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Does God Speak to Us Through Dreams? · Arise Women of God

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  Have you ever gone to bed with a heart so heavy that your mind wouldn't stop spinning?
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  You fall into bed exhausted, but instead of rest, you find your sleep is restless or you wake up feeling just as drained as when your head hit the pillow.
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  Perhaps you're asking, does God speak to us through dreams?
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  Because you need to know if your nighttime can become a sanctuary instead of what feels like a battlefield.
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  You want to know if God can still reach you when you're completely unplugged.
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  Well, take heart, my friend.
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  By the end of today's episode, you will understand how to establish a protective spiritual perimeter around your bed so your subconscious can become an open gateway for heavenly comfort and instruction.
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  We're going to help you solve the pain of nighttime anxiety by looking at how a young King Solomon received a lifetime of wisdom while he slept and sharing a deeply personal dream that brought Wendy Christensen literal, palpable comfort.
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  During a week of intense family stress, we're moving from restless tossing to restorative revelation.
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  Stay tuned.
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  Ordinary women Extraordinary Faith.
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  When God calls, we say yes.
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  Hello and welcome to another episode of the Arise Women of God podcast.
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  I'm.
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  I'm your host, Tamara K.
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  Andersen.
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  And joining me today is the marvelous Wendy Christensen, who is my co founder of Women warriors of Light, has been a Christian counselor and licensed social worker for over 30 years.
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  And that's particularly helpful as we are tackling this hard question today.
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  Does God speak to us through dreams?
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  The idea that God uses our dreams isn't just a modern fantasy.
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  It's an ancient scriptural blueprint.
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  In Job, chapter 33, verses 14 and 15, we read, for God speaketh once, yea, twice, yet man perceiveth it not in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon man in slumberings upon his
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  bed.
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  When the volume of the world is turned down, our spiritual reception can often be turned up.
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  From a neurological and clinical standpoint, sleep isn't just blank space.
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  It's a highly active processing center.
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  Wendy is now going to explain to us what is happening to our brain filters when we close our eyes at night because our brains drop their conscious guard, creating the perfect environment for the Lord to reach us without
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  daytime distractions getting in the way.
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  You know, God can talk to us through many ways, so course he can talk to us through dreams.
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  But I think it's important to kind of look at the, the perspective of sleep.
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  So from a neurological standpoint, your brain processes and does a lot of really important things when you sleep.
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  It's kind of like A computer defragmenting.
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  Right when you go to sleep, your brain is defrag, defragmenting.
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  And it's a way for you to unplug.
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  And it's a way to process its conscious filters drop down into a subconscious place.
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  And it allows that daytime experience or trauma that you've gone through to organize.
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  It organizes your deep memories.
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  It organizes and processes things that have happened or even fears or concerns that you've experienced throughout the day.
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  So sleep is really, really important.
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  And some, for some people, that is an opportunity for them to be so much in their subconscious that God can speak to them.
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  And there are several scripture stories that Tamara will share that.
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  That talk about how God has spoken to ordinary people and to prophets, even through the power of dreams.
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  Because that subconscious getaway is so real, the messages received there can alter the entire course of our waking lives.
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  We see this vividly in First Kings, chapter three, with King Solomon at Gibeon.
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  While Solomon was sleeping, the Lord appeared to him in a dream at night and asked a massive, wide open question.
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  Ask what I shall give thee.
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  Instead of asking for wealth or along life.
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  King Solomon used that dream to plead for wisdom, an understanding, discerning heart to lead his people.
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  When he awoke, the scriptures record that he realized it was a dream.
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  But the internal transformation, peace, and divine wisdom he received remained entirely real and tangible for the rest of his life.
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  However, because sleep is such a powerful place for healing and clarity, the adversary intensely desires to run static there.
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  He loves to target at our vulnerabilities through insomnia and fear.
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  Wendy has had to deal with this directly as a mother dealing with severe night terrors in her own home.
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  And she's going to share a very tactical approach to clearing out spiritual darkness when bad dreams attack us or our children.
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  I have a son that has nightmares that are so traumatic.
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  They're night terrors, we call them night terrors.
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  And there have been moments where I've been with him where he's in such a night terror and you cannot bring him out of it.
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  It's scary for me, and I'm not even seeing the dream that he's.
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  But something that we've had to do is cast Satan out.
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  And so.
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  And I've had some people as well that, you know, when they're trying to fall asleep, they can't get out of their fight, flight or freeze mind.
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  That amygdala that's in the center of our brain, it's there to protect you, your brain and your body's just doing what it's meant to do.
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  It's meaning to protect you.
