This blog is a short Interlude from my Freedom dream posts.
I want to write on the theme of biblical meditation.
I have been a little bit uncertain about mindfulness, especially that which involves meditation where you sit and empty yourself and do breathing exercises. I’m not sure that’s a good idea but that’s only a feeling I have. I have too many other thoughts hanging around inside my head to try it successfully!
To put something in there and to think upon that something seems a much better idea. Hence the subject of this post, biblical meditation.
Now this blog site is about dreams and there interpretation. The following dream relates to biblical meditation and my explanation how that fits in here will follow.
My dream was this:
I was caught and put in a cell. It was in the middle ages. There were medieval Spanish pikeman who caught me. They had those long pikes. They wore Spanish looking helmets from the period.
soldiers from my dream.
(They weren’t wearing yellow though!)
Somehow after some time I made an escape. I found a pike and crept down a passage. I banged on the wall with it to see if I’d flush the enemy out. No one came! I found the way out by the back door.
When I got outside it was the modern world. Not the middle ages. I thought would people recognise me? I need to do something with my hair!
After going round the block I approached the place where I had been kept in a cell from the front. I had a look at my pike and realised it had a hinge which made it bend. How curious! I crept back towards the building where the cell was.
Other soldiers had arrived at the front of the building.
I was now watching myself the former prisoner go back to the prison. I saw this in the third person. I was being followed by a lady or maid. She didn’t recognise me. I woke up.
The day before the dream I had read an article which I had found on a Google search. I had put biblical meditation and contemplative prayer as a search. The one result that caught my eye was mindfulness v Bible meditation.
The article reminded me about how this is something I used to do. I acted on what I read straight away and began to consider a specific bible verse which had struck me in a reading the day before.
Something shifted in me when I did this. I’d been trying to focus on imagining heaven or something that could get me there. Also it was hard to get through dark thoughts. I’d been really struggling. Then when I purposefully meditated on the verse I sensed a change.
Emptying is not something I can do very well. What I need is a filling up. The filling up comes from scripture. Holy Spirit rests on the words. I chewed on the words like a cow chews on the cud! Other scriptures came back to my mind too!
Scripture fuels meditation, meditation fuels prayer.
I realised that Bible meditation was what had stimulated my dreaming over the last couple of years. It had a knock-on effect in my gardening where I have had time to meditate and pray. I’d been using meditation and the whole thing had been feeding my movement forward in faith.
Meditation was the fuel like the little quote says and that’s a key for moving forward in the fight of faith.
So then the pike in the dream is meditation but not just any meditation it’s Bible meditation! That’s how I escaped the cell. The cell was my mind.
Going back to the cell in the dream was to do with where I’d come from. I was going back there to reclaim ground. The pike is my weapon like the sword of the spirit. (Eph 6.17).
Something else, Bible meditation is adaptable like the pike. You can use any scripture and it will work like a weapon and get you out of situations. It will get you out from the past where you’ve been locked up. It will give you confidence and boldness to face your enemies, so much so you may not be recognised by other people!
By the way when I talk about enemies, I am talking about those that are not of flesh and blood!
Note also that it was a strong force that came against me. Many against one but I became one with my pike against many – wow!
As I meditated further on the dream I was reminded of the scripture:
One of your men put to flight a thousand, for Yahweh your God is fighting for you, just as he promised you. Take utmost care for the sake of your life to love Yahweh your God,
Joshua 23:10–11 (LEB)
And
And you shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. And five of you shall pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you shall pursue a myriad; and your enemies shall fall by the sword before you. And I will turn to you, and I will make you fruitful, and I will make you numerous; and I will keep my covenant with you.
Leviticus 26:7–9 (LEB)
The dream is a reflection of what is happening to me spiritually. I went to confront the past, that represented by the middle ages! It is also showing me I have the ability to get through my mid-life by the power of the word and Spirit!
You too have access to the benefits of Bible meditation! See this link for more on Bible meditation.