I have had dreams before that I now recognize weren’t actually dreams but were my spirit traveling while I was asleep. I have done it many times while awake on purpose, and there have been other times that I recall feeling the dream itself seemed exceptionally more real upon waking than other dreams, but only two such dreams can I remember.

The first was probably about ten years ago, during the Bush occupation of Afghanistan after 9/11. I was standing in the desert somewhere by a large rocky outcropping of some kind. There was a U.S. soldier there in light, sandy-colored camouflage with an automatic weapon of some sort. I can only imagine he must have been on some kind of patrol duty as it was completely dark out. Anyway, he and I had a short conversation, but all I remember of that conversation was telling him the following: “Both of my brothers have been to Afghanistan already, so I guess now it is my turn.”

On waking this seemed strange in that it was true at that time that both of my brothers had been to Afghanistan via the military posting them there, but I didn’t understand why the dream was telling me that I was in that same country. It was only a number of years later I realized that it hadn’t been a dream and my spirit had taken a trip to Afghanistan to speak to a soldier while my body was asleep in my bed.

The second traveling event was much more recently–in the summer of 2015. I had been up working at night and laid down in the morning to go to sleep, so I was asleep during the day. I dreamed I was in a hospital on their cancer ward in their play-room for their cancer kids. From what I could tell based on the details in the dream, I was somewhere in the United States and it was daytime. I followed a girl, probably eight to ten years old, into the play room. She was pulling her IV pole in tow and was upset because of something a boy there was saying about God or Jesus, but I do not recall what he said. She, however, was near tears.

I don’t think I actually talked to her directly, but turned my attention to some adults who were in the room–a male doctor of Asian descent who was somewhat tall with short black hair and wearing blue scrubs. There were two female nurses present, one of whom had long dark hair that was very curly. I did not get a good look at the second nurse, but I am pretty sure they were both RNs. I spoke to them about death and loss, and informed that that as I was also a nurse that I, too, have had patients die, that understood their difficulty in dealing with death and how they felt. I reassured them that I was not trying to make light of their feelings in any way, but that I did understand.

I then went on to remind them that what they were doing as God’s work and that in reality all they had to do was turn to God in any and every time they were having difficulty and problems and didn’t feel like they could continue in their line of work. I exhorted them that God could take all of their sadness and grief and that what they needed was to stay close to Him to get inner healing for all their emotional hurts so they could continue moving forward to tend to the needs of these children. I reminded them they did need to tend to these children’s needs and bring healing to them.

That was the end of what I recall of that experience, but it struck me upon waking that at least one of those three must have been very close to quitting and needed to hear what I said to them. I was also struck by the fact that it was after 8 am in the morning on the West Coast of the U.S. when I had this dream, late enough that anywhere in the U.S. at that time there would reasonably have been doctors and nurses awake on day shift and at work. In other words, the time of day I experienced in the dream correlated with the time of day it actually was outside the dream, which served in my mind as only further confirmation that I had indeed traveled in the spirit in my sleep.

I found both of these experiences to be unique in that I do not now specifically recall every detail or even why I was there at the time–I simply appeared where I needed to be and it occurred while I was asleep. I do not know if I will ever meet the soldier or the doctor and nurses, or that little girl, but I do know that whatever I did had lasting fruit and that God was responsible for orchestrating my spirit to travel throughout the earth where it was needed. One more thing I strongly feel is that God is taking us to a place where it will not just be at his moving that we travel to and fro about the earth, but that as we grow up and learn how to be about the Father’s business that we will become ale to do it of our own will and volition, initiating these experiences and actively traveling in the spirit to those places in the earth that have greatest need, even without ever leaving our homes, or doing so in our sleep.

If you would like to read more about traveling in the spirit, pick up a copy of my book The Beginner’s Guide to Traveling in the Spirit, available on Amazon.com in both print and Kindle.