Stephanie Ike Okafor - Warning Dreams: What God Might Be Telling You

It is a conviction from the Lord. It is the mercy of God telling you it is time to repent, and if you don't heed that instruction, then you might be coming to a place. You know, there's a scripture that talks about there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. Hey, y'all is Stephanie E. K okafor and today we're gonna be talking about warning dreams to pray about. Recently, we did a teaching about ten common dreams and their meetings and there was just so much engagement, a lot of questions that came about, and so just praying through how to just continue to build upon this topic. And so we're gonna highlight some of the warning dreams because you know, there are different types of dreams, but warning dreams are very interesting. Warning dreams, watchmen dreams. I talk about more extensively in my book The Power of Your Dreams. But warning dreams are very interesting because when the Lord is highlighting something to you that could literally, you know, cause danger in your wake in life, you want to pray about it. There's certain dreams you have and you need to get into the place of spiritual warfare because you're being alerted that you're already in it, but you're not engaging in the manner that you should. If you remember in Matthew seventeen, there was a boy that you know, Jesus healed, but his disciples couldn't heal him. And the disciples bring the boy to Jesus and they're like, you know, they tried all these things because remember, prior to this moment, Jesus had given them authority over demonic spirits. You know, they were having success in deliverance. But then they meet this young boy and they could not deliver the demon. And you know, in verse fourteen, it says, and when they had come to the multitude, a man came to him, kneeling down to him, saying, this is the boy's father. Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely, for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. What was the demon trying to do to this boy? He wanted to kill him? Right even when I want you to study that chapter because even when the boy they're bringing the boy to Jesus, the demon literally throws him because when he's getting close to his deliverance. The demon starts acting up right, and so Jesus actually talks to his disciples and he says, this kind goes out by nothing except prayer and fasting, because this is spiritual warfare. This is not just any regular demon trying to torment you, trying to speak to you, or causing you know, issues in your life. This demon is a sign to bring death right. And so how you respond to it, you have to engage in spiritual warfare, and one of the one of the ways we do that is by prayer. Now, I know that sometimes you may have dreams that make you feel overwhelmed, make you feel like you almost feel as though because they're reoccurring, and they're reoccurring in nature because literally God is trying to get your attention on the matter. But then you know, for the average person might just have those dreams and they feel defeated already. But when you're at war, that's not when it's time to lament. That's not when it's time to you know. Can you imagine soldiers at war and someone remembers they miss their their spouse and they just stop and battle and start crying. Like you are positioning yourself to be killed. Right. There is a time to lament, there is a time for all of that. But when you are at war, that is when you buckle up, and that is when you start to decree and you come into agreement with the word of God and not with the attack of the enemy. Because what God is doing is that he's revealing to you that there is a pendant danger and you need to buckle up because you know what the Bible talks about. Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and so you cannot just be a coward in those moments and just say you know what what will be will be. That is not how we function in the Kingdom of God. There are things that you have to rise up in faith and in partnership with the Lord, because even in these moments there's something that you know requires prayer. There's some things that would require fasting and prayer. And the power is not necessarily because you are fasting, but because in the fast you are intentional in seeking direction from the Lord. In the fast, you are coming before God to posture yourself and we weakness to say, Lord, I cannot do this in the strength of my flesh and I'm acknowledging my weakness because i need your divine intervention. You see, there are sometimes that just the posture of your fast, the mindset behind why you're doing it, the intention behind it. Never go into a fast and you are excited about weight loss at the end of the fast. It is a distraction because listen, atheists also do that, right, they do it for to master self control and different things like that. You want to go into a fast because of your dependency on the Holy Spirit to intervene in a matter, whether you need direction, you need clarity, you're asking God. Maybe there's certain things you're believing God for your standing on the world of God. You want to go on a fast with those intentions. And even when you're praying, We're going to go through a few things and I will go into more specific details and just practical ways you could pray through it. But when you're praying, you want to stand on the word of God in prayer. You don't want to just, you know, pray like a beggar. You are praying in the authority that the Lord has given you. And with that, you know, I'm definitely speaking to believers, speaking to Christians, and you may be watching this and you don't know Jesus, and at the end of this, I'm just going to invite you to accept him. Because when we talk about warfare, you have to be on the side of who has the authority over authorities. You have to be on the side of the one who controls powers. Right if you are on the fence. There's really no middle ground right in the spiritual realm. So if you feel like I'm just a spiritual person, you're under Satans kingdom. That's just what it is, and that's why things may not be working if you're trying all these other ways. But when you're under Jesus, you have to know how to work that authority. So let's get into it. Number one. When you are dreaming and you see yourself wounded or being harmed, now, what does this sometimes look like? You know? For example, a common thing is when people have their arrows in a dream, someone