Five Things You’ll Learn:
- The Power of Dreaming Afresh in God’s Reset: Discover how God calls His people to revive their dreams with a fresh perspective during a divine reset, as inspired by Habakkuk 2, where standing in faith leads to running with God’s vision.
- God’s Dream is You: Understand that God’s ultimate dream is to co-labor with His people, as seen in His choice of David and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, empowering you to carry His anointing and purpose.
- Overcoming Past Failures: Learn how to let go of disappointments, mistakes, and unfulfilled dreams, as exemplified by Samuel’s journey, and embrace God’s fresh oil to move forward with renewed hope.
- The Role of Fresh Oil in Fulfillment: Explore the significance of God’s fresh oil, as described in Psalm 92:10, which strengthens and empowers believers to flourish in His house of fulfillment, bringing dreams to fruition.
- Living in a Holy Renaissance: Gain insight into the current season of divine reset, likened to the historical Renaissance, where God is calling His Church to dream boldly, speak prophetically, and bring forth His kingdom purposes.
The Vision of Habakkuk: Standing and Running
Habakkuk chapter 2.
I’m going to read this first from the King James Version, verses 1 through 3:
“I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the Lord answered me, and said, ‘Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.’”
Now I’ll read this from The Voice translation:
“I will take my place at the watchtower. I will stand at my post and watch. I will watch and see what He says to me. I need to think about how I should respond to Him when He gets back to me with His answer. Write down this vision. Write it clearly on tablets so that anyone who reads it may run. For the vision points ahead to a time I have appointed. It testifies regarding the end and it will not lie. Even if there is a delay, wait for it, for it is coming.”
Captured in this prophetic portion of Scripture is a picture of this dichotomy: standing strong and waiting. And yet, when His rhema word comes in—His spoken word with fresh vision—there is a release to run.
We run when we hear the vision of the Lord. Why? Because when He speaks, He sets us in motion. You could say we are lit up at the word of the Lord. We are lit up when vision comes—and so we run.
One of my favorite quotes is: “A vision is a piece of a dream within us that has simply been set on fire.”
God’s Dream: Co-Laboring with His People
For the past couple of months, I have been compelled to do a deep dive, reading quite meticulously through the history of God working with His people and how He has moved them forward. Specifically, I’ve been reading through the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles. And what is clear to me is that God had a dream.
In 1 Kings chapter 8, there is an account of the words of King Solomon as he is retelling a significant moment when the rhema word of the Lord had come to his father David. And he said:
“The Lord, the God of Israel, who spoke to my father David, saying, ‘Since the day I brought My people out of Egypt, I have chosen no city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house that My name might be there.’ But He said, ‘I chose David.’”
Pastor Bill Johnson’s commentary on this is profound. He said, “God didn’t dream of a city. He didn’t dream of a house. He dreamed of David.”
And the dream of a house for God was in the heart of that man.
God’s dream was to co-labor with His man David. God’s dream was to co-labor with His people, the children of Israel—to be their God and to establish His goodness through His kingdom in the earth. God’s dream was David.
And God’s dream is you and me.
Within the heart of you and I is a dream. It is an installation of God’s desires coming to pass and being actualized. And this follows the pattern we know of how God does things: when God gives, He gives incarnated.
Jesus’ Dream: Bringing Many Sons to Glory
We can see this through the ministry of Jesus. When Jesus ascended up on high, it says He gave gifts to humanity—and those gifts were of Himself. It says that He gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.
You see, Jesus had a dream.
And Jesus’ dream was when He went to the cross. The Word says that when He died and rose again, He brought many sons to glory.
When you and I became born again, we weren’t meant to just dress up like Him, put on His robe, and walk around asking, “What would Jesus do?” No, He is now in us. He is Christ in us, the hope of glory. He is the resident within. We are now the anointed ones bearing His anointing.
When He gave the Holy Spirit, He gave Him to come and indwell us—for His Holy Spirit power to come through us. Why? Because we are His dream.
A Divine Reset: The Holy Renaissance
And the significance this holds for you and me is connected to the time we are in: living in God’s holy time. It has been prophesied as this divine reset—this thing being called His holy renaissance.
If we look closely, we will see that this reset time is actually making a requirement of you and me as His bride.
