On July 16, 2007, I saw Jesus for the third time in a dream. This time I only saw His back because He was just walking a little bit ahead of me, but He was also at the same time with me and beside me. The explanation is that He is everywhere -- ahead of me, beside me, behind me, in me, and watching over me at the right hand of the Father (Psa 139; Acts 2:33).
This dream was different from my other spiritual dreams in that God used Psalm 23 to confirm His specific call for my life. And this psalm outlines God's destiny for my entire life both prophetically and chronologically. At the outset of the dream, I was in a deep dark valley and I immediately know that this is the "valley of the shadow of death" (Psa 23:4). And Jesus was walking with me right beside me on my left, and I could see His back. There were fear and darkness all around me, Jesus' robe was the only thing that's white and visible. It was white like the moon, and not the bright shining light that I saw in my first vision of Him. Terror tried to grip me, but I kept looking at Jesus, and we were walking in a steady pace forward. I was still somewhat afraid because of the surrounding great darkness, but I fixed my eyes on Jesus. Then I knew that I had been here before. It was before I came to know Christ that I often have seen myself falling in a dark bottomless pit, with no one to rescue me. After I came to the knowledge of the love of God, I saw His hands coming to rescue me, and I stopped falling, and all around me became light. However, this time, He has led me back, and He has intentionally withheld His glory from lightening up the whole place for a purpose. That's when I began to perceive that this purpose was that I was called to minister to those in the "valley of the shadow of death," which means those that suffer the most agonizing pain on the earth. And in order to train me for my call, He has allowed many hardships in my life, especially in the earlier years of my life, ie my teen years and early young adulthood.
Before the age of twelve, God was my shepherd and I lacked nothing materially, and I enjoyed my elementary school life in Taiwan, although at that time I didn't know Him. That is verses one and two. The very first verse also is the "topic sentence" of my life, namely that He is my great Shepherd, and I knew very well what this meant, and this was the narrow and difficult path that I've chosen to walk while on this earth. Then after I graduated from elementary school in Taiwan and came to Vancouver, that's verse three, for this was the path that God had chosen for me in order to train me to fulfill my call. Then enters verse four, the "valley of the shadow of death," which lasted through my entire teenage years up to early adulthood. The hardships include family issues, every area of relationships, schooling, work, ministry, and physical sicknesses. Now I am at the point of verse five, where most of those issues have been overcome, except for bodily infirmities. And verse six is still in the future, where God knows the desire I have in my heart. Although the entire psalm should be generally applied to all people so that there is not a time factor in interpretation and application, but it was in this specific dream that God used this psalm to reveal the pattern of my life (which of course only applies to me, and not all). For the general interpretation, every person, including myself, can claim all the promises and presence, encouragement and comfort at any moment.
