He spoke some words to me this morning, somewhere between my dreaming and my waking.
Not God.
An elephant.
Yes, that’s what I wrote. An elephant. Yesterday’s headline news about a woman and her child being killed by a mother elephant intent on protecting her African turf somehow made its way into my dreaming. Instead of this woman being chased by an angry elephant, I was the object of his fury. Funny how that happens. Reality merging with the subconscious, all playing itself out upon the stage of our slumbering. All making sense in the moment, calling on emotion to interject its full witness throughout.
The emotions in that moment for me?
Panic. Fear. Retreat.
Thank heavens for the makeshift rest area that existed feet away from my frightful encounter. It sheltered me in one of its two, crudely fashioned stalls, concealing my presence from the formidable beast which seemed, for the moment, a bit confused as to my whereabouts. I practiced being hidden until she rudely entered in. Apparently bamboo doors aren’t equal to the strength of an angry, momma elephant.
I kept quiet, eyeing her mammoth frame through the narrow slit in the stall door. Rather than knocking the entire structure to the ground, she turned her head and drew near to my fright. Her eye was big. Her eye was penetrating. Her eye was eyeing me, dressing me down and reading me through that narrow slit—a space now ample enough for her intervention and my swift destruction.
She didn’t go there; instead she spoke there.
“Run, run, back to the place where you came from. Then this country can go back to being what it has always been, drab and undisturbed.”
An elephant’s exact words to my slumbering soul. I’m not kidding, and for what it’s worth, I wrote them down. In fact, I carried them to church. Been thinking about them all day long.
~About drab and undisturbed ground.
~About the brave few who are willing to walk its breadth in faith believing that their feet were meant to go there.
~About breaking up the unplowed ground of a dreary and untouched soil.
~About an angry elephant who’d rather leave things as they are; keep the “baby” protected and unaffected by outside influence.
~About lives that live out their days unaltered because no one dared to step out for their sakes… speak up for kingdom’s sake.
~About those who let the threats of the enemy keep them immobilized in fear and from moving into the spacious place deeded to them by a gracious and very good God.
~About a country that remains as it is because no one dreamed beyond its borders.
Stuff like that. All marinating inside my head and ruminating within my heart for an entire day. And tonight I’m wondering where that line is between dreaming and waking. Between what’s imagined and what’s real. Between voices that author from heaven and threats that author from hell. Located somewhere in an elephant’s words to me, I find them both… hell’s threat and heaven’s hope.
“Run, run, back to the place where you came from. Then this country can go back to being what it has always been, drab and undisturbed.”
Hear the threat. Hear the hope.
The hope precedes the threat. Without hope—without the anticipation of what might be discovered because of what will be disturbed—then there would be no angry elephant in the room. And lest we haven’t noticed in recent days, there’s an angry elephant in the room, friends. Rather than sidestep him, avoid him and pretend that he doesn’t exist, don’t you think it’s time we deal with him? His threats? His false impressions regarding what’s his and what’s not?
Makeshift stalls are poor excuses for spiritual progress. They are exactly as they were created to be… a temporary dwelling to stall your forward progress. If fear is what has led you there, what is keeping you there, then an elephant’s anger has raged successfully. You’re right where she… where he wants you to be. As he wants you to live.
Unproductive. Ineffective. Incapable of “disturbing” the ground beneath your feet, unplowed or otherwise.
It is time to disturb the ground beneath your feet, sisters and brothers in Christ. It is time to face the elephant in the room. Time to look the angry momma squarely in the eye and echo back to her some familiar words…
Run, run, back to the place where you came from. Then this country can go back to being what it has always been.
God’s.
I don’t know what that means to you today. It’s meant a great deal to me. I have a feeling it just might be the right encouragement for someone who’s stuck in a makeshift stall right now, stuck in fear and more than willing to concede some sacred ground to an angry elephant rather than claim that soil as kingdom inheritance. If so, then receive my dream as yours, and carry the truth of its witness into your week. You and I were empowered with God’s Spirit to deal with our elephants. Let us not walk God’s earth in fear. Let us, instead, disturb it for his sake and for his heaven’s gain.
In the name of the Father who created us, the Son who paid the highest price to redeem us, and the Holy Spirit who tabernacles within us, Amen. So be it.
peace for the journey,
Copyright © January 2010 – Elaine Olsen
My goodness! Sounds to me like you're about to unearth something. Wow!
OH… Oh, Elaine! This was incredible! Thank you so much for putting this out on facebook. For some reason my Blogger Dashboard doesn't show that you posted this… So I had to come here and find out! 🙂 I am so glad that I did.
Yes, that momma elephant has had me in a makeshift stall. Today, God has helped start to break that thing down… spoke to me right out of the book of Hosea, through our Pastor's sermon……… just so incredible how God works.
And He is using your post too… resonates with me in a way I can't describe.
I need to claim this ground as kingdom inheritance – won an bought with the precious blood of Christ – rather than concede it to the enemy any more.
Please pray that God will speak His truth over the lies I have been believing, and that He will continue to show me what they are (the lies) so they can be broken. He started today. He did some amazing things that I am still processing. I am praying that I will have time to write within the next few days here to share what I am experiencing as best I can.
Suffice it to say, there was a huge breakthrough today, and things are slowly being revealed… and our God is soooo good.
Thank you for this word tonight. Just adds to the conviction that I HAVE to stand my ground and fight. No panic, no fear, no retreat.
May God bless you this night.
Heather
Friend, you had me on pins and needles all the way through your post…excitement!
Great post. Great insight. I needed to hear this. Thank you for sharing what was definately a message from God.
Elaine, that is some powerful stuff. I need to let all of that soak in. Wow!
