Part 1 – Sticky Dreams
I had a dream several months back and the dream has stuck
with me because of what I saw. Since I was a little kid, God, Satan, angels and
demons will show up in my dreams. At first these dreams would absolutely
petrify me especially the ones where Satan or demons showed up because of how I
would interpret the reason for their appearance. Unfortunately, there weren’t
people around me that were solidly-rooted-in-the-Word Christians who could tell
me God’s truth and explain why the dreams were happening. Instead, I thought
these dreams were the result of watching a scary program on TV or seeing a
scary movie or from living in Salem, Massachusetts and being exposed to the
occult or simply that I was a bad person. Many a good nights’ sleep were lost
over the decades because of fear of sleeping; fearing that once asleep the
dreams would happen again and this time making the visitation permanent.
Starting in 1983, I had two amazing dreams where the Lord
visited for a positive reason bringing an amazing sense of peace and hope.
Those dreams were so calming that, honestly, I didn’t want to wake up. I took
those dreams as a gift and tried to remember them as I would nightly drift off
to sleep telling myself that if the Lord visited me like that before then, He
must love me.
When I married Chauncey and had him beside me nightly as my
“protector” – outside of ordinary dreams – the spiritual dreams, good and bad,
stopped for a time. So, I thought that the dreams were in fact a product of an
over active imagination, as I had prayed throughout the years that God would
take away my creativity and imagination so that these dreams would stop. It
wasn’t until 1995 that I had a visit from two angels during a dream that scared
the life out of me causing me to wake up nearly hyperventilating and screaming,
“I’m not ready!” realizing I wasn’t ready to meet God. Although the dream
frightened me because I realized I wasn’t ready to die, the dream instead shook
me into the reality that after my salvation in 1985, I had not grown with God
and not lived a life growing with Him. That dream was the catalyst to get me to
move from complacency to seeking God. (When I get to heaven, I am going to have
to thank those two angels for the reality jolt.)
As my relationship with God over the years has deepened and
He continues to share with me more about whom He is, who He is not and who I am
in Him, I am able to better accept the dreams and understand them. These are
true dreams because they happen when I am sleeping, not like visions that
happen when awake. Typically they are scenarios that articulate Scripture and I
find the answers to the dreams when I read the relating Scripture. That reality
jolt dream in 1995 contained elements of Revelation, a book of the Bible that,
at the time, I had not read because it frightened me. (Now, I absolutely love
prophecy.) When I finally read Revelation seeing aspect of the catalytic dream
in that book of the Bible, that is when I realized I was having specific dreams
– the kind promised to believers when the Holy Spirit is with them. (Acts 2:17)
"In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your
sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men
will dream dreams.”
Throughout the years, I have come across Scripture that
explains what I saw in that dream so I know it was a visitation rather than
simply a crazy dream or nightmare. Sometimes in my dreams, there are no visual
Scripture scenarios and then I must quickly understand the context of the
dreams so I can answer the situation I’m in with Scripture. Those types of
dreams are when Satan or a demon shows up in the house and I’m aware the
presence of evil is there. My answer? “What is in me is stronger than what is
in the world. God is in me and He is sovereign. He defeated you and you know
it. You have no place here so leave. You cannot touch me and you cannot touch
the others in this house.” (1 John 4:4; John 16:33) Now I am able to wake from
the dream, understand what just happened, know God is with me, roll over and go
back to sleep. It is so very reassuring knowing the truths of God.
Once again, I had a dream several months back and the dream
has stuck with me because of what I saw. I found myself outside in the dark in
an open area, with oak trees surrounding me – the size of scrub oaks. I was on
an empty cul-de-sac and the road glistened from what must have been a recent
rain. There was some light glowing on the cul-de-sac so I could see around the
area well enough as if it were a streetlight. Some wicked looking cat passed by
me. It had just appeared in front of me and ran almost charging at me. I just
remember it being a black cat with skinny, pointy features and the size of an
ordinary house cat. Then the cat charged back towards the cul-de-sac away from
me, skidded to a stop while spinning around to face me. As it did, it changed
in its appearance to a sleek, black, wild cat – fierce like a bobcat – only
with a long, sharp tail, pointy ears and it doubled in size. It swished its
tail fiercely as if to cut the air around it. That’s when I realized the
situation I was in – I was dreaming and Satan was there. As the wild cat
prepared to charge me, it changed its appearance once again. This time it
became a mangy lion – if you have ever seen the animated film “The Lion King,”
the lion reminded me of Scar the evil lion who was more thin and clever than
massive and powerful. Again, the lion grew in size when it went from wild cat
to lion.
