Dreams and Visions

For those of you that don’t know, I’m a dreamer. I’ve had vivid dreams for as long as my memory can go back to. Sometimes they’re some pretty crazy and random things, but sometimes God speaks to me through them. Back in mid-February I had a very clear dream that was a bit mysterious, but right before I awoke, the Lord spoke a verse reference to me. I didn’t see an angel with a flaming sword standing before me nor was it some resounding blast from the heavens. As has happened a handful of other times, He softly spoke a verse reference right before I opened my eyes. It’s a beautiful thing to me, to know that my Father is speaking to me in such ways. How He longs to instruct us and speak to us things that are to come.

With that being said, let me share some significant pieces of the dream with you. Before I do though, I want to preface it a bit. I’m pretty over spending great lengths of time seeing how wrong the structured church/organized religion is, despite how much I believe that to be true. When I journaled this dream and Scripture last month, I really didn’t even intend to ever share it with more than my wife and immediate family, for that very reason. However, this morning I haphazardly ran across the journal entry of the dream and re-read it. I truly feel that the voice of the Lord is resounding within it, so with that being said, it has arrived here.

In the dream, I was in a building that was full of people. In a large room, where we were, most of the people were just milling around, talking casually with one another. Everyone was dressed very nicely, yet the atmosphere was seemingly relaxed as they all talked and mingled about. As I watched the people move about in the room, my attention was drawn to several men in three-piece suits. In my journal, I described them as “deacon/elder types”. You could tell by their demeanor that they were very stern and serious. One of these men saw me from across the room and came straight over to me. He was very angry with me, although I didn’t know why. He told me to “grab a vacuum and get back to work”. He also, very abrasively, said I had no business looking about the room. Confused and fearful, I grabbed the vacuum that was in the corner and proceeded to clean the messy floor.

After a few minutes, I put the vacuum down and walked through the people into another room adjacent to the larger one that I was just in. This was more like an intimate hotel lobby, also full of people just hanging out, some with drinks in hand. I was vacuuming around these people as well, but something within me began to stir. It was as if I had to speak out about what I felt regarding what I was seeing (even though there was nothing visibly wrong, really). I laid down the vacuum, grabbed a chair, stood up on it, and began to shout with a loud voice. Although I don’t remember anything that I said, I remember a boldness and harshness that I felt when I was speaking it out. As some of the people began to turn to look at me, several of these deacon/elders came swiftly through the people, coming at me. I can remember the intense anger in their eyes more than anything as they pushed people out of their way in order to get to me. They ordered me down from the chair and told me that I had no business speaking to the people. “How dare you speak to these!”, they said. They told me that “my job was to clean the floors and nothing more”. I don’t really remember what all was said or how I got down off the chair, but it was quite clear that they were very intimidating and powerful.

The next thing I remember, I was in another area and walking through a doorway. I reached out to my right, felt along the wall and flipped the light switch on. I was now in a small bedroom – for children. There were two small beds, with disheveled sheets and blankets in this room and noone else was there. I felt compelled to make up the beds, straightening the sheets and lining up the pillows. As I touched the first bed, I immediately saw visions of children sleeping in them. I then began to pray for the children that I somehow knew slept in them - I could even see their faces – and it was not one, but many that slept there. Within moments of beginning the prayer, the lights went out. As complete darkness surrounded me, evil was very present. The intensity of the darkness was much stronger here than in the previous rooms. I felt my way over to the wall at the doorway and turned the lights back on. Before I had even taken two or three steps, the lights went back off. I knew that it was the deacons/elders. I could feel their presence in the room. They didn’t want me in there and I could feel it.

Somewhere in between asleep and awake, I heard a voice say, “Ezekiel 21:7”. Then I was fully awake and, with great urgency, I went to the Word and asked the Holy Spirit to reveal the purpose of this dream. Within it, there was alot of personal revelation regarding my time on church staff, but there was something much greater. Although this dream took place within me, I’d encourage you to ask the Lord what He is saying. It’s not simply about “evil men in the churches” as some may misunderstand it by worldly definitions. It is a great truth - a painful reality that we must look into and prepare for.

In the next post, I’ll explain what I found in several places of Ezekiel, how it ties in to this dream and what I believe the Lord is speaking with great compulsion in this hour.