I had this dream before my daughter was born:
Ari (my wife) and I were swimming in a pool. And as we were swimming I saw a little arm hanging down between her legs. I told Ari and the next thing I knew the whole baby was coming out. I dove down and caught her. The dream ended with me holding my daughter.
Here’s a dream I had about a week ago:
In the dream my boss offers us this house and I quickly accept. The next thing I know I’m waking up in a bedroom of the house next to Ari. The room is dark but I could see the walls, they were painted white with pink and black swirls. All around the walls were mirrors that had been hung on the walls but were now broken and shattered. As we left the bedroom, we came to a really beautiful sitting room. I took some time to arrange the chairs (taking ownership in a sense), but was interrupted by people arriving to go on the inspection of the house. My boss, my mom, and some others I didn’t recognize were there to go on the tour. As we went through the house we could tell it was in obvious need of repair, sections of the ceiling were drooping from water damage. And an access tunnel that ran through the roof connecting the section we were in to the chapel (also part of the house) was damaged from the water, but the lower access tunnel was open. Now this house was huge, I mean huge! But as we were walking my mom started asking me the important questions I had forgotten to ask like, how much is he asking? I didn’t and tried finding my boss to ask, but after seeing more damage she recommended not getting the house. I can remember the whole time asking God what his will was, did he want me here to fix up the place. I knew we could do it, but wanted to be sure that’s what God wanted me to do. We eventually made it to the chapel which looked like a small old Cathedral. The dream ended with me trying to find my boss to find out the cost.
I had this dream this morning.
My wife and I were living in this shipping container. She was pregnant and as we were sitting there we saw her shirt rise up as the baby’s head poked up underneath. At first we thought the baby was just doing something funny, but as we pulled her shirt up we saw she had somehow dug out through her and was coming out the top of her stomach. Of course we freaked out and I called 911 on my cell but something happened as I made the call so I wasn’t able to complete the call. But I knew that the cops were on the way. I can’t remember exactly what happened next, but we started running away from someone or something that was trying to take away the baby towards the gate that lead out of our compound. As we arrived at the gate, the cop in an undercover car that only had room for Ari. So I yelled for him to take her to the hospital. And I headed back to the container to get my bicycle. On the way back I ran through a football game caught or almost caught a pass and threw it back. After that I got my bike and started my way back to the front. As I turned to leave I got hit in the back of the neck with some spitle, so I turned to find out who had done that and found myself face to face with one very nasty dude. At this point I realized that I was wasting time and I needed to get to Ari so I turned and ran leaving my would be attacker behind. When I got to the gate I was able to get on my bike and speed to the hospital. Once there I ran around like a crazy man trying to find my wife. Along the way I found Pastor Joe and together we found her.
It was about this point that I woke up.
I was 13 or 14 when I had this horrible dream that my whole family was leaving on a train, and I was there at the station pleading with them not to go, not to leave me behind. That was when I found out that I talk in my sleep. Apparently the other 40 or so boys who were sleeping in the gym that night heard me crying out the same thing I was saying in my dream “Don’t leave me!”.
Almost a full ten years later on a hike with other men, did I ever experience such fear of being alone. The hike started of pretty good, through the first quarter mile or so I was really excited. After that I realized that the whole trip would be like walking up stairs with a heavy pack on my back. After awhile our group split up into two smaller groups. I tried to keep up with the leaders, but eventually I felt the need to stop and not wanting to slow down the others I let them go ahead figuring I would just take my time and wait for the group behind me to catch up. Hopefully saving some energy for the next day that I knew would be grueling. Eventually the trail let me to a fork, and not sure which way to go I had to wait for group behind me.
After waiting fifteen or so minutes I began to notice that my sweat was condensing, and that I was really starting to get cold. It’s at this point that the devil starts whispering in my ear, reminding me that people had died on this mountain, and that I was in danger of the same. I began to pray.
Thirty minutes of standing alone on the trail, I pulled out my cell phone, but found that I couldn’t get any reception, and I start to shiver. How much longer till dark? How long till I’m really in trouble? The other group should be here by now, did they go a different way or worse are they lost? I could just pick a direction, but I risked going the wrong way and then I’d really be in trouble because if it was the wrong way it would take exponentially longer for anyone who might be looking for me to find me. The best plan for me was to stay put, and continue to pray.
