PRAYING TO SUSTAIN YOUR DREAM
(A Message by Pastor Dahunsi Olawole)
(A Message by Pastor Dahunsi Olawole)
Text: Genesis 37:5-11
“And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he
told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. 6 And he said unto them,
Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: 7 For, behold, we were
binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright;
and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. 8
And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou
indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams,
and for his words. 9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his
brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun
and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. 10 And he told it to
his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him,
What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy
brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? 11 And his
brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.”
Philippians 4:8
“Finally, brethren,
whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are
just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever
things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise,
think on these things.”
From the above passages, we have seen that Joseph had a
dream and he had it again after the first time, but the dream I am talking
about now is not the type of dream you see when you sleep.
·
The dream I am talking about is your heart
desired future: how you want your life to be tomorrow.
·
What you intend to become or what you intend
doing in future
·
It is your cherished aspiration
·
What you pray to become
·
What you pray to achieve in future
That is the dream we are talking about and when you see
Joseph from that passage, he had at back of his mind that he wants to be a
great person. God does not want us to be failure; He had seen that Joseph had
determined to be great or successful and God had to act to that vision.
Dream is like a vision, what you are looking unto and how
you want your life to be tomorrow; that is the kind of dream we are talking
about today. Many people have great dreams but they are not near to those
dreams now. If you look at their lives today you will see that those dreams are
miles apart. Some have derailed and some have failed, some are crawling to get
close to those dreams but the more they try, the more failure they find
themselves in.
I
pray for you today that powers that are insisting that you must fail, shall be
disgrace in the name of Jesus.
A person’s dream/vision can be aborted, destroyed, killed, wasted,
amputated or buried due to the following reasons:
1.
Godlessness/ungodly lifestyle: so many people
dissociate themselves from God and there is nobody who can succeed in life
without God.
2.
Doubt and faithlessness: without faith no man
can receive anything from God, so stop asking yourself ‘is it possible or can I
make it? ‘ I read a story of men who were competing to marry a king’s daughter
and the king said; there is a crocodile invested water and that anyone who
wants to marry his daughter must swim across the water successfully without
been injured by the crocodile. All the young men got to the river bank and were
scared by the crocodile and withdrew from swimming but there was a particular
man who was still having a double mind either to swim or not. While he was
thinking by the river bank, a fellow pushed him into the water from behind and
he started struggling to come out by swimming. At the end of the day, he ended
up swimming to the other side of the water and the king was very excited that the
young man succeeded in crossing the water and that he will marry the king’s
daughter but the man started asking the people around ‘who pushed me into the
water?’ There are so many things in us and until God helps us, we might not be able
to accomplish them.
So many of us are like that man, he can swim but he had fear to
swim until someone had to push him which at the end of the day he realized that
he could do it.
3.
Fear: fear of failure, fear of what will
people say or fear of can I succeed?
I remember the story of a young man who was advance in age but had
only first school leaving certificate. One day we were discussing and I told
him to try and go back to school, he said out of fear and doubt that I should
forget about the issue of school because he had given up on himself; after
advising him, today he is a graduate and a master degree holder. Fear of I
cannot make it or it is not possible can make a man to defer his dream.
4.
Procrastination: when you keep postponing what
you should have done today to another day or time.
5.
Indecision: not being able to take a decision
6.
Our past: maybe they know you as a failure but
you can still make it. You should not allow your past to weigh you down. If
Christ can surmount His foundation; you can surmount yours because He died so
that you can move forward from your past failures.
7.
Attack: we live in an environment where people
do not want others to succeed and that is why so many of us have great dreams
and visions but the witches and wizards will attack them and cause them not to
achieve their dreams. You will see people envying others for nothing and even
when you try to move forward, they will do everything possible to pull you
down.
8.
Your family: when parents begins to force
their children to do what they cannot want, it can kill that child’s dreams and
vision
9.
Laziness
10.
Low self-esteem: when you have already written
yourself off or looked down on yourself because of your past failures and
background. Low self-esteem is a killer so do not under estimate what God has
deposited into your life at any time.
11.
Bad dream/ no dream at all: some people do not
have any dream while some people’s dream dies after the first day they had the
dream, some have bad dreams or ideas.
12.
Lack of good supporter/helper
13.
Over ambition: you need to understand that
Rome was not built in a day and little drop of water makes an ocean. The Bible
says that the steps of the righteous is like candle light, it gets brighter and
brighter every day. Do not be over ambitious in everything but learn to start
small and if God’s hand is in it, it will definitely blossom.
14.
Under ambition: starting low when you are
supposed or qualified to start high. Aim high or dream big.
15.
Association: your friends or company can also
affect your dreams positively or negatively.
16.
Carelessness: when you are not concerned or
bordered about everything, you are just living your life anyhow.
How Do I Sustain
My Dream?
1.
Engage God: nothing survives without God.
Proverbs 16:1 and 19, Proverbs 19:21, Proverbs 21:1. So learn to put God in
everything you do in life including your dreams.
2.
Prayer is another thing you must do. Good
dreams are backed up or supported by prayer for sustenance and survival or
accomplishment.
3.
See the word of God different from the way you
are looking at it now. The word of God is power; it is a great thing that you
must utilize. Learn to see yourself in the word of God, the Bible says in
Psalms 119:105 “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” and
verse 130 “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto
the simple.” So understand the word of God.
4.
Work on yourself/improve yourself: all those
dream killers mentioned above, drive them out of your life.
5.
Be a good dreamer: dream right, dream positive,
high and big because your dream determines how far you can go in life.
6.
Discipline yourself in various ways:
successful people are not people who sleep too much. No indiscipline
person can accomplish his dream; therefore you must be disciplined if you must
succeed.
7.
Educate yourself on things that will enhance
your dreams: educate yourself on things that can make that dream to prosper.
God always work on or bless the things you have at hand.
8.
Surround yourself with good people: make good
people your friends; people that have good understanding about God and are willing
to encourage and support you in your dreams.
9.
Think well, think big and think of success
always.
10.
Manage your health very well so that you can
live well: take good care of yourself even while you are investing into the
future because if you are not healthy you will not enjoy your wealth or
investment. Do things that will not harm your health.
11.
Put your dreams in the life of others: help
others to succeed because if everybody succeeds, there would not be any
competition. Do not be a selfish person, consider and help others around you so
that they can be able to fulfill their dreams.
Bow down your head and talk to God to give you a dream that can
make you a helper to others in your generation.
Prayer
1. Failure
of my father’s house, I am not your candidate in the name of Jesus.
2. Every conspiracy with the intension to pull you down shall die
in Jesus name.
3. Powers assign to amputate my dreams, die in Jesus name.
