The Gap Between the Promise and the Dream: Faith That Brings Heaven to Earth

[Music] hello journey church [Applause] that's your signal you're supposed to give me a round of applause make me feel welcome i'm honored to be here and truly joking aside this really is a dream come true um and i think pastor keith had it right we my family and i'm a husband are actually known for living somewhere between brilliant and insane but you know that's really served us because we found journey and about five four months ago we walked into the doors of that church on a journey that god has led us in and i will say from the minute we walked in to the greeters to the kids ministry to

the fire that pastor keith walks in can we just give our church a round of applause [Music] we've traveled all across the country we've been up to a lot of churches i grew up in the church and what's happening here is real and it's because pastor keith and his staff and his wife kare behind the scenes are are praying for fire and so i'm here today to continue that journey and bringing the fire are we okay with that today okay he wasn't joking we're here to bring the fire okay so so today we are in part two of this series called dare to dream and if you were with us last week and even if you were i'm going to give you a quick synopsis just to kind of set the stage but where we found ourselves last week was in the story in genesis the story of jacob and jacob was

the fulfillment of a promise that was given to abraham who was the father of many nations and he fathered isaac who isaac then fathered esau and jacob and so we zoned in on jacob and why i love this story even for this theme of dare to dream is because how many of you know that jacob's life was a little bit dysfunctional anyone anyone else relate right even pastor keith said that you know he was kind of the mama's boy and esau was the daddy's boy and and jacob actually we see him being manipulative and even deceiving to get the blessings that he wanted in life and then we walked us through this process of here he was wanting a blessing that wasn't his and so god takes him outside of his comfort zone and he starts to walk them through this wilderness and he walks him through this

wilderness and then he find we found him in this rocky place right many of us probably can relate then he's actually wrestling with god but then god in all of his goodness actually blesses him and gives him a new name and not only that he gives them a dream and this is where we find we're going to kind of lean into today is from genesis 28 11 and it says and he came to a certain place and stayed there that night because the sun had set taking one of the stones of the place he put it under his head and lay it down in that place to sleep and he dreamed and behold there was a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the angels of god were ascending and descending here's what we learned from part one

number one god does not want us to stay where we are jacob had a comfort zone god had a dream and how many of us know that that god is probably going to give us a dream not to make us feel good but actually to make us be good and so he's going to ask us to let go of the things that we find comfort in probably to find him as our comforter the second thing that we learned is that we are not defined by our pasts our mistakes even our current realities we're defined by the promise of god on our life we saw jacob as a deceiver we saw him even as a manipulator god saw israel some of us today have walked in here seeing ourselves from our past and all of our mistakes and the things that we

have done things we've done wrong but i want you to know that today god sees something that you don't see and that is what defines who you are the third thing that we learned is that god is with us he's with you he's with me that's a promise that he's given us and it's interesting because even after jacob wakes up from having this dream he says the lord is in this place and i didn't even know it for those of you today who are wondering if god is with you i don't know that if it's god with you i'm wondering can you see him can you see him and then the last thing that we looked at is that we don't actually live for the natural world we don't live for it we don't live from it we actually live from a different reality and that's where we're going to jump into today now i have to be honest this actually this that point exactly that we don't

live for this natural realm was a journey that my husband and i decided to go on about four years ago this was a new chapter in our lives and this was a time that we actually were going through what we called our midlife awakening yeah some people call it a midlife crisis but that just that just is a total that's a totally different word that we didn't want to use so we were going through what we call our midlife awakening right i was again at the time only 30 right but for us we had started to climb the corporate ladder and the american dream we were entrepreneurs we were doing the things that people said that you should do to be fulfilled right we bought the house and the cars and the 2.5 kids and all of the things but yet we found ourselves crawling into bed each night asking a very simple yet profound question which is is there something more

