Ever since I was a teenager I have been interested in dreams. For the last 40 or so years I have been journaling and analysing them more or less continually. When I became a believer a few years afterwards the exploration became even more interesting, adding as it did a spiritual dimension on top of the psychic one. And if your experience has been anything like mine you have found that inner world of the unconscious fascinating, baffling and at times frustrating.

Beginning with the secular psychologists like Freud and continuing with the more esoteric ones like Jung I have sought to learn to analyse dreams and find a rational pattern to them. Since becoming a believer I have tried to analyse them with the Bible, early on discovering for myself that dreams form a complex pictorial or symbolic language that are influenced by the symbols and word associations we use in everyday life. I have consistently believed, from the very beginning of my investigation, that all dream have meaning and can be 'explained' using both natural and supernatural keys. It does not follow, though, that all the meanings in dreams are useful to us. In fact, the older I have got, the more I have come to realise that most of the 'meanings' are quite useless as far as helping us solve problems or learn spiritual things. I put far less stock in dreams now than I did 40 years ago even though I am still as fascinated by them since obviously Yahweh created the unconscious state for some purpose (other than for just resting our bodies), recognising in having said that, that we must factor into the equation of dream understanding such things as the fall of mankind (i.e. things have become twisted or damaged) and the faculty called imagination.

Dreams - in the Hebrew, halôm - are sometimes used by Yahweh in which to communicate with man and probably far less often than we would like. From the very start I have to say that there is, as far as many religious people are concerned, a tendency, to differing degrees, to regard dreams as a short-cut way of getting information from Elohim (God), as they suppose, without requiring the effort to study Scripture and pray. In short, it is commonly used as a form of divination. That caution aside, but which we must be repeatedly reminded of so as not to be led down a false trail into a demonic playground, the dreams that are recorded in the Bible are seen as important communications from Yahweh. In Genesis alone you will find plenty of them, from Jacob's ladder (Gen.28:12) to Pharaoh's dreams of the years of plenty and the years of famine symbolically represented by cows and wheat sheaves (Gen.41).

However - and this is very important - this form of communication is contrasted with the more reliable directness with which Yahweh spoke to Moses (Num.12:6-8). You only have to consider the dreams of the false prophets which Yahweh condemned through the navi (prophet) Jeremiah to realise how potentially dangerous it is to uncritically regard all dreams as inspired without recognising the importance of the spiritual state of the dream recipient. For Scripture is clear in saying that Satan can have direct access to dreams if there are spiritual issues in the recpient which give him doors of access to his inner world.

I am sure you have had dreams where you have been running around in chaos and fear which are tell-tale signs that demons are playing around with you while you sleep. Equally, there are those who have apparently 'spiritual' dreams in which they think they are conversing with 'Jesus' or 'God' but which are either their own imagination or are devils in disguise seeking to deceive. Without the holiness that comes from emunah (faith) and obedience which give discernment, the human psyche is open to massive deception, asleep as well as awake. The fact that you may have dreamed about the Saviour might quite possibly mean that you...dreamed about the Saviour, not that you had an actual encounter with Him. The Psalmist was certainly aware how slippery dreams can be:

"As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Yahweh, you will despise them as fantasies" (Ps.73:20, NIV).

Israel is early on warned of the consequences of listening to a dreamer who is getting inspiration from the 'other side':

"If a navi (prophet), or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, 'Let us follow other elohim (gods)' (elohim/gods you have not known) 'and let us worship them,' you must not listen to the words of that navi (prophet) or dreamer. Yahweh your Elohim (God) is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is Yahweh your Elohim (God) you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep His mitzvot (commands) and obey Him; serve Him and hold fast to Him. That navi (prophet) or dreamer must be put to death, because he preached rebellion against Yahweh your Elohim (God), who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery; he has tried to turn you from the way Yahweh your Elohim (God) commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you" (Deut.13:1-5, NIV).

