Gregory Dickow - Turning Your Dream Into Your Destiny
I want to talk to you about turning your dream into your destiny. Turning your dream into your destiny. Because if you feel stuck in cycles of unfulfilled dreams, inactivity, wishful thinking, or underperformance, this podcast is for you. If you want to turn your dream into reality, into destiny, this podcast is for you. And I want to start with a metaphor right out of the Bible, in Genesis chapter 40, because it cuts deep and provides a real sobering contrast between two types of people: dreamers who live in their heads versus those who move their dreams into their hands.
So let me read this passage to you from Genesis 40:9 through 20. So the chief cupbearer- what happened here was Joseph is in Pharaoh’s prison. And the chief cupbearer and the chief baker end up being thrown into jail with him. Joseph, who is an interpreter of dreams, is asked by each of them to interpret their dreams. They both had a dream, and they realized he was the dream interpreter, so they asked him, and he gave them the interpretations. Here’s what he said: Now the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said, «In my dream, behold, there was a vine in front of me, and on the vine were three branches. As it was budding, its blossoms came out, and its clusters produced rich, ripe grapes. Now Pharaoh’s cup was in my hands.»
This is the dream of the cupbearer, the one who holds the cup of wine for the king and drinks the cup of wine so that Pharaoh does not die of poison. If the cupbearer drinks it first, he dies of poison. Now we know somebody was trying to poison Pharaoh. Okay, so that’s what’s going on here. That’s what a cupbearer did. And it said, «Now Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand. I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I put the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.» Then Joseph said to him, «This is the interpretation of your dream: The three branches are three days. Within three more days, Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup into his hand according to your former custom as the cupbearer. Only keep me in mind when it goes well with you, and please do me a kindness by mentioning me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison.»
He goes on to say, Joseph does, «For I was in fact kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and even here, I have done nothing that they should have put me in this dungeon for.» So now when the chief baker saw that he had interpreted favorably, he said to Joseph, «I also had a dream, and I had three baskets of white bread on my head.» And verse 17 says, «In the top basket there were some of all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, and the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.»
Then Joseph answered him and said, «This is the interpretation of your dream: The three baskets are three days. Within three more days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from you, and he will hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat your flesh off of you.» Joseph’s probably thinking, «Hey guy, I’m just the interpreter; I’m not the dream maker. I’m just the interpreter. Don’t shoot the messenger!» But verse 20 says, «Thus it came about on the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that that’s exactly what happened. He made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants.»
And obviously, as you know, the baker was executed and the cupbearer was restored to his former position, and both dreams were correct. But there is a huge contrast that I want you to see between these two people. What is the big idea, really? What is the big idea of this metaphor? What is the big idea of this story? What is the big idea of this history? Here is the big idea: Your heart and your hands must agree. Your heart and your hands must agree. You can’t just dream it! Now we’re talking about turning your dreams into your destiny, right? You can’t just dream it; you must do it. You can’t just mean well; you must move well.
Now this is such an important contrast: You can’t just mean well; you must move well. What this is showing us in this amazing scripture is that your intentions might be right, your intentions might be good, but if there’s not movement toward the thing that you are intending to bring to pass, then it won’t happen. If your heart burns for something but your hands stay in your pockets, it’s not passion; it’s just passivity.
You see, you can’t just mean well; you must move well. This is all about intention: You might have a good intention, but if there’s no movement backing up that intention, it’s not going to come to pass. Your dream is not going to become your destiny. Your dream is not going to become your reality. If your heart burns for something but your hands stay in your pockets, it’s not passion; it’s passivity. Did you hear that? If your heart burns for something, but your hands stay in your pockets, it’s not passion; it’s passivity.
Now why is this so important? I want to give you a few takeaways from this. The interpretation of this is so important. The baker had baskets on his head; the cupbearer held a cup in his hand. Think about that! The cupbearer held a cup in his hand. It says here in verse 11, he was actively serving. The baker just had baskets on his head. This is a symbol of the dream in your head but not in your hands. It’s a symbol of passive hope and unexecuted plans. One of these men was restored to his position, and one of them was executed.
And the interpretation of that is the cupbearer’s dream was rooted in action. You’ve got to get a hold of this: The cupbearer’s dream was rooted in action. He served Pharaoh. He moved with his hands. There was movement with his hands. The baker’s dream remained in his head. There was no action. There was no outreach. There was no effort.
Now let me give you some key takeaways here that you can apply to your everyday life. Your head holds your dreams. Number one takeaway: Your head holds your dreams, but your hands release your destiny. Your heart holds your dreams, but your hands release your destiny. Your heart holds your dream, but your hands hold your destiny. Dreams that just stay in your head die. Dreams that make it to your hands or to your actions, those dreams live.
Key takeaway number two: Hope in your head without movement in your hands is dangerous. The baker hoped; he hoped but never moved. His story ended in death. Passivity kills potential. It’s dangerous because passivity kills potential. This guy ends up being killed. Why? Because his dream stayed in his head. It didn’t make it to his hands. You might say, «Well, that’s not something that you can draw from this passage.» But it really is something you can draw from this passage because the Bible is full of metaphors, true stories, and these also serve as metaphors.
Your hands reveal your posture. Get a hold of that. Your hands reveal your posture. The cupbearer served. He lifted his hands, not just his thoughts. This is the posture of service that leads to promotion. When you realize your hands are created to work, to serve, to extend, to help, to move things, to build things, to create things, every architect has the right intention. But without a builder, that architect’s plan is never going to come to pass. Drawings on paper don’t produce buildings on the ground until your plans turn into your hands. The plans must enter the hands, not just the head.
