Habakkuk 2

Then the Lord replied: "Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay."

Friday, January 7, 2011

Return to a Familiar Role

Thursday, January 6, 2011, 11:11 p.m. – I woke up after having slept for only an hour or so. I woke up thinking about a dream my husband had shared with me right before we read and prayed together and before we went to bed for the night.

MY HUSBAND’S DREAM: Rick, my husband, went home, only it wasn’t our house here. The garage door looked as though it had been broken into. The bottom half of it was curled up like the beginnings of opening a can of sardines, with jagged edges on each side of the garage door where it had apparently been opened in this manner.

He said that he went to investigate, i.e. he stepped to the side of the garage and then he was inside, only now the garage door was wide open. While inside the garage and on the side of the house, he looked through two openings in the wall to the house that were wide and had jagged edges. He said the openings he looked through did not look like normal windows, but looked like a war zone.

When he looked inside the house, he said that the windows on the other side of the house looked as though they had been blown out by an explosion, there was debris everywhere, the house looked as though someone had beaten the tar out of it with a baseball bat, and the inside of the house looked as though it had been ransacked. He also said that the inside of the house looked like bunkers and/or like a war zone. When he saw inside the house through these openings between the garage and the house, he said he knew he was seeing devastation and disaster.

Then, he said that he noticed that there were people there who looked like ordinary people who were stealing stuff out of the garage and that maybe there were 3 people stealing. He spoke with one of the men. The man said something like, “If you go with me I can show you…” and/or “I can get you double for…” Rick saw a box in the garage with pieces of wood inside it that were like something leftover from use for construction or building projects, and people were stealing these pieces of wood, too. Rick said he offered pieces of wood to the man who was stealing from our garage, too, because he felt as though the people stealing were poor and starving and that they were stealing to survive. The piece of wood that he offered was about 3’ in length and was a 4X4. END

I had prayed before I fell asleep that if the Lord would be pleased to give me an understanding of my husband’s dream, that he would do so, and then I woke up with the dream on my mind. So, I got up and wrote down what I remembered that Rick had told me and I began to pray through it in relation to the passage of scripture we had read last night. I prayed, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” Even before I had gotten in bed last night, the Lord put in my mind that this dream went with this passage of scripture that we read last night out of Proverbs 5:

Warning Against Adultery
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom,
listen well to my words of insight,
2 that you may maintain discretion
and your lips may preserve knowledge.
3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey,
and her speech is smoother than oil;
4 but in the end she is bitter as gall,
sharp as a double-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death;
her steps lead straight to the grave.
6 She gives no thought to the way of life;
her paths are crooked, but she knows it not.
7 Now then, my sons, listen to me;
do not turn aside from what I say.
8 Keep to a path far from her,
do not go near the door of her house,
9 lest you give your best strength to others
and your years to one who is cruel,
10 lest strangers feast on your wealth
and your toil enrich another man’s house.
11 At the end of your life you will groan,
when your flesh and body are spent.
12 You will say, “How I hated discipline!
How my heart spurned correction!
13 I would not obey my teachers
or listen to my instructors.
14 I have come to the brink of utter ruin
in the midst of the whole assembly.”

15 Drink water from your own cistern,
running water from your own well.
16 Should your springs overflow in the streets,
your streams of water in the public squares?
17 Let them be yours alone,
never to be shared with strangers.
18 May your fountain be blessed,
and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 A loving doe, a graceful deer—
may her breasts satisfy you always,
may you ever be captivated by her love.
20 Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress?
Why embrace the bosom of another man’s wife?

21 For a man’s ways are in full view of the LORD,
and he examines all his paths.
22 The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him;
the cords of his sin hold him fast.
23 He will die for lack of discipline,
led astray by his own great folly.

When I told my husband how I believed his dream was connected with this passage of scripture in Proverbs 5 that we had just read together, he said that it sounded like our government/nation going after another woman, to which I replied, “Yes,” and that is why we will face the devastation described in this dream as a judgment of God.

Rick had told me that he read Luke 21:1-4 yesterday for his QT with the Lord. The following verses in that chapter describe The Signs of the End of the Age. I believe there is a direct correlation here between this dream, the passage in Proverbs 5 and this passage in Luke about the End of the Age, as well as the Lord has also made a connection to current news events. I read the following news stories:

Fed boss likely to sound more hopeful on economy - http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BERNANKE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-01-07-07-45-52; December jobs report seen showing greater hiring - http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110107/D9KJFITG0.html; and WH: Obama to name Sperling to top economic post - http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110107/D9KJFO0O0.html.

My Understanding: The Lord made the following connections in my mind between these news stories, my husband’s dream and this passage of scripture:

The first article said that “Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke goes to Capitol Hill on Friday more confident about the economy and the outlook for hiring…” Here I saw that my husband possibly represented Ben Bernanke, the garage (outside storage; reserve) represented the Federal Reserve, and the house represented Capitol Hill that was attached to the garage. I also saw that the word “outlook” had to do with my husband looking through these holes in the wall between the garage and the house and seeing all the devastation and destruction that had taken place inside the house.

My husband mentioned that the garage door had been peeled back and curled up like as if opening a can of sardines part way. So, I could not help but notice the number of things in these news stories that were raised or lifted, including the lifting of stock prices, heightened tensions with trading partners, pulling up supports, pulling back from the Fed’s $600 billion bond-buying program, factories cranking up production, applications for unemployment rising, ramping up the president’s re-election campaign, etc. And, a door is symbolic of an opening or an opportunity or a passageway into something, so this peeling back of the door, raising it up from the bottom, provided access to people from the outside to come inside and to steal what was inside the garage (storage; reserve).

