"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone into the world." - 1 John 4:1
"Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward." - Hebrews 10:35
"As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams." - Daniel 1:17
"Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more." - Genesis 37:5
"For nothing will be impossible with God." - Luke 1:37
"For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it." - Job 33:14
The Bible suggests (from what I understand) that, 1. To understand dreams is a rare gift, 2. It's not always a popular gift, 3. Dreams are not always from God.
I spoke briefly about this before in October, how some dreams are from God and others from Satan. 1 John 4:1 relates and emphasizes that. Personally, I am still quite confused on how to decide which is from which, but I'll look into that more in the coming weeks...
Understanding dreams and visions is such a unique thing to have. You are decoding messages from God in your brain. Things He has sent you, things not everyone understands. The brain is so complex, and for me, doing theophostic prayer for example has really helped me to decode those thoughts from Him. He sends you messages in your thoughts, feelings and memories. Dreams are just the tip of the iceberg.
Also, understanding dreams are not always popular. Joseph could understand his dreams, and while that ended up getting him a high position in Egypt, being able to prophesy dreams from God was what first got him kicked out of his home at the beginning of his story.
Monday 25 November 2013
THEOPHOSTIC PRAYER
Well, this past weekend concluded my first theophostic prayer session. And yes, I am still alive.
I met my mentor (her name is Betty) for the first time, as well as another woman, called Barb. The pair of them helped guide me through my first prayer appointment.
A few describing words about how it felt: Incredible, beautiful, amazing, strong, powerful, connecting. I have never ever, felt anything like this before. I learned some things about myself, and felt emotions that I had forgotten about. I smiled and cried throughout it, and I don't even remember some of the things that I said throughout the experience.
One of the things that I learned during my meeting was that it is more important to feel things than it is to figure everything out. I think that that is very relatable for everyone in our lives and in our day to day activities. I love trying to figure things out, it makes me feel smart and brave, but I didn't realize that in all those memories, I was thinking things and feeling emotions that are so very important, but I was too busy trying to figure out what was going to happen to me at the time, I didn't have time to sit there and pay attention to myself. I'm also the type of person of who loves to be in control of things (that's one of the reasons I personally feel so drawn to one of my other passions - writing stories). Reliving some of my worst memories that put me (so to speak) at the bottom of the totem pole, where I wasn't able to control what was happening to me...that was a part that put me in my place. While it's still okay to like being in control things, this helped teach me that ultimately, God is the One who controls things, not me.
During the prayer session, God speaks to you. I heard this from my friend who had been through it as well, and I can also speak out that He talked to me as well. Such a breathtaking experience, let me tell you. After the session was over, and I was reflecting on my time, I was so awestruck by how incredible it was to hear God speak, and put thoughts into my head. He loves me, and He wants the best for me. This was a beginning strand of my healing process, and I can't wait to do more.
I met my mentor (her name is Betty) for the first time, as well as another woman, called Barb. The pair of them helped guide me through my first prayer appointment.
A few describing words about how it felt: Incredible, beautiful, amazing, strong, powerful, connecting. I have never ever, felt anything like this before. I learned some things about myself, and felt emotions that I had forgotten about. I smiled and cried throughout it, and I don't even remember some of the things that I said throughout the experience.
One of the things that I learned during my meeting was that it is more important to feel things than it is to figure everything out. I think that that is very relatable for everyone in our lives and in our day to day activities. I love trying to figure things out, it makes me feel smart and brave, but I didn't realize that in all those memories, I was thinking things and feeling emotions that are so very important, but I was too busy trying to figure out what was going to happen to me at the time, I didn't have time to sit there and pay attention to myself. I'm also the type of person of who loves to be in control of things (that's one of the reasons I personally feel so drawn to one of my other passions - writing stories). Reliving some of my worst memories that put me (so to speak) at the bottom of the totem pole, where I wasn't able to control what was happening to me...that was a part that put me in my place. While it's still okay to like being in control things, this helped teach me that ultimately, God is the One who controls things, not me.
During the prayer session, God speaks to you. I heard this from my friend who had been through it as well, and I can also speak out that He talked to me as well. Such a breathtaking experience, let me tell you. After the session was over, and I was reflecting on my time, I was so awestruck by how incredible it was to hear God speak, and put thoughts into my head. He loves me, and He wants the best for me. This was a beginning strand of my healing process, and I can't wait to do more.
Monday 18 November 2013
The Beginning Strands Of Theophostic Prayer
Hello friends!
One of the things I wanted to do as part of my project was something called, "theophostic prayer."
From what I understand, theophostic prayer is a ministry where you seek the Lord in prayer. It is not a form of counselling, it simply identify's with your emotional pain that is harboured through your experiences in your life. If your emotional pain is being rooted by a past experience, it is not likely that you will be able to let go of it until you find God's perspective in this prayer and are able to use Him as a guide to let go of your past and find comfort in what lies ahead.
My mentor does theophostic prayer with people, and so I will be attending an appointment with her this Friday, November 22 (It's also the first time I will be meeting her, so I'm very excited for that too!).
Again, from what I understand about it, is that you go into your appointment with a problem in your life, one that you would like to strive to fix. This problem may not necessarily be what you will end up fixing, because God is the one being sought by you, and He will show you whatever He wants you to see. Our minds are so complicated, and we may never completely understand what's going on inside of it, however God can help.
