The Divine Imagination Part 8 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue

The Divine Imagination Part 8 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue

The Divine Imagination Part 8 from Pastors Lawson & Aaron Perdue. In this episode of Grace For Today, you can use very practical ways to be prospered and be blessed in this life.

The Divine Imagination Part 8 – Transcript

Welcome friends, to the broadcast, I am so glad that you have tuned in today with us. We’re gonna be talking about how you can move into your God- given dream. I believe that God has a dream for every person, and it’s a good one, and I believe that you can move into it. And I believe there’s very practical ways that are laid out in the scripture for every one of us to prosper and be blessed through the plan of God. Thanks so much, blessings.

Friends, we are so glad that you’ve joined us today. I have my son, Aaron here. We’re gonna be sharing his series on the “Divine Imagination” we’re actually concluding this series today, but we’ve been talking about the aspect of dreams, and really not from a negative aspect, but from a positive aspect, and dreaming the dreams of God. And we’re actually gonna talk about one of my favorite Old Testament Bible characters, Joseph.

Mm hmm.

And Joseph was called a dreamer, his brother said, “Behold, the dreamer comes.” Now, they weren’t speaking of that in a positive way, they were speaking in a negative way. And you know, some people will try to keep you out of the dreams that God has for you, and that’s because they’re not dreaming their own dreams.

Mm hmm.

So you gotta be paying attention. So Aaron, you can jump-

You know, a lot of people aren’t really using their imagination at all, they’re just very complacent, and very happy with just existing, with just surviving. But really to thrive, being in a place of thriving, being in a place of that abundant life, in your heart, in your soul, you’re gonna be dreaming. You’re gonna be excited about the future, you’re gonna be optimistic, you’re gonna be asking God for divine dreams, for vision, for plans, for purposes, for a good hope, a good future. And for people who just want life to be about just simply existing, it’s gonna offend them sometimes to be around people who dream, who dream big, who talk big, who think big. Who, who-

Ah.

And man, one thing that I learned from just studying the life of Joseph, he avoided the number one dream killer. I believe that the number one dream killer is offense, you know, Joseph could have gotten offended many, many times, but he didn’t. He stayed out of offense, which is really a testimony of his character. You know, he’s one of the few people in the Bible who just have an impeccable character throughout their life story.

[Lawson] Yeah.

Like Joseph is one, Daniel is one, but man, he had impeccable character. But I think the greatest thing about his character was that he didn’t get offended, he had many opportunities to be offended from the moment God gave him these divine dreams. So, let’s read about his dreams.

Well, we’re right here in Genesis 37, and Joseph was a young man, and it says in verse 2, that he was 17 years old, feeding the flock with his brothers. “And he was with the sons of Bilhah, the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.” Now, “Israel or Jacob loved Joseph more than all of his children because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of many colors. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all of his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him. And Joseph dreamed a dream, He told it to his brothers, and they hated him more. And he said, ‘Here, I pray you the dream which I’ve dreamed, for we were binding sheaves in the field, and my sheaf stood upright, and your sheaves stood roundabout and bowed down to my sheaf.’ And his brother said, ‘Shall you indeed reign over us or shall you indeed to have dominion over us?’ And they hated him, yet the more for history.” Some people will hate you for your dreams, I’ve had this happen. “He dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brothers and said, ‘Behold, I’ve dreamed another dream, and behold the son and moon and the eleven stars bowed down to me.’ And he told it to his father and his brothers, and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, ‘What is this dream that you dream, shall I and your mother and your brothers come and bow down ourselves to the earth and you?’ And his brothers envied him, but his father observed the saying.” His father knew there was something special about Joseph.

I think one thing, kind of neat about Joseph’s story, and now it starts out, the story starts off when he’s just 17, and he brings his father a bad report about his brothers, you know, he kind of snitched on them. You know, there’s a saying that “snitches get stitches”, and that’s biblical, that’s what kind of what happens to Joseph. He gets in trouble because he was probably tattle-tale-ing, but one thing I think that helped Joseph be a dreamer was that he knew that his father loved him. He knew that he had favor in the eyes of his father, and you know, we’ve been kind of just sharing on the importance of understanding how much God loves you, that He created you with the purpose, that He thinks good thoughts towards you. And really, when you know that you have favor with God, that’s gonna help you dream, that’s gonna help you just think positively about the future, just tap into that divine imagination. If you deny that there’s a creator, if you deny that there’s purpose to your life, if you thank God screwed up when he made you, you’re not gonna really tap into that divine imagination. That divine imagination, that ability to dream the dreams of God, it starts with relationship.

Having an understanding that your father loves you. You know, Warren Buffett is one of the best, greatest investors of history. And Warren Buffett said two things really helped him in the investment world. Number one, knowing that his father loved him.

Mm.

And number two, the ability to take risks.

Mm hmm.

And I believe that, you know, when you really understand how much God loves you, it releases you to a place where you can take risks. And ultimately, I’ve taken a lot of risks in life, and God has helped me. God has blessed me, tremendously. It doesn’t mean that I’ve made every choice right, that I’ve won on every individual investment, so on, and so forth, but I’ve made a lot more right decisions that I have wrong ones. And I think the things that’s really helped me is knowing how much God loves me. I also knew how much my father loved me, my father died when I was just 17, and I never got mad at God, I never blamed God. I knew where my daddy was going, praise God. But I knew that my earthly father loved me, I know that my heavenly Father loves me, and because of that, I’m able to take risks. And I’ve been able to move into some really amazing things. I believe that God has-

I think one reason you’re able to take risks is because you’re imagining a positive outcome.

[Lawson] Right.

You know, for our church to move into this current building right now where we’re filming in, it was a bit of a risk, you know, we were comfortable where we were. We were in a smaller building, about 30,000 square feet, and we moved to this building, which is almost four times as large. You had to dream that we would grow.

It’s about four and a half times as large.

Yeah, so you had a dream a positive outcome, from moving to a different location. And sometimes when a church moves locations, some people aren’t happy with it, it might be a further drive for them. You might lose a couple people, but you have to dream, “Well, we’re gonna gain more, we’re gonna have more opportunity. We can reach more people, we’ll be able to grow more there.”

[Lawson] Right.

You had to dream and imagine a positive outcome from taking that risk.

[Lawson] Yes.

If you can’t really dream, if you can’t imagine a positive out, you know, some people can’t, they just imagine a negative outcome.

[Lawson] Right.

And they aren’t gonna take risks because just everything just doesn’t work out in their imagination.

[Lawson] Right.

So it’s gonna paralyze.

Once you get there, sometimes, I remember when we first moved in here, you know, this building actually, when we moved into 121,000 square feet, and we moved out of 27,000 square feet, and everything about it’s bigger, higher ceilings, lots of glass, the bills are much bigger. We pay about as much per month in utilities as we paid at the other building in a year. And I’m a super good manager, and it takes a lot of work to keep that done. But at the same point in time, there’s more opportunity, we’ve helped other ministries, we have a lot more staff, we’ve increased our outreach ministry, and there’s so much more that we can do here. And I actually know a pastor in another area, that he had a lot of money, we had the money really saved to pay for this building before we moved into it, most of it. And then we took a loan on the other building that we hadn’t paid off. But when we moved in, we had sold that other building, and we paid cash ultimately, by the time we moved in, we were cash. But it still takes a lot to operate.

Mm hmm.

And I haven’t stopped dreaming when we moved into here, immediately, I started saving, I started doing things, you know, looking for the next great opportunity that God will give our ministry. And that’s how you have to be. And I believe God’s gonna give us great opportunities beyond this, but right now, you know what, we’re here, we’re occupying, we’re moving into, and I’ve been to begin to dream and imagine seeing this place full. I know John Osteen, I believe Aaron, it took him 20 years to get to like, you know, a few hundred people. And now Joel Osteen has taken that church, you know, way farther than John. And when Joel first took it over, I thought, “Man, he was talking big.” He, you know, bought that big arena, you know, where he went to church. And now they fill that up and praise God, it’s just amazing what God has done. But John, it took him, you know, years to get a few hundred people. But I know people that were there in the beginning, they said John would talk about, they had a parking lot or just a field, and it was full of weeds, and they were in a feed store, and he’d say, “I want you to see this place full, and I want you to see that parking lot full of cars, where the people can’t even get in here.” And that eventually came to pass, praise God. So you’ve gotta go from where you are, you know, this is like, when you look at Joseph’s dream, it was a dream to get him from where he was, to where God was taking him. It ultimately took about 22 years for these dreams that Joseph had to ultimately come to pass. It took 13 years before he became the Prime Minister of Egypt. And then another seven years, right before the famine came, they had seven years of plenty, and then another two years before his brothers came and bowed down to him.

