The Wild Dreams

A few weeks ago I wrote an article for a virtual prayer room that we are hosting in collaboration with Youth For Christ Australia. It had a little description about who I am with it that mentioned my desire to see young people follow their wildest dreams and discover who they were made to be. It might just be the language that I use, but someone who read the article must have been confused and asked me to clarify what I meant by ‘follow their wildest dreams’ and how far that would go, and it made me think.

One of the translations of my name, Jael, is ‘wild mountain goat’. I remember my parents telling me when I was little that they felt God put a bible verse on their hearts when they were pregnant with me: ‘But you have made me as strong as a wild ox. You have anointed me with the finest oil. (Psalm 92:10)’ and thought ‘Jael’ was a good fit for a name. I struggled with my name for a long time. I loved that it was rare, but ‘wild ox’ or ‘wild goat’ isn’t necessarily the most charming of all meanings, and, well, have you read the story of Jael in the Bible?

Those of you who know me know that I’m not necessarily a wild person. I’m really not a fan of adrenaline, and care about people’s hearts way too much to be reckless. I am more sensitive than others, have a high moral standard for myself, think about most things twice before I do them, and am often described as gentle.

Hidden in my name was a part of me that I didn’t understand for a long time.

I can see now, that being ‘wild’ means more than being unrestrained or rebellious.

What makes my heart wild is my deep compassion, my curiosity, and my full surrender to the Spirit of God.

My wildest story is the one I’m living now.

Over a year ago we realized that if we wanted to see these wild dreams that God gave us for Beth-Biri come true, being radical was our only logical option.

We dared to dream this dream and made a choice to dedicate everything that we had to offer in order to see it come to pass. I followed God’s call to Germany, Africa, and then Australia. I gave up my ministry and stability in Austria and left my family and closest friends. There were moments when I had 60 cents in my bank account. There were hours that I spent crying, knowing that if I said yes to this I would have to surrender seeing my nephews and nieces grow up.

This huge call required huge sacrifices, and I never regretted making them. Because of our full yes, we are now living in what we dreamt about five years ago.

We are running this charity, from our house in West End, and are already having a taste of what God has in store for this place. We had more than 60 000 dollars come in over the last three years, saw incredible miracles, and had ridiculous favour and remarkable encounters. We are pioneering something completely new.

We could have said no, or quit when it got hard, but we knew that seeing this through was worth it.

It is the Spirit of God that makes all of this possible, but it is our yes that makes it a reality.

I’m not asking this merely to make you think, but because we want to hear about the things that move your heart, and champion you in going after them:

What is your wild dream? What is the thing that God put on your heart that you are willing to fight for?