anyone else ever asked that question before yeah so for us most of you know most people would just go on vacation they'd buy a new car they'd get a tattoo no we decided to sell everything and travel the country in an rv with three children under the age of five which which by the way most people told us that's the best time to travel the country said nobody with three kids under the age of five like there is a very strategic reason that people wait until they're retired and don't have kids that they travel the country in an rv so for for us anyways my husband who's right here he he is my adventurer his soul came alive in this process

good on him for me i had a little bit of a different experience right i at that point didn't know i had control issues that i needed to overcome i didn't know that i lived in a box and in a routine and that i had started actually finding comfort in things outside of the comforter and so for me this was kind of a spiritual journey it was for him too but it was it was a time that even on this process i was finding myself asking that same question like god is there something more and what i would like to propose is be careful the questions you ask god okay so i one night in particular we just got done watching one of my favorite movies the greatest showman which generally i'm the first one to fall asleep i won't get through the first 10 minutes of a movie um he fell asleep in the movie and i was up until 1am okay now i started to kind of doze

off but i was asking god this question because after that movie you can't fall asleep by the way and so i'm asking god like is there something more and i have this vision and all of a sudden i see what looks like a scene from trolls any parents in the room this is real life you know and it's i'm seeing the scene where people look like the bergens and it's a dark scene and people are kind of shuffling around and they're looking at the floor and they don't look happy and they don't look fulfilled but they're going through the motions much of what i felt like i had done i was do doing all the right things saying all the right things checking off all the boxes and yet there was a lack of fulfillment and fire and all of a sudden i see across the sky this word dream and immediately i wake up because i was like no no that had to have been because of the greatest showman and hugh jackman in his movie just need to go back on the

shelf and i was i knew that i had just received the algorithm for life but how many of you also know when god gives you a dream that there's a process that you're gonna have to walk through right and for me that felt hard it felt uncomfortable and i wasn't ready to have the conversation so i pretended like it didn't happen which again how many of you know with god that doesn't work for very long so i find myself a couple months later um i'm having lunch with a friend i excuse myself to go to the bathroom and as i'm walking in this elderly lady is walking out and i'm she runs right into me and being a good christian i'm like oh hi how are you because you just ran into me so let's make conversation she doesn't say anything doesn't even acknowledge that she ran into me so i turn and i go you having a good day

she goes live in the dream and i was like here's a lady that is of an age that should be living the dream you know what i'm saying like what are we doing here if we're not so i'm like okay i have to ask further so i i turn around and i say excuse me can i ask why you're not living the dream she does not turn around she doesn't even make eye contact she simply says life here's what i'd like to suggest if life is getting in the way of us living our dreams then what is the point of life especially for us as believers and this is where we're going to dive into today if life is getting in the way if busy is getting in the way if our past is getting in the way then what is the point

but then if you're like me when god gives you a dream how many of you know that there is a process between what i have and what i want the promise that i've been given and the reality that's around me right the vision or the idea that that has been planted within me and this fact that there's a whole laundry line of excuses as to what is stopping me from getting there and so today what i want to do is i actually want to give you some core foundational principles to bridge the gap because there is a gap from where we are and where we want to be from the promise and the manifestation of that promise so we're going to walk you through that gap and and the hard part for me is that i have my husband was even asking how we doing i'm like i got about 17 days worth of notes that i have to figure out how to get into 30 minutes

so i have preparation for 17 days and we're going to follow the spirit we're going to go where he wants us to go because some of you really need to hear this message but the reality is we're all coming from very different experiences we're coming from very different processes some of us are in the wilderness right now some of us are at that rocky place some of us are even wrestling with god and that is a very real season and so first and foremost what i want to do is i want us to help us understand some of these core principles about what makes this process of dreaming so powerful and we'll look at the power of the promise because we all have preconceived notions already even around the title of dare to dream some of you are like dreaming yeah i'll do that when some of us have had dreams and been extremely disappointed in the process some of us can't even remember the last time we had a dream or followed a vision and some of us just don't even

