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Let us pray. Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. Ephesians 3.20 Dearest Father, I am grateful that your power lives in me. You are working out everything that pertains to my life. You are able to do immeasurably more than I could ever imagine through your power working within me. It is hard for me to fathom the greatness you are preparing for me.
It is your desire to show me your glory as I humble myself before you. Nothing is impossible for you. The bigger my dreams, the greater my faith in you needs to be to see them accomplished. If I can accomplish my dreams in my own strength, it is not big enough to stretch my faith. Thank you for your greatness in me, Lord. Amen. Thank you for listening to today's daily prayer.
For more inspiration and an incredible message from our feature pastor, stay tuned to Pray.com's Sunday service.
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My name is Julia Gentry. I'm the author of a best-selling book, You May Dare You. I'm the founder of the Dream for the Dream Co. I'm a speaker not only for the church, but also the marketplace. I'm a podcaster, a growth coach. I'm also a wife to an incredible man. And I am a mom of five children, you guys. People still do that. People still do that. You know, I was pregnant with my fifth, and people go, oh, is this your first? And I was like, no, it's my fifth. They were like, oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.
Almost like it's contagious, you know, like just stay. We just help that curve. You know, the American says that people normally have average of two. We're just helping the curve, right? But this is my dream team. They're incredible. Five of them. You can go ahead and show that picture because they're really cute. Look at this team. Look at this dream team. That's my dream team. And they, along with my work dream team, Nora, Cammie, Amanda, and Renee are on a mission with one goal.
And that is to make sure that this side of eternity looks more like heaven. And the way that we do that is by equipping the body of Christ to dream again.
which is what we're going to do this weekend. If I have my way and if heaven has its way, we are going to help you understand what is everybody. That means you and the person next to you. That doesn't matter how old or how young, how bad your past was, how crazy the future might be, how chaotic your current circumstances are. It says everybody. I will pour out my spirit on everybody and cause your sons and daughters to prophesy and your young men will see visions and your old men will experience dreams from God.
Do you know, though, that that word vision means divinely appointed appearances? In the Greek word, it's harasis, which means eyes or sight. And it means that your eyes are open to divine encounters of the spiritual realm. What does that mean? It means it doesn't matter what you look at. It matters what you see. And this verse is already inviting us as the body of Christ to see in a totally different realm.
These are not daydreams. These are not nice ideas to make you feel good. These are eyes to see what heaven is doing, what God is doing. Not what God was doing, not what God will do, what God is doing. And I'm here today to remind us that God is upholding his part of the prophecy. And my question is, are we? My question to each of us is, are we dreaming with God?
But again, that word has a lot of biases and opinions and emotions. And there's one of four of you in the room. Number one, you're the dreamer. Raise your hand if who's my dreamers. You bought the t-shirt, you have the gift card, you have the watch, you have the water bottle and the hat that says dreamer. You got a laundry list of them, a vision board, a mile wide, and even the person next to you is like, yeah, yeah, but when are you going to do something about it? Well, you, sir, who's nudging, when are you going to do something about it?
Somewhere along the lines, put your dreams on the shelf, but for very logical reasons, generally because of pain of the past or disappointment of unfulfilled dreams. And I will never downplay your place of disappointment. I have mine too. Generally, this is someone who prayed for a baby and it never came, a business that failed. This is one of those that you have a prophecy, but you have yet to see the fulfillment of that prophecy. And so what we do is we take that dream and we put it on a shelf and then we convince ourselves that we should be realistic, logical.
That we should actually just, you know, be responsible and do what's in front of us because that is just our lot in life. Or maybe you're at where I was 12 years ago and you are just barely getting by. You have more month than paycheck and you feel like you're in survival mode. So the idea of dreaming sounds nice, but you're like, Julia, I'm barely getting through the day. Or you're where I was seven years ago.
And life is good. You're living the quote-unquote American dream. You know, you bought the house and the car, and you have 2.5 kids, and you're doing the things. And it's good, but it's not great. It's fine, but it's not fantastic. But all of you have one thing in common, and that is every night we're calling into bed going, God, is there something more? I'm here to tell you this weekend, there is something more. There is something more.
There is something more, and this is what this weekend is going to be about, is it's actually going to help you understand what it means to dream with God again. But here's what I'm going to ask, because again, I have, Pastor's given me 35 minutes, but he's also given me two and a half day conference to walk you through this process.
