Nighttime dreams can be seen as a parable which enables us to better understand the life
we seem to be living in this world
where, as Jesus said, we will have tribulation.
Since Jesus said that He had overcome the world, we know that it is not something that God created, but rather our false concept of the world created by God.
Jesus also said that He was in
but not of
the world and prayed that would be true for us also. When we know that this concept of the world we are in
is not reality (not the world created by God which is very good
), then we are not of
it. We can stand to one side, as it were, and see it for what it is—a sort of dream
that we are inhabiting but never for a moment believe to be reality.
We have awakened, as Paul admonished:
Ephesians 5:14 … Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
An interesting thing about dreams—they can be very pleasant, or they can become nightmares. It is the nightmare that is most likely to awaken us. As long as the dream is agreeable, we have no incentive to awaken from the sleep that is this world.
That’s why we can begin to count it all joy
when we fall into divers temptations
James 1:3, knowing for a surety that it isn’t God who is trying
us James 1:13, but rather our lust
v 14 for the things we see in the dream
that we think are real. These trials of our faith
Peter describes as being more precious than gold
and admonishes us to greatly rejoice
though we are in heaviness through manifold temptations
1Peter 1:6 because these nightmares
can cause us to awaken to the appearing of Jesus Christ
v 7 in us as our true identity.
Once awakened, although we are still in
the dream, we know that it is passing away
as all dreams do. But our citizenship is now above
the dream world, in heaven
which is not of
the dream. We remain in
the dream as long as we are needed to help awaken those in our world,
those we are appearing to in the dream who are yet dead
or asleep
to their true identity: the Christ, the Son of the living God. As Jesus said, we are the light of the world
; we are the ones who bring the light that causes the awakening to take place.
To take this parable a bit farther, just as we cannot enter another person’s dream
and see what he is seeing and feel what he is feeling, neither could God enter into the dream
that we ourselves created by our false beliefs about God, ourselves and the universe we inhabit. That is why He (in the form of Jesus) descended
into this dream world, was born of a woman, born under the law, born into the Hebrew culture and tempted in all ways as we are Hebrews 4:15. There was no other way He could see what we are seeing and feel what we are feeling.
But that Hebrew man Jesus quickly increased in wisdom and stature
Luke 2:52 until He was able to recognize His oneness with His Father John 10:30, who is also our Father:
John 20:17 Jesus saith unto her: I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
With that ever increasing knowledge of God
Hosea 6:6; Romans 11:33; Colossians 1:10; 2Peter 1:2, the knowledge
that He was God being expressed as man, Jesus was able to take upon Himself the sin of the whole world
1John 2:2—the mistaken identity of everyone living in the dream
and allow his Hebrew concept of body to die on the cross, only to be resurrected a Life-giving Spirit which dwells in every man, thus proving once and for all the unreality of this so-called human life
that thinks it is born and therefore must die. As He had predicted, He was back in three days, defying every law of this physical
dream world, proving the nothingness of what we have believed to be reality.
When that quickening, Life-giving Spirit 1Corinthians 15:45 came and took up Its abode in all those people in the upper room
(higher consciousness) on the Day of Pentecost, they went forth in the power of that Spirit to turn the world upside down
Acts 17:6—they rose above the human consciousness into the Christ consciousness, looking beyond the veil
of this human flesh
into the realm of the unseen
called by Jesus the kingdom of heaven
—and to some degree brought into manifestation that kingdom in this earth.
When we cease looking at the things which are seen in the dream (and therefore merely a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away
—James 4:14) and put our focus on the things not seen and eternal 2Corinthians 4:18, we will also do the works that Jesus did and receive the answer to our prayer:
Matthew 6:10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.