??  Most of my clients don’t understand the power of dreaming.  Many of us haven’t been taught to dream about our future.     An encounter a few months ago helped me understand the power of dreaming to cut through my fears.  In that encounter God revealed his Dream Sword.

My coach was listening to me moaning and groaning about my fears of the future, mostly financial.  I don’t know about you, but it’s easy for me to get into the wrong time-zone.  And it’s usually negative when I travel more than 30 days into the future, and the appointments on my calendar were few and far between.  My thoughts were mostly driven by fears.  Mark Twain said “I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” That’s the way fear works.  It creates an unreal world and we unwittingly take up residence.

After a thoughtful sigh my friend asked me to talk about my dreams for the coaching ministry into which God has called me.  My vision is clear and the dreams for this ministry keep growing the further I travel into the new territory of my calling.  But an interesting insight was revealed in our conversation.  As I started rehearsing my dreams, my countenance and posture changed. I became visually and vocally animated.  She asked me if I noticed these changes, and just like most of my clients, I hadn’t discerned this on my own. I needed a faithful listener.  She paused and asked: “Have you ever thought about using your dreams as a weapon against fear?”  I shifted in my seat and pondered: “You mean, like a Dream Sword?”  Could dreams really be used as a sword?  The very idea ignited a flicker of hope.

As I reflected on our conversation I began to hear what I had been saying and the way I had been speaking about my future.  My negative self-talk was now becoming evident.  My words of doubt and fear had been creating obstacles in my path.  But my dreams had become a double-edged sword of faith and hope, cutting through the obstacles fear had birthed.  The truths of two Proverbs made more sense to me:  Proverbs 18:21:“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”  Prov. 23:7:-“As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”

Gladys Hunt wrote: “Words create worlds for us to live in.”  Negative words create negative dreams and negative dreams create a negative world.  Negative words imprison our dreams behind bars.  The Dream Sword with its double-edged blade of faith and hope also has a handle of truth.  It requires a firm grip on the truth to wield the Dream Sword.  Truth-filled dreaming cuts through the bars of fear and frees us to step into the future with joyful confidence.

Review your last 24 hours and assess how you have been thinking and speaking about your future.  What are your dreams for the future?  To what extent do your thoughts and words imprison you or set you free?  How could you begin to speak differently (more in line with the truth) about your fears?  If you could dream bigger, what would those dreams look like and sound like?  How do you feel when you talk about your big dreams?

Do you think God really wants you to dream?  If not, what do you think the apostle Paul was referring to in the following two verses?  Eph. 3:20 “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”  Phil 4:8  “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable.  If anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things.”  Could “thinking about such things” be a form of dreaming about the future?\

Do you think that “hoping” in the bible could be a form of dreaming?  Look at the following Scriptures.  Do you think they relate to dreaming?

• Psa. 42:5  “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation.”
• Psa. 62:5  “My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is from Him.”

• Proverbs 10:28  “The hope of the righteous brings joy, but the expectation of the wicked will perish.”

I found it interesting that the word “hope” in Psalm 62 is from a Hebrew root word that means: “to wait for, look for, expect, to look eagerly for.”  It seems to me this may be another way of saying that when we “hope” in God, we’re really dreaming about what the future could be.  If Proverbs 10 says the wicked can have “expectations” about the future, can the righteous have “expectations” too?  Aren’t expectations like dreams?

Dreaming is an act of faith in God about our future.  God has a hope and a future for us (Jeremiah 29:11), and it’s good.  He wants us to expect it, dream about it, think about it, talk about it, wait for it and eagerly look for it.  Dreaming is an effective antidote to fear.  So, the next time you get into the wrong time-zone and your fears begin to cut you off from your good future, maybe it’s time to cut off your fears with your Dream Sword!

I’d love to hear your Dream Sword story.  Email me: timlifecoach@gmail.com

Tim Cosby is a certified Life Coach in Grand Rapids, Michigan at Terra Nova (www.terranovalifecoaching.com), a private coaching practice that empowers Christian leaders to step into the new territory of their life purpose.  He also owns Empowerment Coaching Network LLC (www.empowermentcoachingnetwork.com), where he and his three partners are offering Christ-centered peer coaching training via a 2-day, 12-hour accelerated learning experience.  He has been married to Diane for 34 years, has 4 children and 8 grandchildren.