Last night was the first night in over a week that I attempted to sleep without some sort of cold medicine to help me. It’s not that I am well, per se, but rather, I really don’t like the cloudy feeling that sticks with me the following morning. It makes focusing and waking up a bit challenging.
Everything seemed to be going along pretty well until somewhere what I was dreaming about went south. It was too realistic and I knew where it was headed. I was working with a child who I knew was a felon. We were in the midst of a trial and I was asked to go in and build a relationship with this child in order to obtain a weapon and confession. The truth was I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to be in a confined space with this kid, who was still granted access to things that I knew he should not have been. I tried to speak with my boss, he wouldn’t budge. And here’s the scary thing – I knew, with every fiber of my being I was going to die. That day. In that moment. I knew I was going to die. My only escape was to wake myself up. Remind myself that it was a dream.
So I did. I would tell myself I had nothing to fear because it was only a dream. I would drift off to sleep and promptly fall back into the story right where I had awakened myself before.
Over and over again this pattern ensued. The only good thing that came out of this cruddy night “sleep” is that with each time I would wake myself, I would begin to pray for my people. The ones whom God has placed on my heart to regularly pray for. I would lift them up and sing a song of praise in my head and eventually drift back into the land of my nightmare, until the alarm went off at 4:30.
Truthfully, I have NO idea where this dream came from. I don’t watch crazy TV. In fact, I don’t watch much TV at all. I don’t go see crazy movies. In fact, I hardly watch movies any more either. What I DO know is that the dream was all too real.
In retrospect, I think that a big piece of my nightmare was the fact that no one seemed to be able to see what I could clearly see. I was going to die, and this kid was going to cause it. Everyone else – my boss, my co-workers – they seemed to believe that I was loosing it. Crazy. Over exaggerating. They were missing the danger. Even though the facts and information was right before them, they were unable to see or recognize it!
While I am so glad this was just a dream I woke up from, I am not sure that this concept is all that much different from what is going on around us spiritually. 1 Peter: 5:8-9 says: “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against Him, and be strong in your faith.”
Are we doing that? Are were deliberately staying alert? Keeping our senses – our eyes and our ears open to be alerted? How will we recognize him? He will not attack us in the most obvious ways – no, he will try and slide his tricks of destruction in. Change our thinking. Wait till we are unfocused and not paying attention. Our best method of preventing this is to stay close to our Father, our Savior. Anything that does not align with Him and His word, should heighten our awareness. It should cause us to pause and give thought to how we react. As Christ followers, we are given all that we need to combat the attacks.
Friends, as much as I wish it were not so, there are many teachings happening in our culture today – some claiming to be godly – that do not align with God’s Word. If they do not align, they are not from God. He cannot contradict Himself. His Word – His rules do not change – but neither do His promises!
“By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the One who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence. And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.” -2 Peter 1:3-4
We are not missing pieces in our lives. They have been supplied to us. We only need to access them. Learn them. Embrace them. Live them. We know who we are up against – even if others around us do not seem to recognize the danger. But most importantly, unlike my dream, we will never face the evil one alone. The LORD of Heaven’s Army will fight for His faithful people.
Blessings!