Held against my will, I fought against the bonds. Why had I been taken? As they drove me down roads and streets, I recognized nothing in the low morning light. At one stop I was able to get a picture of a house on a hill. I went to send it to one of my friends. But each time I worked the button it signaled that it could not send. I began to pray. As we climbed the hill towards the house I had taken a picture of, it became lighter as the sun was readying to come up. The captors pulled into a barn at the end of the driveway. Bright lights came on and they took me from the car. A large older man sat there in a chair and smirked. “Thanks for coming here.” I said nothing. He kept on. He was the owner of many grocery stores. He told me “you will be helpful in the coming days.” Over the next few hours, he began to detail to me that as a Christian I had powers that could be helpful to his business. At one pint I asked him why he did not consider becoming a believer. He laughed and told me that believers were weak when it came right down to it. Not ruthless in their actions.

I awoke from this dream and all I could think of was Simon in the book of Acts 8:9-25. Though Simon was a believer he attempted to buy what he already had and put his life in jeopardy.

I inquired of the Lord this morning about the dream. One of the memories I had before I became a believer was that of believers who attempted to “get me saved”. I found that they often could not stand in the fire of troubles. Like the man in the dreams, I thought believers were funny because they would not or could not enter my stores of iniquity. Ironically, it was a woman believer who in my face about things including my witchcraft and such. I know she prayed fervently to see my life changed.

As believers we have powers granted to us through the Holy Spirit. One of those gifts is that of boldness. Of change. The man in my dream wanted me to give him the future so he could make decisions in business. How ironic that unbelievers often recognize the gifts God has bestowed upon us even when we do not.

This morning I asked for the mind blindness to be removed from the believer that they might see the great workings of God available to them. The peace that is available in the midst of a storm. That they would recognize the difference in them. Many are starting to reach out as Nicodemus reached out to Jesus in the darkness of the night. The very thing people said “could not happen” is happening.

I ask that the scales be removed from the eyes of the unbeliever that they might see how good, great and glorious our God is.

Even as I asked the question of this man in the barn, I believe it is important that we begin to ask of our friends and our family, “are you born again”. I get that some will make this a religious endeavor and miss the point and practice of love that identifies our belief, yet I believe we must clearly see what defines us as believers in the eyes of the unbeliever.

The real litmus test of our faith may well be, not that we just live it, but that we carry that expression of His goodness to others. That we open our hearts and open our mouths. Let us live as the apostles did in Acts 2:43