understand the question which is fine it's okay we're all we're going to dive in today but here's the power of the dream of dreaming that we have to understand and we're going to come at this because as god led me on this journey i really had to start asking him questions of what does it mean to dream god's dreams because i had my own biases i had my own uh ideas around what this was and believe me i had to face a lot of my past and my disappointments in the process and so after i did some research and i started to really lean into god's word and and to some voices around me here's what i found is the definition of dreaming dreaming means great and intense focus with a deep absorption of thought in a totally different realm that brings about possibilities while considering the needs of those around you i know

i'm actually not going to i'm going to give you a shortened version some of you stand there going what does that mean others of you your soul just opened up and both is okay because here's actually in l in shorter terms what it means it means heaven on earth this is what dreaming means it means heaven on earth if you look at matthew 6 verse 9 he says our father dwelling in the heavenly realms may the glory of your name be the center on which our lives turn manifest your kingdom realm and cause your every purpose to be fulfilled on earth just as it is fulfilled in heaven what does that mean it means that for every problem we see today for every injustice for every flip-flop system there are solutions those solutions don't exist out there

they exist within you so often we're praying for revival here's what i'm here to tell you today revival looks like you revival looks like you the problems the the problems that you're seeing i'd like to propose that there are bigger promises but some of us are so distracted by the problems we can't see the promise some of us are so distracted by the noise that we can't actually see the one who's fulfilling all of the promises so here's a core foundation that i think is very important as we start to bridge the gap that god has a plan and it will be fulfilled through the dreams and visions if you look at acts 2 it says this is what i will do in the last days

i will pour out my spirit on everybody and cause your sons and daughters to prophesy your young men will see visions and your old men will experience dreams from god we have to see that the purpose of the dream is to get into alignment with what god is doing not from this world from his world we are not called to live from this world to that world we are not called to live from earth to heaven we are called to live from heaven to earth and what happens my life included is that we start to focus on our safety security stability needs right we're all disappointed

we approach scenarios that that don't meet our expectations but then all of a sudden what we start to do is we actually start making decisions from a place of survival how many of you know if i continue to make decisions from survival i can never actually make them from revelation and what i would like to suggest to us today is that part of the our journey is that we have to be so clear about the revelation that god has given us that we pull that revelation to this world we aren't supposed to be living just for survival we're supposed to be living from revelation so the world may see fear but where is your faith the world may see what's happening around us but that's not what we're supposed to be looking at we're supposed to be bringing another

world to this world it's not what you look at that matters it's what you see i'm on a plane the other day going to florida i actually had the opportunity to take this message to a group of pastors down in florida and i'm reading spirit wars on the plane which i'm right in the middle and you can imagine what that probably feels like to the people sitting next to me pull up your book it says spirit wars so this lady she leans in next to me and she goes which read it and i was like oh great i just wanted to like chalk it up it's like it's a book report for school which it is i'm actually attending the bethel school of ministry but she leans over i go it's called spirit wars she goes what kind of wars are those i'm like i don't know i'm only on

chapter two so i started sharing with her because she goes that could have really gone one in two ways she ended up being a believer we had this great conversation and and so we start talking about this whole thing i excuse myself after a while i go to the bathroom i come back and she says um you know i just i'm a grandma and i just really feel for this next generation i'm really really afraid for what they have to walk through you know i'm just i'm sad that they're in this world i'm sad that this is what they have to see i'm sad that this is what they have to walk through and i look up with the humblest most gracious eyes and i said we're looking at two very different worlds oh springsteen i said cause i know that that world exists but what i've committed to is to raise the wild ones who bring fire and revival to that world

and she looked at me and i go i am not trying to undermine what is real but i just want to know that i can't i can't dumb down my convictions to accommodate the world around me i need the truth of my convictions to raise the standard for the world around me and that includes my children that's what the power of our dreams are is that it's actually supposed to remind us of something greater and bigger than what is going on around us we are the hope god's actually wanting to work with us to bring this heaven to earth right which then brings us to our next point right it says in matthew 6 33 it says above all constantly chase after the realm of god's kingdom and the righteousness that proceeds from him and

then all these less important things will be given to you abundantly what does that mean it means that all of a sudden when i start to lose myself to the power of the promise i actually am face to face with the person who's given me the promise that there is power in the promise giver and for some of us this is going to be a little bit rub us wrong because what's happened is that our our past and our disappointment has now put god in a box and because we're a people and we're human we're trying to compartmentalize a world that we don't necessarily understand so i have to give it metrics and i have to give it systems and standards so that i can make sense of it all so what happens is that then we start to

actually take our our all of our ideas around god and we're basing our theology on experiences not truth right and and this was very real for me in this process as i started to realize that that i was actually taking my pain and i was fitting god into the box of my pain but what i've learned is that i can't afford to shrink god to fit within my pain i actually have to take my pain to the feet of a god who loves me so much that he will let me break in order to heal he will let me break in order to heal right it says in in ephesians 1 17 i pray that the father of glory the god of our lord jesus christ would impart to

you the riches of the spirit of wisdom and the spirit of revelation to know him through your deepening intimacy with him if you notice there it says he will give you the riches of the spirit of wisdom and the spirit of revelation another word is prophecies dreams visions ideas how through your deepening intimacy with him here's the core foundation for this god is good god is good when we talk again about that gap here's what i have and here's what i want here's what god's spoken over my life and here's what it is some of us have forgotten that god is good and not just on good days

god is good every day and if this isn't the cornerstone of our belief then when things don't go the way that i think they're gonna go it will sideswipe me from the promise it doesn't mean the promise doesn't exist it means that now i'm distracted by my thoughts of what god isn't as opposed to who god is and what we have to remember is that this has to be the cornerstone of our faith that god is good and he wants to be in this with you let me go but you don't understand my pain he loves you he loves you we so badly want to understand the revelation of god but if we can't bill johnson says all the time if we can't understand the mystery of god we'll

never be able to understand the revelation of god what does that mean it means that there's sometimes yes there are big questions that we may never know the answers to but when we can trust that god is good it's going to give us the faith to continue to move from where we are to where we want to be why because i trust him i believe him and i'm not moved again by what's going on around me because i know the god that is leading me just as jacob had to let go of his comfort zone right we almost look at that as training ground once you actually get a name change you have to go okay that's interesting yeah probably why i had to let go of my comfort zone because then when he totally changes my identity i'm gonna need to know that my identity can't come from the things that

i find in my comfort zone my identity has to come from the things i find in you and so the core foundation we have to get clear on is that god is good he is good and when we do that and when we put him back on the throne and we realize how good he is then we can actually start to understand the power that he's put within us so not only is it is it powerful to know the promise it's powerful to know the promised giver but it's really powerful to understand the power that he's actually given us you and me right if we go back to acts 2 it says this is what i will do in the last days i will pour out my spirit on everybody and i will cause your sons and daughters to prophesy and your young men

will see visions and your old men will experience dreams from the holy spirit will come upon all my servants men and women alike and they will prophesy the holy spirit will come upon all my servants he wants to do this with you he wants to do this in and through you some of you go but you don't understand this is bigger than me i know some of you go but i don't understand how i know some of you go but you don't understand what's in front of me i know but sometimes we've forgotten the god that is in us and those but god moments are perfect for him

i started working with a client a couple months ago and he got on the phone only because other people told him he needed to work with me which you know that's the first sign of like okay let's talk real here so i started asking all the all the questions that i do and i said to him okay so so tell me about the the goals and dreams that you have for your life and he starts telling me that one after another after another after another and i finally said to him i said okay so what you're telling me is that you can accomplish everything on that list as is today he goes yeah i'm pretty sure and i said then i'd like to propose they're not big enough he goes you're hired like great okay what am i saying here i'm saying that too often we're not actually aligning ourselves with the god moments i don't know the next step but i know that one who does

