In recent years, God has been training me in the area of prophetic dreams. I’m not talking about visions of the apocalypse or something, but symbolic dreams by which God chooses to deliver an encoded message revealing his perspective on life choices, current events, etc. In retrospect, I see now that God was communicating to me through prophetic dreams from a very early age, but I had no frame of reference or training on what was happening. I would lay awake with a particular dream vivid in my memory, unable to stop thinking about it, but unable to understand the symbolism in it, so I would end up saying to myself, “Okay, that was weird!” and blaming the previous night’s pizza for it.
However, once I finally woke up and smelled the roses, so to speak…discovering that certain dreams were messages from God…I began to cultivate the skill of properly interpreting them. Not all dreams are messages from God, of course, but with a little practice it becomes easy to distinguish which ones are. In my case it is the vivid ones with iconic imagery that stick with me when I wake up and refuse to go away until I start digging and praying and let God help me unwrap the package.
One cool thing about dreams is that they bypass the logic centers of your brain. Some people are afraid to feel confident that they hear the voice of God because they wonder if they are getting their own mind or imagination involved in the process. That is a real possibility, especially during waking hours. However, I have never been able to plan a dream or be in control of it. It is what it is. For me that takes the worry out of wondering if I somehow made the message up based on false information or bad theology or wishful thinking or something.
Anyway, let me share a couple of dreams that I have recorded in my prophetic journal. Then I’ll try to tie them in with some other stuff that Holy Spirit has been chatting with me about lately.
From Tlachitli to Titli
The first dream occurred on the evening of February 1, 2019. Here it is:
I am in a long narrow room-like place, with high walls, slanted near the bottom and the slants have seats built into them, like bleachers. I am with a team of people of various sexes and ages and we are using improvised weapons to violently beat on another team of people. For instance, In each hand I hold a piece of approximately thirty-inch long steel flat-stock and am using it to wale the daylights out of the people on the other team. They are doing the same to us.
Somewhere along the line, one of my team gets badly hurt (Shocker, huh? But it was like nobody expected that any serious damage would result from the “game”). I clack my pieces of flat-stock together to get everyone’s attention and holler for a time out.
“Somebody got hurt!” I announce, pointing out my team member. Evidently, according to the rules of the game, everybody had three minutes or so before we went back to bashing each other. My injured female team mate had a traumatic brain injury, but somehow she was conscious and coherent. She explains that she also has a terminal illness.
As team leader I begin to think seriously about whether we should continue this game. I begin to ask my team mates their opinion on whether or not they think we should continue the game or quit. We only have a short time to make a decision, so I take charge, walking down the line, person by person and getting their opinion and reason for it. If they start to ramble, I cut them short. “One sentence, please. We don’t have much time.”
Some of them want to quit. Some want to keep going. In the back of my mind I’m thinking, “Even if we vote to stop, the other team won’t stop. When the three minutes are up, they’ll start beating on us, and we will have no choice but to continue.”
Just about then, much to my surprise, the leader of the other team, a woman who projected an air of competence, walked up to me and abruptly announced that her team wanted to stop fighting. Amazed, I stammered the news to my team. As I turned back to the other team leader, she continued.
“One of my people…(pointing to another female, sitting apart from the rest of her team, dressed in a dance costume)…Zoey, here is a Titli dancer, and she wants to say something.”
Zoey nods. “Yes, I’m a Titli dancer, and I would like to make a suggestion. Instead of fighting with each other why don’t we dance together. I can teach everybody all the moves.”
The dream ends with a tremendous sense of agreement and excitement that we can turn our destructive divisive game into a synchronized unified effort and that the arena of carnage can become a stage for creativity and beauty.
So, let’s unpack this a little bit. There are some personal applications that apply to my situation, and I won’t get into that. But the message is based on universal truths and I’m sure each reader can apply it on the micro and macro scale in ways that you alone can best appreciate. Here are the symbols:
The Court: While showering after rising from my bed, I suddenly recognized the court in which we had been fighting. It was nearly an exact replica of the tlachtli court at Oaxaca, Mexico. I have attached a picture for reference. For those who do not know, tlachtli was a ball game played by Central American Indians (such as Aztecs and Mayas) in which the players endeavor by the use of only the leg, hip and elbow to send a solid rubber ball through two rings set vertically in the walls of an I-shaped court. It is said that for certain ceremonial games, the players of the losing team would be taken to the temple at the pinnacle of the nearest ziggurat where their beating heart would be torn from their chest and offered as a ritual blood sacrifice to the feathered serpent god.
