The reality is if our lives were left up to us, we wouldn’t dream big enough. Certainly God has in store for us more than we could ever think or ask.
Reflect:
Essential 100—Read: Genesis 12:1-20
“The LORD said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing…all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you.'” ~Genesis 12:1-3
God gave Abraham quite an expansive dream for an old guy, didn’t he! He was well into his senior years when God showed up and said, “Abe, I’ve got some unbelievable plans for you!”
Do you realize that among created beings, man is unique in that he alone has the ability to dream? Angels can’t dream; animals can’t dream. The devil can’t dream, dogs don’t dream—although I think mine does. I notice him twitching and snarling sometimes when’s he’s sleeping. I suspect he’s chasing rabbits—or better yet, cats.
But I’m not talking about those kinds of dreams. Nor am I talking about those run-of-the mill dreams that you get almost every night—some of them goofy and random, some bizarre and nightmarish, some that recycle periodically in your subconscious, revealing much about your fears and insecurities, like running but never getting anywhere, or falling but never hitting bottom, or being in front of a crowd and suddenly realizing you’re stark naked—with nowhere to hide.
The kind of dreaming I’m talking about is envisioning a better tomorrow, a successful future, or a life of significance and impact. God has given mankind alone the ability to dream—and that includes you! And I suspect that somewhere, perhaps buried deep inside you, is a dream for a fantastic future.
But your dream doesn’t even come close to the fulfillment God has in mind for you. Abraham had dreams, but what God had in mind was far more expansive than this old man could have ever imagined. Abraham wanted a home; God had in mind a whole land—the land of promise. Abraham wanted a child; God had in mind a nation—and not just any old nation, it would be the people of God. Abraham wanted to make a name for himself; God had in mind to bless the entire earth through Abraham’s life.
God’s vision was far bigger and better than Abraham could have ever dreamed. I suspect that’s true for you too! So why don’t you dust off those dreams and bring them back before the Father who gave them to you. Henry David Thoreau wrote,
“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”
If God has given you a dream, this may be the best time to start on that foundation, because now just may be the time he wants to build them into a fantastic reality. Just remember, as the Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:20,
“God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!”
There is only one thing that really confuses me. I bit my tongue for a while, not wanting to appear critical, but I never seem to be able to hold my peace for long. You had so much good to say that I feel petty in mentioning it.
Why would you say angels do not dream? Of course they dream. God said: “Let us make man in our image.” To whom do you suppose he was speaking? There is a reason angels are called man’s ministers. The work was God’s, but he made them a party to it by decree. The work was not finished when man became a living soul. It was only beginning. They were charged with helping him bring it to pass.
Angels are made in the image of God. This means they possess the same attributes as their creator. They are creative, full of visions, and they are far greater in power than we are. They are perfect for the job. Idleness also may spell trouble to them. Work gives focus. If we also are to be born in the image of God, we too must possess those attributes when the work is finished.
michael
Satan certainly has vision or dreams. His aim was to do God’s work when he came to see the man and the woman whom God had granted eternal souls to. What he found did not please him. You see, they were not clothed with the glory of God. They were naked. And there must have been many other things they were doing which he personally judged as repugnant. They were an offense to him.
Seeing God had placed them in very close proximity to both the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life, he hatched a plan. The foolishness of it was monumental. Very often the greatest evils are born from evil hearts attempting to do God service. They do their own evil wills, hoping good will come of it. It never does.
If man were to become like them, they must not remain ignorant. They must know the difference between right and wrong, and they must live forever. Because he sought to give them knowledge of good and evil, he should have known he that should not lie in his ministry. Doing so is hypocrisy. The problem is in his character. Satan believes in God, but he does not believe him. He has no truth in him. He supposes everyone, including God himself, is like him, filled with partial truths.
When it went south, he made his case to all who would hear him. Thus was born a rebellion in heaven. He became a leader to all who were like him. As many as a third of the heavenly host may have followed him. We make his case appear just whenever we sin but when one sinner repents, God’s case is made. Then is there rejoicing in heaven, because he who declared the end from the beginning is seen as true.
His punishment could have been his redemption, had he possessed truth and love. He could have done much good where he was, but his hatred for mankind grew. It became his life’s mission to prove man’s unredeemable depravity. That is also why he works so hard to tempt us into doing evil.
Do you not think the angels know that God granted him power to execute judgments upon man? He is the accuser. They know he can do nothing beyond what God decrees. So he comes before God to accuse us, but sometimes God distracts him with those like righteous Job. This gives those who would have been accused time, time for those whom he has actually sent to minister to them to work, and time for these would be condemned to change their ways. It also purifies and refines the righteous, who are the work of his hands.
Satan became so accustom to this role that when Jesus was given into his hand, he did all his desires against him; for he hated him. He, himself, became a murderer of the innocent. Now he could be righteously judged and condemned. His hypocrisy is no longer veiled in cruel judgments. It is laid bare for the heavenly hosts to see. Yet the war is not won so easily, but the battle lines are set.
We know the end only because we believe Him who declared the end from the beginning.
Not petty at all, Michael. And point well made. I think when God said, "Let us make man" he was not speaking to the angels, but there was a conversation taking place between the Divine community–Father, son and Holy Spirit. Apparently Lucifer (and if he, then why not all the other angelic beings) had the ability to desire more than was appropriate, but was it technically the ability to dream? We could argue–but I still contend that man is the only created being within which God has implanted the ability to envision a preferred future, and that ability was originally intended to prefer a Divinely orchestrated future. Unfortunately, the fall corrupted our ability to dream pure, God-directed visions.
You know, I used to call Satan Lucifer all the time. I do not do that anymore. It is like some innate belief we all share. That should have been a red flag to me. Because the spirit of err is in the world, if too many people believe something which is yet unproven, it shall be proven wrong. History should teach us that. If Lucifer was, in fact, his name, Jesus would have called him that. He did not. So I will not.The mention of Lucifer, which means light bearing, comes from, well, we both know where.Babylon was the unlikely subject here. Do you realize Jesus mentions Capernaum in the same vane as Isaiah does toward it in Chapter 14?I find that kingdom to be a very interesting subject. It had kings well before Nebuchadnezzar arose, yet it was only through him that their greatness came. He even authored a chapter in the book of Daniel. How did a vain, self-willed, pagan king come to be a believer in the God? He had dreams of world domination and went forth conquering. He did more toward this goal than anyone had hitherto done. Yet he was that head of gold in Daniel's vision. Greater empires rose up after him, empires having greater dominion, greater armies, and influences, yet God esteemed them inferior. Why? Was is because of God's work in his life? One thing we do know. His kingdom fell after his successor, who should have known better, rejected and mocked the God Nebuchadnezzar had come to believe in. There were political reasons for doing this, as well as the disdain he naturally felt toward the Jews and their beliefs. He wished to distance himself from the beliefs of his grandfather before all the people of his rule. He may have been advised to do so in order to appease the enemies of his realm, and the nations around them. These enemies had to bide their time. They dared not rise up against Nebuchadnezzar himself. He was too strong. They waited for weakness to appear before striking.Even Egypt under Joseph had not attained as much promise as did Babylon. Joseph ruled second only to Pharaoh, but Pharaoh never converted. Through the influence of a few prominent Jews, chief of which was Daniel, the king of Babylon did convert. His testimony, Daniel Chapter 4, was a decree throughout the land. He wanted the peoples he ruled over to know the one true God. He did so because he wished, like so many kings, to preserve and establish his kingdom.To this end he failed. Was he a true worshipper? I cannot say, but he knew that this God ruled over the earth and its kings. Through Daniel and others the light of Babylon did shine for some time after the king's decease but only to falter, and the kingdom to cease altogether very suddenly. Yet these Jews remained in places of authority under the Persians and Medes, as well. Subsequent rulers even attempted to eradicate the memory of Nebuchadnezzar because of what they viewed as apostasy. They did a fairly good job. Thank God his testimony is still preserved in our Bibles. I doubt a written record will be found anywhere in that land. They did not find evidence of Nebuchadnezzar until the 1940's. Scholars thought him to be part of the Bible's fictions, as they might call anything they disbelieve. What did I say about the spirit of err?Remember, you called this IntenseDebate. michael
Where does the name Lucifer even come from? All the names in the Old & NewTestaments arephonetically derived. Lucifer stands alone in this regard, as is not. Because it appears to come from Latin, I can only presume we have the Vulgate to thank for its invention.michaelHere is a little trivial take between a certain Hebrew and Greek name using phonetics. Jehovah orYahweh, however we choose to pronounce it comes from thevowel-less:???? (JHVH or YHVH or YHWH. The adding of vowels gives us the names: Jehovah, Yehovah, orYahweh. Hebrew has no J sounds. Translating this into Greek would be interesting because Greek has no H sounds, except to begin a word. After that the H sound issubstituted for an S in the Greek. If we are then to take the same JHVH, we would derive JSVS, YSVS, YSWS, or even JSUS. Adding vowels would be: JeSVS, YeSVS, YeSWS, YeSUS, or even JeSUS. In early formation of characters we use today V/W/U areinterchangeable.That is whyYahweh is a viable translation. (Personally, I tend to pronounce it Yehovah, slipping o between the h and v, thus keeping our traditional Jehovah minus the unpronounceable Hebrew j.)I just think it interesting that we can find Jesus, which is the Greek form of the name meaning 'to save' in the name God first chose to identify himself as. I know this means nothing. It is just a visual trick, right?
Oh, and the conversation between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I have heard that. I used to believe that too. It was convincing enough at the time. It is funny, all the things I used to believe. Study and meditation on God's word changes everything. Looking back on all I used to think I knew, I now realize I knew nothing. So I can hardly fault those who still believe what I once did. The question is how many of those things I presently believe will I still believe to be true in another twenty years.I trust this is your experience as well.michaelSent from my iPhone
I believe this falls into the category of “seeing through a glass darkly”. As a mentor of mine was fond of saying, "There's a lot more about God that we don't know than what we do know." That is the beauty of the living, active Word, along with the present ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives!
Well said!