Where did she get that false perception, anyway? From a guest expert on on old Oprah Winfrey telecast? Because that show was chock-full of spiritual-alternative humanism. Or maybe from ELLE magazine? Because it sounds like KatieLyn plagiarized her answer from an article about "How to Move On" that was written by a freelancer who just got a master's degree in psychology, only to find the diploma was virtually worthless.
A God-given dream is a gift that can keep you centered and on course. A God-given dream should not be dismissed because it seems unattainable or fanciful. God specializes in the impossible. Just ask the man whose iron axe head floated, or the men whose fishing nets nearly broke with a haul made in the morning light after a night (best fishing time) of catching nothing. Or ask the men who found the prison doors opened when they sang. Ask anyone who has experienced a miracle of providence or grace. The apparent obstacles did not stop any of these people from completing their heavenly vision.
My Part One post quoted two scriptures showing that God gives His children dreams. Here are two more that show God wants to fulfill these dreams:
Psalm 21:2 - You have granted him his heart's desire.
Psalm 145:19 - He fulfills the desires of those who fear him.
If God gives you a desire, ✔check, and if He wants to fulfill that desire for you, ✔check, and if He has begun doing just that by bringing new people who love you into your life, ✔check, and then you say that you "cared too much" about all that the Lord was doing for you— don't be surprised if God is not pleased with your lack of faith or if others find you to be horribly ungracious.
When God puts a dream in your heart, that is part of His guidance system to get you to where you are supposed to be in life. God had put the dream and call of being a wife and homemaker in KatieLyn's heart as a very young child. She spent years praying and seeking. And then in God's timing, as He was bringing it to pass, she ran away and announced that she was content and at peace with her singlehood.
I have one word for that: Bunk!
And it works with both meanings, bunk meaning hogwash and nonsense! Or as in done a bunk, hightailed it and headed for the hills. Either way shows disrespect for what God was performing.
Your God-given dream is supposed to set your agenda, not be run from. It is the thing that gives you clarity for decision making. Here is how that would work:
Your God-given dream is for marriage. The devil blows you a doubt and you have an impulse to run home to mommy. Ask yourself, "Does running away help me achieve God's plan for my life?" The simple answer is, "No." The right choice then, is to not run.Focusing on the priorities of the God-given dream eliminates confusion. Obedience to the heavenly vision means that you fill your agenda with things and people who promote your dream. You avoid activities and people who do not promote the God-given dream. One thing you cannot do is change God. You can agree to His plan and receive His blessing, or you can rebel against it and deal with the consequences. Pinning your hope on the possibility that God might come up with a Plan B alternative redemption someday does not come with an automatic free pass.
When KatieLyn ran off in the middle of the night, she ran away from a childhood dream, planted long ago by God. Her mother was perfectly fine with and wholly supportive of KatieLyn running away from the Lord's plan for her life. Bizarrely, KatieLyn, (who had once told Joe that, as a second child, she never felt her mother accepted her as much as she did her older first-born sister) was now, for the first time, finding the maternal support that she had always craved. In a twisted way, she got something else she always wanted, her mother's support; but she paid for it by refusing the heavenly vision.
And again, Joe's friends have told him he probably dodged a bullet if KatieLyn's relationship with her mom is that dysfunctional. Except it was a bullet that he would have taken for her; he loved her that much. He would have accepted a slightly crazed and seriously meddlesome mother-in-law to have KatieLyn.
If KatieLyn had let her God-given dream set her agenda, there would have been no confusion about where to set priorities. She would have known that her mother could no longer be in the #1 spot for meeting her needs. If her mom could not support the marriage, then KatieLyn should have separated herself from her mother to a distance that was more workable. Instead, KatieLyn took her mother's bait and argued with her. Now she was guilt-tripping over the commandment to honor one's parents! This is the downward spiral that demons like to get someone started on.
And that has happened. Remember earlier when I wrote that people need to avoid becoming too involved with activities and people who do not promote the God-given dream? KatieLyn is doing that avoidance stuff now, only with a dream that came from somewhere else. She cast away her confidence in the Godly dream and cut off all contact with those who do not support her disobedience. Her life has borne the fruits of recalcitrance and stubbornness from spitting on her dream.
Here is another Bible verse, and as you read it, take special note of the order in which things happen:
35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.… (Hebrews 10)
You do the will of God first, and then you may receive the promise. KatieLyn wanted to see the promise first. She was unwilling to move until she did. She had voices telling her that was the reasonable thing, but it was not a faith-in-God thing. She had voices telling her that she had to see 100% of the promise first. They lied. She allowed the fearful voices, not the godly dream, to set her agenda.
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