Written by Jonathan Woodard,  guest blogger for Pastor Chuck during temporary break.

Rarely do I have dreams. Don’t know why; guess I’m too busy sleeping. But this morning, I had a preposterous dream. In it, my wife asked about a sorceress standing in the distance, wanting to know if she could use the sorceress’ services. So I, being a helpful and guarding person, went up to the sorceress and first prefaced our conversation with a greeting, and then cautiously asked about what would be involved in my wife using her services.

“On a scale of 1-10, I’m an 11 in this not applying to me,” I told her, “but I was just wanting to know times, what occurs, etc.” She was offended at that statement, but still gave me a short pitch of her services, then leaving me with the phrase, “let this be a seed in your mind.” Well, I didn’t want anything in my mind from her, but somehow, she convinced me to demonstrate.

I let her lay her hand on my shoulder as she closed her eyes. Suddenly, my spirit reacted to the Holy Spirit battle inside me, and shot my hand in the air, and violently praised the Lord, swaying and thrashing back and forth, with her hand still on me. “Praise the Lord, glory to God in the highest, Holy is the Lord” I yelled.That went on for at least 20-30 seconds, but I don’t know because the dream ended.

Waking with the obvious thought that I’d never let someone working for the enemy like that lay their hands on me, I thought of the verse in Timothy about “Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourselves pure.” I felt guilty even after the dream for letting myself allow the ends (simply getting information) to justify the means (allowing myself to closely interact with demons in a vulnerable position).

Several Wednesday nights ago,  Pastor Chuck individually and briefly prayed for each of us, then asked us to gather around him to pray for him, his family, his ministry, etc. During that, I had the distinct feeling that in the days ahead, there were going to arise a few mighty male body guards around Pastor Chuck, guarding him from the press of the enemy, kind of like David’s mighty men. This would be like intercessors, a band of brothers, holding him up in prayer. (I don’t mean to be sexist, and woman are more than welcome to do that too; I’m just reporting)

I’m feeling impressed that we need to very careful to guard ourselves and our leaders in prayer and action. Pastor Chuck may not be your pastor, but right now please apply this to your own situation personally and with your leaders.  Not only guard who lays hands on them and you, but also guard what we see and hear. “Lord, deliver us from evil. Help us to not be foolish in what we allow to get close to them. Help us to be wise and skillful armorbearers…”