Today is a new day and a new year to receive new dreams for your life. This is a year for dreaming the dreams of God and for seeing the dreams of God fulfilled. Dreams are amazingly powerful. Martin Luther King’s dream of racial de-segregation helped change America and many other nations, like South Africa. The Jewish dream of becoming a nation again after 2000 years became a reality in 1948. Shimon Peres, a famous former Prime Minister and President of Israel in his book called ‘No room for small dreams’ quoted his mentor David Ben Gurion, who often said: ‘in Israel in order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.’ At the end of his long life, just before he died, Shimon Peres wrote these words: ‘I don’t regret any of my dreams. My only regret is not having dreamed more.’

Dreams help us see how impossibilities can become realities. Dreams and visions are very biblical. God showed Abraham a vast vision of the future (Genesis 15:5-6). God showed a teenager called Joseph that he would one day become a very powerful ruler. His brothers called him ‘that dreamer’ and one day they all saw the amazing fulfilment of Joseph’s dreams (Genesis 37-50). The Hebrew prophets had dreams of a godly world, the kingdom of God, where justice would ‘roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream’ (Amos 5:24).

‘Dreams and visions are the language of the Holy Spirit,’ wrote David Yonggi Cho who visualised that one day he would become the pastor of the world’s biggest church. Cesar Castellanos, the senior pastor of MCI Bogota, wrote a book called ‘Dream and you will win the world.’

The founder of this church, Billy Richards, an ex-Welsh coalminer who had no money and no human support, came to Slough with a dream to establish a strong gospel church to touch the world. Pastor Wes has for decades has continued with a dream to develop a strong multi-ethnic church of great disciples and leaders that will be a light to nations and generations. Today, dream for yourself, your family, your church and for God’s plans for nations and generations.

1. Receive God’s dreams (Genesis 12:2-3; 2 Peter 1:4; Jeremiah 29:11)

2. Write down God’s dreams (Habakkuk 2:2; Jeremiah 30:2-3; Revelation 1:19)

3. Persevere to receive God’s dreams (Hebrews 10:36; Genesis 12:4-5; James 2:17; Romans 4:18-21; Hebrews 6:15)

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1. Receive God’s dreams. Not all dreams are from God. Dreams can be very selfish or even demonic. For example, Hitler had terrible dreams to destroy the Jewish people. In the musical ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ there is a song that says, ‘any dream will do.’ Well, that’s not true and may even be dangerous. For the best dreams you must have the dreams of God based on His Word, the Bible. Abraham first received a word from God (Genesis 12:2-3). There is always a word from God for you (2 Peter 1:4). God has dreams for you personally. Just as God had great plans for the young Joseph and the older Abraham so God has plans for you. You matter to God. You are not a nothing or a nobody. God rates you. God knows about you (Jeremiah 29:11). God loves each one of us more than we realise and wants to bless us and make us a blessing to others. You can succeed in your life, in your studies, in your career and ministry. You can be more than you think you can be. God has dreams for your family. God is well able to create and re-create families. He can bring families together who have drifted apart. He can bring peace where there were only rows. He can change your hearts so that you all get on together and your home becomes like heaven instead of hell. God has dreams for your leadership. You can be a great leader in the community, in business, in politics, in your chosen career and in the church. The church is one of the greatest training grounds for leadership in any walk of life. If you can lead in the church, you can lead anyone anywhere. When Jesus trained 12 young disciples it was because He had a dream that their lives would one day impact billions of people with the message of His love and righteousness. So, at the start of this year and every day, you must receive God’s dreams by reading and studying on His Word. And from the Bible, the Holy Spirit will show you special verses for every part of your life.

2. Write down God’s dreams (Habakkuk 2:2). When you write out the dreams and visions God gives, you will be able to remember the vision and keep running with these goals in mind. How often do we forget things simply because we don’t write them down? In different places in the Bible, we read of the importance of writing down what God has said (Jeremiah 30:2-3; Revelation 1:19). Keeping a journal of what God speaks to you from the Bible in your devotionals is very important, and so is writing down dreams and goals for a year. Write down your dreams, make your poster or your dream book and paste photos or images. You also could do this on your laptop. Write out your dreams under five main headings: my dreams with God, my personal dreams, my dreams for my family, my dreams in ministry (for example starting or growing a group) and my dreams for my world (education, career, finances).

3. Persevere to receive God’s dreams. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what was promised (Hebrews 10:36). This means that you must take action to move towards your dream. You can’t just wait for God to do everything; there are some things we must do. Abram did something in response to God’s word (Genesis 12:4-5). Abraham had to leave his country and people and father’s household to receive God’s promises of blessings that had no limit. Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead (James 2:17). Hold on to your dream (Romans 4:18-21). Naturally there was no hope for Abraham to receive his dream, but he refused to stop believing God’s promise to him. He didn’t waver in his faith. So too you must never give up on your dream. Be determined not to lose your dream because things are taking longer than you wanted. Sometimes you must be very patient for some dreams to happen. But God has His perfect time to fulfil His promise. Never stop believing and working towards your dream. You must stick with your dreams. You must hold your ground when you feel like giving up. You must pray on for your kids, your parents, your partner. And in this way, you will receive the promised dream. This finally happened to Abraham in old age (Hebrews 6:15). Joseph saw how much God blessed him personally. God brought him to a great position of leadership. God gave him great provision. Joseph saw how God blessed his family. He was reconciled with his brothers who had betrayed him. He saw his dad again after many years and wept all over him. Joseph saw how God used him to be a blessing to multitudes who faced starvation. Today be sure that God intends for His every dream for your life to come to pass. Never dream too little and never give up on your dreams.