(Edited by Sister Cheryl Lowe)
I had a dream after a time of fast and prayer. I only remember a portion. It puzzled me a bit. Now I can say it is a very important dream from the Lord. I remembered that I prayed to the Lord beforehand to give me a dream or vision so that I can have some insight of the coming season and the direction of my life. Thanks to the Lord that He did not allow it slip away-I thought it is just another dream of the soul in the beginning.
(Add a little context here. I had been instructed by the Lord not to pray and nor to take a side in the recent American election. The Lord gave me the story in Joshua 5 when the captain of the heavenly hosts refused to choose any side of man, but urged Joshua to surrender himself before Him. A while back the Lord revealed to me that only at this particular time that He finally granted to Joshua the mission He entrusted to Moses.
Now, with Nov. 4th approaching, a burden came upon me to pay more attention to the election. The Lord urged me to take notice of Sarah Palin. I sensed that there is a similar dealing of God with Israel to that of this nation. Yet so disenchanted from things political, I feel deeply troubled by my inability to be released from such a burden. I guess it was Nov. 2nd, the Lord spoke things to me in a very powerful way. I was told Sarah would not be the VP for this election and He asked me to pray for her. Then I asked the Lord why I should pray for such a political figure, especially after knowing that she will loss. The Lord told me that she is His princess and He will not allow her to be a tail to anyone. “She will be My president.” Then I talked back to Him. Why He would elevate a person in such a way? Why He would bother to inform me of such a thing? What are these to me? He answered me in the gentlest manner. Yet the revelation is overwhelming. He said:”Now you think Sarah is honored because I will elevate her in the sight of the world, but I want to tell you that you are more honored than she is. You are elevated in the sight of heavens. You are my prince. I am much closer to the humble and broken-hearted.” At that, I broke into tears, with a great sense of amazement and unworthiness. Still I could not grasp what this means to me, most importantly, what has to do with my future life. )
Here is the portion I remembered from the dream:
Salt from the Sea
I find myself in my home village. Strangely, in the dream I am about 25 years old-much younger than my real age (37) and much older than when I first left home for education (15). I am visiting some neighbors. We are having a good time. I came to help them to either sort something out or get something fixed. Having done that, I head back home, which is just a block away. My home, in the dream as well as in real life, is at the very west side of the village by the main street. There is a long and narrow gateway between two walls, leading from the street to our front door, which faces south like most other houses in the region.
Turning around the corner, I see in our gateway there are many people waiting in line. Most of them are strangers to me. But somehow I know that they have been invited as our guests and have volunteered to come to pay tribute to my father. Father is having a big feast on a scheduled date. They are waiting to get inside of the door to present their gifts. Then, as expected, they will be honored as father’s guests to sit at his banquet. Most of the guests are special envoys sent by different businesses that we own. They are also to offer us reports and revenues of the last season.
(Now in the dream things are a bit strange comparing to my real life. Firstly, my father was a poor peasant, he never owned any business. Secondly, we did not live together at the village after I left for furthur education. Onlt when I went to work, my parents moved to live with me in city. Thirdly, which is the strangest, I do not have any siblings in the dream. In reality I have two older brothers and an older sister. )
With no one around from my family to attend them, they are waiting silently with great reverence and also discernable impatience, eager to be admitted through the front door. I see what is going on and quickly respond by opening the door, and begin to greet one after another into the front yard.
The first two persons in the line are an older man with his son. He is in his late 50s. His build appears to be very sturdy and his face quite weathered. He dresses plainly like a fisherman. His son is less than 20, very shy. Out of courtesy and also want the people flow into peace and order by themselves, I begin to chat with the old man as I would to a friend. He obviously feels greatly honored. Aware he won’t have another chance, he tries very hard to use this time to get intimate with me. So he begins to “dump” on me all the things about himself. I listen and nod and laugh with him, take my time so that people would get into order and be admitted. Then I hear an interesting story.
The old man is an honored and respectful uncle in the old generation of their captain, a young man whose parents died when he was but a boy. They are not necessary related, but the old man had served the young man’s father with great diligence and faithfulness, so he enjoyes special affection and trust from the young man. And I can see that he deserves it for he is so eager to get onto his master’s interest and he is a little carried away-it is obviously an improper time for him to talk to me about all these. He cares for the young man like his own son and would dare his life for his well-being. What a lovely old man!
As he is talking, a vision appears in my mind. I see these people dwell together like a family by the seashore in a faraway land. I then see the young man is leading a fleet and engaging with fighting against a storm in the deep sea far from his home. The young man seems to be a Caucasian, tall, strong and handsome. They have been working hard for a good catch.
It appears that their business is part of a regional business that belongs to my father. The young man is a subordinate of a young woman who is in charge of that whole region. She is not married. I know in my vision that the young man is working hard to gain affection from her. He falls in love with her for a long time, but he never openly shared that with her. He is a decent man and a bit shy of expressing his inner feelings. The young woman treats him fairly with appreciation of his hard work, yet is totally unaware of his hidden affection. She is an intelligent, able and professional woman, excellent in every way. Her heart is, now it vaguely dawns to me in the dream, toward me.
Then I am back in the conversation with the old man, who is so eager to recommend me of his master’s diligence and excellence. He inquires me about asking my father to do a favor for the young man. To him, “his young master” is the best choice for the young woman. And because she respect and trust father exclusively, she would certainly honor any of father’s request or wish. At this point in the dream, I am surprised to know that the woman is actually Sarah Palin, the newest political star in the real world.
