I had a dream last night that that reminded me of a C.S.I. (Crime Scene Investigation.) I was with a small group of people searching for someone who was possibly missing. Our investigation appeared to be located in what seemed to be a relatively large hotel. We searched and searched and then finally got to an elevator. The elevator opened and I saw a glimpse of the murdered body on the group. The murderer was also in the elevator. He or it grabbed the person in front of me. I grabbed his hand to pull him back, but there was not much of a fight. He slipped away. Then the murderer in the elevator tried to grab me. I stepped back and woke up from my dream. I also knew the elevator was going down. Not up.
1 Cor. 15:55 says, “O death, where [is] thy sting? O grave, where [is] thy victory?”
I see the elevator going down as a means to Sheol or the grave. I believe the Greeks misinterpret Sheol and call it Hades. Both places are very different. The Hebraic Sheol is not the same as the Greek mythological Hades.
Jesus went into to Sheol and led the captives who were there back with Him to heaven. He is the Resurrection and Way. Prior to Christ’s arrival in Sheol, the souls there did not have knowledge of the Resurrection or Way out. Their knowledge was from the first Adam which was death, Rom. 5:14. A new Man or Adam, the Last Adam, revealed Himself to the souls who were created in His image in Sheol. Christ preached Himself to the captives. He imparted His resurrection power, Rom. 6:9. They received this knowledge and power and there spirits were quickened, Eph. 2:5. They were saved.
That was a tangent, but a good one. So, according to 1 Cor. 15:55 and many other verses in Christ, death does not have dominion over me or Christ in me.
The dead person in the elevator was perhaps the old me. Our adversary, the enemy, accuses the brethren and is a murderer Rev. 12:10, John 8:44. The condemnation of the law with kill me, Rom. 7:11, 2 Cor. 3:6.
I believe the man slipping away is what Paul says in Philippians, “Forget those things which are behind.” Quote from ,What was destroyed?
“The long Greek word for ‘forgetting those things which are behind’ is epilanthanomai. It means to intensely, willfully forget or even give to oblivion.”
The thoughts of accusation, condemnation and even self-righteousness are obsolete in Christ. Since the power of the law was abolished and nullified in His flesh these “thoughts” fade into oblivion. One definition of oblivion1 is, “the state of being completely forgotten or unknown.”
I think the search part in the dream is working out our salvation with fear and trembling, Phil. 2:12. I believe the fear and trembling is an open awareness of God through Christ and not a legal fear of condemnation.
I believe the large hotel is me. It is reflective of deep areas in my life that become exposed to absolute liberty by the light of Christ. I believe the hotel is the Church as well. I am a part of the Church and the Kingdom of God is within me, Luke 17:21.
