Follow your Dreams

Follow Your Dreams

In his book, Bo Sanchez said that each of us should follow, and strive to achieve our God given dreams. How do we know that our dreams came from God? Aside from the obvious that everything comes from God, the “God Dreams” has something to do with your purpose. You have your own dreams precisely because you are specially designed to achieve it in accordance to your purpose and God’s plans. 

I’m not talking about dreams that limit itself to material things, like cars, house, diamonds, jewelries. No. While they are nice and important to have, they are only genie dreams; not “God Dreams.” Bo also called these type of dreams, “Soul Dreams”. Soul dreams are intimately connected to your deepest values. Soul dreams bring you closer to God. Your soul dreams must make you truly and deeply happy. Not just a fleeting and momentary happiness like watching Tv and opera shows. But profound, like achieving your destiny. Lastly, soul dreams must be directly connected to your CORE gift. You like expressing yourself through your core gift, you do it everyday because you’re good at it, and it makes you happy. More often than not, you can reach your soul dreams using your core gift because its fun for you.
Bo Sanchez also said you can reach your soul dreams by following the Three Steps: SEE, SOW and SURRENDER. Here is a brief introduction and I will expound on them in Part 2.
SEE.That is looking forward for a tomorrow full of hope, where you achieve the dream. But it is also good to look at the past to guide us in the pursuit of our dreams. Remember that soul dreams are closely connected to our core gifts and our purpose. Look at your past and see the activities, skills, talents that you love doing. You have a God-given ability to do certain things better, faster, and easier than your peers. Listen to your Passion, Listen to your core gifts and you will see a clearer picture of your soul dream.
SOW. This literary means to plant seeds. Our dreams will die if we don’t do anything, and act on it. This is the laborious part. Anybody whoever achieved anything significant, all of them ACTED, they worked harder than anybody else, and they made their dreams into reality.
SURRENDER. We may dream, We may work as hard as we possibly can, but still there is no forthcoming reward. Well, when we humans have done everything in our power to achieve a certain outcome and nothing happens it is because we are not omnipotent. We are not all powerful. We can affect and control some things but there are a lot more things that we have no control over. For example, you went out and it is very hot, you wanted to put a dimmer on the sun, but it is impossible. It is difficult but we must not worry about things that we have no control like the weather, the sun, time, and focus on the things that we can do something about. The guy who went out in the middle of noon, could not shut of the sun but he could bring a hat or an umbrella. WE must do only what is humanly possible to reach our dreams and surrender all else to GOD.

Part II
There are three parts to achieving our God Given Dreams: SEE, SOW, SURRENDER.
I
SEE

Seeing is more than just wishful thinking about your dreams. Seeing is reaching your hands to the universe and believing in your dreams, like touching a yet invisible force but somehow knowing that it is there. Knowing that it is reachable, knowing that it is destined to be yours. The soul dream is born out of your passion.
Passion has been defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as : 1) an ardent affection. Ex. I have never felt such passion for any woman as I have felt for my wife; 2) a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some, activity, object or chess. Ex. I have a strong passion for God, family and music.
We usually feel passionate about objects or material things because it is corporeal, tangible and can be perceived by our five senses. We say I love that cellphone, or that shoes or that car or that girl is sexy, or her long hair. Girls on the other hand like, bags, shoes, jewelries, diamonds, guys with big arms, six packs or perfect pan-de-sal abs.
Whereas, our Soul dreams are almost always invisible. Visible only through our imagination. Bo Sanchez said that it is not enough to just see your dream but you must feel it in the deepest core of your heart. You must clearly see your dreams. It must be in 3D like virtual reality mode, with high technicolor, in the highest pixel rate available, with matching high surround sound 7.1 sound systems. The higher the quality of the image of your dreams is directly proportional to the amount of your passion. The more clearly your’ vision of your dreams, the easier it is to reach.

When you think about your dreams you also feel it in your entire body. The hairs in your head or your split ends sometimes stands up. The hairs on your skin feels like a volt of electricity passes through them. Your entire skin feels cold or sweaty. Your armpits feel sweaty (hehehe). Your ears sometimes move and you don’t even know it. Your eyes feel a little watery without explanation. Your lungs feel a little out of breath. And your physical heart beats a little faster and skips a beat. And you sometimes you feel your chest with your hand.
As to your emotional heart you might touch your chest as if in prayer. This I do, when I pray in the middle of the day to have a quiet peace and be alone with God in prayer. I also do this physically when passion sometimes overwhelms me. I’m passionate about a lot of things specially about God, family, music, and friends.
I guess to achieve our dreams faster: We should applies Bo’s teaching on SEE, SOW, SURRENDER, consistently. We should do this in our lives every day. We should let our Passion for Christian life be reflected in our own lives every day. We should set our passion to the highest level
When your passion is at its highest level/settings its only a matter of time before your dreams come true. When you think about your soul dream there is tingling sensation, from the topmost fibers in your hair to tip most point in your toes. This is a true dream.

You have to have belief and passion about your dream. When you think about your dream, you can almost feel that its right there in front of you. And it is there for the taking. Those who dream with passion often spells the difference in achieving that dream. Passion is the fire that ignites a person to start working towards the dream.

