A Dream to Share

It was just another Wednesday Night Dinner and Bible Study for the LIVE180 group. In the summer these are hot and sweaty experiences that I only attend because I am so curious to see what God will do. This particular night, I got an extra dose of God moving in mysterious ways. One of the men (who we thought was dead, because the last time we saw him he looked so bad and he had been gone for over two months) showed-up. He still didn’t look all that great. In fact, he was overly emaciated, with big eyes, a weak smile, and an IV port attached to his arm with a hospital wristband dangling from his wrist, but he was alive.
In a raspy voice he says, “Oh my – I’m so glad to see you. I had a dream about you that I just have to tell you. I checked myself out of the hospital, so I could make it here tonight.”
First, I gingerly hugged him and said how happy I was to see him alive.
Then he proceeded to slowly and painstakingly tell me this amazing dream amidst deep breaths and groans of pain:
We were in Rome – not at the Vatican but in a large conference size place. There were thousands of people there. There was singing and speakers. It seemed like, Billy Graham was there.
Then one of the speakers said, “We need to pray for people. There are a lot of people that need healing, emotionally and physically.” At that point that man turns to you and calls you out. He wanted you to come up front so he could pray for you.
You asked, “Why me?”
He said, “These people need help and God wants to use you. He wants to anoint you for that purpose. You are going to pray for them – the women – and they are going to be healed and set free.”
MIND BLOWN – About 25 years ago I had a similar vision – only God could repeat something that amazing.
Then he proceeded, looking me in the eye and saying, “You need to know you are gifted. It doesn’t matter that people think you are intimidating. It doesn’t matter that you are quiet and that people don’t understand you. You are gifted and God uses you. I’ve known that from the first day I met you.”
MIND BLOWN again – He was using words that have played over and over in my head for years. Here I was sitting with a guy who is physically and emotionally a mess and God was using him to touch my heart and remind me how much I am loved.
God is no respecter of persons – He uses the willing, even when they don’t look very able. This man is back in the hospital – I don’t know the number of his days, but I am thankful for that night, and for his conviction that he needed to talk to me. I went to dinner and Bible study with the idea that I was going to be a blessing to someone – and instead, I was the one who got blessed. It reminded me not to be proud, to walk in humility, and always keep my eyes and ears open for what God is doing, because you just never know when and how He will move.