Sid: You know my guest is Laura Harris Smith and I have so many questions for her but let’s start what happened yesterday. We were talking about something called “Warning dreams” and you had a warning dream. You explained what happened, tell me the dream and tell me more importantly what you did about it and then what happened.
Laura: (Laughing) Okay, it was a Sunday morning and I had a waking warning dream, that is a double combo you need to pay attention too. And in it I was standing in front of my church facing away from it and I look and there’s this huge wrecking ball and it’s coming right for the church. And I was standing between it and the church it was coming for me. So it gets right up to my face and I wake up; well because it was a Sunday morning and because we are Pastors of course of East Gate Creative Christian Fellowship in Nashville and I had to be there any way that morning. So I jump out of bed and I tell my husband the dream and I said “We have to get there early; we have to get there and be a part of the early morning prayer team.” I have to get people praying so that’s the first thing that I did was get people praying. So we arrive at church and I must have rushed in there like a bull in a china closet I knew in my spirit that something was to come against my church, possibly harm me in the process. I just wanted to get the word out so we could pray it. Because warning dreams are not fate; they are an invitation to pray and change the outcome of something. So we get there the prayer team is there, they’re assembled…
Sid: Now you have a warning dream just as your waking up does that indicate to you it’s coming fast or not necessarily?
Laura: You know that’s a good question; it does. And I find that since we went into pictorial ministry we’ve been pastors for 9 years; the nature, the timing of my dreams has shortened. In other words I’ll have a dream; the waking dreams are usually something I’m going to do something with in the next day or two. That won’t be for everybody; it was not always for me but in this particular time it was, it was a Sunday morning, God knew there would already be people gathered there that could pray with me. And when I got there I grabbed every elder I could find; the worship pastor, I got everybody involved and told them. Well sure enough that very week we had two very key families in our church that got into a feud there was a division that happened between them and it was very very sharp. And it involved their children and people take things very personally when it comes down to children you’ll act and behave in ways you never thought you would when your turning card’s your children. And so my husband and I Chris really knew that’s what this situation was. Well, because we had the dream I sort of was for warned stay flexible, keep your schedule flexible so sure enough we planned several mediation meetings, we jumped right on top of it and helped these two families work everything out. As a result everything, every person all of that before we even knew who they were and what that situation was it had been all fondued in prayer. And the outcome was wonderful, love won, prayer won, they stayed and it was just a perfect…
Sid: And you know what I’m thinking of the people that pay no attention to their dreams.
Laura: Right.
Sid: They think they call them pizza dreams.
Laura: (Laughing)
Sid: I mean that could have… actually the wrecking ball to me says your whole church could have been wrecked.
Laura: Yeah, it could have. This was 2 very key families and that definitely would have it would have affected me the other thing that I then realized by me standing in between these two forces. The enemy coming against and then behind me the church is that it is that what standing in the gap is, that’s what intercession is. So the mere fact that I came in between the two was in itself a symbol of intercession and prayer.
Sid: Now you teach on so many areas that we have to hear. You teach on visions, tell me about; what is a vision?
Laura: Well visions I usually get asked “What’s the difference between a dream and a vision?” And aside from the obvious of one happens while your awake and one happens while you asleep it actually not that simple. Because what I have found as I studied scripture is that there are things called night visions that aren’t really dreams. So what I did in chapter 6 I discuss only visions and I go into the different Hebrew and Greek words that the prophets used to describe the experience they had. Unfortunately after I listed them all and studied them all I came to the conclusion they were all so similar that it is hard to tell what happened to them. Was it a vision, was it a dream, was it a night vision, was it an open vision you know an ecstasy there’s all of these different clues and it’s really like Hebrew synonyms ad that’s what I came back around to. And when you think about it come on if you were to have a revelation from God and you saw something like Isaiah did or Jeremiah did or Ezekiel did would you really take the time to give your readers a side lesson in prophetic etiquette? You wouldn’t and they didn’t it’s more a matter of what they came away with and we must then seek God and say “Whatever one of those you want to use do it; whether I’m waking, or asleep vision or dream.”