As the lion began to advance, I stood my ground and for some
reason, I was not afraid. My feet were planted about shoulder width apart, my
hands balled into fists with my arms straightened beside me. I leaned towards
the charging lion, opened my mouth and began to scream at the lion only no
words or screams came out. I was silent. I was screaming silently. I didn’t
tell the lion that God was in me. Didn’t tell the lion, who I now recognized as
Satan, to leave. Oddly, I was overconfident about my abilities facing Satan and
I was just trying to yell “Shut up!” yet no words were coming out. During this
standoff, I realized that I was relying more on my ability than on the truths
of God. And yet, just as the lion was about to pounce on me, it skidded to an
abrupt stop while trying to back-peddle leaning back to avoid me and shut
its mouth tightly out of fear. That’s when I sensed something very big was
standing right behind me. Something very powerful was behind me and that is who
scared the lion shut. It was God and He was protecting me. He shut the mouth of
that lion as I was unable. (Daniel 6:4-27) What upset me was that I tried to face the lion on my own, in my own confidence. Thankfully, God stayed true to who He is, His promises, His truths and His grace. What I learned? It’s not up to me to keep the promises of God “earning my spot in heaven.” It’s God’s ability to keep His promises and in keeping those promises, it is not conditional on my ability. God promised. He declared it. So, it will be. (Ezekiel 24:14)
I heard Pastor Tullian Tchividjian say that “The quality of our faith does not
save us; the object of our faith saves us.” It’s not my ever growing knowledge
of God that is saving me. As I mature in Christ and move from who I am without
Him to who I am in Him, I am not saving myself. I am not the one who moves me
into maturity; it is not something I can learn and become more adept at with discipline,
practice and time. I do not have the ability to take on what only God is
capable of doing. It is God Himself that saves me. God Himself that is able to
do what God is able to do. And even when my faith is weak or I doubt or I don’t
step into obedience or I act as if I can do things only God can do, if a
promise comes to pass, it is because God said so. He promised and He doesn’t
need me to fulfill that promise. He doesn’t need me… He wants me with Him.
What
impacts me is that the dream scenario happened. Perhaps God placed me in that
situation, knowing how I would react, so that I would learn this truth about
myself as I relate to God; and so I would relearn the foundational truth of God
in a way that would stick with me. I need to always be aware that I am not
earning my way to Heaven. Although my life is evidence that God exists because
God is changing me from a rebellious, selfish, arrogant sinner into a person
who reflects the image of His Son Jesus, I must understand that I am not
becoming perfect like Jesus with the ability to live more perfectly on my own
and without God’s provisions. I am living by the ability the Lord Jesus has
shared with me. It’s His ability, His power given to me. So when God places me
into situations that are beyond my ability to handle, He also gives me His
ability to manage through those situations where, when I come out of the
situation successfully, I can only acknowledge God for the reason why I was
successful.
So, I
had a dream and it stuck with me because of what I saw.
Part 2 – If You Don’t Know Truth, How Will You Know A Lie?
