Beautiful Dreamers

Photo Credit: Nicole Pierce

 “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.” Isaiah 54:2 (NIV)

“Ensancha el espacio de tu carpa, y despliega las cortinas de tu morada. ¡No te limites! Alarga tus cuerdas y refuerza tus estacas” Isaías 54:2 (NVI)

We are all dreamers – if we allow God to make us so.

Isaiah prophesies, “do not hold back”, and I think he is urging us to pursue our God-given visions.

The Holy Spirit stirs this ability in us to envision God’s purposes.  Another Old Testament prophet, Joel, proclaimed: “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.” Joel 2:28 (NIV)

Dreams and visions – Sometime they start insignificantly – just an idea that pops into the mind, or something one sees that stirs the heart.

Certainly, literal dreams come to us in the night, but for me, a dream was born when I saw a tiny ad in a Christian magazine for teens, way way back in 1978. “Get Dirty For the Lord!” it read – “Come Join Teen Missions International and Work Hard for God This Summer.” A flood of adrenaline coursed through my veins and so the adventure began – going to a foreign country with an organization I had never heard of before.

I spent the summer of my fifteenth year in Manaus, Brasil, a five-day river boat trip up the Amazon River. I learned to mix concrete, lay bricks, sleep in a cloth hammock, read my Bible daily, and get along with thirty strangers in primitive conditions. That marked the beginning of numerous missionary trips, life-long Spanish language study, appreciation of foreign cultures, and cross-cultural friendships.

I didn’t know all that lay ahead when I first saw that one-color, 1/8th of a page magazine ad.

We can’t see around corners, and I believe that particular aspect of “dreaming dreams and seeing visions” is meant to keep us humble and dependent on the Lord’s omniscience and the Holy Spirit’s filling.

So, my friends, whether you are young or old, keep on dreaming!

¡No te limites! (“don’t limit yourself!”)

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