As some of you probably already know, I have really vivid (and sometimes really bizarre) dreams. I think a lot of them are probably prophetic in nature. Through much discussion with others in the church, examination of Scripture, and reading recommended books about prophecy, Jared and I have concluded that I do have [at least some] gifting in that area.

My prophetic dreams are usually distinguished by a couple of distinct characteristics: they're often recurring, and details within the dreams are usually consistent. For example, some universal aspects of my prophetic dreams that I have identified include:
-temporally, it is midday but the sky appears as if it is dusk (i.e., mostly dark, overcast, etc)
-the atmposhere is dark, hazy, and/or eerie-identified by dead trees, dead/dry leaves blowing around, etc. (very 'Sleepy Hollow,' if you will)
-all events occur outside, or center upon being outside

Some dreams don't posses the last one or two characteristics, but all posses the first. Many only 'occur' in a specific geographic location. For example, in several dreams the events have only taken place at one of my two grandmother's homes. Here is an example of one of these dreams:

I am outside in the yard, the sky is dark, it is very eerie and I am trying to get away. I can't see the ground because there are snakes coiled up everywhere covering it, and I know the snakes are venomous. They are all prepared to strike. I hear rattles, hisses...I am panicking because I know I have to get away, but I can't walk for the snakes.

Every time I have this dream the whole thing revolves around me trying to escape. There are small variations in plot--sometimes I am alone, sometimes there are other people around, etc. but essentially the plot remains consistent. Like I already mentioned, these specific 'snake' dreams have taken place either at my Nana's house or at my Mamaw's house, and nowhere else.

I have had other dreams that only 'occurred' in other places...there was one dream that only happened at my parents' house, and it always centered around these ravenous wolves trying to get into the house and get to my family, specifically to me and my little brothers. I was the first (and sometimes only) one who knew the wolves were there, and really understood the gravity of the danger we were in.

There have been random but, I felt, extremely significant dreams that I have had only one time. The only thing shared by these dreams were the universal characteristics I mentioned earlier that signify 'prophetic' or 'spiritual' dreams. Instead of trying to expound a lot on them I'll just share them with you:

Dream #1 - I am at an amusement park. It is dark and eerie out again--it looks dusk but it is only the afternoon. The amusement park consists only of the world's most elaborate and expensive roller coasters, and the park is crowded and full of people of all ages. I am in the park walking around, just enjoying the scenery when I make a shocking discovery--I notice that all of the roller coasters end in death. One goes off of a cliff, one goes into a volcano, one into a gaping whole in the earth, etc. When I notice it I start staring and pointing, asking others if they see it. The people grumble, shrug me off and walk away; some scold/reprimand me, and some try to debate with me about the 'true' end of the coasters--they try to tell me that death isn't what really happens, that I am wrong, etc. I become so overwhelmed with compassion and urgency I begin yelling to anyone who can hear me and grabbing/stopping people and pointing, trying to show them, but still no one will listen. I hear someone yell my name. I look up and see two specific individuals that I know next in line to get on a coaster. They are urging me to join them, telling me how fun it will be. I say, "guys, look--look at the end! you're going to die. It ends in death!" and they look right at the end of the coaster, and don't see it. they say, "nah, its not a big deal, it just looks that way...come ride with us! It will be awesome." and I say "NO you don't UNDERSTAND, you WILL DIE if you get on this ride! DON'T GET ON." and they laugh at me and say I am being silly. I watch in silence as they climb onto the ride and strap themselves in, and the last thing I see is the coaster take off. Then I woke up.

Dream #2- I see an island. It is beautiful and tropical, so I begin to swim over to it. The water is crystal clear, a beautiful blue. There is a friend swimming ahead of me... as I am swimming, I see these sea things swimming around me. They're so beautiful, and making beautiful sounds, and it makes me want to reach out and touch them. I reach out to, and then my friend warns me, "Hurry up and get to shore. If you don't, they'll eat you." As if to confirm her statement, the sea creatures (which I have now discovered to be mermaids) start growling and making horrible, evil, frightening noises and snapping at me with their several rows of three inch long razor-sharp teeth. I swim and swim and swim...I shout ahead to my friend, "Why don't they eat you too?" And she says nonchalantly, "Because I asked them not to, of course." And then I say, "Well why can't I ask them not to eat me?!" And she tells me that I can but it will only work if I am on land when I ask. I continue to swim frantically .....trying to get away. Then I woke up.

