Thursday, July 3, 2008

Listen Up

Weird dreams visit my subconscious dvd player on occasion. It is usually the result of a chili-cheese dog after 9 pm. Sometimes I remember the dreams vividly. Other times they fade into forgetfulness with my first yawn.

But the scorpion dream is one I will not soon forget. It was more real than a reality show. In the scorpion dream, I was babysitting a room full of toddlers and infants. Okay, so it's more like a nightmare.

While overseeing all these babies, I saw a scorpion crawl between my feet toward the children. In the awake world of my existence, I despise and fear scorpions as much as any other creature. I have felt the poisonous power of a scorpion's tail more times than I can count. The pain is impossible to describe.

The nightmare continued to escalate as the toddlers started crawling toward the scorpion. They all saw it and wanted to play with it. I screamed at the children, warning them not to touch it. They ignored me and kept reaching for it. I tried time and time again to step on the scorpion, but there was always a child in the way.

The inevitable happened. One of the smallest babies was injected by the sting of the scorpion's tail and let out a blood-curdling scream that woke me up. I sat straight up in bed, wiping away sweat and letting out a sigh of gratitude that it was only a dream.

That's when I heard the voice. It wasn't audible because it wasn't coming from outside my head where my ears are. It was inside my mind. It was high-definition. It was clearly the voice of God. He said,
"Now you know how I feel."

Then He left me there to meditate on what the dream and the God-statement meant. I knew what it meant. God wants so desperately for His children to hear Him. Yet we tune Him out so well. We fill our ears with what we want to hear. The voice of God drowns. When we do hear God, we often do not like what He says, so we learn not to listen.

We WANT to play with the scorpions. We think we know what's best. But we don't know what God knows. God knows the end result of playing with scorpions, and from a heart of passionate love He screams out to warn us and protect us. Will we hear Him? Will we trust Him?

1st Samuel 3:1 says, "the word of the Lord was rare in those days." I'm afraid we've let the voice of God become too rare a thing in our lives, as well.

The question for us to ponder is not, "Why isn't God speaking?" The question is,
"Why am I not hearing?"

If you want to hear God better, He tells you how: "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17). Hearing God begins with the Bible. If you are not reading it, you are decreasing your chances of hearing or recognizing God's voice.

Back to the scorpion dream. I tried to crush the scorpion with my heel, but the children were in the way. God's Son, Jesus, put Himself between the heel of God's judgment and the scorpion of man's sin. God has taken the eternal sting out of sin's tail, but He still doesn't want us playing with them.

Though the screaming child woke me up before I could see the reaction of the other babies, I would imagine none of them reached for the scorpion after hearing and seeing the pain it caused their fellow infant. So why would I want to play with that which caused Jesus so much pain? Why would you?

"Speak Lord, for your servant hears" (1st Samuel 3:9).
Perry Crisp

3 comments:

Me said...

Hi, Perry: As a new blogger and blog reader, I really enjoyed this post. I have been struggling with making my prayer time my first priority in the morning. I am one of God's impatient children, so I really have a hard time with that "Be Still" part - LOL! Thanks for the reminder to listen for His voice!

Kate said...

Hey Perry - I found you on Marrielle's site - it's good to find a fellow dreamer. I'm actually debating whether or not I should add a prophetic dream interpretation section to my blog. I don't know, I'll have to continue praying and mulling over it. But I like your site.

Jan Kerr said...

Hey Bro. Perry

I enjoyed your stories. We met when you came to LFBC to preach a few months back. I am that crazy woman.

I would like to have your permission to relate some of your stories to my SS class?

Jan Kerr
LFBC