Dreaming with God: Practical Ideas

April 16th, 2020

I love conceptual messages, but I’m always thinking “how do I do that?” So I’m going to enjoy giving you some ideas of how we can practically go about dreaming with God.

Before getting into some of the practical ideas, I encourage you to read the first part of this topic: "4 Ways to Restore Your Capacity to Dream".
Below is a snippet from that post which will remind us why we want to partner with Him in dreaming for our futures.

God is waiting for us to partner with Him by dreaming and envisioning the future in alignment with what He is saying. When we are recalibrated to ask greater things of Him, and more importantly with Him, we start walking out this exciting journey. It will increase our faith and grow our relationship! When our desires are also His desires it means the pressure is off of us and on Him! All we have to do is be willing to dream big, ask, expect, and trust He will provide. It’s a journey of discovering who He has created us to be and finding out His exciting purpose for us!

Okay, Let's get started:

1. Spend time in God's presence.
This is the most important one. Ask Him to talk to you and talk to Him. Ask Him what is on His heart.

2. Write things down.
What is on your heart? What is on His heart? What are you feeling? What do you think God’s doing right now? Write things down and He will develop these things with you.

3. Make a list of things that your heart desires.
This is for you and God. It’s not just for Him. He wants things for you too. Allow yourself to dream big!

4. Write them from a place of thanksgiving.
Thank God for putting these things in your future. If we imagine that God is outside of time, we realize that He can see your whole life. He’s already been placing and preparing things for your future. We’re thanking God for putting things in our future. For example, Jacob and I might need a new car eventually. So from a place of thanksgiving we would say “Tank You, God, that Jacob and I have a reliable new car.” or “Tank You that we will go on vacation back to England next year.” Whatever you’re desiring, you can be as specif as you want. He is a loving Father. If it matters to you, it matters to Him.

5. Talk with Him some more about it.
See what He thinks, feels, and says about what you’ve written and listed. Ask for His peace as a witness about them. I cannot stress enough: the most important part of this is to do this WITH HIM - in that intimate relationship with Him.

6. For every other (alternating) item on that list, write something that you want BUT you already have!
This is going to help you to approach dreaming from a place of abundance. It’s going to help you remember what He’s already done for you. So, on your list you will have something you are dreaming for and then directly under it you are going to have something God has already blessed you with. For example, my list might look something like this: “Thank You for Jacob’s and my fulfilling jobs that You’ve given us, and thank You for our college degrees.” The next item on the list is something we don’t yet have. “Thank You that we are completely student-debt free.” NOTE that we can write things that we don’t yet have as if we already have them to increase our faith for them.

7. Write your list under headings for all the areas of your life.
For example, I wrote mine under: personal, family, spiritual list, ministry / mission field / job. This just helps us to think about what God has planned for us - His dreams - for all the areas of our lives. This way nothing gets forgotten.

A few other ideas that could be helpful:

You can use this list as a daily declaration.
Keep it in front of you. We create with our words. Life and death is in the power of the tongue. This will helps us focus on the direction that we want to go in. It helps me to think of it like a pilot who has put coordinates into his GPS … if he puts in coordinates that are slightly off, he will end up in a completely different country. If you’re not looking at where you want to go, you won’t end up where you want to go … you’ll end up somewhere else.
Add personal prophecies to your list.
For instance, I received a word from Neil last April that said “I’m going to become an influencer and people will gravitate toward me.” So I have that written under my personal list “Thank You that I AM an influencer and thank you that people gravitate towards me.” So you are writing words from the Lord from the place of already having it. I know that word is from the Lord so I know that I am in alignment with Him.
Add scripture to your list.
For example, if you truly desire to have prophetic gifts, then you can use John 16:13 “Thank You God, that Holy Spirit only speaks what He hears from the Father and He reveals prophetically to me what is to come.” Here you use present tense and change it out for “I” and “me” to make it personal to you and to make it in a way that is going to increase your faith for it.

So those are some practical points about how you can go about the dreaming process. It’s not the only ways you can do it of course.