So if you leave today and you're like, yes, but I don't even know what that means, you're in luck because in less than five weeks, we're going to come back here and for two and a half days, I'm going to actually give you the framework of what it looks like to start getting from where you are to where you want to be. Okay? But today what we're going to do is I'm going to answer two important questions. What does it mean to dream with God? And why as believers must we be dreaming with God? We're going to answer those two questions today. Okay? So number one, what does it mean to dream?
Mark Twain has said it, and I love this quote, but he says, it's not what we know that hurts us, it's what we think we know that just isn't so. And so part of this process of understanding what it means to dream with God not only means learning, but sometimes it means unlearning. It means unlearning what I think I know, but I don't actually have the results in my life, right? Which suggests that if you don't have the results of your life of a dream coming true, it might just be because we don't fully understand the essence of what it is.
This was my experience. This is where my journey started way back in 2008. And this is when my husband and I decided to start our own business in real estate. Do you guys remember what happened in 2008? Okay, probably not the best time to be getting in real estate. When we were getting in, everybody was getting out. But we decided we were going to get into real estate. I was too young to probably be naive enough to understand really fully what was going on. And we just did the one thing that our mentor told us to do, and that was to pick a niche. And so we picked short sales.
we hit the market spot on. Within a couple of years, we had bought and sold millions of dollars worth of real estate. We were managing 50 to 70 short sale files. We had a staff and a team. We grew very, very quickly. But three years later, we found ourselves $100,000 in debt, living in my mom's basement. Which at that time, when you're 23 years old, you guys, like, that's not the dream you aspire to, is to, like, move back in with your mom. Generally, when you move out, you don't want to move in. Can I get an amen? Okay. Okay.
So at that point, my husband and I were like, okay, there is something here that we don't fully understand. And at that point, we didn't know what it was because we had done all the right things. We had applied all the right skill set, but for us, we didn't have the mindset. We weren't thinking like heaven thinks.
And so there we found ourselves, right, spending more than we were making and looking for the dollar to justify the hole within us that was going, are we enough? Are we doing enough? Will we have enough? When I have more money, then I'll be significant. When I have more money, then we have something to add to the world around us. And God had to completely shift that mindset for us. And so he started to train us around what does it look like to have a heavenly mindset? So from there, I decided, you know what, I'm going to give my pain purpose. Amen. Anyone ever done that before?
So I decided to actually start doing business coaching. And so here in Denver, I started to lead some of the fastest growing mastermind groups for business owners. And at the time, I would teach them, how do you build a business? Process mapping, strategic planning, who to hire, who to fire, all of the things that it takes to build a business. And I started to understand something that has led me to where I am now, which is called the gap. The gap between information and transformation.
We'll put it this way. The gap between your dream and reality. The gap between the prophecy and the fulfillment of that prophecy. How many of you know that in between is rather challenging, right? And I saw this because every single week I would give people the tools to be successful, right? I would give them the process map and two weeks later they would come back and not have used it. I give them the plan and they come back and guess what? Didn't use it.
How many of us have done that? How many of us have bought the workout routine and then didn't do it? How many of us hired the trainer and we're like, it's not me, it must be you because it's not working. You're like, well, how long have you been training? You're like seven minutes. Like, well, generally you have to work out longer than seven. Oh, forget it, right? You're like, forget it. Like, no, I am the first human that that workout routine will not work. It only works if you work it, right? But I started to notice that people come in, you're like, what is this? There was this insane gap and it was almost like the more we Googled, the less we know.
So I became fascinated by this gap. I started to dive into what it was because I had my own experiences. But then at this point in time, my husband and I found ourselves mid-30s at what some would call a midlife crisis, but we were too young to really own that title. And so we decided to call it a midlife awakening. You can use that, sir, if you ever need to use that. Just tell it's a midlife awakening. It's not a crisis.
So for us, again, we had rebuilt our lives. We had done all of the things that people said that you should do to be successful. And yet we were still feeling unfulfilled, asking that question, is there something more? So we did what most people don't do. And instead of buying the car or getting a tattoo, we sold everything. We sold everything and started traveling the country in an RV. And at the time we had three kids under the age of five. Yeah. People are like, that's awesome. That's the best time to do it. You've never done it. You have never done it.
For my husband, it was heaven on earth. He was living his best life. Loved every minute of it. Freest man you'd seen. That was not my experience. That for me was when I realized that I had some control issues that God was going to need to sort out. I liked my routine. I liked the box. I liked the way that everything fit inside the box nicely. And so for me, it was this time that I realized like, oh man, I might not be as free as I think that I am.
I'm free and I feel free when I have my routine. I'm free when things work out the way that I thought they would. I'm free when things go as planned. But the minute that I actually was outside of that, I started to realize that I was now asking the things around me to give me something they weren't designed to give me. I'm gonna come back. I'm gonna preach that sermon later. That will change everything when we start to realize that we're asking the resources around us to be our source. Your level of dreaming will be dependent upon your level of freedom.
but your level of freedom will be dependent upon your levels of dependency in him. This is when I realized I did not have that equation connected. So as we're traveling the country in the RV, I'm asking God, I'm petitioning him for God. There has to be something more. There has to be something more. Well, there was. It was in a movie called The Greatest Showman. Anyone ever seen that movie? Already, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Changed my life. Hugh Jackman, I was watching that movie. I was like, Hugh Jackman is just speaking heaven to me. I just wish that my life could be Hugh Jackman's life in The Greatest Showman. Anyways, I'm watching this movie and I'm going, God, this, can this, this is what it's supposed to be like where we're singing and dancing and alive and full of life. And I could tell that he was kind of giggling at the whole idea. So I found myself laying in bed at night, tears running down my face just because I went, God, I want to do what you're doing. Has anyone ever prayed that prayer? God, I want to do what you're doing.
And I had an open-eyed vision. And in that open-eyed vision, which I don't have a lot of, I saw what looked like a world of people who were shuffling their feet, looking almost depressed, depleted, deflated, anxious, looking for questions, but they were looking down. Almost looked like a scene out of the movie Trolls. Anyone seen that movie? If you're a parent, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Looked like a scene of the Bergens. But I witnessed these people and I thought, what is wrong? They are living, but they're not alive.
They're going through the motions, but they're not connected with something bigger than themselves. And instantly I saw in fire letters flash across the sky the word dream. And I sat up because in that moment I swore that God had given me the algorithm of heaven. Little did I know that he actually had given me what's called our dream framework, which starts to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be.
And I knew in that moment that there was something different that we needed to be paying attention to. I knew in that moment that God was going to be drawing in the body of Christ to look in a totally different realm and does no longer need the world around them to give them something that he already gave them. But what I also didn't know is that he was going to take me on a journey of what it actually meant to dream with God.
And so he drew me in for the next couple of years as I began to put pen to paper and write this book. He redefined what that word meant. And I don't know if our slides are working. Are they working? I haven't seen them working, so if not, I'm going to give you my definition of what this word means. It's a longer definition, so bear with me, but I'm going to give you what this definition means. At the conference, I'm actually going to walk you. Yes, we had missed a couple of slides, so I wasn't sure if we had those. Here's what it means to dream.
It's the ability to have this great and intense focus in a totally different realm that brings about the possibilities while considering the needs of those around you. I'm going to say this again. It's the ability to have such great and intense focus where? Not on the world around us. These are spiritual eyes. These are eyes connected to a totally different realm
It's called the heavenly realm where inside of you, that's God's voice in you that brings about possibilities, that builds something from nothing and gives it away to the world around them. You want a shorter definition? It means heaven on earth. It means heaven on earth. This is what it means to dream. Now, here's the interesting thing about this word. This word is not designed to make us feel good. It won't.
This word is actually designed to make you be good. It's designed to make you be everything that God created you to be. It's designed to get you out of your comfort zone, out of the boat, get you walking on water, looking at him amongst the waves, and to do what only you can do because your eyes are on Jesus. Last I checked, that doesn't feel good.
It doesn't feel good. If we went and sat and talked to Noah about when he was building the ark, when everybody thought he was crazy, he would have looked at you and go, this does not feel good. If you would ask Moses who's standing, I can't imagine being Moses in the wilderness with people grumbling and complaining for 40 years. I can't take when my kids grumble and complain for four minutes. Can you imagine being Moses for 40 years? Didn't even get to enter the promised land. You'd get to heaven and you'd be like, really God? Really?
Why? Moses was connected to a dream that was bigger than his own life. Some of us say, well, Julia, you don't understand. Life is just so busy. It just gets in the way. If life is getting in the way of us living our dreams, then what is the point of life? So the interesting thing about dreaming is that it's not designed to make you feel good. It's designed to make you be good. You have a dream, but God is after your character. He's after your character. You want the destination. He wants your heart.