hits like really like you're struck with an arrow, and an arrow symbolizes a targeted attack, and where that arrow hits you is very critical because, for example, if an arrow hits your heart right, it could be a sign of where the enemy is trying to attack. You with emotional distress or that is literally how people have heart attacks and don't even recover right. So, because it's a different thing when you know that you are being targeted in a dream, you know, sometimes it may not be an arrow. It might be someone is trying to shoot at you and you don't get shot. Right, you want to come out of that, and you still want to be intentional in prayer. But if the bullet hits you, if the arrow hits you, if whatever weapon of choice is used and it actually hits you a body part of yours, you want to get into prayer. The reason I use arrow is that that's often more common, but all of them are really all connected. Psalms ninety one to five talks about you will not fear the terror of night, not the arrows that fly by day. Now, this was not just talking about the physical warfare of arrows flying by day, but it's also talking about God's protection against not just visible attacks but also invisible attacks. And so when you see something like that, there is something in the spiritual realm that has already been marked against your life, and for whatever reason they were able to succeed in that. For example, I know a young lady and in a dream she was hit. There was like this little arrow that they shot at her and it struck her in her right breast, and you know, she disregarded it, just was like, what is this. I'm not paying any attention. It was a nightmare. But then out of nowhere develops a tumor in that area. And when she started asking just for prayer for healing, you know, the word of the Lord came that there was a dream that you had. And then she opens up about this dream that you know, an arrow had hit her in the dream in her right breast, and that literally was the source of it, you know, because yes, there are things that can manifest in the natural, but not all sickness and illness in the natural is connected to natural causes. And so when you do see things like this in the dream, you have to rise up in prayer and begin to come out of agreement with it. You have to stand on the world of God that whatever the enemy has targeted against you, that you are coming out of agreement with that. You know, we live in such an interesting and wicked world where you have no clue that you're a coworker might be a witch. You have no clue that you know the person you spoke to at the grocery store is heavy into witchcraft and just little remarks, they mark you and they target you. And if you are someone who you know you talk about Okay, I'm a Christian, I know Jesus, but your life is representing the kingdom of darkness, then the enemy could get access to you. You know, there are ways when Jesus was having this dialogue about how you know, Satan comes to me, but he finds nothing in me. Right, some of us we are Christians, but there are many things the enemy finds in us that he says, oh, you've given me access. And so when people are working witchcraft against a person because they are they call Jesus Lord, but they are not submitted to him as lord. It causes open doors of such attacks. But when you see something like this, you want to pray same thing. If you see yourself wounded in a dream, that could also pay attention to where the wound was, right, if it was a wound in your leg, you know, is there an attack that could affect you physically in the leg or is there an attack against your mobility? Is there an attack against your progress in life. Is there a project you might be working on that is very critical, something the Lord has given you, And then all of a sudden, you see a dream where you're wounded in the leg. Now you have to rise up in warfare, because you know, I've seen situations where people would have dreams where they were wounded in the leg and all of a sudden, funding that was approved just got caught off out of nowhere. You know, investors who were locked in just back that out of nowhere. Someone who was about to it was engaged about to get married, the you know, the fiance just says, you know what, I'm no longer intrusted out of nowhere. These things are spiritual. If you focus on the people, you lose the battle. Right, the Bible tells us that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and it goes into this whole hierarchy of the kingdom of darkness. And so you don't want to just you know, back away and just say, oh, the fault is this person or that person. No, you get into prayer and you begin to decree and declare and come in agreement with what God showed you. You start praying about the things you know. For example, in Isaiah fifty three to five, it said, but he was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds were healed. This is a scripture you can stand on to begin to pray for victory in Christ. That Lord in you, I am victorious. You already handle this in your body, and you begin to pray. And one of the things that you pray about is clarity. Lord, if there is any open doors that has caused the enemy to have a foothold in my life, reveal it to me, because sometimes it could be unrepented sin. And why I talk about unrepented sin is because that reveals that you may say Jesus is Lord, but he is not your lord. Because you are comfortable in that sin, you are living in it, and you're making excuses for it. That is not how you live when you're under the lordship of Jesus Christ. You know, something I always say is that you would know that Jesus is your lord when you are shocked by falling into the same sin over and over again. Because true repents means that you're like, you know what, Lord, I am walking away from this style of living. I'm walking away from you know, this works of the flesh, and I'm moving towards you. True repentance is that when you find yourself back in it, you are disgusted, you are shocked, and immediately you're asking the Lord to strengthen you. You are not just relaxed tolrating it, you know, finding comfort in it and then declaring scripture over your life. It does not work that way, right, So you start asking the Lord, is their unrepentant sin in my life? Is their unforgiveness in my life? Because that gives the enemy a foothold, right, is there? You know? Is there a lack of spiritual covering? Am I a believer? Is just Jesus? Have have I given him