.png)
An Experience With Dreaming
- Jill Riley
- Apr 30
- 3 min read
Updated: May 1
I had lost all track of time. My Son and Daughter-in-Love are at the hospital. The babies just might be on their way today! I forgot it was blog writing day, but what a day to write a blog, especially about how it’s good to dream! God is in the business of giving us dreams, updating dreams, upgrading dreams, and even giving us starting-over dreams. He is so, so good in this. God loves for us to dream with Him, and I am!
In Volume 3 of the Immersive Magazine, I’ve written a short article about my current dreaming-with-God adventure. I hope it encourages you to get quiet with the Lord, fire up that imagination screen and let him play out the latest dream He wants to bestow upon you. As the Lord started pouring this dream out for me on my imagination screen, I didn’t know these twin boys were on their way yet. It would be a few months before that got revealed. This dream with them in it makes it a million times as sweet!
When I got home from a trip to North Carolina where the Lord began to speak to me about this new plan, I was seeing it vaguely and sort of calmly nodding my head at it, saying, “Okay. I see that. I like that.” But then, I got on Pinterest and saw this picture and I sort of dove right into it and started living there, sitting on that porch at sunset, walking down to that pond listening to birds. God will do this for us—give us a “picture” like this to start living the dream out in.
Then, I started seeing the other things He had been talking to me about unfold inside this picture—the fire-pit worship nights, the Children’s Bible studies on the porch, the horse tank baptisms, and the long table dinners. It all became so beautiful in my mind. This is how He works with me and my friends who dream with God.
It will never look exactly like you thought it would look, but you have to have a starting place. I don't set up expectations. I hold it all loosely, and whatever God brings of it will be better than I first dreamed it would be!
If you’ve never dreamed with God like this, I’m going to encourage you to by giving you a super fun "date night" experience here. If you're not married, or dating anyone, make a date with Jesus! First, pretend you're dreaming with God about buying a mini-farm and living in an adorable little house like this. Then, follow these steps …
Plan to cook a country meal like fried chicken and mashed potatoes, or pork chops, pot roast, or chicken fried steak. Whatever your heart desires, cook it!
While you’re cooking, pull up a good acoustic guitar playlist like one of these:
Be sure to dance a little to the music while you’re cooking. That's a rule!
Open Pinterest and find your dream farmhouse.
Start dreaming with God as you finish cooking.
After dinner, pick a city you want to live near and search the farmhouses for sale.
Choose your favorite one, then go to google maps and plug in its address.
Use Street View in Google Maps to take a look around the property, "drive" down the road and check out your neighbors. Then hop over to downtown and "drive" around to check it out. Remember you can do this in any part of the world. Want a mini-farm in Scotland? Go for it! Dream big! (This is most fun on a big laptop screen or even displayed on your TV.)
IT'S SO MUCH FUN!
Now, back to these baby boys. Once the Lord gave me this dream and I found this picture, He then gave us all the news that He was sending two little boys our way. I'm about to be a first time grandmother of twins! He knew the timing. I immediately inserted them into this dream and picture God had given me and my heart was overflowing with a kind of joy I have never felt. It is good to dream with God!
Love to all,
Jill
