What should a believer do when a dream is not simply a dream but a heads-up from God? Pay attention—and if permitted, share it with others.

 

© Desireofmysoul.faith (.com and .org) & SoulBreaths.com. All rights reserved.

 

Posts are in a deliberate numerical list within a series verses using actual publication dates.

 

Reading time: 3-4 minutes

 

WATCHWORD GIVEN: A lesson from a God-given dream at the beginning of June 2024

 
 

June 1, 2024. Right before I awoke that morning, a vivid but puzzling spiritual dream transported me to a place with no walls.

 

It had the quasi-appearance of the natural world but everything in it—the fluid movements, my son and me, the atmosphere—was more of a vaporous soul state rather than our tangible, three-dimensional body-soul realm.

 

It all started with a rectangular thermostat. Temperature gauge levels were vertical on its left side, lowest at the bottom. On the far right of the thermostat was a round control button.

 

What first caught my eye was the emergency gauge—every level was lit with red, from the bottom to the extreme top and supernaturally rising even beyond it.

 

Jumping up, I hurried to the thermostat, concerned the heat would cause a fire. But the right-side control button wasn’t working.

 

I rapidly pushed the button multiple times—the temperature gauge wouldn’t budge. Finally, with persistence, it started to decrease to a safe-normal level.

 

Right afterward, I sensed-saw my son walk by it, leaving a vapor-ish trail behind him and then he sat down to my left.

 

Once again the thermostat shot up to a red-warning level. And yet again, I lunged toward it and pressed the control button—this time with much more ease. It returned to a safe-normal level. Then, I woke up.

 

THE RED-ALERT INTENT

 

Colors hold meaning, in the Bible and in our spiritual dreams. Red has been linked to power, wisdom, anointing.

 

Walking in a maturing faith means flowing in what He has promised and what is realized in the Spirit—His power running through us, His wisdom graciously pouring over us, His spiritual gifts recognized, operational, deepening.

 

Our spiritual-thermostat walk—how we’re called to live in this hour of humanity—can play out in two ways:

 

1. Controlling the spiritual climate around us to encourage, comfort, and lead others in His promises and truth—like helping my son in the dream.

 

2. Stabilizing our atmosphere and “soul temperature” while others (believers or not) are acting more like a thermometer, rising and falling as the wind blows, creating an environment around them that’s a hot chaotic emotional mess spilling onto those who also aren’t walking in God’s spiritual thermostat range.

 

We all know the enemy is working overtime, disrupting the atmosphere of believers and nonbelievers. Becoming a thermostat believer is critical in today’s erratic, unpredictable political, spiritual, cultural environment.

 

May you remain stable, maturing in the faith, unshakeable, standing on the constant Word of God—not letting the helter-skelter highs and lows of others shift, control, or influence your atmosphere—your spiritual walk, your spiritual sight, your spiritual footing.

 

Remember: Emotions shouldn’t dictate to your soul . . . your soul is attached [clinging] to God, upheld by His right hand, and should be directed by Him. —Psalm 63:8(9)

 
 

 
 

A THERMOSTAT SPIRITUAL WALK

 

Romans 8:26-30

Breathe this in: The Spirit of God helps in our weaknesses. He makes intercession for us per the will of God . . . He’ll use everything for your spiritual good . . . He has called you, justified you, and will be exalted, glorified through you.

 

1 Peter 1:1-9

Rest in this: In God’s mercy, he gives us the living hope through the resurrection of Jesus our Messiah—an undefiled, incorruptible inheritance reserved for you in heaven. Yes, we’re grieved at times in trials, but know without question that your faith is more precious than gold, tested by fire to give honor and glory to our King Jesus.

 

James 1:2-7, 23-24

Stand firm on this: Your trials perfect your faith. Even with a mustard seed of faith, humbly ask God for wisdom and He’ll give it abundantly. Peer into the Word, absorb and release faith-in-action (trust). Hold who you are in Him close to your heart—so you aren’t like a wave driven and tossed by the wind or like a person who looks in the mirror then turns away and forgets who he is.

 

He who has begin a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.—Philippians 1:6

 

PHOTO CREDITS

Lighthouse by Michael Krahn on Unsplash.com

Gold thermostat by Mona Msanii on Unsplash.com

 

Connected upward, yet pulled down ward

That is the battle within your soul.

But it’s for a purpose. And it’s good.

 

© desireofmysoul.faith & SoulBreaths.com. All rights reserved.

 

[Combat Zone series is the foundational post for soul basics.

 

SUGGEST READING PARTS 1 & 2 FIRST: COMBAT ZONE: PART 1—YOUR SOUL and COMBAT ZONE: PART 2—SOUL NUANCES

 

READING TIME: 3 MINUTES plus end scripture list.

