The Impossible Dream? Series

Becoming a Dreamer

April 29, 2012

Joel 2:28-32

Last week we took a look at God’s command to Ezekiel to walk into a valley of dead very dry bones. The purpose was for God to bring life back into these bones. Sometimes in life we walk through those valleys, valleys where we feel like those very dry dead disjointed bones. We’ve lost hope, we’ve lost feeling, we feel like we’ll never get out of the valley.

Our dreams, hopes, and aspirations are gone. Often times, it’s easy to give up on our hopes and dreams. Too many times that’s the preferred way, because it’s easy to play the blame game. We can blame situations and people. Even when we really didn’t have a choice, it simply means that a door has closed, but new doors, new dreams are available, but will we go down that path and allow ourselves to dream once again.

The people of Judah were struggling as well. In the 1st chapter of Joel, we quickly learn there was a horrendous locust invasion which devastated the land. The people were deep in sin, they were hurting and there was a call from Joel for the people to repent and turn back to God. They felt beaten up, they were being oppressed by foreign nations and even by locusts.

It’s hard to have dreams and hopes when you’re disjointed and dry. I’ve come to realize that even when we aren’t in the valleys of life, it’s still hard to dream. We live in such a fast paced life, that when you stop and think about it — oh wait a minute, that’s an oxymoron, we don’t have time to stop and think, and not for a minute, maybe a second works better.

But, lest I digress, now what was I talking about?

When was the last time you gave yourself permission and the time to stop . . . just to stop doing what you were doing and dream and plan and envision a future? We don’t do it, especially us adults. Kids naturally do it, they dream about what they’ll be and do.

So, the people in Judah are struggling, and then Joel tells us these words ~

28 “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.

29 Even on my servants, both men and women,

I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

30 I will show wonders in the heavens

and on the earth,

blood and fire and billows of smoke.

32 And everyone who calls

on the name of the LORD will be saved;

for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem

there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said,

among the survivors whom the LORD calls.

Joel starts out this section of scripture saying, “and afterward...” You see, he’s referring to a few verses earlier where he told the people ~ 12 “Even now, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

13 Rend your heart and not your garments.

Return to the LORD your God,

for He is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and abounding in love,

and he relents from sending calamity.

You see, God is calling on His people to dream dreams and to have visions, because He wants to pour His Spirit on you.

What about us? What about us? Have we turned our hearts to God? I love the way Joel says it, God doesn’t want you to tear your garments, He wants you to tear your hearts — to repent and fast and weep and mourn. To let go of the past and to embrace a future which is based on a full relationship with the Lord. You see, He wants to pour His Spirit into our hearts, spirits and minds — which leads us to dream and have visions.

What’s your dream? Do you have any? For most of us when we reach adulthood, we give up on our dreams and face reality . . . we need to earn a paycheck, not be a dreamer.

Remember the song - ‘To Dream the Impossible Dream.’ What image to we get from the title, the dream is impossible. Or remember the song from a group called Supertramp, “dreamer, nothing but a dreamer.” Dreamers are usually looked down upon, they dawdle and waste their time. Yet, without dreamers, we’d be living in a backwards world. Dreamers are a gift.

Each of us has been created in God’s image . . . and frankly God is the biggest and greatest of the dreamers. Look at what He’s created, think of His imagination and creativity . . . the dream that He made into reality.