“Crouching lions;
hidden dragons”
From life to dreams, it’s important that we know truth, real
truth and not the world’s version of truth and that truth is God’s truth. He
set the truth standard and His standard is called righteousness or right
standard. When we know God’s truths then we will know right from wrong, up from
down, good from bad and, truth from lies. When we know God’s truth we can also know
when it’s Him and when it’s not Him because Satan is crafty and wants to
confuse us, trip us up, get us to second guess ourselves so he can deceive us,
cause us to fall or cause us to blame God for something that we should be
blaming Satan or, in many cases, ourselves. Satan’s goal is to get us to walk
away from God permanently, separate us from God and destroy us completely. True
evil is rooted in rebellion against God, believing we don’t need God that we
are the god of our lives and so, we resent God. That’s true evil and it
manifests itself in so many horrific and subtle ways. As arrogant human beings,
we want to believe that we can easily spot things that are evil and things that
are good. Looking broadly at life, we may all agree that Adolf Hitler is the
personification of evil itself and think that when we see things similar to the
atrocities committed by Hitler and his leadership, we can say with confidence
that those things are evil because it depicts the standard of evil. We may
agree that Mother Theresa is the personification of good things or – if there
is a God – Godly things. So when we look at similar actions by others, we may
agree to call those items good or Godly as they are what we think a loving God
would do depicting the standard of good.
But when evil actions are caused by rebellion and resentment
– which are the underpinnings of hatred – then evil can be a subtle lie
twisting aspects of the truth to its benefit making it “not true” or false.
It’s difficult to recognize unless you know the truths of God – who He is and
who He is not.
For instance, I am always amazed that the Bible describes
Satan and his actions with similar terms describing Jesus. Before his fall,
Satan was called Lucifer which means “the angel of light” or “the bringer of
light” or “Day Star” or “Son of Dawn.” (Isaiah 14:12) His role was to be the
chief angel, reflecting God’s light and in charge of organizing the angelic praise
of and service for God. Jesus is called “The Light of the World” (John 9:5)
because when truth comes into a false situation, it illuminates the situation
so you can see right from wrong, God from not-God. Sin and Satan are referred
to as “a crouching lion ready to pounce and devour you.” (Genesis 4:6; 1 Peter
5:8) “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a
roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” And the royal description and
leadership of King Jesus is described as the “Lion of the tribe of Judah.”
(Revelation 5:5) “Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep! See, the
Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to
open the scroll and its seven seals.’” We like to think of Satan as who he is
after his rebellion – the serpent or the dragon – therefor easier to spot.
However, he is sometimes a lion; a crouching lion, hiding his dragon
personification.
What we truly must know: “who IS God and who IS He NOT.” Satan
doesn’t always appear as Hitler or Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy. Sometimes he
appears to be a false-good or subtly-confusing. I always wondered why Eve
listened to a talking snake in the garden. Sorry. Even though before the fall,
man and animals were not afraid of one another. Man was the God-designated caretaker
of the world – God’s paradise garden – and Man was to steward and care for all
of creation inclusive of the animals. Yet, snakes just give me “the willies.” Before
the fall of mankind, God still visibly walked the earth walking with Adam,
sharing a relationship with him. So, if I were Eve, why would I listen to a
slithering creature over the gorgeous, glorious, most beautiful God Himself?
Unless, Satan was also most handsome. Even though this passage of Scripture
describes the King of Tyre, scholars believe it describes Satan before his rebellion
(Ezekiel 28:12-15):
“Son of man,
raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God:"You were the signet of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
You were in Eden, the garden of God;
every precious stone was your covering,
sardius, topaz, and diamond,
beryl, onyx, and jasper,
sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle;
and crafted in gold were your settings
and your engravings.
On the day that you were created
they were prepared.
You were an anointed guardian cherub.
I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God;
in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.
You were blameless in your ways
from the day you were created,
till unrighteousness was found in you.
And that is why Eve listened to Satan. He was handsome and he walked the garden too. Then he twisted some truths spoken by God, stating them falsely, asking Eve if God really meant what He said causing her to second guess herself and most of all, second guessing God. “Are you sure He meant this?” That is why she was deceived. What was Eve’s mistake? Not getting council from her husband who actually heard directly from God – before she was created – what man was not to touch in the garden. And, with God walking the garden and enjoying His friendship with Adam and Eve, she could have asked God for clarification yet, she did not. So really what was in Eve’s heart of hearts that caused her to be deceived when Satan twisted the truth? Did she want to be closer to God? Did she want to be "like" God? Or did she want to be able to "be" God? What is in our own hearts that we choose to listen to things that sound good without verifying that they are good?
Twisted truth, after all, is no longer truth but lies.
