HomeARC ML 1253
THE "SIGNS FOLLOWING" DREAM! DFO 1253 22/7/82
1. WELL, PTL! TYJ! THIS IS JULY 22, 1982, & I HAD A COUPLE OF DREAMS A FEW MORNINGS AGO, in fact on two successive mornings just three mornings ago which I have not yet recorded until now. This first dream was quite a thrilling one & maybe I would call it "The Law of Love", although we may have one by that name already.
2. I CAN'T REMEMBER ALL OF IT, NECESSARILY, & I have the feeling that these dreams are part of a longer story with more scenes perhaps. But just one outstanding scene is still very vivid in my mind, & that's usually the climax & the scene that I wake up on & remember the most of immediately afterward, if it has any particular meaning or significance at all.
3. AND IN THAT PARTICULAR DREAM IT SEEMED THAT DAVIDITO & I WERE SITTING SIDE-BY-SIDE IN AN AUDITORIUM, he on my left, facing the platform or stage. We were about a third of the way back from the front near the middle & the place was packed with people from front-to-back & side-to-side. It was full, I'd say perhaps at least a thousand people like a big theatre or cinema. David seemed to be a teenager.
4. APPARENTLY THEY'D BEEN HAVING SOME TYPE OF RELIGIOUS PROGRAM with preachers & religious speakers etc. I think they seemed to know I was there & someone had challenged the audience with a catch question that is so popular amongst some Christians, if you don't particularly agree with their special shibboleth & they're trying to catch you on it somehow.
5. --LIKE SOME OF THE QUESTIONS THEY ASKED JESUS TO TRY TO CATCH HIM, not that they really wanted to know the answer but just because they either tried to stump Him or get Him to say something that would incriminate Him & get Him in trouble with either the populace or the law.
6. SO SOMEONE HAD OPENLY CHALLENGED THE AUDIENCE & SAID SOMETHING LIKE: "DO YOU ALL BELIEVE IN THE TEN COMMANDMENTS?"--apparently asking for a show of hands--or like, "How many of you believe in the Ten Commandments?" Well, believing in them & believing that we need to keep them today as a part of the Mosaic Law can be two different things--or one & the same depending on what you mean by it--& can be very catchy for sure!
7. BUT THE IDEA WAS THEY WERE CHALLENGING US: "Do you believe in keeping the Ten Commandments today?"--The Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai along with all of the other ceremonial & health laws etc.
8. I SEEMED TO KNOW THAT I WAS ON THE SPOT BUT I WAS SUDDENLY INSPIRED & it was almost as though I was shocked to my feet as I was in that famous debate with the infamous infidel & atheist Joseph Lewis in Miami, Florida years ago when he uttered such a challenging statement about healing.
9. I HAD JUST BEEN WAITING FOR MY CHANCE & THE HOLY SPIRIT'S SIGNAL to know if I should try to do something to refute his blasphemies & his challenges to the Bible & his unbelief before this large audience in a Universalist Church, & I got my signal from the Lord when he said: "I dare anyone here to claim they've ever been healed by the Power of the Name of Jesus Christ!"
10. I WAS JUST SUDDENLY HIT BY THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT LIKE A LIGHTNING BOLT, leaped to my feet & said: "Yes! I have been healed by the Power of the Name of Jesus Christ! I was dying in an Army hospital of double pneumonia & heart trouble & God miraculously supernaturally healed me almost instantly after three days of hovering at the threshold of death with a temperature of 106 degrees Fahrenheit, double pneumonia & heart so leaky & with such loud murmurs the doctors said they didn't believe I could possibly live very long even if I hadn't had double pneumonia!"
11. BUT AFTER THREE DAYS OF LYING AT DEATH'S DOOR I finally told the Lord in my semi-conscious almost comatose state that I was sorry I had displeased Him & backslidden & gone back on His work & His Word & gone into the Worldly military to satisfy my curiosity about the World & wanting my independence from my mother & her ministry & my ties to mother's apron strings, so to speak. I certainly repented of it once I was on the Devil's territory in the Army with some of the wickedest men I had ever known!
12. I WAS REALLY SORRY & IT SEEMED TOO LATE, & WITHIN A FEW MONTHS I LANDED IN THE ARMY HOSPITAL WITH DOUBLE PNEUMONIA--having come up from Florida where we were sunning ourselves on the Tropical beaches & swimming in the warm water--to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, outside of Washington, D.C., the home of the U.S. Army Engineers, & there standing in knee-deep snow for hours at a time during lectures on U.S. Army Engineering equipment etc. & tromping for miles through the mud & snow on long hikes & the freezing cold, sub-zero weather, the little Tropical bird that I was, Florida boy, I came down with double pneumonia.
