Dream-driven disaster

Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.

Jude 8

Our Disney-derived cultural advisors tell us to follow our dreams. Bad idea! Look at what dream-driven people do in this assessment of apostate teachers found in the book of Jude: 1) They defile the flesh. That means they are sensually motivated and become sexual sinners. 2) They reject authority. This is probably in context apostolic authority and the authority of the Word of God. They only accept their own “authority”. 3) They blaspheme what is glorious. They disregard the supernatural for the natural. Jude mentions a disregard of God’s angelic messengers, but ultimately this is a disdain for the glory of God. Yeah… dream following is dangerously destructive.

Is it wrong then to have a dream? Does this warning mean that I dare not have a vision for my future and goals that I desire to achieve? No… that is not what is going on here. As long as my hopes and desires for the future are Word-derived and Holy Spirit led, I can trust in a “dream”, a God-given vision of what can be. It is good to dream God’s dream. The danger comes in making my dreams and not God’s dreams my controlling vision. I cannot hope in myself. I cannot hope in human visions. I must hope in God.

And so, Lord, I look to You to bring me every day, from Your Word, hope for each day and a vision for tomorrow. I will trust in You. I turn from fleshly dreams that do not uphold resurrection but end in defilement and death. I turn from autonomous dreams that lead to disorder, chaos, and human disappointment. I turn from purely naturalistic dreams that short-circuit the vision of Your glory and cloud the future in Your judgment. I turn to You, Jesus, to the gospel of God, to the Word of God, and to the Spirit of God to set my hopes and dreams.

Amen