Is it wrong for a disciple to long for the “desires of [his] heart”? This is what God promises those who “delight” in Him (Psalm 37:4). I believe that when a man delights in God, the Lord opens his spiritual eyes to “visions” and “dreams” that would be unheard of in his natural state (Joel 2:28). Those desires are not implanted by the Almighty for disappointment. Arthur Hewitt, a Congregational minister in New England, said, “A man cannot do God’s will and avoid his own heart’s desire.” The only time a disciple cannot realize his heart’s desires is when he seeks them by his own efforts.
God has plans for every one of His children that are far beyond the stretch of their imagination. They are plans of “welfare” and hope, not “calamity” (Jeremiah 29:11). A man’s desires come from within the man himself, while God’s desires for a man come from without. They are implanted in him by a new relationship with God, but in such a way as to assure the believer that his desires are indeed his own.
God will never allow my divinely planted dreams to be thwarted. That is why Abraham went back down Moriah’s hill with Isaac, why Nehemiah found favor with the king, and why Simeon and Anna were allowed to live so long. I must strongly resist the notion that it is wrong to have dreams, wrong to let my heart desire. A man without divinely implanted longings does not know much about the Spirit of God. The impediments—sickness, suffering, imprisonment, death—no more affect my desires than a feather can affect Gibraltar! Who can say no when God says yes, and who can deny a dream when God has determined that it will be realized? “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope’” (Jeremiah 29:11).
“And it will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men wilt dream dreams, your young men will see visions” (Joel 2:28).
Daily with the King 