Issue 139
I wonder what you understand by the word ‘dream’. It is a very complex subject. The meaning of the word is changed by its context. Daydreams are seen as absentminded musings which inhibit the progress of real work – although some psychologists argue that they are very good for your health. Night-time dreams can be confusing and sometimes disturbing and containing little sense. Dream specialists point out that dreams are often about ourselves and therefore tell us more about ourselves than anything else. Some people believe that America is best understood as a dream rather than a nation, since Americans share some sense of longing for a particular way of life.
In the world of work, a dream is more often a long-held or nurtured desire to achieve particular aims or status. There is usually a future focus and for some people fulfilling their dream is a deliberate planned activity. In this sense the dream has a visionary dynamic to it.
Dreams and visions are one of the signs of the work of the Divine Spirit. Peter on the first day of a working week, explained to the crowd that the Pentecostal spectacle was part of an older vision now being fulfilled when young and old would experience this phenomenon.
Many a parent will hold a dream of having a child and then have dreams for the life-path that the child will take.
Dreams, then, are woven into the fabric of our lives. The language and vocabulary of dreams is familiar to us in life, work, personal times and private aspirations. Dreaming is clearly part of God’s creation and even a sign of his activity. This brings us to a powerful thought: Does God himself dream? Some mystics think that all creation is a dream of God in the day-dreaming, absent-minded, illusionary sense. Everything is ultimately unreal. Some think that creation is a nightmare or worse. These may be attractive or even winsome theories but they are not biblical. What would be the implication, however, if God’s dreams were more like cherished visions with a future focus and with drive and energy behind them to move towards realisation?
Some Christian thinkers have proposed that every person is a dream of God. Here we move to empowering thoughts. God knows the plans or dreams he has for you – not in a narrow, formulaic way but in a potential-realising way as a Father dreams for the best for his child. But there is a deeper biblical thought which needs to be considered. You as an individual are a dream of God. Skilfully and intricately made, you are an expression of the creative mind of God. The Divine Craftsman has brought a dream to life in bringing you to birth. It’s not just your future path, but your very existence which is an expression of the dream of God.
The hard thing about dreams is being conscious of their meaning. When you work this week, make it your aim to become conscious that you are a dream of God. His designs, his hopes for you and his delight in you are all connected to this consciousness. Your work and your life is not about a nightmare, it is about living the dream.
Acts 2: 17
17 “In the last days”, God says, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.”
Psalm 139: 13-18
13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.
Jeremiah 29: 11
11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD , “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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