My husband mentioned that there were potentially 3 people that were in the garage stealing our stuff. In relation to this first news story, I saw the possibility that the 3 thieves could represent our trading partners – China, Germany and Brazil – that were specifically named in the article. Then, my husband mentioned how he had spoken to one of the people who was stealing from us and that the person had made an “off-the-wall” comment about either coming with him or about doubling something, i.e. getting double for him on something. Here I noticed that in the second article it mentioned that Goldman Sachs “projects that employers will add 2.2 million jobs this year, or about 180,000 a month, double last year’s amount,” which then brought to mind that the man in the dream who was stealing from our garage (the Federal Reserve) was Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs was previously accused of defrauding investors - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/16/goldman-sachs-fraud-expla_n_540938.html#s81812&title=Goldman%20Creates%20A%20CDO.

That same article mentioned how the recession left “a deep hole in the job market,” which then brought to mind these wide holes with the jagged edges that my husband saw in his dream between the garage (Federal Reserve) and the house (Capitol Hill). The article said that “Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who is scheduled to testify about the economic outlook Friday on Capitol Hill…” My husband said that, in the dream, he felt as though he testified to me about what he saw when he looked through these holes in the wall into the house and he saw all the devastation, so I believe the true testimony as to the economic outlook of our nation is what my husband saw in his dream as he looked through the holes left by the recession into the house and saw nothing but devastation.

The Bernanke article said that “economists predict Bernanke will argue for Congress and the White House to come up with a long-term plan to reduce the government’s trillion-plus-dollar budget deficits.” I believe my husband was shown that “long-term plan” for reducing deficits and that is devastation and destruction and it is opening the door wide to allowing others to steal from us right from the Federal Reserve and even handing them the equipment to be able to do that. These articles used the phrase “ramp up” and then my husband told me that the piece of wood he offered the man was a 4X4, which made me think of how pieces of wood of this size are often used in construction as ramps up to a house until the stairs are built and also how the Bible often mentions siege ramps to describe the manner in which an enemy would lay hold of another nation. Siege means “a military or police operation in which troops or the police surround a place and cut off all outside access to force surrender.” My husband said it looked like a war zone and the house looked like bunkers. So, we would, in essence, be giving the enemy the opening, the availability and the siege ramp they need to come in and to steal from our Federal Reserve and to create the devastation that my husband saw in our house in this dream.

The article even used the terminology of “exploding deficits.” And, it stated that “Big deficits could force investors to demand more returns to loan out their money to the government,” which I believe was pictured here with this man (possibly Goldman Sachs) telling my husband he could get him double if he went with him. Interestingly enough, the president of the U.S. just chose Gene Sperling as director of the National Economic Council on Friday, giving him broad oversight of the administration’s economic policies, and amid a broader shake-up of Obama’s senior staff as the White House “ramps up” the president’s re-election campaign. Perhaps what we are seeing here is that the man my husband encountered was Gene Sperling and he said “If you go with me,” i.e. if you choose me, “I can get you double return on your investment.” The article mentioned that for Sperling, the appointment is a return to a familiar role. He worked previously under Clinton and he did work as a corporate philanthropy consultant to Goldman Sachs. My husband (Bernanke) handed this man the 4X4 (the ramp) and it was after these people came into the garage to steal from us that the garage door was now wide open. The article said that the White House is looking for an antidote to the “sky-high jobless numbers,” which brought to mind the garage door now being wide open. As well, the article mentioned that Congress is now controlled by the opposition party, which I saw as it now being controlled by the New World Order.

And, that takes me back to Proverbs 5. This is a proverb warning men not to commit adultery with another woman (an adulteress). It described the adulteress as having speech that was smoother than oil (sounds like politicians), “but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword.” My husband saw the garage door sides as being sharp and jagged and he saw the holes in the wall as also having jagged edges and there were two holes that he pictured (double-edged, perhaps) for me, so I get a picture that the adulteress is our government and that the nations or companies who do business with her are the adulterers, though it could be the other way around. Yet, the description of the adulteress certainly fits our government – her paths are crooked, she gives no thought to the way of life, etc.

God is warning his children to stay away from her. In some ways I saw the garage attached to the house as the institutional church that is attached to the federal government and God has been warning much that his church “come out from her” so that she does not share in her destruction. This is certainly a warning against following the ways of adultery, whether it is adultery against one’s spouse, or against the Lord. The Lord is warning us, as his children, to stay away from the adulteress whether it be literal or figuratively speaking. In this case, I do see our nation/government as the “son” who is going after the “other woman,” i.e. the New World Order, and he is not satisfied with his own wife (US citizens). Thus, the result is that we give our best strength (the 4X4) to others, strangers will feast on our wealth, and we will come to ruin and will groan in our misery when we realize that we should have listened to God and to his wisdom instead of following after men who we thought could save us and could save our economy.

The call is to return to our “first love” who is Jesus Christ, to drink from his well of living water, to allow Jesus to satisfy us, to be captivated by his love for us, and to no longer follow after “the adulteress,” whoever that may be in our lives who takes us away from pure devotion to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. If we choose the path of destruction, that is what we will reap. Instead, we should allow the Lord Jesus to examine our paths and to set us on the right course (path) that leads us back into the arms of our “first love” where we will remain forever. The Lord put this song in my mind when I awoke last night at 11:11:

How Deep the Father’s Love for Us / Philips, Craig and Dean

How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
And make a wretch His treasure
How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the man upon the cross
My sin upon His shoulder
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection
Why should I gain from His reward
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV2zMZ-nZ7k

If you have been following after the “adulteress,” and you have not been satisfied by the arms of your “first love,” Jesus Christ, then the Lord is calling to you today to hear his voice, to repent of your sin of adultery, to return to him, and to walk in newness of life.

No comments: