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Preamble

I read "Elizabeth" and "Rose from Salt". Reading these I knew they were spiritual dreams from the Lord. I do not have understanding all the time of dreams, but sometimes I see significance, or puns with names and the like.

I had this dream this past week. I thought it pertained to the church in general, but it may not; and I thought I would just share it with you.

It began with a book (Bible, I assumed) before me and it was opened to a particular word, or verse; and it was like a flashlight was shining on it. It said something like "rain is a blessing from God". I then went into this dream.

I was walking with this fellow who reminded me of [a relative]; [there was] just a familiar feeling [about him]. We were walking in the woods and went down this deep embankment to a creek bed (although I kept calling it a river bed). I noticed the large boulders, the smooth stones on the bed, the smaller stones, and pebbles. Then I noticed there was no water in the bed. Everything seemed so vivid in the dream. Where the water had once been there was a layer of this residual white stuff on the very middle of the bed. The residual stuff made me think about salt.

I kept looking at this bed, and I felt a certain amount of grief. We were walking in the bed, and I asked the man why there was not water in the river bed (although it was a creek bed). I heard him mumble some explanation. I just felt like it was an excuse, it just seemed to me that way.

(This man reminded me of [my relative] in the excuses. The history is: I always thought of [my relative] as lazy even though he worked everyday. He would sleep until it was time to go to work, [go] home and sleep again, you know, sleep 15 hours, use 1 hour to get ready for work, and work 8 hours. My [relative] loved poverty. The least amount of work for less pay was considered good to him.)

Anyway, I was angry. I said, "No! It rains everyday. Every single day it rains. No way should this river bed be dry!" He ignored me and kept walking in front of me.

There was a shanty built beside the embankment. We began the walk up the embankment. I go into it, and it is just a one room place. There were hardwood floors that had deep gaps between them, dirt, and pieces of the edges were missing.

I go outside and am talking with some people. I have my purse, and something else I am holding. I see a dog or a cat go into the shanty. I am thinking the animal will fall through the floor, or it will slide over the hill or something. I am thinking it is a dog (I like them better than cats).

I go into the shanty and the floors have already deteriorated since I was there last (a few minutes before). I place whatever was in my arms on the floor, and I put my purse on a nail on the beam. I don't want the excess weight on the floors. I call the dog to me, but I have to pick him up to take him out.

I look back at my purse still hanging on the nail. I am thinking it is too dangerous to go after it. I shut the door and hope no one will come by at some point and decide to get it and use my credit cards, license and the like. I shut the door.

Then I am at this party, and it seems it is like at my [relative]'s house (though it is a different house). Many people are there. I smell the grill going and stuff, and I ask my [relative] if he has buns for the hamburgers and hotdogs. He said he did not, but it was alright; they had light bread. Then I began to panic. I thought, "Was I supposed to have purchased the buns and some other things? Did I forget?" I was searching my mind for information on what I was supposed to have done. Then I thought maybe I was a tight-wad or something and didn't purchase them. My purse is in the shanty. I began to search for this information that I am missing. I need to know if I am at fault or something. I keep searching myself to know what I had done. I am in a panic still. I am screaming in my mind, "THINK! THINK!" I couldn't figure it out. I gave up on wondering about it.

At this party is a fellow. Printed on his (black and white) T-shirt was, "Really Am God". I look again and it says, "Really am Dog". Then the word "God" and "Dog" switches around. (I am thinking God was calling him a dog even though the guy is saying he is "God").

The dream changes, and I am at a friend's house. She had invited me to swim in her pool. Her name is [Gorkya]. I stand in the pool, but I cannot see my feet. The water is a deep blue, but it is not clear water. I am thinking there is something wrong. She is on a raft in the middle of the pool, so I swim around and around the (round) pool. It is really deep, but I can't [see] under the water.

She gets out of the pool and into the house. I swim around to the backside (away from the house), and a portion of the wall falls down. The [water] gushes out, but the pool level is still nearly the same. I go out with the water. I see it fills up the whole bottom for a very long way, and I am so excited! I am exclaiming inside, "It is supposed to do that!" This mountain was at a distance, and the sun was beaming brightly on the side of it, and I am so excited about all of it. The water had changed color to a prettier blue as it left about 5 feet in front of me; it looked more like the pure pool water. I am like a cheerleader when I see all this.

(Now a few of my friends say that [Gorkya] and her husband [Volcask] are better than righteous people. They know everything, and have it together more so than others. I see this too, but I don't know what to say except I love them.)

Anyway, she is at the window and begins to fuss when she sees the wall had fallen. She says, ''Now I have to pay for the water to fill up the pool again [the pool is half-full still]. This is going to cost me money! (Blah-blah)".

I go under the water and feel around for the top of the wall. I cannot see beneath the water. I feel around and find it, and I get up and begin to put it back in place (sad to say I want to please her).

Then I am in a car behind the guy with the black-and-white T-shirt. He is in a Hummer. He is very clean, like before. His hair is crew-cut, and he is cocky. I am thinking he may have been in the military, or something.

He pulls up in front of [Gorkya]'s house. I get out, and I follow him into her house. [Gorkya] and [Volcask] are sitting in the corner to the far left (my left facing them). Their house is full of people sitting in chairs. The guy goes straight across the room to this really large poster that was hanging and divided in sections like spokes on a wheel (it was a large circle). There was a wedge to the far left of the circle that said in black and white, "Really am God", and it would change to "Really am dog". I kept squinting to see which was correct, but it would change to the other.

