Wilkinson - The Dream Giver: Following Your God-Given Destiny

T HE D REAM G IVER
P UBLISHED BY M ULTNOMAH B OOKS
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 authors 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.

M ULTNOMAH and its mountain colophon are trademarks of Random House Inc.

v3.1

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.

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 worldwhether among hard-charging Manhattan urbanites or villagers in southern AfricaI have yet to find a person who didnt have a dream. They may not be able to describe it. They may have forgotten it. They may no longer believe in it.

But its 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. Youre 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 Pilgrims 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 youll face greater challenges than youve 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. Thats why so many turn back. But what many dont realizeand what I missed for yearsis 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

O RDINARY E MBRACES H IS B IG D REAM

N ot long ago and not far away, a Nobody named Ordinary lived in the Land of Familiar.