Dreams and Faith

I had a terrific dream the other night.  I was looking in a mirror at myself while the Spirit of God was prophesying over me, telling me my future. Unfortunately, I can't remember the exact words that were said, but I came away from the experience understanding that God was confirming that He was going to help me fulfill a dream I've had since I was a young child. It is exhilarating to have some assurance that it's going to happen! 

I woke up from the dream in the middle of the night in an unnaturally deep slumber. I felt drugged almost. I smiled to myself, started praying a prayer of thanks, and fell back to sleep.  When I woke up the next morning, I was still really sleepy, so cozy in my bed, and I had almost forgotten about the dream. However, it occurred to me that I felt intense joy.  Why did I feel so much joy? I thought. Then I remembered the dream and my heart leaped for a moment! But I was still so drowsy and my bed felt so good and the joy felt so good, so I just continued to lay there, snoozing, and it was another hour or more before I woke up and actually got out of bed.

By the time I got up, put on my house shoes, and shuffled down the hall to greet my husband who was already awake and reading quietly on the couch, I'm embarrassed to admit that I had forgotten about the dream again.  It was as if it hadn't even happened.  I got a cup of coffee and I sat and started reading my Scripture for the day merely out of routine.

That's when I came upon Genesis 25:21-23. 

Rebekah became pregnant with twins. But the two children struggled with each other in her womb. So she went to ask the Lord about it. “Why is this happening to me?” she asked.
 
And the Lord told her, “The sons in your womb will become two nations. From the very beginning, the two nations will be rivals. One nation will be stronger than the other; and your older son will serve your younger son.”

Upon reading this, it struck me how straightforward God was with Rebekah.  He answered her plainly about what her future would be.  This thrilled me, the possibility that God could tell us our future. But, interestingly, I still didn't remember that I had had a dream about my future.  Apparently, I can be really forgetful.

I kept on reading and I came to Genesis 26:2-5.  

The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt, but do as I tell you. Live here as a foreigner in this land, and I will be with you and bless you. I hereby confirm that I will give all these lands to you and your descendants, just as I solemnly promised Abraham, your father. I will cause your descendants to become as numerous as the stars of the sky, and I will give them all these lands. And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed. I will do this because Abraham listened to me and obeyed all my requirements, commands, decrees, and instructions.

As I was reading and got to the words, "I will be with you and bless you..."  my heart started to quicken It literally started to beat really fast for some reason. I knew something was on going on in my spirit, so I kept reading, but I was wondering, "Why is my heart beating so fast?"  I thought for another moment.  Then I remembered my dream!  

So God does tell people their futures! Reading about God telling Issac the same thing He had said to Abraham reminded me that he'd just done a similar thing for me! I cried out loud and told Dwayne, who was still close by, about the dream I had had, that I had forgotten it, till just now, and that God had told me my dream would come true.  My husband rejoiced with me. He knows how badly I've been longing to make this dream come true.   

Then something obviously occurred to my husband and he got quiet. He smiled that smile he smiles when he has a secret that he knows I will like. That's when he told me he had had a vivid dream about his future that night, too.  The dream was of him being filled with the Holy Spirit and then going in the Spirit's power and doing something that he has been considering doing for some time, too.  My husband is quite sober when it comes to spiritual matters, so I believed him immediately and implicitly.  We both sat and glorified God and talked about how incredible it was that we both dreamed about our futures on the same night!
 
You may wonder at this account. You may think I'm crazy and that my husband shares my lunacy. Well, I've asked myself, "Am I crazy?"  But, the ability to step outside of myself and review my experiences and thoughts is what makes a person rational.  A world with God makes more sense to me than a world without Him. The Judea-Christian account of history does the best job of explaining reality, in my opinion. So my reason upholds my faith.  I believe there is a God. He made me a saint when I believed in His Son, Jesus, just a regular saint, but a saint none-the-less.  He is my friend now.  And if that's a fact, then just about anything is possible now.

Prophecy?  Dreams?  They actually happen a lot to regular people who happen to be saints throughout history. In fact, I'm beginning to think that experiences like this might be inherent to the reality of being in a relationship with a supernatural being. I don't like being charismatic.  I resent it, actually.  It makes me uncomfortable and embarrassed. But I have to admit that friendship with God, out of necessity, might be more than a little uncomfortable for the human beings involved.  God is, after all, so very different than us. If we want Him to be free with us, free to speak His mind, do things His way, be Himself in the sense that we want our other friends to be themselves, we must be prepared for the realities of that. (I'm trying to reconcile myself to the apparent realities of that.)  I think we men and women may need to "gird up our loins" for what an encounter with God may really be like.  In my experience so far, a friendship with God can be really uncomfortable. But, never-the-less, I want to make room for Him in my life, whatever that looks like.

I've been thinking about what I'm supposed to do now, now that I know or think I know what's going to happen.  And I think I'm supposed to do what Abraham did and just believe God. It might not happen for a while.  It didn't happen for Abraham right away.  But God has told me what the future holds and what He's going to do in my husband's life, too.  The prospect of it gives us great joy and hope.  It also requires every bit of faith that I have to believe what He said, and then to believe I'm not crazy for believing that He said it. But Scripture says, "Abraham believed God at it was credited to Him as righteousness."  It all began with Abraham believing God.  That's faith, essentially, to believe God.  It's what God has required of people from the very beginning of the story. So that's what I plan to do.