Okay, so these are vital takeaways. Particularly this one: your hands reveal your posture. You should really look at your life and say, «All right, where am I just talking but not acting? Where am I just talking, but my hands are not revealing my posture or my hands are revealing the wrong posture?» And the posture of service led to promotion. The cupbearer served. He lifted his hands, not just his thoughts. The posture produced promotion.
And key takeaway number four: God uses the hands of the diligent. This is a powerful verse. I love this verse in Proverbs 12: 24. It says, «The hand of the diligent will rule.» See, God uses the hands of the diligent. It’s not what you know; it’s not what you dream; it’s not what you feel. It’s what you put in your hands. It’s what you do with your hands. This is so important. And it’s what you do with what God has given you. So the diligent hand will rule.
Now look at the rest of this verse in Proverbs 12:24. «The hand of the diligent will rule, but the lazy hand will be put to forced labor.» You see, the only jobs that are available to the lazy are the jobs that people have to force them to do. This is so critical that you get a hold of this, that these are the takeaways. And let’s go over them again real quick.
Your head holds your dreams, but your hands hold your destiny. Hope in your head without movement in your hands is dangerous. Your hands reveal your posture. And number four: God uses the hands of the diligent. The diligent hand will rule, but the lazy hand will be put to forced labor.
Now if your hands aren’t moving, let me just jump to this next concept. If your hands aren’t moving, don’t lie to yourself about your heart burning. Love for the mission shows up in the motion. Really, this is critical. Your love for the mission shows up in the motion. If there’s no motion, there’s no love for the mission. Love for the mission creates motion, and motion creates momentum, and momentum creates realities, and realities create destinies.
Now, how do we take this and practically apply it to our lives? What is the practical path to reality? What is the practical path to destiny? I’d even say this is the practical path to revival, to bringing to life anything that’s dead, to bringing to life anything that’s dying. There’s a practical path to bring this dream to life, to turn this dream into reality, and to bring you into your destiny. So how do we do that?
Well, number one: You have to admit where there’s misalignment. You have to admit where your heart and your hand are not in alignment, or your head and your hand. And I want to specify both of those things are vital -your heart and your head. But both of those have to lead to your hand doing something about it. So we need to admit where we are misaligned. Where is my hand in this, and where is my head in this? Is my hand in this or just my head?
And really, I think the heart of the matter actually is that it can’t just be in your head; it has to be in your heart. When it moves from your head to your heart, then it moves to your hands. You know, I used to preach the gospel on college campuses as kids would walk by. I used to have this saying that I heard from some other evangelists. This is in my earliest years of being a Christian. I was preaching on a secular college campus. It wasn’t a Christian school at all. These kids would be going to class, and I’d be preaching to them as they were going to class.
I would go to class myself, then have a 10-minute break, and during the 10-minute break, I was preaching to everybody outside. But I remember I used to use this illustration, and I would yell out, «14 inches! 14 inches!» And people would say, «What’s that? What’s 14 inches? What does that mean?» «You’re 14 inches from heaven.» The reality of Jesus needs to move from your head to your heart. And when it moves from your heart, it will move into your mouth, and you’ll declare salvation-14 inches from heaven-the distance between just knowing something in your head and believing it in your heart.
Because when you actually believe something in your heart, it shows up in your hands. Am I showing up? Is my hand in this or just my head? Do I show up physically but not mentally, emotionally, or spiritually? This is a realignment that has to take place. You have to admit there’s a misalignment and get these two things in alignment: the head and the hands.
The second way to bring our dreams into reality is we have to accept this truth without shame. We have to accept the truth of our misalignment without shame and guilt. Why? Because guilt paralyzes, but truth mobilizes. We have to learn to accept the truth without guilt and without shame. Like, I have to be willing to admit, «You know what? It’s true that in this area of my life, I am misaligned.» My head is in it, but my hand’s not in it. My head is in it, but my effort’s not in it. Or my head is not in it either. Neither my head nor my hand is in it.
And so we have to be willing to accept the truth without making ourselves guilty and shaming ourselves because there’s no good that’s going to come out of condemnation and beating yourself up. Then we need to take inventory and ask ourselves, «What have I actually produced this month?»
And then number four, we need to move from consumer to producer. Now, what is the difference between a consumer and producer? Most people on social media are consumers, not producers. But here’s how we answer that question or we ask the question: A consumer asks, «What am I getting out of this?» A producer asks, «What am I giving into this?»
Once again, a consumer asks, «What am I getting out of this?» A producer asks, «What am I giving into this?» This is what brings you into a reality-a dream into a reality, a dream into a destiny-when you’re able to say, «You know what? I have to admit I’ve been looking for what I’m getting out of this, but I’m going to start today thinking about and answering the question, 'What am I giving into this? '»
Because when you realize what you give into something is what you receive. As the Beatles put it, «The love you take is equal to the love you make.» In other words, if you are not making and giving, then you are not going to be able to receive. This is such a fundamental truth of scripture: «Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over.» You’ll reap what you sow.
Now listen, our salvation is not in question; God’s love for us is not in question. What’s in question is: Are we moving our dreams from our head to our hands so we can see those dreams come to pass and change our lives and change the lives of other people around us? This is so important that we understand that we will deceive ourselves if we think as long as we have this idea in our head, it will eventually come to pass. It won’t, because dreams don’t come to pass through good intentions. Dreams come to pass through consistent action.
Let’s close with these thoughts: Don’t die with your dreams in your head. Don’t be a baker carrying baskets of unbaked plans and unacted intentions. Be the cupbearer! Put something in your hand, pour it, serve it, give it to somebody. That’s the difference between potential and promotion: you keep it in your head, unbaked, or you put it in your hands and you serve. So let your hands say amen to what your heart believes.