Been There Before

I woke from A DREAM: I was visiting someone in a basement house or apartment. As soon as I walked in the door, I recognized that I had been there before when the previous owners/occupants had lived there. In fact, I had been there several times.

I recognized first of all a brown exterior building adjacent to the house/apartment. Then, there was a brown leather sofa and a green leather sofa straight ahead in the front of the room that were separated by some kind of post or column. I mentioned to the present occupants that the previous owners had a brown sofa just like that one. The lady of the house said it had been left there by the previous owners.

Then, I looked around the room and I noticed and recognized up against the back wall an old upright piano and a book case with books that were also left there by the previous owners or occupants. And, I also observed how the lady of the house had arranged her furniture in the room just like the previous owner had with the full-size bed in the back left-hand corner of the room, so it was like an efficiency apartment, i.e. a living room/bedroom combination. END

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Ezekiel 2-3:15:

Ezekiel's Call
1 He said to me, "Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you." 2 As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.

3 He said: "Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day. 4 The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says.' 5 And whether they listen or fail to listen—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them. 6 And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house. 7 You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. 8 But you, son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not rebel like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you."

9 Then I looked, and I saw a hand stretched out to me. In it was a scroll, 10 which he unrolled before me. On both sides of it were written words of lament and mourning and woe.

Ezekiel 3:1-15:
1 And he said to me, "Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel." 2 So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.

3 Then he said to me, "Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it." So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.

4 He then said to me: "Son of man, go now to the house of Israel and speak my words to them. 5 You are not being sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language, but to the house of Israel- 6 not to many peoples of obscure speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely if I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you. 7 But the house of Israel is not willing to listen to you because they are not willing to listen to me, for the whole house of Israel is hardened and obstinate. 8 But I will make you as unyielding and hardened as they are. 9 I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house."

10 And he said to me, "Son of man, listen carefully and take to heart all the words I speak to you. 11 Go now to your countrymen in exile and speak to them. Say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says,' whether they listen or fail to listen."

12 Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a loud rumbling sound—May the glory of the LORD be praised in his dwelling place!- 13 the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against each other and the sound of the wheels beside them, a loud rumbling sound. 14 The Spirit then lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of the LORD upon me. 15 I came to the exiles who lived at Tel Abib near the Kebar River. And there, where they were living, I sat among them for seven days-overwhelmed.

My Understanding: When I first entered this house (the rebellious house), the first thing I noticed, other than the brown (earthly; dead) exterior building adjacent to the house, was the two sofas front and center (the green one behind the brown one) with a post of some kind in between them. A sofa is a seat (authority; rule) for more than one person and it is also a seat designed for rest and repose. One was brown (earthly; dead) and the other green (all men are like grass that withers). Both sofas were made of leather, i.e. of the skin of an animal (hair, i.e. authority removed); pliable; supple (bending easily; flexible; compliant; adaptable; yielding).

I believe the brown sofa in this dream is the “woody thorn” and the green sofa is the “thorny plant”. And, the post in between them is an “iron pillar” (Jer. 1:18), i.e. it represents those who bring these difficult messages to people who are fleshly (brown; green) and troublesome (thorny; prickly). This house is the description of “the house of Israel”, i.e. the church of today. Yet, it is also a description of a nation, i.e. in the case of my dream, the USA. The “basement” describes where the church (in America) and our nation are spiritually – in spiritual decline.

As I prayed about this, the Lord had me look at the room again and where pieces of furniture were located as well as the nature of the specific pieces of furniture. I saw that the two sofas were front and center. They represent the leadership (seats of authority and rule) in our churches and they also represent the primary messages and atmosphere of today’s churches – comfort; ease; social conformity; compliance and easily bendable with regard to the flesh and the world (earthly).

And, just as the Lord told Ezekiel that these “briers and thorns” (the sofas) would be all around him (the iron pillar), he was not to be afraid of them but he was to speak God’s words to them, whether they listened or they failed to listen. The Lord was reminding me, in this dream, that he has given me a similar call to go to the “rebellious house” and to speak to them whatever God gives me to say. He has called many of his children to be “iron pillars” among “briers and thorns.” And, we are not to fear men or their responses to us.

The next two pieces of furniture that I noticed were an old upright piano and a book case full of books – they both looked neglected. As I examined this before the Lord, what he showed me, I believe, is that the upright piano represents those in the church who have not conformed to the pattern of the world, but who are God’s instruments in striking (with the Word of God, i.e. the hammer of truth) upon metal (of man; man-made religion) strings. But, they have been shoved against the back wall in today’s church.

The book case full of books represents God’s Word; knowledge; understanding; study of the Word; time spent with the Lord in the Word in daily quiet times, etc., and in many of today’s churches this also has been shoved up against a back wall and is grossly neglected in favor of entertainment (the sofas) and comfort. The interesting thing about this is that the piano, the book case and at least one of the sofas was “leftover” from the previous owners. And, I felt as though I had visited this house before, so what the Lord is showing here is that this is not new – it has happened before all through history.

Ok, then I noticed that the bed (this was not leftover) was placed in the back left-hand corner of the room. The full-size bed represents our covenant relationship with Jesus Christ. I believe the “former” owners were the Jews (Israel) because this bed was different from the bed that the former owners had, and yet this bed was placed in the same location. So, what the Lord is saying here is that what was true about the “house of Israel”, i.e. a rebellious house in Ezekiel’s day is true of the church of today, only we are under the new covenant. Still, the church of today has shoved their covenant relationship with the Lord back in the back corner of the room while the “sofas” take front and center stage. Also, the position of “left” brings with it a political position of liberal and socialistic or even communistic.

The bottom line here is that the Lord has called many of us to be “pillars” among these “briers and thorns” and this “rebellious house”, i.e. today’s church, in order to say to them whatever the Lord has us say. We are not to be afraid of them no matter how they respond to us. We are to speak God’s words to them. And, God will make us unyielding and hardened in our stance so that we do not cave into fear. We are to go to our own countrymen (for me, the USA) and speak God’s words to them.

This is really important, because the church of today, in America I know, is in this spiritual decline. The messages of comfort; compliance with the world, etc. does take front and center stage and “uprightness” and those who “strike against the metal strings,” i.e. those who speak God’s words against man-made religion are pushed to the back and are neglected as well as the study of the Word is neglected. And, most importantly, the covenant relationship with the Lord is shoved in a back corner and is changing in nature from man’s end, not God’s end, so that the pure gospel is now tainted with liberal teachings. So, we need to speak out, but only as God leads.