The Impossible Dream | Mac Hammond
Recap
Pastor Mac taught the first message in his new series entitled, “The Impossible Dream.” He said “the impossible dream” is a good message for the outset of a new year. However, it’s a good message for all to hear at any time during the year. He began the message by asking a rhetorical question: “Do your dreams fall only within the realm of logical possibility. Or do your dreams require the element of the miraculous in order to be realized?” He went on to explain how God-given dreams will always necessitate the supernatural power of God in order for them to be fulfilled.
Dive Deeper
Question: Do your dreams fall only within the realm of logical possibility? Do your dreams only seem credible if their probability of fulfillment is definable by human understanding? Or do your dreams require the element of the miraculous in order to be realized?
Pastor Mac said, “If you dream within the limits of your own understanding, you leave God out. And He’ll not be bringing the miraculous to bear in the pursuit of that dream.”
Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”
Pastor Mac said, “I have a tendency to make the things that I see can work more credible in my thinking and in my approach. I look for ways to do something that I feel my talent or my ability has a chance of accomplishing.”
This is a dangerous way to dream because God wants to partner with us in the pursuit of our lives. We can only do things naturally. God adds the “super” to our natural. In that way, He wants to partner with us.
That doesn’t mean you can delegate the responsibility for the dream to Him and say, “Lord, I’m going to believe you to do this.”
Our responsibility is to do everything we can do in the natural to promote God’s purpose. There are things we do in the natural to move toward that dream, trusting Him to add the miraculous, or supernatural, as needed when we come to a place that we can’t negotiate without Him.
That process is illuminated in Philippians 3:14: “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
God says it this way in 1st Corinthians 2:9: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
Every child of God has a high calling of God. God has prepared things for each one of us that “eye hadn’t seen, ear hadn’t heard…” Most people do not get the magnitude of the plan that God has prepared for them.
Pastor Mac says, “The process of deliberate dreaming is how you begin establishing an understanding of where He wants to take you.”
Webster’s Dictionary as well as one or two words used for “dream” in the Strong’s Concordance defines dream as “a pattern of thought, or a mental image, or mental imagery that stimulates your intellect and stirs your emotion.”
A dream is something that stimulates you intellectually that you have trouble not thinking about. And it stirs you emotionally. Another way of putting it would be “It kind of lights your fire.” It gets your passion stirred. That is what a dream does to you.
Pastor Mac said, “At some point, we’re going to talk about deliberately dreaming the impossible dream and how you shape that in your daily life, how it has its outworking if you approach it right.”
The Impossible…
For most people, the most usual way they dream is to define that dream within the realm of what they think they can achieve through their skills, talents, and hard work. If your dream can be achieved without God’s help, that’s when you know you’re not partnering with Him. To achieve the high calling of God, you’ll never get there without partnering with God.
Philippians 3:14 says the high calling of God is only achievable in Christ Jesus. You can’t achieve it on your own.
Your part in fulfilling the dream is doing the “natural” part. God does the “supernatural” part. When you begin to perceive what God’s plan is for your life, you can begin to take steps to orient your life toward this high calling of God. You begin to “set marks” in your life that will take you in that direction. But you can’t figure out how it’s going to be done. That’s God’s part—the supernatural part.
Take for instance, a man that knows the call on his life is to be an evangelist. When he prays, he sees himself preaching to a stadium full of people. He doesn’t have a clue what steps to take to get there. Obviously, it’s going to require the hand of God for that to come to pass. The steps will come as he is faithful to do what he can do to orient his life in the direction. He does what he can do in the natural and then relies on God to do the supernatural in order for the dream to be fulfilled—preaching to a stadium full of people!
Read About It
Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”
Philippians 3:14: “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
1st Corinthians 2:9. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
Discussion Questions
What is the difference between a manmade dream and a God-given dream?
Do you have a dream in your heart right now? Is it a God-given dream?
What, if any, are the steps you have taken in the natural to fulfill the dream in your heart?