Kriston Couchy posted on Facebook recently that he was now seeing that dreams and visions were the ways that the Lord spoke to him about things that day by day conversation with the Lord didn’t facilitate. He said that most often they were some kind of issue that he was otherwise blind to, needed correction in, or freedom from, or other things beyond his own level of understanding that it was spelled out in a dream or vision.
I have found this true also and sometimes things He shows me in dreams are things that pertain to me that He is showing me and sometimes those things are relevant to other people and their walk with God also. Believing that a recent dream I had holds insight that not only is about me but has relevance to others in their walk with the Lord I am sharing most of this dream with you and what I have come to understand that it means.
Please remember any names aren’t about specific people though specific names are mentioned but are representative of some group or type.
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On August 24 in the morning I had gone back to sleep after my husband got up to go to breakfast as I hadn’t slept well. And this is the dream I had:
I was in a courtyard and there was a woman on a bench along the side that was sick and I ministered healing to her and then told her to go outside where the others were and minister to them. Many had been in the courtyard but they had been sent out through the beautiful doors of gold and brass that had cut glass/opaque windows through which the sun was shining into the courtyard.
I knew this woman had been with the group of people who had been sent out of the courtyard earlier and had stayed behind on the bench waiting because she was sick and wanted ministry. I told her to go out and motioned for her to go through a side door not through those beautiful doors.
As she left, a group of people came in through those big brass shiny doors being led by Robert Holmes. I went to go see what they were doing and to minister to some of the outsiders that came in with them. Somehow I got roughed up by the group and got my nose broken. I hurt!!
A few minutes later I spoke to Robert on the side near the bench where the sick lady had been sitting and he apologized for my nose getting broken saying he didn’t realize it happened. It was then he told me, with the group that had come in with him to his back,” My marker god is Buddha.” He and the group then gathered all around a table in the middle of the room having fellowship together. I wasn’t invited.
To my right was another bench (the first bench was now to my back around a short wall) This other bench sat along the wall of the room and the table the group was fellowshipping around was in the middle of that room probably 5-6 feet away somewhat separated from where this bench was..This bench was facing the doors which were to my left. And on that bench was a man I recognized from the movie Heaven is Real which we had watched the evening before. My husband had told me during the movie that this man’s name was Church but he couldn’t remember the first name so I I had looked it up and it was Robert Hayden Church. In my dream he was just called Mr. Church and I recognized him.
Mr. Church had a scroll in his hand and he fumbled the scroll and it almost fell out of his hands and he caught it just before it fell on the ground. As the scroll fell, it opened partially and I saw some green highlighting on it. I asked Mr. Church what the green highlighting was and he said that it was things he had gotten or learned from the sermon. About this time I found myself saying, My marker god is church/pastors.
Mr. Church welcomed me even though he knew I was in great pain with the broken nose. He, too ,was excluded from the group fellowshipping around the table. But he also didn’t have any help for my hurt.
I woke up wondering what marker gods were, what it meant that the one person had said his marker god was Buddha and that I had myself said my marker god was church/pastors.
After writing the dream down I began talking to the Lord about it and repenting of having idolatry in my heart and life for years. Then I began to explore my bible dictionary of dream language and found that Buddha in dreams refers to a religious spirit. I began to realize that Robert Holmes represented in part the apostolic/prophetic leadership. The sending the people outside and then having a group follow them inside, referred to what is often the “shuttling” of the sick and wounded who were in those places to help minister to people, often got wounded in the chaos surrounding apostolic/prophetic ministry. The other thing it referred to was that often there are those who are sick and in need of healing that get sidelined or who are persistent enough to not leave when they are told and wait to be healed, and often someone other than the “minister” is the agent the Lord uses to heal.
The lady that was sidelined on the bench ( which is the meaning of the bench—to be sidelined) went out the side door because the front door is “dangerous” as the crowds that come and go are often not mindful or thoughtful of people, even ones God has healed. She was sent out to those outside to minister. It isn’t always safe to minister even to folks within the congregation or group or whatever we want to call those who gather with apostolic/prophetic leadership. It is most often necessary to go outside the gates to minister to folks because the crowd inside the gates is within their own group and ways.
