Dreams and visions

[bèlla]

Fasting (a form of self-denial), praying, and "carrying your cross" (suffering). Or sharing in the suffering of other Christians. I'm beginning to think that suffering may include self-inflicted forms of suffering like vigorous exercising. It's helping to improve things in my life concerning spirituality or probably because it enhances the experience of fasting.

I haven't resumed fasting and will probably begin again after the equinox. I took the summer off to give my body a rest and my appetite is smaller in that period. It feels like I'm on hold in respect to sharing the suffering of others to some degree. I have a physical reaction to certain things that wasn't there in the past. I can only hear so much before my energy begins to seep. Especially in human connections. It's probably due to other things on my plate that require my attention.

LOTR looks closely based to our world before the Flood. The Nephilims, the Giants. These are discussed in far greater detail in the Book of Enoch. It's not just giants but fallen angels sharing the knowledge of magic, martial arts, crafting weapons and armor, and the art of warfare.

You can see correlations if you look closely. But the devil doesn't promote anything good and we've been on a Tolkien kick for a while. You have to ask why. That's how you train your mind to look beyond enjoyment. Most of his snares are subliminal. They're not in your face. You won't recognize them if you're looking for overt all the time.

~bella

 

[timewerx]

You can see correlations if you look closely. But the devil doesn't promote anything good and we've been on a Tolkien kick for a while. You have to ask why. That's how you train your mind to look beyond enjoyment. Most of his snares are subliminal. They're not in your face. You won't recognize them if you're looking for overt all the time.

~bella

I know. It's hard to trust anything these days. Even when I'm listening to sermons of pastors I like in youtube, I don't let my guard down. Taking every thought, every idea captive.

 

[venksta]

Here is a dream I had last September. Part of it came true within an hour of waking up.

The dream started out in my office room. There was garbage littered on the floor. As I was picking up the garbage, I wasted time inspecting some of the items, which were filthy. I realized the garbage wasn't things that I had thrown away, but belonged to someone else. After this, I realized it was garbage day, and I had forgotten to put the garbage bins out for pickup. This was in the dream, when in reality, it really was garbage day, and I did forget! After realizing this, a man in a black suit appeared. I didn't recognize him, but sensed some how he was a "pastor/teacher". He was trying to "help me", either sharing his theology from the Bible or something. Suddenly, I felt a burning discomfort on my side, and told the man this. He then tried to help further, but I knew he could not, and he wouldn't leave me alone. That is when I heard from God say to me "Lean on Me", in that quiet still voice. I told the man what God told me, hoping he'd go away and I could just trust in God as he told me to do so. But then the man became insistent in helping, and started wrestling me. After this the dream ended, and I couldn't really fall asleep. Also realizing I had to get out of bed early to make sure I put out the garbage.

I finally made myself get out of bed at 6:30am to put the garbage out. This was where God got my attention, if he didn't have it already. As I went to the alley to put out the first bin, the area I leave the bins, had garbage scattered about! Someone had left garbage in a reusable walmart bag behind the garage, and I assume a raccoon or another animal had scattered it. It had also rained last night, so it was more messier than it should have been. As I used a broom and pan to pick it all up, I started looking over the contents of the garbage. Seeing various random things. I then remembered this was like my dream, when I was picking up the garbage in my office.

The coincidence of me picking up garbage in a dream, then about 7 hours later in real life, are quite slim. The two main things I took away from the dream is that God wants me to go to him for all things. And that I need to get rid of material things I don't need which will be burned up anyways at some point, and don't haven't any eternal value.

Its been a year since I had this dream. Yesterday evening, I encountered the "pastor/teacher", at my church's prayer night, which I'm currently leading. I took over back in the spring, when our interim pastor retired. I have no formal training in leading these types of events, and have been heavily relying on God to work through me, and lead our group. We start with a hymn, then I give a short devotional, before we spend time in prayer for various needs.

There is an elderly man who comes at times, and previously would come with a spirit of strife. He is a bible teacher, and spends much time evangelizing in our community. The church advertises the meeting as a time of prayer, however, this man usually insists we do a bible study instead and derails the event. Sometimes causing another brother to argue with him. This effects our spirit right when we're about to go into prayer. He also resembled the man in my dream yesterday. He was wearing black clothes, and his skin was dark, as he is east indian. Similar to my dream. Yesterday, he came, and behaved. However, once we were done, he talked to me privately, telling me how I need to ignore the leadership and change the prayer event into a bible study. He started to give me instructions on how I should lead the group. While he was speaking, I knew God was directing me to lead the group according to His will. While the man talked to me, I saw in his eyes this ungodly like anger. On one hand, he spoke certain truths, however, they were not according to God's will.