In Hearing God's Voice part one we discussed how to practice hearing God speak during meditation and a few guidelines on how to avoid some common pitfalls. In part two I'd like to share my favorite experience so far on this supernatural journey.
The Dream
My friend Jason and I were at a local Spiritual Festival in 2016. A native woman in her 60s-70s sat down at our table for a "spiritual reading" as we called it. As we began to commune with the Spirit I received a vision of a tree on a cliff overlooking a valley and river below. I told the woman what I saw and she then professed that the vision I saw was the same recurring dream that she has been having! Jason and I looked at each other completely shocked. She told us that in the recurring dream she sees her children and grandchildren going under the tree and she asked what did it mean? I had no idea what her dream meant or how any of this was even possible so I told her as much. Then I decided to thank God for the vision and listened for an interpretation. God revealed that the tree in her dream was a symbol for her. She was a source of comfort and shelter for her grandchildren. The tree being on a hill symbolized her role as a leader in her family. Her branches protected her children and grandchildren and made them secure.
She was amazed and added that in her dream the tree falls off of the cliff into the valley below. She asked for the interpretation. The Spirit showed us that the storms of life can erode the foundation of the tree no matter how deep the roots, and the tree will fall. But the Spirit wants to be the solid rock that holds the tree in place because the rock will never erode.
After what she had just experienced the woman was open to us praying over her and her family.
This was the most profound supernatural experience that I've ever had the privilege of being apart of. This may have been impossible with man, but with God all things are possible. For what God has done in the past he can certainly do in the present for he never changes (Isaiah 40:8).
In the Bible there is a story of a Jewish Seer named Daniel who saved all of the magicians and sorcerers of Babylon from execution by interpreting the King's dream. King Nebuchadnezzar demanded that his dream be explained as well as interpreted. This way the King could know for sure that the interpretation was true. The Babylonian sorcerers pleaded with the King that what he asked was simply impossible, and that he needed to tell them the dream and then they could interpret it. They even said, "There is no man on earth who is able to disclose the King's secret...What the King is asking is too difficult, and no one exists who can disclose it to the King, except for the gods - but they don't live among mortals!" (Daniel 2:10-11). Daniel very quickly asked the King to give him some time to ask the Spirit for revelation of the dream. It was granted but all that did was buy him some time. Daniel didn't know for sure if what the other wise men said was true or not, maybe this is impossible. Daniel chose to have faith in spite of the words of his peers. He spoke these words, "O God of my fathers, I acknowledge and glorify you, for you have bestowed wisdom and power on me. Now you have enabled me to understand what I requested from you. For you have enabled me to understand the king's dilemma." (Daniel 2:23).
Daniel approached the King and revealed the dream he received from the Spirit. King Nebuchadnezzar heard Daniel tell him his dream and the interpretation of it and knew it could be trusted. Daniel told the King that he wasn't wiser or better than any other wise man in Babylon, but the glory belonged to God.
Conclusion
When I used to read the Bible I would put the people in it on a pedestal. I thought that these prophets and saints were so much more spiritual and faithful than I could possibly achieve. One day when I was seventeen years old I was reading about Moses. I thought, "Wow, I wonder what it would've been like to have known Moses... that would be so amazing." A voice (or an idea that sounded like a voice) suddenly said to me, "There is no reason why you are not capable of becoming just like Moses or even more of a friend of God than he. Just believe." To this day I know that was the Spirit encouraging me to have radical faith in my God but also in myself. Those who have walked in faith before us are not meant to be enshrined on pedestals. Their spiritual ceiling becomes the ground floor for us to take our faith to an even higher level. Today that is my prayer for you. Cheers friends.