He wants you to have a dream, but he doesn't want that dream to have you. And so the idea of the day that he gives you the dream, the day that you receive the prophecy, and the day that thing manifests are two totally different days. True or true? And we think that the in-between is designed to break us. We start wondering, where are you, God? Why are you not answering my prayers? Where you gave me that dream, where did you go? Why are you so far away?
Tony Robbins says this, but the quality of your questions determines the quality of your answers. And some of us are asking God questions we do not want the answer for. And so we start to think that there's something wrong with the in-between. Do you want to know what the in-between is about? It's about your character. It's about you becoming everything that God is wanting you to become. Why? So when you get to the manifestation of the dream, that you have the character to hold the weight of the blessing. He doesn't want you just to get there. He wants you to stay there.
This isn't about us feeling good. It's about us being good. This is what it means to actually partner with the prophetic. Someone needs to write that down. Part of dreaming is learning how to partner with the prophetic.
What does that mean? It actually means not just to know what's wrong in the in-between, not just to know that, God, do you see this obstacle and do you see this problem and have you watched the news and have you scrolled on social media? Some of us who even feel energy and we feel the demonic, we go, oh, I know what the enemy is doing. How many of us have actually walked in the room and gone, okay, I see what the enemy is doing, but God, what are you doing and what do you want me to do about it? This is what we're supposed to be bringing to this world.
We actually need to be the ones. It's so funny. Dion, he's a dear friend of mine, and he's a VP of the National Day of Prayer. And they announced at their last conference, Kathy says this, made this statement that I just, everything in me, my light within me turned on. She says, we think that the world is getting darker, but she says, I would like to suggest that we're just getting dimmer.
Think about it. When you read all the Bible, you read the Old Testament and you think about how crazy some of those stories are. You're like, you don't even want to read them to your children because they're going to go, they did what? You're like, I don't really actually know how to explain that to you as they're like throwing babies into the fire.
Do you know what I'm saying? Like it has always been dark. So now we find ourselves easily rightfully so still saying, well, it is just really dark out there. True. Or is the light just getting dimmer? If we have our way this weekend, we are about to shine bright. We're about to shine bright. Why? Because what is dreaming? Dreaming is now my ability to actually connect with the heavenly realities, to be so heavenly minded that I do earthly good. Amen.
This is what it means to dream. Now that we have to ask, okay, great, if this is what it means to dream, then why do we need to do it? Well, I think a lot of that is interlaced in there. I think I did a pretty good job of already starting to point to the reasons as to why we need to be dreaming. But just for the sake of the exercise, let's talk about why we as believers need to be dreaming. Number one, when we dream, God's name is glorified. Some of us think that dreaming is selfish and
I would like to propose that it's the least selfish thing that you could do. And by not dreaming, you're actually being selfish. And when we dream, his name is glorified. If you look at Matthew 5 verses 14, it says, you are the, yeah, you are the light of the world. You are the what? The light. What does the light do to the darkness? It dispels it. It dispels it. Can I get my slides to follow me?
Matthew 5, 14, you are the light of the world. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, where do they put it? On a stand, and it gives light to everyone. Say everyone. Do you know what that word means? I'm just making sure you're awake. Everyone, it gives light to everyone. I think that the body of Christ has been playing small. I think that we've actually been hiding.
And we tend to hide because of a place of pain. If I don't feel safe, secure, or stable, it's really easy and logical for me to hide. But what the Bible is telling us is that we are the light of the world. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. You playing small is not going to support the case. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good and praise who?
They need to see your good deeds so that they can praise someone. Not you, him. That means that you need to get out of the boat. That's on you. But then you're going to need to walk on water and that will be on God. And the world needs to see both. They need to see a group of people that are willing to get out of the boat, out of comfortability, out of safety and security and stability, actually start positioning themselves to walk on water. And then they need to see a group of people do impossible things.
Why? So we go, yeah, I did that. I wrote that book. I started that business. I got up. I did a few more pushups. I can do hard things, but then let me tell you about God. And they're going to say, who did you say? And you're going to go, God. And you're going to realize not everybody knows him. Do you know what I'm saying? Sometimes in church, we forget. Not everybody knows him, but they need to see you so they can see a reflection of him. They need to see a reflection of him. This is why we need to be dreaming. Number two,
The whole world is waiting. You go, that seems a little much, Julia. Well, not according to Romans. It says, for the creation waits an eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. Do you know what I think is happening on social media right now? Do you know what I think is happening in the news? I think the whole world is groaning for an answer. And it's reading the facts and it is not doing the job. Why? Because the world doesn't need facts. It needs truth.
