Prayer and Prophetic Dreaming, Installment #?

Today in church, the speaker brought our attention to a verse that made one of my dreams crackle with portent. I've mentioned it here upon several occasions, the one about the spotted horse trying to break through the chicken-wire styled fencing surrounding its designated corral. In the dream, I was given a tool to repair the fence, twisting new little pieces of wire into the mesh to make it strong enough to keep the spotted horse/dog/bull creature penned in its rightful place. Somehow, the animal seemed foolish to me, like it meant no particular ill, but had no clue where it was supposed to be, and could do harm if it left it's rightful place. The fact that it was not an evil animal but nonetheless a potentially destructive one seemed important. That dream fell in a series of events, dreams, Bible studies, etc. that made prominent the topic of God-given inheritance, and I've written enough about my reflections on all that. Today's sermon brought another layer of meaning, however, to that same dream. It also brought to my mind one of your dreams, my husband, the one in which you were given the task of supervising a pool filled with people, of having the job of standing at a gate literally made of water. An endless line of people wanted time in the pool, but it was given to you to determine when and who would be allowed through that gate. This scripture seems to tie both these dreams strangely together.

Jesus the True Shepherd
John 10: "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers." 6 Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.
Jesus the Good Shepherd
7 Then Jesus said to them again, "Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who ever came [fn1] before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."


I think, my husband, that I finally see light breaking through the clouds that have for so long now shrouded our sense of divine calling. It is just a glimmer, but still this seems a reasonable deduction to make: you are indeed assigned the job of gatekeeper/doorkeeper/porter depending on the translation you read. It is you who will open the door when the Shepherd says He wants to enter and bring in His sheep. Conversely, I have the task of keeping out the ones who are trying to enter in wrongful methods; ones who--even though they are not malicious--could potentially prove injurious. It is I who will recognize them and keep them from polluting the fold. In this, we must believe we are called and equipped to work together, even during those days when we feel like our individual callings run in absolutely contrary motion to each other.

I know all this is not really putting any definable shape to the actual playing out of our uniquely preceived and mysteriously defined callings in this temporal world, but at least it begins to show a common swatch of cloth where we could weave together, despite the wildly contrary thread-colors. Maybe even yet we'll find that commonality necessary for us to weave ourselves into the background of this vast tapestry of His eternal plan!