All of us have things we’re believing for, things we want to accomplish.
Deep down we feel them very strongly. We know they’re a part of our
destiny, but then we hit some setbacks. We didn’t get the promotion, the
relationship didn’t work out, or the medical report wasn’t good. Life has
a way of pushing our dreams down. They can become buried under
discouragement, buried under past mistakes. There are dreams buried
under rejection, divorce, failure, and negative voices. It’s easy to settle
for mediocrity when we have all this potential buried inside. But just
because you gave up doesn’t mean God gave up. Your dream may be
buried in a dark place, but the good news is, it’s still alive. It’s not too
late to see it come to pass. We’ve all been through disappointments and
bad breaks as life happens to us. But instead of remembering the hurts,
the failures, and what didn’t work out, the key to reaching your destiny is
to remember your dream. Remember what God promised you. Remember
what He whispered to you in the middle of the night.
The Scripture calls these dreams “the secret petitions of your heart.”
They’re the things you may not have told anybody else about. They may
seem impossible. Every voice tells you they’re not going to happen.
You’ve pushed them down, but God is saying, “What I’ve promised you,
I’m still going to do. I spoke it and put it in your heart. It may not have
happened yet, but I am true to My word. It’s on the way.” If you’ll start
believing again, get your passion back, stir your faith up, God is going to
resurrect what you thought was dead. You may have tried and failed, and
it was so long ago, but dreams that you’ve given up on are going to
suddenly come back to life. Problems that looked permanent are going to
suddenly turn around. What should have taken years to restore, God is
going to give you in a fraction of the time. He has the final say. He hasn’t
changed His mind.
Don’t let circumstances talk you out of it. You may not understand
why something happened—why a person walked away, why you came
down with that illness, why the business didn’t make it. You were doing
the right thing, but the wrong thing happened. It’s all a part of the
process. Every unfair situation, every delay, and every closed door is not
a setback; it’s a setup for God to get you to where He wants you to be. It
may be taking a long time, and you may not see how it can happen, but
all it takes is one touch of God’s favor.
Why are you remembering the hurt, the disappointment, and the
times it didn’t work out? Turn it around and start remembering your
dream. What has God put in your heart? What did you used to be excited
about? Why do you think it’s too late, it’s too big, it’s not possible? Why
don’t you think you can write the book, start the business, see the
relationship restored, or finish school? Get your passion back. You
haven’t missed your opportunity or had too many bad breaks. You’re not
lacking, and you didn’t get shortchanged.
Get Your Shovel Out
When God breathed His life into you, He put in you everything you need
to fulfill your destiny. People can’t stop you, and neither can bad breaks,
disappointments, or loss. The Most High God is on your side. You have
royal blood flowing through your veins. You have seeds of greatness.
There are dreams in you so big that you can’t accomplish them on your
own. It’s going to take you connecting with your Creator, believing that
you’re a person of destiny, knowing that God is directing your steps. We
all face challenges, but we don’t have to get discouraged. God controls
the whole universe. He won’t allow anything to happen unless He has a
way to bring good out of it. But you have to stir up your gift. The enemy
would love for you to keep your dream buried and wants to convince you
that it’s never going to happen, that it’s too late. Don’t believe those lies.
You can still accomplish your dreams. You can still become all you were
created to be. Every time you remember your dream, every time you say,
“Lord, thank You for bringing it to pass,” you’re removing some dirt.
You’re digging it out.
Maybe you’ve been dealing with an illness for a long time. Early on
you believed you would get well, but now it’s been years. You’ve just
learned to live with it. What’s happened is that your healing, your
breakthrough, your freedom have gotten buried. They’re still in you;
they’re still alive. If you’ll get your fire back, start believing again, God
can bring it to pass. When you’re thinking, It will never happen. I’ve had
so many negative reports, that’s putting more dirt on it. That’s burying it
deeper. Why don’t you get your shovel out and start removing the dirt?
How do you do that? Say, “Lord, thank You that You’re restoring health
to me. Thank You that I’m free from this addiction, free from this
depression. Thank You that my best days are still in front of me.” If
you’ll keep talking like that, the dream that’s been buried will come back
to life. That’s what allows God to do great things. He’s moved by our
faith. He’s not moved by our doubts, by our discouragement, or by our
complaining.
“But Joel, I’ll never meet the right person. I’ve been hurt too many
times.” You’re remembering the wrong thing. As long as you dwell on
the hurt, you’re going to get stuck. Start remembering the dream. “Lord,
You said that You would bring the perfect person into my life. I want to
thank You for a divine connection, somebody better than I ever
imagined.” Stop saying, “I could never accomplish my goal. I’ll never get
this promotion. I don’t have the talent. I’ve tried, but I always get passed
over.” That’s burying the dream, putting more dirt on it. You need to get
a shovel and start digging that dream out. You may have been doing this
for so long that you need a backhoe. You need some heavy equipment
because it’s buried way down deep in the darkness. You can dig it up and
bring it to life. It starts in your thinking, in what you’re believing, and in
what you’re saying. No more “It’s never going to happen. I’m never
going to have a nice house or get my degree.” No, you have to say, “I’m
surrounded by God’s favor. Blessings are chasing me down. Because I
delight myself in the Lord, He will give me the desires of my heart.”
Whatever God has put on the inside, no matter how long it’s been, no
matter how impossible it looks, I’m asking you to stir it up. You have to
get in agreement with God. He’s the giver of all dreams. He’s the one
who put that desire in you. You may need to get alone, be quiet, and
search your heart. Say to Him, “God, anything that I’ve pushed down,
anything that I’ve given up on, show me what it is. God, don’t let me die
with any dreams still buried.”
“Give Me This Mountain”
This is what Caleb did. When he and Joshua were young men, they were
sent to spy out the Promised Land. They came back and told Moses and
all the people of Israel, “We are well able to take the land. Let us go in at
once.” But the other ten spies said just the opposite, speaking only of
great fortified cities and giants who made them feel like grasshoppers.
The Israelites, some two million people, were terrified by the negative
report, and even though they were camped next door to the Promised
Land, they turned around, and that group of people never went in. I can
imagine Caleb was discouraged. He knew they were supposed to go in.
God put that dream in his heart, but it didn’t happen. It looked as though
the other people had kept him from his destiny. That could have been the
end of Caleb’s story, which would have been too bad for him because
he’d had some unfair breaks. His dream had gotten buried, but it wasn’t
his fault. Most people would have given up and settled where they were,
but not Caleb. The true mark of a champion is that even when some dirt
gets thrown on a dream, instead of letting it get buried, they keep shaking
it off. They keep looking for new ways to move forward, believing for
new opportunities.
Forty years later, when Caleb was eighty-five years old, he could still
feel this dream stirring inside. He wasn’t sitting around feeling sorry for
himself, saying, “I really tried. If only those other people had done what
was right. If only I hadn’t had those bad breaks. I was so close. I guess it
wasn’t meant to be.” At eighty-five Caleb went back to that same
mountain where the giants still lived, the same place where the others
refused to go, and he said, “God, give me this mountain.” What’s
significant is that there were three giants living on that mountain—three
Goliaths. There were many other mountains with less opposition that
would have been much easier to conquer. I can hear a friend say, “Come
on, Caleb, you’re eighty-five. Here, take this easy mountain instead.” He
would have said, “No, thanks. I’m not going to settle for mediocrity when
God has placed greatness in me. I want that mountain. That’s the dream
that’s been burning in me for all these years.” He stirred it up. Forty years
after the dream was given, he went and conquered the mountain that God
had promised him. The dream came to pass.
Have you allowed any dreams to get buried in you? At one time you
thought you could do something great—perhaps you thought you could
lead a company or break an addiction—but that was a long time ago. You
had some bad breaks that weren’t your fault. You have a good excuse to
settle; nobody would blame you if you did. But God sent me to light a
fire inside you. That dream is still alive. You may have tried to make it
happen a year ago, or five years ago, or forty years ago, but it didn’t work
out. Nobody helped you, and nobody encouraged you. God is saying to
you what he said to Caleb: “Go back and try again. This is your time.
This is your moment. Your destiny is calling out to you.” You have to be
like Caleb. You can’t have a give-up spirit and take the easy way out.
Don’t settle for less than your dream and refuse to enter the struggle.
Your destiny is at stake! If you don’t stir up your gifts, you could miss
what you were created to be. You may have been knocked down, but you
have to get back up and say, “God, give me that same mountain. I don’t
want a substitute. I don’t want second best. I don’t want less-than. God,
I’m going after what You put in my heart.” When you remember the
dream, God will help you accomplish what you didn’t accomplish early
on. You can still become all you were created to be.
I saw a report about a man who had been raised in a very
dysfunctional environment. His dad was not a part of his life, and his
mother was seldom around. He grew up in low-income government
housing. From the time he was a little boy, he had a desire to be a writer.
He went to school, but there was no structure in his life; there was
nobody guiding him. At fifteen he dropped out of school, having never
learned how to read or write. He was so embarrassed that he started
drinking, trying to numb the pain. For thirty-five years all he did was
hang out on the street and drink with his buddies. But one day something
rose up in him like a fire. He told his buddies that he’d had enough, he
was fed up with living that way, and that was going to be the last drink
they’d ever see him take. They laughed and thought he was joking. But
that day was a turning point. He was set free from alcohol and never
touched it again. At fifty-one years old he went back to school and
learned how to read and write and earned his diploma. He was so proud.
Then he started writing poetry. He was a very gifted, eloquent writer.