responsibility to be my covering? Do I believe in him? You know? And I'm saying this because there sometimes people will say things like, you know, when you ask them when did you know the Lord? They say all my life? And often these are people that were, you know, they were just raised in the church two years old, they were in church every day of their lives, but they have no moment. There's nothing they can trace to when they actually intentionally gave their life to Jesus Christ. They know the religious activity of Christianity, but they don't know the person of it. Because here's the truth. Christianity is not about do's and don't. It's not just about rules and regulations. It's about the person Jesus Christ. You encounter him, you know him, You submit your life under his lordship, and then his Holy Spirit begins to lead and guide you. Right. And so you can't just say I've known him all my life. You know, there had to be a moment where you said, Lord, I'm gonna follow you. It's an intentional decision. It's not a decision your parents make for you. It's not a decision someone else you know is involved in. Is an intentional decision, and so you have to ask yourself, have I gotten to the point where I said, Lord, I believe in you, You alone are the way to the Father. If you think there are many ways to God, you don't know Jesus right, And so you have to be reflective in these things to find out where was the open door? Now? Number two, if you see ants, cockroaches, or flies, now there are many animals I could talk about, but I will use these three for now. Now let's talk about ants. Right in the natural, ants are diligent and persistent. They're known for scouting for food. And here's the key thing, exploiting small loop holes. Right. They know how to get in anywhere to gather food. That's why sometimes you know, when it's really hot outside, you might have OCD when it comes to cleaning, but then all of a sudden you find some ants just you know, trying to check out your spot because they know how to get through small loopholes when you're looking to gather food. What does this mean? Spiritually? Spiritually and in a dream, could symbolize witchcraft or demonic forces searching for weaknesses or exposed areas in your life. It doesn't mean they will find it, but they're searching. Now. This often happens, especially when there is something the Lord has entrusted to you. You know, when there's something the Lord has revealed to you that concerns his people. You know there's a place of leadership, there's a place of authority the Lord is bringing you into. And that announcement when the Lord is announcing you concerning a territory concerning a people, concerning a project that would reach a people. Now, witches are looking for you. They're looking for loopholes. They're looking to study your weaknesses. They're looking to study you know, what are the areas where we could get this person. Because you see, Sayan is not after your downfall in the genesis of the matter. He's not after your downfall in the beginning. He's looking for loopholes of what he can use to bring destruction in your life as you're rising. That is why whenever there is an announcement in your life in any way of elevation, whenever the Lord is showing you something he is entrusting to your care, you have to come to a place where you're like, Lord, search me. If there is anything evil or wicked in me, search me, make it known to me, bring it uprooted from my heart. If there's any area in my life that I have not submitted before, you make it known to me. What are the weaknesses in my life that could be exploited by the enemy. Because he's searching for something. So when you see ants, it is the Lord is trying to make you aware because he's giving you now and let me just make this clear, God is the symbol is not a symbol that the Lord is showing you ants. He is just making you aware. He's giving you the visual of what is happening in the kingdom of darkness concerning you, that they are searching for something in you. And so now your place is to come before the Lord, right, because you don't want your vulnerabilities to be a pathway for demonic reinforcement. And now if you see cockroaches right, something about cockreatrees that are very interesting is that they thrive in darkness. Cockroaches are considered nocturnal creature and they prefer to live and feed in dark places. Spiritually, they can represent on cleanliness. You know, things that are thriving in dark and hidden places. And so when you're seeing them in your dream, these could symbolize areas where the enemy already has territory because of what you're hiding. You see places where the enemy has gained dominion because of unconfessin hidden struggles. And sometimes it could just be things where you have you are functioning in deception. Right. Look at what John three, verse nineteen to twenty says. It says light has come into the world but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for the fear that their deeds will be exposed. When you see cockroaches in your dream, it is a conviction from the Lord. It is the mercy of God telling you it is time to repent. And if you don't heed that instruction, then you might be coming to a place. You know, there's a scripture that talks about there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. And so you might feel like, I've gotten away with this thing for so many years, what is a few more years? You know, things are are I'm thriving from the look for me from a worldly perspective, right, I'm living a great life. I'm making good money. People love me, people are applauding me. And then all of a sudden, you start having reoccurring dreams of cockroaches, and that could be a conviction of the Lord. And you wake up and you feel you feel icky, you feel dirty, you feel like it's something It's like you want to just hide because it is the things that you're hiding that could cause you to be in a place of deep darkness that the enemy already has territory over that area, and if you continue to give him territory, then he might just be get ready to release his agenda concern in your life, and he would have the legal rights to do so. That is the danger, you see. The Kingdom of Heaven operates through legalities. The spiritual realm operates through legalities. Satan cannot do anything he does not have permission to do, and it's not always the permission that comes from the Lord. Sometimes it is the permission you have given him. He works