I Had a Dream

Hello God,

I had a dream several weeks ago, before Joe's death, but You know that already. Thank you for the vision.

My dream:

I'm walking through an underground mall. I had the feeling of being in another country, Italy or Greece, the feel of an old city but not France or Egypt.

• The walls were a white, stone.
• For some reason, limestone keeps popping into my head.
• The walls were natural, rough not smoothed like granite countertops.
• The stores were normal, Ann Taylor, Victoria Secrets, typical upscale mall stores.

I wasn't shopping just looking, walking thru ....

I started looking for a way out, up to street level.

• I saw a stairway outside,
• bright sunlight, 
• people existing,
• walking up some carved out steps,
• no railing,
• but no sense of fear or falling

I made it to street level, looked around ... saw traffic, cars, buses, people going here and there about their daily business.

Then,

I found myself again walking through the same mall, but remembering my previous experience of walking through the mall and knowing that there is a way out: well lit, easy, simple ....

I got outside the mall and looked at the stairs leading up to the streets ...

I saw an alternate stairway leading downward, shadowed, dark ... I wondered where it went ... where would it take me ....

No sooner than I step to descend I felt it. That gut feeling telling me to turn around but I kept going ...

No sooner I was off the stairwell and stepped on the floor, a group of guys ... Latinos walked passed me carrying weapons, automatic rifles.

I thought about turning around and following them out .... but I didn't. Kept walking.

I passed a second group of men ... white .... one man watching me ... we locked eyes ... I looked away passing the group ... Once passed, the man man turned around to attack me. I screamed and woke up.

Hm mm, didn't think much about it until weeks later, just thought of it as a bad dream.

Last week, Tuesday, during the Beth's Moore Bible Study of the Patriarchs, the workbook instructed us to write down our last remembered dream. I did! We were studying Joesph's interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams.

I have a dream book, Understanding the Dreams You Dream.

Dream Interpretation: Using the book, I picked out some of the elements from the dream:

• City: Characteristic: that for which the city is now; the Church; a person's character (Acts 20:23, Proverbs 25:28)
• Mall: World: Worldliness; ripe field for evangelism.(1John 2:15)
• Upstairs (or the Upper Room) - Spiritual: Thought (godly or carnal); prayer; spiritual service. (Acts 1:13-14)
• Up: Above: Help; advancement, promotion, difficulty (as in "it's all uphill from here"); salvation. (Psalm18:16)
• Down: Beneath: Humbled; demotion, worldly. (Psalm 75:7)
• Guns: (Looked in metals) Lead: Weight: Wickedness; sin; burden (the cares of the world); judgement; fool or foolishness. (Zechariah 5:8; Hebrews 12:1)
• Numbers: Five (number of men in the groups): Serve: Works; service; bondage (including debt, sickness, phobias, etc) taxes, prison, sin; motion. (Romans 7:5; John 8:34)
• Man (stranger) Angel, oneself, or demon. Felt like demon: person with evil intent; danger (Matthew 2:13)

Interpretation according to me, hopefully, with God's touch :)

God has always shown me the way, His way. Yet, so many times, I've looked at the other path and wondered where did it go ....

• Why?
• Why not take the well lit, well defined path?
• Why walk into the shadows? By choice?

It wasn't like I didn't have the knowledge. I did. I remembered I did and I still chose to explore the darkness.

What did/does the darkness or shadows offer? Nothing. Emptiness. Darkness.

Joe was a simple, well lit path. I saw a sweet, old man infactuated with a woman he wanted to get to know.

I turned to go down that dark path: Sean maybe, Chicago maybe, a soldier that's my age, single, healthy and strong that doesn't drink or smoke and professes to love the Lord .... how inticing is he! How delicious is the lusting thoughts of him!

I have to start listening to God, to my gut, to my spirit of discernment ... Going up is so much easier ... perhaps the more I do that the easier it becomes.

I guess its like hugging. The first time is feels uncomfortable, invasive, violating maybe. But the more you experience, the more you desire it, then the more you can give it.

Thank you Lord,
Yo