Do you believe Godly dreams bless more than the dreamer? I do! When our dreams come true, they bring joy, increase faith, give hope and supernatural inspiration to everyone they touch. Martin Luther King’s dream of equality for all God’s children continues to touch lives today. Alexander Graham Bell’s dream led to the phones we rely on every day. Noah’s dream to build a boat – before rain – saved a remnant of God’s creation to carry on after the flood. Have you witnessed the joy of a dream come true?
The Bible speaks of fulfilled dreams in Proverbs 13:12. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.”
I believe God wants our dreams to come true! Prayer and perseverance settle in for seasons while waiting faithfully for fulfilled dreams. Getting stuck in winter can keep dreams dormant, but pressing forth to springtime shows signs that our dreams did not die. Rising up with hopeful, believing hearts and determined, working hands can help dreams come true in God’s perfect timing. My dream of finishing this story before bedtime was almost lost when the low battery signaled my power source was at two percent and my work was not saved. Plugging in the power cord rescued my writing. God rescues His perishing children when we reconnect to Him and pursue the dreams within our hearts…and those we never imagined being privy to in this lifetime.
In 2008, I stood in a packed coliseum in Charlotte with my sister and niece, Katy. We traveled to the Revival with hope for Katy’s dreams to have more mobility, play sports, and enjoy life outside hospitals to begin and healing to happen. We stood in line for hours, watched as people were turned away to an overflow building; the dream of getting inside looked bleak. Then, an usher walked past us and stopped beside Katy’s wheelchair. Seeing our dismay, the Good Samaritan led us to a side door, explained he felt led to help us, wheeled Katy inside, and ushered us to ground floor four rows from the stage. I believe God sent that man. It was no mistake we were at that revival, even though it took effort and determination to get there. We almost missed the blessing God had for us by staying home. With tremendous traffic jams and tons of people everywhere we turned, the sweet spirit we embraced could have turned sour with one little word of negativity from either of us. I sensed my sister’s apprehension, not wanting Katy to feel uncomfortable; I prayed fervently for God to work it out. And He did!
For hours, we worshipped and waited as people were helped. Our prayers were not answered that night for Katy, (but seeds were sown in confidence He would answer in His timing) but our hope was not deferred and a dream was planted in my heart for revival to overflow in our local Expo Center where people would Rise Up to praise and worship God and enjoy a time of fellowship and food in one accord.
The dream inside my heart stirred but I resisted. The nudge to Rise Up grew; finally, my dream became reality in 2012. People gathered at the Expo Center for Rise Up – Recount Love, and God was glorified. This year’s Christian celebration’s theme is Rise Up – Revive! We, at Tim’s Gift, are planning and believing people will come to the February 18th event with hope for healing, renewing relationships with the Lord and loved ones, and dreams to be planted inside hearts.
This story stirred to help people in hard places with little hope for fulfilled dreams by sharing Katy’s journey to dreams coming true. Nine years after sharing the revival experience in Charlotte, Katy has been through more than most people will experience in a lifetime. Yet, she has held to hope and faith, with the help of her family’s loving support, through seasons that threatened to keep her captive to pain pills, surgeries, (she has undergone 28 in her 23 years), and limited opportunities for big dreams to be fulfilled.
Sharing the details of Katy’s love story would captivate your heart. There were desperate times when the enemy tried to keep Katy in a painful, pitiful pit where her dreams would die, but God had other plans and was working all things out for good according to His purpose for her life.
Katy had to RISE UP from a powerful pit of desperation and she did! With God’s help and encouragement from loved ones, Katy rose up fearlessly and faced each day with hope. Through tears, trials, and her brother (who is working on his doctorate at the University of Illinois) suggesting she visit him and check out the handicapped dorm and opportunities there – when it seemed she hit dead end, God was working things out for a young Christian woman with courage and determination to make her dreams come true.
Wishing I had time and space to write about the amazing details of her journey, I share only how the weaving of God’s handiwork through years of hoping, heartaches, and hallelujahs has given Katy purpose and passion to RISE UP, dream, and do things that could only happen with HIM at the helm. Katy is a Junior at The University of Illinois, a member of the UI Handicapped Basketball Team, (she travels with her team on special buses to seven universities across America playing the sport she dreamed of as a little girl ), an honor student, a chosen student from a group study to try out a product they created for people in wheelchairs – a special fitbit with rolls instead of steps being recorded, a strong spirited, happy, healthy (works out two hours daily with her teammates), young woman whose hope and joy for living life out loud in love have been REVIVED! Katy chose to Rise Up and reach for her dreams. Many people give up hope and stay put in places where dreams remain dormant. God can work miracles, guide our steps to His plans, and help make our dreams come true when we keep our eyes on Him and never give up hope!
Katy’s dreams are coming true per God’s plans. Things do not always work out in our lives as we plan, but God’s ways are higher and His plans are put in place perfectly for every child He created. It is our choice to listen to His still, small voice and follow the path laid out for us in every season of our lives. When we keep God first in all things, believe in HIs Son, listen to the Holy Spirit living inside our hearts (the Helper God sent when Jesus ascended to Heaven), and RISE UP with faith and hope in our hearts…life will be delicious and dreams can come true.
When we live by Jesus’ example, sharing love with honesty and humbleness on our journeys, then our love stories will be classics with fulfilled dreams blessing more than the dreamer!
