Came across a tweet that touched on an issue I’ve prayed on, preached on, contemplated and wrestled with much of my life. The issue deals with dreams, desires and hopes in light of the gospel. The tweet said…

That little voice in yr head telling U 2 giv up UR dream…It’s a lie from hell.When you hear it.Chase Harder, Faster, Stronger

The person who tweeted it loves Jesus, serves Jesus, no doubt about that. This isn’t a condemnation of the person, so just put that to bed if you know who said this. Theologically bulletproof tweets are extremely hard to come by, 140 characters just doesn’t lend itself to it. I’m glad this was tweeted because it motivated me to blog on this subject which I’ve held in a draft state for some time now. Moving on. This phrase implies a few dangerous things in my view.

1. That all your dreams and desires must be good.
2. That we should rebuke any voice that tells us to lay down a dream or desire of ours.
3. That Satan’s lie would never be for some to actually achieve their dreams.

I can’t see any biblical reason to believe any of those things.

1. By nature and choice our dreams and desires are wicked

We are born with a heart that does not hold Jesus as our deepest desire or our most precious treasure. Out of this sinful heart we choose to dream about many things above the glory of Jesus Christ. Jeremiah says this well in Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

We need Jesus to save us, for the Holy Spirit to intervene and to regenerate our hearts. In regeneration we find that what we used to love (sin) we now hate and what we used to hate (God) we now love. This regeneration completely tears down our old hearts, desires and dreams and it’s good and right and mercifully so. By God’s grace we lay down all those dreams of ours at the foot of the cross and through regeneration we see what God puts back into our hearts. Our dreams change, our desires change and what we’re now called to is all for God’s glory and not our own.

2. That little whisper could be the Holy Spirit

Though after regeneration, we are still in the process of sanctification and in that process we have conflicting desires. Sometimes we’ll dream about things that aren’t Godly, that don’t glorify Jesus but attempt to bring glory to ourselves. Elijah in 1 Kings 19 is surrounded by hurricane winds, an earthquake and a fire but it says the Lord was in none of those but found in a “low whisper.”

That little voice inside your head telling you to lay down that dream may be the merciful call of the Holy Spirit to repent and return to what God has called you to, and not what you’ve been dreaming about. In fact Romans 1:24 shows that one of the worst things that can happen to us is for God to give us over to our own desires. God save us from our fleshly desires.

3. Satan’s lie is that you should get some glory too

Tim Keller breaks this down for us in his book Counterfeit Gods:

“Most people spend their lives trying to make their heart’s fondest dreams come true…We never imagine that getting our heart’s desires might be the worst thing that can ever happen to us.“

Satan’s lie might not be always telling you to lay down a “dream”, it may be the lie is encouraging you to accomplish what you dream. In order to find out we better put it into gospel perspective. Is this dream or desire planted by God? If not planted by God has it been redeemed? Does it exist to bring God glory or you glory?

Only after we’ve prayed on those questions and have some clarity of response can we discern whether the voice in our head is a loving call home or a deceitful encouragement to sin. Let our prayer be that God would save us from our dreams, regenerate our hearts and implant dreams that will give God glory.

What dreams of yours have you laid down at the cross and what has Jesus put back in your hearts in exchange?