Dream Catcher: The Power of Faith

Endnotes

Introduction and Acknowledgments

This book is written to put into the reader’s hand techniques that enable him or her to achieve any God-given dream. The techniques described enable the reader to harness the power of faith, an invisible yet mighty force that, coupled with appropriate action, brings dreams into existence.

Much is said about this force in God’s Word by the greatest Teacher who ever lived and still lives today. These teachings on faith originate with Him and the Bible itself. Writers coming from many disciplines and various religious faiths have written about them because, as with any truth, they work for whoever employs them. To use a natural law by analogy, regardless of how virtuous or evil I am, if I hold an object at arms length and release it, it falls to the ground. Absent a countering force, the law of gravity operates on that object regardless of who I am or what I do.

I know you are a busy person. I promise not to waste your time in this book on abstract theories. I want you to have something you can use right away to achieve your goals to bless yourself and many others. After all, what good are truths if they can’t be applied?

The book begins by explaining the concept of faith (belief). Then, five major obstacles and several minor ones that can prevent faith from operating are discussed. Practical advice on how to overcome these obstacles is given.

Next, four powerful faith techniques are explained in detail. You will receive information allowing you to put these to work immediately to make your dream come true.

Then, four chapters on how to apply these principles in various areas of your life are included, followed by a chapter on the latest scientific discoveries on the power of the mind.

Action steps at the end of each chapter summarize the chapter’s ideas, giving specific steps that can be taken by you, the reader, to implement the theories discussed.

The book concludes with a chapter on Blind Faith, having faith in the absolute integrity and goodness of God to give us what we need. Instead of our choosing the outcome, we release our dream to God and let Him choose the best outcome for us, trusting in His wisdom and love.

This book is not a scholarly treatise or model of literary excellence. Its intent is to equip the reader with the knowledge, tools, and motivation to go out and reel in God-given dreams, no matter how big and impossible those dreams might seem. It’s purely and simply a practical guide on how to implement a great spiritual truth.

Throughout the writing of this book, I have had a marvelous sense of God’s provision. He has provided the ideas, illustrations and people to make this project a reality. As with every other good thing in my life, I am forever indebted to Him. He deserves all the credit for any good found herein.

My husband, Charles, has been my chief cheerleader. Knowing he has prayed regularly for me and this endeavor has given me strength to persist.

I am also indebted to the many wonderful friends who have read this manuscript and provided their valuable insights and helpful suggestions, and even allowed me to share their stories. Thank you to every one of you.

Laura Tweedell, my administrative assistant, has typed the manuscript. Through revisions, deletions, additions, footnotes, rearrangements, flip flopping and every other literary atrocity I have committed, she has maintained her cheerful and unflappable demeanor. Laura, you’re a gem.

The cover is a result of the incredible talents of Tracie Annase and Diana Hocking. You are both amazing. I could never in a million years do what you do.

I have heard it said that a book is never written alone. How true that is. This has been a group project and God has brought together an incredible team to see it through. May it bless you as you read it as much as it has me to write it.

—Zoe M. Hicks

Chapter One

Faith Is Fact

Thoughts rule the world.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Faith is a dynamic force. It is unseen, to be sure, but so are other mighty forces. We see the results but not the force itself. Do we see gravity? Electromagnetism? Aerodynamics? The ability of soil to make things grow? We only know of their power because of the effects we observe.

What is this force and how do we know it is real? If it is real, how do we harness it to use for the benefit of ourselves, our families, and the human race? What prevents this force from operating? What aids it?

We are not discussing faith in God generically, although that is the more common meaning of the word. It’s the force Paul described in his letter to the Hebrews:

[F]aith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality—faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses.¹

What is St. Paul talking about? He goes on to describe how God fashioned the universe by faith, not by things visible, how Enoch was caught up to heaven without physically dying, how Sarah conceived Isaac in her old age, and how other Old Testament saints repeatedly did the humanly impossible.² This is a formidable force indeed that has miraculous power.

One student of mind power puts it this way:

Among the laws of the universe there seems to be a sort of cosmic bill of rights which guarantees that all of us, no matter how high or how low, no matter how bright or how dull, can take part in causing lawful things to happen through the firmness of our desire, belief, and expectancy. This was said earlier and better [by Jesus Himself] over 2,000 years ago . . . what things so-ever ye desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall receive them.³

Motivational speaker Brian Tracy notes that whatever we believe with conviction becomes reality. The attitude of positive expectations, he says, is the most powerful motivator of all.⁴

In the Walt Disney movie Miracle (a true story), a ragtag bunch of American hockey players went off to Lake Placid, New York, to represent their country in the 1980 Winter Olympics. Their coach had carefully selected them and rigorously prepared them. The coach knew they had to work very hard to present any challenge whatsoever to the Russian team, which was composed of what would have been professional hockey players in the United States. He seemed unmerciful in many ways, but he knew without strenuous, persistent training his amateur team would be devastated. And so they practiced and practiced and practiced some more. He molded them into a true team, watching as they emerged from talented prima donnas into a hockey juggernaut. He accepted no excuses and gave no unwarranted praise. By the time they got to Lake Placid, they were good and they were prepared.

