11 - God knows the future: 30 days and 24 months!
About this time (the latter part of 1965), the Viet Nam War was in full swing and I was thinking that I needed to do my part. I did not want to enlist, which meant three years of service, so I decided to write the draft board and tell them I was available for the draft, willing and able; which meant two years of service. Only thing was, I did want to be able to to spend some time with my folks before I went in. I asked God if he would give me thirty days to spend with my folks before my induction.
The draft notice arrived and I was disappointed to find that I had to report for induction on December 24, 1965, which gave me something less than a couple weeks to visit my folks. Oh well.
I gave my employer notice, packed my bags, and was going to head out the next morning for Daytona Beach. That night, I had two little dreams; like two little video clips. In the first dream, I had just walked into this little office and spoken to the lady behind a counter although I didn’t see what I had said. She got up from her desk and walked over to a filing cabinet and opened a file drawer and said: “January 14, no, let’s make it January 16th” and the dream ended. In the second dream, I saw a pair of hands holding two twelve inch rulers. The hands joined the two rulers together in the form of a circle with twenty-four increments (inches).
The next morning, I pondered the dreams. The dream of the lady behind the counter I did not understand and filed it away in the back of my mind but the dream of the hands and rulers I did understand. The dream of the hands and rulers had two meanings; the first being that I would return, i.e. not get killed in Viet Nam, and the second being that I would be back in Naples in two years (twenty-four months).
I headed for Daytona Beach the next morning and it was good to have some time with my folks even if it was not the 30 days I had asked God for. A few days after arriving, my Mom said that surely they would not make me report on December 24, the day before Christmas. She suggested that I should go into the registrar’s office and see if they would adjust the date until sometime after Christmas. I decided to do that and the next day, upon walking into the office, recognized it as being the same office I saw in the dream.
After explaining to the lady what I wanted, the lady got up from her desk and walked over to the filing cabinet, opened a file drawer and said: “January 14th, no, let’s make it January 16th”. God not only answered my prayer and gave me the thirty days with my folks but through the dream made me aware that He had heard my prayer.
Well, life went on as normal. Didn’t quit living. Still got out of bed in the morning, still ate breakfast, still did my thing during the day. Still ate dinner in the evening. Still had to deal with the problem and its associated fear.
After induction, I hit boot camp and AIT (Advanced Infantry Training); check out the next page: “12 – The unseen hand of God at work!”.
Notes
What do I make of the experience I had with respect to the two dreams?
As previously stated, God can hear our thoughts and prayers even when they are little more than vocalized in our minds, i.e., He can read our minds. Second, He responds to prayer; sometimes immediately, sometimes over time. Third, He is able to, and willing to, communicate directly with an individual when He so chooses.
In this case he utilized two dreams while I slept. Additionally, as previously noted in some earlier experiences, God’s response demonstrates the validity of the scripture: “…you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart…”. In response to this fight with the problem of the fear, my focus had become one of seeking God and…..God was revealing himself to me.
Some scriptural examples in which dreams were utilized are found in the following chapters of the Bible
- Genesis 20 (KJV)
- Genesis 37 (KJV)
- Genesis: 40 & 41 (KJV)
- 1 Kings 3 (KJV)
- Daniel 2 & 4 (KJV)
- Matthew 1 & 2 (KJV)