One Day it Will be for Real

I had a wonderful dream last night, or maybe it was three consecutive dreams.

I

I was back at Trinity Church in Miami. I served there as an armorbearer. We had three armorbearer leaders during my time. In the dream, the second guy was about to start a church of his own.

There were chairs set up in a small area, and he was about to speak about his plans. Several people were there, getting ready to sit. Trinity’s pastor, Rich Wilkerson, was one of them. That’s odd, because as far as I can tell, he never supports new ministries he doesn’t control and make money from.

In a dream I had long ago, he appeared as an evil force. I was at a different church by then. In the dream, it was night. The church was dark. I went in, and in a room in the back, with no windows, Wilkerson was sitting at a desk under a lamp, in a little cone of light, hiding. He was running an adding machine and counting money. I took that to mean the church’s pastors had greed issues, and that turned out to be true. Then one was outed as a child rapist, refused to step down, and went to prison.

The guy who was about to speak is a friend, but I wouldn’t want to see him run a church. He is headstrong, and he thinks he knows more than he does. He likes attention and admiration. He likes to be in charge. Basically a good guy, but not pastor material.

I left the room and went outside.

II

Once I was outside, I was not in Miami. I was behind my grandparent’s house in Kentucky. I loved that place when I was a kid. I thought it was heaven. I was my grandfather’s favorite grandchild. My grandparents treated me very well. They treated me like a son. Even as an adult, I could show up at their house whenever I wanted and treat it as my own.

The house had a small patio out back, and one day (not in the dream), my grandfather had it extended. I was probably about 8. When I saw the wet cement, I wrote my name in it with a slingshot handle.

I was told I was in big trouble. I was going to get it when Grandpa got home.

When he saw what I had done, he put me on his lap, and with a big smile, he told me one day I could show my own children what I had done. He thought it was terrific.

In the dream, I was on that patio, which I will never see again, for one last visit. It was dark. It was cool. I was wearing a winter jacket.

I looked at the sky. It was mainly clear with some clouds that shimmered around their borders. There was bright moonlight but no moon. Near where the moon should have been, I saw what looked like a little ship flying around. It was just an outline, like the little ships in the old Asteroids video game. I knew I was seeing something involving spirits. I have seen a spirit clearly, and it was clear with an outline.

At first, I saw one ship. Then I saw that there were two, and they were diamond-shaped. They were circling without changing their altitude. I knew something very important was happening.

My strength left me. I could not move. I lay on the concrete on my stomach. While I was lying there, two angels I couldn’t see lifted me up without changing my position, and we started to rise together.

I knew it was the rapture. I can’t explain how glad I was. I was done with this place. At last. Sometimes it seems like this experience will never end, and in the dream, it was over. Suddenly.

I believe I thought about my wife and son. They weren’t nearby. I believe I thought they were being raptured wherever they were and that we would meet shortly.

III

I woke up in a hospital bed. It was a cheap single bed with a white metal frame. I was in a hospital in a poor country, and they used whatever they could afford.

There was no sheet over me. I was wearing a T-shirt and gym shorts which didn’t seem to belong to me. I got the sense that I had been found somewhere, brought to the hospital, and examined. I was fine.

At the foot of the bed, there were about 5 little girls. I would say they were around 10 years old. They looked a lot like upper-class Indians. They weren’t wearing typical Indian clothes, but they looked like light-skinned Indians. They were carrying schoolbooks as though they had just been walking home from school. They were curious about me.

A doctor in a white coat came in. He also looked like an upper-class Indian. He was there to see how I was doing. I guessed he had been treating me.

For some reason, I said, “Who am I?” It was as if I wanted to find out what he knew about me.

I don’t remember anything that happened in the dream after that.

I woke up full of joy. Even though I had not been raptured, the joy of being lifted up to heaven and dropping all my earthly problems stayed with me for a long time. I feel it now as I type this.

I have died in dreams, and I have been raptured in dreams.

From dying, I know I’m not afraid of it. When I died in dreams, I really believed it was happening, so I know how I’ll react when my time comes.

If I were in a plane right now, and I knew it was going to hit the ground and kill me, I would not feel afraid. I would have an overwhelming sense of the gravity of the situation. I would feel very solemn. I would try to pray to make sure there was nothing to keep me out of heaven. I would be full of excitement, thinking about the fact that I was about to be in heaven with Yeshua. I would be glad my tour of duty here was over. I would look forward to having my curiosity about Yeshua and the afterlife answered.

Being raptured feels very similar.

When I say I’m not afraid of dying, I don’t mean I’m not afraid of what it takes to get there. I don’t want pain or mutilation. I don’t want to be burned. I’m just saying I’m not afraid to see this life end. In my dreams, I found myself in situations where I knew there was no hope of survival, and my end would be quick and painless. If I had been thrown into a tank full of hungry sharks, it would have been different.

I hope I have more dreams like this. I wish I knew how to make myself have more of them. Just thinking about them makes me feel great.