Trial of Dreams - UBM [David Eells]

During a walk around a few blocks in late September of 2007, it was warm but a strong cool breeze kept blowing in my face so much that I could hear that muffled sound in my ears. I looked at the bushes and trees around me and not a leaf was moving so I knew something supernatural was happening and began to question and listen to the Lord. I got a strong impression that the Lord was trying His people concerning dreams of coming judgment in a way they didn't realize.

That night as I asked the Lord more about this I heard how we were being tried. When God's people hear a dream of a coming judgment and in turn report this to others some of them are anxious to see it come to pass to prove they are who they say they are. They want to prove to family and friends that they are hearing from God so that they will listen to them concerning the things to come. When it doesn't come to pass as they think it should, usually in the letter, they are angry at the dreamer or God. Nevermind that they were totally unworried about the thousands or millions who would have been affected by the catastrophe. This was the sin that Jonah was proven to be in when his prophecy failed to come to pass. {Jonah 4:1} But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. {2} And he prayed unto Jehovah, and said, I pray thee, O Jehovah, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I hasted to flee unto Tarshish; for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, and repentest thee of the evil. {3} Therefore now, O Jehovah, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. {4} And Jehovah said, Doest thou well to be angry? {5} Then Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city. {6} And Jehovah God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to deliver him from his evil case. So Jonah was exceeding glad because of the gourd. {7} But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd, that it withered. {8} And it came to pass, when the sun arose, that God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. {9} And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. {10} And Jehovah said, Thou hast had regard for the gourd, for which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: {11} and should not I have regard for Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle? Jonah's sin in God's eyes was that he would rather spare himself the embarrassment of being called a false prophet than have God spare the 120,000 ignorant people's lives. God knew the prophecy wasn't going to come to pass when He gave it to Jonah but He was trying his heart to prove to him what was inside. Many others are failing in this same way. Jesus sacrificed Himself so others might live but this heart wasn't in Jonah nor is it in many today. When I saw that night that God was indeed trying our hearts I began to pray for God's mercy on America concerning the judgment being now. {James 2:13} For judgment [is] without mercy to him that hath showed no mercy: mercy glorieth against judgment. I know that the judgment is coming soon but I wanted to overcome in the trial. I asked God to grant repentance and revival by a sovereign act of His will rather than a beating, which He has done before.

Others are being tried in this thing because they want to see the dreams fail in order to disprove the righteous whom their competitive spirit seeks to best. Their critical spirit only seeks to lift themselves up by putting others down. Their favorite way of doing this is to judge them according to the Law. But when they judge according to the Law they will be judged that way. "Be not deceived; whatsoever a man sows so shall he reap". "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you again". There is no example in our covenant for them to judge Christians for a prophecy that fails, much less a dream that fails. You will notice that even false prophets in the New Testament are judged for their corrupt lives and doctrines and not their prophecies. The reason for this is simple: God does not want His people who are taking baby steps in the gifts to be stifled by using the New Testament to judge them. Instead he wants them to learn from their experiences and grow in their gift.

We are told to discern prophecies, not judge those who prophesy. {1Cor.14:29} And let the prophets speak [by] two or three, and let the others discern. If Jesus under grace showed the foolishness of judging the woman taken in adultery who had sinned, what would He say of those who would judge those who have not sinned? False prophecy, which a dream is not, was judged under the Law like adultery was. {Jn.8:3} And the scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman taken in adultery; and having set her in the midst, {4} they say unto him, Teacher, this woman hath been taken in adultery, in the very act. {5} Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such: what then sayest thou of her? {6} And this they said, trying him, that they might have [whereof] to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground. {7} But when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. {8} And again he stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground. {9} And they, when they heard it, went out one by one, beginning from the eldest, [even] unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the midst. {10} And Jesus lifted up himself, and said unto her, Woman, where are they? did no man condemn thee? {11} And she said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn thee: go thy way; from henceforth sin no more. {12} Again therefore Jesus spake unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life. Even the Pharisees had better sense than some people today. Notice the more mature they were the quicker they realized that they had better not judge or they would be judged. Some of these people today have been judged already and are left captive to Babylon because of their self-righteousness. Like the charging rhinoceros in a recent dream I had and like Judas they will not escape as those whom they judge will. We have no example to judge anyone in our covenant when their dream doesn't come to pass in the letter as we suppose. A Prophet in the Old Testament was judged harshly because they were under the law and the power of their gift was very exact. Every letter in the OT had a numeric pattern. One who prophesies or dreams is almost never a prophet and in the NT; even if they were they are not judged under the Law.

I have run into good people who have dreamed things that did not come to pass. Occasionally I have discovered these to have spirits that were passed down from former lives (old sinful lives, not reincarnation) or relatives. This does not condemn the person for we were delivered out of the power of darkness as Col. 1:13 says and as we walk out our life these spirits are discovered, rejected and dealt with. One who condemns those walking in the light that they have is condemned themselves and always falls away even when they appear righteous and in control like the Pharisees.

I have run into good people who in their attempts to step out by faith in a gift prophesied things that did not come to pass. When I was about a year old in the Lord I claimed the gift of prophecy by faith and commenced to prophesy what I later learned were just thoughts of my mind. Then along came a true prophecy through me and I suddenly knew the difference. I said to myself, "Oh, this is prophecy". God was merciful in helping me to understand that He hadn't chosen that gift for me. I have rarely prophesied since because it is not a main gift that God chose for me. I have never known a word of knowledge or wisdom or a dream that has been given to me to be inaccurate. Many are for teaching purposes and are more informative and accurate than prophecies I have heard. So now I am not quick to judge those who do not have the office of prophet or even one who prophesies or dreams and I have learned not to judge according to the Law. We grow up by God's grace and when we are a child we "prophesy in part" until we mature with the gift, as Paul said in 1 Cor.13: 9-11.

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