The Chicken Dream by Donna Trent

This is a two-part dream connected by location. In the first part of the dream, I am responsible for setting up an area for an important community social event. The area has lots of round rocks, like in Arizona. There is a flat area surrounded by rocks which serves as a gathering area. I am to set up food and beverages and to greet people.

I make arrangements ahead of time, borrowing coffee makers from a neighboring merchant down the alleyway, which is narrow like the alleys in Italy. All the food and beverages are set up as the guests arrived. They are very pleased with the setup and service. It is in the evening and a beautiful high place to watch the sun set.

That dream replays again, except this time I forgot about the social event. It is only minutes away from guests arriving. I have not made arrangements to borrow the coffee pots. When I go to the neighbor merchant to borrow them, they are already in use. Nothing is set up. There is nothing I can do. The guests come and do not receive what they expected. I failed.

In the second part of the dream, the crowd is now going into a wooded area, like a park. There are beautiful trees and grass to sit on. And there is a stage. I am escorting the speaker, who is a female comedian and her side-kick, a beautiful red chicken. I take comedian and chicken to a grassy area where she can recline against a rock. As she sits, chicken hops to the ground and begins wondering around.

Chicken decides to go further. He crosses a one-way four-lane highway. All the traffic goes in one direction. I am concerned for chicken. Comedian is not. She just sits there resting. I go after chicken. Chicken crosses the first two lanes easily since the cars in these lanes are far away. As he gets closer to the curb; however, the cars in the next two lanes are too close for comfort. He makes it across losing a tail feather. I fall behind having to wait for the two cars.

I am walking fast, half running uphill after chicken who is now out of sight. Will I ever catch him and save him? I glance to my left and see chicken on the opposite sidewalk making his way back to the park. I cross over and follow chicken, now very exhausted in my quest to rescue chicken.

Chicken arrives at the grassy area, sits down next to comedian and rests. I say to comedian, “You didn’t seem to be concerned about the beautiful red chicken. Why not? He could have gotten killed?”

“Oh, no. Chicken just likes to investigate. He always goes exploring and always returns, just in time for our performance. I know he will return,” she calmly replied.

“How can you know that? Do you know how close he came to be killed by the cars?” I was indignant.

“I have a history with him. He always returns.” With those words, she and chicken made their way to the stage. They were hilarious! Making people laugh til they cried. Poking fun at life, at misery. I either forgot about my chicken worries or the laughter healed them. Either way, worries flew away.

• What had I been doing or thinking previous to the dream?
• What are the symbols and what do they represent?

Doing/Thinking: I have been studying the course Naturally Supernatural that beautifully explores the question, “What does it mean for me to be in Christ and Christ to be in me?” In this course, I read Bill Johnson’s book, Hosting the Presence. I also watched several YouTube videos of Bill teaching this course, and listened to the audio for about six hours on my drive to and from Jacksonville.

Symbols:

The two social events represent works: working to impress people so they will approve of me and messing up earning their disapproval of me.

• The chicken represents Holy Spirit.
• The comedian represents God, Jesus or a person as His temple. God, in some form.
• The stage is the place where miracles and healing happens.
• The grass represents the place of rest.

Meaning:

God is not concerned about what I do and don’t do to impress people and win their approval. He is concerned that I obey Him, and many times His ideas are unconventional and wildly out of the box!

God is completely comfortable with Holy Spirit coming and going, waxing and waning, exploring and being adventurous in the world and with people. God knows and wants us to know Holy Spirit always shows up at the exact perfect time. He wants us to know for sure and be comfortable with the fact that Holy Spirit is present even when He is not in miracle mode. Sometimes miracles are silent, small ones that bring a huge healing aftermath. They happen in the nick of time, like the chicken barely escaping the car.

God wants us to relax. To rest. We are told we should work to rest. Boy, is that a mouthful of a paradox, because we truly have to work to get still. It is work fighting off all the thoughts that come into our minds. Not only a zillion thoughts but even thinking of work we need to do. One morning I woke at 3 am thinking how to make a shortcut in Word, Microsoft Office. How did that get in my subconscious at 3 am? Our minds work overtime! It is true. We need to rest.

He wants us to enjoy life, even laugh at it. We spend so much time paying attention to satan and fighting the evil dominion. Refocus and put that attention effort on Jesus Christ in me and I will see what Holy Spirit does through me. We can win people to Him in a light-hearted manner. There is a time to cry with them, but in the end shouldn’t they be laughing? Hilariously experiencing what God has done for them? How He has healed them? Laughing with glory to God? Bent over at the belly from thankfulness, not able to contain our delight at His miracles in our lives? Laughing at satan’s inability to keep us blinded and bound?