Get Back to the Gospel; Dream Some Holy Dreams
Yesterday afternoon I read some very helpful words from Jack Miller, writing to a young man who’s been thinking a lot about Satan and feeling oppressed by Satan, Part 3, The Heart of a Servant Leader, pp. 152-153:
“He [Satan] has certainly attacked your mind through the voices that speak to you. You have laid some bad foundations by shifting your life interests from the gospel to negative issues. You spent some lengthy time doing this. The negative chemistry has gone deep. But it appears to me that the devil has attacked you in a much more foundational way than this: somehow he has convinced you that there is little or no prospect for you to be delivered form his influence on your life and mind. He has made you think Jesus cannot really help you because your struggles, your weaknesses, your bondages are too much, too special, too unique. Well, you have listened to a lie.
“…But oh to get your heart back to the gospel! What power there is in this sweet message! Simply take John 3:16-17 and chew on these verses, say them, sing them, shout them, preach them to yourself–until your heart is filled with awareness of the marvel of the Father’s love to you.
“Then, form a mental picture of what you want to be a year from now. Dream some holy dreams. Reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to Christ. Expect Him to accomplish the dream, but dream it. Think of qualities you’d like to replace those that now trouble you. Name them to yourself, write them down, sing them, shout them. Preach more gospel to yourself. Make a fight for your life.“
To me I’m still trying to understand that last part. In my opinion that last quote has a lot of similarities with the current self help “Manifest Your Own Destiny” tactics.
Obviously I hear what this guy is saying and how it is different in that he is preaching Christ. But to mentally picture what it is you want/want to be X amount of time from now, and fully expecting it to be accomplished by a god-like energy is the exact formula preached by people like Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopara, Wayne Dyer… in programs like “The Secret” and books like “As a Man Thinketh (so shall his life become)”.
What if the mental picture you form in your head of who you want to be a year from now, is not the picture God wants for you? Would it still happen? Should it still happen? Wouldn’t it then be weird to “expect Him to accomplish that dream”?
The two sentences that sit side by side with each other “Reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to Christ” and “Expect him to accomplish the (your) dream, but dream it” seems at best unrelated and at worst at odds.
Maybe I’m not understanding the context, but I would expect to hear that quote at a Joel Osteen event. Another “God accomplishing our dreams and will” wrapped in a Gospel candy wrapper. I’m sure it’s unfair to judge anyone or any writing based on 2-3 sentences. I haven’t even read the whole thing and the first two paragraphs were awesome. But it just hit a beat with a false teaching I used to march to.
Anyone have some thoughts?
Actually, Francis, your comment expressed exactly what I was thinking! Based on the information as presented, I can’t see it any other way.
Guys, if you guys had access to the full letter/context, I think it would clear up your understandable concern. Writing to a downtrodden, beaten up Christian, in a letter that’s through and through soaked in the gospel, Jack Miller’s attempting to point a guy who has little hope for change to the reality that he can be changed through Christ. His argument isn’t, “you will become what you dream yourself to be,” (though I see how the isolated excerpt I quoted can come off that way), but, “begin to hope again, begin to dream about how Christ might work sanctifying change in your life, trust him to produce change in you, and preach more gospel to yourself.” He isn’t saying “Name & Claim” your self-centered dream for yourself, but Name and Claim and Believe and Trust that the gospel is great news and Christ can change you, he can lift you out of the pit you’re in and mature you as a disciple.
Buy the book. It’s so good.