So it's groaning and it is waiting for who? You and I, for all, the all creation is waiting for the children of God to be revealed. Well, then it's easy. If you're like me, it's easy to go, yeah, but Julia, you don't understand my past. You don't understand where I've been. You don't understand my pain. You don't understand my current circumstances. You don't understand my bank account. You don't understand.
No, you're right, I don't understand. I will never be here to pretend that I understand. But I will say that again, if we go back to truth, not facts, because that's what we need right now. We don't need more facts, we need truth. If you keep reading in Romans, verse 26, it says that in the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. That's when he is made manifest, is in your place of weakness. When you come to the end of yourself, we find him. We find him. So today, if you're at the end of yourself, good.
you're about to pull down heaven's realities then today you are about satan wants you to think that you've come to the end of yourself and it is time to be done i want you to know it is just the beginning if you are at the end of yourself ask me how i know november 2nd through the 4th you come i'll tell you everything i know okay look then if you go on to verse 28 though it says and we know that in all things everyone say all things do you know what that word means
All things. That means in all things, your past, your current circumstances, the things that have happened, haven't happened, how much money you have or don't have in the bank account, what your dad did or didn't do, what your mom did or didn't do, what the economy did or didn't do. In all things. Sometimes it's easy to forget. We think, well, but except for this one thing.
It says, in all things, God works for the good of those who loved him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. Look at verse 30. Those he predestined, he called. Those he called, he justified. Those he justified, he glorified. He did that. Here's why this is an incredible message that is just easy for us to misunderstand or not to be able to interpret into our real life.
The Old Testament points to the fact that we needed law. What was law? To acknowledge that we had sin. No law equals no sin, right? If there's no speed limit, I don't actually know that I should be pulled over if I'm going too fast or too slow, right? So I will have a speed limit, why? So it proves that there would be sin. So the law was ushered in to say, you will have an end to yourself. You are a sinner. That's why there was law, right?
Then Jesus came and he became grace. So law got us to the end of ourselves to realize I can only get so far. I need a savior. I need something more. Is there something more? Yes, he has a name. His name is Jesus. So he enters the scene as grace and we know the concept.
But I'm here to tell you today that grace isn't a concept. He's a person and he lives on the inside of you and in your place of weakness, in your place of I'm done, in your place of I don't know that I can take one more step, in your lack of dreams, in your lack of unfulfillment of those dreams, he is right there saying, my turn. I literally see over a couple of your heads, yours, yours, and yours. It says, my turn over your head.
You have hit a point, you three, that you have almost given up and the people around you actually don't know. And you are feeling shame or guilt of telling them that you have taken it as far as you can go. And some days you're like, I'm in the zone. How many of us, who's my willpower that you're like, I could do this. Not even, I could do all things through Christ. I'm just gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. And then you hit other days, you're like, I don't got this. Is that just me? You're like, but tell no one. Tell no one. People are like, you good? You're like, good, I'm good, solid. This is solid, I'm a solid good.
God wants you three specifically to know that he has all over you my turn and you need to shift into Holy Spirit pace. Holy Spirit pace. When you come to the end of yourself, you will find him. Number three, why do we need to be dreaming with God? It was one of the core jobs Jesus had on earth. And if it was his job, it's our job.
Of course, we know that Jesus' main job was for you to enter into grace so that we could live with him for eternity. He died, he came, died, rose again, so that we could be in eternity with him forever. He came to set us free. That freedom cost him everything. It cost us nothing. It cost us nothing, right? So he came, he came to do this. John 10, 10 says, I came that you may have and life. What does that word mean?
everything, all the things, more than enough, overflowing, abundant life. That's why he came. I didn't come so you would play small. I didn't come so that you would settle. I didn't come so that you would fit in. I didn't come so that you would even know all the answers. Bill Johnson says this all the time, but if you can't understand the mysteries of God, you'll never understand the revelations of God. Some of us are like, yeah, but God, I don't understand that. Well, if you did, then you wouldn't need him to begin with.
And if we can't understand the mysteries of God, do you think you could actually understand his revelations? He's that big. And you're like, yeah, but Julia, I'm afraid. Then get closer. Well then, but I don't know if I could trust him. Then get closer. I don't know if I could dream with him anymore. Then get closer. Proximity to him will matter to you.
He says, I have come that they may have life and life more abundantly. And then while he's here, he sets our pace. Before he leaves, he's like, by the way, very truly I tell you, if you read in verse 12, John 14, verse 12, very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing and even greater.
Why? Because I'm going to the Father and I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. So ask me for anything in my name and I will do it. He's setting our pace. He's setting our pace. And believe me, there's some of you who are like, yeah, but I've been petitioning and I've been petitioning and God's not doing it. He's not done. Some of us have to remember he's not done.
Do we want to see the fulfillment of our dreams on this side of eternity? Absolutely. But remember, this is so much bigger than just this blip of time. And the closer we get to him, I think why he's saying this is this isn't just an invitation to do cool things. Do we want to see Red Sea's part? Yes. Do we want to build an ark? Yes. Do we want to do the impossible? Yes. Write books and start businesses? And yes, yes, yes. Don't get me wrong.
But this, I don't think that Jesus is saying this is because he just wants us to do cool things. If you keep reading, he says, and you will do whatever you ask in my name so that the father might be glorified. You may ask anything in my name. That's about proximity. That is about the closeness to his heart because the closer I am to his heart, the more I am praying from his heart. Now I'm not living for love. I'm living from love. I'm living from revelation. Now it's not even about the story. God, the stuff.
I already have him. It's not about the dream. I'm connected to the dream giver, dream maker. Do you see what I'm saying? When I'm that close, that's an invitation for Jesus to come. Come closer to me so that your life is an overflow of being that close to the Lord that you can't not give it away to the world around you. That's what we're supposed to be to this world is an overflow of who he is.
Is he a good father that he wants us to have good things on this side of eternity? Absolutely. I've had nothing and I've had stuff. I'd prefer stuff. Do you know what I'm saying? Like we're not here to preach in either an overabundance or, you know, the scarcity. No, we're here just saying, I just know that God is a God of over and above. And the closer we get to his heart, the more we will overflow from the goodness of his heart.
What does that mean? It now means that him is my pace. I live from victory. You live from love. You live from significance. Some of you today are going, am I enough? Am I significant? You are. Do you hear me? What's your name? No, you. You're turning around right now. Nope. Yep, you. Yeah. Selena, he wants you to know you've been asking that question, am I enough? You either feel like you're too much or not enough. And God wants you to know that you actually live from significance.
and that when you live from significance and you act as though you will walk on water and you will give room for people to feel the significance of heaven. Do you hear me? You carry the value system of heaven. This isn't just even for Selena. You have to realize, guys, when you understand that you live from significance and you live from value, you actually now are in the value system of heaven. You're no longer looking around at the world asking you to give it something that was never designed to give you. Am I enough?
Am I doing enough? Am I valued? Am I seen? Am I heard? We're asked all these questions. No, when we align with this word, we're now living from heaven's value system. You need to usher in the value system of heaven every room that you walk into. So when you walk into a room and instantly you start to feel like, oh, I don't feel significant. I don't feel valued or seen or heard. That's the enemy. And there is that energy that's happening in the room and you need to walk into the room and you need to bring the significance of heaven into the room.
How do we do that? Yeah, we do that physically, right? We're actually going to pace with the Holy Spirit physically in what we're doing. But number four, the other reason of why we need to be dreaming with God, it's actually how Jesus taught us to pray. The disciples I love, of all the things that they could ask Jesus, they're like, hey, how should we pray? I would ask God, like, can I have a better strategic plan or like a process map? You know what I'm saying? Who's my strategy people in the room?
There's not very many of you. You guys, my director of operations, Cammie, is like the strategist from heaven. This girl's like on a Trello board and she just does all of the things. I've never seen strategy before. Her and I joke all the time that if I had a question for Jesus, I would have been like, give me heaven strategy. I want to do all the things. How many of us want to do all the things? We do. We want to do all the things. But what happens with all the things oftentimes is we burn out. So I love that the disciples are coming to Jesus and they actually have the courage to go, how do you want us to pray?
And we know this prayer so well, but if you look at our prayer life, and this is not to shame, blame, or guilt, but if you look at our prayer life, we're like begging God. We're like begging God. Or some of us aren't even praying out loud. Again, this is no shame or blame or guilt, but we have forgotten what prayer is. Prayer is partnering with what heaven is doing.