Dream #3- I stop by to see my sister, Misty, in Kingsport on the way home (to Rogersville). She, for some reason, is living back in the old trailer I grew up in and not in her new apartment. She is making pizza for a party that she is hosting later on that afternoon. I am talking to her, flipping through some magazines as we chat. I glance up and do a double take--She is cutting up pieces of crack with a razor blade and putting it in lines. I (understandably) flip out. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING???" I ask, attempting not to raise my voice. She replies, "Oh, its just a little bit of crack, we'll have it with the pizza." I stare at her in amazement for a few minutes, then she leaves. Then my mom and younger brothers show up and start snorting all the lines of cocaine in front of me. I totally lose it and start screaming and trying to get them to stop...they're snorting so much that they're becoming totally crazy and weird and I don't know what to do...so I start searching the trailer. I find HUGE bags of cocaine everywhere. I start flushing it down the toilet before any of them can get to it, but then I leave just enough for them to get in trouble, and hide it. I march over to them and announce, in tears, that I love them and I don't want to do this, but I have to call the police. The police come, see them, find the bag that I hid, and arrest them all. And I woke up.

Dream #4- I am staying with my friend Mary for the night. We are in her bed, chatting as we wait for sleep to set in. All of a sudden this bright light appears, and an angelic host is there in front of us at the end of the bed. It looks like a warrior, it is very large and intimidating but good. We are terrified, and paralyzed by fear, and it tells us not to be afraid. It speaks to us for a minute (I don't recall exactly what it said, but I don't think it was significant) and then disappears. Me and Mary sit there stunned for a minute and then excitedly talk about what just actually happened. We are amazed and happy. I get up to go to the bathroom. When I come back, as I walk into the room I immediately sense something wrong. Mary is laying on the bed awake, in silence, and looks at me and says "Brittany." I know by her voice she knows something is wrong too. I turn my back to Mary and the bed, and face the wall. I instantly know that there are at least three demons up against the wall, one of which is a higher rank than I have ever encountered before. I shout at Mary to pray. I begin 'battling' with the demons--I am praying constantly, and they attack me by means of verbal assault and condemnation. Through prayer I am equipped by the Holy Spirit to counter their assaults with Scripture. When Mary and I hesitate in our prayer I feel the demons' power grow stronger; When our prayers are unceasing I feel the demons' power decline. This battle goes on for several hours. I 'defeat' the demons with Scripture one at a time, causing them to flee, until myself and the higher ranked demon remain. I battle with it for a long time, to no avail. I am pacing and praying and Mary is praying on the bed and then all of a sudden I feel my body physically become empowered by the Holy Spirit. I stand up authoritatively, face the demon, and shout, "Glory be to the God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" and the demon vanishes. Then I woke up.


I have prayed over many of these dreams, asking the Lord for revelation. He has given it for some, and not for others. I think that it is so amazing and interesting that He can and does communicate in this way to believers sometimes. I always try to write down my dreams in my journal so I can pray over them, reread them later, etc.

What actually spurred this post was a dream I had last night. I am not really sure if it held any significance or not...I will have to pray about that. It definitely was weird, though. I had several dreams last night, most of which, if I remember correctly, were silly (e.g., me being a character in the movie Hairspray and replacing both Amber and Tracey as Link Larkin's love interest). The last dream I had, though, was different. Strange. In the dream I felt something in my stomach. I put my hand on my belly and felt movement. I thought, "There is NO WAY. No possible way..." I used my hand to press around and examine what was moving...I slowly felt a tiny arm, then a hand...and a leg...and i felt more movement and saw a bump, so I felt it and it was a head, and as I rubbed down I felt tiny shoulders and a spine. I refused to acknowledge that there was a baby inside me. I didn't understand how, or why. I located some very recent photos of me and closely examined them...no evidence of pregnancy. Normal, flat (well, flat for me) stomach. No baby bulges to be seen. I didn't understand how I went from not pregnant to just, pregnant. I remember being surprised that I wasn't completely upset with the idea. That's all I remember.

Maybe this is a weird post, who knows. I just like to write. In case you haven't figured it out yet, I am a pretty weird person so my blogs, understandably, will be a little strange.

-(an unpregnant, to the best of my knowledge) Brittany

I have been dealing with an issue for the past several months...an issue that is very difficult, and has resulted in many tears, many arguments, and many worries.

This issue revolves around an attempt to preach the gospel. Truth, I am discovering, is something that instantly stirs rebellion in people. Ironically enough, this rebellion seems to be the strongest among confronted believers.

I have attempted to dissect the situation over and over, to analyze...and, of course, prayed for insight. But it seems that as time passes, I am beginning to realize that it doesn't matter who the person is, what the situation is...when you tell people the truth it makes them angry. It makes them not like you...
as a good friend of mine said, pride is a tricky thing.