in a legal manner. He hasn't broken any law yet because either we're giving him permission or the Lord gave him permission. Like job. But most of the time we see situations where, based on how we're living, we're giving the enemy permission. If you're seeing, you know, cockroaches in your dream, then I encourage you. Something I will tell you to pray about is James five sixteen. It says, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed right the earner, and then it goes into the earnest prayer of the righteous has great power and produces wonderful results. But what does it start by saying, confess your sins? That there are some people that the sickness you're going through in your body or sometimes the sickness in your mind. On the surface, everything could look great, but people don't know the depths of what is actually taking place in your life. And there's some healings that is tied to confession because something is thriving in darkness. You see, you have to understand that there is truly no shame or condemnation in the Lord. The voice of the Holy Spirit will never shame you, will never condemn you. And what is beautiful even though you may have a crazy past, even though they might have been things you got yourself evolved in or what have you. Here is the truth of the matter. You know why in the scriptures you read things like you know of boasting in weakness. Why because it is a testament to the power of God. I'm not ashamed of my past. I'm not ashamed when I talk about how I could drink like a fish and not water right because when I look at who I am today, I'm like, Wow, this is the power of God. You know, it is only the hand of God that could take the direction of where my life could have gone to where it is right now. It is the power of God. So I can talk about my weaknesses because I know that the strength I have is not of my own doing. It's not of my wisdom, out of my mind. It is because of Jesus. So the enemy wants you to live in shame, to make you feel as though you should have known better. No, you wouldn't. You wouldn't have known better because it was in your own strength. But when you come under the blood of Jesus and you submit to the lordship of Jesus, then you begin to see a new creation. And because you know that that could have never been possible in your own strength, you boast in your weakness because why it points people to Christ. This is what Christ has done through me. So don't fall for the deception of the lie that there are things you just need to keep hidden. There are people that you can you don't have to. It doesn't mean Sometimes you know, we hear things where people like I don't want to expose a person or whatever, But it's not about you can cover a person but not hide. If that makes sense. You don't have to speak about the thing in a way that it is demeaning or you know, you're trying to make someone be canceled. You're just speaking truth. And so it is about the posture of how you share those things. Right. You're not saying like, hey, guys, you need to just show up at this person's house and just you know, let them know. Right, It's about the heart posture. You're sharing those things so you don't have to hide, especially when that is killing you and the enemy is using it against you. And in some cases it can be difficult because you might be someone who is you're not living what you preach. You're not living what you teach. The life you have on social media is a fake life, right, or how you make your money is based on you know, dishonest gain. You have to be willing to shed of those things in order to really grab a hold of what truly matters in this life, because this life is literally like a vapor. When this life is done, what matters is where you will be spending eternity. And once all of this is over, I mean, at best, you will get a speech from those people at your funeral. At best, that's all you will receive at best for everything you have wasted, the lies you told, the things you had to cover up, and all the dishonest gain. It's not worth it, right, take off the mask and let the Lord truly heal you. The next thing is if you see flies in your dream? Right, flies are drawn to decay and death, and when you see them in your dream, oftentimes it could represent spiritual death. Right, whether a spiritual death again, it could be on address sin. It could be stagnation in your walk with God, which also points to spiritual death. Now Here is an entry scripture in Revelation three, verse one to two. It says, I know your deeds. You have a reputation of being alive. This is one of the scariest scriptures I have read, and this was when Jesus was speaking to a certain church. But you are dead. Can you imagine this? You have a reputation. Everyone that knows of this people believes that these people are alive. They are just thriving in the Lord. Oh my god, you know, have you ever been even in the context of a church, right, Just imagine it's a church that you have visited and you're like, man, you know praise and worship was amazing. The Word was awesome. You know, the people were so friendly. That is the reputation of being alive. But in the records of Heaven, they don't see that as a living as a living church. They see it as a dead church. What does it mean. It's saying that this people don't have the capacity to produce the life that comes from God. So everything you're doing is just religious activity. It is what speaks to the flesh, is what appeases the emotions of people. But spiritually it holds no weight. It is a dead thing. And then look at what Jesus says. Wake up. He's like, you don't even realize that you are dead. But now I'm telling you because the people I'm speaking to you are literally disconnected from spiritual life. Wake up, strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the side of God. This is very strong. So when you're seeing flies in your dream, and it's interesting because the Lord is like, this is already dead. But strengthen what is about to die Because the fact that you're even receiving the word, the fact that you're receiving the dream. The fact that you're receiving a revelation about something that could be dying, could be pointing you to the fact that there is still a little, you know, flicker of hope that the Lord can still access your voice, that can still access your mind to give you a message. And the Lord is saying, hey, wake up, right, And so you want to examine your life? Are they dead things in my life that I am