You see, the Renaissance in history would have never been called the Renaissance period had it not been for what came forth from the people living at that time. So much came forth, as we know—artistic expression, science, intellectual advances—from those who dared to dream. The time demanded the title it was given by sheer force of what was produced by the people living in it.
The profuseness of the vision and the dreams that had been dreamed—finally materializing, finally clicking into place, finding their necessary pieces, morphing into just the right shape—set an entire era ablaze with dream fulfillment.
One man, Leonardo da Vinci, often considered the quintessential Renaissance man, was an inventor, a scientist, a musician, a painter, even an architect. During that time, da Vinci’s dreaming produced flying machines, submarines, and other devices far ahead of his time.
A man named Galileo perfected his vision for the telescope and dreamed up the formulation of the laws of motion.
Christopher Columbus began his daring voyages—dreams he had carried—to sail across the Atlantic and establish a westward passage to Asia. This dramatically altered Europe’s perception of the world.
My point with all this: these men had carried these abilities and dreams all along. Their individual foundations had been laid within them.
But their dream foundations were contested. Many don’t know they were belittled. Some made grave mistakes. Each one, at some point, was told to leave their professions—even to get out of the cities they lived in.
Then came their appointed time. And the spirit of that age allowed their dreams and visions to flourish. It was fueled by dreams and visions—visions da Vinci recorded through both daydreams and night dreams.
To me, all of this sounds like the words of Habakkuk 2. I’ll read just two verses from The Passion Translation:
“Though the vision still awaits an appointed time, it speaks of the end and it will not prove false. When the appointed time comes, it will happen with breathless haste. Although it may seem slow, just be patient and wait, for it will surely come right on time.”
Dream Afresh
I hear the Spirit of God saying:
“Dreamers, come on. Come on, dreamers, and dream afresh in the reset that we are in.”
I believe He’s saying “dream afresh.” And I want to highlight the word fresh, not new. There’s nothing wrong with new, and I believe the new is true in this reset. But new often refers to something that hasn’t existed before—something completely off the page.
Though that can be true, when it comes to the dreams and visions within us—God’s people—I actually believe many of these dreams have resided in us for some time.
Fresh is not just speaking to the dreams. It speaks to the state of the dreamer—and thus, the dreams begin to speak afresh. They speak again, even though they still possess their original qualities.
God is calling to us this morning and saying, “Dream it afresh.”
In other words, yes—it might not look like what you originally perceived it to be. It may play out differently than how you originally thought. Maybe, like with Saul, your dream took a left turn. It went off the tracks. Maybe for a while your dream or vision has seemed lost. Maybe you gave it your best, but it didn’t go as planned.
The job didn’t come through.
The business didn’t succeed.
The relationship didn’t make it.
And it wasn’t fair.
Or maybe, like all of us, you made some grave mistakes.
But your destiny is not in what you lost.
Today, God is saying,
“Come on. Get up. I am dusting you off and I am calling you to dream afresh again.”
Samuel’s Story: Letting Go and Moving Forward
The Lord has to minister this to all of us throughout life.
He had to minister it to His prophet Samuel, because Samuel had a dream. He received a word from God—a national word—and he went and poured anointing oil over a young man named Saul. Saul and Samuel worked together as prophet and king. Samuel trained Saul, counseled him, and they established Israel’s first government in history.
But the Word tells us Saul departed from the Lord. He turned on his training and cut off Samuel’s counsel. And Samuel deeply mourned the failure of that dream.
I dare say Samuel may have seen it as his own failure of leadership. No doubt it stirred up residual grief—maybe even pain from another failed dream: his two sons, who should’ve been his protégés, did not follow in his footsteps. In fact, Scripture says they lived in great wickedness in the sight of God.
So in 1 Samuel 16:1, the Lord came to Samuel in the middle of his grief and said:
“How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”
God had to come to Samuel—just like He’s doing with many of us—and say:
“The dream went sideways, but you’ve got a problem: you’re getting sick on the inside over it. I’ve walked you into an appointed time. You’re in a reset. And if you don’t let go of the mourning—of that version of the dream that failed—you’re about to make your time sick with what you’re sick with on the inside. You’ve got to let this go.”
You have to let the things that went sideways go.
Because here’s the thing: He always planned for His mercies and His graces to meet you all along the way.
His plan wasn’t wrapped up in the details of what didn’t go right. No—the point is that the dream and the vision coming to pass brings about a piece of His redemption.
His mercies and graces are infused in your dream and your vision.