13. FIRST I FROZE BOTH ACHILLES TENDONS IN MY HEELS, & as though that wasn't enough, I finally wound up in Sick Bay with a temperature of 106 just thinking I had the flu, & it turned out to be double pneumonia, coughing up blood & unconscious most of the time so that the doctors were sure that I was going to die!--In fact, so sure that they telegraphed my mother to come if she wanted to see me while I was still alive, that I was dying there in the Army hospital!
14. BUT I THANK GOD THAT JUST BEFORE SHE CAME--IN MY ALMOST SUBCONSCIOUS STATE, HALFWAY BETWEEN ONE WORLD & ANOTHER--I HAD DONE MY REPENTING & asked the Lord to forgive me. I told the Lord that I would serve Him for the rest of my life if He would raise me up & heal me, but that if I'd gone too far & He was through with me, I still loved Him & I was ready to go; but that if He could forgive me & heal me & raise me up I would give that life that He gave me back again to Him.
15. AND THE MOMENT I MADE THAT DECISION I WAS VIRTUALLY INSTANTLY HEALED & came back to consciousness, hungry, asking the nurse for something to eat! I told her I had to get up & go to the toilet, when up to this time I had not even been moved out of the bed & had been fed intravenously etc.
16. THE NURSE GOT ALL EXCITED & RAN TO GET THE DOCTOR who came back & checked me out, pulse & temperature & various things. He said, "Well, we thought you were dying, but it looks like you're all right now, you're going to be OK! Pulse OK, temperature normal & you say you're hungry!" And I said, "Yes, I sure am! I'm tired of this needle in my arm with intravenous feeding!" He said, "OK, nurse! Start him out on a soft diet, give him something to eat."
17. I THINK THEY BROUGHT ME SOMETHING LIKE MASHED POTATOES OR GRITS or some various soft foods like that & I was so hungry I gobbled them down & immediately I wanted to get up & go to the bathroom. "Oh, no, no, no!" she said, "You can't get out of bed, you've been too sick, too weak!" I said, "Listen, get out of my way, I'm going to the toilet!"
18. IN THOSE DAYS I DIDN'T EXACTLY RELISH THE NURSES PUTTING THE BEDPAN UNDER ME. I was so shy & bashful that for the nurse to take ahold of my penie & put it in the bedpan was more embarrassing than it was exciting, & so frightening that it never even got hard--although some of the boys had a bit of a problem along that line when the nurse would grab their penie & stick it in the bedpan!
19. SO I SAID, "YOU JUST GET OUT NOW, I'M PERFECTLY ALL RIGHT!"--but she refused to get out & insisted on staying there helping me out of bed, because I was pretty weak, & she helped me get into the little toilet. They had given me a private room because they thought I was dying & I guess they didn't want me to die in the presence of the other men in our ward as it would be a little discouraging to others who were sick.
20. SO I WENT TO THE BATHROOM & SHE INSISTED I CLIMB BACK IN BED, so I climbed back in bed & she gave me a tray of food & I gobbled it up & I was very happy & back on my feet the next day. Within just a couple of days they saw that I no longer needed a private room & so much nursing & service--whereas I had a nurse sitting in my room all the time because they thought I was dying--so they moved me out to the public ward where a couple of dozen other fellows were occupying beds & I was just feeling fine.
21. I SPENT VERY LITTLE TIME IN BED AFTER THAT EXCEPT AT NIGHT, spending a good deal of my time walking around the hospital visiting others, talking to them about the Lord & encouraging them or reading books & my Bible & getting stronger & healthier & fatter & sassier every day!--So much so the doctors could hardly believe what had happened!
22. I REMEMBER THE COLONEL USED TO BRING BY ANY VISITING DOCTORS & come to the foot of my bed or where I was & point me out & say, "Now this boy was the sickest one we had. He had double pneumonia, temperature of 106, three days in coma & heart trouble & then just suddenly he snapped out of it & we just don't know which of the medicines it was that we gave him, whether it was one of the antibiotics or sulpha drugs"--or the new wonder drugs that they had in those days of WWII--"so we just don't know which one did it!"
