Bad dreams are never fun. Recently, I found myself crying out in the middle of a dream. Frantically trying to yell for help, all I could do was let out a quiet whimper. I imagine that if someone were standing over my bed watching, I would have looked like the family pet, twitching and running and whining in my sleep. From inside the dream, I remember the attempt to yell and the frustration of not being able to actually call for help. I think it was that frustration that led to the realization I was dreaming and then waking up. That sense of helplessness and “unreality” woke me up.

For God does speak — now one way, now another — though no one perceives it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds, he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, to turn them from wrongdoing and keep them from pride, to preserve them from the pit, their lives from perishing by the sword. (Job 33:14–18)

Life can be similar to that dream. We can live in a state of “unreality.” We can live our lives hypnotized by the comforts of life. Most of us would say that life is quite real and not all that comfortable at times. That there is no fantasy or hypnosis involved in the trials and endurance races we all run. I agree that life can be brutal. A lot of time is spent asking if the trials and tribulations are all there is. Do we have to accept that is just the way life will always be? Are our lives what we thought they would be when we were children? Are we living up to our potential? What is our potential? And how would you really know?

God knows your potential. He created your destiny for you to live. Anything short of that destiny is a waste from a human perspective, tragic from a heavenly perspective, and “according to plan” from the satanic perspective.

We can know our destiny. We can walk in that potential, realize it, activate it, wind it up, and let it go.

God loves to answer questions by choosing between two options.

About a year ago, two good friends of mine, who are writers, came back from a Christian Writers Conference at Mt. Hermon. Their excitement was contagious, and I got jealous. I like to think of myself as a writer. But, I am one of those “hobby writers” with a box full of stories I started and never finished… good ideas are polished up or nurtured to a conclusion. I would get a moment of divine inspiration (that is how I saw the process) and write until I lost that inspiration and end up with an unfinished story. So, my friend’s contagious excitement caused me to talk to God about why I was jealous. He just asked me a question, “What means more to you, wasting your time surfing the web or Writing? Which of those is the most profitable”? He reminded me of First Corinthians 10:23: “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.” I took His challenge seriously and committed to resurrecting my orphaned stories.

I would love to say that after that, I miraculously became this incredible writer, but I didn’t. In actuality, it took my mind almost nine months to begin to focus enough to write cohesively. I had trained my mind to limit my attention to very short spans of time. It was a frustrating season of writer’s block where I found it difficult to form an idea or a story and get it down on the screen. 

Today, watching television or surfing the internet for too long saturates the imagination, filling it with images that crowd out what the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit want to put in there. It hypnotizes you, drugs your mind, and makes you feel comfortable. A number of things can take us away from our destinies, such as movies, television, gaming, etc. They end up claiming precious time which could be focused on the Kingdom.

So I ask you, what does your destiny look like? Have you asked The Father what He planned for you from the beginning of time? Does your current life look anything like that? Is there a sense of “Hopelessness” when your heart dares to desire to walk the Destiny Dream? If your heart is longing for that, do you feel remorse and a sense that life will never change? Then you are in the dream, yelling for help. You are beginning to realize that you are sleepwalking. Wake up!