“God has a dream for your life.” It’s a statement we can find easy to believe on days where everything is going well and difficult to fathom when it is not.
But His dream for you is unchanging. He has a plan and goal for who you will become in Christ that is not deterred by your circumstances or personal lack.
However, it will require developing a powerful, internal spirituality when overwhelmed by external circumstances.
Romans 6:11 says, “…reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We can take our internal territory by trying to continually kill ourselves…living under the idea that we need to die to everything, but that still puts the focus on ourselves and our will, not His.
Or, we can allow ourselves to be alive to God, which takes the same transformation desired in our thinking or behaviors and allows God to perform it. Our action is to align with His ways, His truth and His life…and receive His empowering grace to do so.
“For it is God who is at work, both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13.)
What a choice! Our very happiness depends on how we respond to God’s touch and invitation. Will we insist on killing ourselves or allowing God to come alive?
Our religious ability is so subtle in this. How can it be God’s refinement if we do not feel intense pain? Without even realizing it, we have taken over the Holy Spirit’s job of bringing ourselves under God’s rule: “I’ll do it!” we say.
Our soul takes the issue, sticks it in the oven for a while and waits until God is looking away to pull it back out again. Trying to die to it makes us preoccupied with all we are not.
But being alive to all that Christ is for us, in us and through us makes us preoccupied with Him!
When we become alive to God, we automatically become dead to ourselves.
Allowing God to live in us and transform us into His dream for us can still be uncomfortable at times, even painful. It’s why the process is infused with grace, mercy and Himself as our Comforter.
There will be days where our spirit will need to take the pre-eminence and say to the soul:
“No, I’m not thinking that. I’m thinking about God’s purity and love instead. No, I’m not thinking that. I’m thinking about who Jesus is to me as my Prince of Peace.”
Our will is simply the vehicle whereby we check our feelings and perceptions with the Holy Spirit before acting on them.
The Holy Spirit always offers us an alternative to our internal predicaments. And on the day we fail, His goodness and kindness for us bubbles up – because He knows that’s what inspires us to turn and go a new way with Him (Romans 2:4).
His conviction always comes with an invitation to become more alive to Him.
So, embrace the freedom of living alive to Him. It’s the place where His dreams for your life become your living reality.
PS) If you are interested in learning more about how you can become alive to God’s dream, get your copy of my book, Towards a Powerful Inner Life. It’s currently available as a special bundle with a brilliant journal this month. Click here to order your set now!
PPS) You can also learn about coming alive to God’s dream for you in my teaching, Turning Passivity into Prophecy, which is currently available as a FREE download from Brilliant Book House this month. Click here to get your copy now!
