The soldier who opened fire at Fort Hood became enraged after an employee wouldn’t give him a leave of absence form, according to the father of one of the soldiers he shot.
Sgt. Jonathan Westbrook was struck four times in the spray of bullets, but was able to tell his father the shooter became agitated after an employee asked him to come back the next day.
The killer returned with a gun, said Theodis Westbrook, recounting his son’s story to ABC News.
The shooter, Spc. Ivan Lopez, killed three soldiers and wounded 16 before being confronted by a military police officer and killed himself.
Sgt. Westbrook was among the first shot, twice in the arm and twice in the chest.
The gunfire sent people in the room scurrying for cover.
“They dove for cover behind desks and tables only after he had shot and killed one person and injured my son,” Theodis Westbrook said.
Theodis Westbrook didn’t speak to his son until seven hours later.
“I love you,†the relieved dad said he told his son.
Despite his wounds, Westbrook was released from the hospital today.
“My son is a blessed human being,” Westbrook said. “He is blessed. He was shot pretty close up.”
The wounded soldier’s sister, Ameetra Westbrook-Otis, added details from her brother’s story when she told ABC affiliate WAPT that her brother was working in the Human Resources Department when Lopez came in asking for leave of absence form. When the supervisor asked Lopez if he could come back the next day, Lopez looked exasperated and walked off, the sister said.
But he was back within minutes and started shooting. The first person shot was the supervisor, Westbrook-Otis said recounting her brother’s story. He then shot several other people, including her brother.
Ten of the 16 wounded have been released from hospitals, Lt. Gen Mark Milley said at a press conference today.
Authorities said they don’t believe Lopez’s rampage was premeditated, but Milley did say it was likely the result of an “escalating argument.”
Chris Grey, spokesman for the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, said there is still “no concrete motive.”
“We may never know why the alleged shooter did what he did,” Grey said.
New details emerged about Lopez. He was a police officer in his native Puerto Rico for 10 years, and Grey said investigators have turned up “no history of criminal activity or convictions.”
Among the dead is Sgt. Timothy Owens, 37. Mom Mary Muntean was still celebrating being reunited with the daughter she had given up for adoption when she heard the news.
Her euphoria at finding her daughter was cut short by losing her son.
“She finds one child and loses another,†her niece Betty Goodwin told the Associated Press.
Mary Muntean began to panic when her son didn’t answer her phone calls after she saw news of the shooting on TV.
“I thought, Oh God, please don’t let it be,†Muntean told ABC News affiliate WICS in Springfield, Ill.
“Very terrible … that they had to shoot my son,†she said. “He was a good person.â€
Owens’ wife Billie broke the news to his mother.
“She said, ‘Mom, I want to tell you how sorry I am. Tim’s gone,’†Muntean said. “I broke down. I’m 77 years old and I can hardly take this.â€
Mary Muntean had been reunited with her daughter only the week before.
Sgt. First Class Danny Ferguson died a hero, his fiance told CBS affiliate WTSP in Tampa, Fla.
Ferguson used his body to keep the door shut so Lopez couldn’t enter, said Kristin Haley, also a soldier stationed at Fort Hood.
“It seems the doors would be bullet proof, but apparently they’re not,†Haley, who was nearby but escaped uninjured, told the station. “If he wasn’t the one standing there holding those doors closed, that shooter would have been able to get through and shoot everyone else.â€
Ferguson, from Mulberry, Fla., had just returned from Afghanistan, the station reported.
The third victim has yet to be named.
Major Patrick Miller was among the wounded. Information about the 32-year-old Iraq war veteran’s condition has not been released. Miller is from Allegany, N.Y. but lives with his wife outside Austin, Texas.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Police say a University of Arizona student died after falling from a roof-top structure at a residence hall Friday morning.
Police said 19-year-old freshman Michael Evan Anderson from Mission Viejo, Calif., was climbing a 20-foot metal cooling tower on the top of the three-story Colonia de la Paz residence hall when he slipped and fell.