All in all, I know that this is not the greatest mother load of information, and if you would like more, please go to theophostic.com. They certainly know more than me (haha) and it's a whole website dedicated to the ministry.
I am currently still in pursuit of more information myself, seeing as I am mentally trying to prepare myself for what will happen. One of my friends has done it before, and she's told me what it's kind of like, but I don't want to put anything down on here until I've experienced it for myself. After my appointment on Friday, I'm sure to make a post about it to share with you all about how it went!
One of the things I wanted to do as part of my project was something called, "theophostic prayer."
From what I understand, theophostic prayer is a ministry where you seek the Lord in prayer. It is not a form of counselling, it simply identify's with your emotional pain that is harboured through your experiences in your life. If your emotional pain is being rooted by a past experience, it is not likely that you will be able to let go of it until you find God's perspective in this prayer and are able to use Him as a guide to let go of your past and find comfort in what lies ahead.
My mentor does theophostic prayer with people, and so I will be attending an appointment with her this Friday, November 22 (It's also the first time I will be meeting her, so I'm very excited for that too!).
Again, from what I understand about it, is that you go into your appointment with a problem in your life, one that you would like to strive to fix. This problem may not necessarily be what you will end up fixing, because God is the one being sought by you, and He will show you whatever He wants you to see. Our minds are so complicated, and we may never completely understand what's going on inside of it, however God can help.
All in all, I know that this is not the greatest mother load of information, and if you would like more, please go to theophostic.com. They certainly know more than me (haha) and it's a whole website dedicated to the ministry.
I am currently still in pursuit of more information myself, seeing as I am mentally trying to prepare myself for what will happen. One of my friends has done it before, and she's told me what it's kind of like, but I don't want to put anything down on here until I've experienced it for myself. After my appointment on Friday, I'm sure to make a post about it to share with you all about how it went!
Monday 4 November 2013
WHAT DO DREAMS MEAN?
Dreams are sent from either God or Satan, it is our jobs to decipher which dream comes from which. Like I said in the earlier paragraph, "our deepest wishes and desires are disguised in dream because they would be too threatening to our mental health if they formed while we are awake" -- I believe that those dreams would mostly come from Satan.
Dreams from God however have good, knowledgable reasoning behind them.
1. To warn us.
2. To offer direction in our lives.
3. To give us hope for the future.
4. To expose what we are believing is false.
As for interpreting a dream, here are some basic, yet more deep steps:
1. Journal the dream.
2. Evaluate the emotions you felt when you woke up.
3. Ask yourself what emotions you have experienced or issues you were processing the day/night before the dream.
4. Ask yourself if the dream represents the future or is based on past or present events.
5.Ascertain if the dreams is literal or symbolic.
6. Ask yourself if the dream is about you or someone else.
7. Go through each symbol in the dream, seeking revelation of each symbol until you sense in your spirit that the interpretation is complete.
HUGE SHOUT OUT TO MY AWESOME MENTOR FOR A TON OF THE INFORMATION I GOT TO SHARE WITH EVERYONE. THANKS!!! :))
Dreams from God however have good, knowledgable reasoning behind them.
1. To warn us.
2. To offer direction in our lives.
3. To give us hope for the future.
4. To expose what we are believing is false.
As for interpreting a dream, here are some basic, yet more deep steps:
1. Journal the dream.
2. Evaluate the emotions you felt when you woke up.
3. Ask yourself what emotions you have experienced or issues you were processing the day/night before the dream.
4. Ask yourself if the dream represents the future or is based on past or present events.
5.Ascertain if the dreams is literal or symbolic.
6. Ask yourself if the dream is about you or someone else.
7. Go through each symbol in the dream, seeking revelation of each symbol until you sense in your spirit that the interpretation is complete.
HUGE SHOUT OUT TO MY AWESOME MENTOR FOR A TON OF THE INFORMATION I GOT TO SHARE WITH EVERYONE. THANKS!!! :))
WHY DO WE DREAM?
First let's talk about the brain.
The left side of the brain stores all the logical information, while the right side of the brain stores your emotions and more, relational things.
Dreams occur while we are asleep in the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) phase, which is the deepest part of sleep. Dreaming helps to organize the thoughts in our mind. It discards unnecessary information left by incidental experiences we have each day.
Dreams also provide an escape route for unconscious thoughts and desires that would be considered unacceptable to the conscious mind. It's a way to solve mental tension too. Our deepest wishes and desires are disguised in dreams because they would be too threatening to our mental health if they formed while we are awake.
Funny enough, in the Bible, Job talks about dreaming in Job 33: 14-18,
"For God speaks in one way and in two but man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night when deep sleep (REM) falls on man, while they slumber in their bed."
The left side of the brain stores all the logical information, while the right side of the brain stores your emotions and more, relational things.
Dreams occur while we are asleep in the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) phase, which is the deepest part of sleep. Dreaming helps to organize the thoughts in our mind. It discards unnecessary information left by incidental experiences we have each day.
Dreams also provide an escape route for unconscious thoughts and desires that would be considered unacceptable to the conscious mind. It's a way to solve mental tension too. Our deepest wishes and desires are disguised in dreams because they would be too threatening to our mental health if they formed while we are awake.
Funny enough, in the Bible, Job talks about dreaming in Job 33: 14-18,
"For God speaks in one way and in two but man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night when deep sleep (REM) falls on man, while they slumber in their bed."
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