I don’t live in a large city. I live in a medium-sized town with a little slower pace, and I don’t have to wear a tie to my office which is close enough to easily walk to. I am a Financial Planner and I enjoy what I do. 

This particular day — which I want to describe to you–was as typical as the one before and, most likely, every mone into the future. I stepped outside into the warm northern California sun and bought myself the same large black coffee at the local coffee shop and internet cafe. Talked to a few people who seem to be there every morning when I am. This day was following the same comfortable rut as the last five years. 

I like it that way. But last night was different. I only remembered one dream from last night. It was a face. A giant face. And he was snoring. The dream was intense, and I was the only other person in the room with this giant. It woke me up. But, as I lay there, I could only remember a fuzzy shape. 

But they called my name, Samuel, as my coffee was ready.

When I finished my morning moseying down the street to my upstairs office, I settled into my well-broken-in ergonomic office chair with all the electronic controls for whatever contortion I desired the chair to provide. It cost a pretty penny…is that still a saying? 

The markets were trying to decide which way they wanted to go. And, since this was a Friday, I could relate. I didn’t have many clients, just large ones, which made it pretty simple to juggle investor demands. 

But today, it turned out to be anything but routine or comfortable. I had just returned from reheating my coffee in the microwave when I heard someone running up the stairs to our floor. You can hear almost every footstep on the wooden floors throughout the building. 

Heinrich Turnstiech burst through our office door, and speed-walked up to me, breathing hard. Heinrich is Manny Jalisco’s, the county district attorney’s, personal assistant. Their office is right next door. His face was frozen in panic, and he said, “Sam, we need your help. Someone looking into Jerseytown as a potential spot to re-locate his business just fell over unconscious.”

I looked at Heinrich and said, “Why me?”

“You are a volunteer EMT, right? The city’s ambulance is on another call. Manny was across the street at Sandra’s Real Estate office.” Heinrich was practically running in place, he was so overexcited.

“Okay, Heinrich! Settle down! Let’s go!” 

It only took thirty seconds to get to the office across the street. A crowd of people was building up outside the office. Sandra stood in the front window, waving at us to hurry. We did our best to get past the crowd and into her office. 

One of the biggest men I had ever seen was lying face-up on the front counter. Sandra excitedly said, “He just went pow, right there on the floor. No warning or anything. He didn’t say anything at all. He just fell like a rag doll to the floor. At first, we didn’t know what to do. We thought he had a heart attack or a seizure or something. But, when Heinrich checked his pulse, it was strong.”

Heinrich piped in and said, “Well, he fell in a very awkward position. So we had to get some next-door guys to pick him up. It took six of us to lift him onto the counter.

The man began snoring.

At this point, I hadn’t looked at the man except for a glance with my peripheral vision. So when I stepped over to examine him, I almost fell over myself. It was the face of my dream!

He had to be well over six feet tall, maybe even over seven feet. He was immaculately dressed as an old-time gentleman, with a high starched collar and an ornate vest under a very obviously expensive wool suit. 

It was his face that stunned me. He had long grey hair tied neatly in a ponytail bound with a beaded leather strap. His eyebrows were grey and bushy and stood out from his face like the prodigious nose. 

I checked his pulse again and ensured his airway was clear and unobstructed. It looked to me that there was nothing wrong with the man except perhaps having a powerful case of narcolepsy. I was about to tell Sandra and Heinrich that there was nothing wrong and they should just let him sleep. Suddenly, a voice said, “Wake him up!”

The voice was insistent and authoritative. But I ignored it. 

“I said, wake him up, Samuel! This is more important than you think. He is more important than you think. So WAKE him UP!” The voice yelled into my head. And I swore that a firm hand gently pushed me back to the man’s side. 

So I grabbed the man’s right hand, gave him a gentle shake, and said, “Sir, would you please wake up?”

“Louder, Samuel! He’s not sleeping! He is in a dangerous trance brought on by some very evil beings. If you can’t wake him up, he might stay that way for a long time.” The voice was getting more intense with every second. 

So I moved towards the man’s head and loudly said, “Wake up!” I looked at Sandra and asked if she had any ammonia and cotton balls.

“That’s not loud enough, Samuel. You will have to yell to break through the trance!” I could tell the voice was trying to help. But it would get embarrassing when I yelled at this man to wake up. 

The voice said, “You need to yell as loud as possible, Samuel. You are the only one whose voice is the right frequency to break through the trance. It’s why I gave you the dream last night. Kind of a heads-up.” 

I hesitated momentarily and said, “Gang, I must wake this man up. I am not sure this is a typical case of narcolepsy. Something is telling me this is more serious than that. I need to yell to see if I can jolt him awake.”

So I yelled, “Wake up!” Nothing happened. He didn’t even change the cadence of his snoring. 

When the crowd in the room saw what I was trying to do, they all decided to help me yell. So the entire room yelled, “Wake Up!!”

Nothing. 

So, I grabbed one of the lobby chairs and pushed it over to the man’s head, climbed up on the chair, got close to his ear, and yelled again, “Wake up!” 

His eyelids fluttered, and he started to roll over to a more comfortable position. That’s when I thought, “Can I slap him?”

“I would prefer you not to slap this man. He is vitally important to the Kingdom. And I am not sure what he would do to you if he woke up with a hand-shaped slap mark on his face. He’s quite a bit larger than you, Samuel.” The voice was almost laughing.

So now that his ear was easier to yell into, I yelled as loudly as I could without screaming, “WAKE UP!!”

His right eye opened, he yawned, stretched his arms and legs, and passed gas in an awe-inspiring blast. He sat up and looked around at all of us staring at him. Then, he looked right at me and said, “I saw you last night. Am I correct?”

I was still amazed that he had awakened, but said, “Yes. You did! How did you know? That was just a dream I had. Wasn’t it?”

The man slid down from the counter, gave another stretch, and replied, “Yes and no! It was a dream, but not the kind of dream you are accustomed to. I think the old term was dreams and visions. I believe this was more in the visions category. And, just so that you know,” The man leaned in and whispered, “I look like a man. But I only play one here on Earth. And you almost had as much to lose if I didn’t wake up as I did.

 I am the personification and representation of The Church, aka. The Body of Christ. What just happened was a particularly nasty bit of Kingdom warfare. Only your voice or prayers could break this trance. It is imperative we wake up those sitting in the pews. They may be as hard to wake up as I was.

The giant straightened his suit and asked, “So, Samuel, are you ready to go to work for the King of Kings?”

POSTSCRIPT – From Derek Hastings, the author.

This story comes from an actual very intense dream I had last year. In the dream I am main character (it felt very real). The sleeping giant was an embroidery on a long tapestry. I yelled at the image of the man 3 or 4 times. As loud as I could. Each time the image began to move until the image was gone. I turned around and there he was. He stood a good fifteen to twenty feet high. I went over to him to give him a hug but I could only hug his leg. My head was only about as high as his belt or pocket. I woke up at that moment. Oh yeah, the giant hugged me back kinda like he was still waking up.

“ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; – Acts 2:17