See, in my mind--and I know not all people thank like me, and you should be thankful for that--truth is necessary, and demands priority. Christ didn't compromise truth, and by default nor should I. Unfortunately, many people don't see it that way.

So, as usual, Derek Webb swoops in and says everything I am feeling but never had the eloquence to muster. Here is another excerpt from a show he did. It is also on the "The House Show" album.




This next song is just my own confession, my confessing that I, because of my unbelief, because of the fact that I don’t believe the gospel, I don’t believe that Christ is really sufficient for me, I don’t really believe He’ll meet all my needs, I don’t. I struggle to believe that. And you can see it by the way I live. And because I don’t believe that, I all too often give in, and am convinced or wooed by what some theologians have called ‘lovers less wild’ than Jesus, the Great Lover of our souls. Other lovers, as Scripture calls them, as well, that would seek to convince us that they can satisfy us, convince us that they can safely bear our sin, that we’ll be safe and secure, that they can satisfy us in ways that, in fact, only our Savior can. I think that so often we try to make it our job to make the gospel easier for us to preach and easier for other people to hear, in order to not get into trouble, in order to not be confrontational. See, here’s the truth: you just can’t preach the gospel and not get in trouble. You just can’t do it. As hard as you might try, you can dress it up any way you want, but if you’re really preaching the gospel, you’re going to get yourself in trouble, I mean you’re going to be in trouble, as well. Because again, the cross is both beautiful and offensive, and it must be both. It is both. There is no other gospel for you to preach. So in ways that we seek to dress it up—or, again, as Tony Campolo put it, and it’s such a great way to think about it—if we seek to neuter the gospel, just to rob it, of its great offense and therefore its great beauty, then it’s no longer the gospel we’re preaching to people. We’re not doing anyone any favors by making the gospel easier to hear, because it ceases to be the gospel. You know, it’s not safe to boldly preach the gospel. It’s not. You might as well just get to preaching it and just get into trouble, man. I mean, our same gospel, that we are told, will literally set mother against daughter, son against father…not bringing peace, but a sword. Dangerous work that we’re in, as believers…perilous work that we have before us to preach the gospel. Not only to each other, but to the outside world. The unbelieving world. Not safe work—‘safe’ is not a good, not a word that I would believe characterizes Christians, or Jesus, or the gospel. It shouldn’t. If it is, then, it might not be the gospel we’re preaching. And it makes me think about the great work by C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, where are these children who find their way through this wardrobe, or this closet. They go, and they find themselves in this other world, a kind of magical world where all these incredible things begin to happen. And they meet this great lion, Asland is his name. He is the Christ figure in the story. And these children, when they see him—as you can imagine, to see this huge lion—they’re terribly frightened. They’re scared to death. And they know that he’s king, but they have all these questions, and they go to some who live there, who know more of Asland than they do, and they say, you know, ‘listen, you gotta tell us, we’re frightened by the sight of Asland, the lion. Can you tell us—is he safe? Is he safe?’ Now, the response the children receive is not ‘yes! He’s safe. In fact, he’s safe for the whole family.’ That’s not the response. But the response is ‘NO! No, He’s not safe. But he is good, and he’s the King.’ Jesus, folks. He is not safe. He is not manageable. He’s a wild lion. You cannot tame him. He’s not safe. But He is good, and He is King. You can trust Him. You can trust that He will provide for you what you need as you go out and you seek to tell people about Him. The gospel that we carry is not safe. It is not. Not manageable. Not efficient. Loving people is not efficient. But the gospel is good, it is true, but it’s not safe. And so this next song offends its author, as well it should. Cause it wouldn’t be the gospel if it didn’t. So, as I’ve said in my record, and it’s true in this song, it is not for the faint of heart. And nor is the gospel. It’s a song called ‘Wedding Dress’.

Wedding Dress

If you could love me as a wife
and for my wedding gift, Your life
should that be all I'll ever need?
or is there more I'm looking for?

and should I read between the lines?
to look for blessings in disguise
to make me handsome, rich, and wise
Is that really what You want?

I am a whore, I do confess
I put you on just like a wedding dress
and I run down the aisle
I run down the aisle
I'm a prodigal with no way home
I put you on just like a ring of gold
and I run down the aisle
to You

So could You love this bastard child?
Though I don't trust you to provide?
With one hand in a pot of gold
and with the other in Your side

cause I am so easily satisfied
by the call of lovers less wild
that I would take a little cash
over your very flesh and blood

cause I am that whore, I do confess
I put You on just like a wedding dress
and I run down the isle
run down the isle
I'm a prodigal with no way home
I put you on just like a ring of gold
and run down the isle,
run down the isle
to You

cause money cannot buy
a Husband's jealous eye
when you have knowingly deceived his wife