My Dream

I had a dream last night that I believe will paint a picture of what it's like to resist the devil and follow God fearlessly. I was at the bottom of a hill looking up and seeing a couple of people at the top. I won't mention who they were, but they are people that I respect and are strong spiritually. As I approached the hill to go up, I noticed a huge badger, larger than normal, standing between me and the bottom of the hill. I knew that I wanted to go up to the top of the hill, but the badger was quite intimidating. With a strong desire and awareness that I must go to the top, I began my approach. I noticed that the badger didn't move. It looked stunned and didn't notice me. I passed by it and began my ascension. The hill was slippery and difficult, but I continued and made some progress, at which point I looked back to notice that the badger looked dead. It hadn't moved. As a matter of fact, it looked like a statue just sitting there at the bottom of the hill. There didn't seem to be power or life in the badger. At that point I was immediately on top of the hill in the arms of one of the people, feeling secure and safe. I believe the interpretation is as follows: The hill symbolized the challenging path to the will of God. The slippery slope is a picture of the natural difficulty we all encounter when attempting to rise to God's call and will. The badger is symbolic of the evil spirit that is set to daunt us and deflect us into another direction. A definition for badger is to tease or pester someone. This is what the devil attempts to do. But he has no power or ability to stop us, unless we don't move forward because of what appears to be a fearful encounter. The Lord showed me that following God's call is not easy. It's an uphill climb. It's going to be difficult in this world, because the world is naturally resisitant to it. The devil always puts a decoy in front of us. A decoy is a thing used to lure, as into a trap. It's meant to mislead. Isn't this what the devil does? He deceptively works in our life to keep us from pressing on to the high calling of God. None the less, there is a place of safety and security in Christ. It is in the will of God for our life. I want to encourage myself and you to press past difficulty and fear. Go up and find the place of rest and deliverance from what is not real. The Bible says that we are not to fear>(2 Tim. 1:7). The Father has delivered and drawn us out of the control and the dominion of darkness>(Col 1:13). We are to press on, Jesus is calling us upward>(Phil 3:14). Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you>(James 4:7). Don't fling away your fearless confidence...for you have need of patience and endurance so that you may accomplish the will of God>(Heb.10:35-36). I do not cease to give thanks for you who follow Christ...I pray that God would grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation of insight into mysteries and secrets in the deep and intimate knowledge of Him...that you may know and understand what is the immeasureable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe...>(Eph 1:16-19 Amp. version).