Mm hmm.

And so it was an amazing time. But, you know, Dr. Sumrall actually wrote a book on this, and called it “The Trajectory of Faith”.

Mm.

And you gotta keep your faith, praise God, so you can end up on target with God.

So he has this dream, and just his brothers aren’t happy about it. And they throw him in a pit, they strip him of that coat of many colors. They dip it in blood, they’re gonna tell their father that he was killed by a wild animal, and they’re planning on killing him. But fortunately, I believe it’s Ruben, that kind of stopped them from killing him, put ’em in a pit. And he was planning on actually taking him back to the father, he wanted to rescue him. But while he was away, there were these Ishmaelites, a company of Ishmaelites coming by, and the brothers decided to just sell him off as a slave, they figured, “Well, we might as well make some money off of him, we’ll never see him or hear him again. We won’t have to hear about these dreams ever again.” But God really gave him favor with Ruben, Ruben’s the one who saved his life in that instance. And he’s sold off to the Ishmaelites, and you know, Joseph could’ve let bitterness just eat away at him, just destroy that divine dream that God had given him. But we know from, you know, the end of the story, that that’s not the case, offense didn’t take root in his heart. He probably thought-

Joseph went to Egypt, he was sold to the captain of Pharaoh’s guard, to Potiphar.

Mm hmm.

He was then sold into slavery.

Into prison, yeah.

Right? And then his, you know, Potiphar’s wife lied about him, he was put into prison, kept there for several years.

[Aaron] Mm hmm.

You know, he had so much that he could be offended about, but he refused to take the bait.

Mm hmm.

And that’s one thing you don’t want to do, you do not want to take Satan’s bait and get into offense.

Mm hmm.

It will stop you from moving into the plans and purposes of God, that God has for.

And God’s blessing was on his life, even when he was, you know, a slave in Potiphar’s house, God’s favor was on him. You know, the favor of God will lead you to have favor with those around you. I think a lot of believers don’t really understand what the favor of God means, and how that affects us here on the earth. A lot of believers just kind of live in retreat, don’t really won’t go out and accomplish big things in the world. But the favor of God will give you favor with people around you, even non-believers.

[Lawson] Yes.

You know, I think about the Israelites when they were to leave Egypt, God told them to ask, you know, their owners for gold, for silver, for their jewelry, for their nice clothing, ask ’em for it. And it said that God gave them favor, and that they plundered all the Egyptians.

Yes. And we don’t wanna, you know, let the devil steal what’s ours, but you know, we need to move into what grace has in store for us, and I believe that we do that by faith. We keep believing God, Amen? And keep moving towards what God has for us. We’re gonna take a very short break, and we’re gonna continue to talk about dreaming the dreams of God, about your divine imaginations, and how you can see the things that you’ve dreamed about, the positive dreams that you’ve had from God come to pass in your life. So stay tuned, we’ll be right back. Friends, I wanna share with you about our special product that we’re offering, I’m teaching, and with my son Aaron, also with Jesse Duplantis on a couple of different things. Number one, “Insights to Faith”. Jesse Duplantis made a statement years ago in my church, he was ministering, and I just haven’t been able to let go of it. He said, “Most of the time, in the realm of faith, I made a decision and God backed it.” We’re gonna talk about that. We’re also talking about this, my son, Aaron, one of his newest series, “The Divine Imagination”, tremendous, tremendous revelation that I believe will help you move into the plans and the purposes of God. And also my series, “The Power of a Positive Imagination”, one of my most requested series. You want to get this product, if you can’t call in and get it physically, you can watch it online for free, or you can pay a small fee and download this information on our website, at charischristiancenter.com. Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us, and Aaron’s gonna continue to share. We’re talking about the life of Joseph, and how he had a divine imagination, and dreams that came from God, and how ultimately he possessed those things that God promised him.

Yeah, and I like one thing that you kind of mentioned, when Joseph first dreamed this dream at the age of 17, where his brothers, and his mother and father would bow down to him, it took 22 years before that dream came to pass. Maybe God gave you a dream years ago, maybe even decades ago, that God wants that dream to still be alive in your heart. You know, maybe things have happened in your life, but God, there’s resurrection power for your soul, for your imagination, for your heart. So I believe that God can still bring those things to pass. And, you know, God’s favor was on Joseph’s life, even though bad things that happened to him, God’s favor still protected him. The Bible says that, “With favor, God will surround you as with the shield.” We really see that in Joseph’s life, you know, he was a slave in Potiphar’s house, but God’s favor was on him, it protected him like a shield. He was actually promoted as a slave to be over all of Potiphar’s house. It said that Potiphar didn’t even care, he trusted Joseph so much that he didn’t even take anything into account, he just knew that Joseph was a trustworthy, a person of integrity, and he made Joseph the head of his entire household.

