LET GOD OUT OF THE BOX!

The hallow echo’s of the pounding fill my heart…I can hear God pounding on the box pleading with us to let Him out. I would be rich if I had a dime for everyone who said, “Let God out of the box”, but from the same heart comes judgment of what that looks like and it confidently declares, “That’s not God”.

God has always spoken through metaphor and still does. This post is not to explain all the ways, the whys and the how’s. Instead, I hope to provoke you to consider that God can use anything to speak to us. Thinking God only uses symbols in the bible is simply religious and presumptuous thinking. The bible itself declares that Jesus did so many things that all the books in the world could not contain it.

We just held our first annual Dream Extreme conference and, knowing it would be controversial, we had an image of a Phoenix on the banner. The message of the Phoenix is simply that of bringing something back to life. In preparation for the conference, we felt that was the main message…that God wanted to bring so many of them back from a place of ashes to a place of spiritual flight. He wanted to resurrect areas of their spiritual gifting.

Just as I suspected, many judged it as not being “Godly”. I suspect the reason is because the image comes from mythology and it is not in the bible. Are we to tell God He cannot convey a message that is in keeping with His nature – that of one that He is able to resurrect things in their life – because it’s done with a symbol we’d prefer He not use? If this is the case, you will forever have difficulty interpreting dreams, visions, natural and spiritual experiences.

I want to share a few examples with you where God revealed He can speak in ways we don’t expect. He can find good in anything He wants to. I remember a friend from Stream’s Ministries who had a dream about jelly beans. I don’t remember the fullness and all the details of the dream, but in essence, she had jelly beans and people were picking out the black ones. She was sad and said, “but I like black jelly beans”…and she heard God say, “I do, too!” The message came because many were thinking that the color black was always bad in dream interpretation and God was revealing to her that it’s not that way at all. And, in fact, I have found black can represent strength, justice, & creativity.

On a more recent occasion, I had a dream and I was interpreting dreams within the dream (This happens to me frequently. This is one of the ways God shows me how to interpret…He gives me understanding of how to interpret while I am in my dream). I have long wondered about spiders in dreams and their meanings. I was taught that it meant the occult, and many times it can and does. However, I was asking God about it because that meaning didn’t always seem to fit and a dream soon followed. In this dream, someone had spiders in their dream and I was helping them interpret. They said, “It means the occult, doesn’t it”…and I said – having knowledge that I knew came from God while in the dream, “It CAN mean the occult or deception (a web of deception) but if someone has a pet spider, it may be a good symbol for them!” I woke up and knew that God was reminding me that there are no absolutes and not everything we perceive as being negative, is negative.

I was at a local event fairly recently that was led by Brad and Jill McClendon and Jill was speaking about dreams. She also offered a great example that drives this point home. We are taught that snakes are always a bad symbol in dream interpretation. She shared that Brad had been having dreams with lots of snakes in them and it clear that they were warning dreams of negative things so they prayed. He finally had a dream where a King snake ate all the other snakes! Who do you think is the King? If you look at the attributes of a king snake, you will find they eat the bad ones. This King snake was Jesus!

Throughout scripture, God used metaphor and similes to convey the attribute of a thing or situation so that you could wrap your mind around the message He was trying to make. He wants you to look at the purpose of an object, symbol, animal, etc., to convey a specific message to you. In the Hebraic Scrolls, Jesus is a lion…the lion representing the “King” (king of the jungle), courageous, bold, fiercely powerful, etc. But if you’ll also look, satan is compared to a lion…prowling around looking to destroy and intimidate.  There are hundreds of examples like this. Keep all things in context and look for the attributes when interpreting – and most importantly, remember God’s nature. He is a good God – and He can do ANYTHING He wants to and use anything to convey a message…

Let God out of the box – you may think you have, but you may have just created a slightly bigger box.

The Dream Extreme

Got Dreams? Want Answers? We are excited to announce our first annual Dream Extreme in Charleston, SC, on July 9-11th. It will be held at the Charleston Convention Center and Embassy Suites Hotel on International Blvd. in North Charleston.

 What is a Dream Extreme? Above & Beyond offers many different spiritual acceleration courses to help give you understanding. We have two levels of dream interpretation courses, “Dreamology” & “Advanced Dreamology”. In addition to those, we also can personalize workshops, events, seminars, conferences, etc. A Dream Extreme is just that…an extreme immersion into the realm of dream interpretation.  The mission is to give you as much as we can, as fast as we can. 