University police said the fall appeared to be an accident.
University police and the Tucson Fire Department responded to a 911 call shortly before 4 a.m., and Anderson was pronounced dead at the scene, said UA Police Sgt. Filbert Barrera. Police haven’t determined yet whether alcohol was a factor.
A witness told police that he and Anderson got onto the roof by climbing the exterior wall of the residence hall. Then they climbed the metal frame of the cooling unit. Anderson fell off the cooling unit and onto the roof.
Counselors are on hand to support friends of the victim and students at the residence hall. Police believe the victim lived at the co-ed residence hall, which is on Highland Avenue west of the football stadium and is owned and operated by the university. Colonia de la Paz is one of the newer residents halls on campus, built in 1995, and houses about 500 students.
The death marks the second time in less than a week that an Arizona college student has died related to falling from a building. Early Sunday morning, an 18-year-old Arizona State University student plunged to her death from a 10th-story balcony at an off-campus high rise in Tempe.
Police believe Naomi McClendon was intoxicated when she was taken to an apartment where she later walked onto the balcony, lost her balance and fell to her death. The accident occurred at 922 Place, a high-rise apartment complex that caters to students near Rural Road and Apache Boulevard.
Local police say such incidents are rare. But cases occasionally pop up nationally. Sometimes they are ruled accidents; other times suicides. In November, a 20-year-old Penn State student died after falling from a ninth floor apartment balcony. The previous April, a Penn State cheerleader survived after accidentally falling from a fifth-floor window of another building.
In recent years, both ASU and the UA have seen more high-rise buildings catering to students in the neighborhoods surrounding the universities.
The Arizona Board of Regents, who oversee the state universities, last year launched a student safety task force over concerns of recent student deaths and injuries, many of them related to fraternities and alcohol consumption. Seven months later, the regents have yet to hold any public meetings on the topic. But reports and recommendations from the universities are due in June.
Contributing: Jim Walsh, Arizona Republic, The Associated Press
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – R&B singer Chris Brown was taken from his Los Angeles jail cell by the U.S. Marshals Service and will be transported to Washington, D.C. for a hearing in a 2013 misdemeanor assault charge, federal authorities said on Thursday.
Brown, 24, was jailed last month after violating his probation when he was dismissed from a facility where he was receiving the court-ordered treatment related to his 2009 assault of his then-girlfriend, singer Rihanna. He will be taken to Washington, where he is scheduled to stand trial on April 17, U.S. Marshals Service spokeswoman Lynzey Donahue said.
Brown’s lawyer Mark Geragos had asked the court to have Brown released ahead of the trial into his custody so that they could prepare for the trial and travel together to Washington.
A court hearing on the matter was set for Thursday, but Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Brandlin canceled it and issued a written decision instead.
The judge said Brown’s attorneys have been visiting him “on an almost daily basis” at the Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles to prepare for the D.C. trial, the City News service reported.
Brandlin issued an eight-page ruling on the matter, noting that while the transfer may cause “some inconvenience” to the singer and his legal team, Brown would not be deprived of his right to counsel if transported by federal authorities.
Brown faces a misdemeanor assault charge in Washington from an October 2013 incident where he was accused of allegedly punching a man who was trying to get a picture with him, breaking his nose.
The singer was sentenced by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Brandlin to 90 days in a treatment program following his altercation in Washington.
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Mary Milliken and Andrew Hay)
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
KUALA LUMPUR/PERTH, Australia (Reuters) – A Chinese patrol ship hunting for a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner detected a pulse signal in the south Indian Ocean on Saturday, the state news agency Xinhua reported, in a possible indicator of the underwater beacon from a plane’s “black box”.
Australian search authorities said such a signal would be “consistent” with a black box, but both they and Xinhua stressed there was no conclusive evidence linking the “ping” to Flight MH370, which went missing on March 8 with 239 people aboard shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing.
