Dreamkillers Part One

"If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? 8 And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king's forest, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?" And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests. 9 So I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates and gave them the king's letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me. 10 When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites. . . . 17 Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace." 18 I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. They replied, "Let us start rebuilding." So they began this good work. 19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. "What is this you are doing?" they asked. "Are you rebelling against the king?" 20 I answered them by saying, "The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it."

Have you ever noticed that when your heart is filled with a dream people come out of the woodwork to try and kill it?

As long as you fit in the day to day common life of passivity no one feels you are a problem. But let a passion grip your heart and all of a sudden you have mighty forces coming against you using all kinds of arguments to get you back to "normality."

That was Nehemiah's experience.

His heart was taken over by a dream from God. He loved what God loved. He was passionate about what God was passionate about. He wanted Jerusalem restored to those who were given it in the beginning. It was the place where God said He would put His Name. It was the place where every Jew was to come and worship. Nehemiah wanted to restore it.

But as soon as he began to believe it was possible he was met by giant dreamkillers seeking to turn him aside from his destiny.

Perhaps the most significant dreamkiller for him and all of us is the one that lives inside us. The one that says constantly, "you are insignificant,", "who do you think you are?" "God uses great and gifted people not people like you!" or the ever popular religious ones, "you are full of pride to think that God would use you!" and "you are in the flesh, when God wants to do something He will do it without your help!"

Our internal voice is sometimes just a repeat of what we have been told by dreamkillers throughout our lives. Sometimes it is our own self-hatred. Sometimes it is the voice of hell.

Many feel afraid to even give expression to their heart's passions for God due to theiir internal voice. Often when they do share it they are met with the same voice in the mouths of others.

But let me say that no one has ever accomplished anything for God without slaying their dreamkillers. David's primary dream killer was not Goliath, it was his own family.

1 Samuel 17:28 When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, "Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle."

What if David had taken to heart what his brother told him? What if he had accepted the words that were meant to kill his dream? Most of the Psalms would have never been written. The greatest King to have ever lived would have never arisen to the throne. And the line of Jesus would have never been established.

How powerful dreamkillers are. They want to change the course of history for the worse. They seek to tear away the destiny God seeks to build. But we have a mandate to slay them completely. And be sure we must face them. We cannot avoid it. It is one of the first steps in learning spiritual warfare.