Dream GOD-Sized Dreams

There has been a trend in my life lately toward dreaming God-sized dreams.

For those of you familiar with the blog Heart to Heart with Holley, you’ve likely heard of this… but I actually didn’t see the postings she had on this topic until after an email conversation with my new friend in Christ, Lisa Marie. She and I met when I noticed she had written on the wall of someone we both admire, someone very gifted in the Spirit with the gift of prophecy, and I wrote her a note.

Dreams of pouring rain. Fiona rain. We’d been having these dreams, not knowing for sure what was coming, but the three of us (Lisa Marie, the gentleman in question, and I) had dreamed of and seen torrents of rain pouring down. This is what brought Lisa Marie and I together, and in her closing to the initial note… “Dream God sized dreams.” It was part of her signature, her sign-off…

And then later that day, I came across Holly’s blog, a wonderful blog. And I have heard it at least a couple of times since… so as a recurring theme for my week I wanted to share this admonition with you:

Dream God-sized dreams. His dreams are bigger than we could ever imagine. They are as deep, wide, and wonderful as His love is.

How do we do this?

We allow God to dream through us. We allow HIM to set the plans up; we seek His guidance in the steps we are to take in life, because He’s the One Who knows the whole story… beginning to end, inside out and from back to front.

Dream God-sized dreams.

DREAM, and let the dreams be God-sized.

Allow Him to DREAM through YOU.

If you’ve already dreamed God-sized dreams… what have you learned from them? What did God help you to understand? How were you blessed?

What was your God-sized dream?

What will be your next one?

Will you allow God to dream through you and in doing so, go above and beyond the dreams of your own heart into a place of larger than life blessings in Him?

I challenge you: Dream GOD-Sized Dreams…

God is omnipresent; everywhere. That’s a big God. That’s incomprehensibly huge. And He has dreams for us that are just as big… just as wonderful… just as awesome as we can imagine… any far beyond.

Yes, You Can!

If you want to be in a different place, you must believe and do things differently.  ~Dave Ramsey

Where are you?

Look around at your life, relationships, work experience, habits, attitude, and how you prioritize your life. Seriously. Look around at it. Stop reading and think… where am I?

If you don’t like where you are, you need to get somewhere else before you can become the person you wish to be.

The dreaded C words again. Change. Choice. Here they come…

If you don’t like what is happening in your life, you cannot change other people but you CAN change yourself. You can’t change how others treat you, but you CAN change whether you choose to be around them or not. You can’t change your relationships overnight, but you CAN change them a step at a time, a moment at a time, a choice at a time. You CAN change where you are through making small steps.

Tiny steps will get you somewhere just the same as leaping and bounding, and you’ll have more energy for the journey and a better track record with others and yourself by utilizing this method.

There are times where leaps and bounds are appropriate, even necessary. Times when we MUST change something drastically, quickly, or the consequences of NOT doing so will be too detrimental.

Where do you need to take leaps and bounds in your life?

Where do you need to take tiny steps?

Both will get you where you need to go… somewhere different than the circumstances you are currently in… but wisdom and grace are needed to help you know which type of step to take.

If someone’s life is in danger, or their relationship in jeopardy… if there needs to be a major attitude adjustment in order to keep a roof over your head or to keep the bills paid… these are times when we should be leaping, bounding, sprinting toward a new place.

If we are trying to lose a few pounds, get into a new habit, become a better person in some way, small steps are what will help us get where we are going. Small steps insure that we are less likely to backtrack, to go backward, to misstep and twist the proverbial ankle.

Where do you need to take leaps and bounds?

Where do you need to take tiny steps?

Take them accordingly, and you’ll get closer to your goals, dreams, and visions. Dave Ramsey is right: “If you want to be in a different place, you must believe and do things differently.” By staying in the same place; by believing the same paradigms; by keeping all the same habits; by remaining static you will never get where God wants you to go.

There are times to stand and wait for God to move… but sometimes it is GOD waiting on US to make the moves we must  that will help Him to make the moves He needs to make in conjunction with us. It is time to upset some of our paradigms. It is time to shake things up a bit. Time to do what God says we can do and has shown us we can do even when we think we can’t. Time to say, OK GOD, I trust you. He’s telling you, “You can do it. Yes you can!”

Ask Him what kind of steps He wants you to take. He will guide you if you allow Him to… and pretty soon, you’ll realize you have moved.

Before You Get a Second Opinion...

