THE EVERLY BROTHERS: ALL I HAVE TO DO IS DREAM

In 1958, the Everly brothers put out a hit song that would be on the charts in Britain for 21 weeks and was Number 1 in America for 5 weeks. It was, "All I have to Do is Dream." It's a song whose line says, "If I want you, all I have to do is dream."

Motivational speakers have figured out that you can fool some of the people all of the time. They have also figured out that to fool people all they have to do is to appeal to a person's dreams. 

"Dreams" is a key word in their "sermons." Those motivational speakers who speak from behind a pulpit in a church auditorium rely heavily on the dreams people have for health, promotions, and wealth, et al. 

"You can achieve your dreams,"and, "Don't give up," they repeat like a never-ending drumbeat. They repeat the word over and over in their books, as evidenced by the following daily devotion entitled "Remember Your Dream."* (The emphasis is mine.)

"We all have dreams we're believing [God] for, but we may have hit some setbacks. Our dreams can get buried under discouragement, past mistakes, rejection, failure, and negative voices. It's easy to settle for mediocrity even when we have all this potential buried inside. Your dream may be buried, but it's still alive. It's not too late to see it come to pass. The key to reaching your destiny is to remember your dream. What has God put in your heart? What did you used to be excited about? Why do you think it's too late, it's too big, or it's not possible? Get your passion back. You haven't missed your opportunity or had too many bad breaks. Stir up your faith. God is going to resurrect what you thought was dead. You may have tried and failed, but dreams that you've given up on are going to suddenly come back to life. God has the final say. He hasn't changed His mind.

Prayer for Today

"Father, thank You for the dreams and desires You put in my heart. Thank You that I can stir up my faith and know that You can resurrect what I may have thought was dead. I declare that it is never too late to see my dreams come to pass because You have the final say. In Jesus Name, Amen."

 

This sermonette smacks of the false idea that all a person has to do is "resurrect it," "stir it up," and "declare that it's never too late." That error has been called, "Name it and claim it." (Motivational speakers are like the circus, you see one, you've seen them all.  Yawn.) 

Let's talk about a man who had a dream for his life. It was a dream for his legacy that would cement him in history. It was the godliest of godly dreams: his name was David and he wanted to  build the Temple in Israel, the first ever. 

In our sanctified imaginations, we can see David's visiting the land on which he would build his dream; we can see him sitting at his desk drawing upand studying the architectural plans he'd meticulously done; we can see him showing his plans to his son Solomon, telling him, "I'm going to put this here and that there." David is so excited.  

The only thing about his dream was that there was one word he hadn't counted on hearing: "No." That's what God said to his great dream. David couldn't "resurrect it," David couldn't stir it up, and David couldn't declare that it was never too late. God dashed the dream a'borning. David, God said, was a man of war and that was God's appointed place and will for him and he could be more than satisfed with what God had given him to do and what he had done. But the dream of building the Temple? NO.

 

Another example is Paul's dream of heading into Turkey with the gospel. That's a godly dream. He was so energetic about his dream that, "after they came to Mysia, they were trying [Greek: imperfect tense, "kept on trying"] to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them." God said, "No" to that dream. Peter would go there. Paul was to be satisfied with Macedonia. 

 

^{This false idea leads people to assume that their believing, if great enough, that their declaring, if said strongly enough, that their stirring up, if stirred hard enough and long enough will make their dream come true.}  

^{They're headed down a disappointing path. Their name is Legion.} 

 ^{____________________________________________________________}

 

 * Joel Osteen Feb. 4, 2021