CULTURE TYPES.com

Herman Riffel, who has traveled through 50 countries lecturing and presenting seminars on dreams, pointed out that western cultures aren’t receptive to the idea of dream interpretation, whereas, the rest of the world is, but, on the other hand, that the rest of the world is still learning about walking in the Holy Spirit.

“This quite different point of view, which finds dreams highly significant and meaningful, has been held in practically all other cultures. Indeed wherever, peoples have not been touched and influenced by our Western world-view with its belief that man is limited to sense experience and reason, the dream has been viewed as the chief medium through which non-physical (or spiritual) powers and realities spoke to man” (DREAMS: The Dark Speech of the Spirit).

I proved in my book, Where in the World Do I Belong??, that western culture is sensing and thinking—an STJ culture type. This is a concrete, realistic, rational and logical culture type which is opposite of the subjective, intuitive nature of dreams. Western cultures may reject or resist listening to their dreams because they are sensing culture types. In Western cultures, intuition is a weak or inferior function and may be neglected or repressed (which becomes the shadow or darkside of the culture type). It’s not surprising that Western Christianity neglects the vital function dreams are to being a healthy Christian. In western culture, dreams, like healing of the soul, have become prisoner to realm of psychology. They both belong in the church through spiritualtherapy and Christian dream interpretation facilitated by pastors, church elders, and shepherds.

According to the MBTI Manual, the American population is 26.7% intuitive personality types. Many intuitive personality types, like myself, are deeply interested in hearing from God through our dreams. My wife is a sensing personality type and doesn’t have as much of an interest in dreams as I do; she looks more for the voice of God in her physical surroundings, or circumstances. We all have different personality types and God speaks to all us in a myriad of different ways, but some personality types might try to discount dreams and the inner growth possible through them. I highly admire and respect Joyce Meyer but even her wonderful book, How to Hear From God, gives us a good example of the misconception of dreams in mainstream Christianity: “Dreams are interesting but usually very unstable in giving us direction. People who try to make too much out of their dreams are asking to be deceived.” Many Christians are missing out on the incredible gift of dreams. One person said that the uninterpreted dream is like an unopened letter. Are you reading your mail from God or treating it as spam?

Many pastors (of many different denominations) are not open to the idea of dream interpretation because it takes a willingness to break out of the security of what they already have and know. Sometimes the business of being a church becomes more important than inner growth and many pastors have not experienced having to come to terms with their inner darkside or shadow.

“Just because the churches have decided to pay no attention to their unconscious does not mean that God will stop trying to speak to us. So it is that scientific psychology and medicine, in search of a way to help us find healing and wholeness, have discovered what the Bible knew all along but Christians had forgotten: that dreams and their interpretation can heal the sick soul” (Dreams: God’s Forgotten Language). Many churches reject psychology and Jung’s theories. Psychology is a godless discipline and Jung wasn’t a Christian but they have given us tools for understanding ourselves and our dreams. Of course, you don’t have to know anything about psychology or Jung’s theories for God to tell you the meaning of your dreams. However, if you learn more about how to interpret your dreams, it will be easier to understand more of God’s messages.

“I think that dreams are especially needed by Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians who have found new power by an experience with the Holy Spirit” (Dream Interpretation: A Biblical Understanding). I belong to a Pentecostal church of the Foursquare denomination. I don’t think we are closed-minded but we are focused on the Holy Spirit (baptism of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, laying on hands for spiritual healing, etc.) and lack an understanding of inner growth (and the corresponding discipleship). Why is the charismatic movement so into speaking tongues and so little is said about dreams? Part of the reason is the mis-conception that dreams are for prophecy about others, instead of a way to learn about ourselves through God. Riffel estimates only five percent of our dreams are actually about others. Christians go looking for literal prophecies about others in their dreams and when that doesn’t work they lose confidence in dreams, but dreams are actually symbolic messages about ourselves. This confusion has been a tool of deception used by the enemy to keep us from listening to God’s voice in our dreams.

One fellow church-member, who grew up Baptist, pointed out that Pentecostals shy away from intellectual understanding like Christian psychology. Dream interpretation does use some psychological concepts but shouldn’t be lumped in with intellectual Christianity. The rational, intellectual approach to Christianity prevelant in so much of the Western culture is a huge deception in the church that makes so many people (like I once did) turn away and reject the church. Intellectual Christianity gives us debates on doctrine and esoteric interpretations of the Bible from ivory towers. We read one Christian book after another building up our knowledge but not growing spiritually. Intellectual Christianity cannot help the wounded seekers look inwards into the dark depths of our soul. Divinely empowered tools like spiritual-therapy (Solomon) and Christian dream interpretation (Riffel, Sanford, and Kelsey) must be used. Soul-transformation, and God using our dreams, pulls Christians out of the trenches of spiritual defeat and onto victorious lives.

“It is no wonder that intellectual theology is more popular in most Christian circles. Who wants to be wounded again and again—even if the new wounding brings new transformation and insight? Obviously, only a theology that understands the experience of human brokeness and hurt is able to help those who have been wounded and are seeking help.

No one can be blamed for avoiding the individual, personal, religious encounter, except people who attempt to guide others, either personally or by writing religious and theological books. The average man or woman can find religious development within the church, where the divine encounter is transformed into lower voltage. They can slowly work at bringing their lives in line. This is not an inferior calling, just a different one…” (Christo-Psychology).

Shepherds of all forms (pastors, pastoral counselors, ministry leaders, small group leaders, etc.) in the church must be living victorious lives, otherwise, they are the defeated leading the defeated. Part of a victorious life is the Lord bringing our lives into balance (healing of unconscious conflicts, complexes, repressed parts of our personality, etc.) through the transformation provided by the Holy Spirit—which is frequently done through listening to and working with our dreams.

SPIRITUAL WARFARE: Fighting in the Spirit instead of the flesh.
For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

The enemy’s only weapon is deception. Victory is always ours, just like forgiveness only takes one time, we don’t lose victory after we have gained it—although our sinful nature and the enemy will try to deceive us into thinking we’ve lost our victory or haven’t really forgiven. We can combat the deceptions of the enemy through speaking and replying with scriptures we have memorized. The scripture is the Word of God and more powerful than the enemy or any self defense we can muster. God’s commands, covenants and promises are an effective sword against the enemy.

Don’t fight people but instead recognize it’s a spiritual warfare. The evil we see or sense in others is only overcome through God’s power. Pray, read the Bible, and answer questions with scripture. Instead of getting into a control battle, surrender the situation to God—die to live. Let God show you, in you, what is causing the conflict. Release the other person, let God do the work in the other person according to His way and timing. Not only pray for those that we love but also those that we don’t love. Pray for God’s blessing on their relationship with God.

DREAMS
“You cannot observe your dreams and remain a phony Christian for long. Dreams will reveal what you are doing and will not allow you to ignore it.” (Dream Interpretation: A Biblical Understanding by Herman Riffel). God uses dreams to communicate with us. He guides us, warns us, and shows us the parts of our lives that we need to look at or surrender. Sometimes our dreams are God’s way of bringing us to our knees through nightmares and yelling in our sleep. Riffel says that people in crisis (which include many defeated Christians) frequently are interested in understanding what God is trying to tell them through their dreams. Dreams are very rarely literal pictures foretelling events in other people’s lives. Dreams are God’s way of telling us about ourselves.

DISTANCE from God
Psalms are examples of David having times of feeling distance from God. It is also good to read the Psalms during personal trials. In one chapter David is praising God: “I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me, He freed me from all my fears” (Psalm 34:4); and in the next he asking, “How long, O Lord, will you look on and do nothing?” (Psalm 35:17).

Pastor Don Cousins gave a sermon at HCWO and explained we are to pray fervently during those ‘Where are you God?’ moments. The results of fervent prayer can be one of three things:

1. God changes our circumstances. For example, He gives a better job, heals us, brings our child back to Christianity, etc. In the book of Acts, the people praying for Peter were probably hoping that Herod would change His mind and not execute Peter. They weren’t prepared for God to answer their prayer in the way that He did, by having an angel release Peter from prison and Peter come directly to their home. Just like the people praying for Peter, we must keep praying but keep an open mind.

2. God reveals His purposes. He opens our eyes to why we are in these circumstances. In the case of Paul, in spite of fervent prayer, God kept the thorn in Paul’s side, because in Paul’s weakness God’s power is perfected. He shows us that what we are going through has a purpose. We didn’t understand the lesson and now we do, or we didn’t understand where the path led but now He has shown us.

3. God strengthens our spirit. God strengthens us to the point we are examples to others, and inspire other’s faith, e.g. an ongoing battle with cancer, etc.

Chapter 7

Many people tell me it’s not possible to know whether someone is victorious in Christ or not, but Pastor Sumo pointed out all you have to do is look at the fruit. I agree, the proof is in the fruit, victorious lives produce spiritual fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Spiritual fruit isn’t produced through self-effort but through the walking in the Holy Spirit—which is the essence of a victorious life. Victory is the loss of self, identity and control leading to a totally dependent relationship on Him. We die to our old selves for a new life in Him. We die to our old identity for a new identity in Christ, and we release control of our lives to the Holy Spirit. Remember, we don’t seek the fruit or victory but instead seek God and the rest will follow.

Another sign of a victorious life is what comes out of our mouths—as many of the Bible’s proverbs point out. The very things we say are an indication of the state of our heart. Inferiority or superiority complexes and unresolved inner conflicts are signs of someone who hasn’t claimed their victory in Christ, because these begin to fade as we are healed through walking in the Spirit.

WALKING IN THE SPIRIT vs WALKING IN THE FLESH.
“For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God” (John 5:4-5). “The problem of walking in defeat is not that we don’t have victory (because we have been set free, and Christ’s life is victorious in us for whatever we face). But we can choose (consciously or subconsciously) not to claim our victory and continue to live as though we’re in bondage. This condition of our lives is called ‘walking after the flesh’ rather than ‘walking after the Spirit’. The world says we attain victory by doing; God says we obtain it by dying or counting ourselves dead to sin. It is exactly backwards from our world system training; the way up is down; we have to fail in order to succeed; we have to die in order to live” (For Me to Live Booklet).

