right away with your situation, and sometimes you’re going to get two pieces of it, and it doesn’t add up. But God is still testing you in a way to listen and to seek. And here’s what actually happened—this is what’s fascinating to me! In 2 Kings chapter 25, verse 7, guess what happened to King Zedekiah? He was held captive. He was pretty barbaric; his sons were killed in front of him, but also, they gouged out his eyes and they took him into Babylon.
These at first don’t make sense; they don’t line up. But when you know the full story, like God knows, you realize he did go into captivity. But they gathered out his eyes—so even going into Babylon, he did not see it. Isn’t that powerful? And God speaks to us in this way. But it hurts my heart how many people that I see on the verge of a miracle completely give up and walk away because to them it doesn’t make sense with the reality that they’re seeing. You’ve got to keep trusting! Can I take these from you? Thank you guys so much. Can we all give them a hand?
Because let me show you this too. A lot of times God will give you a piece and says, „Hey, you’re going to grow. This is going to be your growth for you. You’re going to be good.“ But then somebody else gives you a warning and then says, „You know what? But you’re also going to lose your job.“ „But I’m going to grow at the same time?“ God, you’re warning me that I’m going to lose my job? I don’t know if I believe this anymore! I don’t know if I could deal with this—this dreams and visions thing; it’s too complicated for me.
And here’s what I’ve seen: the puzzle piece that is missing a lot of times is that God is going to grow you in your faith. But here’s He’s not trying to scare you. When He says, „Hey, you’re going to lose your job, ” we get scared. No! He’s warning you so you can prepare. „You’re going to lose your job, but keep growing in faith because I will open up a brand new door with a better opportunity for your life.“
I’ve seen it in my own life! When it looked like everything was shutting down and closing up and there was no more hope, God adds that last puzzle piece that makes sense. And when the whole puzzle is together, you witness the miraculous power of the God we serve! Amen? And He’s doing that for you even when you wanted to walk away, even when you were distracted, even when you followed the desires of the enemy instead of the desires of God. He did that for you every time!
Final Challenge
He’s speaking! This is my last point that I want to leave you with, and this is the hard reality of it all. Point number two: you choose to complete the puzzle or give up. You choose to complete the puzzle or give up in many cases. And when God speaks, happening around you in regions for even other people, God’s still going to make it happen because that’s His word—that’s His purpose. But specifically, God will also speak into your life and tell you, „If you choose to follow me, then you’ll walk into your destiny.“ But the enemy is constantly trying to get your attention, and he’ll offer you cheap thrills, instant satisfaction, eternal damnation.
And constantly God is reaching to you, and I’m telling you, it really breaks my heart how many people are giving up, walking away. And so if God gives you a piece, write it down! Remember what He spoke to you! Remember what was prayed over you! „God, You said I’m gonna grow, and I lost my job!“ „God, I still believe Your word! God, You said I’m going to grow, but I lost my relationships, or someone I love just died, and it’s hard, but there’s a sickness in my life now and I’m depressed. But I know that the dream that You have given me that You placed inside of my heart gives me hope. And because of that, through You, Lord, I still have the strength to keep moving and never stop and never quit!“
I’m going to ask you to stand. For some of you right now, the puzzle may not be complete, but will you trust God to reveal all the pieces? Will you trust God to show you His glory? I’m telling you today, you’ve been praying, „God, do You speak to me? Do You hear me?“ He speaks to you, and one of the ways He will speak to you is through dreams and visions. He places it upon your heart so that you don’t give up! But I promise you, there’s more! And over the next few weeks, I’m going to show you. I’m going to show you His power; I’m going to show you His authority. And, most of all, I’m going to show you that He loves you, and He does not want you to give up. Keep praying.