Sunday, 6 April 2014

Dreams and Spiritual Warfare


By Femi Aribisala
A colleague brought a fourteen year-old girl to see
me.  Apparently, her mother’s prophet had a horrific
dream about her portending great danger.  His
antidote was just as horrific.  He told the mother
that her daughter would have to bathe naked
publicly at Bar Beach, Lagos or she would meet a
bad end. Despite her protests, her mother put her
foot down: the word of the “man-of-God” must be
obeyed.
I managed to convince her mother that this
prophecy could not have been from God. Dreams
requiring ungodly remedies are devilish, crafted by
evil manipulative men.  Says God: “Behold, I am
against those who prophesy false dreams and tell
them, and cause my people to err by their lies and
by their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or
command them; therefore they shall not profit this
people at all.” (Jeremiah 23:32).
If you are in a church where the so-called pastor or
resident prophet specialises in seeing visions and
dreaming dreams about everyone else, get out of
there.  Learn to receive directly from God by
yourself. No pastor should mediate between you
and God. Christ came that we may have a personal
relationship with God. That is why he gave us the
Holy Spirit.
Old wives tales
Avoid “old wives tales” about dreams; the church is
full of them. These often contradict what is
presented in the scriptures. Flying in dreams does
not make you a witch.  It might simply symbolise
victory and reaching new heights.  Isaiah says:
“They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their
strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall
walk, and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31).
The fact that you died in a dream does not mean
you are going to die.  Indeed, it might mean you are
going to receive newness of life.  Jesus says:
“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and
dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces
much grain.” (John 12:24).  The fact that you were
pregnant in a dream does not mean you are
licentious. It might equally mean you are a “God-
carrier.” The angel said to Mary: “Behold, you will
conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and
shall call his name JESUS.” (Luke 1:31).
Having sex in the dream is an index of lack of
spiritual fervency.
Never accept an interpretation that goes against the
grain of what is revealed in the scriptures. Never
accept an interpretation that contradicts your faith.
Jesus says: “According to your faith will it be done
to you.” (Matthew 9:29). Some mischievous joker
tried to convince me the lion that appeared to me in
a dream was the devil.  I told him where to get off.
Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah. (Revelation
5:5). But “the devil prowls around like a roaring
lion.” (1 Peter 5:8).  What appeared to me in my
dream was not like a lion. What appeared to me
was a lion.
There are also many Christian theories about the
implications of eating in dreams.  Most of these are
highfalutin and not scriptural. Some will tell you
what you eat in a dream is poisonous. If so, many
Christians should be dead by now.  However,
sometimes a bodily need such as hunger or thirst
can prompt a dream.  Sometimes when we are
fasting, we dream of great tables of food set before
us.
Indeed, Isaiah reveals that eating in dreams come
about as a result of natural stimuli: “It shall even be
as when a hungry man dreams, and look- he eats;
but he awakes, and his soul is still empty; or as
when a thirsty man dreams, and look- he drinks;
but he awakes, and indeed he is faint, and his soul
still craves.” (Isaiah 29:8).
Wet Dreams
Having sex in dreams is another thing entirely.
According to the scriptures, this cannot be a good
thing.  Moses says: “Avoid anything that would
make you ritually unclean. If a man becomes
unclean because he has had a wet dream during
the night, he is to go outside the camp and stay
there.” (Deuteronomy 23:9-10). Some go as far as
maintain some people have spiritual husbands and
wives. However, there is no scriptural basis for
this.
Having sex in the dream is an index of lack of
spiritual fervency. This renders us to be a city
without walls that the enemy can come into and
defile. As a result, God calls us to spiritual revival
and renewal: “Awake, awake, put on your strength,
O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O
Jerusalem, the holy city; for there shall no more
come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.
(Isaiah 52:1).  We need to be spiritually awake, even
when we are physically asleep.
Stephen Johnson came to see me complaining that
he was always getting attacked in his dreams. I
said to him: “Read fifteen chapters of the bible
before you go to bed and see me tomorrow.” When
I saw him the next day, he said nobody attacked
him that night. Then he asked: “Does it mean I
have to be reading the bible every day?” I told him
to get out of my office.  A man does not question the
need to feed his body every day. But tell him to
feed his spirit, and he becomes a skeptic.
Spiritual warfare
As a new believer, I was often attacked in my
dreams. Sometimes, a dog would try to bite me, or
someone would chase me and I would run all night
long for dear life.  Even more disturbing was the
nightmare where someone would come and press
me down on the bed; nearly choking me to death.
But as I became more spiritually fervent, I stopped
running. I would stand my ground and fight and the
fight would go on for the whole night. Later, I would
beat up my assailants until they became
unconscious.  Then it got even more dramatic. I
would stretch out my hand, a bazooka would appear
mysteriously, and I would blow my assailants
away. Today, nobody dares attack me in my
dreams anymore.
What am I trying to tell you?  If a kettle is hot,
nobody presses down on it: he would get burnt.
Stolen dreams
Some people insist they don’t dream. But I believe
this just means their dreams are regularly lost or
stolen. Dreams, by nature, are fleeting. (Job 20:8).
Since they are sometimes from God, there are evil
forces determined to impede us from receiving
them.  To prevent dream-loss, again we have to be
spiritually fervent.
Then there are those who dream but don’t
remember their dreams.  Such people may want to
keep a notebook by their bedside to record their
dreams. Dreams occur at the end of our sleep and
not at the beginning; therefore we can record them
immediately as was Daniel’s practice: “Daniel had a
dream and visions of his head while on his bed.
Then he wrote down the dream, telling the main
facts.” (Daniel 7:1).
Nevertheless, if you still cannot remember your
dream, then ask the Holy Spirit.   Jesus says: “The
Holy Spirit will bring to your remembrance all things
that I said to you.” (John 14:26).

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