Brethren, I stumbled onto [your] website after "googling" bear spiritual meanings. I had a dream with a bear in it. I was in a house in a bedroom, and I knew a bear was coming in there. One couple I know gave me weapons or a glass and flashlight (or something like it) so [that], when it came, I could alert them to come help me or perhaps scare it off. Another acquaintance (who I know has an unclean spirit) told me, "Alicia, you are going to have to deal with it or confront it". In the dream, the bear came to me while I was sleeping in a bed, and I tried [to] ignore it or pet it. I knew its danger; it brought terror; "Danger! Oh no! It's here again" [, I said to myself] ... On and off for years I've had various bear dreams, and, one time, I ran away from it, but I want to face my fears and prevail in the Name of Yeshua over it. I was hoping to let my daughters have a sleepover (one is 18) with other girls alone. My husband suggested it, and I said "No, maybe not".

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Growth through the looking glass

As I read the description of this dream, one word in particular kept jumping up and drawing my attention; it was as if the Lord was trying to make me understand that the key to the meaning of this dream lay behind that word: the word "glass" in the phrase "one couple gave me weapons or a glass and flashlight". A second thing that the Lord then drew my attention to was the dreamer's name, "Alicia", which, as you may imagine, led me to thinking about the story "Alice in Wonderland". To be honest, I have never been too interested in learning that story, despite its widespread popularity. However, as the Lord prompted me to learn more about it (as a result of this email), I learnt that it has a "sequel" called "Through the looking glass". Most people might have been aware of this from the start, but, as I just shared with you, my knowledge of the Alice character is very limited. It is when I learnt about the Alice in Wonderland sequel that the word "glass" that the visitor mentioned began to make sense.

As I read through the plot summary for "Through the looking glass" (on Wikipedia), I realised that it is a story about a little girl going into a "parallel world" not visible with the natural eye; in the story, she goes through 7 growth stages until she becomes a "queen". This correlates with the bear in the visitor's dreams. As we have shared before, bears are a figure of "Amorite-Hittite-Canaanite" kings who like to intimidate "little" people into submission. Wherever bears abound, Perizzites will begin to appear everywhere. Perizzites are people with a strong sense of personal shame, people who have a low perception of themselves and who deem themselves unworthy of operating in the spiritual authority of God. Therefore, the fact that the little girl Alice goes through her 7 growth stages is a prophetic figure of a believer who refuses to label him or herself as "insignificant and useless"; such believers are willing to walk in the authority of Christ, exercising their God-given endowment in order to mature into the fullness of Christ. Thus, the story of "Through the looking glass" speaks of a "little" person who rejects the Perizzite influence and is willing to dream "big" dreams, just as little brother Joseph did, despite the hounding and rejection of all of his older brothers.

As we have shared before, spiritual "bears" (and Amorites in general) like to see the "little" people as "replaceable pawns", without ever seeing the inherent God-value in them. That is why the bear in the dream correlates with "Through the looking glass", where Alice is like a "pawn" in a chess game that eventually turns into a queen when she reaches the last row of the "chessboard". Those with the "Spirit of Philadelphia" are willing to visualise their own potential and the potential of others, and they realise that God has anointed them as "kings and priests" (Revelation 1:6) who are called to conquer the spiritual atmosphere around them. They may look like "pawns" to the untrained eye, but they know that God's Kingship is within them.

The fact that Alice goes into a parallel world as she goes through the looking glass speaks of people who enter the spiritual realm and engage in spiritual warfare to manifest God's Kingship on Earth. Those who are not defeated by the Perizzite spirit of lameness are those who are not deceived by the "littleness" of their external appearance and who understand that they are spiritual beings called to carry out mighty feats in the spirit realm (1 Chronicles 11:10-25). It is as you go through the looking glass and enter into this invisible spiritual realm that you can grow and overcome the bears intimidating God's people in the spirit realm.

Torches

What are called "flashlights" in the US are called "torches" in the UK. In Scripture, "torches" are a figure of prophetic light. Through the light of torches, people can peer into the darkness of the unknown and visualise things that are not discernible with the natural eye. Therefore, the "flashlights" in the dream point to the need to develop the strong prophetic endowment that is within sister Alice and believers in general). As you begin to walk in that endowment and engage in spiritual warfare, the Perizzite influence that can keep you under the bear's intimidation will be broken, and you will become like a David who can slay giant bears in the heavenlies. When David slew the bear, he did it as an "insignificant" shepherd in the darkness of anonymity, meaning that he did not allow his human "smallness" to get in the way of the spiritual feats he was called to carry out (1 Samuel 17:34-37).

