Dream Misinterpretation

What I am going to do in the next few lessons is to take you through the process that God took me through in trying to interpret my three dreams. I will do this over a series of lessons, because it would be too lengthy to put all of this in a single lesson. I will share the dreams themselves in this lesson -- hang on to it and keep it handy, as you will need to reference the dreams in the next few lessons, where I will share various interpretations that various people gave me on the dreams.

I had three interesting dreams in a 24-hour period. I awoke from the first dream at 7:00 AM on Tuesday morning, December 28, 2004. I had a second dream that I woke up from at 1:00 AM on Wednesday Morning (December 29, 2004). And I had a third dream that I awoke from at 5:00 AM that same Wednesday Morning. I don't normally remember my dreams, but these stayed vividly with me.

If you are interested, you can try your hand at interpreting these dreams. I will share various interpretations in the next few lessons, including the interpretations that God finally gave to me after I really pressed into Him for them.

DREAM 1:

I entered a Wells Fargo Bank. The bank was one of those L-shaped rooms where you enter a lobby and turn a corner to get to where the tellers are. The portion of the lobby that paralleled the street was made of all glass windows. It is not that unlike typical banks in San Francisco.

I was in the lobby section and I had come to meet someone. I knew who I was meeting in the dream, but I forgot who it was when I woke up. Suddenly there were gunshots and the sounds of men's voices saying something like, "This is a holdup." I thought about running out of the lobby to the street, but instead I dropped to the ground, thinking I would be shot if I tried to run. All around me, other people were also dropping to the floor, laying flat on our stomachs. When I was down, I could see a bit around the corner where the teller area was. I remember wooden counters and red carpet and those brown-velvet cords that they use to make an aisle for the line.

There were all sorts of people on the ground in that area. Some people, who I will refer to as "terrorists" instead of as "bank robbers," were shooting and killing many of the people on the ground.

I felt quite frightened and I did not want to die. The thought ran through my mind that it would have been better to run outside of the bank than to get on the ground. The truth was that I did not expect the robber/terrorists to hurt those who were not resisting. One of the terrorists was a short thin woman, and she was dressed in all black. She shot another person, then came around the corner to the lobby where myself and some others were laying. I was afraid that I was going to be killed and I found myself praying and asking God to spare my life.

The lady got to where I was and about that time a man's voice said, "Enough killing. Gather the survivors into groups of five."

I had the impression that there were 15 people in the teller area who were still alive. There were seven of us in the lobby. They gathered five of the lobby people into a group and ushered them into the teller area. The woman in black made me stand up and told me that I was going to be one of their spokesmen. I had a mental flash of the video tapes with a kidnap victim reading a prepared script into a video camera. But that is not the way it was implemented. They gave me a sort of magazine looking thing that was a complicated set of demands. The problem is that none of the demands were spelled out clearly. There were a bunch of cross references in it, where I would have to turn to a different section in the middle of reading one of the demands. They seemed to be mostly about human rights and I do remember that one of them was for a national holiday to remember those who had suffered injustice, but I could not figure out what date they wanted the holiday celebrated. The demands themselves seemed like good things and I almost found myself having some sympathy for the terrorists -- as if they were trying to do something noble. That feeling lasted only a fraction of a second as I remembered all the people they had killed.

The lady terrorist was trying to help me understand their demands, but she insisted that I use my own terminology to phrase them. I told her that the demands sounded almost noble, but that I could not condone killing all those people so that there were only four groups of five survivors left. She said that there were a lot more survivors than that. But I did not believe her.

The other lady from the lobby who was not put in the group of five was a short heavyset woman with short dark brown curly hair. She was to be the other spokesperson. They did not seem to be preparing her as much as they were preparing me. I struggled and struggled with their cryptic demands, but never really got a full handle on them. The lady terrorist kept trying to help me.

Then they said it was time to announce the demands. The head terrorist came outside with us, holding a gun on us. There was a podium set up on the sidewalk with a bunch of microphones and a bunch of bright lights on it. It looked like the sort of thing that is used at press conferences. A bunch of folding metal chairs had been set up in the street and was full of reporters.

The first hostage got up to give her portion of the demands. But she did not give any demands at all. All she did was tell a few jokes and humorous stories designed to provoke sympathy and good will for the terrorists.

