Following Judah's Lion

Dreamers

Ps.126:1 - When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like those that dreamed…

This Psalm refers to God releasing Israel from different bondages such as Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and other times that the Jews were enslaved. But it is also prophetic in that it refers to us who have been freed from the bondage of sin and we are so overwhelmed with the power of God’s saving grace that we seem as though we are dreaming.

To whom are we like dreamers?

To others.

After I was saved people in my own family called me a dreamer with my head in the sky. Since I was born again when I was twenty-three I could understand how they were confused because having a memory of when I was lost I could identify with their perspective. As a matter of fact anyone who truly is born again should be considered off balance, weird, and a dreamer. The frightening aspect of today’s converts is that not only are they not much different from the world, they are taught to be like the world so you can reach them. I remember in the 1970’s almost every evangelical church taught on how to be separated from the world on a consistent basis. How many of us can recall entering church on Sunday morning and being so convicted of worldliness that we rushed to the altar in repentance? But today the church entertains the congregation. Entertainment? I remember being astounded when any Hollywood person who was in very questionable movies would profess their faith in Christ, the life changing faith that cost so many so much. I would think “How can they do those love scenes and still be a Christian?”. How can they perform on the “Solid Gold” program without being convicted by the Spirit? How can they be best friends with some of the Hollywood crowd and still believe the Bible?

Well the dreamers today are few and far between. While some abstain from the movies the overwhelming majority of professing believers sit and enjoy the entertainment they already know will not please God. And the preachers are not only silent, they participate. Where are the dreamers that guard their relationship with Jesus as if was their very life? Where are the dreamers that separate themselves from the world’s system and entertainment while still being humble and loving? Where are the Hyman Appleman’s who got saved as a teenager and was thrown out of his Jewish home by his father, and as the train pulls away to Bible school he has to pry his mothers hand away from his, all for the cause of Christ? As I worked my way through Bible school at a restaurant my faith became known by many of the workers because I would not serve alcohol, I was a dreamer. Others should know us as full of love, full of mercy, but sanctified to serve Christ and Christ alone.

Today, the dreamers have awakened and in the tradition of Lot’s wife they have gazed lovingly at Sodom and shunning the persecution that comes with walking in His steps many have dressed themselves inside and out with this world’s garments. Come out from among them and be ye separate says the Lord. Take your eyes off this world, look up, and dream of Him.

To whom are we like dreamers?

To ourselves.

Do you ever consider yourself a dreamer? I don’t mean dreaming of earthly success, or corporate advancement, or financial gain, but do you ever dream of the eternal? When I say dream I do not mean that which sometimes comes with sleep, I mean do you ever so think about and meditate on things eternal and the Lord Jesus Himself that you feel as if you are a dreamer living in the midst of earthly players? And sometimes if you share with some professing Christians about just how deeply you feel about our Savior and the unseen world you are looked at as impractical and weird. I remember a preacher once said “You don’t want to become so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good”. Well, I’ve never met that person and frankly I do not believe it is possible to become so eternally minded that God would chasten you to come back to earth. This world sticks and clings to us like cobwebs, and only prayer and God’s Word can cleanse us from not only sin, but the carnal and earthly mind that God says is His enemy. Oh how we should be Spiritual dreamers, not loosed from the moorings of Scripture, but as God’s Word grows in our hearts it should more fully capture our minds. Dream about eternity, dream about Christ, dream about heaven, dream about the fulfillment of every jot and tittle ever spoken by the Lord God and be grounded in the immutable truths of Scripture but unfettered by the cares of this world. The world is not looking for more of the well worn ways of this world just packaged in religious terms, they are unknowingly thirsty for the clear water of eternity that lifts their eyes above what man can see and by God’s Spirit they climb up into the crow’s nest and see the promised land.

It is so easy to experience the new life of the Spirit only to fall back to earth after many years. Well God wants our hearts and minds so captured by the wind of His Spirit that it overwhelms the ballast of this present life. Our lives on this earth should be looking glasses into the realm of God’s kingdom through Spiritual dreamers in earthen vessels living by God’s Spirit in the midst of earthly prisoners. Every follower of the Lord Jesus should climb into the basket of God’s Word and then lifted by the balloon of God’s Spirit we should be on an adventurous journey of seeking Him who reigns in the heavens only landing on the earth to invite earth bound sinners into the same transporting basket designed for all blood bought travelers. Our life is hid in Christ and we are to see the unseen not the seen, the eternal not the temporal, the Spiritual not the carnal, the heavenly not the worldly, and yes we are dreamers who are looking for a city whose builder and maker is God.

To whom are we like dreamers?

To our Lord.

We must dream continually of things that are of Him. We dream of streets of gold and gates of pearl. We dream of linen gowns of righteousness and colossal waves of worship before a Celestial Lion from the loins of the tribe of praise, Judah. We dream of eternity where there is no time and there is no sin and there are no tears. We dream of an eternity that is filled with the Savior, high and lifted up, sitting on His throne, and His glory fills the expanse called heaven. We dream of being forever forgiven and forever released from all our sins and being granted the privilege of expressing our eternal gratitude to the One who forgave us. We dream that our eternal habitation will be infinitely greater than can ever be described or thought and that the emotion we feel upon the first glimpse of the Glorious Lion Lord will never dissipate but continue to crescendo throughout the halls of eternity. We dream that being in His presence will banish all meaningless talk and open floodgates of worship heretofore unknown. And the greatest dream of all is that when we awaken on the other side of the death/life experience we will realize that our dreams were reality, and that the eternal reality has far exceeded all the dreams of all God’s children combined, eclipsing all that we could have asked, or thought, or even dreamed. Only God is greater than anyone can dream.

Lord all our hopes and dreams are in You. Jesus, You alone define our dreams, and Spirit help us to walk as dreamers, meditating on the Word which defines our dreams, and transforming us into a peculiar people that light this world, that salt this world, and that beckon downward to the sin bound earthlings, “Come up hither, and bow before the Lord, and He will lift you from the dunghill and place you on the highest ground. Release all your earthly and selfish dreams, repent, and believe on the one true God, Jesus the Christ and in Him all your dreams will be yea and amen”.