Shane Claiborne in his book Irresistible Revolution , tells of a dream that John Dominic Crossan had of Jesus. Crossan had already written multiple books about Jesus, after all he is a New Testament scholar. Jesus said, "You write well. Now are you ready to join me in my vision?" This greatly disturbed Crossan.
Has God spoken to you in dreams? Abraham dreams of God in this passage. The passage is pregnant with symbolism which I will not go into now. You can find that at other places. I think Abraham was greatly disturbed by the dream. I would have been.
Here you will find a reflection on dreams and how God uses them.
When I was a child God called me to preach. I had visions of greatness. After all I had heard preachers preach to hundreds upon hundreds of people. I had seen altars lined with sinners. I dreamed that one day I would preach to thousands and I would see weeping people at altars. I would be the best. I had seen women preach, but never seen or heard a woman preach to hundreds as I had men. I would be the best woman preacher ever. I would be the best preacher ever.
After I preached to a bunch of kids in my apartment complex, screaming at them to repent, they started throwing stones at me. I was 10. I was proud of myself for getting 'stoned' although my mom dragged me in the house before any of the rocks hit me. She told me to go to my room and think about "better ways of doing things." I went to my room and preached to my stuffed animals. They didn't throw stones at me.
But that night I dreamed. I dreamed that I walked outside of my apartment to the hill behind the building. On the top of the hill, I saw Jesus on the cross. It was close, yet far away because I couldn't reach it. I kept walking but I couldn't get any closer. I woke up as I heard God say, "Would you do this for me?"
In my child's mind I figured out that God was showing me the way of the cross. The visions of preaching to huge crowds were mine, they were not God's. They were stuffed up and arrogant.
The way of the cross, the via delarosa, was the way of suffering. Jesus preached to huge crowds, but where did it get him? Certainly not a high paying job as a mega church pastor like I sought.
I attended an inner city school. I think my brother and I were the only practicing Christians, at least that is how it seemed to me. When my PE teacher found out that I was a Christian, she said horrible things to me in front of other students. This was not the Bible belt, folks.
My dreams of God got me through. I have had many people tell me that it was only a dream. But it was not. That is one of the advantages of Christian experience. No one can take an experience away from you.
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