Characteristics of the self life (walking in the flesh):
Stubbornness, Vanity, Pride, Inferiority Feelings, Bigotry, Egoism, Selfish Ambition, Impatience, Envy, Hypersensitivity, Withdrawal, Dissension, Loveless, Anxiety, Guilt, False Modesty, Fear, Self Justification, Indifference, Self Indulgence, Dominance, Self Reliance, Critical Spirit, Self Effort, Depression, Self Righteousness, Nervousness, Laziness, Hostility, and Anger (For Me to Live Booklet).

“Let the Holy Spirit guide your lives” (Gal. 5:16). Walking in the Spirit means “Christ is in control of you.” “If we make decisions based on our feelings and emotions” we are walking in the flesh. “As long as we do not act according to our emotions and wrong thoughts and instead make our decisions based on the Word of God, we are in the Spirit.” (FW Handout). “Once the Holy Spirit has illuminated the truth of our death and resurrection with Christ and it is an experiential reality, we must continue to” (Handbook to Happiness p.103) “walk in the spirit, denying ourselves and taking up the cross daily” (Luke 9:23) (Handbook p.96). Abide in Christ (John 15:5). Abide means to live, dwell, accept or act in accordance with. “This is a lifelong process, during which a person encounters spiritual warfare and the flesh must daily be brought to nothing” (Handbook p.93).

UPS and DOWNS
There are ups and downs in the victorious life. The first thing that happened to the Israelites after their first victory (after crossing the Jordan) was defeat. They had to turn to God and ask Him to point out where they went wrong, and as soon as they found the sin they had committed and repented of it, they were on to victory again. DOWNER starts with negativity, worry, frustration, evolving into anger and depression, and trying to do things ourselves (Handbook to Happiness p.98). It’s a feeling like we aren’t in contact with God anymore; forgetting all that He has already done for us and questioning whether He exists or cares. We’ve lost our joy and “aren’t singing in the shower” anymore. We don’t know where, when or how it happened, but it did. We have to turn to prayer, fasting and fellowship for support; drop whatever we’re doing and open our Bibles. It is amazing how I can be in a downer, feeding my face, feeling numb, and then drag myself to mini-church and suddenly by the middle of the evening I am filled with the Spirit. Jason Lehfeldt’s strategic prayer can also be helpful to find the blockage or wedge in our relationships that is causing our disconnection with God, ourselves and others. We confess and repent of our sins, God cleanses us, and we continue to walk in the Spirit having faith in our position and our (already finished) victory in Christ. “The blood never loses it’s power to cleanse and restore” (Handbook p.105). We are always righteous (in right standing with God) because of Christ’s sacrifice and not because of anything we do today or tomorrow.

Through a series of ups and downs the Holy Spirit shows us the areas of our lives and souls that are prone to sin or self and we begin to be healed and understand how to bounce back into victory faster and longer. Be careful not to work for victory but instead from victory. Walking in the Spirit goes from being a day to day experience to a moment by moment experience. No part of our lives are too small or too insignificant to submit to the Lord and seek His counsel. No moment is too small to seek His will for that moment. “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand” (Psalm 37:23-24). It takes work to spiritually mature and accept God’s discipline and discipleship, but never fall into the trap of thinking we have to work for victory. Grace is unmerited favor and unconditional love. We receive his grace not by doing things (works or performance) but just by having faith in Him and that we are already victorious in Him, and the battle has already been won.

THOUGHTS and EMOTIONS
We live in a fallen world and the enemy and/or our sinful nature may attack our thoughts and emotions. We combat this by casting all our thoughts upon Christ, laying all our burdens at His feet. We feel like dying again! So why not die to live? We can base our decisions and better discern His will for our thoughts and emotions through constant Bible reading. I started with the New Testament and read it from the beginning to the end in about four months, reading a few pages a day and meditating on it, NOT speed-reading, not reading for intellectual ‘knowledge’, but instead opening myself to what the Holy Spirit wanted to show me. Read Romans at least twice. After reading the New Testament, I received a copy of the Daily Bible and started reading it from the beginning. The Old Testament is helping me to understand the nature and character of God, whereas the new testament taught me about love and grace. The Daily Bible is extremely helpful in understanding the Old Testament because it is chronologically arranged and has many commentaries that explain a passage’s significance—giving a deeper understanding that would have been lost on me otherwise.

“We cannot always believe our emotions! They may have been ‘damaged’ as a result of the ‘programming’ of the old life. We may be ‘feeling’ good (e.g. I Corinthians 10:12), without being in fellowship with God, even if things ’seem well’ (my note—many non-Christians and carnal Christians are good examples of this). The contrary is also true: times of trial—when everything seems to go wrong—can be times of real faith and dependence upon God (II Corinthians 4:7-11), but our feelings may tell us things are not going well. If, by faith, we claim Christ to be our Life—His Living Life through us—then His Life, His Character, His Fruit, will be ours in experience (Soul) only as we are conformed to the reality of His Life in our Spirit” (For Me to Live Booklet).