Originally posted 2/24/2014:

I’ve been known to have really odd dreams. I remember being a kid and it being the same way, Anyway, this morning I woke up from a dream that left me feeling unsettled. I was in a field. Open, green, and full of people. The day was warm and bright and the sky was blue and then..the sky was full of bees. Me and three other people were farther back than the rest of a large crowd and I could see people getting stung over and over. And then everyone was running. Even though we got a good start because we were farther back I got stung by a few. At one point I was with someone. A girl I think. It was just the two of us and we ran until we reached a town. Everyone looked at us kind of strangely because we were swollen in spots from the bee stings. I went the pharmacy and told them to give some kind of shot to my friend first, then me. I was more concerned about the girl I was with than myself. I think her stings were worse. After I got my shot I pulled up my pant leg to look at one swollen spot as it started to disappear. Another bee landed, crawled around a bit on my skin, arched its back, and stung me. Then I woke up.

I’m not a dream interpreter but there are times when I have dreams where I feel like it could mean something more than just my crazy imagination. I don’t spend an awful lot of time thinking about it but I also know the Bible discusses dreams as well. Two quick examples is in Genesis 41 when Pharaoh’s dream was interpreted and then when the angel appeared to Joseph when Mary was pregnant with Jesus in Matthew 1. With that in mind I wanted to see if there was anything I could find in the Bible about my dream.

There wasn’t a ton about bees. Actually there was more about the product of bees which is honey. Since there wasn’t honey in my dream I didn’t want to focus on that. With that in mind the two verses that seemed possible for me to apply to my dream were Deuteronomy 1 and Psalm 118. In Deuteronomy it discusses the Amorites who “swarmed all over like a hive of bees”. I’m not a Bible expert so I reminded myself about the story. The Amorites were large warriors and something to be feared. So when God said their land was intended for the Israelites it’s kind of clear why they would be nervous approaching their territory. In Verse 6 (MSG) God says “You’ve stayed long enough at this mountain. On your way now. Get moving.” He has prepared this land before them and yet they were still in doubt. Moses goes on to say: “29-33 I tried to relieve your fears: “Don’t be terrified of them. God, your God, is leading the way; he’s fighting for you. You saw with your own eyes what he did for you in Egypt; you saw what he did in the wilderness, how God, your God, carried you as a father carries his child, carried you the whole way until you arrived here. But now that you’re here, you won’t trust God, your God—this same God who goes ahead of you in your travels to scout out a place to pitch camp, a fire by night and a cloud by day to show you the way to go.””
And then in Psalm 118:12 (NIV) “They swarmed around me like bees, but they died out as quickly as burning thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them off.”

Looking at those two verses I could interpret my dream at face value as my enemies: i.e. Satan, feelings of inadequacy, past mistakes, goals that have yet to come to fruition, etc as worries or thoughts that swarm like bees around me, but because of God’s promises and through the power of his Word they can be cut off and removed knowing the land that waits before me is good and will be delivered to me.
I found one Christian “Dream Interpreter” via Google and she had an online reference for keywords:

Bee/hornet – painful; strong demonic attack
Running – faith; perseverance; working out one’s salvation; moving forward with purpose
If I look at her interpretation the bees are a painful and strong demonic attack and the crowd I was with was running away from those attacks could be other Christians. Many people were defeated by those attacks but myself and another girl ended up in a town where we found a pharmacy and were healed.
I also stumbled upon another Christian “Dream Interpreter” who I’ve seen once on tv, John Paul Jackon. It actually shocked me because I was originally just looking to see if he has any dream dictionary or reference information I could quickly pull up. And that’s when I saw it “GETTING RID OF BEES”. He wrote about BEES.
http://www.streamsministries.com/resources/dreams-visions/getting-rid-of-bees

Knowing I was facing imminent death, I took a deep breath and blew with everything I had. To my shock, a huge number of bees lifted off the house and disappeared! Full of courage, I did it again. Three breaths later, I could see that the house was completely clean.
The angel looked at me and said, “Never allow the enemy to do that to you again! The Spirit of the Living God will stop it if you will let Him come forth from you. Never stop the breath of God!”

I don’t know about you but I was really impressed. Jackson also had dreams about bees. They were everywhere in a swarm and ready to attack. However the attacks/stings stopped through the breath of God, through the Word of God, and in His power. If I look back at the dream there was a crowd. A large crowd. And many of them were being stung more severely than those of us on the outskirts. It reminded me of 1 Peter (NIV): “8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings”. In essence all of us were being stung, but to varying degrees. Maybe we knew what to expect and therefore were ready to flee when the swarms of bees showed up in the middle of a beautiful warm day. Maybe we were used to it? At any rate we were ready to run and anxious to be relieved from the pain.

I think in this season of my own life and for many of my other friends struggling with anxiety, fear, monetary lack, sickness, and other hardships it’s difficult to always understand the physical and emotional pain you are going through. I mean geez even Dream Jess is being chased and stung by bees! However it’s good to remember that no weapon formed against us will prosper..even if we do continue to get stung. Nothing is wasted and nothing is deliberate pain or torture inflicted by God. And like the Israelites we have all “stayed too long on this mountain”. Everyone’s mountain is different but God wants us to leave it behind, abandon all fear, and run towards the blessings and provision that He has waiting.

Psalm 118