In preparing for my new e-group on Zoom, “Understanding Dreams,” I came across dreams President Abraham Lincoln and President Lyndon Johnson had while in office. Feeling appalled about what is happening in Afghanistan, I wonder if anyone in our White House today dreams?
President Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln dreamed of his death about two weeks before his assassination: “Around the coffin were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, some gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. ‘Who is dead in the White House,’ I demanded of one of the soldiers. ‘The President,’ was his answer; ‘he was killed by an assassin!’ Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which awoke me from my dream.”
President Johnson
Lyndon Johnson’s dreams contributed to his decision not to seek a second term. As a child he experienced nightmares of sitting paralyzed in a chair facing a cattle stampede. After he became vice-president, the nightmares became the Executive Office Building: When he finished signing a stack of letters and wanted to leave, he couldn’t because his legs were manacled to the chair with a heavy chain.
After the 1968 Tet offensive in Vietnam, the paralysis dreams intensified: President Johnson was lying immobile in a bed in the Red Room (one of three state parlors on the State Floor) unable to speak; his head was his own, but his body was the thin, paralyzed body of President Woodrow Wilson. To diminish the panic associated with this dream, Johnson took to walking through the darkened halls of the White House with a flashlight until he came to where Wilson’s portrait hung; then he could go back to bed.
Then Johnson dreamed he was struggling to swim from the center of a river toward one of the shores, but could not reach it. When he tried to swim toward the other shore, he was equally unsuccessful. Instead he wound up going around in circles. This dream dramatized the impossibility of the situation Johnson found himself in, and he realized what he needed to do.
President Washington
Do you know about the vision our first President received from God at Valley Forge? See my blog: “Washington’s Vision at Valley Forge — America’s Destiny?”
Indeed God speaks once, or twice, yet no one notices it. In a dream, in a vision of the night … while they slumber in their beds, then He opens the ears of men and seals their instruction (Job 33:14-16).
You can learn about dreams by listening to my audio recordings (Audio Files) and through my Dream Books. Or you can join me in our e-group on dreams: https://judithdoctor.com/kmi-501-course-description/
May the Lord give you the courage to value your dreams as a way to hear his voice.