This passage is speaking about a particular kind of navi (prophet), one who claims to receive revelations from Elohim (God) in dreams. What is clear here is that Satan can give accurate prophetic dreams - he is able to orchestrate self-fulfilling prophecies under certain circumstances. The warning here is not to get enchanted by the supernatural for the supernatural's sake and to watch out if such a dream-mediated prophecy leads the dreamer-prophet to claim, by what he speaks, an authority which would cause you to doubt the written Scriptures. The devil started that trend in Eden, you will remember, when the serpent prophesied that Eve's eyes would be opened and she would become a goddess if she disobeyed the 'restrictive' solo-mitzvah (commandment) of Eden which was not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And opened they were, to see a new and frightening reality consisting not only of the good she has previously known but now also evil. The devil's words were half-true but it was the other part that introduced death and separation from Yahweh into her life.

Dreams are potential minefields. They can cause you, and the ones you share them withy, great harm. I knew of a lady in England who dreamed she would drown in water. Thereafter she never dared to cross a body of water again or go in a boat. She died an ordinary death but in total fear of a lie supplied to her by the Enemy in a false dream. And we have been warned:

"For dreams have deceived many, and those who put their hope in them have perished" (Sirach 34:7, NRSV).

Such dreams can be both those we have in the unconscious (sleep) state as well as those idle 'dreams' or 'fantasies' we have when we are awake, both of which are outside the Divine Will. Thus the Hebrews themselves, through their historial experience, had an ambivalent attitude toward dreams because they knew that dreams could equally well come from a good as from an evil source. We need to remember that too.

Years ago as a newish believer I took advantage of the Internet when I first went online and joined a number of Christian discussion groups where people shared their dreams. They're still around. I realised after while what the fruit of such a pre-occupation with dreams led to - self-absorption. People ended up focussed on their navels and what was coming out of their corrupt minds and hearts. They were attributing to the fallen nature a divinity of sorts, a reliable source of heavenly information. I could tell, from what I already knew about dreaming, that most of what they were concluding was bunkum. Instead of turning to Elohim (God) they often unwittingly turned to themselves for inspiration based on the false assumption that the dream state was an infallible source of the Divine Will. But if the heart is corrupt in the awake state that we are commanded not to trust, then why suppose - why make the false assumption - that it would suddenly be transformed into dispensing machine of pure revelation in the unconscious state?

"The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
I, Yahweh, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings"
(Jer.17:9-10. NKJV).

Awake or asleep, it's the same old depraved heart. And you will remember, that to the Hebrew the mind (thinking) is a part of the heart (feeling), as they do not make the destinction that we in the West do, something we have inherited from the Greeks.

Nevertheless the Scriptures are full of examples of Yahweh supernaturally communicating to pagans in dreams (Abimelech, Gen.20; Laban in Gen.31); perhaps the Amalekites and Midianites, Judg.7:13-15) as well as to believers like Joseph (Gen.37-41) and Daniel in a big way. However, He did not communicate to all His servants in that way. And when He did He overrode the carnal mind and heart of the recipients. When Yahweh intervenes in a dream, it is just that - a supernatural interposition whereby the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) takes over the dreaming appartus and imparts information from outside the dreamer. And, unfortunately, Satan can - and does - do the same thing but much more frequently, perhaps even habitually in the majority of people, by virtue of the fact that they extend an open invitation to him by having open spiritual doors. That is why I, personally, am very cautious and hesitant when anybody tells me that 'God has spoken to me in a dream'. Most don't bother to test such dreams, either against the Scriptures (if it is of a theological or ethical nature) or in humble prayer petitioning for light and emet (truth).

Joseph and Daniel are the two prominent divinely-inspired dreamers in the Scriptures, as I said. They performed some incredible 'feats', in human terms by successfully interpreting the dreams of pagan kings, whether Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel's ability to relate the king's dream before he had even been told it demonstrated that he operated in the realm of divine revelation apart from, whilst including, dreams. Likewise, dreams are often prominent in association with another category of revelation, seership - the gift to see open visions - and are sometimes difficult to differentiate especially when the latter occur in that state between sleep and wakefulness. As a seer (one who sees visions) myself, I can testify to these things.

