DREAM
SENSE
Topics: Discernment; Fear; God as Father; God’s Love; Hearing God; Spiritual Perception; Uncertainties; Visions and Dreams
References: Psalm 4:8; Matthew 7:7–11; Luke 11:11–13; James 1:16–18
One night in a dream, my wife saw the mangled body of one of our children. She tried to help, but nothing worked. She was helpless, desperate, and terrified. After waking, she agonized about her dream. She called me at the office and asked, “Roc, do you think this is God telling us to prepare for the death of our child?”
I listened and reasoned a bit. After all, the Bible gives examples of God telling people they are going to die. Then I thought about the nature of the dream (gruesome carnage and helpless despair) and the impact of the dream (fear and grief). I told Bev I was confident that this was not God speaking. It’s not like him to frighten us for no reason. This sounded more like a message from her heart, which wrestled regularly with fears of losing a child, or a message from Satan, who is well known for lies and terror. Years have passed, and none of our children have died in a gruesome manner.
A similar “message,” on the other hand, had a very different feel. While on vacation, my daughter Bethany was speeding down a California freeway with three teenage friends. One of them, Jody, said she had dreamed the night before that they were in a serious wreck and that she, the only one with a fastened seat belt on, had survived. Hearing that, everyone fastened their seat belts.
Later, their car swerved into the grass median and rolled. The investigating officer looked at the car and said, “If you hadn’t had your seat belts on, the outcome would have been a lot different.”
Where did Jody’s dream come from? Consider the message: a warning of a danger that turned out to be very real. Consider the tone: an urging to do something that was right and reasonable, something that traveling teens often neglect. Consider the effect: saved lives. Who speaks in this way? A loving Father.
—Roc Bottomly, “May I Have a Word with You?” Discipleship Journal (November–December 2005)