Unwanted Visitors

Last night I had a "visitor". I have been a victim of horrible nightmares in my past while I was leading a ministry. It was at that time that I started reading about dreams. I found that some people believe that demons can influence our dreams, and some believe that demonic nightmares are God getting us ready to deal with demons in real life. I have decided I stand in the first camp. Mainly because when I wake up and tell them to go away in the name of Jesus... they do. Anyway, through the years I have programmed myself to wake up the minute I realize that I am dealing with a spirit. Some times I feel heaviness on my chest, and other times it's just the imagery that alerts me to their presence. Last night my dream started going south when my sister's pale decapitated head was laying by my pool. The image didn't go with my dream at all. (I think it is true that they cannot see our thoughts, so they just have to hope the imagery that they whisper to us "fits".) Well, it didn't fit, and I recognized it immediately. In the dream I told myself, "that is not there, look again". I looked and it was gone. Then I felt my breath being sucked from my face. (I was on my side, so no heaviness on my chest... but I have never experienced this sucking sensation before, so it was a bit scary.) I felt a little like Harry Potter encountering a dementor. I woke up immediately and started to pray. In 2 or 3 minutes I was back to sleep and all was well.
I only bring it up to say... if you experience demonic nightmares, don't hesitate to insist that they leave. At His name all powers must submit. Program yourself to wake up to intrusions just by simple self talk before bed. After all our sub-conscious is still very much a part of our mind.

Waking... Whispering

Today is the first day of school for my kids. Needless to say, it's a little like Christmas morning where you don't really get a good night's sleep due to the anticipation.

This morning's dreams were not terribly memorable, but the ones from right around 3:00 were, so I'll share those.

In the first dream I was walking through what appeared to be a movie set. Many of my old "drama geek" friends (of which I used to be) were all posed for a picture. They were dressed in turn-of-the-century clothes and made up like corpses. The girls had Bride of Frankenstein hair-dos, and the guys looked straight out of "Interview with a Vampire". Some people were sitting in fancy chairs, and other people were on the ground or on fallen tree trunks, in lounging positions. Still others were hung to trees by nooses. There was fake blood and fake neck wounds, etc. on various people. It was a very artsy scene... morbid, but beautiful at the same time.

In the second dream I was in my home from Edwards AFB when I was a pre-teen. I was either naked or barely had anything on (I can't remember now), but I was walking from my room into the living room and all of a sudden a thick fog filled the house. It was wet like mist but not as wet as it should've been for that amount of 'cloud'. I sensed something wrong and began to speak to the fog in tongues. As usual, in my "casting out demon" dreams, my voice was only a whisper, and that put a fear in my heart (as it always does)... which in turn wakes me up... I woke up whispering in tongues. My dog, laying beside me, came up to my face to see if I was OK. I went ahead and finished what I was saying, unsure if I needed to deal with something in the room, or if it had just been in my dream. Generally speaking, I figure if it's in my dream... it's in my room.

I got up to pee (which is when I looked at the clock and saw that it was 3:00), then I went back to sleep and had a dream about taking a shower.
Sometimes you need a good shower after yucky stuff has filled your brain. :-)

Demons with Presents

First demonic dream in a while...
I've tried to block it out a bit, so you'll only get glimpses...

There was a trolley involved. I was traveling. I came to a little room, not so much like a hotel room as a cabin. I unlocked the door and went inside to settle myself. Then there was a knock at the door. I opened it and there was an over weight baby-faced guy delivering something (can't remember what). I took the thing and then proceeded to close the door. He stepped in and attempted to kiss me. I shoved him away. (I think I had a little girl with me somewhere in the room. My friend Kathy's adopted daughter.)(I saw them yesterday.) I tried to get him out the door, but he was over powering me. Instead of going into the house I decided I would have an easier time getting away if I ran. So I started running. I don't remember if he turned into a tall black woman, or if I just saw her to my right. As I was running he/she began to ooze a clear goop out of somewhere near the top of his/her head. Then she/he began to fling it at me. It hit my head and moved down my face obscuring my vision. I was trying to wipe my eyes as I ran but the stuff was so thick I couldn't remove it, and now it was just getting all over my hands and arms too. I couldn't continue running, but I kept struggling. As he/she came closer I started to realize it was demonic. I began to say, "Go away, in the name of Jesus", but my words were only whispers (as they often are in these dreams). I tried over and over again until I was aware that I was sleeping, and that the only way I was going to be able to speak up was if I woke up. So I woke up. I lay in my bed catching my breath for a minute then told the spirit to leave. (and 5 minutes later... I was back asleep).

I did have another dream in my second half of sleep and it was a pleasant one.. but I can't remember it.

