Be a Dream-Catcher - Prophecy and the BFG

He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches (Revelation 2)

My favourite book when I was growing up was the BFG.  There is something about "dream-catching" that has always caught my imagination.  I think that even as a child God was stirring my heart with a desire for the prophetic. 

This morning I was thinking through the story again and realised that it has a lot to teach us about how to hear what God is saying and speak it out. (Go with me on this one!!)

1. The first thing is that you have to be in the right place.  For the BFG that was Dream Country.  For the apostle John it was the Island of Patmos where he wrote the book of Revelation.  For some of us this is the "secret-place" - our place of prayer or our place of retreat - somewhere apart from our normal busy world where we can hear God clearly.  For others it isn't so much a physical place as a stillness of heart - an attitude.  Either way it's where we hear God best. 

2. We have to stay quiet or as the BFG puts it: "Please be as still as a starfish now... And do kindly stop breathing.  You is terribly noisy down there."  If you want to hear God speaking you have to stop talking over him!  Just be still.

3. You need big ears!  In Revelation chapters 2 and 3 it repeatedly says, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear"  Swivel your ears in the right direction until you pick up what the Spirit is saying and then just listen.

4. Write it down and bottle it!!  All the BFG's dreams were put into jars, labelled and stored on shelves.  John was told to write down what he saw and send it to the churches.  Record what God says to you or you'll never remember it all.  Sometimes prophetic words are not for now.  They need recording and putting on a shelf for future use.

5. Most of the dreams the BFG used were "golden phizzwizards" - really good, encouraging dreams.  Only on two occasions did he release a "trogglehumper" - a nightmare - and that was as a warning to the Queen to ask for her help.  John's letters were a mixture of the two.  Sometimes God may give us prophecies that act as warnings to others, but for the majority of the time they will be "golden phizzwizards" - words of encouragement and hope for the future.


Be like the BFG and the Apostle John:  Be a dream-catcher and a dream-releaser!!