i don't know how but i know the one who does and then what happens is we decide to do it all or to do what we can understand or what makes makes logical sense or what accommodates to the people around us because heaven forbid we you know disrupt that and what we do then is we either find ourselves in burn out which is what i did right or or we find ourselves crawling into bed asking that question of like is there something more and there is but part of it is that we're gonna have to get out of the boat and walk on water and we're gonna have to actually align ourselves with god moments and someone's gonna go what are you thinking and you're like i have no idea i have no idea right and part of this is even when god asked me to write this book this is where this all started within the rv and

god said i want you to write a book and i want you to call it dream i dare you i was like first of all let me just be honest with you that title is not my favorite title can we talk about that second of all do you know and all of a sudden we start to disqualify ourselves and what i learned in that idea that god doesn't call the equipped he equips the called why because when someone goes hey good book i'm like not mine i did not write that thing they're like tell me about that no i mean i showed up don't get me wrong part of this is i want to show up and i want to give my all and i want to do things in excellence but i want the world to go how in the world did you do that i go let me tell you about a man that i fell in love with that i knew and it's not just my husband who i did fall in love with you and know you and his walk with me on this journey but let me

tell you about but the the one the world needs the buck god moment they need to see that there is a gap that we can't compartmentalize and can't understand and can't put any systems or process maps around that thing to make it said they need to understand a god that we go i don't have to make sense of him to follow him i don't have to make sense of him to follow him in second peter 1 it says everything we could ever need for life and godliness has already been deposited in us by his divine power for all that was lavished upon us through the right experience of knowing him who was called by his name and invited us to come through a glorious manifestation of his goodness what does that mean i've already encountered the fact that he is good i have seen the manifestations that i

actually serve a good god as a result of this he has given you magnificent promises dreams visions ideas gut intuition all of us again we think well how does how do i know that i'm hearing god i don't know he talks to you the way that you hear and sometimes it even sounds like your voice that's what makes it really weird because he's like giving you really good ideas that you're like oh man that's a good one it's just what i'm saying god sometimes is going to sound like you why because he wants you to hear him he's not going to talk to you the way that he talks to the person sitting next to you because you might not hear that way right so it says he has given you magnificent promises that are beyond all

price so that through the power of these tremendous promises you can experience partnership with the divine nature how many of you need a really good partner today a men that divide how many divine nature to partner with the divine nature here's our core foundation god is about a relationship with you he wants to do this with you he wants to do this with you he could do this by himself sure but even if you see back in the creation story right he put so much of this he put together but then what does he give adam the job of naming the animals he could have

he didn't want to he didn't want to he wants to do this with you he loves you he wants to be in a relationship with you so even back to this you think this is about the dream no he thinks this is about you you think it's about the destination he thinks it's about your heart he wants you this is not for performance this is not to show the world just what you can do this is actually he wants your heart because he know when he he knows when he has your heart that the rest will follow suit because wherever my heart is there's where i'm going to put my time and my money and my energy he wants your heart he wants to do this with you

some of you go well how do i know if it's my idea or god's idea you try it on for size you tried on for size sometimes we just won't know until we go i remember my husband and i about 10 years ago we went to a pastor at the time and we said how do we know when we hear god's voice he said something that really stuck with me he said you just practice going to bethel school of ministry you want to know the inside scoop of how to prophesy you practice you know what is implied with practicing failure you're gonna get it wrong remember god again is not about you getting it right or wrong he's not about the destination he's about your heart and so if i have to get it wrong a few

times to better align myself with the sound of god's voice don't you think it's worth it it's really worth it but again if you're like me a lot of us have this really funky view of god i saw him very much as as my earthly dad who did the best that he could we know our parents did but my dad was rather critical there was a right and wrong way of doing something and she might as well do it the right way well that put a lot of pressure on me and i also didn't know the beautiful uninhibited nature of our father who just likes to watch his children play he just likes to watch us play so he's in this with you he wants to do this through you that's why he's given us the holy spirit so if you are in a place right now that you are you're pretty darn clear that god has spoken to you or he's given you a vision or a promise or a dream what i want you to know if there isn't that but

