If you have been laid off from work, maybe God wants you to be laid off. If you don't have a job, maybe God does not want you to have one.

I know you have bills to pay and food to put on the table. The rent or mortgage is due, the car insurance is due and you don't know where the money is coming from. For now, you may need to find any job that you can get but you also have to start trusting God.

I can tell you don't have faith in God because of several criteria God has established to measure that faith. Is your health perfect? Are you happy? Are your relationships perfectly supportive and loving? Do you own a business or have passive investments that provide you with the income you need to live the lifestyle you desire without having to work for a living?

If your answer to these questions is "No" then you have forgotten your relationship to God and you are living in sin. Before I go on, let me stop and say that I am just like you. Those who meet me may say that my relationships are not perfect, that I struggle with finances and my health could be better. But I now see where I need to be and God has led me to help others see that same place in their lives. By helping each other, we help ourselves as well.

We all think we know what sin is. We have heard it preached to us from pulpits and pastors, schools and teachers, parents and guardians of all kinds. But all that is incorrect. According to the Bible sin is when you do not live according to God's plan for you. Some people may think that God wants you to go to church every Sunday, obey the Ten Commandments, tithe, contribute your time to church committees and parental groups, or participate in bake sales or other activities at the church. That Could be true, if that's the plan God has for you - but it's unlikely.

God has set in each person's heart a certain dream that that person is supposed to fulfill. Along with that dream, God has given each person a talent or set of talents to help them accomplish that dream.

The talent God gave you may be singing or acting, driving a cab or boxing. It could be a doctor or nurse, dental assistant or customer service rep. You may be the next Rembrandt, Bach or Leonardo da Vinci. Or you could be Joe the Mechanic, Diane the pre-school teacher or Elaine the animal shelter volunteer. Following your path - that dream that God has given you - is called following the Kingdom of Heaven. What dream did God put in your heart? What would you do if you knew you could do anything and you knew you could not fail?

The problems in our lives, our neighborhoods and communities, our places of business, the schools and churches, in government, city, state and federal, between nations and peoples and with the environment are all a result of forgetting who we are. We are spiritual beings experiencing a physical existence. The divine spark of God lives in each mortal living thing, animating us, breathing us, living through us. When we cut off that connection to Spirit - to Source - we grow ill, disconnected from the unlimited bounty which surrounds us, estranged from Him Whom We Should Serve. Our vision narrows until our focus is solely upon the cares and worries of this world - what bills to pay? how should we eat? what should we wear? where should we live? In this state, God becomes a distant Being we visit - if we visit at all - only once a week in some building.

That's not how it was meant to be. And maybe, just maybe the fact that you are out of work, or are struggling with health issues, relationship issues, drugs or addictions, unsatisfying work or financial issues is all supposed to be a wake up call to you from God. Maybe, during this time of enforced time off from work, you should be focusing on God's plan for your life. Maybe God has a message for you, maybe there is something He is trying to tell you. Maybe there is something He wants you to do. And, while you have been so busy, busy, busy with your everyday, workaday life, you didn't take time off to listen to God on a daily basis. But now you can.

God speaks to everyone all the time. He always has. But we have been taught that He does not. We have been taught that He speaks only to certain people; pastors and rabbi's maybe, or prophets or evangelists. That's not true. God speaks to everyone all the time. God is speaking to you.

I do not know what God's plan is for you. But I do know He has one. I do not know what your innermost secret dream is, but I know you have that also - even if you have forgotten it - or even never knew it. You may have forgotten your secret dream over the years or suppressed it because it seemed childish or immature, unrealistic and people told you to grow up, be an adult, stop acting that way. And now you are an adult. But it is still there somewhere, dormant, lying there in your heart waiting to be reawakened, to be born again. It is waiting to come to life and empower you and all those around you and all those you meet. Living your dream will bring you unlimited happiness, prosperity, wealth, and joy. Living it is the only way to worship God. Not living it is to sin. How much sin are you in?

God wants you to be happy, to be full of joy, to live life fully and more abundantly, to experience exciting, supportive relationships, to be wealthy and prosperous. God says that His plan for you is greater than your ability to imagine. What is your dream? What is your secret mission? What is your true calling? What would you do if you knew you could not fail? What are your strengths? What are your skills? Therein lies your talents. And therein lies your dream - God's dream. What is your dream?