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John Dau's Dream

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Minister Ty Alexander
(Ty)

5/29/2018

11/27/2018

Updated 9/21/2023

The following was a recurring dream given to John Dau, which he shared in his book God Grew Tired Of Us.

"In my dream I sit atop an eight-foot-tall anthill and watch over my father's flock. As I perch there, I make toy cows out of clay. Beside me lie my knife, my stick, and my spear. I am chewing a sorghum stem and looking at my clay cows, when all of a sudden I hear something running. The curtain of grass opens, and I see a goat of mine, followed by a lion. The lion chases the goat around and around my anthill, and I think that perhaps the goat has run to me to get my help. I get up, grab my spear, and point it at the lion. The lion bows down, afraid of me, and freezes. I seize the lion by the tail and swing it around in a circle. I am so, so powerful. Holding the lion's tail like the handle of a whip. I beat the animal's body against the anthill. Still the lion refuses to move. I switch to my stick and beat the lion's head, then return to swinging it by the tail and whacking it against the hill.

When I look up from beating the lion, I see a group of boys having fun. I drag the lion to where the boys are playing. The boys ask me, 'Why are you killing that lion?' I say, 'If I kill this lion, he will not be able to attack my goats again.'

We talk like that for a while. In my dream I stand like a Dinka boy on watch, with my right leg straight, my left leg bent at the knee, and the handle of my spear tucked under my shoulder, its point stuck in the ground like a third leg.

'What do you want to do with that lion?' one of the boys asks.

'I want to throw it away,' I reply. 'I will take it far away and get rid of it so it cannot harm anything in my village again.'

I take the lion to a place where I can cast it into a swift flowing river, where the current will make it disappear. Just as I start to toss it in, though, it comes alive and stands up. In the blink of an eye, it grows strong again. The lion chases me, intent on catching and eating me. I run very fast, until I trip over a bunch of grass and fall. The lion leaps toward me, and I wake up."

(Dau, John Bul. God Grew Tired Of Us. pg 235)

The dream given to John Dau is a very good example of how God uses symbolism to give details. Throughout John's book he wondered why God made them go through so much suffering. I felt his sorrow as I read about their many long and difficult hardships, and I continue to feel great sadness for all the horrible events around the world that are taking and displacing so many lives. I know more difficult times are coming for people everywhere, because I understand why God brings judgment to the earth. John didn't quite understand why in his book, but I saw God gave him the recurring dream to tell part of the story.

John said he did not know what the dream meant, but because I'm familiar with Biblical concepts and spiritual guidance, I could see a lot of meaning in it. It has to do with having further knowledge of the spiritual world.

First, John stands on an anthill in the dream. Ants symbolize workers, especially restless, hardworking people. Ant drones also symbolize unthinking laborers that go about business more on instinct than logical thought. John stands on the anthill to symbolize how he, as well as the church in general, stand on those kinds of work ethics. We will see in the meaning of this dream how the church goes about business like drones, because she is not thinking as deeply about God's guidance and spiritual things as she should be.

The toy cows John makes and looks at symbolize the church's sacred cows or false beliefs and incorrect doctrine that she unreasonably clings to despite things that show she is wrong. The cows are made of clay (earth) to symbolize how those false beliefs come from worldly or earthy ways of thinking that do not come from God.

The lion symbolizes the enemy of mankind, Satan, who prowls like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour, from 1 Peter 5:8. It tries to kill a goat from his herd to symbolize how the enemy also tries to destroy the fruits of our crops and take our wealth, which they can do because of judgment for our sin. The enemy accuses us before God day and night (Revelation 12:10).

In the dream, John confronts and seemingly kills the lion, throwing it around, which symbolizes how we use our strength and authority in Christ through the New Covenant to fight and rebuke the enemy. That is why he feels so powerful in the dream and why the lion cowers at him.

In the dream he believes that killing the lion will protect his people, which represents how people think that simply rebuking the enemy will protect us. However, that is only partially true.

When he tries to discard the lion in the river, it comes back to life and attacks again. This refers to how the enemy cannot be "killed" or kept away permanently simply by rebuking or praying. God is trying to make John and the church aware that their current beliefs and knowledge about spiritual things is incorrect. They're tripping on their false beliefs, which is symbolized by the bunch of grass John trips on, since overgrown grass can symbolize overgrown false beliefs. The end of the dream is saying how John and the church are missing the important knowledge of how God's laws and covenants work, because when we sin or break God's laws, we are open to being attacked by the enemy.

That means when we sin, whether we know it or not, judgment comes to us through curses, such as bad illness, accidents, and loss of property and wealth. Rebuking the enemy and praying for help and deliverance does help, but the help can only be temporary if we continue to sin. That's why Yeshua (Jesus) told people to not sin anymore after he healed them, like the man He healed at the pool of water. He said, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you" (John 5:1-14).

The only way to completely kill the lion in the dream is to become unaccusable before God, which means to become sinless as Yeshua was. We can only get the full blessings of God's promises if we walk righteous and strive to keep sin out of our lives, at least the worst ones foremost, since there are lesser sins that we should not worry as much about, and it is impossible to be perfect and sinless as Christ was (Romans 3:10-12, 3:23, 5:12; Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 3:5; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Revelation 5:1-14; 1 Samuel 2:2; 1 Kings 8:46; Psalm 14:1-3, 53:1-3). Worrying over all sin is a ploy of the enemy to brainwash us into constant fear over false sins as well as excessive worry over any sin, no matter how small.

Still, knowing what sin really is, is very important to understand, not just for ourselves, but also for our children and families through generational curses (see generational curses in Light Within; Exodus 20:5, 34:6-7; Leviticus 26:22, 26:39; Numbers 14:18, 16:25-35; Deuteronomy 5:9, 23:2, 28:18; Joshua 7:24-26; 2 Chronicles 29:6-9; Jeremiah 2:9, 9:16 32:18, 36:31; Lamentations 5:7; Hosea 4:6; 2 Peter 2:14). We need to think about that, strive to get rid of sin from our lives, and teach the truth to our families, because it will help and protect everyone if we all try to walk righteous before God.

If we keep learning about what the full truth is and the laws and commands God expects us to walk in today, then we would not hurt so much as a People, like God said in Hosea 4:6, "My People are destroyed from lack of knowledge." That's a big reason why John Dau's people went through so much suffering and why much of the world comes to so much tribulation. People do not know how much they do wrong in God's eyes because of their lack of knowledge or because they were taught wrong. Unfortunately, the church works too much like ant drones without thinking deep enough about God's word and spiritual guidance and excludes information from the whole picture.

God gives another sign to go with John Dau's dream

9/21/2023

Yesterday, a friend on Facebook shared a memory which immediately had me remember John Dau's dream and God's guidance in it. God's new sign even had overgrown grass as the crown on the cross, which is very telling in what the church upholds (photo below). Read my post above if you don't understand the symbolism.

However, not one person in the Facebook comments, including the person who took the photo, understood what God was saying in this sign, so I directed them to this page. This is not the first piece of spiritual guidance that required my help to connect to what God had already taught me. John Dau's dream here was another, and in Gems Prove Destiny, True Love, and Christ Are Real I share another.

Praise the Lord in all His wondrous works, in the name of Mashiach Yeshua. Amen.

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