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Supernatural Biblical Guidance 5
Understanding
Holy Spirit Inspired Dreams & Guidance
by
Pastor John Hamel
“And it shall come
to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your
sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams,
your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon
the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.” (Joel 2:28,29)
We are talking
about the Holy Spirit and supernatural guidance. We have continued to
see that the inner witness
or the inner perception of the Holy Spirit is the primary way He guides us,
after the written Word of God. The inner witness of the Holy Spirit
is followed by His inward still small voice and after that His actual,
audible, more authoritative voice.
In this lesson we
are going to move into another form of supernatural Biblical
guidance. We will study supernatural dreams and guidance. In
our next lesson we will study supernatural visions and guidance, followed by
supernatural prophecy and
guidance.
In
a Massachusetts community where we once lived and ministered, we had a great problem. Amongst many believers and Pastors it
was very popular to put
far too much emphasis on psychologically-based "Holy Spirit
inspired" dream "interpretation" which does not line up with
the Bible. Many have allowed themselves to be misled by the wrong
teachings of one very popular "Christian Dream Teacher" who
wrongly interprets dreams according to colors, shapes, numbers, symbols,
etc.
They seem to be duped by the fact that he has appeared on many popular
Christian television programs. Well, there are many things on Christian
television networks that do not line up with Scripture.
Christian television
stations have tremendous overhead and some, not all, are often times more concerned with
booking half hour segments at high-dollar rates than they are with monitoring
proper doctrinal content. This is why the Apostle Paul instructs all Pastors
and believers to
"Study and show yourself approved of God." (2 Timothy 2:15)
Pastors who allow others to do their studying for them blindly following
popular error, always end up in a ditch on one side of the road.
One
Pastor I personally know has been so misled by this "Christian Dream Teacher" he
actually advertised where his congregation was to hold a church party on a
local Village Green. There was to be "...drama, dance, games,
food, face painting and dream interpretation." This leads to big
deception and big spiritual messes which are left to enlightened Pastors to
clean up and correct within the community.
Imagine - face painting,
games and
dream interpretation for the children! I would not allow my child to
come within one mile of that "church" party! Although the Pastor
and his people love Jesus, they have "departed from the faith,"
opening themselves and others up to "seducing spirits and doctrines of
demons." (1 Timothy 4:1) It needs to be said. These wayward
doctrines cannot be supported from Holy Scripture. (Matthew 18:16) It's
always best to just stick with the Word and stay out of trouble.
The Prophet Joel in
our text declared that in the Last Days there would be an increase of
dreams, visions and prophecies. Many Believers are actually afraid of these
types of supernatural guidance because of the errors of folks like those
mentioned above. They are afraid of being misled by counterfeits and
rightfully so. Although dreams, visions and prophecies must be tested
according to the Word of God, they should never be rejected. Once we
educate ourselves Biblically we will have no need to fear dreams, visions
and prophecies. Although they are not the primary way the Holy Spirit
leads, they are Biblical and we can find the balance.
The Holy Spirit has
led the people of God through dreams, visions and prophecies throughout
human history. We are on the threshold of an increase of this type of
guidance according to the Prophet Joel. Therefore, we must purposely
study the Bible to acquire a better understanding of dreams, visions and
prophecies. Dreams are not just “mental debris” as some people
insist. Others insist that God does not use this type of guidance any
longer. Then there are those who desire to have their total existence
directed by nothing but dreams, visions and prophecies. Satan has
destroyed many good individuals and Ministries because of their wrong opinions of dreams,
visions and prophecies.
One such popular
Ministry, mentioned above, has deceived many, particularly our youth.
This deceived individual and his trained "Teachers"
and "Prophets" travel from
Church to Church, television program to television program, teaching “Dream Seminars” on how to interpret dreams
through the use of colors, letters, numbers, objects, events, etc.
However, this type of teaching is unbiblical, man-inspired, not God-inspired,
rooted in psychology and
renders nothing but confusion amongst those who are ignorant of true,
Biblical, New Testament forms of guidance. Yet, many Pastors choose
this popular error over the Word of God just because it will draw a small
crowd and raise a few dollars. (...and a few eyebrows, as well!)
