***Warning! This post contains subject matter that is inappropriate for children to read or hear. ***
The Dual Nature of Symbols – Part Two: Uncomfortable Symbols Made Easy
Posted by: Brittney Zellner
If you keep in mind that all dreams come from God, that makes this topic a very hard pill to swallow. If you have read my post about how dreams are not what you really think they are then you will have heard my two examples of why those as spiritually young as we are would think a dream containing a very uncomfortable or scary symbol could never come from an all-loving father but that they do. We must remember that just like you would not scream at your 3-year-old like you were warning him from certain death unless you were actually warning him from some impending doom makes it a little easier to understand. That kind of screaming has no place in any other part of that child’s life. It would be inappropriate and evil of an earthly father to act that way towards their growing child if they did, just as much as the warnings we see in dreams seem inappropriate in any other context.
Scary and uncomfortable dreams are scary and uncomfortable for a purpose. They are meant to make you stop. They are meant to help you and not to make you worse. They are meant to make you feel the way your young spirit really feels when you are walking away from your Abba into danger.
Often times if I dream of something scary or uncomfortable I immediately know that my Father is warning me of something that I am doing or thinking that is dangerous to my spirit. This is not to say that these dreams are him telling me I am committing acts of sin but rather that I might be headed there.
Here are some common examples:
Adultery in a dream symbolizes that you have begun acting a certain way that Abba does not want you to. Seems obvious right? Well not in that you are actually committing adultery but rather that your behavior is to the point that it is comparable in his eyes. You have connected yourself to a set of actions (what a person in your dream symbolizes) that is not ordained or approved of by Yah. If there is any adultery in a dream committed by anyone at all including you, the symbolism is the same. All people in your dream are the different aspects of your own character and do not symbolize any real life people. If you dream of adultery, the first thing I would do is to try and figure out the aspects of the person or people involved to figure out how Abba wants me to stop acting. A tall faceless man, for example, would be some different masculine characteristic I have that is unfamiliar to me but acts superior to others in some way. I might be really bossy to someone in my waking life in a way I have never been before and not realized it. However, my father thinks it is important enough to warn me about. A person you know committing adultery in a dream would take further thought and prayer to find out what part of you that they represent. How does this person generally act in your waking life or how do they honestly make you feel in your waking life and in the dream? Might you be copying some behavior of theirs in your waking life that you know in your heart is not really good?
A dream that contains a scary demonic figure is a visual representation of a specific behavior that you are partaking in. Demons in dreams are not demons in real life. They are symbols of characteristics that are completely against Yah’s will and how we are supposed to act according to him. A demon possession in a dream would be the same except with the aspect that we “feel” out of control. Like it’s beyond our power to stop acting in a certain way that we know is completely out of Yah’s will. An example of this behavior is like when you are in a situation where you feel attracted to someone and can’t seem to stop your sexual feelings from clouding your mind about them. You then become completely disconnected from whether or not this person is who Abba wants you to be married to and the situation becomes all about sex. Or another could be when a person is in a situation that they know is completely wrong and feel themselves being drawn further and further into it. This kind of dream would have me praying for Abba to please bring me under his control and put me back on his path. It hurts to pray this when your flesh is so happy having all the control but you must push these words out of your mouth continually until it becomes easier and you have a true desire for his will and his attributes.
Sex, in general, is a good example of the dual nature of symbols. Sex symbolizes simply the joining of two characteristics in a very intimate way. Keep in mind that pleasure is not an emotional but a physical feeling so it doesn’t represent the spirit’s emotion of something good or bad necessarily. We can feel psychologically good when we are in Yah’s will and we can feel good psychologically if we do something out of it. Pleasure is not the same as fear or assurance which are the emotions our spirits and Yah uses to direct us on the right path. If the two characters are not married then there is a problem whether pleasurable or not and if they are married and all is well then this is a good symbol.
A real-life situation expressed by a dream of sex with someone you are not married to would be when you are using a manipulation tactic to get people to follow Torah like guilt or force. A waking life example of a dream with a good sex symbol (having sex with your husband or wife in this dream) is when you have finally found a way to communicate with your husband/wife that involves your own interests and his/hers in a way that brings you both closer to the will of Yah. Sex within Yah’s will is never a bad symbol but outside of it is always not good and needs close attention and prayer until Yah reveals what actions or behavior of yours are joining up in an inappropriate way.
Masturbation in a dream is another example of something that can sometimes make us feel icky when we wake up from it and then others feel it must be perfectly fine since it was not our intention in the first place. Masturbation is symbolic of the real-life actions we take, especially in secret, to make ourselves happy or feel good (not physically but psychologically). An example could be gossip. We do this for a number of reasons… some gossip or masturbate as a coping mechanism to try to relieve stress. Acting selfishly or for your own gain in your waking life can cause you to dream a warning from Yah that you are acting in a way that is inappropriate comparable to masturbation. If you are not careful this behavior could lead you to many much worse cyclical behaviors. If you have one of these dreams the first thing you should do is pray to ask Abba if you don’t already know what you are doing, what selfish or personal selfish enjoyment you are partaking in so that you may begin to change this behavior.
It is important that in addition to prayer you must read the word of Yah when he gives you a warning dream. I tend to Google or look up scriptures that speak against my specific sin or sinful behavior and take the advice of what it says to do or not do. I read it aloud and make certain confessions against this behavior in myself so as to push the sin out of me and allow Yah to conquer and overcome it.
There are innumerable types of uncomfortable dreams that people have where they feel that only the devil could make them dream this and they would never give credit to their loving father. However, once you realize that all these dreams are warning dreams and you take into account what He is saying to you through them you can take action to correct all of your sinful behaviors and actions. It is then that you will notice how rarely you have them. You will immediately speak to him when they do happen and you stop feeling the helpless and icky feelings that are usually associated with them.