Yes, we need to be taking our heart to Father God every night and every morning. We need to be casting our cares, taking our hearts, our pain, our fears, our worries, and everything in between. He's that good. But then we have to realize that prayer is actually partnering and aligning with what heaven is doing. So when we walk out of those doors, that we're in alignment with what it's doing. And he says that if you look at what Jesus says to the disciples, he says, our beloved Father dwelling in the heavenly realms, number one, he gets us looking up in our prayer.
He doesn't say, Father God, let's look around at all the problems going around us first. He says, Father God, dwelling in the heavenly realms, he puts our attention on him. Why? Because whatever you pay attention to will have your life. So he says, we're first going to put our attention there. Dwelling in the heavenly realms, may the glory of your name be the center on which our lives turn. What is he doing? He's even having us go, yeah, I might have a dream, but he's going, look higher.
I want you, Lord, to be the center in which my life turns. I want you to be the center in which my life turns. Then he says, manifest your kingdom realm and cause your every purpose to be fulfilled on earth just as it is in heaven. What does that word manifest mean? To show, to display. How many of us are praying that prayer? After today, this is our prayer.
every day in between now and dare to dream conference and then forevermore we are going to pray this prayer as a church and we're going to put our attention on heaven and we're going to rededicate our lives to spin only on his glory why because that's where we live we don't live from this world to his world we live from his world to this world we don't need more balance we need alignment
The world is trying to sell you on a balanced life. Pinterest and Instagram and all these quotes are like, you should be more balanced. Said Noah and Moses and Jesus, never. They were not balanced. They were aligned. Yeah, but I just want to make sure that everybody's happy. Said Jesus, never. I just want to be comfortable. Said Jesus, never. He even was like, God, please, if you would take this cup from me, I don't want to do this hard thing.
but for the joy set before him. What is that? The dream, not just the dream that you have on earth. It is actually, he looked higher and goes, for the joy set before him, I will endure the hard things. I will endure the obstacles. Why? So then I can see you perfected in and through my life. That's what we're gonna do. That's what we're gonna do. Why? Because number five, and I'm gonna land here, is that number five is that we are here dreaming with God because it is part of our greatest commission. That is on us. Jesus says, I'm gonna go. You're in.
He tagged us in. And he gave us his commission. He says, Matthew 28, 19, therefore go, everyone say go. Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. That means we have a job to do. We have a job to do. And if you're here today, I want to remind you that that dream and that prophecy that God's given you, it is real and it is alive. And this weekend...
I'm going to invite you into three action steps for you to align with what God has already spoken on your life. Prophecy is not just telling you what could and might happen next. Prophecy is a call back to what God has always been saying. If you remember when he began the beginning, he sat at the end. So if I'm actually walking in the prophetic with him, that means I'm just coming back to what he has already said over my life.
So today I'm going to have us do three things. Number one, I'm going to ask you to take a crazy step of faith just like your pastor did. And I'm going to ask you to scan the QR code that you find on the flyers and we're going to put it up here. And I'm going to ask you to join us for Dare to Dream Conference. My least favorite thing to do about my business that I always tell my team is to sell. And I am not asking you to come to this conference to sell you. I'm asking you to come. I'm begging you to come.
Because the world needs what God has put on the inside of you. And on the other side of your obedience is always blessing. So I'm going to ask you to scan this code and I'm going to ask you to come. On a tactical level, sure, early bird pricing ends tomorrow. We've given you an extra 10% off as a house that you could come and invite your friends. Use that 10% off for anyone and everyone you know. And I'm going to ask you to come to this conference and to say yes to the dream that maybe you've put on the shelf.
There's some of you who are so pained by that word and I'm going to ask that you trust him one more time. Number two, when you walk out that room, I'm going to ask that you go talk to my team at that table and you grab one of those books. And the reason I'm going to ask you to grab that book, my fingerprint is not on that book. When God asked me to write it, I told him no. I downplayed his voice and I downplayed myself. Because at the time when he asked me to write that book, I was in the marketplace. I loved him, but I was an F-bomb dropping wine drinking girl.
