If you and I desire to become more than conquerors, we need to partner with God in order to dream his dream for us, envision a new future with God based on his promise and transform us into our God-given identity.

The cards that we’ve been dealt in life, set us on a trajectory for victory and impact, if we dream with God. The fact of the matter is that the difficult cards often prepare us for an impactful imprint on this world.

We have all been given different cards in life. We enjoy what we call the “good” cards because they produce good emotions in us: joy, encouragement, satisfaction, sense of worth, validation, accomplishment. But we shy away from the so-called “bad” cards because they often are tied to pain, emotional hurt, disappointment, and disillusionment. But while the good cards cause emotional high, the bad ones cause personal growth, if we allow the trials in our lives to finish their work.

Read Joshua 1:2-5

After miraculously being liberated from 400 years in Egypt, the Israelites spent 40 years in the desert. We all have our Desert boot camps. For 40 years, these people circled around barren in disappointing deserts with not much hope on the horizon. Some were in this desperate situation of their own making, being disobedient to the call of God to follow his direction in possessing the milk and honey land he promised them to have after delivering them from Egyptian slavery.

Conquerors bring God’s territories from heaven to earth, but God will not force us into territories that we would not dream with him.

Maybe those who disobeyed God thought they are making a choice for themselves alone. Often, we think we live a lonely ranger lives, but the truth of the matter is that we always live in community and our choices affect the quality of life of others. Some of the Israelites were in the desert for no fault of their own. These were the kids and the grandkids of the ones who disobeyed and disregarded God’s promise for their lives

Many times, we too, find ourselves in situations of no fault of our own that are difficult and stretch us to the limit. But when we are stretched to the limit, when we are between a rock and a hard place that’s the time to envision a new future with God. So Joshua and the surviving remnant of the Israelites found themselves at the end of a 40-year desert journey facing the river Jordan at flood stage on one side and the desert on the other. And these were the cards that they were dealt.

But God used the desert experience to trigger courage in their hearts and develop Godly imagination that was going to change the course of the Israelites from that time for the rest of human history.

Q1: If you have been born & raised in the desert can you envision/imagine the city or even an entire country? Would you know what it would look like?

The Israelites transformed from nomads to landlords. They transformed their identity by faith. When we dream with God we are never nomads. We have been transformed into more than conquerors of His lands. We go from taking one territory to the next. The taking of territories is not easy or passive but is transformative.

Taking new territories in your relationships, doing it God’s way with humility and great stewardship of your character and God’s call, taking territories in the financial realm, following God’s direction of work and ethics and justice at our employment or our business.

The Israelites didn’t have their own territory for two generations. There was no one left that knew what a city in a country looked like. Now it was their kids and grand kids that grew up in the desert in tents not possessing anything, yet they were going to have a country with cities. They had absolutely no context to put all that in perspective. But they had the word of God to describe it to them in real geography and real-time his promise of the territory that he was giving them to possess.

By faith they had to envision the territory they would possess. God was going to change their identity from nomads to landlords, but they had to partner with God in envisioning it. Their mindsets had to change from owning nothing to owning an entire country; from living in tents to envisioning their own houses of brick and mortar.

God was going to give them ownership and they were going to actively take possession of it. Their forefathers missed the divine opportunity the first time around. Now it was their turn.

You may not have a context for God’s promise but he will do it for you too. Whether it be your health, finances, a strong marriage, respectful children, a job you are passionate about; God’s promise will come as you choose to partner with him.

Reflection: Are you ready to dream with God? The divine opportunities in life are either missed or activated. They never stay in limbo, because God is never on neutral. So what are you going to do with what you heard today?

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Svetlana Papazov is Lead Pastor and Founder of Real Life Church, President/Founder of Real Life Center for Entrepreneurial and Leadership Excellence, a first of its kind model of church and business incubator that educates in entrepreneurship, leadership and faith praxis, and author of the book, “Church for Monday.”