At forty-five minutes my faith wavered, and I picked a direction. I hiked for a few minutes on the trail, but didn’t feel good about it. So I started to hike back to my waiting spot. On the way back I decided to try my phone again. That’s when God provided a miracle, I suddenly had cell reception and used the opportunity to call everyone on the cell phone list. Through my chattering teeth I was able to leave a few voice mails asking for help. No sooner had I set down my phone than it rang, one of the guys on the hike was calling me back, to tell me that help was on the way. A few minutes later back at the place I had been waiting before, help arrived from the opposite way I had been trying to go just a few minutes ago. As I hiked to camp, God started talking to me about his role as my heavenly Father, about his faithfulness, and about him never leaving me alone. It was through trial that my view of God as my heavenly Father grew from head knowledge to heart knowledge. I was safe (not that I was ever in any real danger, the devil is a liar) for the moment, but God wasn’t done teaching me and setting me free from my fear of abandonment.
Our trip was all but over, all that was left to do was shower and hop on a plane. The shower felt great, it had been three long days since my last one, and I was savoring every hot drop of water the devil began to whisper in my ear. Insecurities began to surface out of no where, doubts about the newly formed friendships popped into my head like popcorn. I began to wonder what they were talking about while I was out of the room, were they all agreeing that I was really strange and couldn’t wait till I was gone? It’s silly to think about now, but the devil wanted to rob me of any kind of good this trip had been to build me up as the man my heavenly Father wants me to be. But I had learned and grown during the trip, and I began to question the reason behind those feelings (thanks Scott and Seth 
). As I dug I found that my real wasn’t that I didn’t fit in but rather my fear that a group of men I had become really close to would suddenly abandon me. As I thought about that I was reminded of my time alone on the mountain and of my Father in heaven who would never abandon me. It was then that something in me changed and I began to grow, the doubts and fears melted away in the light of the truth.
I still have a long way to go to be the man God has destined for me to become, but I know now that I don’t have to do this journey alone, regardless of how the devil describes my situation.
“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” Galatians 5.24
“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin — because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.” Roman 6.6
“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darknes and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Col 1.13
God has given me two distinct visions of the death of my flesh.
The first was a vision of a man (Jesus) on the inside of me. He was in my belly with a fire, hollowing me from the inside out. The smoke from his fire was traveling up to my mouth coming out as praise and worship to God. And with every breath in I breathed in the spirit of God. This at first rubbed me wrong way making me think that it was something sacriligious, but now God has worked in me to let go and trust that this is a message from him.
In the second I saw the shell of a man and on the inside it looked like some kind of construction was going on. I could see the scafolding and sparks coming from the welders. As I watched the construction continued to grow bigger and bigger. It reminded me of those spy movies I used to watch where the goverment or the bad guys would build these secret projects in hollowed out volcanoes or caves in order to keep it protected and gain the element of surprise over the enemy. I felt like God was saying to me that He was doing the same thing inside of me. He was creating his secret weapon inside of me so that when the time came he will launch his surprise attack from inside something the world thought wasn’t a threat.
I hope that sharing this with you encourages you as they have with me.
I had a dream that I was a spy in Russia planning an escape from a prison there. It didn’t seem like we were prisoners there because we were free to explore it. As we were exploring we came across a fence we scaled the fence and on the other side was a garden. This garden was smallish ten by ten size that was surrounded on all sides by a wooden fence. We dropped down off the fence, walked around for a bit and decided to climb out on the other side. Only to find a secret garden on the otherside of that fence. This secret garden was about the same size but rather than having plants and flowers this garden had a square of gravel just big enough for me to lay down in. As we were standing there my companion told me that this was the place where the Holy Spirit would fill me and the place I should hide during the escape. We climbed out the secret garden and came to a rocky sea shore walking around with the warden at this point looking at a boat that looked like a van. ( weird )
Before this escape was to take place I went to a retreat with some of the old peeps from Memphis. The place we were at was a white house everything there was white. It seemed they were on a beach week. But the whole time I was there it just seemed off. Weird
Actual conversation:
Satan: You can’t run three miles without stopping.
Me: Yes I can. God promised.
Satan: When?
Me: He said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Satan: …
Me: And I can worship Him as I do it. (In your face Satan!)
This may seem elementry, but the cool thought about it was God’s revelation. It’s not natural for me to think of a scripture as an explicit promise of God to Me.
Thank you Lord for helping me fight against the attacks of the enemy. And thank you for a great run today.