The Narrow Way

This isn’t my usual style of post, but I’m doing it in case it gets someone’s wheels turning in the right direction. Anyone’s. 🤔

I’m going to share a dream I had recently, which I believe to be a warning from God. I know there are many who are hardened to the idea that God sends warnings or dreams to people for various reasons, and that’s ok. Be skeptical. I don’t care so much what you think of me, as I do about sharing what I think is important. For whatever street cred I might gain with you, I will also say that I’ve had warning dreams from God before, some very specific and others, like the one I’ll share have been more general. In the past, the detailed dreams have proven to be accurate (if you want to know more, please email me and I’ll gladly share them), sometimes so accurate it’s been a little un-nerving. However, I learned very quickly not to be afraid no matter the content, because if God was warning through a dream, I believed He intended to act, and this has been my experience each time. So for me, with one exception, warning dreams have never been scary, they’ve been sobering and oddly comforting.

If “warning dreams” are weird to you, take some time to identify them in the Bible, you will quickly find that there’s no shortage of them! For example, in the book of Matthew, Joseph is warned by dreams on 4 separate occasions to flee places of danger thereby ensuring the safety of baby Jesus. Then there are the well known dreams of Joseph and Pharaoh in the Old Testament warning of the coming famine, or perhaps less commonly known in Gen 20:3 when God warns Abimelech of his fate if he lays a hand on Sarah. Dreams, including warning dreams, aren’t a new thing, nor has God stopped giving them to people. I could go on about this, but it will get beyond the scope of this post.

My dream:

I went to the city to see a doctor, for what I’m not sure. The doctors suite was in something like a large mall. When I entered, there were lots of bright lights, screens advertising all around, and loud music. To me, the environment was almost disorienting, but to everyone around me, they seemed immune to the media assault and went about their business. I made my way to an elevator and pushed the button for the floor I wanted, but it didn’t work. Instantly a hologram-type thing popped up and wanted me to interact with it and follow along with it’s prompts before it would take me to the requested floor. I’d never seen this before and was frustrated. I didn’t want to “play along” and do the prompts (like playing hand slap games and doing a little dance it demonstrated), I just wanted the elevator to be an elevator and ascend. Several times I went back and forth with the device, but it refused to do what I asked of it, while I refused to do what it asked of me. Finally, the elevator attendant (who looked like Tina Faye) came over to help me. She kept trying to get me to play along, but I refused. Suddenly something in my spirit rose up, I looked at the attendant and commanded “In Jesus’ Name” that she stop the funny business and simply make it work. She paused. No one had ever spoken to her in Jesus’ Name. Instantly all of the jokes, entertaining things like her little song and dance seemed to fall to the floor. She stood there stunned, looking down and sober. The next thing I knew, I was ministering to her. For the first time, in a long time, if not her whole life, she wasn’t distracted by this entertaining system, which she was supposed to be able to manage. It turned out, it had been managing her, she was it’s puppet–not it’s puppeteer. We were having a heart to heart moment in the midst of the flashing screens and music when suddenly I woke up.

I don’t think this is a very complicated dream to understand. I’m also not interpreting it literally like we will have elevator conductors and games to play to literally “get to the next level.” But I DO think it’s a warning about technology’s potential to distract and control us. I DO think it’s a wake up call regarding the idolizing of technology, entertainment, and social media. I find it interesting that the system wanted me to do prescribed handshakes and dance moves, almost like a ritual, or form of worship. Every culture in history has used dance (or body positions) in their worship. Most people were not phased by the elevator requests, the music, the screens everywhere, it was normal to them. They were so accustomed to constant media streams flooding their minds, they simply went along with it all. This constant flow served to not only distract them from the reality of what was going on around them, it also subconsciously began directing them. Having been an outsider to the city, mall, and doctors office, it was all new for me. Having already disconnected from so much technology and entertainment, I saw a very different picture. I believe God is calling some Christians out of this web “come out of her my people” like in Rev 18:4, so they’d have authority to break through to people like in the dream. While others are to remain and be more strategic in their engagement to ensure they’re not slowly becoming slaves.

For myself, I know that there have been times that Facebook has taken too much of my time in different seasons of life. It has gone from something I use, to something that’s used me. I’m not involved with any other form of social media, but I’m willing bet the more forms you’re involved in, the deeper the web. Can you cut it off? Or are you slave to it? Paul says that we are slaves to one thing or another, either to sin which leads to death or obedience to God which leads to life (Rom 6:16).

When I think about this dream, I am strengthened in my resolve to allow less and less media into my life, mind, and spirit. I don’t want to be like the lobster 🦞 (or is it the frog 🐸? I suppose it depends on where you live) that is in a pot of water as it slowly warms up until suddenly the lobster is dead, as it just sat there slowly becoming numb to the danger it was in. I don’t want to be like one of the people in my dream who weren’t phased by all of the attention grabbers, flashy stimulation, advertisements and entertainment. I—I want to be the one in charge of what my mind and spirit are consuming. I refuse to be brainwashed by the script of the world as entertainment and technology invade every aspect of life. I’m actually just coming off a rather short social media break now, and while I don’t intend to be as active, taking breaks helps me gain perspective. It helps me keep entertainment where it belongs, as my slave, and not my master. And while I realize there is much good that has come from both (seriously, I could go on and on about some life-giving podcasts, YouTube sermons, etc)–entertainment AND technology have limits.

How about you? Are you addicted, enslaved, in love with the mindlessness of entertainment, or can you cut it off at any time–take it or leave it—I use it, but it doesn’t get to use me? Some might think this is an extreme view to take, maybe it is, but I’d rather take an extreme position and be cognizant of what I’m consuming than be unaware and entertained.

Again, I know this post is a little different from some others, but one thing I’ve come to find–not everything is for everyone–but it’s always for someone. If you’re that someone, I pray you’re able to step back from this beast and detox from it. That you’re able to hear and know the voice of God as He speaks to and leads you into all truth and righteousness. And finally, I pray you’re able to have genuine connections with those around you, ones that aren’t interrupted by media, fantasy, and the script of the world.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

P.S. if you want to really be “woke” to the enemy’s advancement through technology, check this out…