Dream Big!

Day Eight

After writing about all my devil dreams, I didn’t want to leave the impression that I only dream about the devil or even mostly dream about the devil—nothing of the sort!  I dream God dreams all the time.  In fact, so many that sometimes I am in danger of forgetting them.

In my book, Laughing in My Dreams © 2012 Alisa K. Brown, www.lulu.com, I told about some of my dream confirmations about getting this apartment, but I had forgotten to write about one dream that was particularly beautiful.

The dream came in 2 parts.  In the first part I was on a bus with Giulietta, the wife of the Music Pastor at my Italian church.  Giulietta is a professional dancer, and dances mostly modern dance and ballet.  So, Giulietta and I were on a bus, going to see my apartment (which I was fasting and praying to get).  The bus was filled with people from church.  Elisa said, “The Lord will give you every place where you put your feet.”

When we got to the door of the apartment I woke up.  I started praying, thanking God for my apartment, and fell asleep again.  The dream continued right from where it had left off.

The bus arrived in front of the apartment—and there is a bus that passes right in front of the apartment, for real, though it stops in the next block.  We went inside and immediately Giulietta started praying in Hebrew.  Her prayer became a song, and although I don’t understand Hebrew, I recognized that it was a song of conquest and victory.  As Elisa sang everybody began to dance, touching all the walls, the windows, the doors, the furniture, etc. (even though it was an unfurnished apartment, it has furniture in my dream).  Then one after another, the people left, and finally Giulietta left, too, and I was alone in my apartment.

This dream came when I needed reassurance that I was on the right track.  Of the people who knew that I was fasting and praying for this particular apartment, only Bethany was truly supportive.  The rest would try gently to persuade me that I should probably look for an apartment in a less expensive part of town.  But not long after this dream, I had a breakthrough.  And now I am in the apartment.

Now, while I am fasting and praying for understand for End Times strategies and preparation, I know that I am on the right track.  Breakthrough is coming.

This morning I got on the bus to go to church, and the bus got about 10 blocks from home, stopped and had everyone get off because the Stramilano marathon was blocking the bus route.  The driver then turned the bus around and went back the way we had come.  I went to the tram stop, but the tram was also blocked.  So I went back to the train station about 5 blocks away.  But by the time I got there I was so exhausted and weak (fasting and physical exertion do not go together!) that I decided just to go home and pray instead.

There is a beautiful golden church at the end of my block, and just as I got to the corner, I stopped.  There was procession of 4 priests and 2 altar boys carrying gold crosses and incense censers, and maybe 4 parishioners with olive branches in their hands.  I watched as they crossed the street toward me.  I had forgotten that it was Palm Sunday today.  (In Italy, they use olive branches instead of palm fronds.)

In my prayer time, I felt such a strong presence of God that I hadn’t felt in a long time.  An hour passed very quickly, then another.  We didn’t spend a lot of time speaking to each other, we just embraced and cuddled.  It was really wonderful.

I’m not advocating skipping church, and I’ll go to an afternoon service in a little while.  But God is willing to meet you whenever and wherever you seek Him.  He might even send a procession to meet you!  God is good!

Getting Over Myself

One of the hardest things to do when I pray, especially Centering Prayer, is getting over myself.  I wrote about Centering Prayer (also called Contemplative Prayer or Christian Meditation) in my recent post, Prayerlife Revolution: https://europeanfaithmissions.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/prayerlife-revolution/.  God showed me a handy tool, a place to put those pesky thoughts about myself that intrude when I’m trying to focus on Him.  This tool is The Table.

I wrote about The Table in the likewise named post: https://europeanfaithmissions.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/the-table/.  But in that post I didn’t give the full history of The Table.  I’ve actually seen The Table, or at least a description of it.  If you follow this link and scroll to the bottom of the last page, you can see a drawing of what The Table looks like:

EZEKIELS_TEMP25

The Table came to my attention as a rhema word that God had given me many years ago.  [A rhema word is a word from the Bible specifically for you.]  At that time my son was living on his own and experiencing many difficulties including losing his job and losing his apartment.  Without an apartment, he also didn’t have a phone where we could call him.  After not hearing from him for a couple of months, worry plagued me so badly that I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t function.

Early one morning after another sleepless night I was having my regular Bible and prayer time.  At the time I was reading through the Bible for the sixth or seventh time, so that day’s passage was one I had read before.  It was in Ezekiel, where the angel is leading Ezekiel through the Temple in Heaven.  The angel is measuring and explaining everything, and Ezekiel is writing it all down.  Then in chapter 41 they enter the Holy of Holies where there is a wooden altar.  In verse 22 the angel says to Ezekiel, “This is the table that is before the Lord.”  Those words jumped off the page, and God told me: “Put him on The Table and leave him with Me.”

It sounds easy to do, but relinquishing control like that is actually pretty hard, and in those days (about 17 years ago) my faith was still in its young phase.  When I finally did put him on The Table, I released him so completely to God that I literally left him there for dead.

Instantly, peace flooded my heart.  Every time I started to worry again, I put him back on The Table.  A few days later, he finally called, with the news that he had gotten a job and found a place to live.

The Table has become my place to put those things that plague me: worries, people I love, and all the things that are out of my control.  When I have thoughts that pester me and try to draw my attention away from God, I do two things simultaneously:

  1. I softly sing the chorus to “I stand in Awe of You” (http://www.lyricstime.com/hillsong-i-stand-in-awe-of-you-lyrics.html), which helps get my focus back to God
  2. I put the distracting thought on The Table

Distracting thoughts are almost always focused on myself.  Lately, I’ve gotten a few prophecies from various sources, saying the same thing: get over yourself.  If you want to receive more from God, get over yourself.

I don’t just want to receive more from God, I want it ALL.  The Table is full of blessings, healing, renewed relationships, guidance, provision, etc.  God is in each gift that is on The Table.  He is on The Table.  We are invited to come take whatever we need from The Table.  And The Table is also a place where we can leave those worries, people, and thoughts that trouble us—a place to get over ourselves.  So for me, The Table is also where I can get over myself.

God is good!