This fellow says, "So there will be no question about this [he places his finger on the wedge of "Really am God"] from anyone -- that is who I am!" I was embarrassed by this stupid fellow's announcement. I looked at [Gorkya] and she hid her face behind her hair. She was terribly embarrassed by this fellow.

The guy has either a black T-shirt with white print or vice versa.

I am thinking this dream may reflect the Church itself.

Thus, the 4 types of "stones" on and around the river bed are a figure of how the 4 spiritual faces of man and the 5 ministerial endowments are lying about in a state of abandonment and disrepair. The current manifestations of these faces and ministries are but incomplete and distorted versions of the true reality that the Lord wants to manifest in His people.

Interestingly enough, as sister Crystal was listing the 4 types of "stones", the Lord prompted her to append the phrase "on the bed" only to smooth stones, i.e.- to the prophetic Eagle Face. The reason for this is that, in order to visualise the potential in the dry river bed, you must operate in God's prophetic anointing, which allows you to discern things from "on high", from the eternal eagle-eye perspective of God. This is why the dreamer insisted on calling it a "river bed", even when it seemed like little more than a barren creek bed in the natural. This also explains why the dream was "so vivid" because the dreamer was under a strong prophetic anointing during the dream, an anointing inherently linked to overflowing waters of life.

The dryness of the soul's dominion

The residual material that was lying in the middle of the river bed and that looked like salt to the dreamer speaks of the desolation judgement that comes from God upon the places whose atmosphere is inhospitable to His River:

"But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt." (Ezekiel 47:11)

Those who are in the Spirit can perceive the desolation, and, as a result, they are overcome with grief as they realise the River's absence. This is why sister Crystal felt a certain amount of grief as she beheld the dry river bed. By contrast, the relative walking with her rationalised away the desolation, attributing it to circumstances unworthy of any major attention.

As we have shared before, the soul operates exclusively within the realm of the "familiar". The things of the Spirit are unfamiliar to the soul and are immediately rejected by her when she is in control. Therefore, the  fact that there was "a familiar feeling" about the man walking with the dreamer  points to the realm of the soul. As a being operating in the soul (as opposed to the Spirit), the relative could easily establish a soul connection with the dreamer because they were within each other's "familiar" realm, but, once the dreamer began to speak of a grief flowing from within her spirit, her words became foreign and unfamiliar to him, and they were quickly dismissed and rationalised.

In the dream, the relative acts as a guide for the dreamer through the landscape, the way a shepherd (i.e.- pastor) acts as a guide for sheep. In the dream, there is also a subtle sense that the relative is somehow responsible for the care of the landscape being surveyed, as someone assigned to "steward over" (i.e.- bishop) the place. Therefore, the dreamer's relative points to the pastoral bunch stewarding over God's Church. The relative's excuses thus point to the "pastoral shield" that the soul is quick to raise up when God's judgements come against her. Even though the "salt" of God's judgements was clearly revealing the spiritual barrenness of the landscape, the relative could not bring himself to admit that he had failed and that he was stewarding over spiritual dryness caused by his inability to produce any fruit in the Spirit. In other words, he was willing to happily steward over barrenness in order to avoid the indictment of God's judgements against him.

Just like the dreamer's relative, the pastoral bunch that is matriarchally stewarding over God's Church is consistent and hardworking when it comes to things pertaining to the visible, natural realm, but is extremely mediocre and quick to settle for second best when it comes to things of the invisible, spirit realm. This is why the relative (in real life) is a consistent 8-hour worker during daylight but sleeps through the entire night until the next day.

"The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets" (Proverbs 22:13)

[As we have shared before, the "lion" in Scripture, when used in a positive context, is a figure of God's judgements. Therefore, the Lord is declaring that the slothful man has a deep distrust of God's judgements, believing that they are so cruel that they will inevitably destroy him. He is unable to trust that God will mould him through the fire of His judgements without annihilating him. In other words, he sees the God of Israel as an overzealous cook who will leave the cake too long in the oven, burning it beyond edibility. Thus, we can conclude that the slothful man has no faith in God's processes, for, as we have shared before, God's moulding processes are His judgements.]

The relative's aversion to "work in the dark" also points to the lack of "night-time shepherds" in the Church. As we have shared before, the "pastors" to whom the Lord is revealed are those who are willing to work in the darkness of anonymity (Luke 2:8-12), i.e.- those who are not interested in forging a name for themselves but who are truly interested in the "sheep's" God-potential being manifested. These are the "pastors" who are capable of seeing a baby lying in a manger made for animals and still recognise the Son of God.

Unfortunately, the Church is overrun and ruled by "day-time shepherds", and, as such, they are incapable of seeing the potential in the brethren around them, quickly settling for a Church that operates at a very "natural", earthly level. Thus, the dryness that their paradigms produce becomes an acceptable part of the spiritual scenery, to the point of turning completely transparent to them. By contrast, those in the Spirit become grief-stricken when they perceive the dryness and compare it to God's vision, and, whenever the grief subsides, anger rages forth, an anger emanating from the judgements of God that the slothful "day-time shepherds" endeavour to avoid. This is why the dreamer angrily stated, "No! It rains everyday. Every single day it rains. No way should this river bed be dry!". Whereas the matriarchal soul is quick to declare that things have not changed because "it is not God's timing", those in the Spirit realise that the door of opportunity has been there "every day", waiting for someone to forge it wide open; unfortunately, the matriarchal soul is unwilling to see beyond anything that exposes her guilt and nakedness.

God willing, we will share more on this dream in a future posting...