Tuesday, March 19,
2013, 8:59 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me with the song “Awaken the Dawn” playing in my mind. I also woke from a dream.
THE DREAM: My
husband and I visited a church where we had gone before and where we had been
rejected. I think the name of the church was “Providence.” There was a lady
there in the Sunday School class who was trying to encourage me to come back to
the church. She was very aggressive, and she kept kissing me on the lips
(yuck). She encouraged me to come back and to be friendly with the people, but
I told her I was not very “outgoing.” She didn’t accept that. I was really
weirded out by her aggressiveness and her kisses on my lips. Yet, I wondered if
God allowed this to help me get over some fears from my past. I inquired of the
Lord if I should go back to this church.
In another part of the dream I was helping someone – perhaps
a child – to be able to climb down a series of metal bars, which appeared to be
up against rows upon rows of sets of bunk beds (perhaps more than two beds per
set, for they seemed rather high up). The child appeared to be stuck on these
bars, so I gave the child instructions on how to get down off these bars so
that he (or she) did not fall. I taught the child to put hand over hand in
climbing down these bars. Yet the child appeared to vacillate between going up
and going down the bars, so he or she had not yet come off of them. END
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Jeremiah 21 (NIV): http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah%2021&version=NIV
The word came to
Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur son of Malkijah
and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah. They said: “Inquire now of the Lord
for us because Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is attacking us. Perhaps the Lord
will perform wonders for us as in times past so that he will withdraw from us.”
But Jeremiah answered
them, “Tell Zedekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: …I
myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm in furious
anger and in great wrath…’
“Furthermore, tell the
people, ‘This is what the Lord says: See, I am setting before you the way of
life and the way of death. Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword,
famine or plague. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Babylonians who
are besieging you will live; they will escape with their lives. I have
determined to do this city harm and not good, declares the Lord. It will be
given into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will destroy it with fire.’
“Moreover, say to the
royal house of Judah, ‘Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says to
you, house of David:
“‘Administer justice
every morning;
rescue from the hand of the oppressor
the one who has been robbed,
or my wrath will break
out and burn like fire
because of the evil you have done—
burn with no one to quench it.
I am against you,
Jerusalem,
you who live above this valley
on the rocky plateau, declares the Lord—
you who say, “Who can
come against us?
Who can enter our refuge?”
I will punish you as
your deeds deserve,
declares the Lord.
I will kindle a fire
in your forests
that will consume everything around you.’”
The Kisses
In other dreams I have had where there was kissing on the
lips from one person to another it was symbolic of people attempting to or
putting words in other people’s mouths. The fact that I rejected this kissing, and
I thought it was very weird and yucky, shows that I did not accept the words
(thoughts, ideas, or beliefs) as my own. I rejected them.
When I read that King Zedekiah (king of Judah) had sent
envoys to Jeremiah to ask him to inquire of the Lord, and that perhaps God
would perform wonders for them as in times past so that King Neb might withdraw
from them, I saw that King Zedekiah was trying to put words (thoughts, ideas,
or beliefs) in Jeremiah’s mouth that were not his own, and that certainly did
not represent the messages God had been giving him to give to the people.
There are many people in today’s church who reject the idea
that God would judge his church. Many of them pull scriptures out of context
that have to do with the final judgment and the final wrath of God in sending
people to hell, and they try to convince others that God would not ever judge
his church, yet that is contrary to other scriptures that teach just the
opposite, including in the New Testament, and it is especially contrary to many
OT prophecies related to the last days that teach very much that the apostate
or the idolatrous and spiritually adulterous church of the last days will most
certainly face divine judgment if she does not repent of her evil ways (see Rev
2-3 and the book of Isaiah, in particular).
Providence of God
Yet, it was not just that King Zedekiah tried to get
Jeremiah to get God, basically, to withdraw his threats of judgment against the
people because of their hardened and stubborn hearts, but Zedekiah wanted God
to deliver them from their enemies absent of any true repentance or indication
of desire to do the will of God with his or their lives (the people of Judah).
Zedekiah wanted to change the providence of God in their favor absent of “the
cross” in the lives of the people of God of that day.
Many in today’s church are doing exactly the same. They want
the resurrection without the cross. They want the promise of eternity with God
and new life in Jesus Christ without death to sin and to self. They want to
twist the words of scripture in their favor so that they don’t feel guilty
about lifestyles of living for self and sin. They want to believe that a simple
prayer is all that is required of them to have their tickets into heaven, yet
James says that even the demons believe, and they shudder.
Faith that is absent of true repentance, and is absent of a
goal and desire to do the will of God is no faith at all, for scripture teaches
that repentance leads to salvation and that obedience to God is evidence of
having a relationship with him, and that we must die to our old lives of sin,
be transformed in heart and mind, and we must put on our new lives in Christ
Jesus, walking with him and following him wherever he leads us, and doing what
he says to do (see Luke 9:23-25; Eph. 4:17-24; Rom. 6; I John; and Gal. 2:20,
et al) – all made possible by God’s grace, and in his strength and power within
us.
