Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he reveals His secret unto His servants the prophets. Amos 3:7
He evens says that “old men shall dream dreams.”
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. Joel 2:28
Now that I’m 71 years old, perhaps I am reaching the state of being one of those “old men” that dream dreams which may be messages from the Lord for me personally or for the believers generally. In any case, I will share with you some of my recent dreams.
The Shopping Mall Dream
I woke up early in the morning during the summer of 2020 having just had a terrifying dream of the collapse of a shopping mall. I was with some members of my family and we were walking toward our car in the parking area of the mall. The parking area where we were parked was about one story above ground and the mall was above it. We were on the second level for parking as car were parked on the level below us also. From outside the mall as you looked at it, you could see the cars parked on the second level as there was a space between the parking levels as so often is the case.
As we were walking across the parking area to where our car was parked, the whole building, the whole parking lot began to tilt and cars and people began to slide across the parking area in our direction. My two older sons who were with me and myself moved to the edge of the parking overlooking the ground below us which was about one story high. It was too high for me to jump safely, but my two sons went ahead and safely jumped down. I waited as the building was collapsing towards that corner and moving towards the ground. All behind me was sliding towards that corner of the parking lot. Some young people were using the opportunity to slide on the floor and bump into the cars which were also sliding. But they were laughing and goofing around as if they were in a game.
As I wasn’t able to jump because of the height and my age, I waited patiently for the corner of the building to vere towards the ground. Just before it hit, I jumped as hard and far as I could and rolled away from the building which was crumbling immediately behind me. No one got out after me. The whole parking lot fell ontop of itself towards the corner I had jumped from. Like you see in the movies, I had gotten out just in the nick of time.
Then I looked up toward my left at the side of the shopping mall and suddenly the whole side of the building fell away and you could see into the shops within the mall. The shoppers seemed to be oblivious to what was going on and continued their shopping unaware that the whole building was collapsing at that very moment. And that was the end of the dream.
The meaning seemed to be obvious to me. The world economic
system is in collapse. But many like the youth in the parking lot don’t realize
the seriousness of what’s happening and continue to play their games and have
fun. Others, are so involved in their pursuit of material things, their
shopping, that they, too, are not awake to the seriousness of the situation in
the world today. In the Bible, Joseph, the husband of Maria, the mother of
Jesus, had a dream which warned him that Herod would seek to kill the young
child. They followed the council that God gave them in the dream and escaped to
Egypt and were therefore not in Bethlehem when Herod’s soldiers came to kill
all the children from two years and under.
In the Bible we read,
The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When Joseph arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt. Matthew 2:13-14
God often sends us dreams to warn us of things to come so that we are not caught off guard and unprepared for what is to happen. He warns us so that we can stop and pray and seek Him for answers on what He wants us to do in way of preparation for the days that are to come.
When it was time for Jospeh and his holy family to go back to Israel, Joseph had another dream.
But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Jospeh in Egypt, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead that sought the young child’s life. And Joseph arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the Land of Israel. But when he heard that Herod’s son did reign in Judea in room of his father, Joseph was afraid to go there: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee. Matthew 2:19-22
Follow your dreams. God may be sending a message to protect you from some danger to come.
Breaking Down the Door Dream
The next dream I had was more recent. In the dream some body or bodies were trying to break into our house to do us bodily hard. They were pounding on the back door trying to break their way in. It seemed like a large group set on hurting, or even killing us, especially me, because of the work I was doing regarding teaching people an understanding of Bible prophecy and connecting people to Jesus.
We must have started praying because all I can remember afterwards is coming down into the kitchen and finding the door shattered but still in place. I wondered what had happened that caused the men to stop. Maybe the Lord let them see some of our guardian angels. Maybe our neighbour, a son of a state policeman, came to our rescue. I don’t know what had happened, but I do know that God had protected us. When we couldn’t protect ourselves, He was there and some how, still unknown to us, had protected us.
In the Bible, in the story of Balaam ass in Numbers 22, God allows Balaam’s mule to see the angel of the Lord standing in the way ready to strike Balaam down. Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes,
And he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword
drawn in his hand. Number 22:31
Maybe the Lord opened the eyes of my enemies and they saw our guardian angels and fled in fear. The following morning when I related the dream to one of my co-workers for many years, he said, "Let us pray together now for the Lord's protection and that your home does not get attacked, that the Lord will put a hedge of protection around you as He had done to Job." (Job 1:10) And so we prayed. If you do get a frightful dream remember to bring it to the Lord in prayer, asking for Him to keep you safe as Daved the Psalmist prayed,
Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of Thy wings. Psalm 17:8
Or you might review and claim the promises of protection in Psalm 91.
Uganda Refugee Camp Dream
The following dream is a little older. In the dream I was in Uganda. I was looking for a partime job there while being on mission and had found some work with the Danish Embassy which were running a food bank at a refugee camp for thousands of refugees from South Sudan. I had applied for that job as I had worked in Portugal with the food bank aspect of our ministry to poor familes. But the work in Uganda was on a totally different scale. Thousands of refugees had fled from war-torn Sudan into northern Uganda making Uganda one of the largest refugee camps in the world.
I was given administration of the distribution of the food. Since they had little food in stock, the protocol had been to give meager portions to the starving refugees, hardly enough to keep them alive. On my own accord, I broke protocol and shared the food freely with the refugees. There was great celebration in the camp. However, the directors were bewildered. “How could I do such a thing and distribute all the stock in one day?” I answered, “These are God’s children and He wants to take care of them. He wants us to have the faith to give what we have here available and then He will do what we can’t. He will supply miraculously some way or the other. God will supply.” They just looked at me in amazement thinking I must be crazy. They had no idea of a God that would do miracles. That’s where the dream ended.
Maybe God is calling me to mission in Africa to help with the refugee problem in Uganda. I have found in my own life that you can’t out give God. God is always there to give back whatever you spend or give to help others. Give and it shall be given unto you, press down and running over shall men give into your bosom for with whatever measure you give to others, God will give back to you. Luke 6:38
The Apostle Paul followed his dreams or visions in the night
which God used to direct him. In the bookof Acts we read,
And a vision (dream?) appeared to Paul in the night; There appeared a man of Macedonia, and prayed to Paul, saying, Come over to Macedonia, and help us. And after he had seen the vision (dream?), immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. Acts 16: 9-10
Maybe God is speaking to us through the dreams we have. Be
attentive to them. They may open up a ministry for you or make a way of escape
in a dangerous situation. Remember, even God sent an important message to Pilate by a way of a dream to his wife.
When he (Pilate) was set down on the judgment seat (at the trial of Christ), his wife sent unto him, saying, Have nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. Matthew 27:19
But Pilate didn't listen to the voice of his wife as Abraham had listened years before. (Genesis 21:12) We see the difference between the man of this world - Pilate, and the man of God - Abraham. History tells us that Pilate died most likely by his own hand five years later in Switzerland having fallen out of favour with Ceasar. It behooves us to be attentive to our dreams. God may indeed be trying to get a message across to us.
Your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Joel 2:28
I wanted to add one more dream I had some years ago when there was looting and racial/religious unrest in Paris. In the dream I suddenly awoke and I stood on the balcony outside my bedroom and looked north. I could see a red fireball arise slowly in the night sky. An atomic bomb had been exploded on the ground in Paris. The thought came to me that the end was soon to come. The great tribulation predicted in God's Word had begun.
There you have it. One dream extra. Let us pray that the Lord will be with us whatever evil the world may face. His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, says the Lord that has mercy on thee. Isaiah 54:10
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