Steel Flat-stock as Weapons: Steel is a combination of Iron and Carbon. Symbolically, iron represents human strength, obstinacy, fortitude, tenacity, and confidence in power. In the Bible, iron (barzel, Gen. 4:22) is a symbol of hardness and stubbornness. Isa. 45:4 says, using Hebrew parallelism of thought “thou art obstinate (Heb., hard), and thy neck is an iron sinew.” Iron also stands for an unyielding hardness, as in Deut. 25:23, “heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.” Iron also connotes the qualities of boldness (Jer. 1:18), and permanence (Jer. 17:1). Carbon is the chemical make-up of all known life on earth. So the symbolism of weaponized steel, very clearly suggests a brittle unyielding strength based on earthly confidence and human resources without taking into account the heavenly and spiritual elements.
Violence: The symbolism is pretty obvious. It suggests conflict, manipulation, division, competition, and the struggle for dominance regardless of the damage it may cause to others.
Head Injury: This could represent a blow to our belief systems, our knowledge base or our headship, i.e. the ability to control a scenario.
Titli Dancer: I Google searched this term and discovered the following review:
“This leads us to the show ‘Veet- What beauty feels like’ which was held at the PC Marquee in Karachi on 28th May 2009 showcasing a celebration of beauty and femininity through some of the finest ambassadors of Pakistani Fashion. A Catwalk Productions presentation featuring an exclusive dance performance choreographed by Omar Rahim and collections of Top Pakistani designers… In the world premiere of the opening performance entitled ‘Titli’, Omar Rahim brilliantly explored beauty through the metaphor of the life cycle of a butterfly. The dance depicted the struggle to grow, the desire to play and the dream to fly.”
Wow! Butterflies. Transformation. Metamorphosis. Resurrection Life.
Ed Smith of Transformational Prayer Ministry said something profound. I paraphrase him based on my best recollection of his words. “The caterpillar doesn’t struggle to become a butterfly, the butterfly struggles to escape the cocoon that it wove when it was a caterpillar.”
Zoey: The dancer’s name was Zoey, which we all know means life. Need I say more?
So, there it is! What rich symbolism! I will leave you to connect the dots in the way which speaks into your life and current events most vividly. However, I think we can all recognize themes that apply to our families, our circle of influence, our communities, or regions, our nations, and our world. Shall we all put down our weapons of steel that divide and hurt each other and let Zoey teach us the dance of the butterfly?
I am reminded of Jesus’ words in John 10:10 “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Oh, one more thing. if you take “lach” out of the word “Tlachtli” and replace it with an “i” we get the word “Titli”.
Is it a coincidence that the Hebrew word “lach” means moist, fresh, green or new? The word is used 6 times in the Hebrew Bible and each time, it is in the context of deception, naiveté, immaturity or weakness. Ezekiel 17:24 reads: “And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green (lach) tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I the LORD have spoken and have done it.”
What about the “i” that replaces the “lach”? Well, that was the shape of the tlachtli court. We are not to abandon the court when we recognize how we have been acting immaturely, divisively, and hatefully. No, we are to stay in the arena, but transform it into a dance studio to learn to work with those we have been bashing.
In our battle to preserve our principles and values, let us not fail to cultivate reconciliation, forgiveness, unity, beauty and creativity. May God make it true for each of us.
Iron Man
The second dream occurred on February 17, 2020. Here is my dream about Iron Man, Andy:
I was dreaming about being involved in conflict and warfare. I don’t remember all the details, but one part stands out vividly. I was in some sort of a room, like a fantasy arena of some kind. There was at least one other person in there with me fighting on my team. A woman.
Our opponent was a huge, sort of mechanized, meta-human, super villain type. He wore exo-armor that looked like Iron Man, although in my dream I didn’t recognize him as Iron Man. But I knew that he was renowned for his strength and invincibility.
However, I also knew in my dream that I and my fighting partner(s) had been granted superpowers that Iron Man didn’t know about. We had a strategy to defeat him.
My partner made some move with her superpower. I don’t know what that power was. It resulted in her being thrown to the ground and hurt, but it knocked Iron Man’s helmet off. That was the opening we needed.
My superpower was super strength. I picked up the helmet while Iron Man loomed high above me, bare-headed. I began to squeeze the helmet. I felt nothing special. No tingly super sensations or anything. But I effortlessly crushed the helmet in my hands, crumpling it up like a ball of tin foil.
I expected Iron Man’s head to explode, and him to crash to the ground or something, I was disappointed that he didn’t. However, I noticed that he began grabbing both temples, groaning and grimacing and writhing in increasing pain.
As he was distracted, I grabbed him by the arms and began to squeeze and twist until I tied him in a knot with his arms. When I was done, he resembled a little tangled up, headless rag doll dangling from my hand. I had the vague impression that he would be useful in this condition for the next phase of our battle strategy.
Looking down at him, He reminded me of the rag doll, Raggedy Andy, so I told him, “I think I’m going to call you Andy.”
That’s all that I remember.
Iron Man: Here is the theme of Iron again–strength, obstinacy, fortitude, tenacity, stubbornness, and confidence in power.
His helmet represents authority and knowledge or intelligence
His size suggested a Nephilim or some sort of supernatural principality.
His arms which I tied into knots represented strength.
I believe in this dream I was dealing with the non-flesh and blood principalities and powers behind the spiritual warfare we face. Although we must learn to reconcile and dance with other humans, we must give the evil spirits demons and other spiritual entities no quarter.
My Strength: superpower: Isaiah 40:31 tells us, “But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.” In Hebrew, that word for “hope” or KJV’s “wait”, means to be entwined. It suggests a quantum entanglement of my spirit with the spirit of the Lord. When we entwine our spirit with His Spirit, his strength becomes ours and we can than “Do all things through Christ who strenghthens [us]” Philippians 4:13. Notice that when I crushed the helmet, my opponent was not instantly defeated, but the beginning of the end was initiated. As I persisted in squeezing, he became increasingly weaker and his headache increased until he succumbed.
My Partner: Some sort of sacrificial act was performed in order to set Iron Man up for the fall. Does this represent the Ekklesia? Is this intercession and fasting? Or is it possibly referring to a perceived loss in the political realm. Is my female partner a symbol of America at this time? It seems as if our nation has fallen, but was it really a ploy to get the enemy’s helmet off…to lower his defenses so that we could gain the victory over him?
Andy: “Andy” or “Andrew” is the English form of the Greek name Ανδρεας (Andreas), which was derived from ανδρειος (andreios) meaning “manly, masculine”, a derivative of ανηρ (aner) meaning “man”. His fall reminds me of Psalm 82:6-8
” …6 I have said, ‘You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High.’ 7 But like mortals you will die, and like rulers you will fall.” 8 Arise, O God, judge the earth, for all the nations are Your inheritance.…
This passage describes Yahweh’s judgment upon the fallen elohim…heavenly sons of God who were part of the heavenly council. The Iron Man in my dream must have represented a pretty high ranking principality.
To flesh the Andy symbolism out a little more, the original Raggedy Ann (and subsequent Raggedy Andy) doll was created by Johnny Gruelle in 1915, shortly before his only child and 13 year old daughter Marcella died a painful death after receiving a routine small pox vaccination at school, which was given without parental consent.
Reports indicate that after the initial inoculation Marcella had, “… lost her appetite, and became feverish and fatigued.” Amazingly, more inoculations were given despite her negative reaction from the first jab. Predictably Marcella’s health continued to decline to the point where she lost all muscle control, “becoming listless and lifeless like a rag doll.”
While all this was going on at school, her parents knew nothing about it and had never ever given their consent for any vaccinations.
Sadly, Marcella died a slow and agonizing death. The Gruelle’s were convinced beyond any doubt that the vaccination was the culprit behind the death of their only child, even though school authorities and vaccination proponents insisted Marcella had died from a preexisting heart defect.
Ultimately, “Seven leading physicians are called upon to opine about the cause of her death. Six consented it is the result of vaccine induced poisoning and call it malpractice. The seventh, being the head of the school board and a supporter of vaccination, declines to comment.”
Johnny had originally created Raggedy Ann as an unlikely protagonist gracing the many stories he began writing to entertain his young sickly daughter, Marcella. Two years later, in 1920 Gruelle wrote the sequel Raggedy Andy Stories where a new rag doll character debuted named Raggedy Andy, who was to be Ann’s brother. Andy wore a sailor suit and hat, had a triangle nose and the trademark red yarn hair. A Raggedy Andy doll was created to accompany the sequel and as a striking complement to the popular Raggedy Ann doll. In 1929, Gruelle published Marcella: A Raggedy Ann Story which was a much anticipated tribute to his beloved thirteen year old daughter, who had died unexpectedly from the smallpox vaccination.
With the understanding of the occult roots of vaccines (the Greek word for witchcraft is “pharmakia”, which literally means “drugs”) and how Moloch has used witchcraft through the ages to attack children including the abortion holocaust and the modern pedophilia and human trafficking pandemics, I began to see something very ancient and very evil in my Iron Man.
But this dream also seems to pertain to the current coronavirus crisis with its accompanying vaccines.
So, the head of the iron man is being crushed. His own strength is being used to entangle him at the hands of believers who are quantumly entangled with the Spirit of God. In the end, the very super-weapons intended to destroy God’s Kingdom work will be used as a weapon in the Hands of Gods own warriors, much like the coronavirus seems to be crashing the communist party system in China as they purge communist hardliners and reach to the west for help to salvage their economy and their credibility among their own people.
The dRhema 