In the beginning, what I dreamed this morning was vague-just fear was there. There was a sense of fear about terrorists and bad things happening. I knew that somehow people planned to do dangerous things against others with toys.

In the next scene, two men got into a toy firetruck. The fire truck was crafted from red and yellow plastic yet it was large enough to hold two grown men in the front. These men drove the fire truck and stopped in the street. Someone was attacking them.

They attempted coming out of the fire truck, and the exit was not like a regular truck. They had to push the top of the truck up on hinges and crawl out the top. While trying to step up and out, an unseen enemy continually beat down the door and the two men back into place with a giant wooden mallet.

After a few attempts the men succeeded in getting onto the street. Suddenly objects were being hurled at them from the front. The previous attacks were from their rear. The objects were toys. The men could not see what the phony weapons were; in fear they look for help.

They saw a sheriff in front of them up the road. He walked toward them and they toward him. He smiled and took out a notepad. Then he walked to the fire truck and looked. Then he started throwing plastic toys at the men. He disappeared back where he came from; suddenly a giant corrugated box mostly empty but containing some toys was hurled at them from the direction of the sheriff. This box created great fear, yet it was not dangerous. (The dream ends here.)

What is a toy? It is an object created for play, often resembling a life occupation or real object, yet lacking the “real life” value and usually diminished in size. A toy firetruck normally is for putting small toy characters resembling people into for the entertainment of a child.

What is a sheriff? A sheriff is a person appointed by the government to protect and defend citizens against harm-an officer of the law and supposed to represent justice, fairness and security.

In this dream, the roles of the two above defined things are reversed. Here we have toys, some of which are posing as real things in life but are not. We also have a sheriff, posing as a terrorist, or a terrorist posing as a sheriff!. He is attacking people with plastic toys. All of this is opposite the way life should be.

So, I asked God why I had this dream, if it was a message from Him, and if He would tell me what it meant: It describes a prescription for trouble. Men should not be “toying” with firetrucks. Toys are not weapons, and if used for them, they will endanger the persons using them. They are however used to intimidate in the dream. No harm could come, but there was fear.

I feel God is saying that the dream signals false authority figures, in the spirit and in the flesh, wanting to keep people in toys, not powerful vehicles. These impostors of authority do not have much power; the primary tool used was intimidation and “toys” which created fear but never actually hurt anyone. In the end, the false “shepherd” was using the last toys he had to scare the men into the “toy vehicle” to keep them in it.

Vehicles usually represent ministry and life, the journey from God’s point of view. He wants us in vehicles of power, not toys. Our enemy is “toying” with us with intimidation, but cannot back up the “terror” threat. He is also running out of even that!

I feel God is saying that that “the opposite of everything is true.” Toys may appear real but they are just toys. People can pose as God’s appointed authority but His shepherds do not intimidate, and God certainly does not appoint people to keep us in toys. He wants us to mature and grow up-to be firemen indeed not in play.

He is telling us: “Quit being intimidated by phony authority; quit toying around in useless vehicles, and receive the spirit of love-push fear away! Real power is the opposite of fear, LOVE!”

Marks of the True Christian:

“God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind (discipline and order.)” 2 Timothy 1:7.

“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” Romans 12:9