That dream had been buried deep under dysfunction, under bad breaks,
and under addictions, but it was still alive. He entered a writing contest
and won third place. He kept getting better, improving his craft, then
entered a national contest and won the grand prize, first place. At
seventy-five years old, he continues to write and inspire people, letting
them know that it’s never too late to accomplish their dreams.
What you gave up on, God didn’t give up on. What you wanted to do
earlier in life didn’t go away just because it didn’t work. It’s still in you.
When the prophet Jeremiah was so discouraged by being persecuted and
mocked for speaking God’s word that you thought he was going to quit,
he suddenly said, “But Your word, O Lord, is like a burning fire shut up
in my bones.” I believe there are some dreams shut up in you that are like
a fire. You’re going to feel your destiny calling you. You tried to get
away from it when it didn’t work out the first time—the loan didn’t go
through, you didn’t get the part, the report didn’t come back good. That’s
okay. This is a new day. What God started, He’s going to finish. You
may have missed some opportunities, but God knows how to make up for
lost time. He’s going to give you another chance. He says in the book of
Joel, “I will restore to you the years.” You may have lost years because
other people put you at a disadvantage or because of your own choices,
but God knows how to make up for it. He can still get you to where
you’re supposed to be.
Be a Dreamer
I previously shared that God gave Joseph a dream that one day his parents
and his brothers would bow down before him. Joseph should have used
more wisdom and not told them about his dream. Certain things you
should keep to yourself. Some people can’t handle what God has put in
you. They won’t celebrate you; rather, like Joseph’s brothers, they’ll get
jealous of you and start finding fault. One day Joseph went to see his ten
brothers, who were away feeding their father’s flock. When he walked
up, one of them said sarcastically, “Here comes the dreamer.” In the past
the brothers had been upset because Joseph was their father’s favorite son
and because their father had given Joseph a special coat of many colors.
But now they were even more upset because he’d had a dream. They
were offended because he was determined to break out of the family
mold, to do something greater than what they had done, to leave his
mark. They would have been fine if he were content to be average, to
accept the status quo. But when you stir up what God has put in you,
when you believe that you have seeds of greatness, let me warn you that
not everybody will celebrate you.
When you have a dream, you’re going to have some detractors. When
you believe that you can overcome an illness, pay off your house, start a
business, or be successful in spite of past mistakes, some people will
become jealous and try to make you look bad or try to talk you out of it.
“Do you really think you’ll get that promotion? You don’t have the
experience.” “Do you really think you’ll meet the right person? It didn’t
work out the last three times you tried. You’re getting kind of old.” Let
that go in one ear and out the other. The critics, the naysayers, and the
haters don’t control your destiny. God does. They can’t keep you from
your dreams. They may do something that puts you at a disadvantage, but
God knows how to take what was meant for your harm and use it to
promote you.
Joseph’s own brothers tried to push his dream down. I say this
respectfully, but sometimes your relatives won’t celebrate you.
Sometimes the people closest to you will be the least supportive. Here’s
the key: don’t get distracted with fighting battles that don’t matter, trying
to prove to them who you are, trying to convince them to believe in you.
You don’t need their approval. You have Almighty God’s approval. Let
them go. The haters are going to hate. What stirs them up is the fact that
you’re moving forward, pursuing your destiny. They want you to keep
your dream buried in a dark place so you don’t rise higher and make them
look bad. They don’t realize God has put dreams in them as well. If they
would stir their dreams up, they wouldn’t be jealous. They could rise
higher and fulfill their own purposes. Successful people, people who have
and pursue a dream, don’t waste their time looking at what everybody
else is doing. They’re too busy focusing on what God has put in their
hearts.
The enemy targets people who have a dream. He’ll use opposition,
delays, discouragement, jealousy, and everything else he can to try to
convince you to bury that dream. If you’re going to reach your full
potential, you have to make up your mind that you are in it for the long
haul. You’re not going to let people talk you out of it. You’re not going to
let circumstances discourage you, or let delays cause you to give up, or
let critical people get you distracted. You stay focused on your goal.
Here’s the key: you wouldn’t have that opposition if you didn’t have
something great in you. If that dream weren’t alive and on track, right on
schedule to come to pass, you wouldn’t have so many things coming
against you. But when the enemy looks at you, he says, “Oh no, here
comes another dreamer. Here comes another person full of faith,
believing they have seeds of greatness, not moved by their circumstances,
not depressed because they had a bad break, not giving up because it’s
taking a long time. They’re a dreamer. They know that they have the
favor of God. They know that nothing is impossible because they believe.
They know that God can make a way when they don’t see a way.”
Remember the Promise
When you’re a dreamer, you’re dangerous to the enemy. He knows that
you’re headed for new levels. He knows that you’re going to set a new
standard for your family. He knows that you’re coming into abundance,
into overflow. And he knows that there’s nothing he can do to stop you.
