DON’T LET OTHERS TAKE THE POWER OF YOUR DREAM, because you don’t know who’s life it could change. Remember it is not for your glory, but His!
By Vionette LeGrand
I remember sitting down at my job sharing different dreams I had for my life with a friend. My friend was sweet and encouraging. She always encouraged me to go for any dream I had. As we were having this conversation. I couldn’t help but notice a co-worker of mine scuff as I shared my dream. The scuff of my co-worker said, “Ya right, you will never be a writer.” At that moment, my heart sank. This person was very influential where I worked, and I cared deeply about what they thought of me. Seeing that this person did not believe in me, hurt. But I had two choices would I let the thoughts of what a person thought about me consume me? Or would I let what my Heavenly Father thought about me transform me?
Have you ever had someone you shared a dream with shut you down? Even worse, spoke words over you that were negative? For example: “You will never be that person.” “You will never have that job because you are not qualified.” “You’re too young and inexperienced. No one will see you.” The sad truth is that many of us have had those situations happen. We look at the outward appearance, and what we know or believe we know about that person clouds our judgment on who they are instead of who they could be.
When I remember the conversation with my friend and the face of that co-worker. I was reminded of the story of Joseph in the bible. Joseph was Jacob’s son, and he was his beloved son. One day Jacob gifted a coat of many colors to Joseph, and his brothers were not pleased. In the bible it says, “3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate[a] robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.”1
It wasn’t that Jacob didn’t love the other brothers. He loved them each dearly, but Joseph was special because he was a promise and a DREAM from God. When you have a dream in your life, it’s not by coincidence. God will instill dreams into our lives to speak to us. Let me say that again. God will instill, dreams in our lives to speak to us, and no one will ever know that dream because He didn’t give it to them. He gave it to you!
The story of Joseph continues, with God giving him multiple different dreams. In one of them, the Bible says, ” 9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me. 10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.”2
His own father rebuked him, and his brothers were jealous of him. How could people that were so close to him rebuke him and be jealous of him? Little did Joseph know that the brother’s jealousy would cause him the misery of pain that would drive him toward his God-given purpose. At that moment, God reminded me of the power of my dream. God reminded me that when Joseph’s brothers tried to stop God’s plan from being fulfilled. They had no power over that dream because it wasn’t Joseph’s dream. It was God’s dream. At that moment I knew that no matter what other people thought about me and my dreams it didn’t matter. The reason it didn’t matter was that the dreams that I had for my life were not my own, but God’s. And let me tell you when God has a purpose/dream for your life NO ONE and NOTHING will stop that from coming to life including someone’s lack of belief in that dream!
As I read the word of God in Genesis I was reminded of the POWER of a dream. For a long time, I allowed that scuff to stop me from doing what God called me to do. But God showed me the power of a dream. He showed me that I should be a person that speaks life into other people’s dreams, like my friend. He showed me that I should not be like my co-worker that scuffed at my dream. That day he showed me that the power of someone’s dream could transform lives, hearts, and minds, not for my glory, but His. So if you had a dream that was trampled over, but someone’s words. I’m sorry. But know that the dream that you were given wasn’t a mistake. DON’T LET OTHERS TAKE THE POWER OF YOUR DREAM, because you don’t know whose life it could change. Remember it is not for your glory, but His!
_____________________________________________________
1 “Bible Gateway Passage: Genesis 37:3-4 – New International Version.” Bible Gateway, 2011. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+37%3A3-4&version=NIV.
2“Bible Gateway Passage: Genesis 37:9-10 – New International Version.” Bible Gateway, 2011. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+37%3A3-4&version=NIV.