June 20, 2007
Jill Austin:
"DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAMS WITH GOD!"
Has your life turned out totally different from the way you dreamed it would be? Have you grown weary because of shattered hopes, delayed answers, and painful regrets? Perhaps you have gone through the routines of life and walked with God for a long time, but now you seem to have lost vision for your life. Once when you were young and vibrant in God you had a cause to die for, but instead of dying for a cause, now you find yourself dying.
Can you remember a time in your life when you were doing something that really made you excited to get out of bed each day? When you felt fully alive? Those were times that you knew you were walking in your gifting and destiny, and you felt the pleasure of God. You were invigorated and excited about your life. But then reality hits and you say to yourself, I am tired of hearing about the word destiny because that is not what is happening in my life. You begin to wonder if your life has any eternal value or meaning.
But what if destiny was defined differently? What if it was not anything we thought it was?
Destiny in Motion
Think with me for a moment. Destiny is a progression of cycles and seasons. It happens over time, spanning the decades of your life. Destiny is like a giant tapestry--maybe twelve miles high, twelve miles wide and twelve miles deep. It is multileveled and, even more, it is organic and ever changing. Your destiny is a fascinating and complex weaving that came from the very heart of Jesus.
It is true. It may be too amazing for the heart or mind even to grasp, but you started in the imagination of God. He has already dreamed about you. Your destiny is the divine journey that you are living right now. It may look different from what you imagined, but God, the masterful dream weaver, does not make mistakes with anyone's life and destiny.
For You did form my inward parts; You did knit me together in my mother's womb. I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are Your works, and that my inner self knows right well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret [and] intricately and curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colors] in the depths of the earth [a region of darkness and mystery]. Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them. (Psalm 139:13-16, amplified)
My desire is to awaken your heart to new adventures so that you are fully alive in God. I believe that you will receive fresh revelation about the process of dancing with your destiny. It involves transforming your mind so you see your life through the heart of God instead of through your circumstances.
Wild Like the Sea
There is a certain wildness about dreaming impossible dreams, but God wants to fulfill the desires of your heart. He wants you to imagine the unimaginable, and then He will take you even further. You cannot go backward--you know too much. Where would you go anyway? There is a longing in you that can be satisfied only by God Himself. This knowledge is what keeps you sharp and on the cutting edge spiritually.
I live on the West Coast, and when I think of wildness, I often think of the sea. It can change in a second from gently lapping waves to dangerous riptides, or from raging storms to peaceful settings for the sun to slip into at night.
Have you ever ridden a wave runner? For those who are landlocked, this is a "motorcycle" that you ride on water. Whenever I can, I rent one and take it outside the harbor into the wild seas--up over big waves and down into deep swells. At times it is scary to be so adventuresome, but it is also exhilarating.
There is yet another way of looking at destiny! Surfing the big waves can be frightening. It often means leaving our comfort zones. You might have been wooed out into the surf in the past only to come back with bruised bones, cracked ribs, a concussion, and strained muscles. Disillusioned, you have settled for sitting on the beach and watching others ride the waves.
But if we sit and wait for that big dream called "destiny" simply to show up like a tidal wave one day, we are likely to be even more disappointed. Destiny is not something in the future, something that we will attain at the end of life. If we wait forever to seek our dreams, we will never find them.
Will you start to dream again? Will you join me? We can do this together. Perhaps it is time for you to snorkel, to hop on a jet ski or even to catch a big wave on a surfboard.
Surfers know about adventure. They travel the world following their dream of flowing in harmony with something more powerful than they are. They are in love with the thrill of being challenged. They go into the surf knowing that the pounding pressure of the mountainous waves could kill them. Big wave surfers understand living in the moment.
Why do people do things like that? Because when you have something big enough to die for, you become fully alive. It is in the heart of every person to have a cause, a desire for radical adventures that challenge the very core of our being. There needs to be a cry in us that says, "I want to have a cause! I want to have an awakening that is big enough to dream about, fall in love with and die for."
If you are part of the Body of Christ, you have a cause: The Lord's heart aches for the lost. And the amazing thing is that your own personal dreams, your journey, can be interwoven with God's great battle plans being "strategized" right now in the heavenlies. The battle may take place on different fronts--in the nations, in your relationships, even in your thoughts. But that is part of the thrill.
The Bible tells us that Jesus spoke to someone who was, in every respect, dead to his dreams. Delayed answers and shattered hopes had left him with no seeming possibility of fulfilling his destiny. Are you in that situation? Then listen to Jesus' words: "Lazarus, come forth!"
The Lord is calling you to come forth, take off the grave clothes, and put on your surfing shorts.
Join me. It is time for the adventures to begin.
Jill Austin
Master Potter Ministries
Email: info@masterpotter.com
Permission is granted (and you are also encouraged) to reprint these articles in hard copy form, as well as sending them to your own email lists and posting them on your own websites. We ask only that you keep ElijahList website, email contact info, and author contact information intact.
ElijahList Publications
310 2nd Ave SE,
Albany, OR 97321
www.elijahlist.com
email: info@elijahlist.net
Phone 1-541-926-3250
Jill Austin:
"DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAMS WITH GOD!"
Has your life turned out totally different from the way you dreamed it would be? Have you grown weary because of shattered hopes, delayed answers, and painful regrets? Perhaps you have gone through the routines of life and walked with God for a long time, but now you seem to have lost vision for your life. Once when you were young and vibrant in God you had a cause to die for, but instead of dying for a cause, now you find yourself dying.
Can you remember a time in your life when you were doing something that really made you excited to get out of bed each day? When you felt fully alive? Those were times that you knew you were walking in your gifting and destiny, and you felt the pleasure of God. You were invigorated and excited about your life. But then reality hits and you say to yourself, I am tired of hearing about the word destiny because that is not what is happening in my life. You begin to wonder if your life has any eternal value or meaning.
But what if destiny was defined differently? What if it was not anything we thought it was?
Destiny in Motion
Think with me for a moment. Destiny is a progression of cycles and seasons. It happens over time, spanning the decades of your life. Destiny is like a giant tapestry--maybe twelve miles high, twelve miles wide and twelve miles deep. It is multileveled and, even more, it is organic and ever changing. Your destiny is a fascinating and complex weaving that came from the very heart of Jesus.
It is true. It may be too amazing for the heart or mind even to grasp, but you started in the imagination of God. He has already dreamed about you. Your destiny is the divine journey that you are living right now. It may look different from what you imagined, but God, the masterful dream weaver, does not make mistakes with anyone's life and destiny.
For You did form my inward parts; You did knit me together in my mother's womb. I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are Your works, and that my inner self knows right well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret [and] intricately and curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colors] in the depths of the earth [a region of darkness and mystery]. Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them. (Psalm 139:13-16, amplified)
My desire is to awaken your heart to new adventures so that you are fully alive in God. I believe that you will receive fresh revelation about the process of dancing with your destiny. It involves transforming your mind so you see your life through the heart of God instead of through your circumstances.
Wild Like the Sea
There is a certain wildness about dreaming impossible dreams, but God wants to fulfill the desires of your heart. He wants you to imagine the unimaginable, and then He will take you even further. You cannot go backward--you know too much. Where would you go anyway? There is a longing in you that can be satisfied only by God Himself. This knowledge is what keeps you sharp and on the cutting edge spiritually.
I live on the West Coast, and when I think of wildness, I often think of the sea. It can change in a second from gently lapping waves to dangerous riptides, or from raging storms to peaceful settings for the sun to slip into at night.
Have you ever ridden a wave runner? For those who are landlocked, this is a "motorcycle" that you ride on water. Whenever I can, I rent one and take it outside the harbor into the wild seas--up over big waves and down into deep swells. At times it is scary to be so adventuresome, but it is also exhilarating.
There is yet another way of looking at destiny! Surfing the big waves can be frightening. It often means leaving our comfort zones. You might have been wooed out into the surf in the past only to come back with bruised bones, cracked ribs, a concussion, and strained muscles. Disillusioned, you have settled for sitting on the beach and watching others ride the waves.
But if we sit and wait for that big dream called "destiny" simply to show up like a tidal wave one day, we are likely to be even more disappointed. Destiny is not something in the future, something that we will attain at the end of life. If we wait forever to seek our dreams, we will never find them.
Will you start to dream again? Will you join me? We can do this together. Perhaps it is time for you to snorkel, to hop on a jet ski or even to catch a big wave on a surfboard.
Surfers know about adventure. They travel the world following their dream of flowing in harmony with something more powerful than they are. They are in love with the thrill of being challenged. They go into the surf knowing that the pounding pressure of the mountainous waves could kill them. Big wave surfers understand living in the moment.
Why do people do things like that? Because when you have something big enough to die for, you become fully alive. It is in the heart of every person to have a cause, a desire for radical adventures that challenge the very core of our being. There needs to be a cry in us that says, "I want to have a cause! I want to have an awakening that is big enough to dream about, fall in love with and die for."
If you are part of the Body of Christ, you have a cause: The Lord's heart aches for the lost. And the amazing thing is that your own personal dreams, your journey, can be interwoven with God's great battle plans being "strategized" right now in the heavenlies. The battle may take place on different fronts--in the nations, in your relationships, even in your thoughts. But that is part of the thrill.
The Bible tells us that Jesus spoke to someone who was, in every respect, dead to his dreams. Delayed answers and shattered hopes had left him with no seeming possibility of fulfilling his destiny. Are you in that situation? Then listen to Jesus' words: "Lazarus, come forth!"
The Lord is calling you to come forth, take off the grave clothes, and put on your surfing shorts.
Join me. It is time for the adventures to begin.
Jill Austin
Master Potter Ministries
Email: info@masterpotter.com
Permission is granted (and you are also encouraged) to reprint these articles in hard copy form, as well as sending them to your own email lists and posting them on your own websites. We ask only that you keep ElijahList website, email contact info, and author contact information intact.
ElijahList Publications
310 2nd Ave SE,
Albany, OR 97321
www.elijahlist.com
email: info@elijahlist.net
Phone 1-541-926-3250
Great work.
ReplyDeleteHi Natala,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the encouragement!
Regards,
Vir