THE DREAM GIVER PUBLISHED BY MULTNOMAH BOOKS 12265 Oracle Boulevard, Suite 200 Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921 All Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version © 1984 by Thomas Nelson Inc. The Dream Giver parable is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. eISBN: 978-0-307-56431-3 Copyright © 2003 by Ovation Foundation Inc. Interior images by Steve Gardner, His Image PixelWorks. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Published by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York. MULTNOMAH and its mountain colophon are trademarks of Random House Inc. v3.1 Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Preface P I ART T P D G HE ARABLE OF THE REAM IVER CHAPTER ONE Ordinary Embraces His Big Dream CHAPTER TWO Ordinary Leaves His Comfort Zone CHAPTER THREE Ordinary Meets Bullies in the BorderLand CHAPTER FOUR Ordinary Enters the WasteLand CHAPTER FIVE Ordinary Finds Sanctuary CHAPTER SIX Ordinary Reaches the Valley of Giants CHAPTER SEVEN Ordinary Thrives in the Land of Promise P II ART T J Y B D HE OURNEY TO OUR IG REAM INTRODUCTION Meet Your Dream Coach CHAPTER EIGHT You Were Born for This How to identify and embrace your own Big Dream CHAPTER NINE Living Past the Edge What you need to know to break through your Comfort Zone CHAPTER TEN Unexpected Opposition How to talk to and benefit from your Border Bullies CHAPTER ELEVEN Diamonds in the Desert Why the WasteLand is anything but a Waste CHAPTER TWELVE A Surprising Invitation How the oasis of Sanctuary transforms you and your Dream CHAPTER THIRTEEN The Heart of a Warrior What it takes to defeat the Giants in your path CHAPTER FOURTEEN Living Out Your Big Dream Why the Land of Promise is only the beginning A Closing Invitation Notes This book is for anyone who has ever hoped or believed they could achieve something remarkable with their lives. David and Heather Kopp have been a vital part of creating this book. Their commitment, skill, and encouragement have been a deep inspiration. Thank you, my good friends, for being Champions to this Dreamer. Most of all, I wish to acknowledge the Dream Giver Himself. For without Him, none of us would have a compelling Dream to trade our lives for. P REFACE D o you believe every person on earth was born with a dream for his or her life? No matter where I travel in the world—whether among hard-charging Manhattan urbanites or villagers in southern Africa—I have yet to find a person who didn’t have a dream. They may not be able to describe it. They may have forgotten it. They may no longer believe in it. But it’s there. I call this universal and powerful longing a Big Dream. Like the genetic code that describes your unique passions and abilities, your Big Dream has been woven into your being from birth. You’re the only person with a Dream quite like yours. And you have it for a reason: to draw you toward the kind of life you were born to love! Welcome to my new book, The Dream Giver, a practical and innovative guide to achieving your Big Dream. The Dream Giver is made up of two parts. Part 1 is “The Parable of the Dream Giver.” This is the story of Ordinary, a Nobody who leaves the Land of Familiar to pursue his Big Dream. The parable follows Ordinary on the journey to his Dream. This story will introduce you to the big ideas I want to talk about in the next section. Part 2 is called “The Journey to Your Big Dream.” I will serve as your Dream Coach in these pages, helping you to problem-solve and to reach for important personal breakthroughs. This section is designed to inspire you along the journey toward your Dream. For even more help, I invite you to visit www.TheDreamGiver.com, where you will find creative, interactive solutions for people pursuing their Dream. In choosing a parable to teach about Dreams, I seek to follow in a long and honored tradition of conveying important life principles through a simple story. C. S. Lewis and The Chronicles of Narnia, for example. Or John Bunyan and Pilgrim’s Progress. And who can forget the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son? For communicating truth to people of all times and cultures, the parable just may be the most powerful teaching tool available. If you read The Prayer of Jabez, you met a little-known Old Testament man who refused to settle for less. He desperately wanted to break out of the confining circumstances and expectations he had been born into. So he cried out to God for blessing, for larger borders, and for the power and protection to go with them. And God said yes. If you pray like that, your life will change. God will expand your borders. He will move your life in a direction where you can thrive, but also where you’ll face greater challenges than you’ve ever faced before. In this book, I call this direction His Dream for you. Every Dreamer soon learns that the road to the future you really want is clogged with Dream-threatening obstacles. That’s why so many turn back. But what many don’t realize—and what I missed for years—is that each obstacle is also an important opportunity. The obstacles come in a predictable sequence, and each for a very promising reason. The better you understand the journey to your Dream and what God is doing in your life, the less likely you are to abandon your Dream. So let me ask: Did you have a dream as a child that you lost along the way? Do you have a dream right now that seems impossible to pursue? Do you feel like God forgot to even give you a Big Dream? Or are you pursuing your dream, but experiencing setback after setback? If your answer to any of these questions is yes, then this book is for you! Please join me for the journey of your life. May your heart sing as you embrace what you were created to be and do. Warmly, Bruce Wilkinson Johannesburg, South Africa