Today and tomorrow in my Live Your Dream series I want to talk about Putting Your Dream to the Test.  What measurements, standards or costs are associated with your dream?

Anything worth having has a price attached. As an athlete I learned early on: no pain, no gain. What do I mean? To improve our game, skills, and opportunity we had to practice, practice, practice! In the daily pursuit of our dream sometimes we didn’t feel like carrying on, but the sheer will of fortitude, the desire to win, and the constant challenge to press beyond our current capabilities kept us charging forward toward our destination.

Today, let’s begin refining our dream by discovering the facts. How do we do this? We begin by first researching what it takes.  We ask questions such as, “what price is too high to pay?” You can count the cost of your dream by asking some more specific questions:

• What will my dream cost me personally—financially and emotionally?
• What will my dream cost my family, my marriage?
• What will my dream require from my current free time? Are you willing to give up your free time to learn a new skill, take a class, build a prototype, set a goal? Consider the price before you embark!

Go to my website and download your free “LIVE YOUR DREAM” worksheets!  http://bit.ly/1gmsroFhttps://

As a young woman Mother Teresa, who was suffering from tuberculosis, heard the “Call within the call”. She knew she was to leave the convent in Calcutta and work with the poor living among them. With only 5 Rupees in her hand, she started a school in the slums to teach the children of the poor.

Mother Teresa, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and India’s highest Civilian Award, set up nearly 570 homes for the poor in 125 countries.

With only 5 Rupees and battling sickness in her own body, Mother Teresa rose above poverty and made a better life for millions of people. One idea, one thought from God can bring significant change, not only to your life, but to the lives of those you know in your community and in your nation!  http://bit.ly/1E6nKV7

The question is not how much faith do you have, but rather what picture, or what image of God do you have, and what image of yourself do you find in the Word of God?

God always has a plan for you. He will never give up on you. He gave His very best for you, and He desires for you to experience all that He has for you!

The same Spirit, the same resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead, also indwells us as believers. So what does that make us? That makes us restored back to the image of God!

The same Spirit, the same resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead, also indwells us as believers. So what does that make us? That makes us restored back to the image of God!

God created us in His image with dignity and purpose. He created us to experience His love. He entrusted us with His authority and only required one thing from us: that we in turn would trust and believe His words to us.

The Holy Spirit’s ministry is an earthly ministry where He meets in the habitation of our homes; He lives in us, He lifts us, He guides us, He comforts us, He instructs us, and He helps us—because God did not leave us without hope!

Only humanity was created in the image of God. Only humanity was given the right and the ability and the authority to walk with the living God, to speak words as He spoke, to create as He created, to live as He lived, and to fellowship as He fellowshipped.

This is the day before Christmas. On this day approximately 2,000 years ago Joseph was feeling very out of place, because he could not find lodging in Bethlehem for his pregnant wife. There is Good News for those who feel out of place in today’s world. Those who feel like they have misplaced their destiny, or replaced it with an ordinary “just get by” existence.

There is a place where nothing is impossible for you. There is a place where sickness cannot stay. There is a place where you are equipped with more than enough to answer every need of every good work. There is a place where peace, dignity and love rule in your daily walk. There is a place where you do as Jesus did.

Jesus is inviting you to stand in that place if you are feeling out of place like Joseph. That place is not far from you. It is called the Kingdom of God. Jesus said it is at hand. Paul said it is within you. When you call on Jesus He comes to live in you, and He makes you the place where all things are possible!