 

Symbiotic. That’s what some rabbis say about the soul-body dynamic. You are a God-breathed soul—its biblical references breath, spirit/wind that rises/descends, and a “rested” life force—clothed in a body that’s from the earth and tethered to this world.

 

Your soul is called upward, the body downward. And so the battle ensues, along with a host of other factors that complicate your soul story (mentioned in Combat Zone, Part 1).

 

Here are five rules of engagement to help you stay the course and finish the race . . . well.

 

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT #1:

SECURE YOUR POSITION

 

We’re teetering on a broken bridge. Since the Garden of Eden debacle where rebellion exposed our desire for self vs. God, the dividing line was clear. God alone is holy. There are none righteous among us per His Word, often shared in this series and throughout this blog:

 

Genesis 8:21b, Ecclesiastes 7:20, Isaiah 59:1-2, Isaiah 64:6, Psalm 14: 2-3, Psalm 53: 3-4, 1 Kings 8:46, Jeremiah 17:9-10, Romans 3:23, Romans 3:10, Romans 8:6, among others.

 

But God is love, merciful, and l-o-n-g-suffering. So He made a way to restore that relationship with Him. There were temporary measures at first—blood sacrifices that had to be repeated daily, annually.

 

But those were mere shadows of what was coming, the greatest gift . . . a one-time holy sacrifice. A doorway giving us access to the Father, ADONAI, our Lord, our Master.

 

Fulfilling the soul’s journey begins with receiving the restoration gift from God: Jesus (Yeshua, in the Hebrew), our promised Messiah, the Son of God.

 

From there, your soul grows and is transformed by letting your soul [neshama], its wind/spirit [ruach] rest [nafash/nefesh] within the fibers of His presence, His Word, His ways . . . being hidden in Him, where you’re surrendered. Total white-flag territory.

 

It’s where your soul-body gets into sync,
working as a whole with God, bowing before Him.

 

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God’s way of restoring relationship with Him:

“I am the Truth, the Life, the Way . . . no man comes to the Father except through me.”

—John 14:6. The Messiah, Jesus (Yeshua, his Hebrew name)

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RULES OF ENGAGEMENT #2:

HONOR YOUR KING, YOUR COMMANDER IN CHIEF

 

It’s our human default to lean on our own understanding and to even get caught up in the emotions and mindset of the world at large.

 

But a good soldier needs to stand under his commander.

 

This slight paraphrase of Isaiah 8: 12-14 helps draw some clear-thinking guidelines. I’ve fleshed out the meanings of “fear” and “awed” from the Hebrew for a better visual.

 

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Don’t fear (be shaken, swept into conspiracies) what people fear
(what they call conspiracies) nor give strength to it
or be awed (shaken terribly, oppressed) by what awes them.
Let God be the object of your awe (trembling holy fear) . . .
consecrate Him.
He alone is to be your sanctuary.

 

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For this battle, your nefesh—the Hebrew word for soul referring to the life force that can cling, negatively or positively—needs to obey orders.

 

Clinging to God means He’s in front and you’re behind Him. That’s how you stay in position. That’s how you follow and honor your Commander-in-Chief.

 

Psalm 63:2, 9 (1, 8). O God, You are my God, I seek You. My soul [nefesh] thirsts for You, in an arid and thirsty land, without water. My soul [nefesh] clings to your hind parts; Your righteous right hand upholds me.

 

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT #3:

KEEP YOUR EYES RIGHTLY FOCUSED

 

You are battling on two main fronts—the spiritual world (your soul against the principalities and powers of the enemy) and the physical world. Like in any war, things shift, take on different patterns.

 

Do you know what you’re really seeing—or is it a delusion, a camouflage? There’s only one way to hold your position while waiting for intel about what’s really going on in a realm you can’t physically see or physically touch. Stay mindful, focused, in God’s presence.

 

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18

 

What is unseen . . . is God. Yet you are called to fix your soul’s eyes on Him, the Eternal One, to see more clearly in the battles down here. To not lose heart.

 

Although the body (“outer man”) is decaying and warring, your inner essence, your soul—breath from God/neshama, spirit/ruach, inner living substance/nefesh—is being renewed day by day in Him.

 

The next two scriptures reveal what your stance should be in battle . . . do what He has ordered to the best of your ability, then STAND.

 

Don’t leave your post. Stand, confidently, expectantly, faithfully in Him. Even (and especially) when the order is to simply wait.

 

“Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”—Joshua 1:9.

 

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
—Ephesians 6:10-14a

 

READ THE LAST TWO RULES OF ENGAGEMENT NOW:

COMBAT ZONE: PART 3b—RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
 
 

PHOTO CREDIT

Sniper girl photo by Piotr Will on Unsplash.com

 

Combat Zone is the foundational post for soul basics. The original article was created/posted in 2009, but for easier reading divided into three posts in 2020. Judaic scripture number references used with Christian numbering in parentheses when it’s different.