A black box detector deployed by the vessel Haixun 01 picked up the “ping” signal with a frequency of 37.5kHz per second – the same as emitted by flight recorders – at about 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude, Xinhua said.
Xinhua also reported that a Chinese air force plane had spotted a number of white floating objects in the search area.
Dozens of ships and planes from 26 countries are racing to find the black box recorders before their batteries run out.
Up to 10 military planes, three civilian jets and 11 ships are scouring a 217,000-sq-km (88,000-sq-mile) patch of desolate ocean some 1,700 km (1,060 miles) northwest of Perth, Australia, near where investigators believe the Boeing went down.
“The characteristics reported (by the Chinese vessel) are consistent with the aircraft black box,” Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, head of the Australian agency coordinating the operation, said in a statement.
“However, there is no confirmation at this stage that the signals and the objects are related to the missing aircraft,” he said, adding his agency was seeking more information from China.
SONAR EQUIPMENT
Authorities have not ruled out mechanical problems as a cause of the plane’s disappearance, but say the evidence, including loss of communications, suggests it was deliberately diverted thousands of kilometers (miles) from its set route.
Sonar equipment on two ships joining the search may help find the black box voice and data recorders that are key to unlocking what happened on the flight.
Australian authorities said the so-called Towed Pinger Locator would be pulled behind navy ship HMAS Ocean Shield, searching a converging course on a 240-km (150-mile) track with British hydrographic survey ship HMS Echo.
Experts say the Towed Pinger Locator may be of little use unless investigators can get a much better idea of exactly where the plane went into the water because its limited range and the slow speed at which it must be pulled behind the ship mean it cannot cover large areas of ocean quickly.
“I won’t even call it an area. What we are doing is we are tracking down the best estimate of the course that the aircraft was on,” U.S. Navy Captain Mark Matthews told Reuters. “It takes a couple of days on each leg so it’s a slow-going search.”
Britain is also sending HMS Tireless, a nuclear submarine with sonar capabilities, and a Malaysian frigate was due to arrive in the search area on Saturday.
“If we haven’t found anything in six weeks we will continue because there are a lot of things in the aircraft that will float,” Australia’s Houston told reporters.
Dozens of flights by a multinational taskforce have failed to turn up any trace of the plane in the past four weeks.
The Boeing 777 was briefly picked up on military radar on the other side of Malaysia and analysis of subsequent hourly electronic “handshakes” exchanged with a satellite led investigators to conclude the plane had crashed far off the west Australian coast hours later.
INVESTIGATION
Malaysian authorities have faced heavy criticism, particularly from China, for mismanaging the search and holding back information. Most of the 227 passengers were Chinese.
Malaysia said on Saturday it had launched a formal investigation into the plane’s disappearance that would include experts from Australia, the United States, China, Britain and France.
Normally, a formal air safety investigation is not launched until wreckage is found. But there have been concerns that Malaysia’s informal investigations to date have lacked the legal standing of an official inquiry convened under U.N. rules.
Under International Civil Aviation Organization rules, the country where the aircraft is registered leads the investigation when the incident takes place in international waters.
Malaysia’s Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the investigation would comprise three groups: one would examine maintenance records, structures and systems; an “operations” group would study flight recorders, operations and meteorology; and a “medical and human factors” group would look into psychology, pathology and survival
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A longtime aide to Republican NeAn investigation of traffic jams created near the George Washington Bridge in a political payback scandal.
Attorney Anthony Iacullo tells ABC News his client Michael Drewniak is not a target of the investigation but was in federal court to answer questions Friday. Christie’s press secretary received emails about the traffic-blocking plot after it was carried out in September.
Iacullo won’t say what was discussed in the grand jury. But he tells ABC News he received assurances Drewniak would be considered a witness throughout the proceedings.
U.S. attorney’s office spokeswoman Rebekah Carmichael says she can’t comment on the ongoing investigation.
