Because I went to church on Sunday with ZERO sleep, as soon as I got home and wound down a little bit I went to bed. A couple of hours later, I woke up to take a bathroom break, and could remember a piece of a dream: I and some people from my church, including the pastor that had given that day’s sermon, were standing in front of what looked like the standard treasure chest that we’ve all seen in pirate movies, except it was significantly bigger and in particular significantly longer, at least double the normal length to width ratio. It didn’t have any fancy carvings or decorations or shiny metal like so many treasure chests have; I couldn’t find anything that looked quite right on Google, but this at least gives you a general idea of what it looked like, except it was easily twice this long, and was closed with no hint as to what, if anything, was inside of it.
I don’t remember anything else about the dream other than the treasure chest, the church folks standing around, and 4 words that were spoken, although I don’t know by who: “Treasure of the Holy Spirit.” I’m pretty sure that I’ve never heard that phrase or anything similar before. It does not appear in the Bible; the closest I could find was this verse:
2 Timothy 1:14 (ERV)
14 This teaching is a treasure that you have been trusted with. Protect it with the help of the Holy Spirit, who lives inside us.
Because there is endless scriptural evidence for God providing information in dreams, I take any dream with any hint of religious content VERY seriously, doubly so because, despite my all-day-every-day focus on God, I rarely have one. When I woke up from this one, I intended to write it down, but mostly dismissed it because the pastor had spent a significant among of time talking about the Holy Spirit, and I figured that was the reason behind the dream, the same way that anything else that happens during the day can turn up in a dream. And then I went back to bed, and back to sleep. And then I had THE SAME DREAM again!! That has NEVER occurred before in my entire life. There is no confusion about how THAT happened.
I think there are only a couple of places in the Bible where someone has a dream twice, first when Joseph dreams twice about his brothers/family bowing down to him, and:
Genesis 41:1-7 (NIV)
41 … Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing by the Nile, 2 when out of the river there came up seven cows, sleek and fat, and they grazed among the reeds. 3 After them, seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile and stood beside those on the riverbank. 4 And the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek, fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.
5 He fell asleep again and had a second dream: Seven heads of grain, healthy and good, were growing on a single stalk. 6 After them, seven other heads of grain sprouted—thin and scorched by the east wind. 7 The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven healthy, full heads.
And here’s what Joseph told Pharaoh about the dreams:
Genesis 41:32 (NABRE)
32 That Pharaoh had the same dream twice means that the matter has been confirmed by God and that God will soon bring it about.
Of course, in that case it wasn’t the identical dream twice, but the same concept showed with 2 different casts of characters, so to speak, so my situation is not quite the same, and in any case just because it happened to Pharaoh that way doesn’t mean that my dreams are about future events, but it was worth a mention. I’m guessing that I just had the dream twice because I was ready to discount it and God saw it as important enough to make an issue out of… which then leads to me being a little bit concerned that there could be an important meaning to the dream that I’m not getting.
So, what DID it mean? Is EVERY aspect of it God-given, or did my subconscious embroider upon what God put there? In all of the Biblical examples, every detail of each dream from God was from God, but some of the dream elements were symbolic, which is why Joseph and Daniel were doing dream interpretation. The primary element in my dream is mention of the Holy Spirit; if the Holy Spirit didn’t exist, God would never have made it the subject of the dreams, so that settles that issue for me. Even more crucially, the Holy Spirit must be IMPORTANT, or, again, why would God make an issue about it? God’s wisdom in bringing me to this specific church is becoming clearer all the time; the vast majority of Christians, regardless of their denomination or lack thereof, have little or no focus on the Holy Spirit, because nothing is taught about it in their churches, sermons don’t include anything about it, and it just plain doesn’t come up, but THIS church has a consistent focus on it, and clearly that’s what God wants. I suspect that this dream came because, even after my experience with speaking in tongues, I still wasn’t really accepting the importance of the Holy Spirit, so God had to tell me more directly.
I can’t imagine that God would’ve permitted anything in the dream that is contrary to His will and/or my best interests, since the only logical thing for me to assume of anything in such a positive dream is that it is good in some way, and He knows that, so the presence of members of my church just gives me further confirmation that I am doing God’s will by being with them. The presence right next to the chest of the pastor who gave the sermon, only about the third sermon he has given since I joined, tells me that the things that he said about the importance of giving equal time to the Holy Spirit are true. It’s interesting that, although the other pastors have said similar things, the dream came after THIS pastor spoke, the one who I would’ve said was by far the least impressive speaker… clearly, I need to pay more attention to him and see if he is going to have something important to say, just in case this is a hint from God and not just a function of who spoke most recently.
And, what is the treasure? Why show a CLOSED chest and talk about a treasure unless the treasure is something I have not yet seen? Or is the treasure chest only there because that’s what my subconscious came up with in response to the word “treasure”? Does the presence of my fellow church members by the treasure chest indicate that THEY, and my experiences with them, are the treasure that the Holy Spirit provided by guiding me to join the church? I just don’t know. Clearly, in my nonexistent free time I need to do some studying about the Holy Spirit and try to figure out which of the things it supposedly does might qualify as treasure in my life. Or, the treasure might be something that it’s ABOUT to do, or it might be a combination of things, or… well, there’s no point in speculating right now, all I can do is be aware that something significant is going on… and be grateful for God taking the time to bring these things to my attention.
Today’s Word for Today was about The Holy Spirit. Please have a read. It will bless you immensely! May God continue to bless you as you walk with Him http://www.ucb.co.uk/word-for-today.html
Very cool, Melissa, thanks!! 🙂
I know this is an old post but it sounds like God was showing you 2 Timothy 1:14 in action . That your church values and upholds the gospel. The sealed and secure chest is the gospel and wisdom and your church sounds like you all consistently depend of the help and protection of the Holy spirit in protecting God’s Word (like scripture says) That sounds like a blessing to see scripture.
Good thoughts, Carmen!! 🙂
The treasure of the Holy Spirit is simple, the truth.
You and your pastor and brethren seek the truth. The chest was closed because it is not in your power to open it. It sounds like He is showing you that something is not right, maybe even preventing the receiving of that gift. This treasure is opened only by the will and power of God and it is contained in the life and testimony of Jesus Christ. Truth is not found out but revealed, a gift given. Human wisdom and logic can’t open it. The cross testifies. The heart bears witness of a truth within each of us, but the Holy Spirit confirms the heart. Jesus Christ, who lives, moves the gift of confirmation, the promise of the Holy Ghost, which is the power of God to the glory of His Son.
Salvation is not obtained by vast knowledge of scripture and profound understanding of doctrines. It is obtained by seeing the heart of God through that faithful testimony. The confirmation of God, the treasure of the Holy Spirit, is toward the truth, lived in this life, heard within the darkness of flesh and bone. It’s not shiny, lined with gold and emeralds, fancy that flesh and bone should lust after it. The truth begins with love that the flesh would refuse. Love for each other, love for strangers, love for enemies, love that overcomes idolatry, love that refuses the longings of flesh and bone, love that feels sin and repents for love’s sake, love that oppresses self, love that is the root of the law, the gospel, the knowledge of God, the testimony of Jesus Christ. The heart confirms that faithful witness of Jesus Christ, touches the heart of God, and He opens the box. Then the truth of the heart is confirmed, not by men, but by the knowledge of the Living God.