Dream Warriors – Dealing With Nightmares By Faith - Purity 1407

Good morning, welcome to the MT for Christ 247 podcast. I am M.t. Clark and, um, this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Today's photo of the sun setting into the horizon near the Tree of Nala, near the quote-unquote Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, um, from the vantage point of Freedom Road, comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene Friday afternoon after a long day of lumbering. After spending a day off removing a massive tree from my property down by the river, I didn't have a lot of energy, but with views like this and my canine friend Harley whining to go, you go for a walk anyway. Um, Uh, it is what you do, and in a way, it is, uh, who you are. There we go, we move along. Uh, well, it is just another Manic Monday, and although I didn't have a time— I did have time for sufficient rest yesterday. My sleep was disturbed by a nightmare of sorts, and as distressing as it was, I'm proud, uh, to say that I have become so accustomed to walking in the spirit that even The demonically created dreamscapes that I encounter are traversed with the same skill sets, uh, that I try to bring to my distressing moments of life when I'm awake. While I won't go into the nightmare's specific details, um, the situation involved me being promised something only to have that something be given to someone else or taken away from me by someone else, and discovering that beyond the disappointment of what felt like the injustice of the loss. The dream's narrative revealed that the loss of what seemed to be promised to me was the result of a conspiracy among people who I trusted. It was your basic betrayal dream, uh, betrayal nightmare, paraphrasing that creepy line, uh, from the horror classic Night of the Living Dead. They're all working and plotting against you, Barbara. Look out, here they come now. Ironically, uh, a Google of betrayal nightmares, uh, search reveals that nightmares are a symptom of betrayal trauma, which is a type of trauma that can occur when someone's trust is violated by a loved one, institution, or intimate relationship. Other symptoms include intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, and flashbacks and reliving memories of the betrayal. Betrayal trauma can also cause other effects on the brain, such as anxiety, depression, and feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. All of these themes were at play in the dream I had last night. But the thing is that I have learned a little about having to navigate unjust situations and dealing with betrayal in my past. And in the midst of the distressing situation of my dream, I became a dream warrior of sorts by bringing everything into the context of who I am in Christ, uh, radically accepting the situation for what it was, letting go of my sense of entitlement, releasing, uh, the expectation of fulfillment, forgiving those who hurt me, and finally exposing the lie. Um, this isn't true. Which immediately freed me from the dream's demonically woven deception and caused me to wake up. Um, the situation that the spiritual forces of darkness or my subconscious built had a weakness. It wasn't true. And when I got past dealing with all the distressing emotions by accepting the worst-case scenario of what was happening in the dream— well, that's too bad, good for you, oh well, I release it to you and, uh, forgive you, The lie became clear. This isn't real. The situation doesn't really exist. And I woke up a little shaken but not stirred and went back to sleep. This little scenario demonstrates the extreme importance of renewing our minds with the word of God and learning how to walk through life and its very real distressing situations by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. So much of our pain and suffering comes from our expectations and our sense of what is rightfully ours. When we release them, give them away, or surrender ourselves to God's way and putting others above ourselves through a sense of love, forgiveness, compassion, and sacrifice, and we realize that we have everything we need in Christ, we can accept losses and put the distress of life in their— distresses of life in their proper context. When we soften our hearts by letting go of our normal concepts of life, life isn't so hard. Today's In Touch, um, with Dr. Charles Stanley devotional, um, shares some teaching that touches on the spirit of this. And so I'm sharing it today on the blog. Um, and Dr. Charles Stanley writes, um, this morning's In Touch devotional, uh, Softening Your Heart. When we continually spend time with God and his word, his presence will saturate our heart. Making us sensitive and teachable. But just as human relationship can grow cold unless we intentionally nurture it, the heart can gradually harden when we aren't seeking intimacy with God. For our heart to stay soft and receptive, we must obediently and promptly respond to whatever the Lord tells us to do. If you believe that God might be leading you in a certain direction, take the time to earnestly seek his mind on the matter, intentionally attentively listen for his response. Then avoid getting busy with a substitute for what he originally called you to do. It would be tragic to work hard at doing what you and others consider good, only to discover that you, you accomplished something that was not God's intention. Resisting the Lord often amounts to setting his purposes for your life on a shelf., and that will likely leave you feeling something is missing. There's no substitute for God's will, even when his plan might seem difficult or impossible. But when we trustfully approach God with a cooperative heart, there's no limit to what he can accomplish through your life. So step out in obedience today and say, Lord, I want your will no matter what. Amen. When we seek the Lord's will for our lives and do what we feel he is calling us to do, even if it is hard, we will not only have the peace and harmony of knowing that we are being obedient to what he is calling us to do, we will also develop new skills to live our lives in the way that he would have us, have us to. Well, when we listen and follow the Lord, listen to and follow the Lord, he changes our character., and we learn to respond to situations according to who we are in Christ rather than by our old selfish and foolish ways of living. So keep walking and talking with God. He will show you the way to go, and you can be a warrior for his kingdom even in your sleep. Today's Bible verses come to us— Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Ruiz. Uh, this morning's meditation verse comes from the section on false prophets and teachers, and today's verse is Acts 17:11, uh, from the NIV. Uh, the word of God says, now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Today's verse falls under the 11th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on false prophets and teachers, and that 11th point is be like the Berean Christians. And, uh, today's verse gives us an example of how we are supposed to live as Christians. We are to examine the scriptures continually with eagerness so that we can not only know the truth, but so that our characters will be more noble than they once were. God's word renews our minds, softens our hearts, and makes us into the people God created us to be. So we should be like a Berean and study it to live it. