And The Healing Begins....

The Horse Is Led To Freedom

(This dream occurred during my first year as a single mom. If you have read my other posts in my blog then you already know how I feel about dreams. If you have not yet read my March post titled, "Dreams and the Scripture," then it would be best if you read that post before continuing to read this one.)

(In this dream, I am still married)

It is late fall and my husband is gone away on a hunting trip. He returns home with his hunting buddies. They are unloading the weeks' kill off their trucks and hanging the skinned, gutted corpses from the hind feet in our cold garage to dry. I notice they have also brought back with them a live horse. I ask them why and they tell me the farmer was going to put it down because it is too skittish so they asked if they could have it. They unload the horse and tie her up in the driveway beside our house. She is a beautiful horse, chocolate brown with the only white on her being a stripe down her nose. I get as close to the horse as she will allow which is not too close. I start to sing to her and she seems to be calmed and soothed by my presence and my singing.

My husband's hunting buddies untie the horse and take her to the back alley. My husband tells them, "No, you can't kill the horse yet, remember the farmer said she has to have a good morning run before we shoot her, otherwise her meat won't be any good to eat." His buddies say, "Oh, that's right, then we will leave the horse in your back yard for the night and let her loose in the morning for a good run before we shoot her."

I am completely distraught upon hearing this news. I start to cry and I scream, "You can't kill this horse!" My husband and his hunting buddies just look at me and laugh. I am running in and out of the house trying to figure out how to save this poor horse from her unfortunate circumstances. My son is in the house and he asks, "why are you crying mom?" I explain it to him.

At this point I wake up from my dream to find that not only was I crying in my dream, but I was also crying out loud for real in my sleep which is what woke me from my dream. It was one of those gut-wrenching type of cries where your entire stomach feels like it is in one huge tight knot. I sat up in bed and my stomach was so tense it felt like I had just finished doing about 100 sit-ups.

THE END

(Translation of this dream)

This was one of those dreams that I woke up from, knowing it meant something. The intense emotions I felt during that dream remained with me for weeks. I often pray and ask God if the dream had any significance and to please help me translate the dream so I could understand what it meant. The following is my interpretation of the above dream.

Dreams are often very symbolic and I know in this dream the horse repesents me. That is no big surprise since I love animals so much and horses have always been one of my favorites. The horse is skittish, afraid of people. That would describe me in a lot of ways. That is most likely why, I believe, I developed the panic disorder I now have called "Agoraphobia." I have been hurt by many people in my lifetime and I learned from a young age that people could not be trusted. While growing up, I always liked animals better than people. I knew I could trust animals, it was people I had a problem trusting. I was also an extremely shy young girl and I still am to a point.

When my husband and his hunting buddies are laughing at me, that would represent how I thought they felt about me. I felt like they, mainly meaning my husband, see me as disposable and useless. This would explain my feelings about my husband leaving me. The horse being tied up and in an unfortunate situation symbolizes how I felt in my relationship with my husband. In my marriage I had felt trapped, isolated and alone.

I knew this dream had meaning but I did not know this was a dream from God until later that same day when I was checking my email. A christian friend of mine from across the globe had sent me an ecard. I opened the card and I could not believe my eyes. On the card was a picture of a horse, a chocolate brown horse with a white stripe down the nose. It was exactly the same as the horse in my dream. There was one huge difference between the horse in my dream and the horse in the card. The horse in my dream was trapped. The horse in the card is at peace, running "free" through a lush green field, beside a sparkling stream with flowers budding on the trees. I had not told my friend about my dream.

When I saw the horse running free in the ecard, the emotions I had felt in my dream came flooding back with tremendous intensity. I could not help but cry. I reached out and touched the horse on my computer monitor and whispered, "You are free now."

I feel that God used my friend from across the globe to send a message to me regarding my dream. I feel He was telling me that "I am free now, free from the toxic marriage" and He is filling me with his perfect peace. Think about it, my friend from across the globe sends me an ecard the very same day I have this terribly sad dream. The horse in the card looks exactly like the one in my dream only it is running free and at total peace. This is not a coincidence! This is a message from the Lord and I receive it loud and clear. He is taking such good care of me.

I am attaching a link to the ecard I had received for you to enjoy. If you click on the "read" sign at the bottom of the card and read the words, then at the end you will notice a sparkling effect above the stream.

http://www.riversongs.com/Fla/ways.html

He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters.

Psalm 23:2

God still uses dreams to speak to us

I believe the Lord can and will speak to us in our dreams, giving us messages of hope, prophecy or peace to name a few. If we pay close attention to our dreams, they will sometimes have very clear messages for us. The reason I believe this to be true is purely backed up by scripture.

Numbers 12:6 (NIV)
He said, “Listen to my words:
When a prophet of the LORD is among you,
I reveal myself to him in visions,
I speak to him in dreams.”

Joel 2:28 and Acts 2:17(NIV)
"And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.”

One of my favourite examples of this in scripture is the story of Joseph and his dreams of prophecy.

Genesis 37: 5-9 (NIV)
Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.
Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

This is a wonderful example of a dream of prophecy. It is another example of the symbolism I spoke of earlier. In Genesis 42, Joseph is now the governor of the land, selling grain to the people during the seven years of famine. Jacob (his father) sends his brothers to go buy grain from him. When his brothers arrived, they bowed down to Joseph, not knowing who he was. Joseph recognized them immediately. Joseph’s prophetic dream is brought to completion.

In the New Testament God speaks to Joseph (another Joseph) in a dream to explain his fiancé’s pregnancy.

Matthew 1:20 (NIV)
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”

And then again God warns Joseph in a dream when baby Jesus’ life is in danger.

Matthew 2:13 (NIV)
When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

There are many more examples of dreams in the Bible; I have only mentioned a few. I am speaking from personal experience when I tell you that God still speaks to us in dreams. Check back here every once in awhile and you will see new postings of some of my own personal dreams and my interpretations of those dreams.

You may be saying to yourself, “I don’t dream” or, “I can’t remember my dreams.” Everyone dreams, it is just a matter of training yourself to remember them. Keep a pen and paper beside your bed. You are most likely to remember your dreams when you first get up. Just jot down key points or words. Sometimes you may find yourself waking up in the middle of the night from a very vivid dream. Grab your pen and paper and jot down key words. I did that once in the middle of the night. My room was completely dark. I fumbled around looking for my paper and began writing words down in the dark. I had no idea if it would be legible in the morning, but when I woke up I was actually able to read my chicken scratch. When you have more time later in the day, come back to your notes and, to the best of your ability, write or type out your dream.

When you are writing out your dream, try to remember the key events, key characters, colors, sounds, music, feelings you had in the dream, etc. Once you have finished writing out your dream, you can begin the process of interpreting. I find there is a lot of symbolism in dreams. For instance, something like a bird or other animal may symbolize you in your dream. Ask God for help interpreting your dream. Ask Him if this dream has any significance and for understanding and guidance.

I am not in any way saying that all dreams are messages from God. Some are just what I like to call yesterday’s trash. Some can just be leftovers from watching a movie or television show the night before or too much pizza, spicy food or chips before bed. I am talking about the dreams where you wake up with strong feelings or emotions. Sometimes those emotions stay with you throughout the day.

I just recently came across a website where another Christian has posted a write-up called, “Dreams: God’s Forgotten Language??” I have attached the link below if you are interesting in reading more:

http://www.actsweb.org/daily.php?id=1663

I hope you have enjoyed this post. God bless you.