We will find the
scriptural balance
in these studies and we will be blessed as opposed to deceived.
Dreams Defined
Webster’s
dictionary defines “dreams” as “having ideas or images in the mind during
the state of sleep; in Scripture dreams were sometimes impressions on the
minds of sleeping persons by Divine agency.”
You will notice
that this definition of dreams correctly states that dreams only occur
while a person is sleeping. Visions occur while a person is
awake. We will go into visions in our next lesson.
In the Old
Testament, prior to the Holy Spirit indwelling man, dreams were frequently
used by God to speak to human beings. In the New Testament, because of the
Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence, visions are more common than
dreams. But again, Joel did say that dreams would occur more
frequently in the Last Days.
Keep in mind, not
all dreams are of God. It is possible to experience unscriptural,
confusing dreams as a result of wrongly eating or drinking before sleeping.
(Isaiah 29:8)
When a dream is of the Holy Spirit, He will make any
necessary interpretation available to you. He will make it
clear. If He does not directly make it clear to you, He will place someone in your immediate periphery that He knows can help you with
it, such as He did by bringing Joseph into the life of Pharaoh. (Genesis
41:1-57) He did the same thing by bringing the Prophet Daniel into the
life of King Nebuchadnezzar. (Daniel chapters 2-4) He is not the author of confusion. (1 Corinthians 14:33)
If you experience a
dream that does not make sense to you immediately, I always say, "Put
it on the back burner and do not fret about it. If the dream was of
God, He will ultimately bring the interpretation to you."
Commonly though, when a dream is of God, you will understand it immediately
or near immediately.
Possibly you have
had a dream that you do not understand and through what you are about to
read here today, the interpretation will become very obvious to you.
Also, when a dream is of the Holy Spirit it will be
Scriptural. It will line up with Biblical teaching and experience. This is why it is so important for every Believer who
desires to be led supernaturally to have a solid, foundational understanding of God’s
Word. The unbiblical, dream-interpreting Ministry referred to above
profits only because of the Scriptural ignorance of the baby Believers of
whom it
takes advantage.
Again,
at the risk of being redundant, I
always tell people who don't understand a dream, "Just put it
on the back burner and go back to what you were doing before you had it. If
it is of God, it's His responsibility to make clear what He means by it. He's
not a foolish God."
Three Categories of Dreams
Basically there are
three categories of dreams revealed in Scripture, although, like the Gifts of the Spirit, dream categories can
overlap one another. We have used the illustration of the colors of
the rainbow at times when describing the Gifts and Operations of the Holy
Spirit. With a rainbow it is often hard to tell where one color stops
and another begins. So it is with the three categories of
dreams. They can often overlap and oftentimes an individual is
experiencing more than one type of dream at a time. However, we will do our best
in this book to separate them
for teaching purposes.
Whenever someone
dreams any of the three categories of dreams, it is a manifestation of the Word of Wisdom, the Word of Knowledge and/or the Discerning of Spirits. You'll need to
study all three of these Revelation Gifts in order to better understand Holy
Spirit inspired dreams and visions. The live links above will take you
to a complete study of all three of these Revelation Gifts.
Dreams of Guidance
Solomon dreamed a
dream of guidance. Many realize that Solomon asked God for wisdom to
rule his kingdom. Because he asked for something to bless others, not
himself, God gave Solomon tremendous material wealth as well.
However, not many people realize that all of this supernatural interaction between the Most
High God and Solomon actually occurred in a dream while Solomon was
sleeping.
(1Kings 3:3-15)
Joseph, the husband
of Mary, dreamed a dream of guidance. (Matthew 2:13) Joseph was
guided by an Angel in this
dream to take Jesus into Egypt, saving His life
from King Herod's command to slay all male babies up to two years of age.
Joseph's dream resulted in the safekeeping of the world’s
Messiah and ultimately our own salvation. We will see that Joseph actually dreamed
all three types of dreams.
The Magi / Wise Men dreamed
dreams of guidance as well. The Holy Spirit showed them not to go back and tell
King Herod
where Jesus was. (Matthew 2:12)
I myself have had
manifestations of this type of dream. I once racked my brain
concerning a Ministry need. I finally gave up in frustration not
being able to come up with a solution. Once I gave up the struggle,
casting the care of my need upon the Lord, the Holy Spirit showed me in a
dream a man to go to and exactly what he would do for me. I went to
the man and it came to pass
precisely as the dream revealed.
