Dream: Two Bears, One Attacks Me
September 26, 2023 7:24 AM
Lloyd Acree
This was rather short but proved to be both complex and difficult in deriving the meaning. And so it should be, as the ramifications are enormous, like my entire life story condensed to a single photo: or even a singular pronouncement toward guilt or exoneration.
The dream begins with myself standing in the countryside facing a metal fence dividing two pastures or fields. Just at the other field edge right by the fence (which is not a complete fence) there are two bears romping around at high energy. The closer bear is massive: I saw that its shoulder height must have been around 6 feet. The other bear I simply failed to assess but it seemed smaller and maybe the mate of the larger (this second bear remains distant and irrelevant for the rest of the dream).
It was at this initial stance of observation that I heard a voice tell me, “you should go over there”. In the dream world the voice apparently made sense because that’s exactly what I did. I had barely closed in to a few yards from the fence when the larger bear, bounding around in aggressive circles on the other side, noticed me and turned to pounce. Somehow as it reached me I knew instantly that the desire was not to eat or even maul me, but to crush or smother as by wrestling. Oddly the bear did not use its teeth or claws at all. Instead it tackled and covered me with its stomach and I also knew that it was going to rub its testes on my face, but it failed as I escaped from under its hairless pink belly. Then the dream ended.
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Initial Interpretation (AM):
At first I had absolutely no idea what this was about but I prayed for the interpretation and that’s when God immediately reminded me as by epiphany of the story of Elisha and the two bears that mauled his mockers as a result of his curse on them (2 Kings 2:24).
Additionally, it was also immediately received in my mind that these bears were from a false religious authority that was attempting to smother and humiliate me. It’s hard to explain why I was certain of this except that it came conjoined with the Elisha connection. I concluded that the dream is showing how I have been persecuted by members of the wider church abroad but more precisely by members of churches in my own community and personal life. And I must emphasize the latter. The worst part is that the bear wanted to humiliate me which shows malice and cruelty on the part of this presumably Christian bear.
Reconsidered Interpretation (PM):
It’s hard to miss the difficult symbolism concerning the bears in the sense that they served Elisha’s purpose in the Bible; and for them to have turned against me here could be used as some kind of a metaphor for my doing wrong. Hence I spent a later part of the day wondering about this irony and asking the Lord if I had missed something; maybe the dream was a sobering account of my sin!
However I’ve turned the dream over and over in my prayers today and what I noticed is that, first off, when I prayed I immediately had the sudden bridge to the Bible story of Elisha appear in my mind at that specific moment. This initiated my first interpretation, and such moments of answered prayer are key to understanding when God is speaking. This was the strongest clue that I was right all along.
Second, on further review the dream has no indication that I was doing anything wrong; I did not try to offend the bears. So for me to have approached them in an attitude of more curiosity or exploration and to be attacked by one does not suggest to me anything but that I approached the ministry of prophecy, and paid a price by the hand of other Christians.
Even further, it is interesting to note that one of the bears left me alone! This indicates that there is a divided opinion amongst them: universally speaking the church is divided in its opinion of me. God’s prophetic wrath cannot show such division as these bears, so they can only be operating under their own religious authority and perceptions. The second bear by not attacking me confirms a human presumption at work.
So as I originally concluded after prayer, the bears do represent a kind of false religion or a presumption by others that I deserve punishment from God. They reflect that church members have taken upon themselves to artificially impose that judgment against me in the real world. Both the division among the bears and my innocence in the dream show that my original interpretation was correct.
Lloyd Acree
9/25/23
Photos courtesy Depositphotos
