“Truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24
A friend of mine and I were having lunch recently when she said she has let go of her dreams since cultivating a deeper relationship with God the past couple of years. She did so to align herself more closely with God’s will instead of pursuing her will and trying to make her dreams happen.
There are two kinds of dreams, God-inspired and self-inspired dreams. The difference? God-inspired dreams reap eternal fruit for both the dreamer and those involved. When God puts a dream in our heart, we can bet that He will open a door and invite us where He is working… in His timing. Our dream will require the talents, gifts, and abilities He’s already equipped us with.
If God asks us to release our dream and allow it to die, He will resurrect it in due season, and it will produce many seeds and bear much fruit. God will not disappoint us; “Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams].” Ephesians 3:20
Merely by chance, I was cast as an “extra” in a film and was promoted to do a “cameo” with the co-star. By the time the director called “cut” at the end of the scene, I was officially bitten by the acting bug, and my dream seed was deeply planted.
I studied acting and began working in small theaters, doing local and regional commercials, infomercials, and industrial videos. I eat, breathed, and slept the work of an actor.
After recommitting my life to Jesus some years later, God revealed to me that I had made acting my idol. While God gave me the talent and dream to act, I had further displaced Him in my life with the pursuit of my dream. I repented of my idol worship. But God was asking me to do more- to let go of my dream and the passion I had for it and bury it- alive. I did it, but not without grieving the death it. It was difficult, but God gave me the grace to allow it to die, and in turn, I become passionate about knowing and loving Him instead of my work. God doesn’t just want to be first in our lives, He wants to be the only One in our lives. He wants to know if He can trust us with the talents, gifts, and abilities He’s given us while living out our dream.
“Little children, keep yourselves from idols (false gods)- [from anything and everything that would occupy the place in your heart due to God, from any sort of substitute for Him that would take first place in your life].” 1 John 5:21 Amplified
Quite unexpectedly, God watered my dead dream a couple of years later. Because of my previous work as an actress, God opened the door to work in full-time ministry. This time, however, my talent was to be used for eternal purposes. It began small but grew quickly from acting to writing, developing, and producing content, to stage, live media, and television production, then to working in films, and much more. The seeds multiplied for His glory. He multiplied them, not I.
The passionate single-seed dream I held in my heart and let die doesn’t pale in comparison to what God multiplied. When we die to our over-ambitious, self-sufficient, self-willed dreams, God gives us the ability to impact and influence others for eternal purposes through us.
Has your dream died? Put your hope in God to resurrect it the way He desires to, and in His timing, trust you’ll see a harvest which will produce many more seeds that will far exceed your current dream.