god and i don't know how to do this and this is bigger than me something might not be totally right he's gonna ask you to walk on water he's gonna ask you to step out and then when we do that we're actually gonna we're going to save space to actually give him the glory but i think why this is so important to know this is that when we start to realize that he's not just about the results he's about the relationship it's going to make this next part easier to understand and this next part is about the the power of the process and as i said how many of you know that there is a process that happens from when you identify a dream to when you manifest that dream how many of you know just like when you

get married there's a process of the day that you say i do to when you never want to say i don't but if i could there's a process that he's going to take us through right and what i think sometimes what i'd like to suggest with this point this idea of this process is that that we we've started to see that looking we're looking at the hard all wrong and sometimes we're seeing the hard things in life as a consequence as opposed to a privilege i write in the book a whole chapter on pick your heart right and even in romans 5 it says even in times of trouble we have a joyful confidence knowing that our pressures will develop in us patient endurance and that patient endurance will refine our character

and proven character leads us back to hope so i learned this journey uh uh really hardcore in our journey through three years ago it was a one year into our full-time rv travel and at that point in time it's a first world problem but i uh wanted to get fit i've always been a skinnier girl not necessarily fit and if you know my husband he could look at a mirror and he is spit like it looks like he's put in no work he just has one of those bodies that just does it mine does not okay and so he would disagree because he actually puts in the work and we'll talk a little bit about that but i decide that i'm actually going to start to get fit but i don't ask for help i don't i don't get a coach i don't ask my husband for input i'm going to figure out how to do it

so for me i decide that in order to become fit i'm just going to do more of what i've always done how many of you know that doing more of what you always done doesn't give you different results it makes you insane okay so i start running faster i start doing squats quicker i start doing reps i mean to the point that i'm burning out but i don't want feedback let's be honest because i want to be right okay so so this is about three months in doing this and i really am burning out not only do we have babies and we're traveling the country full-time but i'm i'm exhausted so i walk into the rv and and i'm in a venting session which my husband does know that i don't want feedback while i'm venting

anyone else ever been there it's like actually the worst time to give feedback so i'm just venting and i am just on a roll and i'm not even like stopping to pause for air to make sure that he's very clear that i don't want his feedback i just want to be right that that no exercise program works and that all the theories were just thrown out the door and that right all the things that we do to try to be right as all even all of the experts don't know what they're talking about i'm just the one person out of 8 billion people that this just won't happen for so i finally ran out of things to say and he doesn't look up at me he doesn't even ask the question are you open for feedback he simply just says well are you lifting till failure

i was like am i what he says are you lifting till failure that's like people do that no i am not lifting to till failure i'm lifting till i don't like it you know what i'm saying like i'm lifting until i'm uncomfortable am i lifting till failure like that in and of itself sounds horrible why would i do that little did i know that that's actually a principle for life are we lifting till failure no because the minute we feel some of the pressure we go oh i must be doing something wrong most of us are trained ourselves to feel the pressure and then we pull back because the enemy's attacking a month ago malachi our eight-year-old

comes home after a hike with dad and he's complaining for like three days about this muscle right here hurts so bad he just keeps saying and i was like well were you wearing the right shoes like i was asking all these different questions and i i finally just said well did you tell that on the hike and he kind of looks at me like yes but you know what dad says and i was like what does dad say he goes dad says he doesn't even start counting until it hurts please stand up ladies and gentlemen this is my wonderful husband he says i don't even start counting until it hurts this goes full circle this man doesn't just look at a mirror and he becomes stronger he has a commitment that says i

won't even start counting my reps until it hurts [Laughter] you guys i know exactly how many reps i'm gonna do before i start [Laughter] and the experts say 10 to 12 so at about like 10 and a half i'm good he doesn't even start counting until it hurts why because there's something in him that says even in times of trouble i have joyful confidence knowing that the pressures are going to develop something in me that i'm going to need for the day that i receive the blessing because i know that the blessing is heavy i know that there is a responsibility to the manifestation of the blessing in

