You abandoned us! - Is this how we see God?

I seem to be having a lot of interesting dreams lately. I have never known anything like it.This one occurred last Tuesday, just before I met with my prayer triplet. ( Now about three weeks ago as I have been very busy).

I had been very tired and decided to take an extra half-hour of sleep. It was during this period that a story in dream unfolded.

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A man had escaped from some oriental, communist country and made his way to England. (This is not so unusual. The Vietnamese Boat People are an example).

Some years later, his daughter made it to England. She was hostile towards him, seeing him only as a source of money which she clearly felt she deserved. When he finally confronted her about this lack of love and respect, she replied, " You abandoned us!"

He was astonished at what she said, but after comparing stories, the truth emerged. He had been sending money faithfully, via a transfer agency, to his wife. He had also been sending letters saying how much he cared, what he was doing for them and how he longed to be reunited with them. Neither the money nor the letters had reached his wife and daughter.

In the dream, for some reason, I was dispatched to find out what had happened. The Agency and the local Post Office handling the money and the letters had been corrupted. The money had been stolen and used to build a house for someone else and the letters had been destroyed in order to prevent exposure of the crime.

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When I awoke, I wondered what it was all about and then the interpretation came to me.

The woman and the child represent generations of the Church. The man is Jesus. The money is God's provision for His Church, being both material and spiritual (i.e. The Holy Spirit). The letters are the Scriptures and the sound exposition of the Word by faithful preachers.

False teachers have diverted resources for their own uses. Some have built themselves mansions, others have funded ungodly causes. The have quenched the Spirit or abused the gifts and brought Him into disrepute. All of these have failed to preach the Word as this would have promoted discernment and exposed their wrong doing.

My part in the dream is that of all those who seek to preach the truth and work with the Holy Spirit in the hope of Revival and the Return of Jesus.

If you agree with this message, then I represent you and your call to your part in bringing true Christianity back into the hearts of all denominations and people who are called by His Name.

God has not abandoned His people, but some of His people have abandoned Jesus and His Church.

Dreams from my Father concerning the Church (Part Three)

This was a complex dream with three distinct parts.

In the first part, I dreamt that I was to build a town. This future town was in a desert place. I was being asked, most persistently and several times, what I would build first and where in the town would it be. 

I was equally certain, indeed adamant, that I would build a Church and a place of prayer. I was also certain that they would be in the centre of the town and that the other essential buildings, law courts, financial institutions (all the stuff one finds in the centre of towns) would be built later.

In the second part of the dream, I had started to build and as I cleared away the dust to build the foundations I discovered the foundations of an older church with a tiled floor. The foundations were sound, but some of the tiles needed attention and/or replacing with new ones. In my dream I was engaged  in this process.

Finally, I was told that God would be calling Evangelicals to account. Some individuals would find themselves called into God's Presence, by accident or illness, to account for their failure to evangelise. They would then be sent back to finish the job. Somehow, some evangelical churches would find themselves having to give the same account before being released back into His work. How this will come about, I have no idea.

My interpretation is as follows:

The town is the present state of Western civilisation. It needs re-building with the Church at the centre. It is in a desert place as it is Godless. The additional building for prayer is often a practical essential as many active churches can find it hard to provide proper places for continuous prayer.  This resonated with my vicar as we often have that difficulty.

Nevertheless, it also means that  continuous prayer needs to exist alongside the other proper activities of the Church.

When this is in place then the other institutions of the town can be built.

In the West, we tend to think that Law and Money can sort out everything. We are surprised when we discover the level of corruption inherent in our society. See also here.

The second part of the dream showed me that sound foundations for the Church already exist, to wit, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Prophets and the Apostles. Ephesians 2:20.

Also, many mainstream denominations have sound statements of faith based on these foundations. For example, the Church of England needs to start enforcing the 39 Articles.

The tiles in the floor, are individuals who have been built into the church but may need repair or replacement (pruning again).

The third part of the dream is self-explanatory and somewhat disconcerting. It shows again how seriously God is taking the current state of His Church. He is already acting to renew His Church. He will take sovereign and miraculous action when it is needed.

This is not a picture of foundations in a desert place, but the ruins of Egglestone Abbey near my home town. I couldn't resist it.

Drop the dead dummy and talk to the Builder.

This morning I had a dream. I was and am still rather tired and decided, unusually for me, not to go to church, but to get some much needed rest so that I could concentrate on other church-related matters. But when God wants to speak to you, He gets to speak to you; sleep notwithstanding.

I dreamt that I was visiting a friend's church on the other side of the city. The church he pastors is mostly Nigerian and rents space from a Baptist Church. My own church has a similar arrangement with an Asian Church, as do quite a few churches. I should add that my friend is a man of prayer and faith and a dedicated intercessor.

In my dream, I was not actually in the Baptist church but in a house. As my friend came towards me, he seemed to be headless. As he got closer, I realised that he was carrying one of those headless tailor's dummies. It was dressed exactly as he was and, for the most part, obscured him.

Then the scene changed. Clearly the house was being renovated. Signs of building were everywhere but it was chaotic. There were a great many people in the house doing various things. (It was clearly not intended to be a message about his church as everyone else in the dream was white. The reason for this is explained above.) I could see toddlers playing with the building materials, seemingly under the illusion that they were helping - as children do.

People were living in the house as it was being renovated, but without any sense of demarcation between work areas and the rest of the house.

One man spoke to me. Everything about him said 'builder' and at first I thought that he was a contractor. He told me, in no uncertain terms, that the situation was dire. People had stepped out in faith and invested money in the works, but the money was running out and the work was no-where near completion. It was piecemeal and chaotic. He was actually doing some of the work and I thought that he was worried about being paid, but then it turned out that he had invested in the building and was a part of the congregation. The way he spoke to me left me thinking that he expected me to do something about the situation.

I sat down at a table with some of the people. A slim, attractive, dark-haired, young woman joined us. "Everything will be alright", she told me. She had invested money and was full of faith that it would come right. Despite her obvious beauty and faith, I found myself wondering if she was being naif? I thought that the builder had a better grasp of the situation.

After prayer and reflection, once awake, I decided that the dream was from God and when I shared it with a friend and prayer-partner, she also found that it spoke to her.

On the personal level (see my advice in my post on The Magnificat - slide twelve), I have to ask what am I carrying around that looks good, but is headless (Christ-less and dead) and is obscuring the man of prayer ( the New Creation)? It is a serious challenge on use of time, money and gifts within the church.

Secondly, what is it that the Builder expects me to do? He was the Builder and a part of the Body (The Head). He has made the major investment in the building. Clearly I need to speak to others as well. But what else should I do? How can I be most effective in helping to right the situation?

On a wider level, many churches need to take a hard look at what they are doing. Are the spiritually immature (the toddlers) being left to 'help' when they are hindering? What of the dead dummy? Is there Christ-less leadership that is obscuring spiritual leadership?

On the denominational and universal church level, the question becomes, how do we get rid of the dead dummy? 

As to the investment that had been made, we have to ask about our stewardship, not only of our own time and talents, but also that of others. Are we using our gifts and the gifts of others to the best effect? 

At the widest level, and increasingly, local churches and even dioceses, are asking if it is right to fund godless leadership. The same is true of many denominations.

We have to drop the dead dummy.

We need to be better organised

And we need to talk to the Builder about the building works.