This is not the primary way the Holy
Spirit leads Believers and you know that by now. However, it is
Scriptural and never to be feared. We could give you other
illustrations from the Bible and personal experience, but we want to save time
and space for the next categories.
Dreams of Warning
Normally the Holy
Spirit will use God’s Word to warn us of impending judgment for messing
around with compromise, rebellion, disobedience and sin. But He can also use dreams to the same end.
This is such a loving, thoughtful way of Him correcting us privately for wrongdoing.
King
Abimelech was warned in a
dream that he was a dead man if he went to bed with Abraham’s wife,
Sarah. Fearing Abimelech would kill him if he discovered Sarah was his
wife, Abraham had lied to Abimelech,
telling him that Sarah was his sister. Believing Abraham's lie, Abimelech
took Sarah as his own. In a dream, God showed Abimelech that Sarah was
actually Abraham's wife and that if he slept with her, he would die.
Abimelech begged God for mercy in the dream, assuring God that he would not
take Sarah away from Abraham. In this one dream, Abimelech and Sarah were spared from committing adultery,
Sarah was spared from moral contamination and the seed of Jesus was
supernaturally preserved. (Genesis 20:1-18)
Jacob worked for
twenty years to marry Laban’s daughter. Laban continued to take advantage of him by delaying the
marriage. Jacob
was finally warned by the Lord in a dream that Laban was
beyond honest dealings. In the dream, Jacob was also guided to Canaan where things would
be better for him. (Genesis 31:10-13) Obediently, Jacob took his family and possessions
and left. When Laban discovered that they had
gone, he set out after them. Laban himself was then warned in a dream to back
off Jacob and his family or God would personally "rattle his cage." (Genesis
31:24)
Pharaoh dreamed two
dreams of warning. He was being warned of God concerning seven coming years of plenty
followed by seven years of extreme famine. He was completely bowled
over and confused by these dreams. Joseph, God’s King of Dreams,
supernaturally interpreted them for Pharaoh, showing him what to do to avoid
extinction through the coming famine. The end result was favor for Joseph with
Pharaoh, Joseph's promotion from the doghouse to the penthouse making him
the Vice-President of the world, Egypt’s introduction to
the Most High God and the entire Nation of Israel being saved from Satan’s
attempted genocide. Not bad for one night’s work, but that is just
the big God that we serve. Joseph also previously and accurately
interpreted dreams of warning for both Pharaoh’s butler and his baker while
he was unjustly imprisoned. (Genesis
41:1-50:26)
Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon, dreamed a warning
dream that he did not understand. Daniel interpreted it for him,
explaining that he was about to come under a seven-year curse for stealing
God’s glory. Because Nebuchadnezzar, in his pride and
self-importance, refused to to take the warning, the dream came to pass even
as Daniel described. It wasn’t pretty, either! Nebuchadnezzar lost
his sanity and lived like an animal for seven years until he finally
repented. God was trying to help Nebuchadnezzar avoid coming judgment by
giving him this dream. (Daniel 4:1-37)
In another dream,
an Angel told Joseph, the husband of Mary, it was
safe to now go back to Israel. However, Joseph was
warned in this particular dream to avoid going by way of Judea, going directly to
Galilee, because Herod’s son was now in
power. He was a baby killer, too. This dream once again saved Jesus’
life, resulting in our salvation. (Matthew 2:19-23)
If the Holy Spirit
warns you in a dream of unconfessed, unrepented of sin in your life, it is
never to condemn you. It is only to help
you. (Job 33:14-18) Run to God with your sin,
never away from Him. He wants to cleanse you of all
unrighteousness. (1John 1:9) He is attempting to spare you having to be
judged in your sin through the Laws of Sowing and Reaping. (Jeremiah 2:19;
Galatians 6:7-8) Use wisdom. When you know you are in sin, God confirms it
by pointing it out to you in a dream and you refuse to repent, you have just
taken on the God of the Universe in a wrestling match and you can't win.