Before you get a second opinion, make sure you have a first one. 
~ T.D. Jakes

Tell me… what’s your opinion?

Your opinion on Who God Is…

Your opinion on who YOU are…

Your opinion on what is right, on what is wrong, on what is just, on what is unjust…

Tell me… what’s your opinion?

Your opinion on your own decisions…

Your opinion on what you believe about the government…

Your opinion on the next step you should take in your life…

Your opinion on who should or shouldn’t be in your life…

Your opinion on what music to listen to, books to read, people to lunch with…

What’s your opinion?

T.D. Jakes reminds us that it is before… not after… we get someone else’s opinion on a matter, we should have our own. Of course, it’s good to have God’s opinion weigh in on ours, for those of us who believe in Him, but seriously… what’s YOUR opinion? Where do YOU stand?

There are times we are tempted to look for outside opinions before voicing our own, or before making a decision. Times when we don’t want to look like we’re different from the crowd around us… but is it really all that bad being unique?

Our opinion is one of the ways we can show we are unique… that we aren’t part of the crowd, faceless, nameless, opinionless, just going with the flow of everyone else’s thoughts and words.

There are times where everyone goes with the flow of an opinion and nobody even likes the opinion… but because everyone else is doing it, or they think so, then they will join in. Nobody wants to see or talk about the proverbial pink elephant in the room.

But now… now is the time to stand out and be the star that you are. Share your OWN opinion without fear that others won’t like it. What’s the worst that can happen? They don’t like your opinion. So what?

If I had a nickel for every time I had a different opinion someone else didn’t like, I’d have a lot more money right now… but at the same time, if I had to pay a nickel for every time I went along with the crowd’s opinion just because I was afraid of what they might say, where would I be? I don’t think I’d tie and break even, but I wouldn’t be in nickel debt, either…

What is your opinion?

What is YOUR opinion?

WHAT is your opinion?

What is your OPINION?

Until you know your own opinion, what’s the use of finding someone else’s? For all you know, they are placating you or others, trying to bump up their image in someone’s eyes rather than being authentic themselves.

When we can honestly share our opinions and not fear the response or reactions of others, we are being authentic. It is a step toward authenticity.

On the other hand, we don’t need to disparage others’ opinions or lack thereof, either. They have a choice to make. You have a choice to make. Make sure your choice is really YOUR choice.

Patience & Wisdom

  A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense. ~Prov. 19:11

Where is your wisdom?

Tell me what arena(s) you’re patient in and you will know.

Whose offenses do you overlook? Anyone’s? Only certain people’s? And how often?

Proverbs tells us that we are wise when we are patient and when we overlook the offenses of those around us.

Where is your wisdom? Look to whose offenses you overlook. Look to where you are patient. Look to where your patience meets your forgiveness and you will find it…

Jewels

We all find jewels; powerful quotes that change our lives. Jewels sparkle, they change us, we see their beauty and their truth and their authenticity. Powerful quotes change who we are if we allow them to.

Jewels will be a series... a series that hopefully YOU, dear reader, will contribute to...

In this first part, I will add a handful of quotes that have changed my OWN life recently. And I'd like to know... what quotes have brought YOU pause? What have you learned? What JEWELS have you found... quotes that have changed who you are for the better?

JEWELS, Part 1 begins...

Keep expectation alive. Remember today is the tomorrow you were praying for  yesterday. Make the most of the best and the least of the worst.   ~ Kim Clement

The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts.  ~Heraclitus

You can't find the right answer if you're asking the wrong question.  ~John Maxwell

Like a Phoenix rises from the ashes, great things always come out of adversity. Things may look down for me now but that is not at all what I see. I see trouble trying to stop me from reaching my victory.  ~Alicia Cross

People w/ humility don't think less of themselves; they just think of themselves less.  ~Blanchard & Peale

Correction does much, but encouragement does more.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Do we want to have faith in Jesus, or do we want to have the faith of Jesus?   ~Madeline L'Engle

Living with integrity means:
Not settling for less than what you know you deserve in your relationships.
Asking for what you want and need from others.
Speaking your truth, even though it might create conflict or tension.
Behaving in ways that are in harmony with your personal values.
Making choices based on what you believe, and not what others believe.  ~ Barbara De AngelisUnderstanding is nothing else than conception caused by speech.  ~Thomas Hobbes

In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.  ~Mother Teresa

The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.   ~Thomas Henry Huxley

Love me when I least deserve it, because that is when I need it the most.  ~Swedish proverb

An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one who nobody can imitate.  ~de Chateaubriand

We already have so much abundance. We truly do. We need not search too far. It is within. The reason we fail to
recognize this is because we haven't quite mastered the art of being. For abundance to prevail, we must have love, gratitude, acceptance and compassion.  ~John Welwood

God holds the future in the palm of His hand... the path we take to get there may determine the route, but He determines the endpoint.  ~Harmony L. Courtney

Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.  ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied.  ~Arnold Glasow

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. ~Anais Nin

Wait and Be Still

Sometimes all we can do is wait. Be still. Be silent. Wait.