Iacullo and Drewniak haven’t returned messages seeking comment. Christie has called the lane closings “inexplicably stupid.”
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Chief Goody Uwazurike is the President of Aka Ikenga, the think-tank of Ohaneze Ndi Igbo. A lawyer, he is also a delegate to the on going National Conference in Abuja. In this interview, with Levinus Nwabuchiogu he reacts to Professor Ben Nwabueze’s position on the conference, describing it as petty.
How do you describe the proceedings so far?
So far so good. We had our teething problems as expected of a body that is not a standing one. Remember it is adhoc because we were created to do some things which we all came from different backgrounds to do. In other words, from our different backgrounds, we have to reach out to do set out the rules, the work plan and so on. These have taken our first two weeks and I will say we have not done badly. We have resolved the issue of voting percentage. This is actually the most trying one we have had so far. I will say we are on the right track.
There is the insinuation that the conference is a waste of time in the light of the fact that we had some previous conferences without fruitful results?
Whoever is saying that is being uncharitable. In any case, the person has no sense of history. In history, all these talk shops had given rise to the next line of action. Let me drag you a little further. In invention, when they were trying to fly the first aircraft, eminent professors of physics came out and declared that nothing heavier than air will ever. But today we know that we have gone beyond that.
In 1994/95, we also had a conference. People said it was a talk shop. It was this, it was that. That it was just nonsense. One of the things that came out of that conference is that today we look up to six zones in this country Yet people do not think it was possible. Obasanjo’s own raised a number of issues. Obasanjo’s 2005 conference was not conclusive in the sense that issue of whether Obasanjo will run for third term or not disrupted the trend of movement. But not this time.
Here, President Jonathan has his right to look for second term. It is not even an issue here. Support for Jonathan is not an issue. What are the issues: governance, cost of governance, the judiciary, the political system and equation, women’s rights, the rights of everybody, creation of states, issues of local government.
These are the issues in the front burner. Since they are in the front burner, these issues are germane to the future of this country. So, if you talking of what next, no body will ignore the outcome of this conference. Because everything will be sent verbatim to Mr. President. It goes to him then it goes to all the principal officers of this country.
As germane as these issues are, they have been enveloped by issues of ethnicity and religion. And we see them here playing out.
In every gathering, the issue of religion and ethnicity must play out unless you have taken a decision to push it away from the front burner. In Nigeria, we have kept ethnicity and religion in the front burner, therefore, those two must rear their heads and these two issues are among the issues to be handled by 20 committees, so that we have to find a way to manage ourselves in religious and ethnic matters. That is why we have the six zones based on ethnic nationalities. It is there. We also have the two principal religions: Christianity and Islam producing people. So , it will always be there. Let’s make no mistakes about it.
Many delegates made allusions to the fact that some people amongst them are cause of Nigeria’s numerous problems as they had participated in post conferences that didn’t see the light of day. With such question mark, do you think Nigeria will make any progress having these people in the ongoing conference?
Well, there are so many people. Some were here in the 1950s, at least I know one person who was already in the parliament that time. In 60s, a couple of them. In the 70s, many of them. Then in 80s and 90s, you also still find some of them. Today, we have those who were born after some of them had stopped being governors. They are here. You have those who are in their 20s who were born probably when Abacha was in power or when Shonekan was in power. There are so many who were born when Babangida was in power.
They are all here because from the experience of different people we must harness some things we must use and work with. The man who I know was in his 50s will tell you what happened when they went for various conferences. Now, you talk of those who were there in the 60s, they will tell you what led to civil war. We must harness from each and everyone of them in his own experience.
I am tempted to describe it as the good, the bad and the ugly. But they must come together for us to choose what is good. And, believe me, those who were there in the 50s are worried more than us about the future of this country. So to just wave them aside and say they caused the problem is wrong. The military caused most of our problems and they are here too.
