Sometimes when we are driving around we see garage doors open, cars sitting inside and no one around to monitor the security of the house.  Of course people do leave them open while they are working in their yard and that is understandable, but why oh why are they just left open?  We don’t leave ours open unless we are right there in the yard.  If we do, that means someone has forgotten to close it.  When we see this, it never fails to spur a conversation as to why a garage door is open.  Like maybe they just got home and are carrying in groceries or walked to the backyard and are coming back, etc.  Nevertheless, in either case the security is breached.  The morning I woke up after dreaming about a garage door left open and I think there is a deeper spiritual lesson that we can learn.  So, are you ready???  Here we go.

“I woke up the morning of August 24, 2014, after having a dream about a garage door that had been left open.  I was standing in the doorway from the kitchen to the garage.  It seemed like it was my house even though I didn’t really recognize anything as being mine.  I called out, “who’s there”, thinking I heard someone in there.  No one answered.  I called again, “who’s there, what do you want”, and again no one answered.

“There were boxes of stuff sitting all around the garage floor.   I kept looking trying to see around and between those boxes calling out and each time no one answered.  Then finally I saw a man just walking around looking at things, like perhaps he was at a garage sale!  Only I wasn’t having a garage sale!  He just kept milling around looking at things coming closer to the door of the house. He never said a word, just ignored my questions; and never really looking at me, just kept coming closer.  I called to my husband that someone was in the garage.  Then all at once, the man was in the kitchen of the house!  He was still just looking around at things; picking things up, turning them over, and then putting them back down again.  Then I woke up.”

Now you may be seeing yourself in this and thinking you should be more careful to close your garage door.  And you might be right; that would probably be a good thing.  However I really think has a deeper teaching and warning to us about the condition of our heart.  Here are a few things I noticed in the dream:

1. The door was left open. If we do not monitor our hearts then we are leaving ourselves wide open for the enemy to walk in and take control. When we don’t keep the Word of God fresh in our lives then we have “left the door open” and the enemy just begins to walk in and we may not know it.
2. The garage was filled with stuff, unpacked. If we are not “unpacking the Word of God” by readying it, studying it, learning it, then we are too busy in our daily lives; and we won’t be prepared when the enemy comes. And believe me, he will come.  He comes to kill, steal, and destroy, and he will come at any time.  We make it easy for him if we are not prepared with the Word of God in our hearts.
3. There was no open-clear view of the door opening. Without the Word of God as the anchor in our heart we will not have a clear view of the on-coming attacks and attempts of the enemy who comes to steal, kill and destroy. Nor will we have the confidence to counter attack with the Word of God.
4. Seeing the intruder doesn’t stop him from advancing. We need to know that just seeing the intruder doesn’t stop him.  The Bible says to speak to the mountains coming against us.  Mountains are made of dirt, rocks and yes even pebbles that are piled up on each other.  The enemy doesn’t have to come in full force to begin getting a stronghold in us.  He may come in slow, methodically, and sometimes never saying a word.  We must be on guard at all times with the Armor of God in place and prepared to use it.
5. Asking who’s there, or why, or want they want won’t keep him from coming in. If we don’t know who is in our garage or why, then it probably means they shouldn’t be there. It’s our garage, it’s our house, we are the ones with the authority to monitor who is coming in.  It is the same with protecting our heart.

The Name and Power of the Name of Jesus does us no good just seeing it on the desk or coffee table or just knowing some Scripture, we have to know who we are in Christ.  We must speak it with authority to overcome the enemy.  Please understand we have an enemy, his name is Satan, the devil; he is a liar and a thief.  Jesus tells us in John 10:10, “The thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy, but I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly”.

Jesus is the solution to the enemy’s attacks. Jesus is the One who has the Name above all names.  Jesus is the One who gives us Salvation and all the benefits of Salvation.  It is IN HIM that we have the victory over and in every situation in our lives.  It is all about JESUS.

6. We may wake up and realize we have an intruder in the house. If we don’t monitor our house then we may very well wake up and see that the enemy has entered our house, sat down and made himself comfortable. You and I both know that it is easier to pull weeds out of a yard or garden when they are young and first appear, and much harder when we’ve let them grow and get roots.  The same is true with the enemy.  It is easier to keep him out by guarding our hearts than to “pull down his strongholds after they have deep roots”.

So I encourage you:

Joshua 1:8 Put the Word into your heart each day, so you will be strong and prosperous. It is not always needful for us to know why something has happened as it is to know that Jesus is the solution and the answer.

Matthew 26:41, Watch and pray (keep the Word in your heart) that you will not enter into temptation.  Prayer opens our heart to hear the Voice of God and to warn us when the enemy is approaching. Open your Bible each day – unpack it – and learn of HIM.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5; we are mighty in God when we know His Word.  We have authority in the Name of Jesus to pull down strongholds of the enemy.

Ephesians 6:1; put on the armor of God.  We must wear the Armor of God properly to stand against the schemes of the devil, and to advance the Kingdom of God.

Psalm 141:3, we need to guard our words and the door of our heart.