Sid: Tell me or let’s jump to hearing God, tell me how we can hear God better, tell me what’s clogging up our spiritual ears.
Laura: (Laughing) Yeah, I usually refer to this as static. It’s really as if you’re not on the same frequency anymore. He’s not silent we’ve established that God is never silent in scripture so we have to say “Why am I not hearing You?” And I have this acrostic or acronym for the word STATIC; I’ll just spell these out for you very quickly. The first one is Sin, that dis-fellowships us from God. The second one is Time, in our busy schedules. There’s Ambivalence, “A,” because we have tendency to be double-minded men and that will quench your faith. And “T” is Trials. Sometimes you get so overwhelmed by those that you’re prayer sessions begin with an immediate grocery list and you can’t even hear the Lord. And then “I” Illiteracy the church is quickly becoming illiterate, they don’t know the word they can’t stand on the promises of God unless they know what they are and they’re not. Then finally Competing voices and I go over in this chapter 8 all the different competing voices. There are at any one given time 5 in your head and you have to distinguish between them so you have to rule out “That was the enemy, that was God and that was me and more.” So definitely there are things you can do to achieve 20/20 hearing you know as I call it. And you know there is going to be times when yes you’re still fuzzy and okay God I’m going to keep praying, but in the end God is not a God of confusion and He will answer you.
Sid: Now you have dreams, you have visions, you understand them, you hear God clearly. If I was to force you to give me one mentoring advice, what would that be to enter this field?
Laura: Wow, I would say get hungry you know. Just be hungry for more of the Lord and when you ask for more of the Lord those few words are so dangerous more Lord. When you say that be ready to give Him more of your schedule through times on your knees, be ready to give Him more of your night time and just say “Lord, I’m going to sleep but my heart is awake listening to the voice of My Beloved.” When He brings a dream give Him more of your faith and really pray about it and asked Him to help you interpret. And then give Him more of your feet and be willing to have not just an obedient heart but obedient feet to act out what you see. That really is it just ask Him for more and receive it when it comes.
Sid: Now tell me what you mean what you call snapshot visions.
Laura: (Laughing) Yeah, those are; those are little quickies you know you can even be sitting with someone in conversation and you’ll see something and it will just in away interrupt the conversation and yet they’ll never know it.
Sid: Let me tell you one that I have frequently. I’m speaking to someone and all of a sudden I see myself arm wrestling with that person. And I figured out what it means it means that person has a religious spirit and they’re going to argue with me and that has bailed me out so many times when I have that snap vision.
Laura: I’ll tell you what you… that’s great that’s exactly it and I have had that happen to me so many times, not the arm wrestling, but because we are also pastors and my husband is very piscatorial and I’m very prophetic. So we’ll be sitting in a counseling meeting and let’s say it’s a marital counseling session. The husband will be lying though his teeth, and I know it and I can either I’ll see a spirit, or I’ll see something over him. My husband knows me after 30 years of marriage, he knows me well enough to know when this is happening and I am on the edge of my seat to say something. And if it’s not the right timing he’ll reach over and just grab my knee and “Just wait just a minute before you release it we don’t want to lose him honey.” So definitely timing plays a part in this; along with the interpretation but those snap shots they come in handy, God will often give them to you right when you need them for who you’re with.
Sid: Okay, tell me about someone that’s listening to us right now; they have to make a decision they’ve been offered two jobs which one do I take. How would you pray, what would you do about it?
Laura: I would immediately ask the Lord which one and then I would wait and ask Him to show me signs to confirm things through His word. I would not make a move until He answered one of those. A lot of times my husband says “Let peace be your umpire.” He’ll say “Go where there’s peace.” But what I often find Sid if I refuse to move until God moves or answers one of those situations will take care of itself and it will die out.
Sid: You know I found that also, I used to be far more impulsive. I would rather be slow and right than impulsive and wrong.
Laura: Me too (Laughing)