According to behindthename.com, the visitor's name, Alicia, is derived from the Germanic name "Adelaide", which means "noble type". In other words, the visitor's name speaks of the spiritual nobility that God has endowed believers with. It is "ironic" that the name "Alice" has the connotation of nobility, especially because it is so immediately associated with a "little girl". Therefore, it speaks of people who have the Spirit of Philadelphia, of people who can see past their "smallness" and who are willing to dream big dreams and visualise big visions.

Charles Dodgson

There is a lot that can be discerned from the life of the "Alice in Wonderland" author, Lewis Carroll. According to Wikipedia, Lewis Carroll, whose real name was Charles Dodgson, was from a family that was predominantly northern English, with Irish connections. As we have shared before, the "north" is generally associated with the prophetic, and the Irish are strongly related to the last horse of the Apocalypse, the "green" horse. This emphasises God's call for believers such as sister Alice to move into the prophetic and to progress in their spiritual walk across all the horses of the Apocalypse. Unbeknownst to the eschatological "experts" (who unfortunately bombard the Church with meaningless dribble regarding latter-day prophecy), the horses of the Apocalypse represent spiritual stages that believers (and the latter-day Church in general) must go through in order to complete their journey. The 4 horses are the first 4 seals of the Apocalypse, with 3 seals coming after that. Those who are willing to complete the 4th seal are set on a path that turns the other 3 seals into a "waiting game", so to speak, as they stand like an army at the gates, waiting for the opportunity to "storm in". Thus, the 7 seals of the Apocalypse point once again to the 7 "chess rows" that Alice must go through to complete her walk in the "Through the looking glass" story.

Most of Charles Dodgson's ancestors were army officers or clergymen in the Church of England. This speaks of people with a warrior nature who wage spiritual battle in the heavenlies. That is what God is calling sister Alice (and believers in general) towards. He is calling His people to walk through the looking glass and exercise the prophetic endowment inside of them in order to tear down spiritual giants in the heavenlies so that God's glory may shine forth on Earth. Charles Dodgson eventually became an Anglican deacon, which points to his sincere interest in God, emphasising God's spiritual influence over all of his work.

According to Wikipedia, Dodgson suffered from many health issues throughout his life. He had problems walking, he suffered from chronic weakness, and he had stammering issues. All of this points to a crippling Perizzite attack over his life, given that the Perizzite spirit turns people into (literally) "lame" believers who are unable to walk in their God-given authority; believers under Perizzite control are like weak and irrelevant pawns before the enemy, believers who are unable to speak in the bold prophetic authority of the Holy Spirit. Despite this Perizzite onslaught over his life, Dodgson was able to transport himself into the "invisible realm" and become an author known the world over, as well as becoming a prolific and creative man with multiple inventions and a man who made significant contributions to mathematical abstract thinking (as shown by the "barbershop paradox"). The life of this weak and "stammering" man is still impacting the lives of people today, which shows that he was able to emerge from the onslaught of the Perizzite spirit and operate in God's Spirit of Philadelphia.

The unheeded message to America

There are two rather "curious" contributions by Charles Dodgson that are rather relevant today, especially considering the constitutional, social, and economic damage that the Democrats in America are trying to carry out these days. One is the fact that, for some "odd" reason, he was rather interested in political systems, to the point of developing ideas on elections and committees, drafting new systems of parliamentary representation. As the Lord had us share in a word posted some 23 days before barack hussein obama's victory in the 2008 elections, there are fundamental problems in America's legislative process that must be dealt with (in a transformative way) before America's political system can emerge from its current state of decay. People in America talk about "changing the culture in Washington", but no one addresses the fundamental structures currently in place that have enabled and maintained that culture. Thus, it is no coincidence that the Lord gave sister Alice this dream on bears around this time. God is calling America to fundamentally reform the current structures in its legislative mechanism, but America seems too deaf to hear and understand the changes that need to be made. As a result, Chicago bears are running rampant all over Washington, fiercely seeking to destroy America's democratic and economic system in order to install a Korah-type vision that will lead to the loss of God's visitation in this generation. An entire generation is on the verge of being lost (if it hasn't been lost already).

