(FROM: Behold, the Dreamer Cometh! by Sister Gwen Shaw)
NEVER LET DIFFICULTIES CAUSE YOU TO LOSE
YOUR DREAM
It is not enough to receive a dream. One must keep that dream alive in one’s heart every day, every night, every hour, every moment. And one must never allow the darkness and the trials of life to cause such discouragement that one loses his faith in its final fulfillment.
Even though Joseph was thrown in the pit, and suffered as a slave, was thrown into prison, and tested to the extreme, he kept his vision in his heart. If he had ever, even for one moment, given up, he would never have seen it fulfilled. Joseph went as far down as any man can go, but he also rose to greater heights than any man ever has in positions of power and honour.
When Joseph was a youth he was anxious to tell others his dreams. But when he became mature, he was able to listen as others told him about their dreams. Great men and women take time to hear what others see and hear. Great men and women know that they do not know it all. Your brother and your sister may have a vision which they need to share. They may need encouragement. Don’t “roll over them” with your own vision when they are opening their hearts to you. Listen to them. It could be that you might learn something from them also.
THE WORLD WOULD SOON BECOME DESOLATE WITHOUT A DREAMER
The original word for “vision” in Hebrew is chazown2377. It means “a mental sight, a dream, a vision, a revelation, an oracle, a prophecy.”
One of the greatest proverbs is, “Where there is no vision, the people perish...” (Proverbs 29:18).
In German it is “Wo kein Weisagung ist, wird das Volk wild und wust...”
It can be translated, “Where no vision is, the people will become wild and desolate, confused, depraved, vulgar, filthy, void.”
What a picture of much of humanity today! It is a picture of many of our inner cities, and also some of our most luxurious, wealthy and famous people. If we knew the sins and the miseries that are in the lives of the men and women in powerful positions in the political, religious, and entertainment world circles, and in the business and great industrial fields, we would be appalled. For many have sold their souls to the devil to reach the top. As a result, they become ruthless, though they outwardly appear to be gracious. They think nothing of walking over people to get what they want. They have a dream too, but it is not a dream from God; it is the result of not having God's dream, nor plan for their lives.
In the days of the Judges, when Samuel was a child, there was no open vision in Israel. That means there was no one with the Word of Prophecy to lead and guide the people in the ways of God. As a result the priesthood became depraved, vulgar, filthy and vile. This finally resulted in the Ark of the Covenant being captured by the Philistines where it was kept for many years, — all during the forty year reign of King Saul. Only after King David had the vision to bring it back to God’s people, did it come home again; and that cost him many great trials and heartaches.
There is a big difference between a dream and a scheme. We must be careful that we never let go of our dream or exchange it for a scheme.
FOUR KINDS OF VISIONS
1. OPEN VISION: It is given when one is fully awake.
2. NIGHT VISION: It is given when one is asleep.
3. AN INWARD IMPRESSION UPON THE HEART AND THE MIND: This is given by the Holy Spirit within us.
4. A PROPHETIC WORD: A word of prophecy can create a vision, or a dream in the heart because it is the oracle of God. And as such it has creative word-power that can make it come to pass.
The Holy Spirit says in Joel 2:28, “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:”
Peter confirms this on the Day of Pentecost when he says, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:” (Acts 2:17-18)
A VISION WILL CHANGE A MAN'S HEART
It was the vision Saul of Tarsus had on the Road to Damascus that turned him into Paul, the first great World-Missionary and enabled him to immediately preach Christ in the synagogues, “that he is the Son of God.”
By a vision Paul heard the call to Europe, when in a night vision he saw the man of Macedonia calling to him, “Come over into Macedonia, and help us.” And although he suffered a severe beating and imprisonment in their city of Philippi, he was undaunted, and continued preaching there. In fact, it became the city of his first love. To them he wrote his most loving epistle. A vision will give you a great love for a nation.
I had never thought for a moment of going to China. In fact, I hate to confess that I was afraid of the Chinese people, and did not love them. But when God called me in a prophecy and vision to go to China while I was a young student in my second year of Bible School in the city of Toronto, He implanted such a great love for the Chinese people in my heart that I was ready to give China the rest of my life. That dream was what I lived for. It took me to Shanghai in 1947, where I was able, by faith, to begin a missionary career which has lasted until now.
Without a dream, you cannot have faith to endure hardships, nor to accomplish great things for God. You are limited by your ability to dream.
GREAT MEN WITH GREAT VISIONS GAVE THE WORLD GREAT GIFTS
Alexander Graham Bell, a Scottish American, had a dream that he believed it was possible to transmit speech by electric waves. People thought he was crazy. But today we speak to people around the world by picking up our telephone.
Marchese Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian American, had a dream that messages could be transmitted from one point to another. The first wireless message was transmitted in 1895. It was received one mile from where it was sent. But he kept on working on his dream, and in 1901 the first wireless message was transmitted by radio across the Atlantic.
Thomas Alva Edison had a dream that he could light up the world through an incandescent lamp called a light bulb, and also gave the world a song through the gramophone. Today hundreds of thousands of people can hear a man on a distant platform speak to them because of Edison’s microphone. The world would have been a much different place if Edison had not dreamed. When he perfected one dream, he went on to another, and another, and many more.
A couple of brothers by the name of Orville and Wilbur Wright owned a bicycle repair shop in the humble town of Dayton, Ohio. But they too had a dream — a dream that bicycles could be made to fly. Their first “bicycle” with wings “flew” less than a city block, but it flew! Today the mighty Boeing 737’s, 700’s and 800’s fly half way around the world without stopping to refuel. Some of them are so huge that one can hardly believe what one sees with his own eyes. And the flights can be so smooth that one can imagine he is in his own living room. The tea doesn’t even spill!
In Germany a man by the name of Karl Benz believed that the time had come when carriages could be made to move without horses. People thought he was crazy. But he had a dream, and in 1885 he invented the first horseless carriage. One year later, another German by the name of Gottlieb Damler had invented his own horseless carriage. Today the Mercedes Benz is still one of the finest cars on the markets, but it is expensive.
In America, a man by the name of Henry Ford said to himself, if they can make a carriage move without a horse in Germany, we can do it here too. But we need to make one that every man can afford. The first Model T Fords came off the assembly line in 1908. Soon, even women were driving these dangerous high-speed vehicles called “automobiles.” My husband’s mother, Olga, was one of the first women in Sacramento, California, to own and drive one of them. She left many people in shock as she “flew” by in her “Overland” at the break-neck speed of twenty-five miles an hour!
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