If your dream is from God, it will live forever. Men may die, but dreams live on. Here is a story to illustrate this point:
Fourteen years ago in the month of May, I preached a revival in Louisville, Kentucky. One day, Waymon Rogers, the pastor said, “Dwight, get in the car with me. I want to take you somewhere.”
I got in the car and we went to a beautiful place near the Interstate, consisting of about one hundred acres of land. Pastor Rogers said, “Dwight, can you see it? We’re going to put a great church right here…a lake right here to baptize people….” And he went on and on.
Sunday morning, a week later, the headlines of the local newspaper read that the bonding company which was issuing the bonds for this church went bankrupt, and everything they had crumbled. I received the news that morning from the headlines of the Sunday morning paper of Louisville.
On Sunday night we did something. We came to the little church where they were worshipping (about 1,100 people) and we all got in our cars and drove out to where the foundation had just been laid.
The construction had stopped. We all had candles in our hands. And instead of cursing the darkness, we lit a candle. Candles are like dreams. If you will keep them lit, they will keep on burning.
All of us stood around the foundation. And fourteen years ago we put our candles in a little paper bag with sand in it, which made a pretty glow, and set them down.
Fourteen years have gone by since then. I was back there recently, and at 11:00 on Saturday night, I heard a knock at the door of my hotel. I opened the door and it was pastor Waymon Rogers. He said, “Dwight, how are you?”
I said, “I’m alright Brother Rogers, how are you?”
He said, “I want to show you something. Come go with me.”
He drove me around those one hundred acres. Now, where the candles once burned, a dream had come to pass. A church that seats nearly four thousand people now stood on that land.
It was nearly one o’clock in the morning, and we were walking across the church grounds. The glory of God started to come down, and he began to talk about his dream. He talked about Prayer Mountain that he built. He talked about this and he talked about that. It was now 1:30, on Saturday night (now Sunday morning), I had to preach in four hours, and the man was still talking about his dream!
Five months ago, Rev. Waymon Rogers went home to be with the Lord. He had a premonition about his death…better than that, I think the Lord told him about it.
He called all of his men together (100 men) at a barbecue, and said, “Men, now I’m sixty-one years old, and as far as I know I’m in pretty good health. But I feel like the Lord spoke to me and told me to tell you that He may call me home anytime, and if He does, I don’t want any power struggle in this church. You talk about it, and decide now, and when it happens, this transition will be smooth.” They all, 100%, voted in the pastor’s son, Bob Rogers, to carry on the dream.
Shortly thereafter, on a Wednesday night, he lay down in his bed and awoke in glory. Two days later, they had his funeral. The following Sunday, Bob Rogers, forty years old, assumed the role to carry on the vision.
I was back in Louisville, after Rev. Waymon Rogers went to be with the Lord, for another service. At the end of the service, Bob Rogers took me aside and said, “I’ve got to tell you something, I was mad at my dad. And I told God, ‘God, I’m mad at my dad.'”
“God said to me, ‘Why are you mad at him?'”
“I said, ‘Because he fired me some time ago.'”
“Then God said, ‘Don’t be mad at him. I’m the one who told him to fire you. He was just following instructions…I sent you out there on your own, because you’ve got a job to do, and a dream to fulfill.'”
God sent Bob Rogers out on his own, out to the back side of the desert. But the day came when he was prepared to assume the role, and pick up the mantle.
With reflection in his voice, Bob continued, “Dwight, on Saturday before the funeral, I went to the funeral home by myself and I told the funeral director I wanted in.”
“The funeral director said, ‘That’s fine, come on in.'”
Bob went in beside his dad in that coffin and said to the funeral director, “I don’t want to upset you, but I’m going to raise him from the dead.”
“The funeral director said, ‘What?'”
“I’m going to pray for him, and God will raise him up from the dead.”
So Bob Rogers began to pray for his father, for a couple of hours, and the Lord didn’t raise him up. When he walked outside, his mother was waiting for him. She said, “Son, there’s something I forgot to tell you. Just before your daddy died, he said, ‘I’m not worried about the dream being fulfilled, because when I go home, my dream will live on. But Fern, when I die, there is going to be somebody that will come along and will want to raise me from the dead. Tell them not to waste their time. I’ve already made a better deal with God!'”
She concluded, “Son, don’t feel so bad, he already told God he’s not coming back, so you will carry on the dream.”
Bob Rogers took over where his father left off. Waymon Rogers brought the church to a certain place, and now his son has caught his vision and the church is growing even greater.
When you have a dream and you put it into the hands of God, men may die…YOU may die…but if it is of God, the dream is going to live on forever. No one can take away your dream without your permission. No demon in hell, nor any force out of the regions of the damned can destroy it unless you relinquish it.