As in the Tanakh (Old Testament), so in the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) we see Yahweh communicating by dreams (to the pagan "wise men" , Mt.2:12; to Joseph, Mt.1:20; 2:13-22 and to Pilate's wife, Mt.27:19). Interestingly, dreams do not figure outside the Gospel of Matthew, with the exception of Luke quoting the fulfilment of Joel 2:28 in Acts 2:17. I suspect this is because Matthew's audience was to fellow Israelites whereas the others were primarily to Gentile audiences where dreams were an integral part of pagan occultism and therefore a potential stumbling block to new believers and catechumens because of their spiritual immaturity, but I admit that is only a hypothesis on my part. The only other reference to dreams in the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) is to false "dreamers [who] pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings" (Jude 8, NIV). Though it may be tempting to conclude that dreams are thereby de-emphasised in the New Covenant, you must remember how a Tanakh (Old Testament) prophecy in Joel is actually being realised in the new dispensation:

"This is what was spoken by the navi (prophet) Joel (2:28):
'In the last days, Elohim (God) says,
I will pour out my Ruach (Spirit) on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Ruach (Spirit) in those days,
and they will prophesy.
I will show wonders in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of Yahweh.
And everyone who calls
on the name of the Master will be saved'"
(Acts 2:16-21, NIV).

, Of course, this passage, in conjunction with some of the lawless things going on in the Corinthian congregation, has been used by Pentecostals and Charismatics since the beginning of the 20th century to go completely overboar and to invite all kinds of unclean spirits producing showy, counterfeit 'gifts' that have deceived millions because of their failure to apply the proper and safe checks and balances provided by consistent Torah-obedience.

I felt it important to give a concise Scriptural summary before I take you on my own existential journey into the world of dreams which reached a definite climax throughout the early hours of this morning. Without a clear Scriptural foundation, existential or experiential excursions are potentially loaded with danger and deception. I have to say first of all that I am not a cessationist like most non-charismatic Protestants, meaning I don't believe that certain gifts like prophecy, visions and dreams ceased with the death of the apostles. Cessationism, arises out of either fear to deal with the supernatural, laziness to admit that the Christian world is far bigger than the written Davar (Word), a fear by the leadership who don't have the gifts to be regarded as inferior by those that do, Spirit denominational traditionalism (like Calvinism) or plain theological ignorance as to what the Scriptures actually teach. In rejecting the cessationist model it should not be thought that I am some sort of 'pentecostal' or 'charismatic', though - it's not a question of 'either/or' because I have not the slightest doubt that there is major delusion and spiritual deception in that part of the Body of Messiah too. You all know what I think about their version of 'tongues' which is 99.99% of the time is psychic and often demonic babble that has zero value to the sanctification of Christians and Messianics. It's part of what I regard as the false gospel of entertaining the goats. Nevertheless, I absolutely believe in 'tongues' as the gift, in evangelism, to supernaturally speak in foreign languages in order to reach unbelievers whose language one does not naturally speak to convince them of the power of Elohim (God). This I absolutely believe in.

I have the same cautious approach to divine prophecy, dreams and visions, for the same reason as I do 'tongues', because all are easily counterfeitable and the false varieties are today leading millions astray. From the long, rambling, vague, vaccuous and general first-person 'prophecies' issued daily in some pentecostal and charismatic quarters ('I am with you', 'Be strong', 'I am looking for a faithful people' etc., etc. which just pad out what we already have in the Bible) to the thousands of false prophecies that are never repented of, there is a constant babble from the carnal, demonic realm by wannabe 'nevi'im' ('prophets') who do not have the gift and are distracting believers from the authentic Ruach (Spirit) and leading them to trust in fallible, impure human psychic junk of no saving value whatsoever, however well-intentioned they often are. Listening to these people is a bit like listening to a child with knowledge of Grade 4 Science stand up in a Physics Symposium pretending to be a post-doctoral physicist speaking authoritatively about what they do not know, or flat-earthers spouting drivel about our solar system based on dreadful exegesis of Scripture and a poor understanding of physics. The world is full of such nonsense that is distracting believers from the emet (truth) and from a deep and meaningful experience with the living Elohim (God). No wonder atheists are turned off and I don't blame them. They turn me off too and make me cringe. It is like a nursery of babes all trying to feed each other from milk bottles. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective) this kind of infantile Christianity will be shaken and virtually wiped out after the collapse forcing believers to either grow up or run to the state's One World Religion as a substitute nanny.

I make these criticisms unashamedly because I am personally ashamed of the dream-journey I have been on for the last 40+ years. I have had to be corrected hundreds of times along the way. This morning I finally understood something I have been seeking an answer for most of my life which I have written this piece today. The answer is not what I wanted but it has been - and is still being - liberating. Have you ever had dreams where you have been in your home only the rooms and things in them were arranged 'wrong'? The door was in the wrong place, things were back-to-front, and so on? Your home or your place of work or some other place, depending where you spend most of your waking hours, often figures prominently in your dreams, not to mention people - family or friends - who may also appear, often dressed 'differently', appearing older or younger than they really are, and maybe doing things they would never do in real life. You can wake up frustrated or upset with 'them' because of their 'behaviour' in your dream which can set your mood for the day and even lead you to fault or be offended with the real persons on the outside because of what you experienced on the inside. Dreams can be tremendously destructive to our outside, conscious life sometimes.

It's also amazing how single scriptures can be so twisted around as to totally distort your sense of reality and emet (truth). Luke 17:27 is a classic example:

"The kingdom of Elohim (God) is within you" (Luke 17:21, NIV).

This passage is used by spiritual anarchists who say that the outside world is unimportant, leading them dress badly, reject outer 'things' like 'church' and 'authority' and to claim the Besorah (Gospel) is a purely personal thing (so leave me alone, please, to do things my way). They claim the Besorah (Gospel) to be purely existential or experiential and end up with a 'personal gospel' that is different from everyone else's. Existentialism is one of the great curses of modern post-'Enlightenment' thinking - it is very egotistical and selfish. Needless to say New Age 'Christians' are also very fond of this passage and use it to bolster the occultic doctrine that all emet (truth) comes from within and we should throw away external things like books of Scripture. If you can't experience it, it isn't real, they claim. Their quest then becomes a quest for the 'christ within' and the discovery of every man's supposed 'latent divinity'. This is what happens when you start looking for Elohim (God) within your fallen, psychic self. And the other component of the delusion is that the psychic realm is confused with the spiritual when they are two entirely different states of existence. Our dreams and dreaming take place in the psychic dimension.

This does not mean that the psyche is 'bad'. It's a very real and important part of is. Through it we think, feel and are able to interact with other people. But is it not spiritual. It is not immortal. It ebbs away from a corpse when you physical die because it is a part of the physical dimension and perishes with it.

Is it true to say that the Kingdom of Elohim (God) is within you? And is that what Luke 17:12 is actually saying? Though I am not convinced Luke 17:12 is necessarily saying that (for reasons I will give in a moment) it would be true to say that the Kingdom of Elohim (God) as a spiritual reality is within a person but not automatically so. It is not, obviously, inside the unsaved and it is not fully inside every aspect of the saved soul that is not fully surrendered. The Kingdom of Elohim (God) comes only "if you obey Me fully and keep My covenant, then out of all nations you will be My treasured possession. Although the whole earth is Mine, you will be for Me a kingdom of cohenim (priests) and a qadosh (holy, set-apart) nation" (Ex.19:5-6, NIV).

The Kingdom arrives and is planted within us according to the covenant promise of Jeremiah 31:33:

"This is the b'rit (covenant) I will make with the house of Israel
after that time (when Messiah comes),' declares Yahweh.
'I will put My Torah (Law) in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their Elohim (God),
and they will be My people'"
(Jer.31:33, NIV).

This is an action that occurs when we decide to surrender to Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) and to trust Him as our Master (Lord) and Deliverer (Saviour) from sin. It isn't there in every soul to be searched for by meditation (like TM) or obtained by yoga or by some other occult technique. By birth - by default - that Kingdom, and the new spiritual nature it produces - is NOT there until it is given supernaturally to us from above, causing us to be born-again. When that new nature is implanted into our hearts, what happens? We find Yahweh's Torah (Law) in our hearts too and they are irresistably and joyfully led to obey it of their own initiative and not by external imposition. That Torah (Law) is Yahweh's lifestyle for His people - His moral and ethical laws, His sabbath, new moon and festival observances, dietary laws, and so on. All of these things are a part of the kaleidoscope of Yahweh's Torah written on the heart.

Paul tells us what happens when we are born-again with this heavenly spiritual implant:

"In my inner being I delight in Elohim's (God's) Torah (Law)" (Rom.7:22, NIV).