Another controversial issue is referendum. Government appears slightly undecided over it. Delegates themselves are also divided on what to do with the outcome of the conference. What do you think?
Well, Mr. President set us up. When we are through with our deliberations, we have only one job: hand over the report to Mr. President. Now, he will decide what he wants to do. He has some options. He may decide to sit down and suppress it for which he will risk the anger of the people or most likely, he will take it and present it to the National Assembly as an Executive Bill.
Now, what Mr. President said about referendum is that the amended constitution being proposed by the National Assembly, there is a provision for referendum. In all future amendments of the constitution and that this one we are doing here will fall squarely into that and when he presents it to the National Assembly; of course part of the process is referendum.
You are an Igbo man. What are the Igbo bringing to the table at the conference?
The Igbo of the South-east, because we have the Igbo of the south-south, the Igbo of the South-east, are here in full, of course led by Senator Ike Nwachukwu. We have the president of Ohanaeze, remember Ohaneze covers South-east and South-south. But the south east delegation alone is led by Senator Ike Nwachukwu. Now, the Igbo in the South-south also have their leaders. The things we are bringing are many. One of them is equity and fairness. That us what we are demanding in this country. You can’t have South-east with five states, North-west with seven states, all the other zones six states. Of course, we are looking forward to true federalism.
What’s the point in all kinds of local governments with 1,000 names when, in fact, there is no body there. Based on that you collect all kinds of unfair allocations. We are not interested in local government being the creation of the constitution; it is true federalism we are asking for. The structure of government we are asking for today is that there will be federal government, there will be state government. Local government is the business of the state government. Of course in this country, we are asking for reduction of the cost of governance. We are asking for the right of residency in any part of the nation. There should an abolition of the dichotomy of you are from here, you are not from here.
Professor Ben Nwabueze, a legal luminary, elder statesman and leader of The Patriots, in a nut shell, summarized what is going on here as a waste of time. Most people are tempted to say, given his antecedents in constitutional matters and law, an elder statesman man who knows it all has spoken. Would you dismiss or welcome his submission?
I will not dismiss his submission but I will also remind you of what you said now: “An elder statesman who knows it all.†That is the problem. No body knows it all. In the case of Professor Nwabueze, we have always called him the Oracle of Law. And as the Oracle of Law, we pay attention whenever he speaks. We analyse everything he says and he is somebody I have the highest regard for.
As the President of Aka Ikenga, he knows how we feel about him. We did our 10th anniversary, he was there as guest speaker. I still hold him in highest regard but there are so many issues he is canvassing that I am not comfortable with. When this issue of advisory panel for this conference came up, he was there. He was nominated. But he declined on the grounds of ill health.
So, we lamented, ‘oh, we have lost a great mind’. But shortly after, he formed The Concerned Igbo Leaders of Thought. Then we had about five meetings in all. Suddenly, it became very active. He would choose a delegate and the end of the day, he didn’t choose a delegate. He was going to tell us the Igbo position and, at the end of the day, no body said anything. Delegates had been chosen, the Igbo position we already had it. Several meetings we have been holding and today he describes those meetings as a waste of time. Well, he is entitled to his opinion.
We also have other legal luminaries. We have other people who have been ministers. Like Nwabueze was a minister too. We don’t even remember it. He was a Minister of Education. We have great authors like him. We have leaders. The President of Ohanaeze, Chief Gary Igarowo, is here. So, there is no way anybody can ever describe what is going on here as a waste of time or nonsense. We have just commenced. You don’t even know where we are going. You don’t even know how far we will go, you are describing it as nonsense.
That is being uncharitable. That is being petty. It is not necessary. All you have to do is to keep our fingers crossed. We have even asked the public to submit memoranda. Let him support his own. He can even say this nonsense and we will still consider it. There are 492 of us here from different backgrounds, from different ethnic groups representing different professional groups. As far as we are concerned, we are here for a serious business and we will stick to the serious business.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Chelsea ended a run of two consecutive defeats and returned to the top of the Premier League after a comfortable victory over Stoke City at Stamford Bridge.
Mohamed Salah, making his first start for the Blues, broke the deadlock on 32 minutes when he fired the ball past Asmir Begovic after good work from Nemanja Matic.
Frank Lampard followed up his own saved penalty on 61 minutes after Andy Wilkinson had brought down Salah to double their lead, and Willian curled a superb third on 72 minutes to seal the win.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
I want to continue from the last point you made which was on complementing the efforts of Emenike in Eagles attack.
The situation in Eagles is similar to the current one in our track and field where Nigeria has become a one-athlete nation. Blessing Okagbare is the only world class athlete Nigeria has and the whole country, for now, banks on her for medals from the Olympics to the World Championships. Our hopes crash if she falls sick or fails in any of these events.
Too bad. Imagine Eagles attack without Emenike! We saw it at the FIFA Confederation Cup. And we saw his impact in Ethiopia during the World Cup qualifiers in Addis Ababa and in Calabar. Imagine if he didn’t play that match in Ethiopia. Brown Ideye has repeatedly failed to live up to expectations as a good support striker. I don’t think he has the quality to feature in the World Cup.
Some Nigerians think Shola Ameobi could fit in. I hope so. But he has to play more games with the Eagles to blend well with our style and understand his mates better. I saw Ezekel Imo against Mexico and I want to see him in more matches. Unfortunately, time doesn’t appear to be our friend now. The World Cup is already here.
It is against this background that I join Mr. Ude in asking Ike Uche to quickly get in touch with Keshi and apologise like Osaze has done. A friend called me last week to comment on Mr. Udeh’s contribution which he read on line last Friday.
He said that aside the tactical indiscipline Ike Uche was reported to have not projected Keshi in good light before the former sports minister. In my column that Mr. Udeh referred to I recalled that the Segun Adeniyi Panel, which I served as a member, added in the code of conduct that players must not discuss technical matters with administration officials but should feel free to suggest ideas to their coaches.
Whatever wrong Ike Uche did, he should apologise to Keshi and pledge to be a good team player. Nigerians want our best in the World Cup. Yomi Jones is one Nigerian who believes in Nigeria and who gets excited to see Nigerians excel in various fields especially sports. Yomi Jones made a name in the aviation industry.
He was Deputy General Manager, Lufthansa and one of those who made the German Airline very popular in West Africa before President Obasanjo charged him with the responsibility of reviving the Nigeria Airways and appointed him Managing Director. And he did a great job of it before saboteurs set in.
Yomi Jones has a story but for now he wants Nigeria to do well in Brazil and called last week to add voice to those appealing to Keshi to “forgive and accommodate all players who may help our team in Brazil.†But Jones insists on discipline and team spirit.
It is also on this note that I appeal to Keshi to reconsider Osaze Odewengie and Ike Uche if they apologise and he truly feels that they can help the team. If he feels otherwise and he knows of players who can work with Emmanuel Emenike in our attack in Brazil and produce results the choice is for him to make. The friendly matches and camping in USA will be crucial, critical and will determine a lot.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
In 2003, Femi-Kevin’s headmaster sent me an email forecasting that he would fail his GCSE exams because he had done so badly in his mock exams. I wrote an angry response and asked him: “Are you God? How are you so sure he would fail? Is it because he is black?†After he took the exams, God did something strange. Before his results came out officially, he showed them to me in a dream; subject-by-subject and grade-by-grade. The results were excellent: Femi-Kevin got so many “A†grades.
The next day at the dinner-table, I announced to everyone that I had seen Femi-Kevin’s GCSE results. They thought the results had come out. But I told them they had not; nevertheless, had God revealed them to me. Then I gave them the details. Six weeks later, Femi-Kevin’s results were officially released. Guess what? They were exactly as it had been shown to me.