god's life that if i along the way haven't been doing push-ups to prepare myself there's no way i can hold this thing some of us myself included are way over here looking at this thinking that this is such a long journey and we're more worried about the destination as opposed to getting down and giving me 20 because along the way i'm going to be needing to do the push-ups in life because when the blessing comes not even when the attacks come not even when the hard days come not even when the pain and the disappointment comes but the day that the blessing comes i want to know that i could actually hold the blessing and some of us are looking at the pressure as though it's a bad thing and god's like no i'm trying to prepare you because i know the day that you manifest my kingdom come on this earth that it will also be heavy

what this means is that this isn't just about obtaining our dreams it's going to be knowing about how to sustain them it's one thing to make a lot of money it's another to keep it it's one to get married it's another to stay married it's one to get free it's another to walk out your freedom and if i didn't have the weight training the pressure the tension if i didn't spend time under tension if i didn't know how to do that then i might not have the mental and emotional and spiritual wherewithal to hold the weight of the blessing it says in james 1 counted all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness

and let steadfastness steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete nothing lacking in nothing that means that every challenge every heartache every place of pain and disappointment wasn't there to break you it was there to make you it was there to make you joy is so much different in my mind than happiness because happiness can come and go how many of you are like well a new car would make me happy just saying a little bit more money would make me happy until it doesn't until it doesn't and so what god is trying to develop within us is something that is deeper it's not just the thing it's the thing

under the thing he's after your character remember again he's after your heart so when the blessing comes because it will just like way back with abraham when you are the father of many nations that you will actually know how to hold the blessing he wants you to hold the blessing here's what we have to understand then that the promise is going to be heavy the promise is going to be heavy and so the core foundation that we have to understand is that part of this process is that we have to learn how to walk by faith and not by sight i have to be willing to get into the gym of life and do a few more push-ups and then i have to be really mindful that it is going to be hard but what's important is that you pick the heart that's going to actually get you to where god wants you to be

because how many of you know that being single is hard being married is hard having no money is hard having money is hard working for someone is hard working for yourself is hard having one kid turns out having five kids they're so hard so we have to pick our heart right and so part of this core foundation is that we need to learn that we need to walk by faith and not by sight and we need to let it burn we need to let it burn because that is where our faith takes over [Music] in hebrews 4 1-3 it says now god has offered to us the same promise of entering into his realm of resting in confident faith at some level when you know that god is good and you are in this with him you will surrender and you'll let go

[Music] come to find out surrender doesn't mean giving up it means letting go so it says that we will enter into resting in confident faith so we must be extremely careful to ensure that we all embrace the fullness of the promise and not fail to experience it you need to embrace the fullness of the dream vision gift that god has given you for we have heard the good news of deliverance just as they did yet they didn't join their faith with the word [Music] today's gonna be an invitation to go have i joined my faith with the promise my faith with the vision instead what they heard didn't affect them deeply for they doubted for those of us who believe faith activates the promise

your faith will activate god's promise your faith will activate his promise and this is what i want you to understand today whether you're in your wilderness whether you're in your rocky place whether you're wrestling with god or maybe you're even just in the middle of a blessing what we have to understand is that we're going to need to move we're going to need to walk on water just like noah the day that god asked noah to build the ark he didn't see the rain a real world example amazon 25 years ago do you know what they started selling books what do they sell today everything to everyone but where they started and where they ended up were very different so the day that you start i mean you know the day

that you plant the seed and the day that you harvest the seed are very different days so what's going to bridge the gap activated faith i'm going to walk you through quickly hebrews 11 because i think that if anything this is going to activate something within you today then i'm going to ask you to take a stand of faith it says now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes a foundation needed to acquire the things that we long for it is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen it says that faith empowers us to see it says that faith moved able to choose a more acceptable sacrifice to offer to god than his brother cain faith translated enoch from this life and taken up into heaven it says that faith opened noah's heart to receive revelation and warnings from god about what was coming even things

