Proverbs 13:12 NLT - Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.

Genesis 37:18-20 NLT - 18 When Joseph's brothers saw him coming, they recognized him in the distance. As he approached, they made plans to kill him. 19 "Here comes the dreamer!" they said. 20 "Come on, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. We can tell our father, 'A wild animal has eaten him.' Then we'll see what becomes of his dreams!"

There were three phases for Joseph:

1. CONCEIVING a dream

a. Receive the dream.

• Peace positions us.
  • Natural sleep is where natural dreams happen.
  • Spiritual rest is where spiritual dreams come.
• Prayer positions us.
• Fasting positions us.
• God's Word positions us.
• Conversation positions us.

b. Pray over the dream.

• Prayer filters the dream. If it advances God's kingdom, has eternal impact, and involves helping people, there's a good chance it's a God dream.
• Prayer acknowledges to God that you have received the dream and need Him to cause it to come to pass.
• Prayer is the womb of the dream. It will keep it alive until it comes to pass.

c. Believe the dream.

• A dream will pull you through despair and defeat.
• Believe that God will cause it to come to pass.
• Resist the gravity of doubt. Doubt doesn't want to believe it will come to pass.

2. BIRTHING a dream

a. There came a time when Joseph gave birth to the dream. It happened in a moment, the opportunity to stand before Pharaoh and birth the dream.

b. Speak it.

The dream becomes real when it is spoken to another. What you say has a way of coming to pass. What you write has a way of coming to pass.

c. Plan it.

• Stephen Covey's second habit of highly effective people is to begin with the end in mind.
• Building your dream is going to require wisdom.
• Building your dream is going to require a schematic.

3. LIVING a dream

a. Build it.

• Action is the only true proof of belief.
• What you say you believe may or may not be true; what you do is really the only indicator of your belief.
• Don't build the dream-build the team!

b. Steward it.

• When God entrusts you with a dream, it's a tree that should produce fruit in every season. If you steward the tree, it will continually produce fruit.

Do you have a God dream?

• Are you praying over it?
• Are you believing it?
• Are you speaking it?