It has been a long year and many of us found ourselves in the wilderness. At the beginning of 2020 I felt God had brought me on a thirty year journey and was getting ready to unleash me to do the thing I had run from all this time! He had, sneakily, gotten me to lead women’s retreats and now had me speaking at churches. No one was more blown away than I was. The week following the tea that I spoke at I had calls to go speak at other churches. I was scared to death and so excited - which I now believe is the Holy Spirit getting excited for me! Then COVID brought everything to a screeching halt! And I could no longer see those dates in the future. One day, I had to realize that God would not bring me this far for nothing. It was not time yet so I began thanking Him for however He will use me when the time comes. And until His timing is right, I will thank Him for what I am learning.
I listened to Pastor Joakim Lundqvist’s, “Dream Big in 2021” and it was just what I needed to hear. Death Valley in Nevada is barren and nothing grows there. They never see rain but in 2005, they had a rain storm. The whole desert was turned into a beautiful garden. People came from all over the world to see this miracle. While listening to him, I was seeing 2020 as our Death Valley. Isaiah 35: 1-2, “The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.”
He reminded us that 2021 may be the year of the big rain. God put seeds in our heart when we were made and some of them may have 2021 on them! Psalm 139: 13-16, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Before God said, “let there be light”, He was planting our seeds! Ephesians 1: 4, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love.” Just like the seeds in the ground, we have to wait for the right time for them to blossom. We also have to have good ground for them to blossom. We do that by having our heart right. Something else I learned was that “heart” is the second most used word in the Bible, only to the name of the Lord! I would say that shows how important our heart is!
This guy says to dream big. My pastor says not to put a lid on what God can do and I call it, “God showing off!!” God can come up with something so much better than we can ever think of and I love to see Him show off! Ephesians 3: 20, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” I also like the way Tommy Barnett says it, dreams “are the goals and visions that fire your heart and saturate your soul with joy at the very thought of them. They are those continuing visions of what you want your life to be at its highest level of fulfillment…” I think we get passionate about those things that have our spiritual DNA in them. Barnett also goes on to say that a dream doesn't drive you; it draws you.” God designed all of us to have a dream!
One of my plants has outgrown two pots so I have decided that this spring I am going to buy a huge pot - I am going to dream big! Every time God’s good rain falls on it that thing grows by leaps and bounds. I believe this is the same way God is going to have the Holy Spirit rain down on our lives when it is time for Him to show off with those seeds! I believe God is challenging us to dream big in 2021! That is probably why we had to go through 2020 - to prepare our hearts for fertile ground!
During this Easter season, it is time to dream big! Where flowers bloom, so does hope! Let’s be like the crocus and burst into bloom while rejoicing greatly and shouting for joy! Wishing you all the Easter blessings!