The dream reminds me of a conversation I had with Tanya the other day. We were talking about demons bringing "gifts" to our door. "Gifts" of lies, like "You're not good enough." or "You can't do this, give up." (stuff like that) Tanya equated those lies that we often accept as packages arriving full of $#!** and us signing for it, and saying, "Oh thanks" as we take the package full of $#!** into our house, and then proceed to rub it on ourselves like lotion.
In the dream, I accepted the package... giving the demon a foot in the door. I didn't KNOW it was a demon at the time. He was offering me something I wanted, like pizza. (on this diet... I'd die for some pizza). It's interesting that he was fat; like he represented all these temptations to cheat on my diet... or just to give up and be happy with being over weight.
He wanted to obscure my vision with the ooze stuff... that's what demons do; They just don't want you to see things clearly. If they can make it look better (and you get to live in denial), or if they can make things look worse (and you get to live life depressed), either way works for them. "Don't deal with the problem, and we'll always have a 'way in'," they say.

I'm praying this morning that that was a Solomon type experience. (Going back to when Solomon asked for wisdom in a dream... and it really happened.) I would love to have just fought that demon and won, in real life. I don't want him back.
I have such a hard time with food, and such a hard time believing I can do this. I don't want to accept those lies as presents anymore... they are packages of $#!**.

Cleaning Gloves and Spiritual Warfare

I am loving the breathe right strips! This is my fourth night of wearing them, and I hardly wake up at all during the night. (Somewhat due to that, I've had a harder time remembering dreams.)

Last night's was unforgettable though.

It woke me up around 5 something. (I went straight back to sleep of course.)

I was cleaning a kitchen with my mom. The kitchen looked clean, but then she would advise me to look closer and as the camera lens of my eye zoomed in a whole bunch of yuck that surely wasn't there before appeared.

We mainly worked on the area above the stove. We weren't in my "now" house, or any other house I've ever lived in, it was a future house. Once in the dream my mom even made reference to my "old" house (this one), reminding me how dirty above my stove was there as well.

After that area was done we moved over to the sink. There were piles of minty green rubber gloves hanging over the side of the sink. They looked a bit like medical gloves, but were thick like dish washing gloves, but without the griping textured palms. My mom had on a pair. I also had on a pair of gloves but mine were coral in color and were truly dish washing gloves with the grips and all.

A couple of military men came in the room from the right and stood on the opposite side of the counter island. I started taking off my gloves and they called for the "others" to come and hear some bad news.

I knew what was coming. Then one of the officers said, "We have gone to war." 

There was a rumble of talking among the people (about 20 or so strangers). Basically, the soldiers had announced that World War III had started.

I asked the officer, "Can I say something?"  he motioned for me to go ahead.

"The Bible tells us all about this. We are in what it says are the 'Last Days'..." As I looked around the room a hand full of faces were turning demonic. I searched over all the faces to see if everyone was turning. The room had all but faded and all I could do was focus on one or two faces at a time. Each time one of them (or both) would morph into something out of "The Firm" (Al Pacino movie from the 90s) (or like the kids from "The Passion"). I finally had a thought to focus on my own face, though I couldn't quite get my true image in my mind, but even the image that I got as I tried to think of myself, turned demonic. As soon as I saw the ash gray color start to surround "my" eyes I felt a cold shiver go down my shoulder (I was sleeping on my belly). I jerked and woke my self up whispering "In the name of Jesus" in a strained breath.

This was the first demonic dream I've had in quite a while. I use to have them fairly often back in 2006-2007 when I was involved in a ministry that encountered some demonic opposition.

Anyway... I know that a kitchen is the heart of the home. I've been calling my mom lately to help me deal with some "home heart" issues. On the back burner my eschatology ministry has been sitting untouched, though I'm still listening to new material daily on different radio shows. 

I'm not sure if the demonic opposition was to my "ministry" specifically, or if the dream was saying that my "heart of the home" problems were demonic opposition, even in order to keep me from my ministry... which seems to make sense to me given how this week has played out.

I know people tell me not to live in denial and to work through our family issues; that other stuff can wait... but isn't that just like Satan to hit us in a spot that he knows will take our mind off of what we are called to do?

Guidance... Please God, a little guidance here.

My Weight Journey

In last night's dream I was driving a car trying to get home. I was in college and going to my parent's house. (Part of the time that I was in college I lived with an older couple.) In the dream I was behind their car.  As I was driving (on the freeway) and my steering wheel stopped working and my brakes weren't working either. There was a small up-down, left-right control switchy thing on the dash board, so I started using it. (It was like a video game, where multiple fast small taps to the right were better than just holding it down.) I was supposed to go one way to my parent's house, but I didn't know completely how to get there, and now that my controls were out I thought it would be better to follow the old couple. I followed them until I was severely lost, and then we came to a bridge. I was so scared that I wouldn't have enough control, and that I'd drive off the edge. So I jumped out of the car. 