Joseph ran everything. He was in charge of it all.

Mm hmm.

And you know what? I believe that God wants to do that with His people, I believe that God wants to promote you. And I believe part of moving into divine promotions is keeping the picture of God, keeping the dream of God in front of you, and not getting negative. Well, he could have got negative, he could have got bitter. I remember one person saying, “If you wanna make it in the ministry, don’t get bitter.”

Mm hmm.

And, man, the devil will give you opportunity to get bitter, but you’ve gotta rise above that.

So while he was there in Potiphar’s house, it said that Potiphar’s wife started lusting after Joseph, and said that Joseph was a person, you know, of a good appearance, and she would try to entice him to have an affair with her, and he would always reject her. But one time she caught him when he was all alone, and said to lie with her. And he said no, and started turning away, and she grabbed his coat, yanked it off, and he took off running. There’s some sin, it’s just better to run away from, you don’t want to toy with it, you don’t want to flirt with it, you just run away. So he took off, and she lied about him, she screamed, told all the other people in the household that he had tried to force himself upon her. And man, just a terrible thing that, you know, he was accused of this crime, and he was sent to prison. And I think probably he was sent there to be executed. I don’t think that the Egyptian culture was a very forgiving culture. He was a slave, he was accused of, you know, raping a very high ranking military official’s wife. He was probably sent to die in that prison, to be executed. But God protected him even while he was in the prison.

You know, God can promote you wherever you’re at. And Joseph was in this prison, and some people think, “Well, God’s forsaken me.” But God hadn’t forsaken him. And, you know, while he was there, it says in Genesis 39:21, “The Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” And so he put Joseph in over the entire prison. “And the Lord made whatever Joseph did to prosper.” And it came to pass while Joseph was in the, you know, prison, now taking care of the prisoners in the prison. The butler and the baker of Pharaoh had a dream, there had been conspiracy in the King’s house, or in Pharaoh’s house, and they had a dream. And Joseph came in, they were looking sad, he said, “Why do you look so sad today?” Joseph was so positive that he affected everybody around him. And it was odd for somebody to be sad in Joseph’s prison, and so when he asked them, they said, “Well, we dreamed a dream.” And so the butler told Joseph his dream, Joseph interpreted it and said, “Three days you’re gonna be restored.” So the baker seeing that the butler had a positive interpretation, said, “Well, tell me the interpretation of my dream.” He said, “Three days you’re gonna be found out, they’re gonna hang you from a tree, and the birds are gonna eat your flesh.” And it happened just exactly like Joseph said. Now, Joseph told the butler, “When you are restored, do not forget me.” But the butler forgot about Joseph, but God didn’t forget him.

Mm hmm.

And two years later, Pharaoh had two dreams, and he could not interpret those dreams. And so he called for the butler, when Pharaoh was troubled, said, “There’s a Hebrew slave, a Jewish slave that’s in the prison, I remember that, I forgot about it. But he interpreted my dream and the baker’s dream, and they came to pass exactly like he said.” And so Pharaoh went and had Joseph taken out of prison, it says, “He rose and shaved himself and prepared to go into the presence of Pharaoh.” And when he did this, he was brought before Pharaoh, and he could’ve came into Pharaoh bitter and angry, he could’ve said, “Pharaoh, your prisons system is corrupt, your judicial system is corrupt. I was wrongly imprisoned.” So on and so forth, but he didn’t do that. What he said in Chapter 41, Genesis 41:16, he said, “It is not in me, but God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” In other words, he spoke, you know, grace to Pharaoh, ultimately, and you know what? If you wanna receive grace, the Bible says, “In blessing, we receive blessing.” You know, and so we wanna speak blessing, praise God, we wanna speak the answer and not be part of the problem.

And I like something, too, that kind of happens in this story, is that Pharaoh realizes that Joseph has an incredible amount of wisdom-

Right.

One thing we mentioned earlier was that with divine dreams, there needs to be divine wisdom, as well.

