Luke Barnett is a world class dreamer.

But when he was a teenager he had no real vision

for his future, after he realized

that playing golf for a living just wasn't going to cut it.

NARRATOR: Luke Barnett is the oldest son of mega pastor Tommy

Barnett.

But Luke had no desire to follow in his dad's footsteps.

He wanted to play golf.

Though he traveled around the world playing

the sport he loved, Luke felt like he

was dying on the inside.

In his book, "The Dream Centered Life,"

Luke shares how he figured out the true course for his future

and offers ways we can find direction in our lives.

Please welcome to "The 700 Club" Luke Barnett.

It's wonderful to have you here.

Thank you.

It's great to be here.

Love your family.

Thank you.

Just so many wonderful things that God

is doing through all of you.

But when you were growing up it wasn't

like you looked at your dad, Tommy, and said,

oh, I want to be--

I want to do what he's doing.

And your dad was very wise in how we handled that.

Tell us about that.

Yeah, he was always very insistent

that we not pursue ministry unless we really felt

the call of God upon our life.

He knew that ministry was difficult and challenging.

And if you are not called it probably wasn't going to work.

And so he would always say, you know, make sure

that you really feel this is what God wants you to do.

And so, for many years, I didn't feel like that

was what God wanted me to do.

In fact, you had a passion for golf.

I did.

And you thought that was going to be your life dream.

Yeah, I played on the mini tours in Arizona.

And quickly learned that that was a tough path,

lots of competition.

And one day my dad said to me, you

know, if someone asks you to go speak at their church

I think you ought to just accept the invitation,

just to see if you like it, or see

if God might use you that way.

I said, sure.

I knew that God wasn't going to open a door.

You're on the golf course.

Yeah, I'm not thinking that.

And two weeks later a gentleman from Goodyear, Arizona called.

My dad didn't even know this man, and says, funny thing,

I just felt like you should come speak to our church.

So I accused my dad right away.

I said you set this whole thing up.

You set me up, dad.

You know?

And he didn't know the man.

Really?

But he said, you said you would if God opened a door.

So what did you do?

I went.

And I memorized one of my dad's sermons.

You did what anybody'd do.

I stumbled and stammered through the thing.

But when I got to the invitation, that was natural.

And I really felt God's power in my life.

And I gave the invitation to receive Christ.

And a beautiful African-American lady

came forward and received the Lord.

And that moment changed my life.

I knew at that moment that was God's calling for my life.

You know, I think many people strive

to know God's calling for their lives, Luke.

I meet a lot people who are just doing a job.

They're not passionate about what they do.

They're not excited about it.

And they kind of say, well, some people find it,

some people don't.

But you believe that we can really pursue our God

given destiny and passion.

Where does one begin?

Well, I believe that God has a dream, a God-sized dream,

for every human life.

I really believe that.

And I think a lot of people, they

live their life on a secondhand revelation from God.

And they live on their parents' religion.

For many years, I built--

I pastored two churches before moving to Phoenix, Arizona.

And I operated on a secondhand revelation.

I did what mom and dad did when they built the church.

Which is the way you do it.

And God blessed it.

And God blesses obedience.

And it was addition.

But I always wonder why there wasn't

that supernatural surge that just pushed the church forward.

And so when I took the baton from my dad, literally

a gold baton, in Phoenix, when he passed it over

from Dr. Bill Bright, it said for training

five million workers.

That's kind of intimidating, receiving that baton.

I would say so.

I didn't even want to touch that baton.

But that moment I went through a season

of depression or oppression.

And I knew it was because I didn't have a God sized

dream for that church.

That church had always been led by a dreamer, my dad.

And so I did the only thing I knew how to do.

I went to a little place on the side of the mountain

that I carved out for my dad 20 years earlier

working construction for the church.

And he would climb up every day at the side of the mountain.

And he would pace back and forth from this little area

that I'd carved out with a bobcat.

We put a safe in the side of the mountain

where he kept his Bible.