So He calls to us: “Dream afresh.”
Fresh Oil in God’s House of Fulfillment
I sense the Spirit of God speaking this to us in this reset time, calling you and me to dream afresh—to rise up from the version that didn’t turn out right, and to hear the Word of the Lord say:
“Son, daughter—fill your horn with fresh oil and be on your way. For I am sending you.”
The word fresh is defined as being free from impurities or pollution—like fresh air.
Today, God is saying to His Church—His Ekklesia:
“Breathe deep. You’re in fresh air.
Dream deep. You’re in fresh air.”
We are in our own time of renaissance and reset.
Because in a reset, you have to have hope to dream afresh.
God is saying: “Dream afresh to bring forth the reset.”
Some things in your life were founded even years ago—maybe decades ago. But instead of producing the dream immediately, it’s been years of contending over that foundation. Everything’s been thrown at you to get you to vacate it.
A House of Fulfillment
As I was praying into this word, I heard the Spirit of God say:
“My house is a house of fulfillment.”
Not just the fulfillment of His promises and prophetic words—but the fulfillment of the dreams of His people.
His house is where His written word and spoken word work in perfect harmony.
And when they do, there is a pouring out of fresh oil that keeps the dreamers dreaming afresh.
In Psalm 92:10, the psalmist writes:
“But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.
Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing,
to show that the Lord is upright: He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”
Let me read part of that from The Passion Translation:
“But You, O Lord, are exalted forever in the highest place of endless glory.
While Your opponents, the workers of wickedness, will all perish—forever separated from You.
Your anointing has made me strong and mighty.
You’ve empowered my life for triumph by pouring fresh oil over me.”
Today, there is fresh oil in God’s house of fulfillment.
The Spirit of God is saying:
“I have fresh oil for My dreamers.
Fresh oil for My sons and daughters of glory to dream afresh.”
In the resetting, there is always a fresh dreaming.
And now we must dream the dream again—from a hope-filled heart and with a lifted step. Why?
Because it is time for the profuse bringing forth.
Restoration and Renewal
God is saying:
“I have been restoring you. Yes, your soul is being restored and refreshed and reinvigorated. You are being renewed. I am refreshing you through My fresh oil to bring forth the dream, but this time with a fresh perspective.”
And in this time, it will come forth from a people with mature hearts and yielded lives—who will say:
“God, this time—have Your way with the dreams in me.”
Though many of us know what it’s like to have the vision and the dream tarry—we know what it’s like for the contending to be great. Maybe some of you would say:
“Yes, I’ve walked through my own valleys that felt like the shadow of death.”
But I believe today, we will declare:
“I will fear no evil,
For You are with me.
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with fresh oil.
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord—the house of fulfillment—forever.”
Speaking the Dream into Being
And as you and I know—because we’ve been well taught—nothing happens in the kingdom of God until something is said.
Our full potential is only found when we carry what God gave us to carry. And He said:
“My burden is light.”
You and I know that within the inheritance we’ve received as sons and daughters of glory—we’ve already inherited tomorrow. The Word says He has given us the things that are to come.
[We’re] to call into being the things which do not exist.
So I say all of this to say:
Dreaming afresh in this reset time comes by yielding to His command—and doing it His way.
It comes by taking hold, by faith, that this is how we dream afresh in the reset.
Proclamation and Prayer: Healing the Dreamers
Father, I thank You this morning for healing the hearts of the dreamers.
We receive, right now through Your fresh oil, the removal of every last vestige of disappointment—every sense of failure.
We let go of every trace of condemnation from the grave mistakes and wrong decisions.
Father, we throw our hands in the air today in response to Your provision of mercy and grace.
We receive Your fresh oil
to dream Your dreams afresh in this season.
So, Father, I thank You for fresh dreams as You refresh the dreamers.
I release new beginnings in those dreams in this new season.
I thank You, Father, that all the places of disappointment and mourning You have healed in us—you’ve already lined up a new day for the dream.
Lord, we thank You for giving us the capacity to dream afresh, and to dream with You.
We receive from You an impartation of Your heart—
in light of the vastness of Your goodness, God.
Lord, we thank You for giving us stability, and yet, the ability to move forward.
We thank You for this time to run.
Father, today we declare that we look forward to something greater and more fulfilling than we ever imagined before—
because greater are You who is within us than anything in the world, “Amen.”