The other "curious" contribution by Charles Dodgson that is rather relevant today is his short story entitled "What the tortoise said to Achilles", which illustrates an infinite loop of scepticism derived from the unwillingness to believe from the beginning. This story illustrates the fact that no amount of logic and evidence will ever be enough to logically convince a person whose heart has stubbornly chosen not to believe a fact. This correlates with the "loop of paranoid scepticism" that led to America delaying God's latter-rain revival for 4 years and to America being now on the verge of losing its latter-rain visitation for an entire generation. America (starting with the American Church) kept putting its faith in its leadership, even as God began to strip that leadership bare and expose their spiritual nakedness right before America's eyes. Now, that Korah leadership, even in their exposed nakedness, is trying to rape America and destroy it to the core, as shown by what the political leadership of America is currently endeavouring to do. All 536 of the House representatives, Senators, and so-called "president" currently in power were elected by America, and many of those men and women have been getting re-elected to their seats for ages. Even so, the minority that is finally reacting to the madness of these leaders is slow to realise that they have been the ones who have kept them in power, through either their indifference or their proactive foolishness. Instead of waking up to the fundamental error in their ways that led to the current chaos, they keep seeing these leaders as Martians that appeared out of nowhere to take over Washington and overrun America.

As the Lord has had us share on multiple occasions, America has been like tortoise towards God, reacting very slowly and with much scepticism whenever she hears God calling her across the River Jordan. Therefore, America is the tortoise in Dodgson's story and God's faithful remnant are the frustrated Achilles. Just like sister Alice in the dream, America has been lying on her spiritual bed, without taking up the weapons and torch that have been placed besides her. The American Church remains unable to understand that God is a "male of war" (Exodus 15:3), not a "Hare Krishna god of lovey-dovey peace". Therefore, she remains on her bed, pretending as if the bear roaming about is not there.

Paranoid "cleanliness"

The couple in the dream represent the combination of apostolic and prophetic endowments imparted by God in the black-horse stage. It is in the black-horse wilderness where the Lord begins to equip us for battle. The friend who in the dreamer's view has an unclean spirit points to the green horse. Because of its fractal nature, the green-horse stage is the stage least understood to the natural believer. Due to the fact that green-horse believers think so radically outside the natural box, they seem "unclean", just as when the Pharisees accused Jesus of being unclean (Matthew 15:1-2, Matthew 11:17-18, Matthew 10:25). The same happened when God tried to "turn Peter green", as described in Acts 10, when Peter called God's green command "unclean". There are many non-believers who have yet to know Christ but who have a strong green-horse calling in their lives, and even these "unclean" non-believers are more open to God's trumpet call to spiritual action than the great majority of the "clean" and "active" believers in the American Church system.

It is no spiritual coincidence that sister Alice sent us her email a mere 5 days after the "Alice in Wonderland" film came out. There is not only a personal message for her but a larger message for all of America in all of this. Just as there is a prophetic reason for this visitor having this bear dream around this time, the fact that the Lord allowed the Alice film to come out at this time is a prophetic sign as well. Towards the end of her email, the visitor speaks of her 18-year-old daughter. There is a prophetic reason for this. As we have shared before, the number "18" speaks of unnecessary carnage, and that is what America is earning for herself as she refuses to wake up from her indifferent slumber. Even as these words are being typed, that carnage is on its way, like a massive dark cloud pushed by the winds of indifference and arrogant stubbornness. My heart is overwhelmed with sadness, but America seems on its way to getting the medicine she deserves, and there is little that anyone can do about it, for the train has already left the station, and those who can and want to stop the train are applying the wrong brakes.

{As a parenthesis, we recommend that believers such as sister Alice meditate on the following postings. Fellow believer, we know it is a lot of reading, but, as you read through and meditate on these words, the Lord will be imparting into your heart, moulding you into the spiritual form He visualises in you:

	Article "The Perizzites"
	Question & Answer "Dog-eating bears"
	Question & Answer "The spirit warehouse", especially the sections "The spirit of Jeremiah" and "The violence of silence"
	Question & Answer "How do you recognize your gifts? (Part 2)", especially the section "Cronus the devourer"
	Question & Answer "Brittany", section "Da bears"
	Prophetic word "Bloody baby"
	Prophetic word "Aquatic park", section "The pool of God wasted on immaturity"
	Prophetic word "Daylight come", section "The banana boat song"
	Prophetic word "Floods in Eastern Europe", section "The Perizzite-Hittite combination"
	Prophetic word "American Civil War (Part 1)", on vindicating vengeance
	Article "Castles in the air"
	Question & Answer "What are the 7 sins and virtues?", comments on God's Spirit of Philadelphia}