Let me just begin by saying that I am pro-life. I believe that life begins long before a child is born. I believe that the life of an unborn child should be valued and nurtured. There is nothing quite like the moment you discover that you are to have a child, but even that excitement is only a snapshot of the incredible joy that comes following the birth of your child. Pregnancy is a time of preparation and excitement, but it always points towards the future. There are baby showers to attend, cribs to build, and nurseries to paint; while these things are incredibly significant, they aren’t the endgame. They cannot compare to the tiny human that will change your life forever. I believe that this analogy is one of the most powerful ways to understand dreams. A few years ago, I read a book by David Yonggi Cho called The Fourth Dimension. In this book, he uses the language of being “pregnant” with a dream. This book was a little bit controversial in some circles, but it had a serious impact on my life. When we are pregnant with a dream, we nurture and care for it. We prepare for that dream to become a reality! We metaphorically paint the nursery and buy diapers. Although we have yet to see the dream manifested, we know that it is only a matter of time before our life changes forever. This isn’t some mystical way of understanding dreams. Obviously, we are not physically pregnant with a dream, that would be weird. What we are, however, is filled with the anticipation and excitement for what is to come. If we want to see a dream come to reality, we must visualize, confess, and prepare. Here are a few ways to do just that. [bctt tweet="If we want to see a dream come to reality, we must visualize, confess, and prepare." username="dukematlock"]
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Affirm the existence of your dream.
Be honest with yourself about your dreams. Call them by name! You have to believe in your dream before you can invest in it. Take the time to verbally affirm and confess what you would like to see; your words have power! The things you say have a direct impact on what will come to pass, so speak life over your dreams.
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Treat your dream like a living thing.
The pursuit of your dreams is an active and engaging process. Acknowledging your dream is the first step, but then you have to nurture and develop that dream. To treat it like a living thing is to prepare for it as though the realization of this dream was a guarantee.
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Guard your dream.
Just because you believe in your dream doesn’t mean that everyone else does. In Genesis, we read the story of Joseph; Joseph had a powerful dream but because he didn’t guard it, he ended up in the bottom of a pit. The premature sharing of his dream alienated him from his family. Be careful as you look towards the future to guard your dream as well as your relationships with those around you.
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Act as though your dream is already a reality.
I was the pastor of a church in central Florida for 18 years. When I first arrived, we had 106 people. I decided then that we would be a church of 1,000. From that point on, I made decisions as though we were already a large church; we operated and behaved as though our dream had already become a reality. Within seven years, we really were a church of 1,000, but it all started with our decisions and attitudes. Usher in the manifestation of your dreams with your behavior.