Now there is a detail which is very important. Seeing the distant seashore, I also understand that the glass bottle of salt held by the old man is from the people there as a precious gift-it is the best of its kind, big white crystals. Their business is fishing and producing salt. The reason the old man was selected as their envoy is because Sarah decided that the best gift from her region is their salt. The old man might have some fish with him, I am not sure.
By now, I was surprised to know of Sarah’s hidden affection to me while listening to the excited old man. Obviously the old man had been “bothering”her with his strong appeal-he sees no other better choice for her. She had to gently and wisely settle down the old man, respecting his love towards the young man yet undeterred in her devotion. I am a bit amused by the awkward position I am put in, yet not troubled at all. The culture in the dream is very perculiar, with the protocols and roles indicated in the way how we should interact with one another like in the “ancient” time. According to this “culture”, my marriage is to be decided by my father, and I trust exclusively his counsel and wisdom.
All this time, others in the line are waiting with a sense of great honor and joy in my presence. It seems that they all hold such pure and affectionate love toward father and me that they would do whatever required of them to accommodate my way and preference. As I am finishing talking with my old friend, I see in the end of the line father appears on the corner of the gateway. He is looking at me with great joy, satisfaction and a sense of approval: he is so happy that I have come home and volunteered to take care of his business.
Now there is another scene not in the dream but seems to come next. It is more like an after vision. When the guests are allowed in, we will receive their gifts and tribute. Then they will sit at the extensive banquet table. A great feast will be laid out for them and I am to serve them with bread. Not sure when my Father tells me to break bread and wait on them one by one.
New Business
Then the scene changed. I am in a big conference room now. I am sitting by the end of a huge conference table. On the front, someone has just finished the presentation for a new business. It seem to have something to do with what needs to be discussed. People around the table is a mixture of ages. Obviously the younger ones have started the business and suppose to run it. And father has some older folks to be our advisory team, so that we can run the business safely and wisely. These are greatly honored by my father, also by us. Yet due to the gap between our understandings, we are having a hard time to go about certain decision. So an intense discussion has been going on. Some entertain a great sense of confusion, even fear, as to what to do. It is a risky time and none wants to rush into anything that will endanger the future of the business.
The business is some endeavor to publish materials in an artistic way in order to enhance their publicity. Now, it seems to be a new concept in the business world and a new venture for us as a close community. So everyone is deeply interested in its future. Evidently at this point, we have encountered some difficulties in marketing our services.
An old lady, who is obviously from an old school and very confident in her own way of doing things, begins to insist on us to use materials from an apostle we know to promote ourselves, as a sales pitch. It seems that he had considered to use our services. Now this old lady is little carried away in her talking, making the meeting come to a halt, yet everyone remains quiet. I become impatient with her, so I walk up to the middle of the room from my place, which is at the other end of the table. Motioning people to pay attention, I lay out our strategy.
This is the main content of my “speech”: Now we have a well-established business and we need to apply more patience to give others more time to recognize the value of our services. We need not to promote ourselves with conventional wisdom. We are to respect all of our customers and give no special honor to anyone, so that we will honor all and serve all. We need to have confidence on our own part and be fair and transparent with everyone. No partiality is to be applied to anyone on our part. We are not to be of any camp nor to affiliate with anyone, because we don’t want to owe anyone’s favor.
People are a bit unprepared for what I have to share, but they quietly come to agreement. It seems to be reasonable to all of them, because our business is to publish others’ materials. We have no business in sticking with anyone or to be labeled after anyone.
We are to serve all and respect all.
The dream ended.
Understanding:
As I prayed for understanding, here is the portion I wrote done after had the dream:
The Lord shared with me two words recently: Light Unto the World and Harvest Time.
I had a very interesting dream the night before. There are things I do not dare to share. But mainly it is about who are His salt and who are His light in this hour. I never thought that the two are to separated. But I have some new insights now:
Salt is from the sea and is a gift from the sea of peoples (where death reigns), it is to maintain and sustain; light, however, is from His House in the land of the living (where life reigns), where He spread his table of food for all His guests who are bringing Him gifts. And if we are His sons, then we are to maintain order and to give foods to those who bring their gift. The word we speak to them is bread from Heaven, it is the light of His wisdom. We are giving light which will produce life and give fruits.
The ministry of salt is to preserve what was given; but the ministry of light to is to create what is new. 2 Cor. 3 talked about the ministry of the Law and the Spirit. Christ is the life-giving spirit, who gives life to a new creation while the old is not to be preserved in the end.
Hope I am making some sense. When He teaches in dreams and visions, things revealed are hard to explain.
Now, the Lord shared with me the ministry of light is to distribute the bread of His word to His guests.
There are indeed four witnesses in this thing: sea is where the world is in biblical prophetic languages, righteous ones are salt of the world, which to preserve righteousness, but salt cannot give life and can’t truly represent the Father’s desire and goodness; only light can do that. For anyone to receive light (bread), one must journey to the land where the Father’s table is and receive bread from Heaven-the land of the living. Paul said only those who live or led by the Spirit are sons of God, if sons, then we are heirs with Christ, who embodies Himself in His elected ones to distribute the bread from Heaven at every age of man.
I am reminded of the feeding of 4 and 5 thousands. He firstly gave thanks to the bread, then, he gave to the disciples to distribute amongst His people. Is there any order in this? I believe so. Paul consciously walked in this role when he was sent.
In the Book of Romans, chapter 15:
“14 I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another. 15 I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 17 Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. 18 I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done— 19 by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. 20 It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. 21 Rather, as it is written: ….”