John Wayne and Jesus

Previously, I posted about a dream I had.  My dreams pale in comparison to the dreams Rick has.  Rick’s dreams are sometimes very vivid and detailed.  He can recite word for word what happened, who was there, what everyone was doing and saying.  Last year he had two dreams that stand out among the rest.

The first is his John Wayne dream.  Rick is a big fan.  Rick has often said if he could talk to anyone dead or alive, it would be John Wayne.  He can almost recite word for word some of John’s movies, especially The Sons of Katie Elder.  It is Rick’s favorite.  Here is his dream.

Rick is spending the day with John Wayne.  John asks Rick if he wants to go with him to his ranch in Colorado to check on his cattle and horses.  Apparently, Dean Martin told John the Feds were coming around collecting back taxes on their movie The Sons of Katie Elder and they had already taken Dean’s horses.  John was afraid they would take his cattle and horses so he and Rick flew up to the ranch (with John as the pilot of his own jet plane) to check things out.  Everything is okay at the ranch and all his animals are still there.  Then Rick says to John, “My wife wants to know why you walk so prissy.” (I have said to Rick in the past that I thought John Wayne had a prissy walk.) John tells Rick it is because he spent so many years riding horses in the movies that it messed up his hip.  The dream ends. 

The second dream Rick had was his dream about Jesus.  This one was really special.  Here is what he dreamed.

Rick is standing outside a building.  There’s a man sitting up against the building.  Rick goes over to talk to him.  He is dressed in a robe with a hood and his hair is long and brown.  The man has only one leg. 

Rick asks the man, “What happened to your leg?”  The man answers, “Rick, you know I was nailed to the cross.”  With that the man stands up on two legs and Rick realizes he is talking to Jesus.  (We know that Jesus died with both of his legs so we are not sure of the significance of this.)  Jesus says to Rick, “Tell everyone that I am coming soon and they must tell everyone they know.” 

The scene switches to inside the building.  There is a big revival going on, bigger than a Billy Graham revival meeting.  Thousands of people are coming down to accept Jesus as their savior.  The person preaching the revival is Greg Hutchinson.  (Greg is a friend of ours who is the youth pastor at the church we went to when we lived in Lewisville, Texas.)  Rick sees people there at the revival that he knows from his home town, some of them are deceased, the most important one being his mother who passed away in 2000.

The scene switches again to Rick’s family home in Gorman, Texas.  At the house he sees his mother again and several other people he knows, who are also deceased.  He doesn’t talk to any of them, but he sees their faces clearly.  The dream ends.

When Rick woke up from his dream, his pillow was wet with tears.  He told me the dream was so real and he didn’t want it to end.  A few days later Rick called Greg and told him about the dream.  He thought maybe the dream was a message for Greg.  Rick and Greg talked about the dream and what it could possibly mean.  Rick asked Greg if he really could have been talking to Jesus.  Greg says, “Yes, it is possible.”

I believe God does talk to us through our dreams.  Acts 2:17 references Joel 2:28 (important enough to be in the Bible twice) which says,

In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams. Acts 2:17 NIV

You can’t get any clearer than that.  There are many instances in the Bible where God has given man warnings, instruction and knowledge of future events via dreams.  Sometimes God sends his angels to do this.  Sometimes the dreams are clear, but sometimes they need to be interpreted by someone else.  Either way, the Bible shows that God used dreams as a way to get his message through.  If He did it back then, I don’t see why He wouldn’t do it today.

I don’t know if God was speaking to Rick in this dream, but I do know truth when I see it.  Jesus told Rick that He is coming and He is coming soon.

Will you tell someone?

~ P