I once had a dream in which I was with many people old and young in a home or building of some kind. I don’t know why we were together. I don’t know the circumstances of the gathering. I do know there were windows, and we were not far from the sea.

Passing the windows, I looked out to see a tidal wave heading our way. People scrambled in fear to find shelter or high ground. I did the same, and the wave came, but the dwelling we were in did not fall. The water came through the windows and filled the place and reached over my head, but I did not drown.  I helped small children caught in the wave, their legs too short to find the ground I still felt beneath my feet. Picking them up from the waves, I placed them on the couches and chairs, propping them up one against the other for support as the water continued to drain from the building. Then I turned back to the window.

And when I looked out the window right behind it was another wave, and then behind that one was another and another and they kept coming and we kept getting wet, but the dwelling we were in did not fall and the furniture never moved, and no one was lost.

Then I woke up with the assurance: We will get wet, but we won’t drown.

This dream was around 2018 or before. Covid had not yet hit the US. The corruption in Washington and other authority places was just beginning to be uncovered.

As the reader of this blog, I don’t know what you think of dreams. Do they mean anything? Is something from God being communicated? Are they only our subconscious working things out? Are they the result of inner conflict or the pizza we ate the evening before?

I think all of these explanations and more could apply. I know most dreams I’ve had have been the result of a book I was currently reading or a problem I was trying to work out. So, I don’t assume every dream I have is from God unless it sticks with me in a certain way that dreams from Him do and I recognize it unmistakably. Anything from Him is supported by the truths found in Scripture.

In 2017 (about) I had dream about a dragon. It was big and a very dark color with tall vertical spikes sticking up from the end of its tail like the drawings I’ve seen of a Stegosaurus. It roamed through the country whipping its tail back and forth drawing together groups that would never have worked together before. When they came together, they found a common hatred and began to burn and pillage all they came in contact with. The dragon’s intent was simply to create chaos and destruction. This dragon’s goal was to destroy.

Just destroy.

This was before the current political and cultural chaos now ensuing upon our nation.

But it was just a dream, right? What was the assurance from this dream? It stuck with me and didn’t just fade away. It made a mark somehow so I prayed about it. Then I remembered that in movies etc, dragons always had a vulnerability in their armor somewhere. Interesting.  I’ve looked for where I wrote this dream down and cannot find it. (I have a ton of journals. It’s there somewhere and I’ll find it when I no longer need it, I’m sure.) I can, however, look in Scripture to find what God says about evil.

This I know:

Evil tries to magnify itself, make itself bigger than it actually is. That dragon started out as a snake (serpent) in Genesis. So he’s puffed up a bit since then.

Evil wants converts and to steal.

Evil’s only weapon is to Deceive. So, I know all the noise conveyed to me of sin, doom and gloom is only part of the story, and it is probably a much smaller part than I am being asked to believe.

Evil demands compromise away from Truth.

The Psalms, poetically,  and other Scriptures describing the life of Christ among us, the Acts of the Apostles and Paul’s testimonials and instructions to the churches, in all of these places it says evil does not ever win.

Ever.

Evil devises traps for others and then like Haman in the Story of Esther, ends up destroying themselves.

Evil wastes away. That is, it wears itself out. Those under the influence of evil can’t keep up with their own lies and schemes and it comes back to bite them.

Evil provokes people away from Spirit Life to a place of sin and death. The result? Spiritual Starvation. Sin and death offer nothing but momentary satisfaction and that isn’t even real satisfaction. It’s an empty existence, full of empty promises and betrayal. That existence always seeks for wholeness in all the wrong places because the wholeness sought only offered through Christ and they refuse to receive it. The more they lose their grip on what they think will make them happy, the more frantic and erratic their behavior becomes.

The dragon dream was about this evil moving in and working behind the scenes. In light of what Scripture can tell us, Evil may be present in the world, but the church Jesus is building  will not be overcome by it (see Matthew 16). We have a hope. In Chapter 17 of John, Jesus prays that His disciples would be sanctified by the truth. The Word of God is the truth.

Sanctify means to cleanse internally by restoration of soul through knowledge of the truth (blueletterbible.org), John also used the language in 8:32 when he said the truth would set us free. Free from what? Sin, obviously, and also wrong thinking that leads to sin. Truth also sets us free from the trap of lies and deception. Truth lights up the dark places and reveals what is going on and what God says about it.

The dream of the waves, I believe are waves of grace and also waves of things that seem to overwhelm us. We see that all around us, just watch the news, if you can find a reliable source to see what I mean. It can feel like waves of events and it effects us. The waves are also waves of the Spirit moving among us. This too is happening! Do not despair. Ask God to help you see what He is doing and get on board.

The dream of the dragon, we know that one. And it goes along with the waves of events that seems to want to steal our assurance from us so we end up reacting rather than responding with truth to the events.

However, the people of God are not without hope. This is our anchor.

Hebrews 6:18 (NASB) says, “so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to hold firmly to the hope set before us. ¹⁹ This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and reliable and one which enters within the veil, ²⁰ where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

His faith in us can accomplish much.

Philippians 4: 12 (NASB) “I know how to get along with little, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. ¹³ I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

 We may feel a bit overwhelmed by current events or personal circumstances, but we are not defeated. Consider Paul's testimony:

 2 Corinthians 4: 7-12(MSG) "If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at. We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives!”

Grace and peace,

Anne