Amazing how God can use our dreams. Thanks for sharing the message you got in yours with all of us. I'm sure it's going to be hitting a very specific spot for some folks and encourage us all to stand against the evil one at all times.
Have a blessed week, Elaine!
Although I am not familiar with the story of the elephant you are sharing about, I know a little bit about makeshift stalls. You've hit your point right home. God is speaking to my heart and saying…its better to fall forward unprotected, and get up and move on than keep hiding in an insecure shelter. That takes TRUST!
Blessings
This was amazing! I love your analogy and your desire of your heart for us to look closer at our lives. Thank you!
Hmmm, interesting. A makeshift stall perhaps speaks to me of the temporary tent of flesh that we dwell in. One day we will leave it and run back home to our Lord. WE will leave this drab earth and be transported to a heavenly home that far exceeds our makeshift shelter.
Until then………
Leah
Could it be that elephant represents the lukewarm? I realize it's formidable and dangerous, threatening; but it's also stealthy in some clandestine way. It runs from the bush, heretofore unseen … it's upon you before even you (we) realize the weight of it's foot; the menace of it's tusks.
Many thoughts surface as I consider this. They're not new thoughts, but affirmations of the critical times in which we live.
Too, It's interesting to me in another way. Just this morning as I was doing a bit of research (at 4am no less!), the words "Big Picture" kept playing in my thoughts. It is a theme I'm pondering still … and perhaps there's an elephant image just beneath that caption!
Blessings,
Kathleen
Wondering if your dream is another way of illustrating Hebrews 12: 26ff: "Once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens…"so that what cannot be shaken may remain?
I'm observing the "shaking" of many, many people and their (our) circumstances lately.
"Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe". (11:28)
You obviously have a God-given gift to take a dream and a statement and give us such a great analogy of our lives. It is definitely time to get rid of the make-shift stalls and face the elephant. After all, we have the power and might of an almighty God on our side.
Wow! This was huge–no pun intended! You've got me thinking girl. What a scary dream this must have been. Breaking out of our stalls to do God's work.Will ponder over this one, Elaine.
Love you!
Susan
PS–I didn't get that email with the scripture last week. Hmm…wonder why? Which email did you use?
oh boy Elaine… this was a doozy! There is so much recognition in that elephant scene… no wonder you were thinking about it all day, I think I will be too! Lots to mull on here… I sometimes wonder if God is behind some of these dreams, sure looks like it in this case.
Amazing, Elaine! Thanks for sharing what God said to you through that dream! Deep things to ponder…
Blessings of the Lord to you today…
Jennifer
oh wow! That is such a deep dream. I will take it on as a message to myself. There are some things that I am contemplating in my life right now and this has helped me to take on a new direction of thinking concerning my efforts in going forth with them. Thanks Elaine!
What is interesting about these makeshift stalls is how we give them more strength than they really have. Great post this morning to read. Blessings to you.
From your technologically challenged friend–who had to sound out each of those words!!!–thank you!! I still think you sent it to somebody else's email!!!!
Love you, you nut!!
Susan
** I should be getting my website for my photo business today!! Whoohoo!!!
Oh wow. This has me thinking of both cowardice to help change the culture AND the desire to expel the unholy. Wow.
Very powerful Elaine. God has led me to a place. I'm still working it out… but it's very liberating.
Wow…I was getting all nervous just reading your post! I could picture that ol' elephant peeking through the slit in the stall with that big eye…*shudder*.
The implications/interpretations of the dream are many…I'm sorting it out this afternoon.
I do have a question, though…what did you EAT before you went to bed?! 😉
Missing you,
Beth
I have heard of this elephant dream before. Not this one, but similar ones. The elephant…a slow-moving, old way of doing things. Like a dinosaur.
You must be running with a new gift from the Lord. I'm sure many of us are.
Run! Keep running! Take what God has given you and carry it to a new land, a land that is unfamiliar with this newfound freedom. Run!
This is very deep and thought provoking. I am going to have to ponder it for a bit.
blessings on your week
Very cool post.
Elaine, this is your most powerful post ever. At least to me. Wow.
Makeshift stalls are poor excuses for spiritual progress. They are exactly as they were created to be… a temporary dwelling to stall your forward progress.
Speechless.
One word: Wow!
A plethora of information to digest here my friend.
Love you so and thanks for always posting what the Lord has laid on your heart – He uses you mightily.
Beth
Powerful and personal to me. I get it. I'm there in thought with you.
Thank you for sharing your dreams and the added insight with us. May God continue to use your pen for His greater purposes.
I've missed my visits here. You are precious to me.
Hugs and love,
Tiffany
How scary Elaine but how true. I love it when God does those things in our dreams…just like in the Bible. Satan is hitting hard these days and its time to shake things up a bit.
As always, you are such a blessing!
In His Graces~Pamela
I have goosebumps from reading this!!! I have been having troubling thoughts all day questioning what I am doing and if it is worth all the time and effort.
Thank you so much for sharing this with us "me". I feel very encouraged!
-Alisa Hope
I am linking to this post and your blog in my latest post, currently in progress. I pray that you don't mind.
Hope to send a little traffic your way (not that I get much, but you know) 🙂
Love you and thanks for your encouragement to write through it all if need be.
Heather
I'm still thinking about this after . . . how long. I'm a guy. Guys are slow. What can I say; other than I feel out of place here. I'll do my best to get in and out quick.
I keep thinking of how much like Satan your elephant is. He may be able to destroy everything around us, but there is a protective hedge that he cannot cross. All he can do is intimidate and threaten. He can be pretty convincing. But . . . he's got nothing – unless he can make us think he does.