Breakthrough!

She came downstairs, rubbing her eyes and yawning into the new morning. We met in the kitchen, and she said, “Mom, I keep having this recurring nightmare. It’s just awful. I want it to stop.”

“Can you tell me about it?” I asked. My antenna had gone up at the word recurring. I was really curious to hear what it was that her mind continued to play over and over as she slept.

Her first response was that she didn’t want to talk about it; too depressing. Then she just couldn’t help herself, I guess, and out it all came.

“It was a little different this time. This time the kids were in it with me….. We were in this … place … it was all concrete and it didn’t look like there was a way out; but somehow I could see through an opening or something, and I could see trees and grass and stuff.”

I began to cry, and she looked at me with a curious expression on her face. “What else?” I asked.

“Well, there was a war going on,” she told me. “At one point I was trapped at the old restaurant where I used to work and the only way to escape the enemy was to run across the street, through four lanes of traffic. And all my friends…well, not really friends—acquaintances, like I have on Facebook—were all getting killed. I was trying to get away, trying to make sure the boys were right with me and hang on to them. At one point Andre disappeared, but then I found him again.

“Then, all of a sudden, the kids and I were in a car. Nate was driving, for some reason, and I was in the backseat with the boys, and we were driving out of the concrete place. Then we just stopped. I was sitting in the backseat crying and some police officers came up to us. They handed us a box of chicken and said, ‘Here, eat this and we’ll take care of all this. Just sit still.’”

By now, I was crying really hard. Because God had answered a prayer I had prayed for YEARS for my daughter by giving her a dream.

I told her what I felt the dream meant (as in, the Holy Spirit gave me the insight). Where her life for years had felt “trapped” behind a wall, God was opening up the door and showing her a new life (the trees, grass, blue sky, etc.). It is a new and positive way of living that is going to affect not only her, but the boys as well. The “friends” dying means that there may be friendships she needs to give up, so that she doesn’t stay weighed down by them. And the fact that she had to fight the traffic to get away means it may not be so easy to give up some of the ways she lives or some of those friendships; but it may be necessary.

Why Nate was driving, I have no idea. But if you know Nate… well,‘nuff said.

Okay, so why is this dream such a big deal? I’ll tell you why. Remember who is telling you this, also, and if you know my personality very well at all, you know how fantastic it is what I am about to tell you.

Several years ago, God did something in my life that has never been repeated. He gave me dreams. Not just any dreams–you know, those random thoughts that pile up during the day and jumble together during the night. No, the dreams He gave were packed with meaning. And what is really special about that is that during this brief time He sent the dreams, He also sent the interpretation.

Now that you are thinking I’ve certainly lost my mind, let me tell you one of those dreams. This is the first time I think I’ve related this to anyone but my husband. When I told him, he cried, so I didn’t talk about it anymore.

The dream was about our daughter. She and I were in a large, well-lit room. I’m not exactly sure what we were doing—maybe talking—I don’t recall, and it’s not important. The point of the dream is that she suddenly went blank on me, as if she were in a trance. She turned and headed for a very long hall at the end of the room. The hall was dark—so dark. I got up and called to her, but she just kept walking. She walked out of that well-lit room and I watched her step into that dark hallway. I ran to the end of the lighted room and looked down the hall. I couldn’t see anything. It was pitch black. I watched and called for a few seconds, and then I woke up.

The understanding of the dream was immediate. I imagine you have it figured out yourself. Years did follow when the precious child that I had known disappeared behind the darkness, and I couldn’t find the soul of her. It made me sad then, and it still affects me as I tell it. For years I thought about this dream. For years I prayed that God would bring our girl out of the darkness. Just within the last week or so I was remembering my dream and praying the same prayer yet again.

So you see now why the dream Jenni had affected me so. It was the answer to years of prayers for her—a reminder that she had never been out of His sight and He was going to bless her; that He was making a way out from behind the wall and bringing her to it. And what is really, really so cool is that God gave the dream to her!

What followed after Jenni related the dream was a few moments of both of us crying as I assured her that her dream was actually a positive dream, even though it was frightening at points. Spiritual warfare is like that, isn’t it? Some moments seem hopeless, but then God gives us a glimpse of the victory ahead, and we pick up the sword again and continue the fight.

The battle isn’t over for Jenni. I’m confident it will continue to rage, because the enemy doesn’t take losing well. But the battle belongs to the Lord. It’s all for Him, it’s all about Him. Onward!

Yep, I’m still crying. Like you had to ask.