Warrior Truth: “I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.” Ps 16 v 7
I’m sure I dream a hundred dreams a night, most of which blur from memory just minutes after opening my eyes. But just over a week ago, it was different. The dream not only troubled me mentally as I slept but my body too was restless. My tossing and turning alerted my husband who lovingly extended his hand in comfort and I returned once again to the peace of our quiet and dark room. The memory of the dream stayed with me as I drifted back to sleep (uneventfully this time) and again when I awoke the next morning. Even now, over a week later, it is as if I can still see the dream’s screenplay.
In my dream, I was returning home from what seems to have been a rather large grocery shopping excursion. My family was not yet home but as I turned into my street, there seemed to be a fair bit of traffic in the street and more people milling about that was normal. I drove into my driveway and unpacked my shopping. I could hear my dogs inside the house barking excitedly at my arrival. The shopping bags now vulnerably on display outside the front of the house caught the attention of the crowd in the street and they started rifling through the shopping, ignoring my rising pleas to step away. Someone from the crowd approached and a friendly conversation ensued. This interaction served to distract me further delayed me from getting my front door open. When I looked back to where my shopping had been left, I discovered the crowd had dispersed, along with every item I had purchased. In my dream, I felt outraged and desperate – how and what was I going to provide for my family now. It is as I was struggling between crying out for vengeance and compassionately rationalising that perhaps their need had been greater, that my husband’s comforting touch roused me.
I believe God was speaking to me through this dream. Later that morning, during the pre-service prayer meeting and further throughout the day, as I reflected on how felt and responded in the dream, God began to reveal its message to me. The shopping is symbolic of the knowledge and skills that I have gained in my life. These have been my ‘essentials’ for living and working – the deposit from which I (and others) draw to achieve what needs to be done in life and work. Within the dream was a loving warning that when I allow myself to be distracted by the plights of others, my guard is let down and that deposit can be easily depleted, leaving me feeling as if I have lost everything. But then, God’s promises rose up in my heart: His promise of restoration and His great generosity. I felt God saying that some of what I was holding onto, it was time to let go of. I no longer needed it and that He had something better planned.
Warrior Tool: Throughout the Bible, God has used dreams to speak to people. At times the message is delivered clearly in the dream and no further interpretation is required. At other times, we need to seek God’s interpretation for us. He might choose to do this through someone else or He might reveal it to us through our times of prayer. In making the decision to attend the pre-service prayer meeting, while the interpretation of my dream was not on the corporate prayer agenda, I was exercising this important warrior tool and God met me in that moment. This dream that had initially felt so troubling, is now an exciting promise reminding me to keep my eyes and ears focused on Him.
Prayer: Thank you Lord that you speak to us in so many ways – through the things we see, the words we hear and the dreams we dream. Lord, be our wise counsel, always instruct our hearts and our minds that we would know Your will for our lives and that we would heed Your voice, and in obedience take the steps the Spirit prompts us to take. Amen
With God, For His Glory