Have you ever had a vivid dream?

Have you ever had a really bad dream? One so vivid you feel as if you can't catch your breath because it feels so real?  Have you ever woken up in a cold sweat, and jolting awake because you were falling from a large height?

Dreams can often cause us to question reality.  Sometimes we wake up thinking that we just experienced something that we don't remember actually happening.  We can wake up mad at someone because in our dreams they did something to hurt us.  We can spend days upset with them, not understanding why we feel so strongly but feeling like we have a really good reason.

Dreams.  Dreaming.  Oh man, a lot of us have vivid dreams.  Some are great.  Some, not so great.  I remember this one reoccurring dream I had a couple years back.  I would be having a great day.  Things would be really great, but at the end of every dream, someone I loved died.  Someone I cared about.  I would always wake up sad.  Felt like I was depressed, and I didn't know why.  Everything was great at home, with my friends, at school.  My relationship with God was awesome, but for some reason I was always on the verge of tears.  A few weeks later I was driving home from a youth thing with my friend.  She was talking about these dreams she was having about angels and how she thought she actually saw a couple one morning.  I then told her about my dreams.  She was like, "Jessi, maybe that is why you are so sad.  Maybe its because you are grieving the loss of people in your dreams."  I realized then that my dreams really affected my life.  I would let an idea or imagination help shape my day.  I would wake up upset because of this alternate reality that my sub-conscience was believing.

What is your sub-conscience saying to you?  What are your dreams about?  Do you think they hold meaning?  Perhaps its just portraying what you are truly afraid of, or maybe what you deeply desire.  For me, it was portraying my deepest fears.  Everyone leaving.  Me... all alone.  That scared me to death.  But the truth of the matter was, no one was gone.  They were all there but I was allowing the reality in my dreams to affect how I interacted daily.  Instead of enjoying time with them, I was sad when I was around them.  Feeling a disconnect.

Dreams hold so much weight. Sometimes.  Other times they are crazy and absurd.  Like when you realize you are dreaming and it makes you laugh and then you try and fly, cause in a dream, you can.  I woke up one morning after dreaming I had gotten married.  I woke up to the sound of the shower running, there was a ring on my left hand, and I sat up in bed with a jolt because I had no idea who I had married!!! Then I chuckled when I realized that my mom had turned my shower on, to warm it up, the ring on my hand was the promise ring my dad had given me when I was 16, and in fact, I was not married, but a senior in high school, sitting in my room in my parents house.  What a relief!!

So have you ever had a dream?  Have you ever woken up trying to decide what was reality?  Have you ever been so affected by a dream that it took you days to figure out the truth?  Have you ever dreamt the same thing over and over again?  Have you ever?

Have you ever heard God's voice?

Have you ever heard God's voice?  Or do you even understand what that means?  How do you hear the voice of God?  How come so many people talk about it but no one knows how to describe it?

Seems to me that there is a disconnect.  How can we hear something that we don't even know how to listen for?  Have you ever thought about it?

I know that for me, hearing the voice of God has nothing to do with Moses' burning bush experience.  If you ask me, he had it easy.  In fact, everyone in the Old Testament had it easy.  They all got to talk to God.  Adam walked with God in the garden, Jacob wrestled with God, Joseph had vivid dreams and could interpret them, and Moses had a burning bush... that spoke, creepy.  And now, what do we have?  A conscience.  Conviction.  But how do you know if that is the voice of God or not?

Have you ever been sitting in your room and had a random thought?  One that seems to make no sense at all but it spurs on a thought process that brings you to a conclusion that you need to change something in your life?  I know I have.  I was sitting in my room one night, it was late.  I was thinking about everything I had to do the next day. And then, BAM! Random thought: "If you could change the world, what would you do?"  I was like "Jessi, its 1am... who cares."  But the question stuck in my mind.  I started to think about all the things that I wanted to change.  But then, I realized that it all stemmed from one thing.  I wanted to change how the world loved.  I wanted to change the concept of love.  "Oh geez", I thought, "how could I ever change how people view love?"  The answer was simple "Love how Jesus loves".  Now, I know that this wasn't a burning bush or a walking with God in the garden moment, but I would like to think that I was listening to the voice of God.  Not because it was about Jesus... but because when you really think about it... when you view it from all angles, it wasn't from a human heart that came up with that conclusion.   It was God's heart.  Because God wants to change the way we love.  He has wanted that since the beginning.  He sent His Son to die because He was showing us how to love; what love really looked like.

So what are those random thoughts going through your mind right now?  What do you think the Lord is telling you?  Do you even know how to decipher it?

Have you ever been so focused on listening for that voice that you miss it completely?  Have you ever thought that hearing the voice of God meant that it would be clear and you wouldn't be confused about what He was saying?  Have you ever thought you heard the voice of God but didn't act because you weren't sure if it was His voice?  Have you ever been begging God to talk but feel like He left you in utter silence?  Have you ever?