II
SOW

SOW. In farming, sowing is literally planting seeds. A farmer has to wait weeks or months before it will grow and to mature, then harvest time. I think we must understand the journey into achieving our dreams in the same light as the farmer is eager to harvest his crops, so too must you be eager to fight and reach for your dreams. It takes patience and determination, but more importantly is takes hope and anticipation that the crops will mature and he will have a bountiful harvest. He does not know it, but in his heart the farmer believes and is hopeful for a bountiful harvest. The farmer has faith. Faith in God, faith in his skill, and faith in his crops.
So, must we have faith in the pursuit of our soul dreams. We must have faith and believe that even now, God is raining his blessings down on you so that you can achieve your dreams. Blessing may come in the form of opportunities, chances, people, situations, circumstances and events. But blessings are always pouring down from heaven to us. So be open to God’s blessings. There is no problem in the supply of blessings. It is infinite, it is overflowing, it is abundant, it is unlimited.
Just as the farmer plants his seeds. We must also start planting seeds now towards our dreams. You don’t have to make an intricate fool proof plan. Because no plan is infallible. Plans are always subject to mistakes and error because we are human. So just start acting now, do anything, something towards your dreams. You make a mistake, just brush it off, learn from it and do something. Probably do something different or in a different manner. Just get of your feet and start sprinting. Og Mandino in his beautiful style and prose said:

Never has there been a map, however carefully executed to detail and scale, which
carried its owner over even one inch of ground. Never has there been a parchment of
law, however fair, which prevented one crime. Never has there been a scroll, even
such as the one I hold, which earned so much as a penny or produced a single word
of acclamation. Action, alone, is the tinder which ignites the map, the parchment, this
scroll, my dreams, my plans, my goals, into a living force. Action is the food and
drink which will nourish my success.
I will act now.
Just move towards your dreams. ACT NOW. Don’t wait for the perfect moment, it will never come because the only moment you have is NOW. There is no tomorrow unless you act NOW.
Like the farmer’s seeds it will eventually grow. Your dreams will eventually grow, just keep planting and keep acting. Once it grows the farmers job is to protect the plant and protect it from parasites and other pests. So, we must also protect our dreams from fear, uncertainty, depression, unfaithfulness, and discouragement. Stay away from negative people. They will say that your dreams are impossible. It’s too big. They won’t help you achieve your dreams. They won’t help you at all.
Instead stay with like-minded people. People who are also fighting to achieve their dreams. People who are also on the journey to achieve their dreams. Seek mentors. People who have gone before you. Learn from them. Learn from their mistakes. Ask them to guide you if you stumble, or facing any difficulty. Attend any seminars that may help you in the pursuit of your dreams. They will not only give you additional knowledge but they will also help you grow as a person. Do it now. ACT NOW.

III
SURRENDER

After we have done everything in our power to reach our dreams, only one thing is left; WE MUST SURRENDER all our dreams to GOD.  We must leave it to him if he will GRANT, DENY, REVISE, IMPOSE HIS OWN PLAN, in our lives.  WE must pray “ Lord, let your will, not my own be done.” 
We can only do what is humanly possible and only do the things which are within our power to do. We have no dominion, or authority to influence, change, affect or impact the cosmos, the sea, other beings or other people. These things are beyond our powers. But there is somebody who can control these things. There is somebody who can calm the storm, who can hold the stars, who can do impossible things beyond our wildest imaginations. This somebody is GOD. The old adage is correct: “Just do your best and God will do the rest.” SURRENDER your dreams to God, do what you can; and everything else is within God’s dominion. SURRENDER.

Upon writing this Article, the Lord once again showed his own power. I wanted to go to Cebu and leave tonight via a ferry or any other means just to get to Cebu tonight. This is my plan without regard to whatever it is that God planned for me. Another mistake cocked up by my finite limited human mind. God had a different plan. Because right now Typhoon Urduja, which is a very slow-moving typhoon, with movement at 7/kph I cannot possibly ride any ferry, boat or any legal means of transportation to go to Cebu. All transportation is cancelled. Any means of transport from Leyte to Cebu, sea bound at least is cancelled. So, I have no choice but to accept God’s plan for me with humility. I SURRENDERED.  All my plans to see my family had to be cancelled. Partly because of the storm and partly because when there is Signal No. 1 it a policy of the Coast Guard that no ships on the affected area will be allowed to set sail. I SURRENDERED to the might of the storm and the plans of GOD.
This is a beautiful prayer of Thanksgiving and Surrender by Bo Sanchez.

Lord, receive blessing, every miracle, and every healing that You want to give me today. And because of this I will become a rich blessing to others. Lord I surrender my future to You. I place my entire life into your hands. I also surrender my family and friends into your care, knowing that you love them more than I can ever love them. I pray all these with a trusting heart. IN JESUS NAME. AMEN.”
SURRENDER TO GOD. SURRENDER TO HIS PLANS BECAUSE HIS PLANS ARE BETTER. GOD’S PLANS ARE BIGGER. GOD’S PLANS ARE GREATER. GOD PLANS ARE PERFECT.