Revelation knowledge
God reveals things of his choosing to us in dreams. This is part of the privilege of walking with him. Job says God uses dreams to “open the ears of men.†(Job 33:16). He also uses them to give us invaluable understanding of his works. What we learn from dreams enable us to pray constructively in order to prevent imminent evil. Alternatively, it enables us to pray in order to ensure that God’s will is done in our lives.
Dreams can give us valuable insight of what is happening in the realms of the spirit. Indeed, we can pray to God for such revelations because the spiritual state is the true state of everything. You may want to know spiritually the man who is proposing marriage to you. You may want to know the spiritual character of the house you just moved into. You may want to know the reason why there is a big mountain in your path. God often answers such prayers through dreams.
Remember this: God is the one who tells us what we need to know but cannot know naturally. Thus, Jesus said to Peter: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.†(Matthew 16:17).
Frightening dreams
Some will tell you if the dream is frightening, it is not from God. This is not necessarily true. God occasionally terrifies us with warnings in dreams. (Job 33:16). He uses them to wake us up when we are complacent, too relaxed and are not paying enough attention to him. He uses them to make us face disturbing truths about ourselves. Accordingly, Job laments: “When I say, ‘my bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,’ then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions, so that my soul chooses strangling and death rather than my body.†(Job 7:13-15).
The fact that you saw someone in a dream does not mean the dream is about him.
God also scared Nebuchadnezzar in dreams. He said: “I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts on my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.†(Daniel 4:5). This did not happen because Nebuchadnezzar was demon-possessed. It happened because God wanted to impress an urgent message on him. Similarly, God troubled Pilate’s wife in a dream in order to warn Pilate not to participate in the persecution of Jesus. She said to her husband: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.†(Matthew 27:19).
However, most scary dreams are not from God. Hidden areas of our subconscious mind; things we see, watch or hear; areas of anxiety; these can all produce frightening dreams. Some dreams provide avenues for tormenting demonic spirits to harass us and rob us of our inner peace and joy. The antidote for this is prayerfulness and spiritual fervency. God says: “Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength. Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the holy city. The uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again.†(Isaiah 52:1).
Busybody dreams
Soulful dreams are produced by the natural processes of our mind, will and emotions. When we think, not all our thoughts originate from the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when we sleep, the natural mind continues to process our natural thoughts. As a matter of fact, when we are preoccupied with something or someone, it shows up in our dreams: “For a dream comes through much activity.†(Ecclesiastes 5:3). King James calls this a “multitude of business.†Accordingly, God warns: “(Don’t) listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.†(Jeremiah 29:8).
Since our spirits never sleeps, if you sleep in front of a television, you are likely to dream what is showing in it. Dreams are often the product of our subconscious mind revealing to us our deepest, innermost thoughts. (David) says: “my heart also instructs me in the night seasons.†(Psalm 16:7). If you spend the day watching horror films, you might have a horrific dream at night. During times of intense spiritual warfare, you may also dream about situations involving dark forces of the enemy.
The human mind is a dream factory. Therefore, be careful not to put too much reliance on dreams for the primary way that God talks to us in these last days is by his word: “For in the multitude of dreams and many words there is also vanity.†(Ecclesiastes 5:7). By the same token, don’t allow yourself to be derailed by the dreams of others: “Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you. For they prophesy falsely to you in my name; I have not sent them, says the LORD.†(Jeremiah 29:8-9).
Since what we dwell on during the day often appear in our dreams, it is important to spend our waking hours meditating on the right things. God counsels that we should procedurally meditate on the scriptures: “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.†(Joshua 1:8).
As we digest relevant scriptures during the day, our minds will continue during the night to assimilate the truths we have imbibed. The psalmist says: “I remember your name in the night, O LORD, and I keep your law. (Psalm 119:55). As a matter of fact, we can even meditate on the scriptures by listening to them and dreaming about them while we are sleeping.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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