There was only one problem. The Russians were better. They had played longer together. They were more talented and just as prepared, and they were heavily favored to take the top prize. But the American coach saw his team winning the gold. He was not going to settle for anything less. Whatever could he say to his players to get them to catch the vision and expect it to become reality?

The night the Americans faced off against the Russians in the semifinal round, the coach spent time alone in his study. He visualized again and prayed for the right words. His team knew the Russians were better. No sense telling them otherwise. Besides, he had never lied to them, and he wasn’t about to start now. The team knew how badly their coach wanted to win. They did too, but could they believe it and accept it before going out onto the ice?

The players gathered around their coach in the locker room before the start of the game. Whether they liked him or not, they all respected him and believed him.

Great moments are born of great opportunities, he began. This is your time. You’ve earned it. If we were to play them ten times, he continued, "they might win nine. But not tonight. Tonight we shut them down. Tonight we skate with them. Tonight we stay with them. Tonight we are the greatest hockey team in the world. Now, go out there and take it."

The coach had painted a vision his players could buy into. Even the best teams lose to inferior teams on occasion. And the coach convinced his team this was one of those nights. Consequently, it was a great opportunity for the young Americans. An expectation of victory prevailed.

As the movie replayed the actual Olympic event, chills went up and down my spine as I saw, in the eyes of the actors playing the American hockey players, their conviction that this game was theirs. They were not intimidated by the Russians and, in fact, so intimidated the Russian goalie (described by the American coach as the best goalie in the game) that he was benched. Back and forth the players skated, knocking each other and the puck hard. It was rough. The American goalie was brilliant, despite personal problems that had plagued him all along. When the final whistle blew, the crowd couldn’t believe it. A miracle had occurred. The underdogs had won.

Watching the 20 players lined up with gold medals around their necks, seeing the Stars and Stripes being lifted and the Star Spangled Banner played for them, I could only think, the power of faith. As unlikely as the gold medal was for the American team, it became reality when the players accepted their coach’s words as reality before they even touched the ice.

And that’s what this book is all about—this mighty force called faith that Jesus repeatedly exhorted us to employ and techniques for achieving it. This force can indeed catch our dreams from fading away and convert them into realities if we will only learn how to use it.

The statements Jesus made about faith are staggering:

Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, . . . even if you say to this mountain, Be taken up and cast into the sea, it will be done. And whatever you ask for in prayer, having faith and really believing, you will receive.⁵

We are wise to heed them well, and a study of how to acquire this kind of mountain moving faith will transform our prayer lives and benefit ourselves and all those whose lives we touch in countless ways. Let’s get going!

If It’s True, Prove It

All this sounds good, we say, but is there any hard, scientific evidence to back it up? In pre-twentieth century physical science, a crudely mechanical view of matter prevailed. Fixed laws governed the universe, and all we had to do was discover them and work with them. Problems with this view became apparent to physicists beginning in the twentieth century. Albert Einstein and his colleagues knew something was wrong and searched for the missing link.

As top physicists experimented, they began to move toward a nonmechanical reality where the universe began to look more like a giant thought than a giant machine. Mind no longer appeared as an accidental intruder into the realm of matter. Physicists began to suspect, rather, that mind might be the creator and governor of the realm of matter.⁶ This is perfectly in accord with what Jesus taught us about faith.

God Himself created the world out of nothing. In the beginning, the earth was without form and void, we are told in Genesis. And St. Paul explains that what we now see as the world was not made out of things that are visible.⁷

What does this mean? That creative energy is neither solid nor restricted. The physical world of form originates in something other than form itself.⁸

Because physicists, who study the essence of things, present us with well-respected theories and scientific laws, an entire chapter of this book is dedicated to their discoveries in the area of quantum (a tiny particle of matter) physics, which bear out St. Paul’s words. In a nutshell here, the basis of the new physics is not found in particles of matter, but in the minds of the physicists! Physicists at the quantum level could see how their minds affected their experiments. Physicist Fred Alan Wolf, in fact, gives us a scientific version of the famous words of Hebrews 11:1:

St. Paul: . . . faith is . . . the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality—faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses.

Dr. Wolf: Thoughts create quantum wave functions. They are called functions because they are functional, which means they depend on space and time for their operation. They are not objects but are representatives of objects, much like an ambassador is a representative of his country.⁹

As an ambassador is a representative of his country (which we do not see but know to be real) so is faith representative of and evidence of things not seen but nonetheless real.

After reading about new discoveries in physics and considering the words of Jesus about faith, it is evident to me we are going to have to revise our thinking on the issue of faith. What I mean here is that we are not going to be able to explain away the teachings of Jesus on faith as really referring to something else. We are going to have to take them at face value and believe them literally.

For example, Jesus’ teaching in Mark 9:23, "All things are possible, only believe, was given in response to a desperate father who had brought his son to be healed from a dumb spirit causing convulsions, foaming at the mouth, grinding of teeth, and motionless stupors. The disciples had tried unsuccessfully to heal the boy. When Jesus appeared on the scene, He first rebuked the crowd (His disciples included) for their nonexistent faith: O unbelieving generation—without any faith. How long shall I have to do with you?"¹⁰ It is clear He was not pleased.