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  But sometimes it's hard to shut it down, to go into a state of your subconscious and just turn your.
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  Your body over to your subconscious.
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  And so that's why I always love to pray at night before I go to sleep and to pray for my mind to be open and pray for protection.
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  And if you feel like you're sensitive to struggling with sleep or maybe dreams that aren't pleasant, sometimes we just have nightmares or we have unpleasant dreams.
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  I think it's a good thing to even pray and ask the Lord to send angels and protection and shielding as you sleep so that you can feel safe and comfortable as you sleep.
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  And if you need to even cast Satan out, like I said with my son and his nightmares, absolutely.
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  When we were there, we would just say, in the name of Jesus Christ, I command anything bothering him or controlling him to leave and depart so that he can relax and he can feel safe and he can feel
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  confident.
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  And we would do that combined with slowly bringing him out of his nightmare.
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  We would ask him just daily questions and give him drinks of water and just simple things to bring him out of that nightmare.
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  When we actively protect that space through prayer, the Lord can use our dreams to send beautifully tailored lifelines of support during overwhelming seasons.
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  Wende recently experienced this during a week of intense family stress and her house flooding.
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  And I was going through some stressful moments a couple of weeks ago.
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  Just a lot of things just happening at once and so many things like my, my house had flooding and I got lots of, you know, kids, all different directions.
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  I got teenagers and just, lots of just everyday stress.
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  Not anything too serious, but I just remember feeling really, really overwhelmed.
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  And as I was waking up the following morning, shortly before waking, and I don't even remember all my dreams, but this morning I remember I had.
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  I had a friend that passed away about 30 years ago.
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  And he was a good friend of mine that I had known for three or four years.
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  And he and I were, we were just simple friends, you know, in our lifetime.
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  But it was enough that he was a close friend.
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  I felt, I felt a connection with him.
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  And the other morning as I was waking up in my dream, I remember he was standing in a kitchen and all I remember is coming up to him and just getting the biggest hug from him.
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  And it, it was full of so much just love, just like a.
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  Like a brother, sister love, you know, just so much love in that hug that it was palpable.
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  And it just, it sustained me that entire day.
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  I woke up feeling so much love.
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  I almost felt like it was just a big hug from my brother, Jesus Christ, in a way that came through him.
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  And it just sustained me all day long.
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  And whenever I would start feeling overwhelmed or anxious, I would just kind of close my eyes and go back to that hug that I had that day and just how much it sustained me and helped me.
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  And I was so grateful for that so simple act of that.
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  Just in my awakening moments, that beautiful dream, that hug that I had of him, just like, hey, I'm here, I'm present.
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  I acknowledge you, I see you.
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  And I think that God's that way too.
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  And sometimes we're so busy during the day, he has to come through us to us in a dream when our subconscious state.
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  And it may not be him directly, it may be somebody that we do know that loves us and cares about us, or maybe a message.
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  But the goal is to just be open to it.
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  So, my friends, the Savior does not stop watching over you when you close your eyes to go to sleep.
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  He is the God who speaks in the slumberings upon your bed.
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  But don't be upset.
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  If that isn't one of your spiritual gifts, that's okay.
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  He used different ways to speak to each of us as his children.
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  If this isn't one of your gifts, ask God how He speaks best to you.
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  And if your nights feel heavy, full of static, change your routine tonight.
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  In the name of Jesus Christ, dedicate your room for peace.
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  Cast out the adversary and ask for a shield of angels to protect you while you rest and guard your subconscious.
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  Be open to the comfort he is waiting to drop into your soul while you rest.
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  To help you establish this beautiful sanctuary, lower your stress levels before bed and learn to track the quiet promptings of the Spirit.
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  We want to give you a gift.
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  Our roadmap to Revelations.
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  Six steps to hearing God better in your daily life.
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  You can also download our free Receiving Light and Revelation audio meditation done by Wende completely free by clicking the link below.
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  Before you turn off your lights tonight, go to step number four, the record and Respond rule.
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  If you wake up with a sudden thought, a wave of unexplainable peace, or a vivid dream like Wendy's, don't just brush it off, write it down immediately.
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  If I ever get those things, I often ask God, is this something I need to write down right now, before I fall back asleep?
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  And if it's important, he usually prompts me, yes, do it right now.
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  Treating those nighttime downloads with respect is how you train your spirit to recognize his voice more clearly every day.
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  Combine that with the Cast out the adversary prayer on page number eight to protect and clear your home.
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  So, my friend, God can use dreams to speak to you and those you love.
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  Whether he uses this gift for you or another way to communicate with you, May you arise, listen, act, and do it God's way.
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  God strong.