[Lawson] Yeah.

And Joseph, you know, he was a dreamer, but he was also incredibly wise, and Pharaoh notice that about him.

Right. Joseph said, “Hey, appoint somebody over this land to take up 20%, one fifth. It’s a really good financial plan, actually, in the good years. And then when the the famine comes, you’ll have enough.” And so, Pharaoh said, “Is there anyone like Joseph who has the spirit of God in them?” And so, you know what, a dream without a plan or a vision without a plan is going nowhere. But you’ve gotta have a plan, you’ve gotta have action. And you know what? Joseph had action that went with this dream. And I think so many people are really not disciplined enough to take action. And so I’ve taught you boys this when you were young, all of you have prospered. God’s helping all of you, but I taught number one, you need to give at least 10% of what God’s given you. Number two, you need to save or invest at least 10%. And then you need to learn how to live on 80% or less. And you can give more than 10%, you can save more than 10%. But if you’ll give the first 10%, save the next 10%. I believe that you can make it through any famine that comes your way. And then God can use that seed that you’ve accumulated, right, that investment when things go wrong, and he can bless you phenomenally.

Mm hmm.

Praise God. So I still practice this, and you know what? It works. I believe you and all your brothers practice those principles, and it’s working for all of you. And you know what? God is no respecter of persons, He’s a respecter of faith.

Mm hmm.

And ultimately, Joseph made Pharaoh the richest man on the planet. He gathered up corn, they said, “Like the sand of the sea.” It’s probably worth a nickel of bushel or something, people thought he was crazy. But boy, when the famine came, first of all, he got all their money, and not only Egypt’s, the nations that were around there, then he got all their livestock, then he bought all their property, and then he made them servants of Pharaoh. And ultimately he had them do this 20% thing. They gave Pharaoh 20%, right? Back for the use of the land, and that’s very generous, actually, even in today in farming agricultural rental agreements, it’s much more than 20% that you have to give to the landowner, so it was very generous. But ultimately, Joseph made Pharaoh the richest man on the planet because he not only had a vision, he not only had a dream, he had a plan.

And, you know, eventually Joseph’s dreams did come to pass. His brothers came, you know, during the famine to look for food. And when he revealed himself to them, they probably thought they’d be executed.

Toast!

Yeah, but, he never got bitter, you know, that’s really, I think just a tremendous thing about Joseph, he didn’t get bitter. And he actually told them, “Don’t be grieved or angry,” this is Genesis 45:5, “Don’t be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.” And he just said, “God did this so I could preserve life, so I could preserve our family. God’s hand is in this.” He turned this bad situation into something good. He didn’t say that God caused this, but he’s saying that, “God has turned this thing around to save life.”

Amen. And I believe God can turn your life around. And I believe God ultimately has a phenomenal purpose for every person on the planet.

Mm hmm.

And we get connected with that through our relationship with Jesus. And you know what, if you want to get more information, you can go to our website. We have literally hundreds of hours of teaching, this teaching will be on the website free of charge. You can get that on the website, it’s also downloadable, some of it’s downloadable, different things that you can use, and you can get it. You can partner with us, we thank God for our partners. We couldn’t do all the things that we do without the people who help us. And I believe this is good ground to sell it to, and I believe it will bring an abundant harvest. So, thanks so much, and God bless you today.

Hi, ladies, I am so excited to invite you to our “Rejoice Women’s Conference”, February 9th through the 11th. This is an event for women, 13 and up. It’s time to rejoice!

Not only are you gonna have a lot of fun and laugh a lot, you are also gonna experience the power of God when you see signs, wonders, and miracles.

[Barbara] Amen, we’re gonna have a lot of fun. We have Cathy Duplantis coming, so make plans and register, today.

[Announcer] Imagination is a very powerful force that works on the inside of everyone. The thoughts of your imagination create the framework of your life. Get the “Imagination” package, which includes “Insights into Faith” with Jesse Duplantis, “Divine “Imagination”, and “Power of a Positive Imagination” CD series. All for $49 when you call 719 418 4000. Or visit charischristiancenter.com.

[Announcer] Thanks for watching “Grace for Today”, this broadcast has been made possible by our faithful partners. If you would like to become a partner, need prayer, or have a question, please call us at 719 418 4000. Or to partner online, go to charischristiancenter.com/give. You can write us at PO Box 63733 Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80962. See you next time on “Grace for Today”.