just okay with? And these are the things that is giving the enemy access to operating my life because I am entertaining I am in agreement. I have brought myself under dead things. So you want to begin to seek the Lord for insight as to Lord, give me wisdom, give me revelation to understand any area of my life that could be you know, that could reflect me entertaining a dead thing. Now, I will say this as a disclaimer, although I'm giving you some common translations of what these dreams could mean. It could it could be a range of different things. Right. But if I'm speaking about this and you know, it really like hits something in you, there is some form this. It's like the spirit, the spirit of the Lord is really testifying to you that hey, pay attention. You want to really look into this because some of these things could have other meanings right in the natural, you know, even in witchcraft, which some witches can use flies to monitor people, so sometimes that could even be a sign of a monitoring spirit. Right. But just in prayer, these are the things that are really heavy on my heart to teach on, and so it may not minister to you again and every no two dreamers are the same. Even though there are general things that could have there are some dreams that could carry a general meaning. Everything you're listening to right now, you still want to filter it by the Holy Spirit, right, You still want to be in prayer about it and see what the Lord is saying to you concerning your you know your life now. Number three, when you see when you dream of a dead loved one leading you, it is a warning of the spirit of death. Now. Even though when we see loved ones that have passed away in our dreams, it's comforting, you know, it makes us feel like we're closer to them. And I talk about this a bit more in the message about ten common dreams and their meaning, but I want to focus on when the dead loved one is either leading you or someone you know. Right, those that have passed on from this earth, they are separated from the body. They have no business leading you anywhere. And so when you see them leading you, you're not it's not a representative of the person. There is their likeness being used to represent the spirit of death. And this could manifest in different ways, whether it is a sickness in the body, you know, to cause premature death, and you want to pray and come out of agreement with that. If you see someone you know, then you start interceding for them, and you know, if the spirit leads you, you can inform them about the dream and you pray together to abort the plans of the enemy against that person. You know what's interesting recently I did a conversation on the Breakfast Club and we talked about this, and right after that conversation, one of the people on the production team had approached me and he mentioned he was like, man, I had a dream and it was like was a friend of his who was being led by a death of someone who had passed away, and he didn't think much of the dream, and it was like within weeks that person just randomly. I think it was a car accident. Something crazy just happened to them, and they died. You see, in those moments, there's something I talk about as watchman dreams. When you dream about others in such situations, then the Lord is causing you to be a gatekeeper in that moment to intercede on their behalf. You can inform them if the Lord leads you to do so, but to intercede against the plans of the enemy to cause premature death in that person's life. You can declare scriptures like Psalms one hundred and eight, verse seventeen, when it says I will not die, but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done. You see again, you have to know the power of prayer. Prayer is not the last resort. It is the first strategy. When you the world we live in is a spiritual world. The world we live in was formed by words, and so for certain things to either come into you know, for things to find expression on the earth, you have to be intentional about prayer. You know, something I thought was so interesting. This might be my go left a little bit, but just to make a point a few I think this was about a few years ago, well maybe like last year, not a few years ago. Time is just going so fast. I think it was sometime last year. My husband had shared with me how old he was when he when the Holy Spirit put it in him to start praying for a wife. When he told me the age he was, and I took a moment to calculate how old I was, and it blew my mind because that was the exact age when the Lord encountered me to tell me to keep myself till marriage. And I remember just it was the most awkward thing because I was at an age where I was not even thinking about sex. He was like I was a kid, and I'm like, I don't even know how that works. And when the Lord said it, I'm like, ew, you know, what is that? And it stayed with me that when I grew into the knowledge of it, and I started trying to, you know, find ways to like, you know, a Lord, what if like we try this, you know? Or is it because of you know? It was all kinds of things I was trying to come up negotiate with the Lord, and it was a firm word, keep yourself till marriage. And it was just weird to me that why would the Lord say this to me? But not someone else. But here, my husband was young, he was a teenager, and the Lord had put it in his heart to pray for his wife and his children. So while he was praying, all of a sudden, the Lord, knowing who he would marry, encounters me and gives me that word. Then here was another strange thing when it came to marriage. It was like the hand of God on my life was just very interesting. I was in high school and there was this guy. Everyone was like, man, you guys should go together. He wouldn't even tell me himself we should we go together, you know, we should date. And it was not that God was against me dating. You know, there were people that we go out and whatever. The Lord never like said, hey, don't date. You know. It was just certain instructions that created boundaries. But this one particular guy, the Lord was not having it. He said, don't even try it. Because I started hearing from the Lord after I encountered him very young, and he was like, this person should only be a friend. And I could not understand that. I'm like, it's not that you're against me dating or hanging not. We're in high school, right, But that one person, the Lord was like it's a no go area. And so I ended up introducing him