Eph 767, 771 3/20/88
(The introductory material to this doctrine is found in the Doctrine of the Protocol Plan of God, points 5-8.)
A. Definition.
1. The life beyond dreams is the function of the protocol plan of God from day one of spiritual maturity to the point of physical death or the Rapture, whichever occurs first.
2. The life beyond dreams is defined as the modus operandi of the mature believer. He is both a winner and an invisible hero in the great power experiment of the Church Age.
3. His life beyond dreams is a continuation of his perception of Bible doctrine. It is a maximum use of the ten problem solving devices. It is receiving maximum blessing from the distribution of escrow blessings for time. It is maximum impact in human history.
B. What is the life beyond dreams?
1. The life beyond dreams is God’s fantastic grace provision which is far beyond:
a. Your most fervent prayers. You have never prayed for anything that even comes close to the life beyond dreams
. b. Things for which you have asked from others. You ask parents, people, friends, spouses, and children for things throughout your lifetime. But the life beyond dreams is far beyond anything for which you have ever asked from anyone.
c. Your fondest dreams. No matter how wild and seemingly impossible your dreams, God has provided something far greater than any thinking or imagination in any dream you have ever had.
2. What God has provided for the mature believer in the life beyond dreams staggers the imagination.
3. The life beyond dreams is the direct result of fulfilling the life beyond gnosis.
4. The life beyond gnosis of Eph 3:19 is the means of entering the life beyond dreams of Eph 3:20. The life beyond gnosis is the means of executing the protocol plan, and the life beyond dreams is the result of executing the protocol plan.
5. In the life beyond dreams, God does infinitely more than two things stated in Eph 3:20.
a. He does infinitely more than all we ask, i.e., in prayer to God and in request to people.
b. He does infinitely more than all we think or imagine, i.e., our personal desires, expectations, and our thoughts associated with happiness symbols.
6. Dreams represent what we want to be, what we want to have, with whom we desire to associate, to what we want to be promoted, where we desire approbation, and whom we desire to marry.
7. Dreams carry us to the farthest extent of our imagination.
C. Amplification of the Life Beyond Dreams.
1. For the Church Age believer, for every member of the royal family of God, there is a life which goes beyond anything for which we can ask of anyone, whether God or man.
2. For every Church Age believer as the body of Christ, there is a life beyond our dreams and imaginations. It is a fantastic life. This is the ultimate, and is what God expects from every believer. For this goal God has made complete and total provision.
3. Dreams are often an escape from reality, but there is nothing but reality and indescribable blessing in the life beyond dreams. In other words, the life beyond dreams doesn’t escape from reality, but it is fantastic, indescribable reality.
4. We do not even have the imagination to dream or the power to ask for the things which God has prepared for us in the life beyond dreams.
a. 1 Cor 2:9, “However, as it stands written, `No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.’” “Those who love Him” here refers to mature believers.
b. Isa 55:8, “`My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are My ways your ways,’ says the Lord.”
(1) This means God has done some thinking way beyond our thinking. His thinking becomes a reality for us once we enter the life beyond dreams. (2) The ways of God are way beyond our understanding. But once we reach the life beyond dreams, we begin to comprehend God’s ways in a way which gives worship an entirely new meaning.
c. Isa 55:9, “`For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.’”
(1) But those ways of God, though higher, are not beyond our grasp. Because in the life beyond dreams, we learn about and have some of those ways that are higher than our ways.
(2) You cannot even begin to think, imagine, or dream of the fantastic things that God has for you in the life beyond dreams.
D. Application of the Life Beyond Dreams.
1. In the life beyond gnosis, the Church glorifies God through the attainment of spiritual maturity.
2. In the life beyond dreams, the Church glorifies God through receiving their escrow blessings for time. The poor attempt of the pastor to teach about your escrow blessings doesn’t even begin to describe what God has for you personally in the life beyond dreams.
3. Escrow blessings for time are infinitely more than all we can ask or imagine. They are the life beyond our dreams.
4. If you are normal, you want things in life. People dream about what they want or desire in life.
5. These dreams are associated with happiness symbols.
a. Greatness or success.
b. Approbation from people. People dream about being respected and receiving approbation.
c. Money and security.
d. Social life and romance.
e. The possession of materialistic things which are coveted for pleasure or which are desired as a status symbol.
f. Achievement in some field in which they are interested.
g. Possessing beauty, strength, attractiveness, and/or health.
h. Being married to the ideal person.
6. These dreams express what we want, what we desire, what we think, and what we imagine.
7. Dreams can express arrogance, lust, desire, insecurity, covetousness, inordinate ambition, or inordinate competition. But above all, these dreams represent what we want, what we want to have or possess, and what we want to be to the extent that our imagination can project. 8. But God has provided for the mature believer a life beyond dreams, beyond imagination, and beyond our greatest solicitation to self-interest. For dreams, imagination, prayers, and asking favors of others all add up to solicitation to self-interest. Yet God provides for the mature believer the life beyond dreams which is beyond all of that. There is nothing like the life beyond dreams.
E. The Issue of Blasphemy Versus Glorification.
1. The moment you believed in Jesus Christ, God did forty things for you; some were done by God the Father, some by the Son, and some by the Spirit.
2. Every believer has a choice as he begins his Christian life. He can choose his own plans, his own dreams, his own desires, the subject of his fervent prayers, and the extension of his imagination. Or he can choose the plan of God, which is the life beyond gnosis and the life beyond dreams.
3. The wisdom of God has provided something far greater than the desires expressed in our prayers or petitions to others, or in the dreams of our imagination.
4. To choose the plan of God results in a life beyond our fondest dreams and imaginations. But to choose our own plan is blasphemy.
5. We imply by choosing our own plan that we have a better plan than God’s, and that we can do more for ourselves to make us happy than God can do for us to make us happy.
6. The believer rejects the plan of God when he rejects Bible doctrine. The believer accepts the plan of God when he makes Bible doctrine his #1 priority in life, and is therefore under post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation.
7. The believer who chooses his own plan inevitably becomes a loser. He doesn’t lose his salvation, but he loses his escrow blessings for time. Does he have the life beyond gnosis? No, because of no doctrine. Does he receive the life beyond dreams? No, that is out of the question. He has chosen his own plan and his own life. He has chosen to reject doctrine, to be casual about doctrine, or to be haphazard about doctrine, to take it in only when he feels like it, or when he’s in serious trouble and is looking for a one-shot solution to bail him out.
8. The believer who chooses God’s plan is a winner, for God “is able to do infinitely more than all we ask or imagine.”
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R. B. Thieme, Jr. Bible Ministries 5139 West Alabama, Houston, Texas 77056 (713) 621-3740
© 1997, by R. B. Thieme, Jr. All rights reserved.
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