23. AND I WOULD JUST GRIN & POINT STRAIGHT UP & either just hint that it was God or say it right out: "Well, it was an answer to prayer, my mother's prayers & mine." Some of the doctors would smile & seemed to be pleased, others would scowl & look skeptical, but I was the wonder boy of the ward, having nearly died & suddenly snapped out of it. It was a miracle & amazing to them!
24. SO I HAD LEAPED TO MY FEET & GIVEN THIS VERY TESTIMONY YOU HAVE JUST READ right in the presence of this large congregation who had come there to hear the Atheist Joseph Lewis in Miami, a Jewish lawyer from Miami Beach, & challenged him that I had been healed in the Name of Jesus Christ by the Power of the Name of Jesus Christ. I had the Army documents to prove how sick I had been as documented evidence that I had been healed when I was dying & they did not expect me to live.
25. EVEN THEN WHEN THEY FINALLY SENT ME HOME A COUPLE OF MONTHS LATER they said my heart was so bad, murmured so loud, leaked like a sieve & that I might not even live a year. They told my mother she'd have to keep me in bed & that if she'd keep me in bed full-time that I might live a year. I'm sure that if I had gone to bed that's all I would have lived at that, because I promised the Lord that if He would raise me up I would give the life that He gave me back again to Him & His service--which I did & have ever since, TTL!
26. THAT'S BEEN ABOUT 40 YEARS AGO NOW, TTL, & I'VE FELT BETTER EVER SINCE! In fact, I think I'm healthier today than I ever was in my whole life, despite a few little set backs once in awhile due to my own follies & abuses or carelessness in overdoing etc. But most of the time I'm stronger than I ever was in my whole life, my heart is stronger & I feel better & I enjoy life more & I love more & make more love & enjoy it & I'm just doing great, which is pretty good for a man of my age, TTL!
27. WELL, THAT WAS THE EXPERIENCE WITH JOSEPH LEWIS WHEN I LEAPED TO HIS CHALLENGE & ANSWERED IT WITH MY TESTIMONY! I virtually gave all that much testimony in his meeting until finally the moderator in charge called me down & said that was enough. Meanwhile, Joseph Lewis had sat down looking sick & later they said he'd had a heart attack & was having apoplexy or something like that & he didn't feel like carrying on the question & answer period any longer.
28. I'VE TOLD YOU BEFORE HOW THEY TRIED TO GET ME TO SIGN UP FOR A DEBATE WITH HIM, but when they asked him he just flatly refused to debate with me! I said, "I'd be glad to!" But the moderator was very disappointed & mystified by Joseph Lewis' refusal. He said, "I refuse to debate with him!" But I guess he knew it was no use trying to debate with me, I was too convinced & too much of a living proof of the Power of healing in the Name of Jesus Christ!
29. WELL ANYHOW, THIS WAS A SOMEWHAT SIMILAR SITUATION IN MY DREAM THIS TIME, & when they flung out this challenge: "How many of you still believe in keeping Moses' Ten Commandments today?" virtually all the dear church people, of course, raised their hands!--Except for me & Davidito who is pretty familiar with our teachings & doctrines & knows what we think about Law & Grace.
30. BUT THE MOMENT THEY ALL PUT DOWN THEIR HANDS--& there was a sort of an applause, you know, like they'd won the victory & virtually everybody there but us believed in keeping the Ten Commandments--I leaped to my feet & I turned around & faced the greater part of the audience which was behind me in the auditorium--about two-thirds of the audience--& I said:
31. "NO! WE DO NOT BELIEVE IN KEEPING MOSES' TEN COMMANDMENTS, WE BELIEVE IN KEEPING THE LAW OF LOVE!"--& I quoted a Scripture which I don't think I've ever used before in that connection, or very much. I usually use the one where Jesus said, "Love the Lord & love thy neighbour, in these are all the law & all the prophets" (Mt.22:37-40)--in other words, His Law of Love, Himself stating it, & I usually quote that. But in this case for some reason, when I leaped to my feet & challenged them I said:
32. "WE BELIEVE IN CHRIST'S LAW OF LOVE: LOVE YE ONE ANOTHER & SO FULFIL YE THE LAW OF CHRIST!" (Gal.5:14; 6:2) I had never had that Scripture hit me so hard before: "The Law of Christ!" There it is in plain words! The Law of Christ is what?--"Love ye one another & so fulfill ye the Law of Christ."
