The dream God reveals will be different for everyone. Depending on gifts, talents and abilities, your dream may be to have the most dynamic youth ministry the world has ever seen. Or because of your technical orientation, your dream may be to do a media complex that produces television broadcasts that are seen around the world.
You have to dream big. Remember, the biggest way we limit God is through our unwillingness to acknowledge His "bigness" in our dreaming.
The Dream Is Just The Start
Listen to your heart. What is your fondest desire? Let the Holy Spirit elaborate on that, and He'll begin showing you what will give you the impetus you'll need to see you through to its realization.
Once the dreaming part has been done, don't stop there. God does not give you a dream without also giving you a plan to realize the dream. But always be sure your dream can be realized within the context of the organization in which God has planted you.
Early Lessons
In the earlier days of our church some people came to me with grand visions. One man had a vision burning on his heart for a mission outreach to Haiti. He was sure it was of God—and I do not deny that—but it did not coincide with our ministry's vision. We were involved in an outreach to Russia at the time. Consequently, his enthusiasm for the vision in his heart caused him to bring division to our church.
He began drawing disciples to his vision, and he could not understand when I went to him and said, "Brother, what you're doing is wrong. It's not that you haven't heard from God or that it isn't a good vision. You're simply in the wrong place.
"There is a place where you can get connected and your vision can be realized within the framework of that ministry's vision. You'll have to find where that is. Then you won't be divisive. Then your participation won't be controversial or confusing. Then it won't split our effort. Then you can make a meaningful contribution."
You must understand the importance of seeing your dreams and visions realized within the context of the organization that God has opened to your participation. If that is not possible, you must stop your efforts until it is.
Why? Because that is a principle of submission and authority. If, after seeking the Lord, you know you are to continue your efforts, then you are in the wrong place. You must move on, or you will potentially become a divisive influence within that organization.
Many people use positions as stepping-stones to set up their own thing. That is wrong; it is unhealthy for you, and it is unhealthy for the organization. However, if you will see the realization of your dream within the context of the mission you are submitted to, it will help keep your heart right. It will keep you from inadvertently seeing your participation as a stepping-stone to something higher and better.
You cannot give your all to that organization if you are only using them to get what you want, because if that is your attitude, God won't promote you.
Luke 16:12 says if you are not faithful in that which is another man's, who will entrust you with that which is your own?
Avoiding Conflicts Of Interest
God may have shown you that you will have your own enterprise at some point. But if you let that understanding be the motivating force in your life, then you are going to have conflicts of interest. To be faithful in that which is another man's, you must give him 100 percent of your support in the pursuit of his godly vision. Through that experience God will test your character and, specifically, your faithfulness.
If you prove yourself faithful to another person's vision, the day will come when God will entrust you with your own.
Most people will see their God-given vision realized within the context of a larger organization's effort. That is a simple organizational truth, and even God works within that framework. Organization is His idea, by the way; it didn't originate in the secular environment. So it is likely your dream will be realized within the framework of a larger endeavor.
But if you are called to lead your own enterprise and at some point He separates you to lead an effort that could be called your own, you will never be absolved from being faithful to that which is another's. If you ever stop serving other people's efforts and focus entirely on your own, you will wither and die.
I am connected with other ministers whom I consider my fathers in the faith. I am obligated scripturally and by the Spirit to be faithful to help them in the areas my gifts and abilities allow.
Actually, there are three or four men to whom God has connected me with in this regard, and when God opens the door of opportunity, I am committed to serving them. If I ever stop doing that, I can forget the ministry He has given me here in Minneapolis, because it will become ingrown, introverted and self-serving.
Serving others will not only open your place of calling, but it will also establish you in it.
Excerpt permission granted by Mac Hammond Ministries