Before I Wake

"For God does speak—now one way, now another—

though no one perceives it.

In a dream, in a vision of the night,

when deep sleep falls on people

as they slumber in their beds,

he may speak in their ears

and terrify them with warnings,

to turn them from wrongdoing

and keep them from pride,

to preserve them from the pit,

their lives from perishing by the sword."

Job 33:14-18

A friend shared this verse with me and my breath caught in my throat.

This. This is what happened to me.

Ten years ago, I suffered through demonic attacks at night for months. Even though it was horrifying, later on, after I gave my life to Christ one of those evenings (the demonic attacks abruptly stopping right after), I realized who was really in control.

God.

He was giving me the opportunity to look behind the veil of what's really happening on this earth. The evil you feel isn't something to be ignored—it's the reality behind what we can easily see.

And, if I'm honest, it's the evil that was pooling deeply within my heart.

I'm purified now by what Jesus did on the cross, but daily life is still life on earth, existing within the evil.

And so what a gift it is to turn to the Living Water to wash ourselves clean.

If you've experienced strange dreams and/or sleep paralysis, don't ignore them. It could be God reaching out to you.