We are ALL Daniels

My friend Steve Maddox told me he was setting up outreach events at Borders Books. He arranged to offer free dream interpretation, and would spend the afternoon at Borders talking to people about their dreams.

I thought to myself, "I can do that."

Over the years people have shared their dreams with me, and asked what I thought they might mean. Often I would be rather dumbfounded that they asked, because the dreams with substance (which certainly is not all of them!) often seemed so obvious to me. If dream interpretation was something which came natural to me, perhaps I had a gift - like Daniel.

Five years earlier I had been at a pastor's conference. Ed Silvoso was the main speaker, and I happened to sit with him at breakfast one morning of the conference. Ed and I talked. I told him my story: how I moved to Salem, Massachusetts from California to plant a church, how I had studied about Neo-Paganism in my preparation, and how I had come to know some of the Witches in our city as friends. Ed remarked that Daniel was assigned the position as the chief of the occultists in Babylon by the king, because of his skills. Daniel became, as Ed defined it, the head pastor of the Witches.

After breakfast Ed spoke at the morning session. He retold my story to the conferencees, and said to 500 of my peers that I was going to be a pastor to the Witches in Salem like Daniel was a pastor to the Witches in Babylon. He spoke in that prophetic tone, which only comes from Pentecostals.

Until recently I did not realize how much these two stories have merged into one long, wild tale.

I am convinced that my friends who are involved in the occult yearn as deeply for the graceful power which comes from God's good hand as I do. Healing, miracles, and prophetic utterances of promise and grace are things they want for their own lives just as much as I do. Of course, their pursuit of these things has taken a different path than my own, but perhaps like Daniel, there is power in my journey with Jesus, which can speak gracefully into their lives.

I thought about interpreting dreams like my friend Steve was doing at Borders Books as I was preparing for the month long Halloween season in Salem, and I decided it was time to give this a try.

We made up our signs. We put out our tents. People began to stand in line, just like they do every year we set out our ministry tents.

One evening close to Halloween itself, a young man in an elegant, long black, ceremonial cape stood in line with his friends. I had trained others to interpret dreams. I was taking a break from the tent, and keeping the line outside the tent door happy. The caped man and I began to talk. He discovered I was a pastor. We discussed the differences between his Pagan path, and my Christian worldview in friendly terms. For the most part I asked questions, and he answered them. He believed the spiritual realm was a helpful, friendly place. If he asked for guidance it would not lead him astray.

After talking for some time, he asked about dream interpretation, and wondered if I interpreted dreams. I told him I did. He told me his dream.

He and his friends were in Red Rock, Colorado. (Red Rock is a New Age "hot spot," a natural amphitheater, and beautiful concert venue.) After some time of being there, black helicopters appeared from over the hills, and began to shoot at he and his friends. Some of his friends died. Others were severly wounded. He and one other friend were able to escape into a nearby cave, and hide from the helicopters. Then the dream ended.

"What do you think this means?" he asked.

I looked at him, and paused simply because my response was important. Then I said, "The spiritual realm is not always benign, sometimes it is malignant and harmful."

The young man gasped out loud. His eyes opened wide, and he said, "You are so right!"

I had not thrown Bible verses at him to prove from a scriptural standpoint that demons existed, and spiritual deception was real. This was a young man who had studied religions, and understood many of the basics of Christianity. He had rejected the Christianity he was familiar with, and adopted another religious view, but his rejection of the Bible did not mean that he rejected all spiritual voices. He took stock in his own dreams, and that evening his dreams and my Christian worldview met.

Where he would not listen to the Bible, he would listen to his dreams, and the God Whom I believe wrote the words of scripture had visited his head by night.

Since that evening I have wondered how many non-Christians are visited by God in the night. After four seasons of interpreting dreams I have discovered that there are more people visited by God than I can possibly know. Perhaps He comes in dreams, perhaps in life experiences, or perhaps in words of power and grace. He visits them by night. He waits for us to help interpret the wild variety of those visitations by day, and He is giving us the charism to do so.

I have had Witches call me late at night to ask for guidance in times of trouble. Like many of us, they too are looking for a Daniel, a wise voice to counsel them. I believe that we are all Daniels, and God is asking us to interpret His voice to searching people.

(Phil Wyman pastors The Gathering in Salem, MA. Phil blogs at http://squarenomore.blogspot.com . Each October The Gathering leads a large outreach during Salem's month long Halloween celebrations. You can discover more a www.salemgathering.com )