PRAYING TO SUSTAIN YOUR DREAM
(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.