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist, uh, our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford. And Alford's devotional prompts us to read a chapter of scripture each day. Today's chapter is Galatians 4, and from Galatians 4, he shares a portion of verse 30, which says, cast out the bondwoman and her son. And Stephen Alford writes, Paul brings the story of Hagar into this portion of his argument as an allegory. He proves that even from that picture, the flesh must be cast out or done away with if true liberty is to be experienced. Paul says, he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit. And he continues by saying, uh, thus he amplifies this same truth in Romans when he says, reckon yourselves to be dead dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:11. If that has been done, then we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free. Galatians 4:31. And Walpert ends by praying, Blessed Lord, I do pray that I may know experientially this liberty in the Lord. Amen. Amen. That's it. When we fully surrender to the Lord and start to crucify the flesh and start to live by the Spirit, you know, things change. We're no longer a, you know, a son of a bondwoman. We're a son of the free, as Paul puts it in Galatians. And that's the freedom, you know. When we, when we live by the Spirit, we won't live by the flesh. And conversely, when we live by the flesh, we won't live by the Spirit. So we must choose. And the more we choose God's way, the more, the more his way, his word changes us. And it's a, it's a good thing. It makes us better at dealing with, with difficult situations. We learn to respond to situations rather than to react to them. And we do so from a place of kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, peace, love, joy. Patience and self-control, those are the fruit of the Spirit. And when we respond accordingly, you know, with those, life is a lot better. And we can overcome even the most unjust situations through our accepting of them. Even in our dreams, you know, if you shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize, as they say from Reservoir Dogs. But Yeah. So I, I think I overindulged in the flesh yesterday by eating some ice cream and then I went to bed and I had a nightmare. And, uh, in the nightmare I was like, why? They've taken this thing away from me. Why? It's my, it was mine. It was promised to me. Why? Why is it not? You know, why are they, why are they getting it? And, you know, in the midst of it, it was like, you know what? You can have it. I surrender it to you. And, uh, and then you realize people are working against you. Well, I forgive them for that. And then I'm like, wait a minute, this is all bogus. Uh, the situation doesn't exist. Um, you know, I already have something that they're, you know, in real life I have, have what they're offering me. Um, I already have that, you know. So when, when the lie was exposed, suddenly the drama stopped and I woke up.. And that's what we do when we have a distressing nightmare. If it's, you know, demonically driven, we say the name of Jesus. Sometimes, you know, we have tempting dreams that turn sinister, tempting dreams that are just sort of bizarre. We have distressing dreams where people are trying to hurt us or go after us or take from us things. And in every instance, we remember who we are in Christ and respond accordingly. We can free ourselves from distressing dreams. But as, you know, as we try to point out, the only way you're skilled to do that is if you do it in real life. So we, we stand, you know, in the authority of who we are in Christ on a daily basis and live by the Spirit. And this way, you know, it becomes automatic. You know, we don't have to worry about not doing the wrong thing because we're always, you know, we just do what's right as an expression of who we are. You know, like the Bereans, we study the word and apply it to our lives. Um, you know, lead us not into temptation. It's not so hard when you know, no, I don't do that. I do what's right. Um, I do what's right according to God's word, and I've suffered enough and don't need to do what's wrong anymore, thank you very much. So, um, yeah, and if you need help, um, you know, we offer help. Through our ministry, through our resources, the things we point you to— Freedom in Christ Ministries. And, uh, if you're local, um, we, we're starting a Celebrate Freedom support group on Wednesdays. It's a recovery/discipleship group. Now, if you don't have issues of recovery, you could still come because you have life issues, um, disappointments, bitterness, depression, anger, anxiety, uh, overeating, um, you know, these, these are issues that you can take to the Lord and work through, uh, the 12 steps, uh, or the 8 principles of Celebrate Recovery, uh, that we teach from, and learn to walk in the spirit. You know, this is— how do you live by faith? I just go to church on Sunday. No, that's not it. You know, we— this is what we try to teach, that we, we try to teach people to be free by accepting who they are in Christ. That's the, uh, the point of our lessons there. So if anyone's in the Capital District, uh, who wants to get trained up and walking in the Spirit and get set free in Christ, uh, Celebrate Freedom starts on Wednesday at 6:30, and we'll be there every Wednesday, um, for the rest of the year, uh, to walk with you and, and help you to grow. Anyway, um, beyond that, uh, Freedom in Christ Ministries does, uh, has, has will, will begin. Uh, they've opened, uh, their discipleship courses open for registration now. Go to ficm.org, look for their classes. And if you're a man and want to sign up for the Tuesday evening class at 6:30, I would be your facilitator. So we encourage you to sign up today and, uh, to go through this, the Freedom in Christ course, or one of the other courses that FICM offers, and to go through the steps to freedom in Christ to resolve your your personal and spiritual issues. Okay, that's all the announcements and, you know, whatnot, my little report. And so I asked the question: are you empty for Christ too? Well, if so, keep on walking and talking with God. If not, surrender to his will and seek him. If you seek the Lord with all your heart, you will find him. And when you empty yourself for Christ, he will fill you with your with his Holy Spirit. Um, so that's what we encourage here, and, uh, and we encourage prayer as well. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much for all that you do for us in Christ. Thank you for setting us free. And Lord, thank you for showing us how to live, um, according to who we are in Christ and according to your truth and your ways. Lord, we just pray for you to help us today though, because we need help. In, in our daily walk. And we pray for anyone who's listening or reading or watching today's message, that they'd be blessed, that you come alongside them in their prayer request, and then you lead them in the way they should go. Lord, we all need your help, and we need you to go before us today. Open our eyes to the things you want us to see. Lead us in the way we should go, because all we want to do is represent you and your kingdom, and we definitely need your help with that one. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.