The father himself doubted, saying, [I]f you can do anything . . . help us.

Jesus responded, "You say to me, ‘IF you can do anything?’" The implication is clear, of course, that the boy could be healed by Jesus. But the father needed to expect it. The father needed to be a partner with Jesus in this result. He asked for help with his unbelief and, in order to heal the boy, Jesus first had to answer the father’s prayer for faith.

Lack of faith among the people prevented Jesus from doing many works of power in His own country.¹¹ He taught there in the synagogue with great wisdom and did some works, but the townspeople discounted Him, saying Oh, that’s just Joseph and Mary’s son. No big deal. Their refusal to believe prevented the very results they would have dearly loved to see.

What’s Next?

OK. OK. The Bible says it. Physicists have confirmed it. Now what? What are we talking about here? Positive thinking? That depends on how you define positive thinking.

Positive is defined in the Oxford American Dictionary as definite, leaving no room for doubt.

Positive thinking, then, using this definition, is not just wishful thinking, not Pollyanna thinking, not just happy thinking, and not just more positive thoughts than negative thoughts about something, but thinking that leaves no room for doubt. This kind of thinking does not entertain negative thoughts because it has already accepted as fact that which is yet to be seen with the physical eyes. It is nonetheless just as real to the person who is thinking as if it had been. Once something becomes this real, the power of faith causes it to materialize. We don’t have to understand exactly why, any more than we understand exactly why gravity works.

The Real Thing

How do we get to the point where we accept something as real before we have physical evidence of it? It’s not enough to just want it. It’s not even enough to believe it can happen. We have to get to the point where we expect it to happen. There’s a sign that hangs in our bedroom, Faith is not believing that God can; it’s knowing that He will. That’s what we’re talking about.

The American hockey team in the 1980 Olympics wanted to win and knew it was possible to win before their coach gave them his pep talk. After all, they were prepared and had worked hard. But after hearing their coach, they expected to win. The victory was won before they ever took the ice.

People will find different ways for this to happen. For Nick Snider, whose retirement dream was to open a museum to display his vast collection of patriotic jewelry from World Wars I and II, the realness started when he purchased a commercial building to house the collection. This locked him in. He also found that talking to his friends and family about the museum helped. I cultivated many allies in this way, said Nick, and I knew I couldn’t let them down. As the plans progressed, he would take everyone who was willing through the mostly empty building, sharing his dream and telling them where this display or that display would be located. As I went through with Nick, I had a hard time visualizing it, but it was clear to me that he saw it in his mind just as it would be. He formed a nonprofit corporation and got a board of friends and family together, and he visualized many people coming in the door of the building he had purchased. I figured if a lot of people were coming, the museum was open and it was attractive to them, he explained.

The one thing that had plagued Nick was finding the right name for the museum. Listening to the radio in his car one day, he heard on the news about a new Character Curriculum bill that had just been passed by his state’s legislature. As the announcer rattled off some of the character traits that, pursuant to the bill, would be taught in the state’s public schools, the one that hit Nick between the eyeballs was patriotism.

That’s it, Nick said to himself. ‘The National Museum of Patriotism.’ That’s what we’ll call it. As soon as Nick had a name, he began to visualize the sign in front of the building where the people were coming and going. It had become a reality in Nick’s mind.

On July 4, 2004, the National Museum of Patriotism opened in Atlanta, Georgia. What I saw as I went through the door blew me away. Nick’s jewelry was there all right. But it was hardly noticed with the elaborate displays honoring each branch of our armed services, complete with plasma TV screens and videos of all the equipment (planes, ships, gear, artillery) each branch has at its disposal. There are displays of patriotic Americans not in the military (such as Dr. Martin Luther King), but who did their country great service through their lives and teachings. There are displays of September 11, 2001, and what the American dream is all about. It’s unbelievable.

Nick, by the way, has expanded his dream. He now wants a National Museum of Patriotism in every major U.S. city, and plans are under way to open the next one.¹²

Nick is having the time of his life. He loves every second of having his museum serve as an inspiration to veterans, school kids, and the public at large.

Was it worth it? I asked Nick, knowing how hard he had worked on this. Beyond anything I could have ever imagined, he grinned.

In the chapters ahead, we will explore this mighty force called faith. We will look at obstacles and applications. We will investigate several techniques for making our dreams a reality in our minds. Once that happens, it’s just a matter of time before it becomes reality in the material world.

Chapter Two

Obstacles to Faith

He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure.

—James Allen

The kind of faith we’re talking about in this book is not easy to come by. We will surely encounter obstacles as we learn to exercise it.

I was talking with a friend recently about mountain-moving faith and its power. She said, The problem I have with the concept is that I’ve known people who had terminal cancer with a lot of faith, and they died anyway.

Yes, I replied, But we’re not talking about faith in God in general. We’re talking about faith in a particular outcome, and our natural ability, using our minds, emotions, and bodies to effect that outcome.

This kind of faith requires great mental discipline, even as having a perfectly fit body requires great physical discipline. And to create