‎"The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." Exodus 14:14

The Lord will be on our side if we follow His instructions for our lives… but isn’t waiting hard sometimes? I know it is for me. Isn’t it hard to just… wait and be still and see what will happen?

We all want to have more control in life than we do, but the thing is, God is in control of the things we see as uncontrollable as well as the things we think we’re in control of. He is in the omniscient business, the omnipresent business, and the omnipotent business. He knows all at all times about all of us, past, present, and future, and has the power to help us get where we’re headed in life if we will follow His instructions.

I know there have been times I have gotten frustrated waiting on the Lord, wondering who things seem to be taking so long and then, sometimes years later, I see why. I get it. Something clicks and I go, “so that’s what was up.”

I am in one of those times in my life once again, and all I can do is trust God, be still, and wait for whatever He wills to happen. The scary part of that is, it’s not just one area of my life… it IS my life. Literally. But I cannot allow that to hold me back or keep me from living while I wait, while I’m still before Him, while I wait for Him to fight on my behalf. The Lord will fight for me if I let Him do so… but if I try to do things on my own ahead of His timing or out of His plan, it isn’t going to work. I must be still and know He is God, and not I. He is the One Who has it all figured out. Not I. He is the One Who I must wait on and when I do, I will see that He is good… I will be reminded, God is good all the time, and all the time He is ever so good… He will fight for me the battles I think I must fight but cannot. He will fight for me. I must be still. I must know that HE alone is God. I must trust.

Where do you find yourself fighting when God has said, “I will fight for you if you are still and allow Me to work?” Where are you moving where He has told you to be still? Where are you still where He has told you that you must take action? Both are parts of God’s plan for us… and they are equally important parts of the package of obedience we lay at His feet…

Change

What is it about change that freaks people out?

If I change something in my life, is it really that threatening to you? If I change, then something in your own life automatically changes. But change can be a good thing, not just something negative.

Some people use change in others’ lives or in their circumstances to make changes for the better in their own. Others decide to continue a pattern of change once they have made one. Still others are adamant they will not change, even though in truth, we all change based on what we experience, who we are around, what we allow into our systems mentally, emotionally, relationally, spiritually, physically, and so forth.

Change can be a very good thing even when it comes from a place we don’t like or agree with.

I could get into myriad examples, but will leave you with one:

Say your next door neighbor is known for her long, luxurious red hair. For years, you have admired it and heard the neighbors do the same. Yet, say that today she decides to get her hair cut into a pixie and dyed blonde. At first you don’t recognize her as she walks up your driveway to say hello. Once you do, you choose to either respond positively or negatively. You realize that this is something you will need to get used to.

Simplistic as the above example is, it shows the power of choice and of change. When someone makes a choice it affects those around her whether or not she realizes it. When that change happens, others will either accept or try to reject the change that has taken place. They can embrace or run.

On a larger scale, this can be seen as corporations close their doors, as brands change their identifiers, as people make life-altering decisions that are more important than a mere haircut.

Yet let’s look at the haircut situation again…

If your neighbor is known for her hair because she is a hair model, then it changes the picture dramatically. If she is known for it because she has five red-headed children, this also changes the way we look at the haircut. Circumstances, environments, and relationships matter when it comes to how we perceive change in others’ lives, and in our own.

We don’t need to avoid change. Change is inevitable. Sometimes we must embrace it, go with the flow, get in alignment with what is happening. Sometimes we can use negative change to create a positive impetus for different change.

Some things to remember:

• ·        Change is nothing to fear. What we do – or refuse to do – with it is up to us.
• ·         We can serve as change agents for good even when things look bleak.
• ·         If we embrace change, befriend it, accept its inevitability, fear loses control over us in this area.
• ·         Change can be positive or negative, and often it is because of spin rather than circumstance that we see it that way.