reality

Denial

The subconscious mind sometimes filters unpleasant thoughts or memories that the unconscious mind wants to get out. Denial is one way this process may work. As a defense mechanism, denial enables a person to avoid confrontation with a personal problem or with reality itself by denying its existence. Unfortunately, dreams often subvert this process and can force a person to accept that a problem really exists.

When the northern kingdom of Israel was taken into captivity in 722 B.C., Judah did not expect to go with them. Because the people of Judah were engaged in religious activities, they thought they would be excused from God’s punishment. In particular, Jerusalem was thought to be a safe haven because the temple of God was there. Priests and false prophets told the people they had nothing to fear because their sacrifices guaranteed God’s protection.

Isaiah used the name Ariel instead of Jerusalem in order to trigger the people’s awareness of danger when he declared, “Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! Add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices. Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be to me as Ariel” (Isaiah 29:1-2). The people’s sacrificial system had become a defense mechanism against their awareness that the Assyrian army was closing in and was about to attack Jerusalem.

Isaiah used the illustration of the subconscious mind at work during sleep in order to convince the people they were in denial about their future. He said, “And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her shall be as a dream of a night vision. It shall even be as a hungry man dreameth, and behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty” (Isaiah 29:7).

The problem the people needed to acknowledge was they had become spiritually numb and were no longer communicating with God. Although God had been speaking to them, they didn’t hear what he was really saying. They were tuning him out. Isaiah declared:

And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed…Wherefore the Lord said, forasmuch as this people draw near to me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me…Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work amongst this people. (Isaiah 29:11, 13-14)

Open his eyes

Elisha’s gift enabled him to perceive things that were normally outside of human awareness. When the king of Syria attacked Israel, Elisha knew what he was planning to do and warned the king of Israel. The king of Syria thought someone in his camp had leaked the information to the Israelites. “And he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel? And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber” (2 Kings 6:12).

The king’s servant knew about Elisha’s ability, therefore,  Elisha’s reputation for revealing secrets must have been widespread. The servant’s reference to Elisha telling what was said in the king’s bedchamber implied that no place was outside of Elisha’s awareness. It is possible that Elisha could actually hear what the king was saying, but the information may have been relayed to him through some other supernatural means.

Elisha’s insight into the spiritual realm included an ability to see angelic beings and heavenly objects. When Elijah was taken up to heaven, Elisha saw what was happening (2 Kings 2:12). The chariot of fire and horses of fire were spiritual objects that the normal person could not perceive. When the king of Syria sent his army to capture Elisha, he told his servant to “fear not: for they that be with us are moe than they that be with them” (2 Kings 6:16).

Elisha was referring to the heavenly host that was camped around him and his servant. In order to alleviate his servant’s fears, “Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see, and the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha” (2 Kings 6:17).  Elisha’s servant was given a rare glimpse into the world that Elisha lived in everyday. There is no way to know for sure why he was given this opportunity, but Elisha’s servant went from being completely unaware to aware of what was going on instantaneously, as if a curtain had been pulled back from a stage.

Living in reality

Sometimes it seems as if the world is upside down. In reality, if we are on top of the world, then half of the world is upside down. Because we live on a globe that is constantly spinning, half of the world is up and half of the world is down, half is in light, while the other half is in darkness, alternating every 12 hours.

It says in Psalm 75:

 Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck. For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is judge: He pulleth down one, and setteth up another. (Psalm 75:5-7)

The words promotion and setteth up are both translated from the same Hebrew word, rûwm (room). “Basically, ruwm represents either the ‘state of being on a higher plane’ or ‘movement in an upward direction'” (7311). In essence, what Asaph was saying in Psalm 75:5-7 was that, as the world rotates and moves us into different positions, God also moves people into higher or lower positions. Whether we happen to be on top or on the bottom of the food chain is under God’s control.

Of course, everyone prefers to be in a place of honor or position of influence and power, but even David experienced rejection from God. He said in Psalm 60, “O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, thou hast been displeased; O turn thyself to us again” (Psalm 60:1). And from the cross, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).

David provided an explanation for God’s rejection in Psalm 60. He said:

Thou hast shewed thy people hard things; thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth…That thy beloved may be delivered. (Psalm 60:3-5)

The word translated truth, qôsht (kosht) means “to balance; equity…, i.e. reality” (7189). If the world did not rotate, half of the world would live in constant light and half of the world would live in continual darkness. Even though darkness would exist, half of the world would never experience it. Because the world does rotate, everyone gets to experience both, which equates to, living in reality.