All of a sudden I was hanging off a drawbridge for dear life. (On the left side, on a rail)

A very large girl (I think Ashley from the biggest looser) came to help me. I held one hand on the rail, and reached up to her hand with the other. I couldn't quite reach her, so I repositioned and bumped up to the next rung. She grabbed my hand and pulled me up. Then as I was standing with the old couple a few feet away, she showed off by jumping down to the side of the rail and hanging by one arm and one leg. We all told her to get up and stop playing around. I walked to a rest area/ border patrol type place on the side of the road. (Don't really remember the walk, or where it was exactly.) But I was sitting on a wooden bench that was more like a wooden bunk bed. There was a top bunk and a bottom bench, and a bench that protruded from the bottom off in an L-shape. My mom was there, like signing me out, and my son was with her. As I waited alone outside on the bench a creature started swirling around me in mid air. It was a very short red snake. The head was like a cobra and the whole short body was fat. His head stayed up and the tail wiggled around like a slow propeller to help him glide in the air. I was very scared of him but he seemed to be friendly, never trying to attack, just 'smelling' me I guess. He hid under a blanket on the top bunk as my son came out to get me. I wanted to show him the snake that acted almost like a floating puppy. I slightly lifted the blanket for him to look, but then I  pushed him back and said, "Oh no, don't touch it."

There was another part of the dream back at my parent's house with food of some sort, but I don't remember it.

I would like to assume that the brakes and things not working on the car derived from going to see "Date Night" last night...  but...

I'd also like to assume that the snake was merely a representation of my son's animal planet show he watched yesterday about "the Creatures from the Bible", in which they had the serpent with legs, the leviathan, the behemoth, and even cherubim and other angelic creatures.

But, one cannot always assume that dreams are merely a jumble of things from the day before. Even if you use things from the day before, there may still be a message in it.

I made a commitment last night to start doing my Wii Fit again, and to going to water aerobics a couple times a week. So I know that loosing weight is heavily on my mind. (My husband has reached his goal, so it stares  me in the face every day.  Don't get me wrong, I love staring at him, but it highlights the fact that I am still miles away from my goal.)

I had a bunk bed when I was little. I slept on the bottom and my sister slept on the top. She would often scare me from the top bunk while we were trying to go to sleep. I was also very afraid of the flower people that I had imagined from the flower print on her mattress that I stared at at night. I have no doubt that demons love to scare children, and they know that their imaginations will help. Even if the snake in my dream is from yesterday's show (which I did not see... just got the run down from my son at bed time,) then it's perfectly safe to assume that it represents Satan anyway, because he is the serpent in the Bible. (I rarely ever dream of snakes, but when I do, they always represent lies. Satan is the father of lies.)

I tend to view this dream as my journey with my weight. It literally all started when I was living with the older couple my first year of college, when I was pregnant. Getting home was very important to me at that time, but the adoption agency that I was being counseled by didn't want me to have much contact with "influential parties". So I didn't go home, and I wasn't allowed to see my boyfriend. (Stupid really, because I just got more attached to the baby in my belly.. and far less likely to give her up for adoption.) 

Anyway, I got fat, (not just pregnant fat). Now-a-days I watch The Biggest Looser as a motivation of sorts. (I fast forward quite a bit. But I love the results, and I love seeing them change.) So Ashley being in my dream fits with pulling me up from hanging off the edge. The snake and the bunk bed, I think, are very old lies that I have believed for most of my life. Things that hold me back in this and other journeys. My son, being overweight as well is believing the same lies. I even showed them to him. I introduced him. I may have said, "Don't touch," but when it all comes down to it, I led him straight down my own path.

Uggg. Please God, let this be the end! I need help.

"Demon Fighting 101"

Busy dream night last night.  Not a very good sleep night, might I add.

Before I explain the dreams I'll point out how my yesterday went to note why I was dreaming such crazy stuff.

Almost all of my day yesterday was spent reading a book about the Anti-Christ by Joel Richardson. For about thirty minutes yesterday I watched part of a Prophetic seminar DVD that mentioned encounters with demon possessed people. 

I am also waiting to hear from my friend Paul, and he came up in a conversation I had right before bed. 

And finally last night I had a sexual escapade with my husband.

Given that was my day, these dreams won't seem so weird.

#1 Paul and I were going through backyards to get to his house and got caught by a cop for trespassing. 

