My Encounter with a Brick Wall
In my previous posting (Possess-the-Vision) I communicated that I was going to present the spiritual experiences of my life that led to the creation of the Possess the Vision Mission Statement (PTV Mission-Statement.)
The experience I am about to communicate to you took place while I was in grade school. It will prove to be quite unbelievable to most people, and to be perfectly honest, would have been disregarded by me as well if it were not for all of the other unexplained spiritual experiences of my life. It is the story of a warning that comes from God in the form of a dream and then is followed up by an intervention from God.
The Morning Star Rising on the First Day
Prior to becoming a teenager I had a series of experiences that were quite unusual. It all started when I had a dream that I came to a brick wall that blocked my path. In the dream I tried to get past the wall in many different ways but was unable to do so.
In my dream I found myself continuously searching for a way that would get me past this obstacle. For example, I would search for a way through the wall by looking for holes or week spots. Not find any I would then search for a way around the wall but only found impassable dead ends. After that I searched along the base of the wall only to find no way under it. Next, I contemplated how I might be able to go over the wall, but I could not manage it. Once I had tried all of the possible ways to pass by the wall, I would start back at the beginning and complete the cycle of searches over again. I just kept searching and searching, over and over again without success. Even worse I had this dream several times over the course of several months. Frequently, the dream would last through the night, ending when I awoke still trying to find a way to the other side.
One evening I joined up with some of the kids in the neighborhood who were hanging out down the street. Interestingly, some of these kids were the ones who had the great laugh on me in the bogeyman story (Seeing-the-Devil-at-a-Young-Age). An addition was that one of the boys had an older brother present. We were standing around and talking when the older brother suggested that we all go down to Hastings Street.
I was by far the youngest and had no idea what Hastings Street was or why anyone might want to go there. Much later in life I found out that it was one of the highest crime areas in Detroit. It was a black section of town in which anything and everything was happening. The other boys all wanted to go, so I jumped in the older brother’s car for what I thought would be a nice ride.
As we drove along, the older brother started to take big gulps from a bottle of flavored vodka that he had stashed under the driver’s seat. It seemed that in no time at all he was quite drunk. In fact, by the time we got to Hastings Street he was a sloppy, goofy drunk and way out of control.
I was in the back seat sandwiched between two of the other boys as we cruised very slowly down Hastings Street. Looking out through the car windows I saw large groups of people walking and seemingly just hanging out on the street. There were women in fancy clothes standing on the street corners and under streetlights. There were bars with their doors propped open that spewed out the loud music being played inside.
For some reason our totally intoxicated driver started to sing in a very loud voice, “Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes.” Being very amused with himself, he followed his newly created song with a loud belly laugh. Then he rolled down his window, hung his head out and sang as loudly as he could, “Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes,” and again he followed up with another belly laugh.
I remember being embarrassed at first. But after a few renditions, I started to become quite concerned because of the inappropriateness of this activity, especially in this neighborhood.
To make things worse we couldn’t get him to stop. He just kept repeating his homemade song and laughing again and again. Now the other boys started shouting at him and telling him to shut up but he ignored their comments and continued. Then they threatened him with violence and promised that they would collectively jump on him and beat the crap out of him if he didn’t stop. No response. Then they actually started slapping him on the head when we came to the stoplight.
The light was red and we were nervously waiting for it to change to green so that we could start moving again. When the light changed and we had crossed the intersection I gasped at what I saw through the windshield. A chill went down my spine as the car slowed down because of the red brick wall that crossed the entire roadway. It was the wall I saw in my dream.
There was obviously no way around it on Hastings Street either, so we initiated a u-turn. But our inebriated driver was having difficulty making the turn. As we were about halfway through the turn I could see men coming out from between the buildings and out of the alleys in front of the wall. They were carrying weapons in their hands, baseball bats, lumber, and tire irons. As I looked around I could see that they were coming at us from several directions.
In the meantime, our drunk driver stalled the car after having turned it back toward the light. He tried restarting but the engine did not start. It turned over and over again, but did not start. I looked and the men were getting closer. The groaning sound of the car’s starter was now slowing down as it became obvious that the battery was rapidly losing power.
When I thought that it would stop turning over altogether I noticed that groups of angry men were getting much closer. It was then that a horrible thought came to me—it was possible we could all die here and no one would ever know what happened. Just when I was about to give up hope, and seemingly on its last turn of the engine, the car fired up. The engine was now roaring, apparently due to the accelerator being floored. Our driver now seemed very sober, dropped the shifter down into first gear and we peeled away. But by now the angry men were now running alongside and behind the car. I watched them just a few feet away slamming the car with their bats, two by fours and tire irons. The sounds of these weapons hitting the sheet metal of the car were horrific. We finally started to pick up speed and pull away from the angry mob that chased us down the street. I am sure that if we had been there just a few more seconds, our fate may have met a quite different ending.
In looking back at this incident, I know that the dream of the brick wall was another warning from God. But then just exactly what could I have done? I did not have to get into the car but then how was I to know that it would lead me to the brick wall? There is no way that I could have known!
Perhaps it was God’s way of letting me know that He was there watching over me and protecting me from harm. Let’s think this through for a moment. If there was no dream, then I would just be one of six lucky guys who escaped from a potentially horrific circumstance that they got themselves into. But because there was dream, (in fact a series of persistent dreams), means two very important things. First, that a force greater than I knew that this event was about to happen. And second, that this force was able to change the circumstances that may have led to an ill faded outcome. If that were not the case then we would not have been in danger and therefore there would be no reason for the dream at all.
But there is a bigger message as well. I believe that the brick wall that crossed by path had a bigger message. I believe that the road way represented my life and that the brick wall represented its premature ending. My search for a way around the wall was a reflection of my will to live. Therefore, the message is clear. The forces of evil are planning to abort your life. Although I did not know it at the time, it was an attack of spiritual warfare. This was the second time I had looked death in the eyes (see I-Dream-that-i-was-Like-Superman)and it would prove not to be the last. The next attempt will leave no doubt as to what was going on. We will tell you about it in one of our future postings.
In the meantime, If you would like to catch up on the prior postings of this series please use the following links:
Seeing-the-Devil-at-a-Young-Age
SEEKING JESUS 