Truth from a Dream
I woke up this morning from a deep dream in which the person in the dream had been searching in great darkness and confusion. The place where the person had been searching most recently was in the area of the number 4: the meaning of 4, the tetragrammaton, the name of God, YHWH, etc.
Suddenly this person turned around and began shouting with great excitement, "I see! I see! I see! I see!" I was not even able to return to the "experience" this person had just had a few seconds ago which caused this change, but there was no room for doubt that the experience had been very real and profound: everything about this person changed--their understanding, their awareness, their motivations, their character, their personality--no area was left unchanged.
After I woke up, two things became crystal clear about this. First of all it was extremely clear that seeing is a gift, an absolutely sovereign gift from God. Although this person had been searching with a great deal of angst and desperation, I could tell that there was no connection between the seeing and the seeking, in terms of "earning" the ability to see, or developing any kind of character that would be more ready or likely to see than before. Any and all character change came AFTER the seeing, and as a consequence of it. I interpret this to mean that it is always OK to pray for anyone to be able to see, because this does not involve any superiority of character or status: God is good and generous with His gifts, and it's always OK to ask Him as a good Father to give such powerful and life-changing gifts to His children.
The second thing I learned came as a result of asking: I asked "back into" the dream, What is the core change in this person that has come as a result of the seeing? The answer came in one word: Joy. The core motivation was now joy, replacing whatever had been there before, something darker and less hopeful. This person would now find it much easier to do loving and gracious things willingly, by choice, rather than from a sense of obligation, because they now had Joy in the center of the heart (where it belongs!).
Suddenly this person turned around and began shouting with great excitement, "I see! I see! I see! I see!" I was not even able to return to the "experience" this person had just had a few seconds ago which caused this change, but there was no room for doubt that the experience had been very real and profound: everything about this person changed--their understanding, their awareness, their motivations, their character, their personality--no area was left unchanged.
After I woke up, two things became crystal clear about this. First of all it was extremely clear that seeing is a gift, an absolutely sovereign gift from God. Although this person had been searching with a great deal of angst and desperation, I could tell that there was no connection between the seeing and the seeking, in terms of "earning" the ability to see, or developing any kind of character that would be more ready or likely to see than before. Any and all character change came AFTER the seeing, and as a consequence of it. I interpret this to mean that it is always OK to pray for anyone to be able to see, because this does not involve any superiority of character or status: God is good and generous with His gifts, and it's always OK to ask Him as a good Father to give such powerful and life-changing gifts to His children.
The second thing I learned came as a result of asking: I asked "back into" the dream, What is the core change in this person that has come as a result of the seeing? The answer came in one word: Joy. The core motivation was now joy, replacing whatever had been there before, something darker and less hopeful. This person would now find it much easier to do loving and gracious things willingly, by choice, rather than from a sense of obligation, because they now had Joy in the center of the heart (where it belongs!).
posted by Peter at 5:13 AM
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