to my cousin and you know, they kicked it off and everything. But years later, come to find out when I met my husband, they are close friends. What are the odds of that I met my husband in America. This was someone that went to high school with in Nigeria. But you see, prayer creates an infrastructure that begins to speak and prevail over your life in the natural. So don't look at prayer as something Christians do when they feel defeated and they start to beg No. Prayer is the one thing that goes into your future. Prayer is the one thing that has the power to change even your present. Prayer it has creative ability because especially when you are standing on the word of God, because the Word of God is living, it is effective, it is spiritual. It is not just a story book. So when you begin to declare on God's word and you begin if you praying the spirit, you begin to praying the spirit, you allow the Spirit of God to speak through you. This is powerful, right, And so you don't just have certain dreams and just do nothing and just wake up and say, you know, I am the righteousness of God. No, you need a the clearer thing. Right. But even as it comes into seeing the spirit of you know what, however, the spirit of death wants to manifest. Some of the things that you begin to do, even in the place of prayer, is that you begin to ask the Lord to also show you. Are they any on godly soul ties in your life? Are they any covenants that need to be broken? Are they any spiritual inflace luences that it's tied to death? You know? Are they things you recently acquired and you have not consecrated them before the Lord? Right? You want to ask the Holy Spirit show me what could be in my life that the spirit of Death could be working through. Right? If you have had you know, this is something that I know is very sensitive for many, but you have to be honest with yourself to have breakthrough. If you had had an abortion due to you know, selfish reasons, you have to come before the Lord in repentance. Right, Because even though culture wants to talk about acceptance, I mean, this is it's really crazy that we have gone from a time where this was almost a taboom to now it's comic. People use it as like a comedy to say, hey, you know what I'm going to schedule. They're going to schedule this abortion and net have brush. It is so accepted within culture, but you have to know culture is not just a thing that just came out of nowhere. Anytime something has agreement by a majority of people, there is a spiritual source connected to it. There is a kingdom it is representing. And so when a person, let's just say it like it is, if you have had abortion for selfish reasons, you sacrifice the child for pleasure. It was a sacrifice for your personal pleasure, and you have to confront that in order to bring it to the cross. If you don't know how to come to terms with that, you cannot bring it before Christ. Because what that did, it was an invitation to the spirit of death. It was hey, take this child, give me pleasure. It just didn't happen in a way that sit and didn't come to you to say, hey, I have a deal. But that was a deal that was struck in the spirit realm. That is what took place in the natural. It was a conversation with a doctor, but spiritually, because the child came from somewhere and so you sent the child back, and when the child returns, it's like, why are you back here? You know, parents chose pleasure, So you have to confront that and then bring it before God. God. God is a redeemer. But if you don't confront it, you stay in covenant with that spirit. If you just shut it off your life and just keep going your way, you stay in covenant with it. But when you come before the Lord in repentance, Lord, in this situation, I chose myself. I chose the desires of my flesh over what should have taken place. Because any time you bring up this topic, people want to bring up only medical issues. That is not the majority of why this happens. Be honest, I chose myself. But Lord, I repent. What does that mean now? I'm bringing myself under your lordship? Help me? Grant me mercy that I would always follow your leading even when it's difficult, Even when choosing your route is going to be a difficult decision for me, It is going to strip me of self. Help me, Lord, I am willing to follow you regardless of what it will cost me. That is repentance, that is coming before God. And know what happens in that moment you come out of agreement with that spirit, you say, you know what, this spirit, you don't have a place in my life. I'm not going to be ashamed because that's where the cockroaches come from. I'm not going to put this in the dark. I'm not going to tuck this somewhere and make it the source of my shame, because here is the beauty of God. God will take the thing that the enemy wants to shame you with and turn it to the thing that he uses to elevate you, that all of a sudden, the story that could have caused you shame is the story God turns for your good. This is the God we serve. When you look at David, the son who became king came from the woman of what could be considered David's shame. The woman that he slept with then got her husband killed to cover up the pregnancy and all of that, the child died. People could have looked at that woman as David's shame. But what happened. She had another child, Solomon, and that was the child God chose. And I'm saying this to tell you this is not about condemnation. This is about light. This is about bringing things to the light and receiving God's power to come out of agreement with such things right. And then lastly, if you have a dream of losing a baby or having a miscarage in a dream, you want to pray now. If you are a woman who is currently pregnant, it could represent a spiritual attack against your pregnancy. And when you have such dreams, it's not for you to fall under the enemy's deception of fear, discouragement, or even harm, especially if you are a woman who has experienced miscarriages in the past, because what the enemy wants to tell you is this would be like every other pregnancy. And if you wake up and all you feel is shame and discouragement, you've come into agreement with that he is a liar. Satan is a liar. When you start having those dreams of miscarriages as a pregnant woman, there are scriptures like Exodus twenty three twenty six. You can pray it says none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span. You begin to declare that over yourself, Lord, I am your