7 Kingdom dreaming principles
Everyone dreams, but most people don’t do their dreams and the number that dare to dream God’s dreams and then commit to doing them are few. Doing God’s dreams – dreams that build his kingdom – is a great thrill. You come alive when you’re doing what he created you to do. I first taught this at the Awakening in Brasov Romania in September. Here are a few principles I’ve found helpful as I’ve embraced God’s dreams:
1. Big problems require big dreams and big faith. Don’t dream small dreams. Some of the best dreams never happened because of unbelief. There must be God-room in every dream – if he doesn’t show up, the dream won’t happen.
2. Expect naysayers. People like the status quo. 90% of what we do we do out of habit. When people act like wet blankets, even that can be a habit and is not a reflection on the viability of your dream.
3. Don’t delegate design. It’s your dream – if it’s a kingdom dream, then God dreamed it and entrusted it to you. If you’re not passionate enough to take his dream and design it, don’t do it. Design is often the hardest thing you’ll do. It’s a great place to invest a lot of prayer.
4. Resources are rarely the problem. Get the dream right, communicate it with passion, and the resources will come.
5. Put capable people you enjoy working with on your team. Life is too short to work with knuckleheads. Get people with discernment to help you with screening.
6. Communication is your responsibility. Ensure a frictionless flow of information. Information should get to decision-makers quickly.
7. Commit to mistake-making. You have to fail to succeed and your first drafts of the dream are not going to be pretty. A good idea is worth doing badly.
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Just what I needed to hear. Thanx Seth!
Gracias. Doing a lot of prayerful dreaming tonight. God is connecting some dots and this is encouragement to move forward.
I like this! I am looking forward to Project SearchLight!
Good Word Seth, now the question is how do we activate people into this way of life?
When Elizabeth graduated from that other great Virginia college, William and Mary, her commencement speaker was Mike Tomlin, youngest NFL coach and soon to be Super Bowl winner the following year. He said something that has stuck with me. And that is a build on your 2. People will try to take your dreams from you, but don’t let them. He also encouraged these young, fresh minds to don’t stop dreaming. It was a great speech.
BTW, he graduated from W&M 15 years earlier.
Amen! Thanks for the nudge …
love it, and my favorite quote is “life is too short to work with knuckleheads.”
Brilliant stuff Seth!!! Thank you!
Great quote from a really good book by Scott Bader-Saye….
When our moral lives are shaped by fear, and safety is worshiped as the highest good, we attempt to make health and security the primary justifications for right action. We thus lead timid lives, fearing the risks of bold gestures. Instead of being courageous, we are content to be safe. Instead of being hopeful, we make virtues of cynicism and irony which in turn keep us at a safe distance from risky commitments. We are more likely to tell our children to “be careful” then to “be good.” The extravagant vision that would change the world gets traded in for the passive axiom “do no harm.” Our moral lives atrophy on this new diet of self-protection.
A crucial part of the argument that I want to make in this book is that many people do bad things not so much because they are evil, but because they are fearful. The relentless pursuit of safety leads to uncharitable hearts, for we fear letting go of the goods that might protect us against an uncertain future. In the name of security we refuse to love our enemies, because we assume that if we do not answer violence with violence, we be forever victimized. Because we wish to be careful, we do not open our lives to strangers, fearing that they will take advantage of our hospitality. It is fear that constricts our hearts and thus fear that makes Jesus’s ethic of risky discipleship of crazy, unrealistic, and irresponsible. Yet the “virtues” of the ethic of safety — suspicion, preemption, and accumulation — turn out to be but “splendid vices” [St. Augustine’s description of Roman virtues].
-Scott Bader-Saye, Following Jesus in a Culture of Fear , (Grand Rapids: Brazos:2007) 31.
Seth, this a PHENOMENAL blog!! I am excited!!!!
This is excellent. Thanks so much!!