Paul wasn't saying anything new. David testified long before the apostle:

"The Torah (Law) of Yahweh is perfect, reviving the soul" (Ps.19:7, NIV).

Though it is also written down, David tells us that the Torah (Law) is a living, reviving principle from the very bosom of Yahweh Himself. It isn't something bad and if the soul thinks it is, then that is a reaction of the flesh and not of the Ruach (Spirit)! Your existential soulish reaction is not Elohim (God). This should be a testimony to you, however unpleasant, that some part of you has not yet been revived because it does not delight in Yahweh's ways as spoken of by David and confirmed by Paul. It means some part of you has not been regenerated - hasn't been born again. It means some part of you is lacking the Kingdom of Elohim (God) and you're being told to repent and to let Yahweh regenerate that part of you.

Carnal dreams come out of such unregenerated parts of your being. Worse, they directly link you to the sin-nature - the fallen, Adamic, carnal, fleshy nature - which you are supposed to have set-aside or turned away from ("crucified") for the Messiah and Kingdom Chayim (Life). You are being warned that you're not fully surrendered and not fully saved in every part of your essential being. You are being served notice to repent. So, yes, even carnal dreams 'mean' something, usually that repentance and surrender to Messiah has not been fully accomplished still.

You can fool or deceive yourself by hiding behind a convenient theology of lawlessness and disobedience if you want to but it won't keep the flesh at bay and it won't exclude the demonic from your sleep realm. You will be constantly reminded of the lie you are living unless you have learned to shut out your dream memories too.

The Kingdom is within you when you have received it on the terms that Yah'shua (Jesus) promises it, not before. Moreover, it is planted as a seed in the ground (Mt.13:31) or a lump of leaven (Mt.13:33) - it is a living thing that must grow. But if you fail to water the Kingdom seed, or heat up the Kingdom leaven, it will eventually whither away and die. The soil of your heart must be kept tilled by constant repentance and adjustment to Yahweh's standards made possible by the wmpowerment of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) in the soul. Giving the lie to the claim that the Kingom of Elohim (God) is purely an internal affair, but intimately connected to the exterior world into which is moved and manifests because of the spiritual presence and the external actions of the one posessing it and the, we come to understand the fuller sense of Yah'shua's (Jesus') meaning:

"For behold, the Kingdom of Elohim (God) is within you (in your hearts) and among you (surrounding you)" (Lk.17:21, Amp.V.).

"For, in fact, the Kingdom of Heaven is among you (entos hymon)" (Lk.17:21, NRSV).

When referring to the Kingdom being amongst them, Yah'shua (Jesus) was here talking to the Pharisees in whom the Kingdom of Elohim (God) was quite clearly not to be found (because they were unsaved) but was among them. The Kingdom was on display in their midst in the person and ministry of Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself and subsequently in His talmidim (disciples). Yet He was also talking to His talmidim (disciples) and His Kingdom which was amongst them too in the Person of Yah'shua (Jesus) and would be in them after the anointing of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) at the first New Covenant Shavu'ot (Feast of Weeks, 'Pentecost'). So the location of the Kingdom depends who you are - amongst and surrounding you if you are unsaved and being witnessed to, and in you if you are truly spiritually regenerated! Unbelievers and existentialists can derive no comfort from this verse after all because if the Kingdom is within you, then you will of necessity be amongst the unbelievers witnessing of it by your testimony and by the Ruach's (Spirit's) presence within you.

Now I mentioned to you how we often dream of our homes and how things inside can be 'off'. I have had so many dreams over the years about my home and have been either fascinated or troubled both by things being slightly wrong and by there being 'extra rooms' which I never knew anything about which I wanted to know more of. The house was much, much bigger in the dream and I so wished it could be so in real life because I need the extra space! Each time the house would become bigger. I would find new rooms, entrances and eventually enormous complexes of rooms, including factory and warehouse space. It just got bigger and bigger. Each time I dreamed this I would find various people who didn't seem too pleased to see me. I found clubs meeting in space I knew was mine, business operations, and so on. I used to get troubled by the impertinance of their being there without my permission, reminding the people that I was the owner, wondering what they were doing there using space and electricity free without my knowledge.