Repent immediately and God will have mercy on you. If you continue to
resist repenting, you will ultimately drink from a bitter cup and you won't
like that. God is trying to tell you that the Laws of Sowing and Reaping are
about to become the Laws of Sowing and Weeping. Wake up!
Many times the Holy
Spirit has shown me in a dream of warning someone dying tragically in an
accident, etc. I have learned to ask forgiveness for the one in the dream.
(1John 5:16)
I then remind the devil that he has no business in these matters, in Jesus’
Name. (James 4:7) I then ask God for their deliverance
even as Abraham stood in the gap for Sodom and Gomorrah. I ask God to
spare them the tragedy. I also ask Him if there is anything further He
would have me to do, such as addressing the individual concerning what He
has shown me. This has
proven to be very effective at times. Other times,
if God sends me to the individual and they refuse
to repent for that which has opened the door to tragedy, they ended up
running headlong into it.
An individual once
told me of dreaming that a loved one was going to die. Later, it occurred
precisely as it did in their dream. This dear man then explained to me
that he believed God took their loved one’s life "to break a family curse
of immorality."
I was shocked to think that someone would believe such unbiblical doctrine
about a loving God. That is religious thinking. That is stinking
thinking. Jesus has broken every curse by laying
down His life on behalf of all sin. (Galatians 3:13,14; 1Peter 3:18) God did not take this man's loved one's
life to break a curse. This precious individual was being
given a dream of warning so he could take authority
and stop his loved one’s unnecessary premature death, in Jesus’ name.
However, because this man had earlier rejected good Scriptural teaching for religious dogma, he
had no Scriptural knowledge of how God uses dreams to help people, not to
hurt people. I was able to explain this to him later. Someone
asked, “Why did God give that man the dream of warning if He knew he wouldn’t understand
what to do with it?” The answer is that God is a good God. Although God knew he wouldn’t
understand it then, God knew he would ultimately learn from it. God brought me into
his life to explain it all to him from the Bible. Now he knows
exactly what to do should the Lord choose to guide
him and warn him in this way again. He also now knows that God is not the one who took his loved one prematurely.
(John 10:10)
President Abraham
Lincoln was a Born Again man who dreamed of lying in State in the White
House. He was looking down from the ceiling and saw himself lying in
a casket, having been assassinated. The Holy Spirit was warning him
to protect himself from a coming tragedy, but he, too, was lacking knowledge in this
area of Scripture.
“So, why did God bother giving him this dream of warning?” you may be thinking. Because God is a good
God. He wants everyone who hears about it to learn from it. Our
good God did not use Abraham Lincoln solely for the emancipation of
slaves. He wants to use Abraham Lincoln for the emancipation of
people who live in ignorance of how and why He uses supernatural dreams of
guidance, warning and revelation.
If the Holy Spirit
warns you of error in a dream, correct it immediately. Ask for
forgiveness and get that mess under the Blood. God will be faithful
to restore you. (1John 1:9)
If He warns you of
premature death or impending tragedy concerning yourself or someone else,
take authority over it and bind it from happening in Jesus’ Name. Tell it, “This will not happen, in Jesus’ Name.”
(Matthew 12:29; James 4:6,7)
However, if God
warns you in a dream of your own premature death or some other coming
tragedy, and you
insist on living with unconfessed, unrepented of sin in your life, your authority will not
work and tragedy will not be averted. Whatever it takes, you must get the sin
out of your life at all costs. You must repent thoroughly for whatever it is
that has opened the door to coming tragedy in your life, or the tragedy
simply cannot be averted.
This is why the
Apostle Paul said, "Judge yourself and you'll not have to be
judged." (1Corinthians 11:31-32) Sometimes this involves just private
repentance between yourself and the Lord. Other times it involves
repentance in a public forum if you have sinned in a public forum.
Sometimes it requires making restitution with someone you have sinned
against. (Matthew 5:23-26) Either way, it is better to suffer a few minutes of soul-cleansing shame
through whole-hearted repentance than to have to face premature death or
some other form of avoidable tragedy.
We cannot possibly
cover all the dreams of warning that are in the Bible. I am confident
that what we have shared thus far will help you greatly.
