Held Captive

Wednesday, December 21, 2011, 8:33 a.m. –I lay down to get a little more sleep, when I had a vision. THE VISION: I saw what appeared to be a child lying on her side, inside what appeared like one of those drainage ditches off the side of the road. Someone had a firm grip on the child’s wrist, as though the child was imprisoned by this person, and was being held captive against her will. END

I was listening to the song, “Ministers of our God,” which is a call to ministers of the gospel to give their hearts and souls to Christ, to allow Christ to cleanse them of their sins, to not sin against their God, to flee from their idols of men, and to remove their idols from their lives, etc. It is also a call to them to come to the cross of Christ, to penitently pray, and to die to sin and to themselves. The song, “Send a Revival,” was playing in my mind when I got up to write down the vision. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Acts 12:

Peter’s Miraculous Escape From Prison

It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.

Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.

Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.”

When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”

“You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”

But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. “Tell James and the brothers about this,” he said, and then he left for another place.

In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed...

My Understanding: I first of all prayed through the symbols of the dream, inquiring of the Lord as to what they symbolized. I believe the child represents the persecuted church throughout the world, including, or most especially here in the United States of America, both now and future. And, I believe the drainage ditch represents the world of sin where the truth of the Spirit of God rolls off of the world, and off of the worldly church like water draining off the side of the road. The child is in the world, but not of the world, I don’t believe. The reason I believe that is the child was lying on her left side, and she was being held captive there against her will.

This reminded me of the passage in Ezekiel 4 where the Lord had Ezekiel symbolize the siege of Jerusalem. Ezekiel was told to lie on his left side for a number of days and to put the sin of the house of Israel upon himself. He was assigned the number of days as the years of their sin. Today Israel and Jerusalem, in a spiritual context, comprise the true church of Jesus Christ, his body, his temple of the Holy Spirit. So, this symbolic act of lying on the left side to take upon the child the sins of Israel is representative of the sins of the church being taken upon the persecuted church. And, the siege represents a judgment of God on the church for her sins. Oftentimes, in the Old Testament, the Lord had his servants act out prophecies of what was coming, as well as to speak the words of God to the people. Ezekiel was to turn his face toward the siege of Jerusalem and with bared arm prophesy against her. I saw this bared arm as the one with wrist being held tightly as in captivity.

I believe the Lord had me listening to the song “Ministers of our God,” during, or immediately after he gave me this vision, because I do believe that it is the religious leaders in our churches, as well as our government leaders, who are holding the child captive against her will. These religious and political leaders refuse to listen to the truth of God’s words concerning sin, repentance, obedience and coming judgment of God on the church for her sins against God. Much of today’s institutional church follows man over God, and the teachings of man over the teachings of scripture. I believe the child represents those who are speaking the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who are calling for repentance and obedience, and are warning of God’s coming judgment upon the church if they fail to repent. And, that is why the child is being persecuted and held captive.

In some cases the persecuted church throughout the world is actually being killed for her testimony for Jesus Christ. I do believe this is coming to America and soon. They are persecuted, for sure; held captive in prisons or in other ways that symbolize some type of prison or confinement that does not allow for certain freedom of movement in the Spirit of God. One of the biggest ways I have seen this presently in the USA is that the religious leaders of our assemblies have ostracized, abandoned, rejected, and have refused to listen to those servants of the Lord carrying God’s messages of repentance and obedience to Christ, and of coming judgment upon the church. They say to these servants of the Lord, “We have no need of you, go someplace else.” Or else they insist that the servants no longer be servants of the Lord, but rather be followers of man. So, these servants of Christ are thus cast aside, forgotten, forsaken, rejected, persecuted and abandoned, if they choose to obey God rather than man.

Miraculous Escape

In this story in Acts 12, the church was under great persecution under King Herod. Peter was put in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. The night before Peter was to be brought to trial, though, an angel of the Lord was sent to Peter in his prison cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. Then the chains fell off Peter’s wrists. Peter then followed the angel of God out of the prison. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. When Peter realized this was real and not just a vision, he said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.”

I noted when I read this that Peter was struck by the angel on the side and that woke him up. This reminded me of how this child was lying on her side as she was being held captive, and that she symbolized the servants of the Lord who are bearing the sins of the church on them in being held captive themselves, and in prophesying against the church concerning her need to repent of her sins, and turn to God in obedience, or face God’s judgment. So, I believe this striking on the side and the waking of the one being struck takes on a spiritual context here in that the church is going to face a judgment of Almighty God upon her, but that will be what wakes her up and makes her come to repentance and obedience to Christ, and then we will have true revival of the church and the salvation of souls, and that is the true miraculous escape from this prison, both for the ones who have been assigned the job of taking upon themselves the sins of Israel, and in prophesying against her, and for those whom the child represented, i.e. the church bound by sin in great need of a miracle of God in order to set them free spiritually, and to awaken them spiritually.

Send a Revival / An Original Work / June 25, 2011

Send a revival to this nation, Lord, I pray.
Bring us to our knees, Lord, humbly today.
Teach us to daily walk in your footsteps.
Guide us in your truth, and may we find rest.
Send a revival to this nation, Lord, I pray.
Bring us to our knees, Lord, humbly today.

Be our desire and our hearts’ pure devotion, Lord.
Make us a people who walk close to you.
Change our hearts to conform to your likeness.
May we love others who are in distress.
Be our desire and our hearts’ pure devotion, Lord.
Make us a people who walk close to you.

Teach us to be an example of your love, Lord.
May we serve others as though serving you.
Keep us in fellowship with you, I pray.
May we obey you in all things today.
Teach us to be an example of your love, Lord.
May we serve others as though serving you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgJYbdepHWE