I know this is will be a controversial topic for some but anyone familiar with Scripture will realize God does a great deal of revealing of himself and his plans a purposes through dreams. Even lucid dreams are also mentioned in Scripture:

“I was asleep but my heart was awake. A voice! My beloved was knocking: ‘Open to me, my sister, my darling, My dove, my perfect one!…” (Song of Solomon 5:2 NASB)

Your asleep but your heart is awake. That pretty much sums up lucid dreaming. The question I want to pose you, from the above passage, is this: Will you answer the knocking of your Beloved? Will you open the door?

“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” ~ Jesus (Revelation 3:20 NLT)

God is inviting us into a deeper experience of him. Dreams are a small part of that. (I would caution you about getting too into dreaming. The point is not to forever distract you from being present here in this life by being caught up in dreams, but to use dreams to aid you in being more present!) In fact, God tells us to expect dreams and visions as a part of experiencing the Holy Spirit in the last days:

“It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions.”  (Joel 2:28 ESV)

The way I see it, everything since Christ ascending is biblically considered the last days and we are currently in the last of the last days…ish… no one knows for certain… not even Jesus, but only the Father knows. But, it is closer now than it ever has been. Jesus wants us to know he is coming soon and for you to live your life accordingly by loving the person you are with in the moment.

Be expecting God to reveal himself to you in dreams and visions and please know ‘you have a friend in me’ when it comes to experiencing God in dreams. (Now I am singing “you’ve got a friend in me” from Toy Story in my head). I am serious though. I am your friend if you are honestly and openly seeking and experiencing God… especially in unconventional ways.

My dream:

My wife and I were jumping some canyons in a dune buggy. It was exhilarating and scary. After the second one, in which we flipped upside down, she told me that we can’t get hurt here.

Not really how it looked but interesting nonetheless

I responded by saying, “yes, but I’m not here to play”. I looked to my right and saw an open pit. It was lined with bricks in a vortex pattern and was about 30 feet in diameter. I decided to “float that way” over the pit and as I went to the pit, thinking I would float over it (as I often fly in my dreams) I began instead to fall into it. ‘No problem’, I thought. I ‘skydived’ down into the pit. It soon got very dark and I remember telepathically requesting a light. “A light please”. A few small lights that were ‘alive’ (perhaps small light angels, like pixies) went ahead guiding the way.

Bricks everywhere lined the “tunnel”. I hit a section that jutted out from the wall which jolted me awake in my dream. (I suppose the experience of wakening in your dream could be described as when Frodo put on the ring in the movie Lord of the Rings. That’s sort of what it looked/felt like.)

I was in a darkened room that seemed like a basement or some underground structure. There was a bench that lined one wall. For some reason I stood on the end of this bench and wasn’t too interested in touching the floor for some reason.

My very first thought and impression was that hell was very real.

“O my Lord Jesus!” I prayed and my spirit sighed a heavy sigh. Was I in hell? Someone asked me this after I told them my dream. Here is what I think:

I believe “hell” is all around us. But, so is heaven. Yes, dark shadow beings, all manner of demons, and evil spirits inhabit this world, but, angels outnumber these two to one. This world is a battleground space. Each side wanting to take over more “territory”. The territory consists of space in our minds. We give hell more space as we willingly participate in sin.

There is absolutely no reason for sin. We do it because we don’t believe in God. Every sin is a symptom of our unbelief. We don’t trust him. We don’t love him. We resist him. So we sin and invite hell in.

Sin has terrible repercussions throughout every dimension far beyond what we can even begin to comprehend because our every choice matters immensly. Every decision aids heaven or hell. As the Scripture says, “One sinner destroys much that is good”. Only the Atonement of Jesus Christ can undo what we have done. Thankfully it has and continues to do so and will continue to do so until all of time and history has played itself out.