Some of the dreams have been instructive but most have not. Once or twice I found someone I knew who was operating a business down there and was shocked and it turned out that in real life he had got the legal right to be there because of 'invitations' by someone in my family (to whom I am connected as a husband or a father). Indeed, I was able to expose a spiritual intrustion into my home and dealt with it. Those dreams were very helpful. But what of all the people I didn't know? Who were they? Figments of my iagination? None of them were friendly yet none were overtly hostile because they somehow knew I had the 'authority' to do with this space whatever I wanted to.

I am sure you can guess how I interpreted all of this over the years. It was always obvious that this 'house' was me - inside - and that the people in it, if they weren't family or close friends whom I had admitted into my heart, were somehow intruders. Yet this was not the Spiritual Garden of the Soul which Yahweh taught me extensively about, it was something else, which I learned was psyche. This was not 'spiritual' space because nothing spiritual ever happened. Most of it was below ground (not all of it) as extensions of our tiny cellar, and dreams underground almost invariably connect to carnality - what I call the 'carnal basement of the soul'.

Today was no exception though this time I had wandered further into the complex of underground rooms than ever before. There were groups of people, again not friendly and yet slightly concerned I might exercise my authority to have them removed, but I was too perplexed to concern myself about that. I wanted to understand what was going on. Many times I awoke, frustrated, to go back to sleep again and continue where I had been. What were all these rooms? I had never seen them before. But I was determined to get to the bottom of this and so I journeyed on through this maze.

Finally, after a long journey that seemed to take forever, I came to the other 'side' of the house, miles away from the front as this was a huge structure. I came to a door and at last found myself on a street in a large town (my actual home is in the countryside). It was on the top of a hill and the streets were cobbled. Everything looked run down, seedy, old and decaying. I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that I was in Dundee, Scotland, a place I have never visited in real life. I realised, even asleep, that this was not the literal place, but that it signified something.

There was hardly anyone about. In a room inside my 'house' next to the street was a very dull looking printing shop. There was a man there working in it. I knew it was 'mine' too but outside it was not mine, and I had no authority there. There was no order, no police, nothing. It looked like the kind of place you would expect to find after an economic, social and government collapse leaving only a few survivors. Everyone kept to themselves, more or less. This was definitely a survivalist society. It was quiet, semi-deserted. But I had to find out what was going on so I marched to a house and rang the door bell. Two women wearing white hats, like those worn by the 17th century Dutch, opened the door, the one slightly behind the other. Though nothing was spoken I immediately understood that this was some kind of religious group and that the hats were part of their uniform. All they seemed to want to know was whether I was interested in joining them or not. I wasn't and left. Then it all dawned on me.

I returned to my 'house' and went in through the door, determined to return to what was familiar and home. There were endless corridors, a web of complexity and impossible to navigate in any sort of intelligent way. I was walking very fast now and unprepared to remain here any longer. With more and more corridors I got more and more frustrated and told myself that this was intolerable so I started breaking through walls and going up through ceilings as I did not want to remain there. And then I awoke sweated through from the exertion.

I was beyond frustrated but I knew something new that I hadn't before. I knew that 'Dundee' had something to do with JUDGMENT because the day before I had been writing an article about Dinah and Dan, whose names have the same Hebrew root, dîn, meaning 'judgment'. There was one other thing that gradually dawned on me as I sat up and thought about this, namely, that this vast network of rooms and corridors was the SELF, and specifically, the CARNAL MAN. It was my PSYCHE, seemingly infinitely expanding from its source, the layout of the EGO, the UNREDEEMED PART OF MYSELF. And those strange people? All demons, knowing they were close to being discovered and expelled.

When my wife told me it was all my fantasy, I got silently very upset because I knew it was real whilst also being unprofitable. I had not gone to sleep in a spiritual frame of mind and so found myself in the psychic realm, beginning with the familiar 'house' - my home, though slightly wrong in appearance - as the typing or a marking familiar to me. None of the people in that carnal basement wanted to be disturbed - they wanted to be left alone to do their own thing - and I recognised that disposition in myself when I am too tired or unwilling to address certain issues. Yet I knew I had the authority, somehow, to dismiss those unwelcome 'guests' resident in the flesh, though I have never attempted to in any dreams like this. What I had seen was my own personalised version of hell - the ego, the self. My wife was right - it was, and is, fantasy - but it isn't something you can just dismiss with a sweep of the hand. It has to be dismantled through repentance and surrender to Messiah so that any part of my consciousness does not live there anymore, by choosing to put the cross between carnal self and a life in Yah'shua (Jesus).

