In December of 2012, I had a dream in which my husband and I were in a warehouse. It was newer facility that was well maintained and brightly lit. I was walking parallel to him to his right while he drove a forklift to my left. We were going lengthwise along the right side of the building. Leaning against the wall, were large capacity, white, trash bags. They were odorless and appeared to be filled with paper material. They literally received only a passing notice from me. It wasn't my trash and I hadn't put them there so I felt no responsibility to dispose of them.
My husband pulled ahead of me a ways and then turned the forklift to the right. I stopped walking to look at him. He slowly pulled forward, forcing me to step back, closer to the bags. Then he stopped the forklift. My husband is a very good man and I had no fear as I looked at him. However I knew that he was serious, and his maneuver was intentional. It occurred to me that him sitting there in an enclosed forklift, gave him the appearance of being seated upon a throne. Having backed up closer to the bags, I looked around me to find that they surrounded me on three sides.
I woke up from the dream hearing in my spirit, "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind." This verse is found in Romans 12. The entire verse reads, "2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." ESV
The interpretation I received was that things are not always as they appear. The facility was bright and clean. Even the trash bags were not soiled or offensive. They didn't bother me and I continued to walk right by them until a man seated upon a "throne" gently but intentionally made me aware of what really surrounded me.
If we are honest, we will admit that there isn't much difference between a typical Christian and the rest of society. Some of the things we allow into our lives are obviously trash. Things we are convicted about. Things we wouldn't want anyone else to know about and would be ashamed of if they did. Things we do in the dark in a feeble attempt to hide our actions. Other things are more subtle, even oblivious to us. Things we say or think or do that don't give us so much as a twinge of guilt. Things like inoffensive, barely noticeable, white trash bags that little known to us are filled with false teachings and patterns of this world handed down to us by demons. We don't even know the danger of some of the things we have bought in to. We continue to walk along unbothered by what surrounds us, until He intentionally makes us aware. Then, my brethren, we are left with a choice. Do we continue to walk in the patterns and false teachings of this world or will we allow Him to transform our minds through the study of His Word and the power of His Holy Spirit so that we are honestly able to, "discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."?
The truth is is that it doesn't matter how things appear to us; what bothers us or doesn't bother us. The only thing that matters at all is not how things appear but how they actually are and what they mean to the Only Holy and Righteous Judge. In the end we will not judge ourselves against the teachings, behavior, or thoughts of one another. Then, the only standard of evaluation will be how closely we followed HIS teachings as modeled through His Only Begotten Son.
It's time to throw out ALL of the trash.
