Dream

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On November 1 of 2015 I had a dream. 

In the dream other members of other congregations join a congregation but the congregation remains the same size.

The number people always remained the same.  Is the body of Christ like a string of individual threads?  We may go to separate faculties, building, homes, services, groups but we belong to the one string, the one Vine, the LORD who is Jesus Christ.    

 “A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:12

I was attending a service in the dream.  People were working on homework.  Some were lying down on the pews as if they were beds where they snuggled in with their pillows and blankets.   I told one by me,  “This isn’t an appropriate time to sleep”.  People sang the songs but didn’t know the words of the song.

“For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.” 1 Corinthians 11:30.

What is to separate the church from the world? 

Once I shared this dream with a couple brothers in Christ who attend different churches I heard several familiar themes.

One. People in the church can read the Bible but they can’t seem to carry out/live out what the words says in their life.

Two.  People do not know who walks with them.  It’s if they are walking this Emmaus walk in life but don’t realize it’s the LORD who is walking beside them.

Ask yourselves these questions?

IS it like the words in Isaiah?  “Oh how deaf and blind you are toward me!  Why won’t you listen?  Why do you refuse to see?  Who is in all the world is as blind as my own people, my servant?  Who is as deaf as my messengers?  Who is as blind as my chosen people, the servant of the LORD?  You see and understand what is right but refuse to act on it.  You hear, but you don’t really listen.  The LORD has magnified his law and made it truly glorious.  Through it he had planned to show the world that he is righteous.   But what sight his people are, for they have been robbed, enslaved, imprisoned, and trapped.  They are fair game for all and have not one to protect them.   Will not even one of you apply these lessons from the past and see the ruin that awaits you?” Isaiah 42:1-23

IS it like the words of Matthew 15:8?  “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

In the dream the pastor/clergy is frustrated as if nothing is getting through to his people.  I walk outside of the church to get some fresh air, as I too am discouraged.

I look to the sky and see the sun and a cloud of vapor before it that is imitating the sun’s shape.

It reminds me of the scriptures that say that people are but a vapor and though he/she is a vapor, they are to be imitators of Christ.

“Follow God’s example in everything you do, because you are his dear children.” Ephesians 5:1      

The word Saba is then mentioned in the dream.  I don’t know this word yet it is spelled out for me in my mind.  Who or what is Saba?  Does it pertain to the congregation or me?  Is it some kind of influence?

Saba, in the Hebrew, means “Seven” or “An oath.”  It is the number of completeness and perfection of wholeness.  It is God and man working together in God’s divine intention in our daily lives.

In the dream I walk on a street with older people.  They smile, as I pass by them.   Then with great fire and vigor I start to proclaim, "God lives in me and who is greater then He!”

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,” Hebrews 12:1

The dream then turns and I am suddenly standing in front of a congregation encouraging others in Christ.

The dream ends and I wake with the song, “Raging Fire” by Phillip Phillips playing in my head.