I had one of those dreams that played itself out after I woke up. It is the kind of dream that you think clearly about for hours and one that keeps returning till you think through its meaning.

I don’t believe this one dream has prophetic implications, nor is it necessarily for you. So don’t read into it too far. Although I do have magical dreams,  every now and then, I get one of these. I think they’re just an accumulation of thoughts, writings, and beliefs that just spill over and cause a stir.

So it started this way. I was on a high hill, a high place I called “The Kingdom.” Below me was a large fenced area thousands of miles square. I called it “The World.” I observed people worried, sick, chasing endlessly after dreams. It was all mucky inside their “the world.” People put their trust in medicine, in gurus, politicians, and finances. On one end of the world  was placed a kings chair, like the corrination chair I saw in Westminster Abbey. And who else but Satan was sitting there with his huge menacing grin ruling the world. It was quite the bizarre sight. I saw all the people slopping around in the mud like pigs looking for scraps of food, putting their trust in themselves and their rulers to give them their needs. Of course, there were those that fell in line and those who hid themselves behind bushes and trees to avoid tyranny, but they were still trapped in the world and of the world.

Well, that is about all I remember of the dream before I woke up. Afterward, I thought about how there were no people that I recognized. And why wasn’t I in the world? I didn’t think I was too good for it. But I did think about living where I do and seeking desperately to keep myself insulated and grounded in what I know to be “Christ’s Kingdom.” I thought about having to take trips to town. Battling traffic, congestion, hoards of people seeking things to make living not so hard. I thought of bars filled with wenches and slobbering drunk men. I imagined the worlds loudspeakers repeating its dogmas. “Vote for me. Everything will be better if you do,” take those vaccines, fall in line.”

Then I thought about me standing on that hill and looking in. Christians, as part of Jesus’s Kingdom, are not of this world. At least we’re not supposed to be. We have been adopted by God, and our citizenship is in heaven. We are not this world. We are no longer broken. We’ve been repaired, forgiven our sins, and we know living life in God’s kingdom spares us from being shaken and wandering aimlessly in the darkness till we die. The Bible describes  the lives of the lost as vapor, without hope. I am not one of those.

Outside the world, we focus on God’s creation, obedience, his provisions, and his love.

But I also thought that His kingdom was not yet complete. He hasn’t returned yet, and Satan has not been cast into the lake of fire with the unbeliving. It’s not at all a parity that I live about as remotely as one can, and I keep myself “out of this world” as much as possible. I still hope in my spirit (Romans 5:5) that I can stay as far away from the evils of this world and be used of God like a good sheppard tending to his master’s lost sheep. And unlike just looking into the world from afar, I hope to do what I can to bring others into my “not of this world” relationship with Jesus Christ.  Sweet dream, huh!