I stand before you today simply a woman who said that everything I was wanting, the fire he had given me was on the work that I was avoiding, so I just said yes. Not only have I figured out my F-bomb and I've given that to the Lord, he's my bomb. But my husband and I are two years sober and we have found the fire. And that book will set you on fire. And then here's the third thing I'm going to ask. I'm going to ask everyone to stand.
I'm going to ask you to stand and if today there was something on the inside of you that everything went yes, I'm going to ask you to do something about your yes. And there's those of you who might not know Jesus today and this is a simple yes to enter into the freedom he died for. That doesn't cost you anything other than just the declaration. So if you are here today and you have never accepted Jesus into your heart, will you raise your hand for me? I want to make sure we don't miss anyone on this.
This is the most important decision you can make. And a lot of times they go, you should close your eyes and bow your head. No, this is something we need to be celebrating. Heaven will get one more. Is there anyone that needs to accept Jesus or doesn't know this Jesus? Okay, great. Number two, those of you who want to realign with what heaven is saying over your life, will you please raise your hand? If you are ready to dream with God, will you please raise your hand? Amen.
I'm going to ask you to get crazy and I'm going to ask you to come up front. I'm going to ask you to come up front and to be seen. I'm going to ask you to shine the light in the darkest areas. And by doing this, I want you to know that you, this is like marching around your walls of Jericho and telling Satan no more. Fear stops today. Worry stops today. Anxiety stops today. It stops today. Why? Because heaven has already sung its song over your life.
And so today, all we're going to do is surrender to that word. We're just going to surrender. We're not going to strive. We're not going to achieve. We are simply going to surrender and we're going to say yes. Okay? That's all we're going to do. And then God is going to say, my turn.
He's going to say, my turn, baby. He's going to say, give me your hands. He's going to say, my turn. He's going to say, my turn. He's going to say, my turn. If you are comfortable, I either want you to raise your hands or I want you to grab the hand next to us and then to count to three, we're going to say, my turn. One, two, three, my turn.
Heaven says it is its turn over your life and over the dreams. So in the mighty name of Jesus, I declare heaven, you have your way. Jesus, you have your way. I thank you that the stronghold of fear, small-mindedness, and insecurity is gone today.
I thank you for the shackles that are around our ankles and our necks are gone today. And I pray for the power of heaven. I release freedom in one hand and fire in another. I put freedom in one hand and fire in another. I thank you, Father God, that the body of Christ now in this Word of Life Church, God, will rise up and that they will see who you have called them to be all along. And we will surrender our will. We will surrender our way. And we will surrender our time. And we will say yes. Everyone say yes.
Say yes. Say yes. God, you have our yes. You have our yes.
Not our will, not our way, not our time, God. We just have our yes. And I thank you for divine revelation in the mighty name of Jesus, God. I thank you that you are stirring up the fire within each and every one of us. And I thank you in the mighty name of Jesus that you sanctify, you glorify, Father God, what is happening today. I thank you for this body that they will be a beacon of light to this dark world. I thank you that Thornton, Colorado, the nations will know we're a live church because of the yes today. In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.
Here's what I'm going to ask you to do. You already know your action steps. I want to see you at Daredevil Conference, get that book, but here's what I want you to do. Habakkuk. Habakkuk. How would I say that? Habakkuk? Habakkuk. Habakkuk. Whatever you want, however you want to say it. Did you know that if you double click that word, it still means Habakkuk? Two, it says write the vision clearly on the tablets. Whatever God did for you today, I want you to write it down.
I don't care if you saw a color. I don't care if you saw a number. I don't care if you saw the strategy of heaven. I don't care if you're like, I saw nothing, but I felt something. Give it a word. Give it a name. I want you to document it. And here's why I want you to do that. Because in between now and November 2nd, every morning, you are going to march around the walls of Jericho. You are going to open that vision and you are going to clearly continue to say it over and over and over again.
Over and over and over again. Do you hear me? Some days you're not going to feel like it. You're going to do it anyways. Some days your thoughts aren't going to go, well, this doesn't seem true. Well, I don't really listen to facts. I will actually walk in truth. Do you hear me? Clearly define that. I'm going to be out here. I want to talk with you. I want to pray with you. I want to agree with you. And I want to dream with you. Word of Life Church, I love you.
Hey, Pray.com family, it's Julia Gentry, and I want to invite you to my annual Dare to Dream conference alongside my good friend, Sean Bowles. We want you there. Head over to my profile where you can learn more and receive 10% off any ticket price because you are a part of our Pray.com family. Come dream with us.
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