Red Light, Green Light - Jonathan Voos

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Red Light, Green Light

On dreams, false prophecies, and stop lights

On dreams, false prophesies, and stop lights

August 02, 2024

Dear reader,

This May, I interned at the Texas Supreme Court in Austin. One of my law school classmate’s family was kind enough to open their home for me to stay during my five weeks there. Their generosity was a huge blessing, and staying there also helped me learn an important lesson about God’s will.

On Mother’s Day, my girlfriend was scheduled to run her first half-marathon (she and her dad killed it by the way!). So, I made plans to drive from Austin up to the DFW to watch her run. These plans almost didn’t pan out.

Left: Texas Supreme Court; Right: Post Half Marathon Pic!

The Thursday before the race, I had an odd dream. As I was driving southbound on the I-35 access road,1 I came either to a stoplight or a place where traffic was stopped. The cars in front of me started to move again, but my car would not go. I can’t clearly say whether it stalled out or simply wasn’t working—I’m not a car guy. But whatever the case was, I somehow knew that I had a transmission problem. A few seconds later, I got the car going again because the problem was minor. It ended up being a quick fix that happened without me leaving the driver’s seat. Odd, right?

Well, as someone who has several bad experiences with cars breaking down on long drives on I-35, this dream made me extremely nervous to drive up to the DFW. To put it in 80s music terms, I repeatedly asked myself: “Should I stay or should I go?”

When the time came to make a decision the day before her race, I was a bit of a wreck. I wanted to see my girlfriend’s race and support her (despite the 5 AM wake-up call). But I didn’t want to deal with car problems if the dream was a warning. So, after two days of (wrongly) fretting about the decision, I finally picked up my Bible and prayed.2

That Saturday morning, I turned to three places: Jeremiah 28 & 29 on false prophecy, John 13:3 on recognizing that everything is in God’s hands, and Proverbs 18 on finding wisdom in community. All three chapters were immediately relevant.

First, Jeremiah 28 & 29 helped me realize I needed to confront false prophecy given the influence that certain, popular megachurch preachers like Bill Johnson of Bethel had on people in my life.3 As a Christian YouTuber named Mike Winger showed in multiple hours long videos, people like Bill Johnson and Benny Hinn have openly embraced New Age pagan practices, repeatedly prophesied falsely, and in Hinn’s case, repeatedly faked healings and exhorted poor people to give him all of their money in hopes of being blessed 1000-fold by God in return. Cf. 1 Cor 16:1–4; 2 Cor 8:1–9:15; Rom 15:14–32 (collecting money for the poor in Jerusalem). Meanwhile, other pastors associated with their movement have either turned a blind eye or outright defended their anti-Biblical practices. Reading this passage helped me decide that I needed to start a conversation with people about the problems with these teachings.

Second, John 13:3 served as a reminder that everything is in God’s hands. Because everything is in God’s control, my worry was misplaced. That verse comforted me and, in conjunction with the story surrounding the third verse, helped ease my misplaced worry.

Third, Proverbs 18 happened to be the exact passage my host and a fellow elder at his church were studying that morning. They specifically were studying Proverbs 18:1, which says: “Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.” This verse served as a reminder of the importance of staying involved in good Christian community—a reminder applicable to my own life and the lives of close friends.

After talking about Proverbs 18, I asked my host—a home church pastor—what he thought about my decisionmaking dilemma. He gave me the following “Red light, green light” analogy:

A lot of people try to discern God’s will by waiting for clear green lights—meaning that they won’t move unless they have a clear indication that their action is God’s will. But, as Christians, this is probably the wrong way to think about discernment. Instead, because we have freedom in Christ, we should feel comfortable moving in the absence of a red light so long as we’re sure of these two things: 1) We are walking with God in word, deed, and action; and 2) the proposed course of action is consistent with (or not inconsistent with?) Scripture. God can give us red lights even if the action we want to take is consistent with Scripture. And we need to heed those red lights. But in the absence of such red lights, we should walk unburdened by anxiety because of our freedom in Christ.

Hopefully I’ve done his analogy justice. I think it’s a rather good one for Christians who struggle to take action out of a fear of messing up, which finally brings me back to my dream.

After my girlfriend’s race that Sunday, we were gathered at her Uncle’s house for Mother’s Day. While there, I got a text from my mom asking if I was in Round Rock that weekend, and if so, whether I could go to Temple to check on my sister.

It turns out that my sister was driving south on I-35, heading back to San Antonio from Arkansas. When she got off the highway to stop at the Buc-ee’s in Temple, her transmission stopped working—leaving her car stuck in the middle of the Buc-ee’s parking lot. She got the car into neutral and get it pushed into a parking spot, but couldn’t get the transmission to work again on her own. While she was waiting for help, I shared my dream with her and encouraged her that, if my dream applied, it all was going to work out fine in the end.

Finally, after a couple hours, my parents’ neighbor was able to get a hold of a relative who lived in Temple and knew how to fix cars. The car guy met her at Buc-ee’s and fixed the transmission problem in a matter of minutes. Some sort of plastic piece in the transmission had broken and just needed to be reattached (again, please forgive my lack of car knowledge). So, like in the dream, everything did work out fine for her!

I still don’t know exactly what to make of my partially-accurate dream. Again, I was in the car, not her. The transmission went out on the access road, not at Buc-ee’s. And it was fixed on its own in a matter of seconds rather than hours. That said, the problem was a transmission problem, it happened while traveling south on I-35, and the solution was simple and didn’t damage the car. So, what does this mean for me?

To be honest with you, I’m not quite sure. I do believe in the continuation of miraculous spiritual gifts,4 and Paul’s quotation of Joel 2:28–29 in Acts 2 about dreams and visions especially comes to mind. That said, my dream is clearly not akin to the “Thus sayeth the Lord” prophecies in Isaiah, Ezekiel, etc. (I’d probably argue that no prophecies today are on that level because Scripture is complete—but I’m not 100% on what New Testament prophecy is exactly). That said, this dream and other, similar partially accurate dreams I’ve had do mean something and I think are from God. Still, I’ve never been able to say “X is certainly going to happen” because of my dreams, and I’m inherently skeptical of people who claim such authority.

Accordingly, I think it’s only fitting to leave you with these three things. First, remember the red light, green light analogy and the freedom you have in Christ—provided that you are walking consistently with Scripture. Second, as Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:16–22: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.” And finally, enjoy this song (which is related in name only)!