Dundee is right in the north of Britain, my home 'island', representing the full extent of 'me'. In a sense, it's the end of 'my world', my 'domain', my 'life'. And beyond the wall of that 'self' is DEATH and JUDGMENT. There's nothing there of any value. It's a dead end, because self is dead for a believer - we are supposed to have 'died' to it in our hearts and not just by mere lip-confession. And it isn't easy because it's never easy to die to self and sin. But you have to because 'self' is the path of destruction. Self is vanity, self is conceit, self is our worst enemy. It's what satan fastens himself to. Paul said:

"Since you died with Messiah to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules?" (Col.2:20, NIV).

"For you died, and your life is now hidden with Messiah in Elohim (God). When Messiah, who is your chayim (life), appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory" (Col.3:3-4, NIV).

To go into that carnal basement is to re-embrace the "basic principles of this world as thought you still belonged to it". It is to leave the covering of Messiah for the fleshy, selfish and egotistical realm. Unfortunately, there are demonic powers and principalities present which draw you back to it again and again because you 'get' something from it, in my case, a 'turning off', as a substitute for turning to Messiah to deal with things in the right way. When that happens, the chayim or life-force in you diminishes and you become a shadow of your real self, arguably becoming unrecognisble, because the demonic always alters your character, making you more like them. You don't want to be the way you are - unattractive and maybe even obnoxious at times - and you may even hate yourself for it, though self-hate solves nothing either.

To me this was a huge wake-up call. I 'saw' something I have been experiencing most of my life which I have never seen before. And that is one of the problems when the Enemy gets a hold you - you can't see even see it even if others can. That's why no-one can easily supervise their own deliverance or dictate how it should be done - they're blind and they need someone who can see.

I know the root of my problem - whithering criticism growing up, day in and out, that caused me to seek for a hiding place from it. Some of you may be able to identify - it's actually very common. And because the Enemy is providing you with a hiding place, because it is so familiar, you don't know how to 'be' any other way. It can be very provocative to others when you're in that 'hole' and the more frustrated or angry they get at you for being 'absent', the more you want to stay where you are because you don't know of any other way to cope. People who have been habitually hurt learn 'cope' in other ways too, by 'lashing out' rather than by hiding, and a different set of demons provides 'security' for them, and a different way of surviving. These are two reasons people can be inaccessible - they're hiding because of deep emotional wounding by either hiding or lashing out. It moreover, seems right to them even if it can drive others around them crazy.

There are so many wounded people in our very cruel, unloving and demonised society and those who come out of it after receiving Messiah may not necessarily heal all at once. Typically there is a lot of deliverance to be done. For some it can be a lifelong process and it is not for us to judge why. The irony is that whether you are hiding or lashing out it gives the strong impression that you don't care because your heart gets obscured by the demonic silence or by the demonic rage. That is one reason we cannot judge emotionally because we don't see as Yahweh sees others and their struggles.

I have an autistic daughter who does not know how to express feelings (we believe she was damaged by a vaccine). Yet Yahweh has shown me in vision that inside deep feelings are locked away, desperate to come out, but she doesn't know how to do it. Most of the penultimate generation is damaged in this way though you wouldn't always think so by looking at them outwardly. Some of us are expert at it, and if any of you came from a traditional British background like myself, we were taught how to keep our 'chin up' and maintain a 'stiff upper lip'. Though I hope I have largely overcome that artificiality and learned to let Yah'shua (Jesus) have the rule of my mind and feelings most of the time, clearly my journey is not fully completed yet. And I suspect many, if not most, of you are in a similar place of still being engaged in the overcoming process.

When I saw what the 'end' of this carnal basement place was - a place of decay, lawlessness, death and finally judgment, I finally realise that this whole complex of underground extensions of my 'house' was not at all desirable. Thanks to my dreams which I have finally, I hope, 'got' or understood, I now plan to give this all to Yah'shua (Jesus) and leave it behind forever.