Patience and Dreams

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Hi D____,
As always it is good to hear from you.
I’m glad you are listening to the talks and as far as suffering setbacks is concerned, that is indeed to be expected. In fact, it is only after we have been made to see our hopeless and our helpless state that Christ can “perfect His strength in our weakness:”

Pro 24:16  For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

People who take great pride in their self- control are not in any position to be used by a God whose “strength is made perfect in weakness.” And so Paul tells us:

1Co 10:12  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

Seven is the number in scripture which denotes completeness. A just man comes to see himself for the complete failure that he is in and of himself. A man who sees himself as a fallen man does not “think he stands.” He realizes that if he is standing, it is not him but Christ in him who is doing the standing.

Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

Rom 7 has been used to turn grace into lasciviousness by those who have not been given eyes to see what is the function of grace. But if God is dealing with us then we come to see that “grace chastens us to forsake ungodliness.”

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching [ Greek- paideuo- chastens] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Rom 7 is all written upon the premise laid down in verse 5:

Rom 7:5  For when we were in the flesh , the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

Those who use Rom 7 to turn grace into lasciviousness act as if Rom 6 and 8 were never written:

Rom 6:1  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2  God forbid . How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Rom 6:6  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Rom 6:7  For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Rom 6:11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Rom 6:18  Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
Rom 6:22  But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

The fact that “sin shall not have dominion over you” does not mean that your flesh is no longer “sinful flesh.” That is what flesh is, was and always will be, till the day we die:

Php 3:12  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect : but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Php 3:13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [ this] one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

What is being taught in this chapter is that your sinful flesh no longer has the upper hand. It no longer dominates you.

Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

And so Rom 7 is followed by Rom 8 which confirms what is being shown to us in Rom 6:

Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Rom 6 tells us that in Christ we are not to think that we should “continue in sin that grace may abound” (Rom. 6:1). Four times in this one chapter we are told that we are “free from sin” and “sin shall not have dominion over you.” This is followed by Rom 7:5 where we are informed of our own helplessness while we are still “in the flesh.”

Rom 7:5  For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

So all the hopelessness which Paul expresses in this chapter is based on what he had  and what we all experience “when we were in the flesh. But Rom 8 tells us that in Christ we “walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

Rom 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

What we are being told in these three chapters is that this whole experience takes time. And that is why “a just man falls seven times but rises again.” And that is also why Christ gives us this very profound admonition:

Luk 21:19  In your patience possess ye your souls.

So just accept the fact that you will be brought to see and to know beyond any doubt that you are unable, in your own flesh to overcome your flesh. But do not allow the Adversary to ever tell you that Christ in you cannot overcome your flesh. That day is coming for every one of us. It is simply a matter of timing whether our carnal minds are conquered while we are yet in these vessels of clay which we call flesh, or whether we conquer our carnal minds in the lake of fire along with “the Devil and his angels.”
You ask if God is talking to us in our dreams? God certainly does speak through dreams. We have literally dozens of examples in God’s Word where He has done so. The first one that comes to mind is Joseph’s dreams of ruling over his own brothers. In the New Testament we have this example of God speaking in a dream:

Act 27:23  For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,
Act 27:24  Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.

Just look at this part of God’s Word:

Job 33:14  For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.
Job 33:15  In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed;
Job 33:16  Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction,
Job 33:17  That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.

So the short answer to your question is, yes, God does speak to us through dreams. But as always we must “try the spirits to see whether they are of God:”

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

God really is “working all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph.1:11). There are many dreams which have been related which have come from evil spirits in the form of nightmares which are nothing but “an evil spirit from the Lord.”

1Sa 16:14  But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
Job 7:14  Then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions:
Jer 23:27  Which [ false prophets] think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.

Those among us whose dreams supersede God’s written word are adrift in an endless sea without so much as a rudder to guide them. They take pride in their dreams and forget God’s word by which alone we can “try the spirits.”

Ecc 5:7  For i n the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.

Dreams can become an “idol of the heart” (Ezekiel 14:1-9) as quickly as just about anything. “But fear you God” means we ought to put God’s Word ahead of our dreams:

Isa 8:20  To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

I hope that gives you a Biblical perspective on this subject. With or without dreams, God’s elect will indeed speak and teach without stuttering or stammering, when they are placed as rulers both of this world and of all those who are yet to be cast into a ‘lake of fire’ to be purged and purified of every idol of the heart. I like to think that you will indeed be doing that very thing when your appointed time comes to do so:

Dan 11:32  And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.

Your next question was:
Is Jesus’s coming while we are yet alive or after we die?  For so often we are told that God is the God of the living (Luk 20:38), and that he will come quickly (Rev 2:5, Rev 3:11), or destroy with the brightness of his coming (2Th 2:8).
The answer, for those who can receive it, is that Christ comes in spirit to His elect first. The fact that He is “not the God of the dead but of the living” has nothing to do with the fact that life comes only through death:

Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

“As He is so are we in this world:”

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

Did Christ have to relinquish His flesh? So must we:

Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
Mat 16:25  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Yes, Christ does come to us in this life. He “comes quickly” and He “destroys the man of sin with the brightness of His coming.” But we need to realize that what we are given while still in this “body of sin,” this “sinful flesh,” is but a down payment of what we will be given upon our resurrection:

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest [ Greek- down payment] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

We are now “sealed with the “Holy Spirit of promise.” We have not yet, in this flesh be given the “purchased possession” of a “spiritual body.”

1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Paul tells us in his epistle to the Ephesians that we are seated with Christ in the heavens:

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

We are indeed “with Christ in the heavens” and “God is indeed the God of the living.” But we are plainly told that God speaks of those things which are not as though they were.

Rom 4:17  (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

Christ did so all through his earthly ministry. For example, these are Christ’s words in His prayer to His Father the very night he was apprehended:

Joh 17:8  For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

That very night all the disciples left him to His own fate. Christ had already told His disciples that He would be apprehended and crucified and would rise again the third day. Yet on many occasions we are plainly told that they did not believe that He had risen.

Mar 16:14  Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.

God is indeed the God of the living. He has no intention of losing anyone:

1Co 15:55  O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

You asked before:  “Is the Gospel knowing the Will of the most High?”
If there was no life promised, there would be no gospel, there would be no good news:

1Co 15:19  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

Now, in answer to your question, look at how scripture defines life eternal:

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

God’s Word reveals Himself to us from Gen 1:1 to Rev 22:21. Christ came to reveal His Father:

Luk 10:22  All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom t he Son will reveal him.

So yes, while there is very much to knowing God, you cannot know Him without knowing His will.
I hope I have answered your questions, D____.  Please stay in touch.
Mike

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