The Snake

Back in the summer of 2004 I went on a “mission tour” with two friends from church. It was three guys in a Chevy Blazer driving from church to church all across Alabama. We were enlisted by the Alabama Baptist Commission to do revival services for very small rural churches. My friend Daniel and I did the music, and Bryan gave the sermon each night. All of the churches were extremely small and mostly “country.” These were churches that couldn’t afford to “hire” established preachers to come do a revival. We were in a different small town each week during that summer. A few churches could afford to put us up in a hotel for our stay, but most churches had us stay with a family in their congregation.

About eight weeks into the summer we ended up in Vance, Alabama. Vance is a small town near Tuscaloosa. Their only claim to fame is a Mercedes manufacturing plant. The pastor of Vance Baptist Church was a young guy, probably not much older than we were. They couldn’t afford a hotel, so they bought us air mattresses and we stayed in the Sunday school rooms inside the church. My “room” was particularly small. I remember that my air mattress almost filled up the entire floor of the room. At this point of our trip we were all feeling pretty tired and beat down. We had after all been on the road for 2 solid months. Being away from home and on the go for that long can really wear on you. We were supposed to stay in Vance for three days and do a service each night.

After the second night’s service, a few of our friends from college came over from Birmingham to visit with us. We went out to eat and had a great time hanging out that night. After they left, Brian, Daniel, and myself drove back to the church. On our way we got to talking about how tired we all were. We were feeling really beat down by the trip. We also talked about how we felt like Satan was trying to hinder us in some way. We were giving up our precious summer to do work for the Lord, but we weren’t feeling His presence for some reason. We all really felt like Satan was attacking us and trying to keep us from being able to serve God. As we arrived at the church, the conversation kind of just ended without any resolution. We all retired to our “rooms,” air mattresses awaiting.

As I laid on the floor of that tiny room, I was wide-awake. I was mentally and physically exhausted, but for some reason I wasn’t sleepy at all. I distinctly remember being wired and wide-awake. I just stared up at that blank white canvas that was the ceiling of that tiny room. Then something incredible happened….

All of the sudden I wasn’t in that room anymore. I wasn’t dreaming, I wasn’t daydreaming, like I said, I was wide-awake. I found myself in a wide-open expanse. All I could see was bright white all around me. I couldn’t move at all. In the distance, through all the whiteness, I could see a dark “speck.” I stared at the speck because it was the only thing that wasn’t just whiteness. The speck grew bigger and bigger until it was close enough that I could see what it was. It was a black snake coming directly towards me! Let me just stop here and confess that I have always been terrified of snakes. I don’t care if it is big, little, poisonous, or not… I am scared of snakes. I’m not afraid of a lot in this world, but snakes terrify me for some reason. Now this snake had a pitch-black body. As it continued coming toward me, I could see how big it was. The snake was ten times bigger that I was. It got close enough that I could see its eyes. They were bright red. It slowly slithered closer and closer to me. Again, I remind you that I couldn’t move at all. I was struggling to turn and run away, but for some reason I was paralyzed. The snake slithered all the way up to me. At this point I could really get a good look at it. The eyes weren’t just red, but they were actually flames. The snake stopped in front of me for a moment. In that moment all was still in anticipation of the snake’s strike. The snake raised its head up like a cobra. He tilted his head slightly to one side, and it briefly grinned. Then his face changed to anger and he lunged at my face with mouth open. A split second before the snake reached my face a giant foot came down from the top of my field of vision and smashed the snake! The foot was so huge in covered my entire field of vision. It blocked out all the white.

Instantly after the foot smashed the snake I was back in the tiny Sunday school room. My air mattress was soaked with my sweat. My heart was racing like crazy. I was still panicking from the whole ordeal. After a minute or two I realized what had happened. God had given me a “vision.” The Bible teaches that God gives these “visions” to His followers sometimes, but honestly I never truly believed in it. I guess I always figured that these “visions” were just dreams. I have heard other people talk about having “visions” before, but I really never truly believed them. Now I do. I can’t really describe in my own words that well what happened that night. All I can say is that it definitely wasn’t a dream. Somehow I was “there.”

After the vision I thanked God for what He was telling me. If it isn’t obvious to you, He was telling me that He has won the victory over Satan. The snake represented the Devil, and the foot of God smashed Satan into the ground. I was helpless to overcome the snake on my own. It was much bigger and more powerful than me. I couldn’t even run from it. But just the bare foot of God was a hundred times bigger than the snake. God has already won the ultimate victory over Satan. I can’t fight alone, but thank God that I don’t have to.

I told Daniel and Brian about the vision the next morning. They were both excited and honestly stunned by it. I don’t think that I ever told anyone else though. I have always been afraid that people wouldn’t believe me, or they would think I was crazy.

I haven’t had an experience like this since that night in 2004. Who knows? Maybe it is a once in a lifetime deal. I’m sure most people go their entire lives without having a vision. Why did God choose to show me this simple truth in such a profound way? Moreover, why did he choose to show ME something so amazing? Why not just speak to me through prayer or His Word? I’m definitely nobody special. I am just thankful that I had that experience. I often think back to it when I am feeling beaten down by life circumstances.