Nurturing Your Dreams Series

Nurturing Your Dreams

Last week we looked at the Stealer of your dreams. He is the devil no matter what disguise he comes in, Jesus said,

A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy.

Its one thing to have a dream, its quite another to nourish that dream and work with the Holy Spirit to see it accomplished.

Moving on from last week many people asked for the Holy Spirit to revitalize their dream and help them pick up from the point of loosing it.

For those people I want to take this whole thing a step further this morning and teach on how to nurture your Spirit given dream.

Let’s look at a biblical character who had a dream and against all the odds saw it come to pass.

Jacob continued to live in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived, 2and this is the story of Jacob’s family.

Joseph, a young man of seventeen, took care of the sheep and goats with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s concubines. He brought bad reports to his father about what his brothers were doing.

3 Jacob loved Joseph more than all his other sons, because he had been born to him when he was old. He made a long robe with full sleeves for him. 4When his brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than he loved them, they hated their brother so much that they would not speak to him in a friendly manner.

5 One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him even more. 6He said, “Listen to the dream I had. 7We were all in the field tying up sheaves of wheat, when my sheaf got up and stood up straight. Yours formed a circle round mine and bowed down to it.”

8 “Do you think you are going to be a king and rule over us?” his brothers asked. So they hated him even more because of his dreams and because of what he said about them.

9 Then Joseph had another dream and said to his brothers, “I had another dream, in which I saw the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowing down to me.”

10 He also told the dream to his father, and his father scolded him: “What kind of a dream is that? Do you think that your mother, your brothers, and I are going to come and bow down to you?” Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept thinking about the whole matter Gen 37:1 GN

This young man had a dream that fulfilled all the hallmarks that we saw last week.

a. It was only partly understood by Joseph.

b.

c. It was so big as to be utterly improbable and bordering on the ridiculous.

No one here would deny that it came from the Holy Spirit.

Within a short time this is what happened to Joseph,

14 His father said, “Go and see if your brothers are safe and if the flock is all right; then come back and tell me.” So his father sent him on his way from the Valley of Hebron.

Joseph arrived at Shechem 15and was wandering about in the country when a man saw him and asked him, “What are you looking for?”

16 “I am looking for my brothers, who are taking care of their flock,” he answered. “Can you tell me where they are?”

17 The man said, “They have already left. I heard them say that they were going to Dothan.” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

18 They saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted against him and decided to kill him. 19They said to one another, “Here comes that dreamer. 20Come on now, let’s kill him and throw his body into one of the dry wells. We can say that a wild animal killed him. Then we will see what becomes of his dreams.”

21 Reuben heard them and tried to save Joseph. “Let’s not kill him,” he said. 22“Just throw him into this well in the wilderness, but don’t hurt him.” He said this, planning to save him from them and send him back to his father. 23When Joseph came up to his brothers, they ripped off his long robe with full sleeves. 24Then they took him and threw him into the well, which was dry.

25 While they were eating, they suddenly saw a group of Ishmaelites traveling from Gilead to Egypt. Their camels were loaded with spices and resins. 26Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother and covering up the murder? 27Let’s sell him to these Ishmaelites. Then we won’t have to hurt him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed, and when some Midianite traders came by, the brothers pulled Joseph out of the well and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt Gen 47:14-28 GN