And every day he would walk up there

with a cup of coffee, and his Bible, and a newspaper

and pray, and read the paper, and look over

the city and dream for the future of the church.

So I said, well, we made that area 20 years earlier.

I went up there for 40 days.

I prayed, and I fasted, and God downloaded his dream

for the future of our church.

And I found out that moment, that was in 2013,

that in 2023 our church would be a hundred years old.

And so God gave us the dream of a century,

what our church would look like at the year of 100.

Five things, and all five of those things, 3 and 1/2 years

later, are coming to pass.

We went from one campus to four campuses

in just 3 and 1/2 years.

And this is what I always tell people

about the God-sized dream.

You can live your life on a secondhand revelation.

But when you get the firsthand revelation

it's a lot more fun, and a lot more adventurous.

Because you see God doing it.

And the pressure's off.

Yes.

Because it's God's responsibility to perform what

he's shown you.

That's exactly right.

How did that change for you?

How were you able to embrace that?

And even as these things began to happen,

I'm sure you feel both a sense of gratitude and awe,

and at the same time, oh my goodness, more responsibility.

Well, that was a decision I had to make coming down

from the mountain.

Because the church was already large, 10,000 people

at the one campus.

So now I had these five massive dreams

that God had placed on my heart.

And I had a decision.

Am I going to share that with the people?

Or am I going to coast for the next 20 years of my life,

and just enjoy the beautiful church,

enjoy playing golf, and just--

Take it easy.

Yeah.

And so-- but I just sensed the Holy Spirit

saying to me that secret faith is shallow faith.

And so I stood up and I shared that vision.

And the moment I did it just took off.

It started.

It started.

People started mobilizing.

We took our first miracle offering

about two months later.

And the people gave $1.7 million in one weekend.

That had to be affirming.

And that was it.

Because we wanted to build.

And so the ball was rolling forward.

And people started coming to us and giving us their campuses

that they've worked for decades.

Giving them!

Yes.

I mean, that's crazy.

If we were to go out and try to start a campus,

it would take us 30 years to build the campuses

that they're giving is.

And God is multiplying it.

And so we tell people now that our God sized

dream in the next 20 years is to see Arizona become

known as a Christian state.

Wow.

Because states are known for stuff.

Absolutely.

Utah is known as a Mormon state.

But you're in Michigan.

Yeah.

and California is known for entertainment.

New York is known for commerce, and Texas

for oil and millionaires.

Why can't there be one state in America

that's just known for those people who love Jesus?

And so that's our dream.

We want to plant a Dream City Church

in every city of Arizona.

Well, and one of the things you

share in your book, "The Dream Centered Life,"

is that this isn't just for Luke Barnett and his church,

or even the state of Arizona.

That's right.

It's for all of us.

That's right.

So where do we begin?

It seems like prayer was so essential to the leaping

off point for you.

Yeah, this book is not for just for ministers,

not for Christians.

It's for anyone who wants to pursue

God's dream for their life.

For me, I think it came down to do

I want God's dream for my life more than I want food?

Yes, yes.

And so I went on a 40 day Daniel fast, right?

Nothing but twigs and bird seed and leaves for 40 days.

But I wanted to feel that hunger of going after God's dream.

I don't believe that God will give his God-sized dream

to people who just kind of want to--

Are lukewarm.

Yeah.

I think that you have to really want God's plan for your life

more than you want something that's

essential to your daily needs, even like food.

And so that's where I began.

And I think that God saw that hunger inside the heart.

It was real.

Yeah.

It was real.

And you address in here characteristics of a dreamer,

the habits of a dreamer.

I mean, we have just skimmed the surface.

Luke Barnett's book is called "The Dream Centered Life."

It's going to be released in a couple of weeks.

August 15th is the date you'll be able to find it.

If you'd like to know how to preorder a copy go to cbn.com.

And you can also see more of Luke

in a social exclusive interview on our Facebook page.

So take a look at that and hear his heart.

To watch that go to facebook.com/700club.

Wonderful word you bring to all of us.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Luke.

God bless you.

This is for many, many people.