Even though I am battling Parkinson's, I am making the choice to fix my gaze on Jesus. I am choosing to not live as a victim, but to live as a victor over Parkinson's and it just so happens that these songs I share each week have been helping me do that in a brand new way with a brand new perspective. Even during times when I have felt like all my dreams are not going to come to pass or when I have felt my dreams have been crushed due to the disease, I am actively choosing to live my life from my God's point of view.
This week’s song, Dream Come True, was received on January 24, 1994. As I have already alluded to and as you can probably guess, I am a dreamer. I always have been. Always will be. I've told you on several occasions about my literal dreams of being the son of Captain James T. Kirk and living aboard the starship Enterprise and I felt captured by aliens in each dream and how my dad would rescue me every night in my dreams. Looking back now it is easy to see how God was smack dab in the middle of bringing those dreams to my mind every single night for many years. Do you know why that is? I firmly believe it is because God wanted me to know that he was pursuing me to rescue me from a life of sin. And that dream came true on November 7, 1981.
When the Lord set me free and gave me a new identity, it was like I began to dream in Technicolor on an IMAX screen! I dreamed of writing music, even though I had been banned in college from pursuing a songwriting major. As I began to seek Jesus intimately…to delight myself in the Lord…He began to give me the desires of my heart, and then some!
As a boy, I dreamed of having nine children one day. But due to my past, I felt I would never be able to marry a woman, even though I dreamed of having a wife one day. Then God brought Melinda into my life and here I sit over 40 years into that dream come true marriage that produced nine children and, so far, 13 grandchildren! God has brought my dreams into reality and has actually blown my mind so many times by the way he has caused my dreams to come to pass.
Case in point: I decided to write music and record that music and put it out publicly even though I had my fair share of naysayers. My first home made recording actually sold over 60,000 copies the first year I produced it…without a record label or any endorsement deal. God simply used word of mouth and put the music into some amazing places. I'll tell you more about that when I see you in heaven and we have a bit more time!
When it came to my public ministry, my dream was that it would be realized via the local church, but God had a much bigger dream for me than I could ever have imagined. He used a letter I wrote to a popular evangelist, thanking him for using my music and telling him my story of redemption and then encouraging him to stop using my music because I didn't want to bring reproach on his ministry due to my past. Do you know what happened next? That evangelist, James Robison, read my letter on national television and suddenly my music was in demand around the world. That was just a few steps beyond my wildest dreams, to say the least!
Soon, due to that outpouring of music, I began to hear from people whose lives had been shattered; from emotionally wounded people; from those held in bondage to sin; from people whose hearts had been broken seemingly beyond repair.
Soon, I began to dream about things I had never even thought of doing or pursuing before. Like writing fantasy novels and getting them published. Like having a documentary filmed about my life and having that documentary viewed on Amazon prime numerous times and continuing to be viewed on YouTube to this day. Like writing my life story. Like ministering to the basketball coaches at the NCAA final four in the year 2005. Like ministering at the national day of prayer on two separate occasions. Like watching videos from war-torn Ukraine of worship gatherings of those in the thick of battle. Like hearing one of my songs being sung in an underground church in Istanbul. God has given me so many dreams through the years that seemed so unattainable, yet because of his might and strength, they have come to pass in spite of me!
Reality is I wouldn't be honest if I said all of my dreams have come true. I have had moments of having my dreams crushed, but even in those moments I have been given the opportunity to experience God's grace on a whole new level, and in most cases, have come to experience even more amazing dreams that I might have missed otherwise.
What does one do when their dreams are shattered? What I do, or at least purpose to do, is to turn my heart and mind towards the giver of dreams…the Lord Jesus Christ. After all, He is my ultimate dream and I will spend eternity living out the most outrageous, mind blowing dreams that I believe will be one grand adventure called heaven.
The enemy, the liar, Satan would like nothing more than to crush every dream of my life and wouldd be elated beyond belief if he could just silence me. The only problem is, Jesus has my heart and because he has my heart he has my dreams. Even at times when it feels like I one day might be imprisoned due to my story of deliverance, there is no prison that could ever keep me from dreaming. In fact, this song came when I reaffirmed to my own heart that no one can capture my heart because it belongs to Jesus. There really is no prison that could ever keep me from dreaming. That's true freedom.
No one can take away our dreams. In fact, God continues to give us more dreams the older we get. Quoting a prophecy found in Joel 2:28, the writer of the book of Acts says,
17 'AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,' God says, 'THAT I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS WILL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN WILL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN WILL HAVE DREAMS… Acts 2:17 NASB
Psalm 37:4 NASB says:
Delight yourself in the LORD;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
Dare to be a dreamer. Dare to live out your dreams. I’m gonna go and do some day dreaming after I have finished writing this post. That’s how simple a dream can be. I plan on doing a little dreaming for my grandchildren. Dreams bring me joy…and dreams draw me closer to the heart of God. I can’t think of a better reason to dream.
Dennis Jernigan
To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast version of this post and to hear the song, Dream Come True, go to http://podcast.dennisjernigan.com/e/dream-come-true/
Photo courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2024/02/20/06/47/serenity-8584756_1280.jpg