child, and as your child, I step into this promise that the miscarriages or whatever you've experienced in the past. You said, it is not going to be the story of this pregnancy. I claim your word that none will miscarry or be barren in my home, in my land. This will not be the story of my womb. You start to speak and declare over your life. You may feel discouraged, you may feel fear, but you don't allow the fear of discouragement to find expression through your words. You might feel it, but don't let it influence what you say. Let your words begin to speak life. Speak to the child, speak to your womb, speak to yourself, and let the word of God take over. Listen. Pregnancy is a crazy thing. It's so many things that goes through the mind of a woman. But you don't let it find the expression through your speech. You can feel it. There are things that may make you panic, but don't let it take over how you speak, don't let it take over how you think. And those moments begin to worship. Let worship begin to you know, transform your mind so that even as you're praying, you're not just praying to repeat words. You start praying with a conviction, and sometimes in the beginning of the prayer you may feel hopeless, but as you engage in prayer, something awakens in you. It's like the spirit of prayer takes over and you remember, wait, why am I I serve a God who is able? And you begin to declare life right now. If you are not pregnant, and you were having a dream of a miscarriage or or losing a baby in any way that shows itself, then you want to pray concerning the spiritual things that God has placed in your heart, their projects, their ideas. There's something that God wants to birth through your life. And all of a sudden you see yourself having a miscarage. You want to start praying concerning that, Lord, everything that is connected to the manifestation of your spoken word that do not give the enemy any rights to cause an abortion, Do not give the enemy any rights to cause a miscarriage. Do not give the any right to bring termination to that which you have spoken. And sometimes you even need to go into fast and remember Daniel right. Daniel was seeking the law about something and the moment he sought the Lord and angel was sent to give him an answer, and unknown to him, that angel was held back. There was warfare in the spiritual realm. But Daniel went into fasting. At the end of his fast, he had no clue that while he was fasting it was released. It was it was him coming into agreement that Lord intervened concerning this matter. He had no clue what was happening in the spiritual room. He's just being obedient. And so sometimes you might have situations where you know there is warfare. I'll give you an example. This This one blew my mind. This was years ago, but it taught me something a great deal about warfare. And I remember then I had just started, you know, I was just started in ministrying, and I was teaching a series about the Holy Spirit, and it was a very simple series. And one day I had this was the first time I ever had an encounter with Satan. I had an encounter with the enemy and he literally threatened me to stop teaching about the Holy Spirit. I thought there was a joke. I was like, is this really how this happens? Like what is going on right now? Am I really? Like? I might be pumped, you know, like spiritual version right? But I was so confused because I'm like, why would he think I would Because he threatened me I would say I'm gonna stop speaking about the Holy Spirit. And here was the threat. There was something that was also taking place in my life. And he says to me, if you continue to speak about the Holy Spirit, I will turn their hearts against you. And I was like, like, this is dumb. You know you need to leave, Like this is if this is how it works, you failed. I didn't even take it seriously, just moved on. I was like, I mean, I was tripped out about what the encounter, but I'm just like did say and really encountered me and threatened me to stop teaching about the Holy Spirit and if I do in this other area of what is in the works, he will turn their hearts against me. But do you know that's exactly what happened. All of a sudden crickets out of nowhere, things just began, Something that was in motion stopped. No reason, nothing, no communication, nothing, And I pause and I'm like, naw, they got to be nah. Nah. I gave it a couple of days, days turned into weeks and I'm like, wait, what is going on right now? And I remember I called my mom and I shared my mom what happened, and she was like, Stephanie you need to pray. This is not normal. And I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that the enemy could have that power to do that. And so finally I had to humble myself because I didn't even know I was functioning in pride, because after such a thing, I should have sought the Lord about what it meant. In my mind, I was like, this is dumb. And finally I came to the Lord and I said, God, what just happened? Like what is that? And the Lord showed me you should have sought me much earlier, because right after you had that encounter, you should have gone into prayer. But you did not. You just did you know, la la la la lah. You just went about your way, and the enemy could have access to them because there were things. He had a loophole, he had a foothold, he had a way in to influence them in that way. Right. But the Lord showed me I never forget this. He says, go on forty days of fasting and prayer. I was like, forty days of fasting and prayer. He said, don't do anything, don't try to fix it, just go on a forty day fast and pray. Submit this before me. And it was a moment of me recognizing that the authority we have in the spirit realm, it's not just in trying to, you know, figure things out on your own email. People call people that don't answer to text them. No, no, no, no no. This was beyond you know, a personal relationship, right And on the fortieth day, I did nothing during those forty days. On the fortieth day they called me. When I saw the phone ring, I was like, this is crazy. I'm like that was one of the key things that really it was like I was very in evolved in it was for me. It was more of a training ground. And they called me and it was just one big misunderstanding, like there was it had no no grounds that could even be taken seriously. And I didn't know if I should laugh on the phone, if I should be irritated, if I should be angry, if I should be like what? But I had