Last night my wife and I had a dream around the same time and woke up to talk about them. These dreams seemed very different. In my dream she and I were going to have a meal with family, sort of. This ‘family’ was actually some of my kids over at my wife’s ex husband’s house. Now I know there are families that connect and the former spouses are still around. We are not that kind of family. My wife’s past relationship, as well as mine, have been absolute stereotypes of how bad things can go. Neither of us would ever have a meal with this man or trust him with our kids for any amount of time in real life. So this dream is uncomfortable for me. Most of the dream is driving over there and dreading it actually. We talk about a child that died, we talk about a friend who’s parents were extremely strict, we drive backwards and watch the irritated driver following us. Nothing is fun, nothing is OK. I’m thinking of what could cause us to need to leave and how I plan to get out of there when this man does or says something wrong. I know it’s gonna happen and I’m pre angry about it. There were some other kids at the house when we got there and they called me uncle, these kids don’t really exist and it was weird talking to them.
Now my wife had a very different dream. She dreamed that we were with people from church, and family that we are actually close to. The young people from our church became very comfortable coming to our house. There was a big conversation where we taught the children about how much like a family a church can and should be. My wife was the perfect host and everyone was asking to come back. We made plans for them to come back and no matter how many people left the house more would pile in and the fun would start all over.
The interesting thing about this is while my wife told me about her dream I could tell we were having the same dream at the same time. This is not possible with he psychology view of dreams but if you understand the spiritual nature of a dream you get it. These things don’t come from inside of you, they come in to you from outside, from spiritual messengers of different kinds. But what’s most interesting about a dream as well as any other way in which people receive information from the spiritual world, each of us perceives them differently.
In the Bible there is a stormy about God speaking in a great booming voice from the sky. It records that some heard and understood the voice, some heard thunder, and some didn’t hear anything. Every way that God speaks, and every way that angels speak and every way that demons speak has this same characteristic. We may perceive it one way or another or we not perceive it at all. But the truth is that each of us is receiving spiritual information all day and all night. This is why those who seek find and the sheep will not follow the voice of a stranger.
You see if you begin seeking to hear God’s voice, He will help you perceive what He was already saying. His Spirit is poured out on all flesh right now. That means He is calling out to all of us, saved, pagan, and even animals. We are all hearing His voice right now but we are not all seeking it, noticing it or following it. As we begin to pay attention to one way in which He is speaking we can learn to know His voice. This is a serious threat to the voices of evil in the spiritual world and so they will begin trying to oppose you. They will lie to you, they will try to get you listening to them and going off track. But Jesus says, “The dead will hear the voice of the son of God, and those who hear will live.”
Did he say they will hear his voice and yet only those who hear will live? What’s that about? It’s about the fact that He is calling to us all, but only those who seek and find His voice will find eternal life. No one can come to God without being called and yet it is His will that none should perish but all would come to a saving knowledge of the truth. By His will He calls to everyone, all flesh. But few find the path and the path is to seek Him and to follow Him and to find how He is instructing you and to do what He is saying. The Bible gives us a nice kick start, but the Spirit brings those words to life. The Holy Spirit also brings to life the words God is speaking to us personally. We need Him and He seals our salvation.
My wife and I both received a message about a gathering together of people. Some family, some not family but all eating and fellowshipping together. I was completely uncomfortable with the entire thing. I perceived this gathering as uncomfortable in every way. My wife perceived this same gathering as fun. It was the most fun event of the year for her. And I’m sure when we walk into this coming gathering that’s probably how each of us will feel about it. It was the same dream for each of us but we perceived it differently. But the Lord has called us to a gathering of some kind, so that’s where we will go. Comfortable or not, we follow where His voice leads us. This is the life of a sheep.
Practice Outlaw 