Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Coughing up the Holy Spirit


Had this dream the other night:

Minda and I were on our way "somewhere"- not sure where but we needed to bring food. So she had a plastic bag of burger patties. But some were pre-cooked and some were raw (big deal for me, the food-borne illness neurotic - ask Minda!). 

The dream was real disjointed so it jumped to the next scene where we were apparently squatters in a building (it seems like there were many families there). In our "apartment" I was brushing my teeth over a dirty utility sink and 
mulling over a recent custody hearing for "my other son" (what other son? I don't know!). In the hearing I had expressed my interest in taking custody of him as my "ex" was about to move to another state and have another baby so why not? She seemed agreeable. 

Then I noticed a little frog swimming around in the detritus of the sink and thought "I'll give that frog to Andrew". When I finished brushing my teeth, I coughed into a kleenex and knew I had coughed up something. When I looked I had coughed out a white feather. I actually examined it really close - part of it was bent.

And then I woke up.

I asked Darrell if he had any insight into the dream and he did:

I have an impression that this whole dream has to do with your old life and your new life (your old life in the flesh and your new life in the spirit). There is a lot of mixing of the two in the dream, when really the old should be discarded.

For example, the good hamburgers represents the word of God (the bread of life), but it is mixed in the same bag with the bad hamburgers, which should be discarded, rather than tolerated and saved because they seem “OK”.

The apartment was not your true home (in the world not in kingdom of heaven) and was not where you should be living. Nobody else that is there belongs there either.

Your ex represents your old life in the flesh too. Your other son is the fruit of that old life. Again, you are half heartedly grasping for the old life.

The dirt on the sink and the debris in the sink is your sin that you find disgusting. You don’t like it around but you put up with it. The frog in the sink is your sin that you kind of like because it was somewhat enjoyable. You are tempted to pass that sin on to your son.

In all of these, you are not aggressively pursuing the old life, but you are agreeing to hang on because it seems reasonable or you are just going with the flow. Instead you should be eagerly discarding the old. Throw out the bad hamburgers, move out of your worldly home (and don’t take the frog with you), leave your other son with your ex.

The white feather that comes out of your mouth is the spoken word, from the holy spirit, coming out of your mouth. It is coughed up because you resist speaking it, but it comes out anyway despite your resistance. So the word of the spirit will come out you, but it is easier for you if you go with it, instead of resist it.