Dreams of Revelation
This is an area
that requires particular caution. Dreams of revelation that
contradict the written Word of God are to be rejected. The Mormons,
Moonies, Muslims, Jehovah’s Witness, false prophets such as Jeanne Dixon,
Edgar Cayce and even modern-day Charismatic and Pentecostal Christian
groups have all gotten into deep error by becoming preoccupied
with supernatural dreams and visions that completely and totally contradict
the Holy Scriptures.
The Bible says that
there is a curse of death on Prophets and dreamers who turn people away
from the Most High God and His Word. (Deuteronomy 13:5)
The Apostle Paul
said that we are to reject even angels appearing who come with revelation
that is contrary to the Bible. (Galatians 1:8,9) The Mormons, Moonies,
followers of Mohammed and even one modern day, Spirit-filled,
"Prophetic" group based out
of Kansas City, have all tragically fallen victim to this particular type of
deception based upon angelic "revelations." Some of these
false revelations came through angels appearing in dreams, while other false
unbiblical "revelations" came through angels appearing in visions
to the leaders of these deceived groups.
Joel did say that
God will use dreams, visions and prophecies in the Last Days, but we must
demand two or three verses of Scripture, in context, preferably from the New
Testament, for every revelation, even if it is
delivered by an angel. (Deuteronomy
17:6; Matthew 18:16; 2Corinthians 13:1) Demon spirits often disguise
themselves as God's angels, bringing false revelations to the unsuspecting,
those who lack a foundational knowledge of the New Testament - Paul's
Letters in particular.
(2Corinthians 11:13-15)
The Bible is full
of supernatural dreams that reveal something. We cannot possibly
cover them all but we will look at some.
There are no
recorded instances of the Holy Spirit dealing with man through dreams -
guidance, warning or revelation, before Noah’s Flood. In the very first instance of the Holy Spirit
communicating with humanity through a dream, it was a dream of revelation
where God revealed to Abraham
that he would live a long, prosperous life. It was also revealed to
him that Israel would go into
captivity for four hundred years and finally come out with tremendous
abundance. (Genesis 15:12-16)
Jacob dreamed a
dream of revelation. One of Angels going back and forth from Heaven and Earth on a great
ladder or terrace work. The Lord stood at the top of the ladder, revealing Himself to
Jacob as His Helper, Keeper and Provider. What a revelation of God’s
love nature. (Genesis 28:10-16)
It was revealed to
Joseph in a dream that one day his family would bow down to him. Sure
enough, they did. (Genesis 37:5-9; 42:6)
Nebuchadnezzar
dreamed a dream of future world empires rising and falling. Daniel’s
interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream of revelation brought great promotion to himself, as well as to
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, over all the affairs of Babylon. (Daniel
2:1-49)
Joseph,
soon-to-be-husband of Mary, dreamed a dream revealing that the Child within
Mary was conceived of the Holy Spirit and that he should not be afraid to
take her as his wife. (Matthew 1:20,21) It is
amazing to me that Joseph could actually go back and see confirmation of his dream
in the Scriptures. He could actually read where his own Prophet, Isaiah
had written eight hundred years earlier that a virgin birth would occur in Judah. From here,
the virgin born Messiah would rule the nations forever. (Isaiah 7:14;
8:8) This is possibly the greatest, most important and most wonderful
dream of revelation ever dreamed.
So we have now seen how
Joseph dreamed all three types of supernatural dreams – guidance, warning
and revelation.
There will be and even is now an increase
of dreams, visions and prophecies occurring in these Last Days. We
must keep in mind that supernatural dreams of guidance, supernatural dreams
of warning and supernatural dreams of revelation are not the primary way
the Holy Spirit guides Believers. As we stay focused on the written
Word of God, the inner witness and the inward still small voice of the Holy
Spirit, we are also making ourselves available to any other form of
supernatural guidance the Holy Spirit chooses to use.
It is important to keep in mind that
every supernatural dream is not always Holy Spirit inspired. Someone once
made the statement, “Garbage in, garbage out.” That is a good thing
to keep in mind when it comes to supernatural dreams and visions. If
you spend all your time consuming secular television programming, worldly
movies, music that does not flow from the Throne of God, trashy tabloids, fear-filled
newspapers and novels promoting death, dying and destruction, you are going to have
some really over-the-edge dreams that will not be God-inspired. (Ecclesiastes
5:3)
Just because something is supernatural does
not mean it is Scriptural. Satan is a spirit, a supernatural being and he loves to
masquerade around as an angel of light. (2Corinthians 11:14) He specializes in deceiving
Believers who are ignorant of what is and what is not Scriptural.