This conference will be so much more than just dream interpretation.  We will be offering teams of people to give you a word from God, personal prophetic art ministry, corporate prophetic music ministry, soaking music by recording artist Cathy Mart, an amazing band led by recording artist Paul Pace, a creative dream workshop led by Artist & Speaker Janice VanCronkhite, several special guest speakers, celebrations, impartations, surprises & so much more!  You will not want to miss this event! Check out the website for further information on The Dream Extreme.  Registration deadline is June 25th.  Hope to see you there!  Tell your friends & sign up for our newletters to stay informed.

Soul Dreams

We often wonder where dreams come from.  One source of our dreams is our own soul.  I believe dreams can come from the body, soul, your own spirit, the demonic realm or God.  We will just briefly mention soul dreams in this blog. 

Our soul is comprised of our mind, will & emotion.  Often we can cause ourself to dream things our mind is focused on, our will wants desperately, or our emotions severely influence.  This is documented on the ancienct Hebraic scrolls in Jeremiah, chapter 29 and verses 8 & 9.  It says,

For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Do not let your prophets & your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which YOU CAUSE TO BE DREAMED.  For they prophesy falsely to you and in My name; I have not sent them, says the Lord.” (emphasis added by me)

God is clearly pointing out that, not only are there false prophets and diviners, but that there are those who dream things they caused themselves to dream.  He is making a clear distinction that He did not give these dreams and where they came from.

We have to be cautious when interpreting dreams that we take into account that the dreamer could have caused themself to dream something they want.  Dreams from God Himself will ALWAYS have scripture references that will agree with the dream.  That doesn’t mean the scripture will be verbatim mentioned in the dream, but that the message is one God has already given in His Word.  This is one thing God showed me and confirmed to me.  He NEVER contradicts His nature or His Word.  We will teach you how to discover dreams that come from God in upcoming articles and Dreamcasts.

“Dreams are often a reflection of the soul, revealing the inmost part of the heart.”   Teresa Ward 

How God Uses Music to Speak

Ever wake up with a song stuck in your head?  Or have you had a dream with a song in it?  I used to blow off song lyrics stuck in my head when I awoke and chalked it up to an annoying interference that I couldn’t seem to get rid of.  After studying dreams and the seer gift, I’ve discovered how profoundly God uses music to speak to us.

Ancient scrolls reveal that all of creation speaks of God and we will stand before Him without excuse and we will not be able to say we didn’t know He was speaking (Romans 1:20).  After discovering hidden treasures in the way He speaks, I have found He uses everything to speak to me. 

When I started paying attention to the songs that were in my head, either when I awoke, when I was in a dream, or anytime they provoked me to pay attention, I discovered God was speaking in profound ways.  Many times I would pray before going to sleep at night and the lyrics in the song when I awoke would be a direct answer or specific direction for me.  Other times I found my spirit would be worshiping Him with a song or that He would be lavishing His love on me.  Just this morning I had several dreams that revealed I was discouraged and saddened about something and awoke on two separate occasions to hear  the lyrics “you can’t escape my love” by Enrique Iglesias and another Christian song which I cannot remember the title, but the lyrics were “you are a child of mine”.  It’s difficult for us to truly believe how much God passionately loves us and the great lengths He will go to express His love to us.  How incredibly cool to have a God who is so fun and creative.

Many of you have shared with me how instrumental (no pun intended) music has been in hearing from God.  I encourage you to pay attention to those songs that are vying for your attention and no longer dismiss them.  They could be offering you encouragement, direction, warnings, or the love you need for the moment.  God speaks in all of creation and we will stand before Him without excuse.

Email me your examples of how God has used music to convey things to you.  Dreams@gatewaytodreams.com

Dreamweaver

Spiritual Exercise - Thinking Metaphorically

Metaphors & Similes

Ancient scripture is full of metaphors, similes, parables, idioms, and allegories.  We will focus on metaphors this time.  A metaphor says “this is that”.  It shows two objects as being identical.  For instance, Jesus is the Lamb of God, Jesus is the Lion of Judah, Jesus is the branch, Jesus is the Vine, etc.  The scrolls don’t say Jesus is like a lamb or like a lion, it says He IS.  This is how a metaphor is different than a simile.  Similes use the words “like” and “as”.  The bible is also full of those. For purposes of dream interpretation, you can look at them both the same.  They compare two things as being alike.  Here’s a free nugget: One thing you will notice about satan is that your adversary the devil is like a roaring lion. You’ll notice that the bible says Jesus IS the Lion of Judah.  Notice also it says that the enemy IS LIKE a lion, not he is a lion.  What attributes of satan are like a roaring lion?  He likes to intimidate, he’s got a big ferocious mouth (mocker), he attacks people, and he thinks he rules the jungle, but we all know he doesn’t…he just likes to think he does.

