Are you a dreamer? Or I guess a better question would be do you remember your dreams? Researchers have determined all people dream- men, women, children, even babies dream. One researcher said,
During a typical lifetime, people spend an average of six years dreaming!”
That’s a lot of dreams. There’s another interesting tidbit I found out about dreams. Men and women dream differently.
According to dream researcher William Domhoff, women tend to have slightly longer dreams that feature more characters.”
That just made me laugh out loud. Even in our sleep, women have to get more words and details in than men. I guess if we don’t express our full word count in a given day, we express them in our dreams.
But do you remember your dreams? According to dream researcher J. Allan Hobson,
as much as 95 percent of all dreams are quickly forgotten shortly after waking.”
But what about the 5 percent? Research went on to say that there are many universal dreams, such as the dream of being chased, falling, arriving late somewhere or worse yet, being naked in public. But then there are those dreams that are individual to each of us. A dream you remember that is for you and you alone. What do you do with those dreams?
I had one just over five years ago. It occurred nightly for several weeks and I’d wake up from it at the exact same time, 2:30 a.m. I couldn’t ever remember the full dream. I would just remember the same scene each night, a sea of faces looking at me…young girls, every race, all looking at me with pleading eyes.
The second part of 2 Corinthians 10:5 says,
…we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
Many times this verse is quoted in reference to bad thoughts we have, but it says every thought. That includes the bad thoughts, the good thoughts, even those thoughts that occur during dreams.
For me, that meant seeking answers, first in prayer and then by scheduling appointments with others. What did this sea of faces of young girls mean to me? Was I supposed to be aware of something? Was it a place to intercede? Or was I supposed to act on something?
The bottom line is, that dream was the launch pad that sent me into six months of research about the issue of sex trafficking in America. Now you see where this is going?
As a result of that research, I wrote Rescuing Hope. But it didn’t stop there. You see, I thought writing the book was the purpose of the dream, and it was, but it was so much more.
I vividly remember the day I finally understood what God was saying to me in my dream. I was standing in my office on the phone with my book agent, Robin. We were talking through the publishing process and how to get the word out about the book. I clearly remember saying to her,
I don’t want my whole ministry to be about sex trafficking.”
I can honestly say I have no recollection of what Robin said in response, because I was floored by what God spoke loud and clear in my spirit. He said,
What if I do?”
Friends, that is the day my journey was defined. I told Robin I would have to call her back. I went face down before the Lord to take my spiritual spanking for trying to sit in His chair and direct my life, and then I got up and started walking this thing out, one step at a time.
I say one step at a time, because that’s all He shows me. I’m not sure if it’s because He thinks if I saw the whole picture I’d run out of fear or if it’s that He wants me to live dependently on Him. Honestly, it’s probably both.
What’s your dream? I don’t mean the pipe dream of living in a mansion, with a fancy car, and luxurious vacations. I mean, what is the dream you have had or have repetitively that seems to have taken root in your spirit? The thing you can’t shake. It’s time to take it captive. Take it to the Lord in prayer and see where it leads you. I can promise you, it will be a wild ride but you’ll never feel more alive.
This blog post is dear to me because it’s as if you are sharing my own story. Besides that, I love that you are open to and fully expect God to reveal Himself in a number of ways. He does!
Even as a small child I’ve always had a good memory of my dreams, and I always felt blessed to be able to not only see them but experience them so vividly. I’ll sit and process a dream all day long in attempt to figure out what it means to me. I’ve always noticed that for whatever reason most of my dreams focused on my relationships with people and/or involved me “rescuing” something or someone.
When I found out about sex trafficking, I had just re-dedicated my life to Christ a few months before. From the beginning I was blessed with a passion for these people, but even though I knew God wanted me to join Him in this fight, I think I was just afraid to physically start.
I had a business card for Wellspring Living but I waited a long time before I contacted them to help. During this waiting period I received several very intense nightmares. In some of the scenarios I was a sex trafficking victim, and in others I was on a very dangerous makeshift rescue mission, literally unlocking doors on cages and pulling women and girls out. I know that is not a typical trafficking scenario, but it was my dream regardless. The nightmares didn’t stop until I listened to God and made the decision to obey.
The purpose of those nightmares was to wake me up. I’ve since had many dreams that involve sex trafficking, but I think they are there for a variety of reasons. Some I can tell are probably because I’ve spent ages researching or speaking with many people about the issue and my mind just wasn’t done processing, but most I feel are directly from God. The majority of these dreams stand to give me hope, and remind me that God hears His daughters and listens to the passionate beatings of my heart. I recently had two dreams like this. Other dreams stand to show me something.
There was one nightmare in particular that will never leave my mind, and it’s incredibly interesting to me just how similar it was to the one you described. It was maybe two years ago when I had a dream that I was next to God. He asked me if I wanted to see how many girls had been trafficked. Immediately I started pleading with Him to keep it from me, “no, no! It will overwhelm me, that’s too much, I can’t take that!” But suddenly there were (similar to your dream) a sea of photographs in front of me. All the pictures were of children who had somehow found their way into the flesh trade. I couldn’t count them, but the number seemed insurmountable. I remember seeing the face of one of the toddlers I used to care for among the photographs and in that moment I absolutely broke.
I have a friend who often asks me about my dreams. I’m going to start a dream journal like you said in order to take note of spiritual markers and see what God reveals to me. It’s cool how God gives us some gifts from the beginning of life (like vivid dreams) and then uses them for His glory when we love and trust Him.
Kristin, it is important to track our dreams. Sometimes, they’re just dreams, but sometimes they hold deep meaning. Like everything else, we need to pray into them and see if the Lord is trying to tell us something. Keep on keeping on, sweet girl. Your work is helping the cause!