Conclusion

The Rest of the Story

I opened this book with a vivid dream I experienced toward the beginning of the writing process, but I intentionally stopped midstream. In Paul Harvey fashion, now I’ll share the “rest of the story.”

Just when I thought I’d pretty much solved the mystery about the meaning of the two lions—that surely the message of the dream was not to be too legalistic or too liberal about our sexual thoughts—I realized there were other clues in the dream that had yet to be recognized or woven in. I remembered that, in the dream, I was standing by myself in a ripened wheat field. But why a wheat field? Why not a rose garden? Or a stretch of beach? Or a mountaintop or under a shade tree?

Because the wheat field had significance. In John 4:35 we see Jesus teaching His disciples: “You have a saying, ‘Four more months till harvest.’ But I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields ready for harvest now” (NCV).

Jesus is using the harvest field as a word picture to illustrate how there are lost souls ready to be saved, and He’s commissioning us to gather them in and lead them into His eternal kingdom! In fact, He challenges His disciples that they need to pray for even more workers to bring in the harvest:

When he saw the crowds, he felt sorry for them because they were hurting and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus said to his followers, “There are many people to harvest but only a few workers to help harvest them. Pray to the Lord, who owns the harvest, that he will send more workers to gather his harvest.” (Matt. 9:36–38 NCV)

Notice the reason Matthew tells us that Jesus longed to bring the harvest in (or draw the people closer to Himself): because they were hurting and helpless. That describes a lot of us, both inside and outside the church, doesn’t it?

But of course, wheat is also used in a different (less desirable) context in the Bible. In Luke 22:31–32 Jesus warns Simon Peter: “Satan has asked to test all of you as a farmer sifts his wheat. I have prayed that you will not lose your faith! Help your brothers be stronger when you come back to me” (NCV).

To be sifted like wheat would mean that before Peter and the disciples could become even more effective for God, they had to face further challenges. New level, new devil. Satan wanted to test them for the sole purpose of weeding them out and rendering them useless.

So there again, my dream had a dual meaning. I could break away from both extremes of legalism and liberalism and actually be free to do what I was there to do—harvest the wheat field (by writing books because that is how God has gifted me to “harvest” or pursue people for His sake). Or I could allow both extremes of legalism and liberalism to keep my hands occupied, too distracted to focus on the established work. As a result I would be allowing Satan to “sift me like wheat,” rendering me useless to the expansion of God’s kingdom.

Finally, I remembered that in the dream I was wearing a white dress, which is so unlike me. I am more of a “blue jeans, T-shirt, and ball cap” kind of girl, so I knew there had to be some significance to the white flowing dress. Then it hit me. When do you see a woman wearing a white flowing dress? On her wedding day, of course. The girl in the dream wasn’t just me. She was a bride. But not just any bride. She was the bride of Christ, which is symbolic language for saying “all of us believers in Jesus.”

In Revelation 19:6–9 we read what’s in store for all of us who’ve chosen to put our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior:

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:

“Hallelujah!

For our Lord God Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and be glad

and give him glory!

For the wedding of the Lamb has come,

and his bride has made herself ready.

Fine linen, bright and clean,

was given her to wear.”

(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)

Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.” (NIV)

Did you catch that? When Jesus returns for us, just as He promised He would, He’s returning not as merely a Master to His slaves, a Savior to the lost, a Friend to the lonely, or a Father to His children. He’s returning as a heavenly Bridegroom for His beloved bride! There’s going to be a grand and glorious wedding, and you and I are invited—not just as a guest, but as the bride! We are collectively the bride of Christ!¹

This dream wasn’t just about me, but about all believers. We need to take our roles seriously—as the “bride of Christ,” as the “gatherers of the harvest,” as the voices of reason in a sexually unreasonable world—to help bind up the brokenhearted and help them look for love, not in all the wrong places, but in the right place, through a more intimate relationship with our Creator God, and through healthier relationships with themselves and others.

But the most serious role we have in life is to represent God well, both as spiritual beings and as sexual beings. We need to remember that our sexuality is a beautiful gift from God and is as unique as our own fingerprints, that sexual confusion comes part and parcel with being human, that sexual fantasies are perfectly normal, but we can control them rather than let them control us.

And we need to remember that God doesn’t just speak to us through sermons or scriptures. Just as He did in biblical times, He often speaks to us through dreams while we are asleep or through our thoughts and fantasies while we are wide awake.

The main question is, are we listening?