Worry Negative Dreams

The Lord has recently been bringing conviction to me in the area of worry.  I grew up in an environment of worry and fear, so letting my mind go into places of worry for a few minutes didn't seem like such a bad thing.  Yet God is now unveiling the darkness and deception in worry.  I have a friend who says that fear is negative faith, that fear works to bring about that which you fear.  It is basically the Enemy using our belief that the thing we fear could happen to actually have us sow this into our future and thus becoming part of bringing it about.  I believe worry is part of "orphan thinking" where we believe we have no father to take care of us so this void begins to pull us into a place of fear, lack, and then speculating into our future a negative picture.  Worry may seem reasonable in our fear-driven, uncertain, and unstable times but is of the Kingdom of Darkness.  In Philippians 4:6 we are told "Do not be anxious for nothing..."  Anxiety and worry are similar if not exactly alike.  I believe worry is not just a sin but a powerful weapon of the Enemy to lead us away from Christ, into idolatry, and toward death.  We really can only begin to dream when we believe we are safe and taken care of, otherwise our minds will get obsessed on having the one thing we are in need of.  When we know we are safe and taken care of, we begin to dream without limits, this is important because one author said, "...you don't inherit through logic but through your dreams..."  So as sons and daughters of the Most High God dreaming is important because we must dream it before we are to actually receive what we dream of as inheritance.  So the Enemy has schemed to get us off track, his first line of attack is our identity and then he looks to steal our inheritance "in Christ".  His weapons are not a sword or a spear but thoughts that seek to hook us into a pattern of think that will lead us away from Christ and away from our inheritance.  In Romans 1:21 we see the consequences of the failure to worship God, "For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened."  The Lord was revealing to me that futility in their speculations came before their foolish hearts became darkened, so in other words we must think it before we reap the fruit of it in our hearts.  The word for speculations in the Greek is dialogismos which means inward perceptions, this fits with worry as an inward perception or thought pattern that springs from fear of something or someone but not God.  Worry is deeply rooted in unbelief or "orphan thinking".  Bill Johnson said, "I cannot afford to have a thought in my head that is about me that is not in His."  I can now see why the renewed mind is so important for us to be transformed (Romans 12:1-2).  The Holy Spirit is bringing more conviction as I write this, so I am seeing how I have given room to the Enemy's deception and one of the ways he has brought me into discouragement.  As I repent toward God for allowing my mind to go into the dark place of worry which usually includes lack and then lack to an extreme (death), I am asking God to teach me how to dream.  Dreaming would be natural if you grow up in an environment of abundance and possibilities but when lack is your experience than worry becomes natural.  The Good News is that in Isaiah 61 the first thing the anointing of the Spirit deals with is poverty because it is so destructive and is not of the Kingdom of God.  I am not saying that God's desire is that we move into hoarding, greed, or being materialistic.  Poverty did not come from God this entered into the world through the "Lie" and the idea that God is withholding.

Free from worry to Dream,
Bret

The Kingdom for Dreamers!

As My Abba was ministering to me around the barriers to vision, He began to show me how I had given up on my dreams or judged them as not practical.  In every one of the dreams I began to see His heart for me, it wasn't so much whether the dream happened but what became of the seed (the dream) that was planted in my heart.  So many times in our world which is overly adult, we are often shown all the reasons a dream can't happen so we relegate ourselves to a life without passion.  Dreams don't have the barriers and limitations that we find so present in our world, yet this reminds me of the Kingdom of God which is vast and limitless.  I began to see that since I was made in the image of God my dreams were birthed from how I was made like the Creator but soon my thinking, which was wrapped around the "Lie", took over and twisted the dream into something that would serve to meet my needs and was then self-centered.  Yet I began to see all the inventions that we now count as part of everyday life (IE., the cell phone, electricity, the car) were once dreams in the heart of someone created in the image of God.  Seeing God's divine fingerprint reminds me that everything that is good truly comes from God, even if we don't give Him any praise or thanks.  It is an amazing truth that in Joel 2:28 the fruit of the Spirit being poured out on all mankind is prophecy, dreams, and visions.  So often in our world we have another program, plan, or agenda to solve a problem.  Whereas God's plan was to give Himself in the form of Christ and then to give His Body in the form of His people filled with His Spirit (sons and daughters of God).  The fruit of an encounter with the Spirit being poured out is hope, faith, and love manifesting in prophecy, visions, and dreams.  I am realizing that I never learned how to steward the dreams/seeds I had been given so they were quickly lost or squelched.  I believe this is a mark of sonship is that the Father is teaching me how to steward the dreams He has birthed in me.  I believe from Romans 8 that the earth is groaning for God's sons and daughters to be revealed with creative dreams and visions for all the problems we now face on this earth.  Only the people that have God's DNA "in Christ" will bring the creative and life-giving solutions (centered in Christ's redemptive work) that can stand against this fallen and sin tarnished world.  Jesus says in Matthew 18 that to enter the kingdom of heaven you must become like a little child, what a contrast to this world's insatiable thirst for more information and knowledge.  I believe Jesus is highlighting the simple trust and faith of a child in contrast to the world's view of who would be great in heaven.  I have included the Trailer to the movie "Secretariat" about a dream that seemed totally impossible and yet one woman believed, it was her dream that led to a Triple Crown winner.  In this story it is not this woman's skill, knowledge of horses, or business background that leads to the win but a dream that was birthed by her father that she risks everything to see fulfilled.  Dreams that God births in us are God-sized and can't possibly be fulfilled by us alone, thus if we believe it is all up to us we will quickly shut it down because we can't accomplish it according to the flesh.   I believe we are to be conduits of God's grace and love, not focusing on improving ourselves or even taking care of our own need.  We were born of the Spirit of God for more than that but too much of our time and energy is focused on ourselves rather than on all that Jesus is in and through us.  I pray that you will allow the Holy Spirit to teach you how to steward the dreams (seeds) He has deposited in you and you will be released to dream again.  Many of our dreams are merely a slice of Heaven, God has so much to pour out on us.

In Abba the Dreamer,
Bret