Then it was my turn. I got up to speak. Someone took a picture with a huge flashbulb while someone else shined a bright spotlight into my eyes. That temporarily blinded me, and I could no longer see the terrorist holding the gun on me, but I "knew" he was still there. I also knew he would kill me if I did not get his demands right. And I was still confused on what his demands were.

I said, "It is very scary for me to speak to you. I am not afraid of talking in front of crowds, because I am a preacher. But I am afraid of getting their demands wrong and getting killed for that..."

That was when I woke up.

After I woke up, I remember thinking and praying several times that I did not want to be a spokesperson for terrorists -- I did not want to be a spokesperson for anyone but God. And I found myself praying that God would help me to be a clear and accurate spokesperson for Him, to represent Him accurately and not to say anything He was not saying.

DREAM 2:

This is a short dream. I was standing there when suddenly this light shone on me from above. I found myself surrounded by God's presence and it was wonderful. I began to pray and commune and fellowship with God. Suddenly I found myself being pulled upwards, lifting into the air. My first thought was that I was being pulled away from God and I told Him, "I am being lifted up. Please help me." Instantly I realized that I was not being pulled away from God, but to Him. It was like the rapture movies, where people standing on the street are suddenly caught up into the clouds. I felt myself floating upwards to the Lord, and I was aware that others were being lifted up as well. I could not see any of them, because I was surrounded by a bright white light and that was all I could see. I had this sense of excitement because I was going to see God face to face. I could hardly wait and wished I was moving upward faster. I thought to myself, "Am I there yet?" And a voice answered me, "No, not yet, but very soon."

Then I woke up. I could feel the Lord's sweetness and love all around me the entire dream.

DREAM 3:

There was some type of crusade or revival meeting with some really big name person (don't remember who) ministering who had the ability to usher crowds into the very presence of God. The stage was a square stage that was elevated about four feet off the ground, and chairs surrounded all four sides of the stage. I had somehow managed to get seats for myself and for the three with me in the very front row along the side of the stage that was the "front." I was amazed that I had these amazing seats. The meeting had not started yet, but one of the singers was on the stage preparing her microphone. She looked at me and said, "God is going to really bless you!"

I said amen and I had this sense of eager anticipation. I could hardly wait for the meeting to begin. Then the singer told me that the woman sitting behind me was a real mother in the faith and that God was going to put some of her anointing on me.

Just before the meeting was to start, Paul (one of the people in my group of four) starting doing something that embarrassed me. He had somehow managed to get one of the speaker's shirts, which was navy blue in color. He was standing on his chair, waving the shirt around in circles over his head. I had originally given him the aisle seat. I moved to the aisle and had him step off his chair and pushed him in front one of the other seats, keeping the aisle for myself.

I also took the shirt away from him and tried to return it, but was unable to do so. I walked to the back side of the stage (remember it was square) and there were some empty chairs in the front row. People's Bibles and stuff were on the seats but the people themselves were away from their seats. Several of the seats had shirts lying across the back of the chair. I put the shirt I'd taken on the back of one of the seats that did not have a shirt on it. Then I returned to my aisle seat.

That is when the meeting started. The worship music started and people began to do some really bizarre things...many assorted physical manifestations I had not seen before. It was very rowdy. Some of them were in the Spirit and under the touch of God, but many were in the flesh and were working themselves into a frenzy.

I stepped over to the side because I did not want to act out in the flesh, I only wanted to "manifest" if God's presence/touch was truly on me. I noticed an Asian lady near me, who had spread her arms wide and was twirling in circles with complete abandonment. The Lord's presence was on her and she was blissfully looking up at some heavenly vision as she twirled. She got so near me that I had to duck to avoid being hit by her outstretched hands as she twirled. She had such a look of complete bliss on her face and I could see the Lord's presence on her. Even though there was some flesh in this place, the Lord's presence was also here.

I could feel the Lord's presence beginning to come on me and I knew that He was about to fill me and flood my senses and overwhelm me with His nearness. I was full of eager anticipation and the sense of His presence was starting to increase. I was so happy that He was about to meet me in a powerful way.

Then I woke up.