HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, April 24, 2025 – They dream of us, the kind of dreams you don’t tell your spouse or your significant other or even your therapist. (And never your mentor.) Dreams so raw, they rush in a fever as soon as they wake to look us up. But we have nothing to do with those dreams; they aren’t from us. We aren’t responsible for them. We haven’t sent them. God uses us as we’ve given him permission to use us, in some cases begged him to use us, and so he makes use of us. Some of our best work for the Kingdom is done entirely without our knowledge and solely because we begged God to use us.

After the first dreams comes the obsession. Not for all, but for some. Flashbacks that progress to a slow reaching out and then a quick pulling back when they find who we’ve become. Then the headshaking and sneering and dismissal, but still the thoughts. Always the thoughts. Back of the mind, front of the mind. Seed planted. And, for some, more dreams.

The first heart-pounding contact tests the waters. They don’t tell their spouse or significant other or therapist about that, either. Sometimes we engage and sometimes we don’t, depending on what God advises. Sometimes it’s best just to stay out of it completely and let God use us as we’ve given him permission to use us. God knows exactly what to do at precisely the right time, when and where to plant seed. We don’t. We’ll likely only make a mess of it.

Did you know that we’re being tested by those dreams, too? Not just the dreamers – we dreamees are also being tested. We’re being tested in how we respond. Which is why we need to defer to God and not take matters into our own hands. We must never forge ahead thinking we’ll wing it and that we can handle it and that we have everything under control, because we can’t handle it and don’t have anything under control. The forces working against us, though nowhere near as strong as God, are still degrees of magnitude more powerful than us.  We cannot deal with them on our own, and to believe that we can is a trap.

I’ve been caught in that trap, many a time, and had to learn not to take the bait. I had to learn to defer to God, always defer to God. We’ve not sent the dreams, but they’ll come looking for us. How we handle them is a testament to who we’ve become.

Some of our best work is done entirely without us.