after you receive the dream…

receiving the dream is a key.  then look what happened to joseph once he received the dream. 

genesis 41.41-43 (niv), pharaoh said to joseph, “i hereby put you in charge of the whole land of egypt,” and pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on joseph’s finger.  and he dressed him in robes of fine linen he puts a gold chain around his neck.  he had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command and men shouted before him, “make way!” and he put him in charge of the whole land of egypt. 

he’s got the dream!  it’s like he won the lottery.  this is it.  he hit the jackpot.

once you’ve achieved the dream, reached that pinnacle of success, then what happens?  many of us feel like, “that’s it!  i’ve got the dream.  i sit back by the pool and enjoy the dream!”  those of you who have reached your dream know this to be true: once you reach your dream, that’s when the work really begins.  big dreams, GOD-given dreams, are hard work. 

you’ve got a dream of a great marriage and you pray for it for years and finally GOD brings the right person into your life, then the pinnacle of success – the wedding, the gown, the orchestra, the harps…  you come down the aisle and the work is over, right?  no, the work just began.

you’ve got a great dream of having kids in your life.  there’s the nine months of waiting and the delivery room, the labor – the pinnacle of success, the baby comes out and starts to cry.  now you can sit back by the pool and enjoy the child, right?  that’s when the work really begins!

you’ve got a dream for a great ministry, a life-changing ministry?  a dream for a great church?  and then GOD does it.  does that mean you just get to sit back and relax and enjoy the beauty of the building?  no.  that’s when the work really begins. 

one of the key qualities in joseph’s life wasn’t just that he had dreams or waited for dreams or that he received dreams.  one of the key qualities in his life is that he knew how to manage the dream. 

one key quality is that dream managers develop discipline.  joseph gathered grain for seven years.  he’s a model of discipline.  he worked when he wasn’t pressured to work, that’s discipline.  all of us know how to work against a deadline.  but he had seven years to gather grain.  why not kick back for two years before he started gathering?  there was no real pressure.  no one knew if the famine was coming for sure.  even though he wasn’t pressured, he worked.

he collected grain consistently over those seven years.  he didn’t collect a little then wait a while.  he worked out a daily way to do it.  he continued to gather grain even though it looked like he had too much at one point.  he gathered so much grain they couldn’t even count it anymore but he kept gathering because GOD had told him to do that.  he’s a model of the discipline that it takes to manage a dream.

just a thought from the front porch…