Signposts – Part IV

Seated on the right side, I am the only passenger on a 747 airplane. The plane is descending far too fast. It suddenly occurs to me—we are crash landing.

All air is sucked from my lungs.

The plane is frightfully close to the airport building. I wince as the right wing of the airplane hits the structure and breaks off. After that, I shut my eyes. My arms cover my head, and I slump over as we hit the ground hard. The sound of screeching metal on concrete is ear-piercing. The plane weaves right and left, fishtailing wildly. I brace to stop my forward motion. Will the plane burst into flames?

Finally, all is quiet. I am alive. Visibly trembling, I exit the plane.

Immediately, a Northwest Airlines official is there to greet me.

“I’m…I’m so sorry,” I say, between labored breaths. “I didn’t mean to wreck your plane.”

He offers a wide smile and touches my arm. “Not a problem.”

I’m stunned. Millions of dollars have been lost in the wreckage.

He cuts to the chase. “It doesn’t matter.” Pointing toward the hangar, he continued. “We have this for you.”

I take in the wonder of a huge shiny airplane. It’s state-of-the-art, painted with two colors of blue—cerulean and royal. I catch my breath.

Then I woke up, but my heart was still pounding. Eventually, I wrote about it in my journal, though I didn’t get the meaning of the dream.

Soon after, I attended a seminar in Salt Lake City at a small church. The course was about understanding dreams and visions. I wanted to grow in my capacity to hear God.

During the seminar I learned that God primarily speaks through the Bible. Scripture is our foundation, but God builds on that bedrock—reiterating truth in ways that are poignant, timely and meaningful. The purpose of God speaking in fresh ways today is not to add chapters to the Bible. Rather, the Holy Spirit wants to guide, encourage, warn, and impart wisdom to us in our current situations.

After all, Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice.”

Not only Old Testament prophets or the twelve disciples. And not just pastors, intercessors, or super-spiritual people.

No, Jesus said my sheep—and that’s you and me.

During the seminar, we practiced “listening prayer.” It means asking God what He’s thinking and then waiting for the Holy Spirit to tell you something. Maybe a certain Scripture will pop up. Sometimes a symbolic or metaphorical picture will form on the screen of your mind. Other times a word or a phrase will thread through your thoughts.

At that point in my development, it all seemed far-fetched. I was not adept in the art of hearing God. It involved a Peter-sized act of faith, stepping out of the boat, completely.

We were instructed to pray for someone we didn’t know, asking God to give us something for that person. I can’t begin to explain how nervous that made me feel. A fellow student approached me first. He asked if he could pray for me. What could possibly happen? He seemed like a kind person. I nodded and closed my eyes, and a period of silence followed. My breathing changed.

Finally he spoke up. “Well, this might seem strange,” he said, “but God’s impressing on me that you’re too right-winged.”

Right-winged? I thought. I couldn’t believe he used that term! I swallowed hard. “Politically?” I asked, not knowing what else to say.

“No, no.” He gave a little laugh. “Spiritually.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“I think it’s about holding back—you’re afraid of making mistakes or being presumptuous. God wants you to step into this and take off.  You gotta believe it’s possible to hear from God, ‘cause He has stuff to tell you.”

I was stunned.

In my dream, the “right wing” of the plane had broken off.  How symbolic! In dream interpretation, flying often represents gaining God’s perspective by learning to hear His voice. God wanted me to “take off” and had offered me a new plane.

There is more to tell, but when I returned home from the trip, a childhood friend of mine randomly sent me a funny internet photo. (See photo above). It showed a crashed plane on a runway. Next to it was a brand new plane with the same two colors of blue I saw in the dream. The caption read:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the captain speaking. Firstly I’d like to thank you for choosing to fly Mandarin Airlines. As we taxi out to the runway, please make yourselves comfortable…and for those of you sitting on the right side of the plane…please look to your LEFT.” (The crashed plane was to their right.)

Now I ask you, was it odd, or was it God?

“(Indeed), God does speak, now one way, now another because man may not perceive it.” Job 33:14