Monday, December 29, 2008, 5:00 a.m. – This song in my head:
Stop, and let me tell you what the Lord has done for me.
Stop, and let me tell you what the Lord has done for me.
He forgave my sin and he saved my soul,
He cleansed my heart and he made me whole.
Stop, and let me tell you what the Lord has done for me.
I woke from a dream. Lord, if you would be pleased to have me remember the dream and to grant me understanding of it, I pray you will do so now. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen!
The Dream: I was in some kind of an enclosure – not sure what it was. It looked kind of like a maze. I went through it and came out on the other end of it. A person was thirsty and was trying to get a drink from this whatever it was that I was inside of, but he couldn’t get anything from it, so I went back inside it to get him some milk, I believe. End. I woke from the song (above) after the dream.
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Hebrews 10:
Christ's Sacrifice Once for All
1The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, 4because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
"Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
6with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
7Then I said, 'Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, O God.' "8First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law required them to be made). 9Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. 13Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, 14because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
15The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
16"This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds." 17Then he adds:
"Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more." 18And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. 19Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
26If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people." 31It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. 33Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. 34You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.
35So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37For in just a very little while,
"He who is coming will come and will not delay.
38But my righteous one will live by faith.
And if he shrinks back,
I will not be pleased with him." 39But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.
My Understanding: I began to pray for understanding of this dream when a demonic spirit began to attack me in my mind by interjecting his own thoughts into this process of seeking God’s face for understanding of the dream. So, I had to stop the process, get on my knees before Almighty God, and to do some spiritual warfare praying and claiming the victory that is mine in Christ Jesus our Lord because He already won the victory for me on the cross of Christ – one sacrifice for sins. Because the Lord already won the battle against Satan when he defeated him on the cross by his one sacrifice for sins, I was then able to draw near to God with full assurance of faith, having been cleansed from a guilty conscience, and then I could continue on.
This is the understanding that I believe the Lord has given to me concerning this dream. I am representing the obedient church that is not without fault. The “enclosure” is my/our heart. The Lord took me (his church) through my/our heart in examination before Almighty God in his saving work of regeneration (see v. 10) – “we have been made holy…” This other person who is thirsty is representing the world who is trying to get the milk of the Word from our (the church’s) heart, and so the Lord is taking and will take us back through our heart in the work of revival (see v.14) – “those who are being made holy…” Then, we will be able to give out the milk of the Word of God to a world who is dying and is in need of a Savior; a world lost in darkness and which is denying the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord.