I participated in the group's first collective posting effort today. The topic was "the purpose of dreams." I'll share my note here to read, and you can click here to see what others posted. I haven't had a change to read any, but I've gotten amazing input from some of today's authors in the past. Can't wait to see how people responded to the prompt.
The Purpose of Dreams
Dreaming is one of my favorite pastimes. I look forward to sleeping, I'm so eager to dream.
In the dream realm, I experience Papa God in ways I'm not accustom to in the physical realm yet. Some dreams engage my spirit, some my soul (mind, will, emotion), some both. I'm even convinced that some dreams engage sprit, soul, and body, though I'm not certain I've experienced this yet. Spirit travel, training, prophecy, transrelocation - these are the activities of dreams.
I realized recently that my rate of prophetic dreaming (which I would describe as a dream engaging both spirit and soul), has slowed significantly. Though I still have at least one or two weekly, a few months ago I was having them daily. Since asking Dad about why my dreams have slowed, I've had a few revelations over the past week which I didn't realize were related to this writing effort until about five minutes ago.
The revelation process began with exploration of a recurring experience of fear. It's an experience I've had in both the physical and dream realms. Particularly, fear that inhibits my ability to use my voice.
 |
| The fear induced by spiders indicates they are all this big. (click image for source) |
Once, to give a physical example, I was at the family computer late at night. It was at least five years ago, I still lived at home. I heard a scuttling noise and turned my head to see the largest spider I'd ever seen before walking across our dining room floor. I tried for several minutes to scream, to call for my dad to kill the thing. I couldn't move. I couldn't make a sound. Finally I ran into my parents' room, woke up my dad, and convinced him to hunt it down.
That night, I dreamed that spiders and snakes were flooding my room. I had a few seconds to escape, but I was paralyzed with fear and could neither more nor scream.
Over the past year or two I've had the same visceral sensation of paralyzing fear in dreams that often don't involve spiders or snakes. Rather, they involve the need to heal or raise the dead, or to counter an oncoming attacker (usually a zombie or demon of some sort). Very high pressure, very dire situations.
In every one of these situations, even the ones that still involve spiders, I know I need to say the words "In Jesus Name." I know that these are the words that will save me. But I'm standing paralyzed, fighting to use my voice.
At first, these struggles were overwhelming. Speaking felt impossible, but I kept trying. Once or twice I woke myself up saying "Jesus" out loud, I was trying so hard in my dream. As time has gone on, the struggles have gotten easier and shorter. I still feel the same sensation - that I'm dropping down the first, steepest hill of a rolloer coaster with no visible end and I'm fighting to catch the breath needed to scream - but it now lasts only moments before I am speaking Jesus' name and taking action.
Last week, I had a disturbing dream I'm almost embarrassed to share. I will share it, because it was as I desperately tried to interpret some beneficial meaning from it that I had the poignant revelation I told you I was going to tell you about:
The Spider-Kitten I was in a room with several people. A girl's face caught my eye as it contorted with terror. I followed her gaze to the ceiling, where a massive spider was perched next to the light. As we all focused our attention on it, it dropped to the floor and started charging at people with its fangs bared. We removed our shoes to wield as smashing weapons, but the spider was so large and fast our shoes were too slender to be precise and effective. The spider charged a girl near me, so I stomped to attract its attention. It turned on me, and I experienced a moment of that breathtaking fear before determining that I would have to smash it with my bare hand. Suddenly, the spider bit a kitten that crossed between us, infected it, and disappeared. The kitten charged and I knew it was now the spider's disguise and I'd still smash it. The dream ended after I smashed it several times.
The next day, while walking my dog Somewhere, I had a talk with Dad about that dream. It bothered me, I told him. I didn't enjoy it and I couldn't tell if it was a dream from him or not. Suddenly, I recalled a slew of dreams forced me through that paralyzing fear to say Jesus. Dad showed me that I'd been making progress over the course of my dreams. The fear lasted a mere fleeting second in the kitten-spider dream, my victory over it was swifter that it had been yet. This was my first revelation, or the first part of the revelation process.
As I recalled more dreams, several involving healing and raising the dead were brought to mind and brought me to the second revelation: as it became easier to speak Jesus' name and take action in dreams, it was getting easier to offer people healing in my waking hours. When I started to learn about healing, I wanted desperately to heal everyone I crossed paths with but I was too anxious and fearful to offer. The same roller coaster fear I have in dreams and from encountering spiders was at work. That fear is practically nonexistent now. Strike that... it's practically powerless now. I have moments of anxiety before every healing offer, but I've been vanquishing it more and more swiftly.
These two revelations brought me to the third, as I began writing today. Why have my dreams slowed? Because I've been missing the point. It's relatively acceptable to miss the point, as long as your seeking it. Once you've found it and stopped seeking, but are still missing it... drastic measures must be taken. In my case, dreams have slowed to a hault.
So what's the point? Every dream I've had has been to train me. To give me experience engaging in the spirit world. To give me victory in the spirit world and to make me hungry for it. To help me adjust and grow accustomed to moving in it.
Oh, I'm hungry alright. I told you, I look forward to bed time because I'm so eager to dream. But there, I've done it again. Missed the point.
I'm to be hungry to enter the spirit world. Hungry to engage with Holy Spirit and to walk in Jesus' victory. To overcome Darkness with Kingdom.
Not hungry to dream.
Its a new revelation, so I realize this could likely be summed up in a more concise, easily understood way. Let me try once more. My dream encounters have been purposed to prepare me for spirit encounters when I'm awake. I've become comfortable enough in the spirit world that I am hungry and look forward to dreaming. In order to help me stop expecting my encounters in the spirit to be isolated to dreams, my dream rate has slowed but my hunger has grown. My revelation so far, then, is the realization that my hope has shifted. Rather than hope to dream, I'm hoping to both recognize the spirit world intersecting the physical while I'm awake, and to engage it.
Dreams are personal, revelatory. One rule of thumb I've learned is that, as in the case of prophetic words and visions, the content of the dream is about me, to me, and for me. The interpretation is best done by me. It often helps to get in-put from others, but its incredibly rare that a dream I have should be interpreted completely by someone else, or be passed as a word for others to apply to themselves. Those who've interpreted dreams for me have been incredibly wise and careful; they've shared their thoughts with the intent of helping me learn to interpret for myself.
That said, dreams are also communal. As we share them, our personal interpretations are colored and evolved. Within my community, our dreams are often interrelated. Sharing dreams has become a daily conversation amongst us. We help each other interpret, discuss how our waking and dreaming experiences relate, develop prophetic words over our city and our world, identify and support collective hopes and struggles.
Dreaming is vital to our health, physically and spiritually. If you're not dreaming, or can't remember your dreams, start asking Dad before you go to sleep. It might help to keep a dream journal within reach of you bed, so you can roll over and scribble notes if you wake from a dream in the middle of the night. Start asking your friends and family about their dreams. Testimony is creative, and could very well create a dream experience for you. Fall asleep to Spirit anointed music, or read a Spirit anointed text (I dreamed a lot while reading The Screwtape Letters a while back). If you want to dream, know that Dad honors the desires of your heart. Hope, let Dad know what your hoping, and expect for him to return your hope faithfully.
I don't publish this as universal truth. Just as dreams are personal, this revelation about purpose is personal. It may relate to you, it may not. Let's talk about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment