Patrolling the Streets of Life

The dream I had last night was vivid and real. It was also very uncomfortable. In the dream, I was a newly hired deputy sheriff somewhere in Texas. I simply appeared on a street amid pedestrians walking on a sidewalk. 

In the dream, I arrived in full uniform. I had all the required gear on my belt and a convertible Jeep parked on the street that I was to use to patrol the city. There was a problem with the Jeep. I didn’t have a key to start it. In uniform, I looked like a real deputy wearing a badge of authority but I had no knowledge of the authority I carried in Texas or where to take an arrestee should I arrest someone. I had not gone through a police academy and was not trained in Texas law. I had no radio. I didn’t know where the sheriff’s office was located or how to contact the office.  

I was going to chalk the dream up to eating later in the day than normal but then felt a nudge from the Lord that the dream had a purpose and a message.

The confused and uniformed deputy I represented in the dream portrays a believer who has been saved but doesn’t know who they are or the authority they represent.  They look confused, disorientated, and unsure amid the turmoil of life. They are dressed for the part but don’t know how to exercise the authority they carry or fulfill the assignment they have been given.

What made the dream so uncomfortable was the sense of unease I felt. It was an unease of not knowing how to do my job. I felt disconnected, alone, and vulnerable.

The dream reminds me of believers who wear the uniform of faith but when spiritual conflict comes, they are unable to do their job. The Lord wants to connect these disconnected believers with His power and authority. In that connection, they will be able to confront representations of darkness and the demons motivating those representations by the command of their voice because they are connected to and empowered by the Spirit. 

In the dream, I did not represent the kind of authority that would disarm the works of hell. That is a horrible feeling once a person realizes they are living in a disconnected condition surrounded by spiritual issues that only a Spirit-baptized believer can challenge with authority. 

Once a follower of Jesus is connected to the power of God, they will be able to confidently patrol the streets of their personal lives, their family, and their nation able to take appropriate action when called upon. A connected believer is what makes the spiritual criminals of hell shake in their boots, not the uniform.