I floated to another small table that faced a brick wall that formed some sort of support arch It was a three to four foot wide column that spread out as it went up to support whatever was above. On the wall was written all these names. I tried to remember them. I think one of them said Nancy. (The following day I prayed for my sister in law Nancy and then just after praying for her I received a business call from a Nancy as well.)

I put my hand over these names as my heart went out to them. My thought was for their redemption… their salvation. “May they come to know and experience Jesus”. As I placed my hand over these names all the names moved around and grouped together to form the shape of a heart under my hand. Above this was what I believed to be a psalm, poem, or a hymn written. In the lower third section of the text was this phrase “Awake my heart..”

My gaze went to the top of the text. Above it on the left was written “1875” (definitely absolutely sure of the date!) and next to that was written: “HARTFORD”.

“I need to remember this”, I said and then woke up. The hypnogogic state is a very fragile one.

I wanted to know if this was real. Did I actually visit somewhere in the spirit?

So after researching these clues, here are some of my discoveries:

The text may very well have been Psalm 57. The phrase “awake my soul” appears in the right place in that Psalm and it may very well relate to exactly what is coming.

My search also led me to discover a hymn written by John S. B. Monsell called Awake Glad Soul. The phrase in his hymn appears at the right location as well, but it reads “Then wake glad heart”… BUT, the interesting part about this discovery was the date of his death, 1875 and the theme of his hymn. I had just written two songs a few days prior about ‘the Awakening’ comparing it to Spring and he does the same in his poetic work (previous blog “Resurrection Poem”). In 1875 America was in the midst of the third Great Awakening and Spurgeon was preaching sermons about awakening to God’s Spirit. It was the year of the Civil Rights Act and great social reform. The Gospel was affecting society.

Another and perhaps most solid piece of information that came up in my research was that Hartford became the capital of Connecticut in 1875.

ANOTHER GREAT AWAKENING

The point of the dream is this: God has, throughout even just Americas own history, had four recognized “Spiritual Awakenings”. The first occuring in the 1730s, again around 1800s, late 1850s, and again in the late 1960s (Jesus people movement). I am confident God is now awakening people once again.

Will you surrender to the invitation of the Holy Spirit to this awakening or resist him? Will the established church be a safe place for awakened souls? If not, where else will these awakened souls land? I’m going to trust Jesus has a perfect answer for this.

So why do I get into all this? Why even share this dream? Well, I want to help to free you to experience God for yourself and to become what I strive to be:

A Christian mystic.

I know.

This phrase will raise suspicion, garner rejection, and ruffle a few feathers. But hear me out. Please read this link and quote below for what I’m talking about, then judge me, tar and feather me, and burn me at the stake as the religious have done for ages because they are afraid to admit that God is a real person we can literally and personally be in relationship with:

A link: Christian Mystic Explained

A quote:

“Discovering spirituality is like discovering you are in a boat. Mysticism is like pushing off from the dock. Since many leave safe mooring and perish in the waves, this is not to be done in a cavalier fashion – even though it can be exciting to push off into the deep.

The issue is not of whether we should push off, for Christians must do so as well if they intend to get anywhere (and that is what boats are for), but rather of where you are going…The Christian casts off from this world as well, but with clear intent to where he is headed, with the best of maps, circumspectly, deliberately.

The Christian Mystic arrives, against all dangers and odds. Thus we launch out with fear and trembling, but trust that He who commanded us to do so can calm the waves, and see us through to His real, safe port.” – C.S. Lewis

Sail on! Know that I am your friend in this epic spiritual journey toward Christ and the expanding of his kingdom and consciousness.

“Sail on silver girl,
Sail on by.
Your time has come to shine.
All your dreams are on their way.
See how they shine.
If you need a friend
Im sailing right behind.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind.”

(Bridge Over Troubled Waters)

Have you had any “God dreams” (lucid or otherwise) you’d like to share? I will be sharing more of my journey with you in the coming days (and rocking more religious boats) so stay tuned. Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.