Dream In Soul

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap a harvest, if we faint not. Galatians 6:9

This year we have an extra day to make a leap toward our purpose. I wanted to share this message from my heart and a poem I wrote above entitled “Dreams in Due Season” to encourage you to keep going where ever you are on your journey…

So many of us start out life dreaming in wide-eyed wonder – then life happens and leaves us in a dazed slumber. We face disappointments, discouragement and detours…and we get practical.

We become sleepwalkers, settling for the ordinary because the dreams we had seem too lofty, too out of reach. My journey has been similar; throughout the years I’ve had great visions yet often get lost in loneliness and and weary when the dreams don’t always grow the way I imagined.

I want to encourage you today to arise, shine and bring those dreams back to life. Everyone was born with purpose and no one’s purpose is more important than another’s. There are dreams in your heart that were planted there for a reason to impact the world – we all miss out if you don’t water them.

It’s up to you to nurture them – give them some love and let them grow today. Don’t give up on your purpose…you’ll reap a harvest in due season if you don’t give up!

My dream is to inspire you to realize and pursue the importance of your purpose.

What’s your dream? What vision or passion have you set aside for the more practical and everyday cares of life?

I dare you to nourish the seeds of those dreams, nuture them back to health and bring them to the Light – one step guided by God is like a leap and can take you further and higher than you can go on your own.

Share your aspirations, and the dreams you want to accomplish in 2012 in the comments, I’d love to hear them!

God bless, and keep dreaming and nurturing the dreams in your heart – Dear Dreamer, the world awaits!

- Julene “Dreamfleur” Fleurmond

Editor of DreaminSoul.com

P.S. Click here to read the story behind this poem and about a dream that has recently begun to come to fruition for me…

There’s only so far our striving can take us. If we surrender our plans and paths to God He can take us on a journey beyond what we can imagine.

One step guided by God can take you farther and higher than 1000 steps in your own will- trust & obey…

- Julene

It’s a question many of us ask at one point in our lives: What is my calling? Where does God want to use me right now; in ministry, in a certain career? For me the question was most urgent after I graduated from college (which I wrote about earlier on Dream in Soul). It was the typical post graduation anxiety – “uh oh – I’ve got be an adult and face the ‘real world’? What do I do now?”

I was confused as to where God was leading me, if I should pursue studying in a certain area of ministry (in my case I felt it might be youth ministry) and I searched my heart and prayed to God to show me which direction He wanted me to go. After a campus ministry conference a few months after graduation I asked one of the leaders Pastor Sample, a youth pastor at a local church, what his advice was to someone who felt they might be called into youth ministry. His answer and how he broke it all down was a blessing to me, especially how he explained how you have to hear clearly from God where He is specifically leading you. I thought his advice was fitting for anyone who was questioning the path of their calling so I wanted to share:

Question: How Do I Know if I Am Called To A Certain Ministry?

A: Special training for ministry is great and so is Bible college or a ministry school…but the main thing is that you really hear from the LORD.

He will call you (it sounds like He is) He will give you specific instructions. Do not run out ahead of Him and do not be behind Him. Go at the pace He wants you to go.

You do not need a special degree or anything…you need a confirmed word of the LORD. He never calls the qualified, He only qualifies the called.

When the Lord calls there are usually 5 steps:

1. Calling – divinely dissatisfied with what you are doing – you know you are being called to a specific direction.

2. Training – this is usually done by man…ie..bible school, training school…

It is humbling to know that we each could be a few circumstances away from living eachother’s reality…

Above: Two girls from the village of Bahaya, one of the poorest areas that we were in, and where my mother and sister were born.

In July I journeyed to Haiti for the first time and was able to visit and meet family there, as well as do missions in various cities (Port Au Prince, Forte Liberte, Cap Haitien and some others). The trip was bittersweet with joyful moments laughing and talking with aunts, uncles and loads of cousins (many loads), but also being reminded of the shaking of the earth a few months before in the faces of those who survived, and how so many were lost on the ground we walked on…

A Home In Haiti

Visit A Home in Haiti for information on how you can help build schools and orphanages in Haiti. Currently they are doing their first construction project – “the largest home and school for severely disabled orphans with cerebral palsy, autism, and more in all of Haiti.” Watch the video below chronicling some of their recent work:

It’s hard to live in your purpose if your heart is not surrendered to the purpose-Giver…

Have you ever felt the pressure of molding your actions – yourself – to the expectations of others?

When you’re not in your purpose, you might feel that squeezing, gnawing discomfort inside. The wrangling tension in you may be a signal that you’re not doing what you are meant to.

I’ve been feeling that way lately – the effects of kneading some of my actions to please others, or acting the way I think they expect me to. I’ve reasoned to myself that helping others is the right thing to do, but at the same time am abandoning the tasks God has given me.