You cry out for deliverance from these dreams, but I bid you consider whether the Lord would have you fix your gaze upon such disorderly shadows when He has given a more sure word of promise. Dreams ordinarily are the carnival of thought, a maze of mental states, a dance of disorder; they depend often upon the condition of the body, the meat and drink taken, the agitations of the mind. It is not the dreams themselves that hold power over you, but the unbelief that ruffles the waters of your soul and makes the mire rise. You plead to rebuke, reject, and bind up these night visions, yet the more you strive in your own strength against them, the more they may swarm. Stand still, and see the salvation of God. It can never be right to do a wrong thing in your desperation, nor to give credence to every vapour that passes through a sleeping brain as though it were a messenger from the throne.
Let us look at the root: these dreams are born of a fretful care over your relations. You dread that certain wrong persons will come and sever the bonds you prize. But ask yourself before the Lord, Are these bonds knit according to His holy ordinance? I grant you that business or life may compel you to be among the ungodly, for how could some live at all if they came not into contact with them? Yet if you have yoked yourself unequally in any tie that defies the Word, calling a matter of prayer that which the Scripture plainly forbids, then the true nightmare is in the waking conscience. A young man married an ungodly young woman and claimed he made it a matter of prayer; a Christian woman married an ungodly man and said the same. The dream of such a union becomes a sorrowful reality, not because God broke His promise, but because they broke His command. I do not say this is your case, but search it well. A fellowship with cousins and brothers and buddies may be a sweet mercy, but if any among them walk in wickedness and you cleave to them without witness, you invite trouble to your door.
Yet even if your conscience be clear on these points, the remedy is not in a ceaseless warfare against thoughts of the night. Feed upon the Bread of Life. You have cried for the dreams to be deleted, but your soul hungers for something more solid than the expulsion of shadows. Jesus Christ did not guard His words by saying, “I am like bread,” but He said, “I am the living bread; except a man eat My flesh and drink My blood, there is no life in him.” It would be no true feeding if the loaf sat on the table untouched. You must break it and receive Him within, not merely believing the doctrines as facts, but taking the Person of Christ into the core of your being. That hunger of your spirit, that insatiable craving for a peace the world cannot give, will never be stopped by rebuking this intruder or that; it is like endeavoring to fill a hungry man with shadows. The legalist says, “Perform such-and-such duties, frame such prayers, resist such dreams,” but this is like attempting to fill a soul with bubbles. You must have the Word that proceeds from the mouth of God. There is plain food there: let your soul eat, and you will find it sweet, satisfying, strengthening.
Set a watch, as Nehemiah did when the walls were building. Pray the Lord to guard you during the darkness, and in the morning set a guard when you go to your business. Let everyone with his servant lodge within Jerusalem, let your hours and your family be ordered with a holy jealousy. But do not watch unto fretfulness; watch unto peace. The great millstones that grind the ungodly are memory and conscience, but for those who are in Christ, the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin and the Spirit speaks peace to the troubled heart. If these wrong persons truly plot against your household, the Lord will be a wall of fire around you. You need not live in terror of their showing up constantly; evildoers shall be as stubble, and the fire shall consume them. Your part is to labour in prayer and holy walking, not to put off your spiritual armour even in the night.
I do not despise your cry; Pilate was accessible through his wife’s dream, and the Lord may sometimes speak in diverse manners, but do not build your hope upon visions. Slow breaks the light on many a heart, yet it will break. A bruised reed He will not crush, and a smoking flax He will not quench. Go to Him with your raw plea, but let it be not a ceaseless rebuking of shadows, but a looking unto Jesus. He Himself bore our sorrows and carried our griefs; His yoke is easy. Cease from these anxious desperate words, and let the peace that passes understanding garrison your soul from the intrusions of fear. Lie down, and though you sleep, He will give to His beloved even in the night watches. The wrong and wicked shall flee in His own time, and you shall find your true relations, above all, your relation to the heavenly Bridegroom, firm and everlasting.
Amen
