Dennis Edwards
I have been
reading an interesting book entitled, The Supernatural Worldview: Examining Paranormal,
PSI, and the Apocalyptic, by Cris Putnam, published in 2014. Various
chapters in the book deal with dreams, premonitions, and psychic warnings of
future events. Cris takes a scientific approach to these supernatural events
trying to come to the most realistic conclusion.
Did you
know that Abraham Lincoln had a dream of his coming assassination ten days
before it happened? Lincoln dreamt that he was in bed and awoke with an awful
deathlike silence around him. But he noticed a sort of moaning or mourning
sound coming from somewhere in the Whitehouse. He got up and proceeded to
search for the source of the sound. Finally, he entered the East Room and saw a
casket with a dead body draped with a sheet over it. A military guard was
standing around the casket while mourners were weeping nearby. "What has
happened in the Whitehouse?" asked Lincoln. A soldier replied, "The
President has been assassinated."
Lincoln is
reported to have shared the dream with his wife and friend three days before
his death. Strangely enough, Ulysses S. Grant, the military General and leader
of the northern troops was scheduled to attend the fateful theatre event with
Lincoln the night of his assassination. Grant, however, missed the show on the
insistence of his wife who had a premonition that something terrible was going
to happen. Was God trying to warn Lincoln, and he missed the warning or was
reluctant in heeding it?
In another
account, Army Captain A.B. Mac Gowan promised his two boys to a night at the
theatre. The boys had never attended the theatre. Tickets were bought and the boys excitement
raised. However, on the day of the event, the Captain kept hearing that inner
voice of conscience saying, "Don't go to the theatre, take the boys to the
city." How could he do that after having aroused the boys imagination over
the activity. His best friend chided him on hearing he was having doubts about
taking his sons to the event.
Mac Gowan
almost relented, but that voice of conscience was too constant, too persistent
to shake. In the end, they travelled to the city instead, much to the boys'
dismay. But that very night in 1876, the Brooklyn Theatre caught fire with more
than 300 lives lost. Had Mac Gowan not followed the voice of conscience the
story might have had a totally different ending. Mac Gowan's sister who also
attended the show, left early because her brother and nephews were not there.
Leaving early probably saved her life.
In October
1966, a landslide or avalanche from a coal mining operation in Wales led to the
death of 144 people including 116 children. A young girl of ten, the very morning
of the accident, had recounted a dream she had had the night before where
"something black" had covered her school. Hearing of the girl's dream
a national psychiatrist used the press to poll the public to see if others had had a similar premonition
or dream. Some 60 veritable responses were found. One person had even written
down his dream and mailed it to a friend a month before the accident. Was God
sending a warning message, a message that wasn't heeded?
My own life
has been marked by similar occurrences. As a young child I remember my mother
impressing upon us kids some of her spiritual experiences. One night she had a dream where her
God-father, who was terminally ill, came and stood at the bottom of her bed. He
said, "Honey, I'm going now. I love you." The next morning early, my
Mom had a telephone call from her Auntie. "Sophie, your Uncle has
died." My Mom already knew before the phone rang who it was and what the
message would be. Cris Putnam states
that from his investigations he believes that every family has some type of
unexplainable supernatural experience.
My wife had
one such experience, though more akin to Lincoln's dream. She dreamt that her
father had entered a hospital for an examination and had died. It was December,
a very busy time for us, but thinking that maybe her father's death was
imminent, we promised ourselves that we would go for a visit to her parents as
soon as the Christmas and New Year's period was over. However, with a handful
of young kids to attend to, January soon turned to February when we received
the sad news.
Her father
had been having difficulty climbing stairways without getting a pain in his chest.
His local doctor advised him to visit the city hospital for a more thorough
examination, and an appointment was made. He was 72 years old at the time. He
entered the hospital on the morning of the appointment. The doctors decided he
needed a more complete test and he signed the affidavit confirming that he took
the medicine knowing the risk involved. The medicine would enable the doctors
to get a more accurate look at his heart and arteries. He died a short while
afterwards. The cure ended up being
worse than the sickness. Yet, we were stuck with the feeling that had my wife
communicated her dream to her father, had we visited him in time, had we not
procrastinated, his life might not had ended at that moment.
