The Freedom of Dreaming

“Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more. So he said to them, ‘Please hear this dream which I have dreamed: There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf.’” — Genesis 37:5-7

Dreaming is a gift, a medium through which God can reveal ideas, solutions to problems, insight into our future and warnings to us against certain dangers. Dreaming is giving our imagination the freedom to conceive future possibilities that are not bound by our current reality. It is the freedom to explore without having to worry about the cost or consequences because you have not involved the intellect in the process. Dreaming is freedom, and if you never dream you will never do great things. Every great business started with the dream of an entrepreneur. Dreaming is the bridge between a wish and a vision. A wish is something that you really want, but you believe will never happen. Vision is a preferred future that you intentionally conceived based on certain realities that you believe can and must happen, while a dream is something that could happen based on your own conviction and faith. You may conceive something as a wish to begin with but then make it a dream because you don’t just hope it will happen, but now believe it can happen as you add faith to the equation. Finally, you transfer your dream into a vision, which means you are willing to put strategy and action behind it to do your part to make it happen, though it may still be a long shot. Wishing gives you the freedom to believe in miracles, dreaming gives you the freedom to believe in the impossible and visioning gives you the freedom to believe in your destiny.

Of course not all dreams should be taken seriously. Some dreams are caused by overeating or pure emotional impulses. Dreams that are to be really considered are dreams that tend to be recurring and consistent with God’s word and His plan for our lives. These dreams are to be documented, kept in our hearts and taken to God in prayer for clarification and/or interpretation. If you believe your dream to be true, you can either turn it into a vision or keep it as a prayer point for its manifested season.

Though Joseph’s dreams came to pass, it took thirteen years from the day he had the dream to the time he was elevated to a position of greatness, and at least another seven years for his brothers to bow down to him. Additionally, Joseph had to go through a wilderness season to prepare for it. Many of us get discouraged along the journey of life when our dreams tarry and we face various obstacles along the way that seem contrary to our dreams. Never allow time or life challenges to stop you from dreaming. Dreaming is the heartbeat of visions and without them you will soon stop visioning.

Once I had the opportunity to take my family to France for our end-of-year vacation. We had a great time, shared beautiful memories and enjoyed the beauty and rich history of France. Our host in Paris was a cousin I often played with growing up in Cameroon. We played soccer together, got in fights together and dreamed of one day doing great things together. We never imagined that one day we would be on vacation with our wives in Paris discussing how to serve God and do business together in France and around the world. But when I think back at our dreams as kids, it is no coincidence that this is happening. We were and will always be dreamers.

My prayer for you today is that God would give you the grace to believe in the gift of dreams and the courage to dream again, the wisdom to know how to interpret your dreams and the belief that they can come true.