Perpetual Dawn

Over three years ago the Lord gave me this insight about the perpetual dawn I camped out in. I couldn’t write it down because I was driving, so I dictated it into the Notes app on my phone.

Saturday I found it when searching for something else. His timing is amazing…and I am now cutting the weeds away from my campsite.

This morning as I was driving right before the sun came up, I realized that the most beautiful time of sunrise is not when the sun comes up, or even when it crosses the horizon. It’s the 30 minutes before that where the sky is red, and pink, and blue, reflecting the sun when we can't see it. While we can't see the sun we see the effect of the sun on the clouds and on the early morning sky.

I pondered dreams, dreams that come to pass. When they're fully there it's like when the sun is up, it's bright and everything can be seen clearly. Good visibility. Right before the dream comes to pass, the possible effects of the dream are seen.

Sometimes I think we mistake the beauty and serenity of the almost dream for the dream itself. I think it's possible to get perpetually stuck in the dawn of a dream, and never press forward to see it actually happen. The dawn is the excitement at the thought of the dream: the planning, the anticipation, the wondering what it's going to be like. But if we never press beyond that, we never actually get the full picture of what God intends to do with what He's placed inside us.

The enemy gets us focused on that dawn. “Look, isn't this beautiful, look at all the colors, look at all the possibilities, see how things are changing and how beautiful they are?” It’s like the good that is the enemy of the best. We can get so busy and excited about the possibility of a dream that we never actually take steps to see it happen!

I look at that in my own life: the excitement about speaking and writing, preparing the one sheet and seeing how good it looks, writing my blog, writing my books, all the things that are part of the dream.

But if I never try to get actual speaking engagements or never finish another book, I will never realize the dream.

And that's where the true excitement is: living the dream. Perpetual dawn is a dream killer.

So what's in the way? Is it that maybe the dream is too good to be true? Is it that maybe I will fail? Is it that I'm not going to be good enough, or I'm going to mess it up somehow? Or is it that I don't trust that the dream is from God? Or, even if I know it is from God, do I trust that He is big enough to bring it to pass?

Doesn’t matter.

What God showed me through the sunrise is that yes, His dreams for me will come to pass as surely as the sun changes the sky after the dawn…if I am willing.

The only thing in the way between us and realizing a God-given dream is us! We can choose to step out in faith despite all our questions and doubts, trusting that God will bless our obedience and breathe life into our dreams. Or we can remain stuck and regret what could have been.

When you believe you have a dream from God, and the passion is inside you for that dream, go for it. Don't get stuck in the perpetual dawn. Press forward into the fullness of the sunlight.

It’s never too late to get started.

“Do not remember the former things,

Or ponder the things of the past.

Listen carefully, I am about to do a new thing,

Now it will spring forth;

Will you not be aware of it?

I will even put a road in the wilderness,

Rivers in the desert.”

Isaiah 43:18-19, AMP