…grace and truth came to be through Jesus Christ. ~ John 1:17b NASB
Continuation …
The previous post, A Bear, An Alligator, Two Deer & A Bear, relates three dreams that reflect a predator spirit exercising influence in some form. I am hopeful that any or all the dreams are used by Holy Spirit to speak to your heart, your mind, or your physical being. Perhaps – because the Lord is thorough – all three. As I ended, I begin: “What Holy Spirit is revealing in this spiritual season is for purpose, not surprise attacks.”
The Mixed Wine of “Mama Bear”
When I was first impressed to write the Spirit of Truth & Grace series, the mixed wine of “Mama Bear” was high on my years-long list of experiential observations. I had not yet had any of these three dreams. Long before it was a social-selfie label, my sisters and I were raised as daughters of a proverbial Mama Bear. She’ll be 95 soon. Mama Bears are nothing new; they’re ancient. So is the predator spirit intent on hindering* all God’s children.
There is something about growing up in Christ as our Head that brings truth to bear and understanding to come forth like dawn rising. Sometimes it resembles “one day with the Lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day.”1 We don’t grow up overnight. Have you ever seen a crop or fruit tree or forest that does? I know it can seem like kids do. The at-home years are a brief but key time to account for, train up, and protect.
One of the harsh realities of a Mama Bear’s life is when her cubs do what they were born to do: grow up. We do not own our children, God does. When a heart that loves is overshadowed by a mind that says, they’re mine! – the truth that their life is a gift to steward is not easily, or at times kindly, taken to that same heart. Childbearing of infants is painful. So is the ache for a natural and/or spiritual brood in a heart hope-wired to long for the best.
Mama Bears are precious to the Lord. Which is precisely why He holds them tighter when it’s time to let go.
The Scent of Jesus
I recall, as needed, the day the Lord all but audibly asked me, “Do you trust Me with your children?” I understood besides them, now adults, He was including my grandchildren. There was only one answer I could give Him. “Yes. I do. I trusted You with me. I cannot not trust You with them.” Mama Bears, this is a point of surrender to the Lord; as much for your own journeying, as for your children’s – natural or spiritual.
Where the predator spirit has not been dealt with, let alone acknowledged, a Mama Bear with open wounds can react when she smells the scent of Jesus on her cub. We can dedicate our babies to the Lord, but we have no idea at the time what He will do with that committal. When they are in our household, we have the parental responsibility to raise them as best we know. Then one day, the Lord may nudge us out of the way to take over.
Temple, Eye, and Cheek
It did not escape me in the dream that the bear was drawing near the right side of my face. Right in scripture means ‘power’ and ‘authority’. The Apostle John (aka John the Beloved) wrote in John 1:11-13 –
He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. But whoever did receive Him, those trusting in His name, to these He gave the right to become children of God. They were born not of a bloodline, nor of human desire, nor of man’s will, but of God. (Tree of Life Version)
How you or I came into this world does not cancel the fact that we are eternal beings having an earthly experience. Every one of us is a candidate whom Jesus desires to receive Him so He may return us to His Father. Some of us grew up in warm, loving families that evidenced a healthier pattern of living and relating. Others of us entered families with generational lines of dysfunction and difficulty, and unhealthy patterns with ill effects. As I’ve written before, many grew up experiencing a blend of both. Families fully need our Savior too.
The Mama Bears who come to recognize that the Spirit of God is at work in their offspring by His will, have it no easier than those who don’t have a clue what He is doing. Sometimes it is because they see His fingerprints that they struggle with the final release into His keeping. It is why parents have a right (authority) to keep growing.
The predator spirit would love to have you believe you are in control. It is the night and day difference between dominating family lives and situations – which leads to darkness – and learning by experiential surrender how to rightly discern and properly take your stand in Christ’s dominion of light against those powers of darkness. The light has overcome the darkness, not the other way around. If darkness feels at home, His work must go deep.
Biting the Hand that Feeds You
In the initial dreams post, Holy Spirit directed my attention to the running theme of family, both natural generations and the family of God. As I took the time to wait on the Lord for more understanding, there was so much coming that I began to feel overwhelmed – in a life-giving way, but overwhelmed, nonetheless. In pleading prayer, I asked Him to help me drill down to the key predator spirit behind the attitudes, actions, and multitude of things I had been sensing these past years. The years that led to, “It’s time for a new wineskin!!”
Shortly after came the spirit of fear, fed by tributaries of rejection, resentment, jealousy, and bitterness. If you want a recipe that leads to less than peace and reconciliation, keep dining on it and dishing it out.
There is a framed calligraphy scripture that hangs in my writing room. It has everything to do with stirring up the gift of God within you ~ which is made exceptionally more difficult to push through when Mama Bear is fearful.
“For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God gave us a Spirit, not of fear but of power, and love, and self-control (a sound mind).” – II Timothy 1:6-7
I was afraid in the dream the bear’s paw was going to take a swipe. That would have been injurious enough. And it has been – in families, and in the family of God made up of families, whatever that family may look like. Instead, it was the deep bite on my hand with its mouth that made me know this predator spirit was stirred up. It was a classic demonstration of biting the hand that feeds you. Biting back isn’t the answer. Keep feeding ~
To be continued in Part 3 ~ An Alligator
Gracefully Free
* delaying, thwarting, obstructing, impeding, deterring, holding back … 1 II Peter 3:8
Photo Credit: Pexels-Pixabay-33783 │ ©2025 Nancy C. Bentz
Hi Nancy!
There’s a quote I recently read that seems to fit quite neatly into what I think you are bringing out here in your dream:
”Relinquishment is always a part of the process of maturing. When Christian parents have done all that can be done to shape their children for God, the time comes when the hands must let go. The child, now a responsible adult, must be released. For any parent this is painful, even when the child is moving in the direction the parents prayed for. The child’s continued development, and the spiritual health of the parents as well, depend on the willingness to accept this next stage of the cycle hands off, ready to part without a struggle, giving up authority and control, entrusting that child to God.”
⁃ Elisabeth Elliot
Bless You!
Hi Pamela ~ it is very nice to hear from you! Thank you for sharing this wonderful Elisabeth Elliot passage. Yes, that describes well the takeaway from that portion of my dream. I find that in every generation, there are those who capture the lessons ~ she did that very well.
There were other elements and reactions in the same dream; it does seem to come down to the fundamental issue of how well, healthy, or uneasily a parent goes through the releasing of their child / children. I’m so glad the Lord knows the way each of us takes and is faithful in it all ♥ Bless you too!
Amen 🙂