Dream In Soul

The new year gives us a fresh stretch of sky to launch into, and a feeling of freedom from past burdens and blunders. I’ve been hearing from various mentors and pastors that 2012 holds special significance, for one that it’s a leap year and that twelve is an abundant number. I believe this is a year with even more possibility and limitless potential, and the year for you and I to shrug off fear and take a leap into our purpose and God’s dreams for us.

This is the beginning of the beginning, make the most of every new day given to you. His dreams for us are higher, fuller, more full-filling, farther-reaching and deeper-impacting than what we have planned so in 2012 let HIS Kingdom come, and His will & dreams be done on Earth, in our lives as it is in Heaven…

This is what the LORD says–your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. Isaiah 48:17

Happy New Year from Dream in Soul!
- Julene

“I have been reminded yet again that just because something is not known, celebrated, prominent, or esteemed on earth does not mean it does not have the attention of heaven.

“Never confuse prominence for significance or obedience.”

- Christine Caine in a blog post, “The Prominence Trap”

Arise & Shine

Arise…

He lives – arising in light and glory He lives.

So we throw off the shroud of darkness, despair and death left on the cross He bore.

Because He lives we do now – more alive than before.

He lives – in shining pureness and holiness He lives.

His hands, pierced, took the gain, in victory over depression,
dejection, defeat, and shame,

So we could be unfettered, free – unchained.

He lives, robed in rays of majesty – He lives.

He overcame the world with stripes and streams of crimson
Imprinting our impurities on His flesh,
He rose again for our justification, in exchange for our debts.

He lives – He has risen indeed. So we should live – declaring the resurrection;
‘He rising for us, and His power in you and me.’

On this Resurrection Day we focus our attention on His glory, His sacrifice and remember that He died for our sake and rose again to give us life. He didn’t pour out His Blood for us to live entrenched and buried in darkness of past guilt and sin, not to be condemned but to accept His gift of redemption, love and grace:

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5

He came alive after the pressing of the world and so must we. Let’s arise, come awake – and live.

Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. Isaiah 60:1

Come Awake

Above is a creative video piece called “Come Awake” that may inspire you. (Video from Igniter Media Group a faith-based company that has created dozens of other visual media projects to communicate Truth to the world. The music is “Christ is Risen” by Matt Maher.)

Check out some of the latest posts from SOAR:

How He Loves…Always

He loves me?

Sometimes experiencing what we call romance in this world leaves us wondering what love truly is. You feel that happy pounding and patter in your chest when he reveals a bouquet of roses and candy. Getting hurt though can peel away the layers of our hearts, like someone plucking the petals from a flower…

Video Pick: How He Loves Us – Kim Walker & Jesus Culture

How He Loves Us – Kim Walker / Jesus Culture

This video and song are a great declaration of God’s love for us. Featuring Kim Walker and the Jesus Culture Band, the song is from their “We Cry Out” CD/DVD, available on jesusculture.com.

“He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy…”

Word: John 5:9-17 – “No Greater Love…”

John 5:9-17

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

“Ever since God gave us the vision, He has been at work. He is getting us into the shape of the goal He has for us, and yet over and over again we try to escape from the Sculptor’s hand in an effort to batter ourselves into the shape of our own goal.” – Oswald Chambers, from “My Utmost for His Highest”

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers is an awesome devotional for anyone who wants to grow in Christ. Today’s reading is based on Isaiah 35:7 and is about the visions God gives us:

Visions Become Reality
The parched ground shall become a pool . . . — Isaiah 35:7

“We always have a vision of something before it actually becomes real to us. When we realize that the vision is real, but is not yet real in us, Satan comes to us with his temptations, and we are inclined to say that there is no point in even trying to continue. Instead of the vision becoming real to us, we have entered into a valley of humiliation.

Life is not as idle ore,
But iron dug from central gloom,
And battered by the shocks of doom
To shape and use.

God gives us a vision, and then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of that vision. It is in the valley that so many of us give up and faint…”

Click here to read today’s full devotional.

This passage really struck my heart, and it is an encouragement that God is molding and shaping us into the vision He’s given. Though our minds and hearts may be parched with wondering when and how it can happen, He is always working at us and even putting us through the furnace, making us into His image.

Check out the devotions daily from “My Utmost for His Highest”; they are really food to the soul, and get you thinking more about how to live our lives to the utmost for God’s highest praise.