When you are asleep you dream, light dreams or dark dreams. The moment you awaken, you realize that what you dreamt is not true. Everything is quite different. You are neither as rich nor as poor as you were in your dream; nor did you accomplish such commendable deeds; neither is everything as utterly hopeless or despairing; you have neither been hired nor fired. What a tremendous change everything undergoes at the moment you awaken! This is precisely what happens in the spiritual realm!!! “You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful . . . .” Rev. 3:1-2. He slept, and he dreamt that he was alive! “Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked . . . .” Rev. 3:17. He was not aware of reality. He was asleep. He dreamt that he was rich, etc. He got to see something totally different on the day that he woke up. You dream all kinds of things when you are asleep—no exceptions, no limitations, both good and bad! For example, you dream that you are living in the love of Christ and are so “sweet and kind.” On the day that you awaken, you see that you have lived thoroughly for yourself, that all of it has virtually been nothing but self-love! Or you dreamt that you were a good shepherd, but when you woke up, you got you realized that you had actually cared very little for the sheep. Perhaps you are dreaming that you are living in godliness with contentment, and that you are doing quite well in this respect. However, on the day you wake up you realize that you have been indulging in food and clothing in every way. It is quite common to dream that nothing will come of you, that God cannot use you, that you are too young, that you have to wait awhile, etc. On the day that you awaken, in that hour, in that very second, you see plainly and clearly, as clearly as 2 +2 =4, that God both can and will do great things in you and through you, that you are old enough and that you have been uncertain long enough! Then you will hear a voice that says, “What are you waiting for? The hour has come!” People dream that they have to sin whether they want to or not. The moment they wake up, they see that it is quite unnecessary. “Wake up! Sin no more!” Or people dream that it is much better in another place. The moment they wake up, they see that there is no better place than where they are. People dream that this or that person stands in their way, but when they wake up they see that this is the very person they need for their salvation. He has been placed there by God’s wisdom and love for the very reason that it shall succeed for them in truth! We have wonderful and innumerable visions—visions of reality—when we awaken and when we watch and pray.Elias Aslaksen