that had never been seen but he stepped out in reverent obedience faith motivated abraham to obey god's call and to leave the familiar to discover the territory he was destined to inherit it says sarah's faith embraced god's miracle power her faith rested in the one who made the promise it said abraham's faith made it logical to him that god would raise isaac from the dead faith inspired joseph and opened his eyes to see in the future faith prompted the parents of moses at his birth to hide him for three months faith enabled moses to choose god's will says here moses preferred faith certainty above them a momentary enjoyment of sins pleasure they stirred him faith opened the way for the hebrews to cross the red sea

they pulled down jericho's walls today what i'd like to do is i'd like to invite you into this invitation to move and walk in faith to recognize that the power of your dreams are so important that the power of this relationship with the one who gave you your dream is even more important to know that the power that you walk in is given not because you do all the right things but because of who god is and to realize that when you walk in faith walls will crumble walls will crumble this is how we bridge the gap is that we simply understand these principles and so from the wherever you're at in your process of where you start and where you end up

that the in-between is all about god and this one idea that if that if he's called me to bring heaven to earth that i'm gonna let have to get out of the boat and let him do his thing so today we're gonna we're gonna really check in and we're gonna do a quick prayer i'm gonna bring the worship team up and we're actually gonna give you an opportunity to move in faith this morning [Music] so with every head bowed and every eye closed first and foremost if you are here today or you are watching online and you don't know this god and maybe it's because of your past maybe it's because of your experiences in the church maybe it's simply because you just never heard someone speak about god in a way that says he is my daddy

and my friend and my confidant if you don't know this god and you want to give your life to him today if your world feels heavy and there's something in you that just says yes i want you to know he's here already with open arms so if that is you today and you don't know god will you raise your hand amen [Music] praise god thank you now for those of you who heard this message today and you you would say that i am i'm somewhere in that journey i either am really struggling with understanding you know what the dream is

for my life or what the vision is for my life i'm having a hard time understanding that god is good i'm wrestling with this core foundational principle or maybe you're there today going i'm not actually doing this in a relationship with god i'm kind of shuffled in this performance or maybe you just know that the next step is you need to walk in faith if that's you will you raise your hand [Music] yes now i'm going to ask you to take a step further will you stand [Music] and here's what i want to say with everything in me i wrote this for you i wrote this book for you because i believe there was a few wild ones out there that believed that we could bring heaven to earth and not because this earth is not big and loud and that there's a

ton of fear and worry and distractions i wrote this book because i knew that there was going to be a movement and a champion of people who were ready to bring heaven to earth [Music] so i want to say a prayer today that's going to solidify your process where you're at it's going to solidify the dreams that god's put within you and it's going to move you to action and in this song guys i want you to actually watch god walk in the room and sit right next to you [Music] he's gonna sit right next to you and he's gonna walk this out with you [Music] so if you're comfortable raise your hand if you're comfortable get on your knees if you need to come up here do the thing that shows you that you mean business

whatever that is for you maybe you need to go to the back of the room maybe you just need to sit in your chair whatever it is i want you to do the thing that actually shows you it's your push-up i'm gonna do a push-up right here right now i'm gonna raise my hand i'm gonna sit down i'm gonna grab someone whatever it is but i'm to pray this prayer of faith over you in jesus name i thank you for every single person who's standing in this room today god i thank you for the dreams that you've put on the inside of every single one of them and today god we say yes we say yes to these dreams we say yes to you we put you back on the throne of our lives god anything that's gotten louder than you we push it over to the side and we declare that from this day forward you are on the throne of our lives because you are good you are a good father you are a good daddy you are a good leader

god and we leave the but god moments to you we will walk on water and we will bring heaven to earth journey church will be a church that we bring heaven to earth i thank you god that we are in a relationship with you jesus and we will walk by faith we will not walk by what we see we will not walk by what we feel god that we will walk by the dreams and the visions that you've put on the inside of us and so today may have mark a day that we will never look the same again i thank you for new names i thank you for new identities i thank you for new dreams god and i thank you for a new courage that arises within each and every one of us i thank you so much for who you are god i thank you for what you're doing and in jesus mighty name amen