Recently the topic of dreams came up in our home. More specifically, how we save and log our dreams. I happen to use the notes app on my phone so that when I search I can quickly find them—though to be fair I do also write them in rogue notebooks scattered (just to keep things interesting). I'm not talking about run-of-the-mill "I had too much cake last night" dreams. I'm talking about significant, meaningful, applicable God dreams that you just know are from Him. Inspired by the conversation, I pulled up the search on my phone and found one from 2016 that was particularly puzzling. In this dream, I was shown some specific demonic "personalities" or "types". I was not afraid in the dream nor when I woke up: This was a strategy dream which was why I felt it was worth writing down. One particular figure in the dream was a fat man in my house. He laughed at me and was callous and nonchalant about my prayers—though my prayers did have some affect on him and pushed him back. Sharing this dream with my husband and son, we were struck by him most of all, this man who had gotten in to our home so long ago. Who was he? What did he represent? What I felt the Lord saying was that he was self-indulgence, and that led to a whole other rabbit trail I want to share today.
Every two weeks, our family opens up our property to a number of other local-ish people for a gathering we call Menuha (the Hebrew word for resting place from Isaiah 11:10). We have youth, worship, prayer, and speak whatever the Lord lays on our heart. This week as I prayed about what the Lord wanted to do, I just so happened to come upon the Screwtape Letters (by C.S. Lewis) and flipped to chapter 17 and this letter jumped out at me. It is all about gluttony but in this day and age I think the strategy is much broader: self-indulgence. This bondage we humans can be trapped in can take on many forms:
- Reels/technology/entertainment
- Knowledge
- The obvious: food, coffee, sugar, junk food, meat, etc.
- Sleep/rest
- Self-pity
- Shopping
We can identify these things by the excuses we tell ourselves. We might say, "It's my one thing, my vice, my weakness." And we accept it, petting it, keeping it around and becoming oh-so-familiar with it (fond of it even). It makes us happy. You've probably seen the trending content about "dopamine addiction" . . . we feast on it. Like food, we grow an appetite for it and we must consume it regularly in order to be happy. We become dependent on it and lack self-control when it comes to it. When we feel convicted as though the Lord is asking us to set it down, we excuse it and don an incorrect view of God. "God wants me to be happy. He wouldn't ask me to give up this one thing!" Or we assume that perhaps God doesn't want us to be happy, and we are supposed to have a serious path without any joy at all in order to be a good Christian.
Wrong. So wrong.
Read chapter 17 of the Screwtape Letters (if you haven't read these before, first read the preface and chapter 1 to gain an understanding). The deception is that this is a small thing that is for us to make us happy, we don't even realize we are actually walking around in chains, slaves to the next "hit" or "high" of our next meal. If God is asking us to lay something down that we are over-indulging it, it is because He doesn't want us to be a slave! He wants us to be free! He wants us to experience lasting joy—not the fleeting emotion of happiness that seems to be constantly just out of reach. Can you see it?
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy,[d] drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do[e] such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.—Galatians 5:16–24 ESV
What are you hungry for?
A while back I was praying that God would give me a hunger for His word, for more of Him. Immediately, I felt like He said, "To be hungry, you have to be empty. You are too full." For me, it has always been about my time. My time is full and my mind is full. What God has asked me to lay down is reels, books, and things that distract or pull away. What is He asking you to lay down? What are you in bondage to? In our little group, we encouraged everyone to ask God what they should lay down that week. It might be for a day (or longer). It might be food or something else. But fasting is a key to keeping our flesh in check and it's been in your hands all along.
Will you use it to unlock the door?
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New Year, New Hope