It was midnight. Or close to it. I was in the middle of an intense prophetic dream where God was giving me glimpses into deep spiritual realms and His plan for the church for 2024. I was not prepared for what happened next.

Just as God was showing me golden wheels, one within another, that moved in beautiful, synchronous perfect harmony, a feeling popped up. Out of nowhere. Hurt. Feelings of being misunderstood and rejected and wronged. Again, God? Really? I was SURE I forgave her. That was all it took.

Even though I took those intruding emotions to the Lord, my choice to divert my focus onto them pulled me out of the prophetic dream. Instantly. As soon as THAT happened, well…that’s when it got REALLY wild.

First, many past offenses FLOODED my mind in a matter of seconds. That’s when I (finally) figured it out. It was a trick. I HAD forgiven this person, the emotions were a ploy from the enemy to distract me and derail what God wanted to do through me.

I woke up enough to say, “I’m not falling for it. I reject rejection, unforgiveness, and bitterness.” That’s when it happened.

Suddenly, the snout and bared (very sharp) teeth of a dragon appeared at my right cheek. Oh, the heat! As it blew its breath onto my cheek, I can only describe it as a hotter than hot inferno of hate.

God! What do I do?

Rejoice in Me, your Father.

I will rejoice in God my Father, I will rejoice in God my Father, I will rejoice in God my Father. I repeated this phrase over and over again, while focusing straight ahead, refusing to turn my eyes or face in the dragon’s direction.

It disappeared. I’m not sure how long it was there, a few minutes perhaps. It felt like a very long time. I looked at the clock: 12:30 AM. I stared at the ceiling. That thing FEEDS on hate and offense! I began to scroll back through my mind of all the times I went through repeated forgiveness for offenses. Maybe I really DID forgive the first time, maybe sometimes, it’s that thing planting thoughts and playing on emotions that draws our attention and seeding offense. We NEED to stop feeding that dragon.

The next day my husband and I met with team members over breakfast before participating in ministry. I could still feel the heat on my cheek. As I relayed the story to one of the men, he said, “You know, I was thinking you looked like you got a little sun on that side.” No way. He’s got to be pulling my leg. I turned to my husband who agreed. ?!!! (That about sums up my thoughts at the time.)

It took until lunchtime for the heat to come out of that cheek. A couple of weeks later, I spoke with the wife of the teammate I had originally spoken to and hinted that I thought he was pulling my leg that day. She looked at me with one of those serious, intense looks and said, “He wasn’t joking. He told me it looked like someone had slapped you across the face.”

I have to be honest. I lived through this, and it still makes my mind goggle a bit. But the life lesson from this experience is just as real and serious as the experience itself. WE CANNOT FEED THE DRAGON! We NEED to keep our hearts clear of offense, standing firmly in postures of grace and rooted deeply in God’s truth. We cannot allow ourselves to get distracted or derailed by human mistakes and wrongs, intentional or unintentional. It happens. We are all people; only God is perfect. Rather than get caught up in a wrong directed at us, isn’t it better to steer clear of dragon bait? Isn’t it better to keep our minds and hearts pure before the Lord so we can bask in His joy and truly rejoice in His presence AND powerfully release His glory into our environments? Can’t we trust that God is the One who orders and places people and times and seasons and not get so caught up in someone else’s human frailty? Or our own?

Here’s a challenge: Next time we find ourselves wronged, intentionally or not, see it as dragon bait and remember don’t feed the dragon! Instead, REJOICE in God Who is kindness, love, and sovereign and trust in Him in ALL THINGS, including circumstances we don’t understand AND His version of justice (which may not remotely match a human definition).