(simple enough. I did have a FB conversation with an old mutual friend about backyards without fences, and I did get caught by an animal patrol guy with my dog off-leash a day ago.)

#2 I found a black clutch purse in a public restroom by a parking garage. I spent some time in the restroom washing my hands and drying them. Then I took the purse with me to my apartment. I had my small dog from when I was a kid with me as I went up several flights of stairs and into a small apartment. When we got into the apartment I realized that I hadn't let my dog go to the bathroom, so I opened the door to the balcony and told her to go out there. The balcony was really a room with shelves and a desk and closet, but the floor was rough concrete like a balcony. The minute I put her down I noticed a large husky looking dog at the window peering in. I quickly picked up my dog and made a dash for the door. The demonic husky looking dog leaped into the balcony room and chased us. We barely made it through the door (all slow motion-y) before he caught up with us. I tried to close the door but his paw/hand was blocking it. I got it locked with his hand still there, and then his other hand burst through the wall by the door frame on the other side. (He was more like a werewolf  than a dog) I ran out of my apartment to try to get the manager to come help me. I yelled up and down the stairwell for help, but no one was listening. I finally grabbed a guy and made him come with me.

Then I woke up.

I went back to sleep (It was only 1:00) and dreamed this one...

#3 I was in a house that was kinda 70's in feel. I was being attacked by a ball of fire with a human face. I didn't see the face till the end of the dream. During the dream I asked three different people to fight the 'demon'. I'd say, "through him out the window", and they would, but it would float back in. Finally my husband, who looked like Aaron Eckhart in this dream (the dude who played Harvey Dent/ Two-face in Batman) fought off the demon fire ball and won. The face on the fireball was Aaron Eckhart as well.

(Creepy huh?)

#4 Started as a replay of my sexual escapade with my husband. However, just a while into the foreplay his good friend came over and (for lack of wanting to be graphic), lent some assistance. Directly following a short time of  that my husband and I were leaving. My husband got up and walked away and his friend forced himself on me. My husband came back and pushed him off. His friend morphed into the werewolf creature from my previous dream and I clocked him right in the jaw. His entire jaw detached and went partially down his throat. I asked what happened and he gave me this weird cartoon like grin with no teeth. I said, "Oh, I'm sorry," and started to fix his jaw by pulling it out to it's normal level and hooking wires that went from his teeth to his flesh. His teeth were more like human teeth but in a long dog like snout. The wires reminded me of braces.

And that's the end of my crazy night.

Please God, let tonight's dreams be better. :-)

Stick Bugs and Falling off Golf Carts

I had three dreams last night.

I woke up at 1:10 with the first one in my head... something about three choices. (Can't remember anything else).

#2 I was at my niece Tabitha's house playing with her kids and puppies. (Really they don't have puppies anymore, just a dog, but you know in my dreams puppies represent youth.) One of the puppies went outside the back door and I followed it. When I got outside there were tons of bugs right at face level in front of a big leafless tree. (At the park the other day in one patch there was a bunch of mosquitoes right at face level.) I started to swat the bugs with my hand but they started to stick to me and to themselves and in my hair. I took hold of one and examined it. It was a stick bug. The kind that look just like a twig, only it had the face of a demon. They were all around. After the close look into their faces I started taking hand fulls of them and throwing them away from myself. They would only go about two feet and then float in mid air right where I had thrown them.  My mom came out to help me.  By this time I had one boring it's way into my face on my left cheek. I told myself I would pull it out by it's butt as soon as I swatted the rest away.  But of course, when I was done swatting the rest away the bug had gone completely into my face and I had a huge swelling on my left cheek.  I walked over weeping to show my mom. We walked inside crying and wondering what to do.  (It was quite upsetting... and woke me up.)

#3 I was on a tour in a bus. (The tour just won't leave me alone.) We were on a road out in the desert. The landscape to the right was a bit like the wasteland I had in a dream a few days ago behind the wall.  It wasn't charred though, just jagged, like red rock canyon in So Cal. As we were going down the road, the driver looked back and lost control of the steering wheel. We went off to the right into the rocky terrain. When she grabbed the wheel again she was enjoying the new excitement and kept driving in the rough terrain. We were all enjoying it, and the vehicle had changed into a monster truck type golf cart. I was in the far back with another lady and two other women were standing right behind the rail of the bed of the truck/cart. One of the ladies standing was older. (I think she may have been one of the ladies on the real tour I took that walked with a cane.)  At a sharp turn the older lady was flung out of the cart and landed on her back in terrible pain. We all got out to save her, and put her back on the cart. I offered her my seat and told her I would stand.

...and that was the end of that one.