Like the bible, dreams are often parables filled with metaphors and similes – not to mention riddles, idioms, enigmas, etc.  Often when I am interpreting a dream and the object, animal, etc., doesn’t seem to make sense in the dream, I will ask myself if this is a metaphor for me or the person who the dream is about.  Am I or another person like this item, object, animal, etc.? How?  I will often look at the item, object, creature, etc., and ask what else has the same characteristics.  If there is an alligator in the dream, ask what the characteristics are…a big mouth, attacks, tries to stay hidden, (and makes a nice purse! he! he!).  What or who is like that?  Are there people in the dreamer’s life like that?  Are they like that?  Just start asking questions.  For instance, in one of my dreams there was an oven and I was baking cookies and taking them out of the oven to cool.  My pastor (in my dream) liked that I was doing that.  After meditating on this I wondered what the oven was.  I asked myself what characteristics it had.  It opens and it is warm inside.  It was revealed to me that the oven was my heart.  The oven represented how my heart was opening up to others and being “sweet” (the cookies).  I was taking time to “cool off” before speaking (serving the cookies).  God (my pastor in the dream) was pleased.  If this had been a negative dream, it could have represented being “hot” or angry.  In two other dreams there was a microwave oven.  One was positive and one was negative.  Context is always the key to correctly interpreting.  In the positive one, the microwave represented preparing things quickly for others.  The characteristic that the microwave had was “quick”.  In another dream, a microwave represented someone’s mouth, as in quick to respond, not really thinking before they spoke…the result is doing that cooks up trouble.  Another example is a chest of drawers.  Taking something off the top could represent “getting something off your chest”.  The bottom drawer might represent the bottom of your heart (sincerity)…the key word is chest.  What is like a chest?  The human body…it has a chest that can represent the heart.  The heart can store things up like a chest of drawer.  Refrigerators in my dreams often represent my heart…I am relieved when I discover the type of refrigerator is an “upright” one instead of a side-by-side or “divided” one!  Although, I suppose a side-by-side refrigerator could also represent unity if interpreted that side-by-side means supporting or coming along beside someone.  The freezer could represent a cold place in my heart or it could represent storing things up for later or preserving something.

One of the exercises that really opened up this way of thinking is an exercise called an object lesson.  And while I learned it while studying with John Paul Jackson and Streams Ministries, I have since met people who have also done this exercise in school and have shared how they were impacted as well.  In the exercise, you take any object and ask God how you are like that object. The point of the exercise is to understand how to think metaphorically. I was teaching a class in Florida, called “The Art of Hearing God,” and was going over this exercise explaining to people how important it was and how God wanted to speak to them anytime, anywhere, and through anything.  Upon coming back from lunch that day, a lady came up to me in tears with two Taco Bell hot sauce packets in her hand.  She said God had been really dealing with her in that class and her heart had been hard and unrepentant.  When she went to Taco Bell for lunch, she was using two hot sauce packets and one said, “It’ll be o.k.” and the other said, “I love you anyway”.  She was profusely touched by God and said she knew He was speaking directly to her and could feel His tangible love through two hot sauce packets!.  There is story after story of testimonies of how God really touched people through this exercise.  When you understand God can and does use objects, items, animals, etc., to speak to us, interpreting them in dreams becomes easier.  Simply start by meditating on the characteristics of what you’re trying to interpret and ask yourself and God how this is like something else with the same characteristics or what else has these same characteristics.

EXERCISE: An object lesson.  Take any object and ask God how you are like that object. Consider the size, function, color, purpose, attributes, flaws, improvements that could be made, multiple uses, etc.   It doesn’t have to be long.  Share with us what God says to you or how it impacted you.  Email us at dreams@gatewaytodreams.com.

Dream Element: Trees

Dream Element: Trees

Many times when I have a dream, God will reveal symbol meanings or interpretation of dream elements while I am in the dream.  God will sometimes even give me understanding or reveal to my why the interpretation is such. 

