My life is strange — and so are my dreams!

God sometimes tests my faith in Him by using dreams. In the dream, I might be tempted by an old way of life and wake up resisting it. I might also dream that I am in sin of one kind or another. God wants to test what I will do with that when I wake up.

At first, I was confused and asked the Lord why I was having these dreams. He asked me if I would rather be tested by these things when I was awake! That makes me shudder. However, He also tells me that many of my dreams are about unresolved issues, things that I still need to deal with and die to.

I had one of those last night. I know it was in God’s plan because when I came to the Bible this morning, I asked Him to give to me what I needed to hear, and this is the passage for today:

“How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:2–11)

Tozer comments on the strange life of Christians who realize they are dead to this world and alive to God. He sums up his remarks with this: “Every man must choose his world.” This choice is continually tested.

Not every dream I have takes me into a spiritual battle calling for a decision, but when that happens, God is asking me to choose what world I will live in — the dream world of my old life, a world of sinful desires, of stuff that once was my focus before Christ — or the reality world where I live according to my new life in Him.

It seems a no-brainer yet dreams and imaginations can be controlled (up to a point) whereas following the Lord Jesus Christ means yielding all to Him. I can no longer live for myself and that includes everything: what I eat, where I go, what happens to my money, what others do to me, who I talk to, everything.

However, that old life is not what it seems in a dream. My choices, sinful or not, never work out well, even with best efforts and intentions. Some would say it is a slippery slope. The stuff I might try to control with my imagination fails to bring me the peace and joy enjoyed under the grace of God. Even in challenges and tough times, His grace is sufficient. His joy undergirds and sustains. I’ve a good imagination but have never been able to conjure up the plans and outcomes that God presents to me regarding the issues of life! Walking with Jesus is an adventure.

Tozer says living like this means living moment by moment in the Spirit of God and this will be so different from my former life that I will often be considered strange. How true. I often look at the way He leads and directs and the events and answers to prayer He gives, and I myself consider them strange. Tozer calls such a life other-worldly. The reality is this:

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

^^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, this death/life combo is the answer and the victory for all questions and all tests that come my way, either in dreams or awake. You live in me and I live by faith in You — because You love me and died for me. Some of those dreams present alluring situations and ‘feel good’ plans, but I’m with Moses on this one . . .

“By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.” (Hebrews 11:24–25)

Thank You for granting the gumption to say NO to sin and the grace to say YES to You — even if it means living a strange life!