The forces that are for you are greater than the forces that are against you.
But he’ll work overtime to try to convince you to settle where you are.
You have to remember this principle: when negative things happen, they
cannot stop your destiny; they are a sign that you’re on the way to your
destiny. Those bad breaks did not cancel your dreams; it’s all a part of the
process. The delay, the people who did you wrong, or the time it didn’t
work out is just another step on the way to your destiny.
After thirteen years of bad breaks and disappointments, Joseph
interpreted a dream for the Pharaoh, who immediately made Joseph one
of the most influential men of his day. Years later, there was a great
famine in the land. People were in distress, trying to survive. Joseph’s
brothers, the same ones who’d thrown him into a pit and sold him into
slavery, showed up at the palace looking to purchase food. Joseph was in
charge of the food supply, and they were standing in front of him but
didn’t recognize him. You can imagine it was very dramatic for Joseph.
These were the brothers who’d betrayed him and caused him so many
years of heartache and pain. You would think that Joseph would be bitter,
angry, and vindictive. This was his chance to pay them back, and he had
the power to do it. But the Scripture says, “When Joseph saw his
brothers, he remembered his dream.” He didn’t remember the hurt, or the
betrayal, or the lonely nights, or the times he’d been confused. As they
bowed down before him, he remembered the promise that God had
spoken to him. All those bad breaks he had suffered through, all that time
when it looked as though he had missed his destiny—the whole time God
was in control, directing his steps. It was all a part of the plan to get him
to where he was supposed to be. It was meant for his harm, but God
turned it around and used it for his good.
When God gives you a dream, when He puts a promise in your heart,
that doesn’t mean it’s going to come to pass without opposition, delays,
and adversities. There will be things you don’t understand. You’ll have
plenty of opportunities to get discouraged and frustrated, thinking it’s
never going to happen. I must have heard God wrong. Nothing is going
right. In the tough times you have to do as Joseph did and remember your
dream. God didn’t bring you this far to leave you. You may not
understand it, but God is in control. He’s directing your steps. Now do
your part, stay in faith, and keep a good attitude. Let God be your
vindicator. Let God fight your battles. He has it all figured out. “Well,
Joel, I’m in the pits. This is a dark place. I don’t understand it.” Don’t
worry, because a caravan is coming to move you to your next location.
“A friend lied about me.” “I went through a divorce.” “I lost a loved
one.” Don’t get bitter. It’s just a detour on the way to your destiny. The
palace is coming. The promise is still on track.
Just Passing Through
The Scripture speaks of “these light afflictions, which are but for a
moment.” When you face opposition and things don’t go your way,
recognize that it’s not permanent. That’s not your final destination. Quit
worrying about things that are only temporary. As it was with Joseph, the
pit—the betrayal, the injustice, the loneliness—is temporary. That’s not
your permanent home. It’s a temporary stop. The psalmist wrote of
“passing through the Valley of Weeping,” not “settling in the Valley of
Weeping,” or “getting stuck in the Valley,” or “building a house in the
Valley.” The Valley is temporary; you’re passing through it. Now my
challenge is to quit losing sleep over a temporary stop. Quit being
stressed out over something that’s only for a season; it’s not permanent.
I was in my backyard one time and my grass looked dead. It was
brown, worn out. I called a man who helps me with my landscaping and
asked, “What happened to my grass? Why did it die?” He said, “Joel, it’s
not dead. It’s just not in season. It’s fully alive, but it’s dormant right
now. In a few months it will be as green and full as can be.” I was
worried over something that was temporary. I thought that was the way it
was always going to be. Once I realized that it was normal, I never
worried about it again. When I saw that brown grass, I thought, It’s just a
matter of time before it’s back to green. Are you worrying about things
that are only temporary? Are you letting something steal your joy because
you think that it’s over, that it’s never going to work out? Your dream is
not dead; it’s just not in season. Your time is coming. The right people,
the right opportunities, the healing, the vindication, the restoration are
headed your way. The Scripture says “these light afflictions, which are
but for a moment,” and goes on to say, “They are working in us an eternal
weight of glory.” The affliction is temporary, but the glory is permanent.
Stir up what’s on the inside. You may have a dream that you’ve
buried and given up on. You need to get your shovel out and start
thanking God that it’s coming to pass. Maybe you’re on a detour right
now, going through something you don’t understand. Don’t get
discouraged. You’re just passing through. It’s easy to remember the hurt
and the disappointment. I’m asking you to remember the dream,
remember the promise. If you do this, I believe that dreams you’ve buried
will come back to life. Promises that you’ve given up on will be
resurrected. As He did with Joseph, God is going to turn every stumbling
block into a stepping-stone. You will rise higher, accomplish your goals,
and become everything you were created to be.
BLESSED IN THE DARKNESS 