to remind myself we wrestle, not against flesh and blood. It was nothing. If I explained the full story to you, it will blow your mind that that is what caused all of a sudden no communication. The plug was pulled, And so that taught me that there are some things you do not fight in the flesh. And when God gives you the opportunity to see what is at work in the spirit realm, don't just be easy spiritually in how you respond. Begin to pray. Now. Remember there are times that you may fast and pray and it doesn't feel like God is giving you any additional words on what is going on. But know that just the posture of fasting and praying is a posture of faith, and God responds to faith. It is a posture of faith to say, God, I trust you, I trust that in this matter what I do not know, you would intervene on my behalf. You would go to war on my behalf. You would deliver me from whatever this is. I trust you. You do it from a place of faith, not works. It's not a formula. If you work it like a formula, it will fail. But you do it from a place of faith. Lord, intervene on my behalf. I do not know what to do, but I look to you. Let this fall. Do not let this thing be miscarried. If it's a physical child, if it's something the Lord has placed in your heart, if it's a project you're working on. Lord, do not let this thing be miscarried, and you begin to seek the Lord, and not just in this matter, in all things. Whenever there's something you're seeking for God to intervene, you operate from a place of faith. Not works. You don't just say, Okay, Daniel faster for twenty one days. Let me do a twenty one day fast. It doesn't work. Daniel's fast was not called Daniel's fast. It was just Daniel fasted for twenty one days. We call it Daniels fast. Right, And so you do it from a place of faith. Now we're gonna just close on that for now, but I want you to remember that in everything, take those dreams to the Holy Spirit. Right. Don't just be so quick. You know, I'm giving you one interpretation of what these dreams could mean, but you also want to take it to the Holy Spirit. Right. Symbols could have different meanings, But in everything, especially warning dreams and watchmen dreams, you want to intercede. You want to pray concerning them again. Proverbs eighteen twenty one says death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. Don't allow your speech to betray your promise when there is something the Lord has revealed to you, when there's something the Lord is showing you it is yours, don't allow your speech to war against it. Let your speech come in agreement with it. And again, if you want to go in depth in this topic and just really dig deeper into it, rather than I encourage you, you you can get the power of your dreams in English or that spaniel. I think I said that right. But let us pray, Heavenly Father, we thank you, we love you, Lord Jesus, and I just thank you for your children who are watching and listening to this right now. I pray, O, Heavenly Father, that above all they will feel your love right now, they would understand that we are we are in partnership with you, that Lord Jesus, that they will come to a place that they would rise up in battle, that they will not allow the enemy to cripple them. Oh God, but they will not feel defeated, but that they will find their strength in coming into the place of prayer, that Heavenly Father, for those who have been, you know, even just having a place where they really don't have a prayer life, their prayer life is is nol and void. I pray, Lord God, that this message would charge something up within them, that they would know prayer is not what Christians do because they have nothing else to do. But prayer is what we do. It's who we are. Jesus said, when you pray, not if you pray. When you fast, not if you fast. It is part of who we are because it is connected to how we legislate authority. And so, Heavenly Father, I just thank you for your sons and daughters, and I thank you that they would be drawn to this place of knowing their power in you, in Jesus' mighty name a man. And for those you might be watching this, and maybe you have not made Jesus your lord, you cannot tap into the authority that comes that comes only from Jesus if he is not your lord and savior, if you have not come to terms that he is the only way to the Father right, it is an It's it's not even about it being exclusive. It's not just how God wants to you know, bring everybody you know, reconcile everyone back to him. It is through Jesus. And so I encourage you that, even in this moment, open up your heart to truth. You have tried it your way and it has failed. It has not left you with peace of mind. It has left you with more questions because you have not come to the place of submitting to him. You know, what religions have to offer is religious activities without surrender. So it makes you feel like your own God. And that's why a lot of people entertain things like that. But in Christ, you acknowledge that he is Lord and you are submitted to his leading. It is the best decision you could make in your life, not just for this life, but afterwards. You want to have the confidence of where you're going to spend eternity. And so I encourage you right now if you just sense the presence of the Lord in your home, in your car, wherever you may be, I just encourage you to open up your heart and you can just repeat this simple prayer with me, and they're going to be resources that I'm going to have in the description that would just lead you into more details about just salvation and faith. But just open up your heart and just say, Lord Jesus, I accept you to be my Lord and Savior. I acknowledge that on the cross you died for my sins. And that when you were resurrected and when you were raised up, I was raised up with you in victory and power. Now, Holy Spirit, come into my life and make my heart your home in Jesus' name. Now I encourage you, if you're not plugged into a local church, find a good Bible teaching local church and get plugged in. Ask them about being baptized right. And I'm gonna put definitely some resoarce. But we love you and I just want you to know that at the end of the day, true authority and true victory is in Christ alone. And when you are in Christ, you don't have to fear. You just have to step into your authority. And you know whether it's through prayer, combining prayer with fasting, and however other ways the spirit might lead you. Step into that and do not fear. Amen.