zipporah01

To the original question... I think there are many examples in the scriptures that God does speak to us during our dreams. Sometimes dreams contain straight out instructions (Ex: Genesis 20:3-6, Matt 2:12), sometimes they're prophetic parables of what is to come (Ex Genesis 41:42, Judges 7, Daniel 2). However, I think careful, prayerful discernment is required before we can know if a dream is a message from God, or as Ebenezer Scrooge said "just a bit of undigested beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato". Ecclesiastes 5:7 tells us that many dreams have no meaning at all and that the only thing that matters is "awe of the Lord". So, my take on it is, if a dream puts you in awe of the Lord and gives you a message that aligns with scripture, it's pretty likely that you just got a hot wire message from the Lord. If I had been dreaming about skinny cows eating fat cows, I don't know that I ever would have caught on that it was a message from God, and yet it was. Remember that dream interpretation is a God given gift, not to be taken lightly. Luke wrote, in Acts 2:17 that In the last days the young people will prophecy and see visions and the old men will dream dreams. At very least, we should consider our dreams possible parables from God, but discernment, always discernment, is key.

I was just wondering if you watch Christian tv.?

I pulled together this little devotion for a mission team in 2008. My husband and I reviewed it this week and it spoke to us in a different way. It is my prayer that others will get something usable from it too, especially if you're in a position of leadership. We need to start here by praying for a humble heart. A heart that is open to teaching and learning and maybe even some admonition. Take time to pray for whatever God has for you before you open his word to Matthew 4:1-11 "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "if you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered 'It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "thorw yourself down. For it is written: "He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not stirke your foot against a stone. ' Jesus answerd him, "It is also written: Do not put the Lord your God to the test." Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." Jesus said to him "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.' Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him." The following is an excerpt from "The Servant Leader" by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges "It is easy to concentrate too much attention on the physical hardships of Jesus' fast in the wilderness experience and miss the profound spirital conditioning for servant leadership that took place. When tempted by three of the most universal and powerful tempations a leader can face - INSTANT GRATIFICATION, RECOGNITION AND APPLAUSE AND IMPROPER USE AND LUST FOR POWER - Jesus was at his spiritual best." The basis of these temptations is an appeal to pride, to which Jesus responds with humility." CS Lewis wrote the following on the topic of pirde in his book "Mere Christianity": "According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil is pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness and all that are mere fleabites in comparison: It was through pride that the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice; it is the complete anti-God state of mind." So how do we deal with this problem of pride? Simply attempting to ape the behavior of Jesus will inevitably lead to frustration and failure. CHANGING BEHAVIORS WITHOUT CHANGING OUR HEARTS IS HYPOCRITICAL. REAL CHANGE COMES FROM INSIDE OUT, NOT THE OUTSIDE IN. Since we all have this problem with pride, how do we get the notion of pride reduction from our heads to our hearts? Ideas from "The Servant Leader" are as follows: Recognize the pride that's living in your heart by asking yourself the following questions whenever you find yourself in conflict: Am I seeking instant gratification? Am I seeking applause and recognition? Am I seeking power or am I improperly using the power I've been allowed in this situation? If the anwer is yes to any of these questions (and chances are good that the answer will be yes), we may very well be helped by the following steps: #1. Pray for forgiveness for being prideful #2. Ask God to chage your heart from a prideful heart to a humble and teachable heart. Again, from "The Servant Leader" "In 1923 Sigmund Freud coined the term "ego" to describe the part of our psyche that controls thoughts and behavior and interprets reality. In short he said ego is "self awareness. As Christians we can look at our ego differently. We need to decide whether our ego will be Edging God Out or Exalting God Only" Make a self assessment of your Ego throughout the day today and be honest about which one you are choosing "For by the grace given me I say to every one of you; Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Romans 12:4 CONSIDER PRAYING FOR YOUR EGO TO BE EXALTING GOD ONLY RATHER THAN EDGING GOD OUT.

It never ceases to amaze me that our creator thinks that even I'm worth the effort to "redo". Good stuff. thank you.