I had a dream last night that had trees in it.  One in particular.  Trees many times will represent a leader or sometimes it represents righteousness or right living if it is, for example, an oak tree.  This comes from the ancient scrolls of God.  All through the ancient scripture, God spoke metaphorically, in hard sayings, enigmas, riddles, parables, etc.  Jesus only spoke in parables to those who were unbelievers.  He gave the meaning to those who knew Him.  The scrolls reveal that in Daniel 4:20-26, one of the meanings of a tree is that it can represent leadership.

One of the things I hope to help you with is to understand the metaphorical way God speaks to you.  We need to look at the characteristics of a symbol or dream element to understand its meaning or representation.

In my dream a few nights ago I had one tree in particular that had branches that hung down very low.  While I was in the dream, I began to try and figure out what it meant. In the dream I knew that trees could mean leadership, but I didn’t understand why the limbs and branches were hanging down.

While I was in my dream, it was revealed to me that the tree was someone very close to me.  A relative.  I was “under” their authority and it was revealed to me that the limbs hanging down represented that this person came down hard on me.  The particular tree used in the dream doesn’t have leaves.  Leaves can represent life or healing.  The tree was also a hard wood.  This represented that the person is very “hard” and did not speak words that would bring life or healing to me.

Why did God reveal this dream to my spirit?  It was because He wanted me to see one of the “root” problems of rejection I deal with.  God was embracing me with compassion and letting me know He knows the heartache I have dealt with.

Whenever we look at a symbol or element, do not think that it will always have the same meaning.  Look for the characteristics about the element, item, or action that is happening.  Ask yourself what has the same characteristics…it usually hits home to your spirit and you know what it represents.  And usually you know because it’s something you are currently dealing with in some capacity - but not always. 

In dream interpretation there is no set symbol dictionary or interpretation method.  It is a spiritual discernment that takes time, study, and the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit.  We hope, however, to help you understand how God spoke in the ancient scriptures because God never changes and if we can understand how He speaks, we will hear him more clearly.

For your dream questions, email us at dreams@gatewaytodreams.com.

Your dreamologist and personal destiny fulfillment coordinator,

Dreamweaver

Let’s Get Started!

O.K., we’ve been busy behind the scenes preparing to invite you and participate in your spiritual journey.  The first thing we want to do is ask you what questions are most pressing for you concerning dreams, visions, or anything else spiritual.  We want to answer those here and develop a page of frequently asked questions.

Email us your questions at dreams@gatewaytodreams.com.

Looking forward to participating in propelling you into your spiritual destiny!  Send your friends and let us know what you would like to see on the site.

Dreamweaver

Welcome to Above & Beyond!

Welcome to Above & Beyond, where we aspire to take you above & beyond into the supernatural realm of God.  Don’t be spooked by the word supernatural.  God IS supernatural…there’s really nothing natural about Him, so the word supernatural simply describes the type of God we have.  Besides, the people reading this blog are not spooked by that word anyway…they are spiritually hungry for more…tired of status quo and are ready to experience the supernatural side of the spirit realm.

We want to give you a sincere welcome and invite you to email us your dream and spiritual questions  we can answer in our daily blog.

One of the main things we desire to convey here at Above & Beyond is that you are family.  We want to offer much more than a typical learning experience where you are simply a student or an intern or a partner.  YOU ARE FAMILY.  We hope to foster a loving family environment that conveys how much we and God love you and that you do belong here.  We want FOR you NOT FROM you…well, partially true…there are some things we want from you…We want your input, your advice, your experiences, your participation.  We exist to propel you into your purpose.  We take that very seriously.  We are here to serve you and love you and hope you’ll reciprocate.  We long to show the world that if you foster a loving and sincere environment, it will create a powerful unity that no one can conquer.  There’s nothing we can’t do together if we are putting each other before ourselves and we give with no hidden agenda or motives.   We are better together.

So look for our daily blog.  We will be discussing dreams, visions, and other spiritual stuff that you have questions about.  We don’t know everything, but we’ll search it out together and God will give us the answers.  We also are developing forums, chat rooms - where we’ll walk you through an actual dream interpretation, podcasts, youtube training videos, and so much more!  We’ll also be holding events you can attend to learn more about dreams, visions, and the realm of the spirit.  Look for local Dreamology courses in your area soon or email us to book one!  Lots of fun stuff coming, so check back daily and send your friends.

Until next time,

 Dreamweaver…your personal Dreamologist & Destiny Fulfillment Coordinator!