Night Visions
Night Visions
In recent days I have had two dreams, which I believe contain important warnings, and also some instruction. I intend recounting them plainly and starkly, so that none of their impact is lost in literary ornamentation.
(1) During the night of 12-13th of October, I dreamt that a very large aircraft had landed. Its passengers disembarked and were "praying" for people and "laying hands" on them. I realised that the effect of this "ministry" was like weedkiller; everything appeared just fine for a time, but then the people "prayed" for began dying. In the midst of this great gathering, I cried out, "Run away! Run away! Run away!" But as I my sense of alarm intensified, I began to shout out a warning in Tongues, as the Holy Spirit gave me utterance.
"I will choose their delusions...when I spoke, they did not hear." (Isa 66.4)
"God shall send them strong delusion...who believed not the truth." (2 Th 2.11-12)
"What shall be the sign of your coming, and the end of the world?...Many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many." (Mt 24.3&11)
"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except (for the one) whose coming is after the working of satan with all power and signs and lying wonders." (2 Th 2.3&9)
Deceiving spirits have been attacking the Church from the beginning. At The End their onslaught will become concerted. Without giving way to paranoia, we must practise the greatest spiritual vigilance and "hygiene". We must at all costs guard those areas which are most important to us, because that is where we often harbour pride and greed. Then in the season of temptation and pressure, boundaries can be crossed. In our desire for more of what we prize most highly we can be lured into territory which is outside the reach of Biblical revelation. It will not be the Holy Spirit we meet there, but "strange fire"! (Nu 3.4)
An organic and real association with a local church will help us avoid deception, but it is not an iron-clad guarantee. Hooking up with the "in crowd" or joining the "flockers" won't cut it. It might increase the danger. "True" truth is not obtained by a "majority vote". A big crowd of Christians, signifies a big crowd of Christians. Nothing more! God's Truth and Unction come down from Heaven. (Jas 3.17)
"This was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven." (Mt 16.17)
A branch which cuts itself off from the tree will wither. But those branches attached still must take personal responsibility for their own destiny. You might well belong to the "perfect" church, but you are still responsible for yourself. At The End we must all stand before The Judge...alone!
"The day will arise in a blaze of fire, and that fire will prove the nature of each man's work." (1 Co 3.13)
This "doctrine" of personal culpability is a powerful antidote to deception and delusion!
(2) A few days earlier, I dreamt I was at sea in a long, narrow boat. In the bow sat someone who represented the "spiritual and intuitive". In the stern was a person who embodied the "intellectual and practical". I sat amidships. To my very great consternation I saw many waves bearing down upon us. I feared greatly that their size and frequency would easily and swiftly swamp us. However, the people in the bow and the stern worked together to position the boat to face square-on and directly into the advancing waves. My contribution to keeping the boat upright and afloat, was to lie down as flat as possible; to get down as low as I could on the deck.
(a) As we get nearer and nearer to The End of this Age, there are going to be increasingly frequent waves of tribulation, but also waves of revival, "travelling" around the world. The Church of God will not be immune nor able to avoid the trials of this season.
(b) The local churches which will successfully ride through these storms of trouble and salvation, will have cultivated a "balanced" Christian life and culture and "diet". Their faith-style will be supernatural and intelligent...Holy Spirit and Bible-based. The mystic and the theologian, seer and scholar will both be equally welcome, respected and heeded.
(c) While intelligence and spirituality work together to position the church accurately, the central key to it actually safely negotiating these waves will be humility. ("The esteeming of ourselves small inasmuch as we are so.")
"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (lowly)." (Jas 4.6)
In the deserts of Syria and Egypt in the 4th C, there appeared apostolic men and women who lived to pray. These Desert Fathers and Mothers believed that "the devil's snares (were) set all over the earth", and that only by humility (lowering oneself) could you "pass through them". "The more we bend ourselves to humility, the more we are lifted up to make progress," they taught.
If we can learn to keep low in our "boats", then we will ride out the coming storms of tribulation, and reap the great harvest out of whirlwinds of revival.
("The Desert Fathers". Trans. Benedicta Ward. Penguin - London 2003)
