The Dream Is Yours, But the Resistance Is Real

Most of the dreams worth pursuing in life don’t come from us....

They’re God-given.

As spiritual beings created in the image of a sovereign Creator, we are wired to receive divine assignments. And when God gives you a dream, it is not some whimsical, fleeting desire—it is a calling seeded in your soul by the One who sees the end from the beginning.

And when that happens, no boss, no family member, no failure, and not even you can stop it. Unless you choose to let it die.

There is no "no" out there that can cancel a dream God ordained in Heaven. The only "no" powerful enough to derail a divine assignment is your own surrender. Your own compromise. Your own decision to quit.

But here's the truth: the dream isn’t fragile. You are. The dream doesn’t need perfect conditions to thrive. You do. And sometimes, that fragility is the very thing God needs to break so He can build what the dream will require.

The Dream That Started in Heaven

Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."

Many misinterpret this as a blank check from Heaven. But it's not about God giving you whatever your flesh craves. It’s about God placing His desires into your heart as you align with Him.

The real dreams, the ones that don’t let you sleep at night, the ones that burn even in seasons of silence, those are the ones that were planted in the soil of your soul by God Himself.

And those dreams are usually bigger than what you think you can handle. That’s because you can’t handle them yet. He’s still preparing you.

From the Pit to the Palace

Joseph was 17 when God gave him a dream (Genesis 37).

The dream was clear: leadership, influence, honor. But the path to get there? Not so much.

Joseph faced family betrayal: His brothers threw him in a pit, sold him into slavery, and lied to their father about his death.

He faced employer injustice: After serving with excellence in Potiphar's house, he was falsely accused and imprisoned for doing the right thing.

He faced friends who forgot: In prison, Joseph interpreted dreams for Pharaoh's servants and asked to be remembered. But they forgot. Two more years passed.

Everyone in his life seemed to work against the dream. But Joseph never abandoned it. He stayed faithful where he was, and God used every betrayal as preparation.

Psalm 105:19 says, "Until the time came to fulfill his dreams, the Lord tested Joseph's character."

That word "tested" in the Hebrew context doesn’t just mean "examined." It means refined, built, tempered like steel.

The resistance didn’t come to destroy the dream. It came to develop the man who would carry it.

The Resistance Is Real - And It’s by Design

Let’s make this personal.

If what you're doing right now was breathed into you by God, would you still pursue it even if no one applauded? Even if you never went viral, never got paid, never got credit?

If you can't see how your next five years connect to a Heaven-birthed vision, ask yourself: Am I chasing a God-given dream, or am I living someone else's plan, or worse, my own nightmare?

God's dreams don't fade, but they do wait. And often, they wait until you're ready.

The resistance isn’t always external. Sometimes, the resistance is internal.

The real threat isn’t them. It’s you.

Your Greatest Enemy Might Be You

We often blame people.

• *"My boss doesn't see my potential."

• "My spouse doesn’t believe in me."

• "My industry is too competitive."

But people aren’t the enemy. The Bible makes it clear: the world, the flesh, and the devil are the real culprits.

The world tells you you’re not good enough, gifted enough, or connected enough. And that might be true, but it doesn't matter. God's power isn't limited by worldly standards.

The flesh wants comfort now. It wants results now. It wants to shortcut the process and bypass the refinement. The flesh sabotages the dream with impatience and pride.

The devil is strategic. He knows he can't stop God's plan. So he works to cloud your vision. He uses delay to breed doubt, resistance to trigger retreat, and confusion to erode clarity.

He wants you to mislabel your preparation as punishment. He wants you to believe the wilderness is your final destination.

But the wilderness was never meant to kill you. It was meant to prepare you.

It Took Joseph 13 Years... How Long Will It Take You?

Joseph waited 13 years before his dream began to manifest.

Thirteen years of betrayal, slavery, and injustice.

Thirteen years of waking up every day with no confirmation except the memory of a dream.

But every role he played (slave, manager, prisoner, interpreter) was a training ground for the real role: leader of a nation during famine.

If Joseph had gotten the dream too early, he would've ruled like a bratty teenager. Instead, he ruled with humility, wisdom, and perspective.

So ask yourself:

• Are you impatient because you're not seeing fruit?

• Are you mistaking pruning for punishment?

• Are you tempted to quit right before the breakthrough?

God doesn’t waste pain. Every hardship is hammering the steel that your dream needs to stand.

The Dream Still Lives

You might be sitting on a dream that's buried under bills, burnout, or betrayal.

You might feel too old, too tired, too late.

But if God put the dream in your heart, it’s still alive.

It might be buried. It might be bruised. It might be overlooked.

But it is not dead.

So dig it back up. Lay it before the Lord. Ask Him if it was from Him. And if the answer is yes, run toward it like your life depends on it.

Because someone else’s life might.

The Dream Can’t Be Killed

When God gives a dream, no man can take it.

It doesn’t matter who doubted you, left you, mistreated you, or underestimated you.

The only person who can stop the dream is you. And only if you choose to.

But here’s the good news: You don’t have to.

The God who gave the dream will give you the strength, the provision, the people, and the path.

But you have to keep walking.

Even if it takes 13 years. Even if no one claps. Even if it costs you everything.

Because if God gave it, it's worth everything.

If this resonated with you, comment below:

What dream did God give you that you almost gave up on?

What did He teach you in the waiting?

Let’s encourage one another, because your dream isn’t just for you. It’s for the people you were born to impact.