I looked up Buddha and marker god Buddha means a “religious spirit.”
These things mentioned above happen because of the “religious spirit” that often permeates the apostolic prophetic leadership despite what often is great verbalization of “casting out every religious spirit” before services, etc. The religious spirit is “exclusive”…it excludes, ignores, doesn’t welcome everyone, even those called into ministry, and those working in ministry. We see this in the “fellowship around the table”. But it can’t be cast out as it resides in the hearts of us who are called Christians and which tends to have a stronghold in many of us.
My broken nose appears to mean a broken spirit. It speaks of the wounding that comes from the religious spirit that has permeated the apostolic/prophetic community which I have been a part. It often comes from being “unseen”, ignored and/or left out. In the dream Robert didn’t even realize I had gotten injured. He was quick to apologize but there still was no “inclusion” and I continued to have a broken nose which really hurt. It is interesting to note that Robert Church (interesting that both had the first name) welcomed me and recognized I was hurting, but still no healing. The name is a compound word of hrod and berht, the first part meaning fame/glory and the berht means bright. In the dream I didn’t not know Mr. Church’s name was Robert. I had to look it up again though I had looked it up when my husband had mentioned it the night before when we watched the movie Heaven is Real as Robert Hayden Church was one of the actors in that movie. So bright fame/glory both exist in the apostolic/prophetic community as well as in the Church. But I found it interesting that Mr. Church wasn’t really welcomed into the fellowship of the apostolic/prophetic either.
Mr. Church had the scroll representing the Word of God but he fumbled handling it and almost dropped it…which means just what it says, to let go of the responsibility of the Word of God. Mr. Church had his priorities out of whack. The value of the Word of God related to what he had heard in the sermon. It was what he heard in the sermon that he highlighted in the bible/scroll. He was looking to the sermon for illumination rather than the Word of God. However, it was when he picked up the Scroll, the Word of God that I suddenly knew that my marker god was church/pastors. And as I edit this today, I suddenly realized I saw what I saw by the illumination of the Word of God not from a sermon.
I did some research on markers and found that they are used to IDENTIFY something. Ones own marker is often ones signature as is the case in gambling when one has a debt; the gambler signs the IOU with his marker, his signature or initials so someone knows who it belongs to. So to have church/pastors as my marker god, means that over the years I have drawn my identity from church/pastors rather than from the Word of God. To have Buddha as ones marker god, is to refer to having ones identity tied up in religious activity and even spiritual activity rather than in Himself.
And most of us who have been in the apostolic/prophetic community the past 20 years know the propensity of those in that community to focus on spiritual experiences, spiritual activity, and supernatural things. I am pleased to see more and more this community are holding up Himself, the Lord of All, and focusing on Him and the personal and corporate identity we have IN CHRIST JESUS.
This is what I have come to understand from this dream. It is not, I mentioned again about Robert Holmes the real person who is an apostolic/prophetic leader and is not about Robert Hayden Church, a real actor who plays in many godly films. They are just people who represent something by their name and position, not necessarily their own lifestyle, etc.
My broken spirit bothered me until Holy Spirit brought to mind that scripture
Psalm 51:17 “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” The meaning of this is connected with the verse .
However, if one doesn’t recognize one is broken in spirit, they don’t realize it can cause one to not hear like as in Exodus 6:9. Here is a neat link to an article that addresses broken spirits. How awesome that God considers a broken spirit a sacrifice that God will accept!! I am made whole again when my spirit is nourished by Holy Spirit either by Himself or through His Body.
http://theworksofgod.com/2011/02/24/do-you-have-a-broken-spirit/
I finish this with saying with some sense of humor and relief , that I started to wonder as I looked over the dream if “broken nose” was the same as a nose out of joint? And I have to say I was glad to find broken nose means broken spirit…and is something different that a nose out of joint…which we refer to more as a sense of offense.
If you have some further understanding to parts of this dream or other comments, you are welcome to share them with me and as I consider them appropriate to share with the list I will do that.
Most appreciatively,
Meri Ford