Just
recently, a colleague of mine had a vivid dream in which I had gotten into a
fight with a man dressed in white and he was getting the better of me. On
relating the dream to me, he prayed for my protection and against such a thing
occurring. Later in the day, while delivering humanitarian aid in the form of
fruits, vegetables, and potatoes, to a soup kitchen in the city, I parked our
vehicle on a ramp. The ramp was located behind a large church near to where we
needed to unload the donated goods.
Suddenly, a
man began approaching us yelling that we couldn't park on that ramp as it was a
priority ramp for the handicapped. I was stressed from the hurried 50 km ride
into town to make sure we arrived before the kitchen closed for the day that
Saturday afternoon. I yelled back at the man, "I will park wherever I want
to." Astonished at my reply, he shouted out, "What did he say?"
Thankfully, he was on the passenger side of the car. My friend who was sitting
in the front next to me, looked at me sternly and said, "Remember the man
in white!"
It was then
that I realized that the man was dressed in white clothes, the man of the dream.
He was obviously a man of authority, possibly the top priest of the church, so
I got control of myself and started to remove our vehicle from the handicap
ramp. By then, his assistant, realizing we were making a delivery for the soup
kitchen that the church operated for the homeless and poor, intervened and in
the end we were allowed to park on the ramp. I apologized to the priest, and he
apologized to me, also. A bad situation didn't develop any further because the
Lord had warned us in a dream.
We need to
tune into the spiritual realm and not neglect our time with the Lord. My
friend, who is 75 years old, spends his mornings in prayer, praise, and reading
God's word. His prayerfulness has saved us on various occasions from serious
accidents or troubles. Please take those dreams and premonitions seriously.
They may keep you safe or save a life.
I wanted to
add another message the Lord gave my wife in a dream. We were involved in a
court case for custody of our children over our home-schooling activities. My
wife was very anxious because we knew the prosecuting attorney was going to ask
us questions about our lifestyle and faith beliefs. About a week before the
trial date she had a dream that the prosecuting attorney would ask her a
question about why the children hadn't been vaccinated. During that week she
researched and found good arguments to be able to rationally defend our
position to not vaccinate. On the day of the court trial, that was the very
question the attorney asked. God had revealed to her what to prepare and she
did and gave a coherent reply to justify our position. The judge sided in our
favor and God got a great victory out of a seeming impossible situation.
Here are
some verses on God speaking through dreams.
Numbers
12:6a And he (the Lord) said, "Here
now my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself
known unto him in a vision, and I will speak unto him in a dream.
Joel 2:28 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.
Job
33:14-17 MSG God always answers, one way or another, even when people don't
recognize his presence. In a dream, for instance, a vision at night, when men
and women are deep in sleep, fast asleep in their beds - God opens their ears and impresses them with
warnings to turn back from something bad they're planning, from some reckless
choice, and keep them from an early grave, from the river of no return.
Amos 3:7
Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his
servants the prophets.
Matthew
1:20 But while he thought on these
things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth unto him in a dream, saying,
Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that
which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
Matthew
2:12 And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod,
they departed into their own country another way.
Matthew
2:13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to
Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and
flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek
the young child to destroy him.
Matthew
2:19-20 But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a
dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother,
and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young
child's life.
Matthew
27:19 When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him,
saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many
things this day in a dream because of him.
Acts
16:9-10 MSG That night Paul had a dream:
A Macedonian stood on the far shore and called across the sea; "Come over
to Macedonia and help us!" The dream gave Paul his map. We went to work at
once getting things ready to cross over to Macedonia. All the pieces had come
together. We knew now for sure that God had called us to preach the good news
to the Europeans.
See also: Daniel
1:17, 2:9, 2:27-30, Daniel 4, 1 Kings 3:5-15,
Genesis 31:24, 37:5-11, 40:1-23, & Genesis 41:1-41