This is how he has been able to establish the world’s cults
and non-Christian religions. The Holy Spirit is against
their counterfeit "revelations" based on false dreams and visions, because they cause His
people to err by their lies. (Jeremiah 23:32)
A final word in closing: The Holy
Spirit is running the Church, not man. He and He alone decides when
the Gifts of the Spirit will go into operation. (1Corinthians 12:11) No one in
the Bible ever prayed for the Holy Spirit to speak to them through a
dream. People in the Bible who received dreams of guidance, warning or
revelation, were simply going about their business and God decided to speak
to them through a dream. It is not Scriptural for anyone to pray and
ask God to speak to them through a dream, even though Job did say God can
and even will seal His instruction for you in the night through a dream of
guidance, warning or revelation.
"For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet
man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep
falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; then He openeth the ears of
men, and sealeth their instruction, that He may withdraw man from his (own)
purpose and hide pride from man. He keepeth back his soul from the pit and
his life from perishing by the sword." (Job 33:14-18)
If you insist on praying for dreams, visions
and prophecies to come to you, Satan can and gladly will accommodate you.
Stick with
the written Word of God, the inner witness of the Holy Spirit and the still
small voice of God. God is a
very Wise God. If you need a dream of guidance, warning or revelation, He knows it and He will get it to
you. Trust His love!
Be blessed … John and Barbara Hamel
Examples of Dreams from the Bible
The following is a
listing of the many dreams recorded in the Bible. I am placing them
here at the end of the lesson to facilitate your further study. You can
decide which type of dream each one is.
Abimelech dreamed of Sarah.
(Genesis 20:3) Jacob dreamed of Angels ascending and descending on a
ladder (actually a “ramp”). (Genesis 28:12) Jacob dreamed of ring-straked cattle. (Genesis 31:10-13) Laban was warned in a dream. (Genesis 31:24)
Joseph dreamed twice of his brethren. (Genesis 37:5-9) Pharaoh’s
chief butler dreamed of himself. (Genesis 40:5-13) Pharaoh’s chief
baker dreamed of himself. (Genesis 40:16-23) Pharaoh dreamed twice of
great famine. (Genesis 41:1-8) Jacob dreamed of going to Egypt and becoming a
great nation. (Genesis 46:2) A Midianite
dreamed of Gideon. (Judges 7:13) Solomon
received his wisdom impartation through a dream. (1Kings 3:5-15) Eliphaz, one of Job’s “tormenters”, dreamed of a spirit
passing before him. (Job 4:12-21) Job had dreams of terror. (Job 7:14) False prophets dreamed of lies.
(Jeremiah 23:27-32; 29:8,9) Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of future
kingdoms. (Daniel 2) Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of himself being humbled.
(Daniel 4) The Prophet Daniel twice dreamed of future kingdoms.
(Daniel 7 and 8) Daniel dreamed of God. (This could possibly be
a vision where Daniel was “slain in the spirit”.) (Daniel 10:5-9)
Diviners dreamed lies and false dreams. (Zechariah 10:2) Joseph
dreamed of Mary’s Holy Spirit conception. (Matthew 1:20-25) Joseph
dreamed of fleeing to Egypt with Jesus and
Mary. (Matthew 2:13-15) Joseph dreamed of returning to Israel with Jesus and
Mary. (Matthew 2:19-21) Joseph dreamed of avoiding Archelaus in Judea. (Matthew
2:22,23) The Wise Men were warned of God in a dream. (Matthew
2:12) Pilate’s wife dreamed of Jesus’ innocence. (Matthew
27:19) Paul either had a dream or a vision during the night of a man
beckoning him to come to Macedonia with the Gospel.
(Acts 16:9,10) Once again Paul either dreamed or had a vision of
Jesus encouraging and guiding him. (Acts 23:11) Again Paul
either dreamed or had a vision of an Angel encouraging and guiding him.
(Acts 27:23,24)
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