33. THERE IT IS PLAIN AS DAY THAT LOVE IS THE LAW OF CHRIST TODAY!--Not Moses' old Ten Commandments which they couldn't keep anyhow & seldom did & very few of them at that, for which God finally rejected their hypocritical self-righteousness & sent them a Saviour Who alone could save by God's grace & mercy & His love & forgiveness, His Own Son, Jesus Christ, their Messiah Whom those self-righteous Jewish hypocrites rejected & crucified!
34. THEY KILLED THEIR OWN KING & CRUCIFIED THEIR OWN MESSIAH because their hypocrisy & self-righteousness was exposed by God's love & mercy in Jesus Christ. "The Law came by Moses," one writer says, "but mercy & love came by Jesus Christ." (Jn.1:17) Jesus Himself quoted the Scripture & said, "What meaneth that Scripture? Ye need to find out what it means, I will have mercy & not sacrifice." (Mt.9:13) So I virtually shouted at the top of my voice as I leaped to my feet:
35. "NO! WE DO NOT BELIEVE IN KEEPING THE OLD MOSAIC LAW OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, WE BELIEVE IN KEEPING THE LAW OF CHRIST, HIS LAW OF LOVE! Love ye one another & so fulfill the Law of Christ!" And as I did so, I was so thrilled & so inspired it was like I was on a cloud, like I could have floated in the air. I was just exhilarated, excited & thrilled & I had that tremendous surge of the Spirit that only the Spirit of God can give you, better than any drugs or any other highs or thrills that this World has to offer!
36. AND SURE ENOUGH, AS I FELT THAT TREMENDOUS SURGE & THRILL, EXHILARATION & ECSTASY OF THE SPIRIT, as I gave that testimony, to my amazement & to the astonishment of the entire crowd, I began to float up in the air! I literally levitated right before their eyes & I began to float higher & higher & higher I was so excited & it was such a shocking thrill!
37. THE WHOLE CONGREGATION WAS LOOKING AT ME IN WIDE-EYED AMAZEMENT, absolutely dumbfounded as I floated upwards still shouting: "Love ye one another & so fulfill the Law of Christ! That's the Law we believe in! That's Christ's Law of Love! That's the only Law we have to keep today! Love ye one another & so fulfill the Law of Christ!"
38. IT SEEMED ALMOST AS THOUGH I WAS RAPTURED! I was certainly enraptured & in rapture at that moment as I floated up right before their eyes! And it seemed that I had ahold of Davidito's hand, & by that time we were both floating up together, when suddenly I woke up!
39. I WAS SO EXCITED & SO THRILLED & AMAZED & IN SUCH ECSTASY I WAS LITERALLY FLOATING ON AIR OR THE POWER OF GOD, & it got me so excited in my dream that apparently God's Will was done & He had showed me what He wanted to show me & He permitted me to wake up!
40. I LAY THERE FOR SOME TIME AFTERWARDS THINKING ABOUT IT: "My oh my," I thought, "Do You mean, Lord, that some time in the future we're going to be that kind of a testimony? We're going to do that kind of signs & wonders & miracles & You're going to confirm our witness in ways like that that will absolutely astound the people & inspire faith in some, at least, by confirming Thy Word with signs & wonders & miracles following?!" (Mk.16:20)
41. I WAS JUST THRILLED TO PIECES WITH THAT THRILLING DREAM & I could hardly wait to tell Maria about it! In fact, she woke up just shortly after that & I just had to tell her what a thrill I had just had in that wonderful marvellous amazing dream!
42. I'M SURE THE LORD GAVE IT TO ME & TO YOU FOR OUR ENCOURAGEMENT, to know that no matter what the odds, if you're one or two against the crowd or against thousands, God is going to be with you & He is going to thrill & inspire you & confirm your witness & establish it with the signs following--signs & wonders & miracles! He's going to confirm His Word & your witness with wonders, praise God! Hallelujah!
43. SO DON'T WORRY, BECAUSE ONE & GOD ARE A MAJORITY! Even though it seems you're standing alone before the whole World, if the Lord is with you, who can be against you? (Ro.8:31) Praise God! Thank You Jesus! "Greater works than these shall ye do"! (Jn.14:12) GBAKYAMYAB "With signs following"!--In Jesus' name, amen! So don't be afraid! Sock it to'm! GBY! God is with you, & "If God be for us, who can be against us!" PTL! One & God are a majority! "Lead on O King Eternal!"--Amen? PTL! GBY! ILY!--In Jesus' name, amen!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