So, in the dream, the lady (church) from “Providence,” i.e.
the church teaching a diluted gospel absent of the cross of Christ in people’s
lives, trying to change the providence of God into something else, was also
trying to get me to dilute the gospel message and to teach something else that
would invoke the favor of God on the rebellious, adulterous, and idolatrous
church of today in place of him requiring repentance and obedience for
salvation. But I would not.
I would not say that an empty coke can should be the image
of the space that is available for people to come to in place of the cross of
Christ being available, just so I wouldn’t offend people with the cross. I
wouldn’t throw out (replace) people just because they did not have what it took
to draw in large crowds of people. I wouldn’t tell a lie just so I would not be
rejected. I wouldn’t deny and be ashamed of the calling of God on my life just
so I would be included in groups. I wouldn’t support (approve of) leadership which
placated sin, displayed it openly in worship services as a stumbling block to
others, and which willfully and knowingly followed false teachers, man-made
teaching, and a false gospel just so I wouldn’t be asked to leave a church. I
wouldn’t accept a human pastor as God’s words to me as though he were to be in
place of God in my life, just so he would accept me in his congregation, and I
would not accept his words over the words of God, and so on.
Life and Death
In this passage of scripture the people were instructed to
submit to the Babylonians if they wanted to live. This meant they were not to
resist the takeover by physical force, yet it did not mean that they were to
adopt the ways of the Babylonians. The idea was that they were not to try to
hold on to their religious institutions, homes, properties, etc., but they were
to willingly yield them over to the invading forces. Fleeing Jerusalem meant
leaving their temple behind them and yielding to God’s providence over their
lives.
Yet, the Lord showed me something else here. He showed me
that Babylon has already invaded the church (the institution) via 501c3 (yoked
with the US government), and through the church adopting the ways of the world
system (Babylon). In Revelation 18:3-5 we read that we are to “come out” of her
so that we don’t share in her sins, “for her sins are piled up to heaven, and
God has remembered her crimes.” So, coming out of the institutional church here
in America, which has largely yoked itself with the U.S. government and the
ways of this world’s system, is a lot like fleeing the city of Jerusalem and
its temple, representing institutionalized religion, and it is a handing over
of institutional religion to the enemy forces, as well, rather than trying to
fight them off when we have already given them much access to the church.
The lady in the dream wanted me to return to the
institutional church and to make nice with the people, basically, but I told
her I was not very “outgoing”. In other words, instead of surrendering my faith
and beliefs over to the ways of man and a false gospel (Babylon), i.e. by “going
out” to “Babylon,” I was not very “out going,” i.e. I did not surrender my
faith and beliefs, values and principles, integrity and my relationship with
Jesus Christ to the enemy. I came out from her so that I would not share in any
of her sins. That is why I left the institutional church, and I believe that is
what is meant for us all to do, as well, as stated in Revelation 18. We should
let the enemy have it, and we should meet together as a body of believers in Jesus
Christ in the way God intended in the first place (see the book of Acts).
Rescue from the
Oppressor
In the dream I was helping someone (teaching someone) to
come down off these metal bars that were up against these rows upon rows of
sets of bunk beds. Always in my other dreams bunk beds were symbolic of
multiple covenant relationships, one on top of the other. For instance, the
institutional church has a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ, supposedly,
but they have added on top of that a covenant relationship with the U.S.
government, which may override the first covenant relationship with Jesus
Christ. And, on top of that covenant with the government they have added additional
covenant relationships with mankind – human philosophies, marketing schemes,
big business, and man-made religion designed to appeal to and entertain the
flesh of mankind, which includes a diluted gospel so as not to offend people
with the cross.
This passage teaches that we should rescue from the hand of
the oppressor the one who has been robbed, and that God is against “Jerusalem”
(the institution of religion absent of true faith), which says “Who can come
against us? Who can enter our refuge?” They thought they were impenetrable,
i.e. that no harm would come to them. So, who has the church of today “robbed”?
The church has robbed all those to whom they have given out a false gospel
message and thus a false hope of eternity with God, and they have robbed those
who believe in the true gospel from having a profound impact on today’s church
in order to spare them the judgments of God. The church is represented by these
rows of bunk beds (multiple covenant relationships) with iron bars keeping out
the truth from getting inside, and the only way to let go of her is to put hand
over hand, i.e. God’s hand over that of man’s, and then we can escape her
influence and we will not share in her sins.
Awaken the Dawn /
An Original Work / January 15, 2013
Based off Psalm 57 (NIV 1984)
O my God, have mercy
on me!
In the Lord, my soul
takes refuge.
In the shadow of Your
wings, Lord,
I find shelter till
the storms pass.
I cry out to my God
Most High.
He fulfills His
purpose for me.
He sent His Son to die
for me,
So I could be saved.
I am in the midst of
lions;
Men whose teeth are
spears and arrows;
Whose tongues are
sharp; words accusing.
They spread a net, my
feet to catch.
They dug a pit, in hopes
I’d fall.
O God, be exalted o’er
all.
Let Your glory shine
to all men,
So they may be saved.
Steadfast is my heart,
O my God;
I will sing of all
Your wonders.
Awake, my soul! Sing
praise to God!
Early I will rise and
praise Him!
I’ll praise God among the
nations;
I will sing among the
peoples.
God’s love reaches to
the heavens,
So we may be saved.
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