After a year of "eating" the Word of God, the Lord Almighty took the Word that had gone into my being and brought forth a revelatory dream. For over a year I listened, on tape, to the books of Ephesians, Colossians, First, Second, and Third John, Jude and part of Second Peter. These books fitted perfectly on a 60 minute cassette. Almost every day I would listen to the entire tape. Some days I listened several times, especially when I was taking a long business trip. This was in addition to my regular Bible reading at night. There came a point where I stopped mentally analyzing the words of those books. The words began to go beyond my mind into the depths of my being, into my spirit! The Holy Ghost would visit me in the vehicle as I traveled down the highway listening.
I was "eating" the Word, testing the truth that Brother Freedom had witnessed to me about. He shared his own experience of "eating" the Word. He stated that the Word of God was made more for our spirit than for our mind, more for our inner man than for our intellects. He shared how "eating" the Word, as he called it, was a Biblical concept that would bring forth fruit. [See John 6:47 to 6:58, especially verses 55 and 56.]
The Holy Ghost took the Word of God I had eaten and brought forth the great revelation that came through that dream. And yet, the dream itself can only be understood by the anointing of the Holy Ghost. My just relating the dream is not enough. The reader must be anointed by the Spirit of God to receive the revelation that is within the dream. Perhaps only a few will receive?? The Lord knows.
The Lord gave this dream as I slept between Saturday evening, February 8 and Sunday morning, February 9, 1997. This dream, unlike any other before it, went on throughout the night!
The Holy Spirit portrayed me in the dream as an unmarried minister in my twenties. I was sent to a church in a small farming community of perhaps 2500 people. I arrived late on a Saturday night, and had been directed to assume my duties beginning the next Sunday morning. As the dream began I found myself standing on the front lawn of the church property.
It was late in the night. The moon and stars apparently were obscured by clouds. There were no street lamps. The neighboring houses were all dark. It was difficult to see due to the almost total lack of light.
Later I discovered that the church property was perhaps a hundred feet wide and three or four hundred feet deep, set on a quiet, residential street. This long narrow property was at the very edge of the Town. Farm fields were just beyond, to my left, as I stood facing the front of the church. If it had been daylight, I would have seen that the only parking was on the street and down a long, graveled driveway, which stretched along the entire left edge of the property.
As I moved to the left side of the property I peered down the long driveway. A very dim light drew me from a small window in a door, far down the driveway at the rear of the property. Wondering if I was about to stumble, I walked very cautiously down the pitch black driveway, to a bungalow where a young couple lived on the grounds. There was no one else to welcome me. After opening their door the couple spoke hardly a word and seemed unaware of who I might be or why I was there. I was extremely tired and made no attempt to converse either.
They were kind and had compassion upon me. They allowed me to sleep in their small one-room apartment. I slept very uncomfortably because they had no spare bed. Instead they pulled out a very wide drawer for me to sleep in. The drawer was stuffed with a child's mattress and blankets. This place of rest was too short, so that my feet and head hung over the edges, if I stretched out. But, by curling up in a fetal position I was able to fit, getting some rest. Even so, I was so glad to be out of the awful blackness that enveloped the church, and to be in the warmth of a home.
For some reason my belongings had not arrived, and I carried no luggage. I had only what I was wearing: a white shirt, tie, dress slacks, shoes and socks. I removed my shoes and slept in my clothes.
Sunday morning arrived abruptly. I sprang from an uncomfortable sleep. I went outside to see the church grounds in the light. The church campus was made up mostly of many, older, wood-frame, bungalow-type structures in various conditions of ill repair compressed all about the area behind the sanctuary.
Interestingly, the sanctuary, which stretched across almost the entire front of the property was not like the back buildings. It was kept up perfectly! The driveway was the only portion of the front property line that the sanctuary did not cover.
Though I did not look into the main sanctuary at that time, I will note here that the sanctuary's center isle ran parallel with the town street. The pulpit and platform were on the driveway end of the sanctuary. The sanctuary had two doors, both of which were at the opposite end of the building from the pulpit. One entrance faced the front, opening to the Town street and the other opened to give access to the rear buildings. These were aligned with the back isle of the sanctuary. There was no vestibule, just a back isle in the sanctuary, just behind the pews that had a door on each end of the isle.
All the buildings were white, wood-clapboard construction, at least fifty to seventy years old. The structures behind the sanctuary all had pealing paint. The back buildings looked totally un-cared for.. The sanctuary was totally maintained and restored as if it had been built yesterday. The front lawn was perfectly manicured and appeared to have been professionally tended.
There were so many buildings behind the sanctuary, set so close to each other, that a person walking between would rub their shoulders against the walls! I found it difficult to move about, especially later in the dream when vehicles and people arrived.
If one should gaze at the front of the church property standing on the opposite side of the Town street, they would see a narrow, graveled, alley-like driveway running down the entire left side of the property, from front to rear. That long driveway had an outlet at the back corner of the property onto some other street.
Still tired, but now standing in the driveway near the bungalow where I had slept, I somehow perceived that it was 9 o'clock Sunday morning. Many odd vehicles began entering the driveway. These were all old vehicles: pickups, half ton trucks and some World-War-II sedans. Most of them were farm vehicles that seldom leave the fields. They had dried earth from the fields caked on their wheels, fenders, running boards and bumpers.
They were going fairly far down the gravel driveway, before pausing momentarily about the middle of the property to unload passengers. At the point where the cars unloaded, two of the bungalows 30 inches or so apart formed a narrow walk-way perpendicular to the driveway. The vehicles paused at that opening, disembarked their passengers, then moved on down the driveway, parking behind the preceding vehicles. This process went on until the entire driveway was totally filled with parked vehicles. The 400 foot driveway was bumper to bumper with parked old muddy vehicles.
These vehicles delivered many poorly dressed children and a few matronly ladies, who supervised this hodge-podge of a children's church. This was NOT a Sunday School. The arrival of all these vehicles further congested the property. The children ran down the path formed by the two closely-set buildings. About mid-path they turned right and disappeared into a doorway. I followed.
I entered this children's church to join in. No sooner did I step through the doorway than the final note was sounded, and I was pushed aside by a flood of children and ladies who exited. The motors of all the vehicles started. The entire assembly was quickly whisked away, exiting out the rear of the property through an outlet to another street. These worshipers barely perceived my presence. Something very strange had happened with time itself. The moment I walked into the children's worship the clock jerked ahead an hour.
I stood there in utter shock. I had missed the children's service! But how?
It was now 10 A.M. The grounds seemed very still. Then faintly and to the rear I heard old hymns being sung. I walked the driveway towards the rear, back near the small apartment of the young couple.
Way in the back I found a small bungalow full of elderly people, some in their eighties and nineties. Some were in wheel chairs and one even on a gurney. They looked so old and weak, near death. They were having a separate worship. These few, old, sick, tired and dying folks were the spiritual heritage and pillars of the church.
Just as I walked into their midst, time tricked me again! An old man prayed the final benediction. Their meeting ended. I had missed the 10 A.M. meeting of the saints!
It was 11 A.M. I sensed movement at the front of the property. Cars were parking on the street near and about the front of the sanctuary. Town's people were entering the front sanctuary. I noticed their fine clothes and that the ladies wore large stylish hats. One woman wore a hat of pure royal blue and another had a hat that was a shade of bright pink. They were dressed in the styles of the 1950's.
I had frantically rushed up the driveway toward the sanctuary. When I reached the side of the sanctuary which faced the rear of the property I turned left. I ran along the length of the rear side of the sanctuary, almost to the end of the building. Near the corner I entered a door. Standing in the doorway and looking to the right I saw the people and the pulpit. I saw someone at the pulpit. The sanctuary was full. I moved into the building, near the back center where the main isle met the back isle. But, no sooner had I arrived in the building and time tricked me again! I surveyed the nice looking congregation as the final benediction sounded and they too exited and left.
No one said a word to me as the sanctuary emptied. I was speechless with surprise. They seemed aware that I was standing there in the isle such that they avoided colliding with me as they exited. However, there was not one other sign that they could see me; no eye contact, not even briefly.
They obviously did not know that I was their appointed pastor. They had gotten along fine without an official pastor and had appointed persons to lead them. I had been sent by some district superintendent, bishop or overseer who resided in some other city. The church seemed not to be seeking a pastor.
The dream locked me into a series of Sundays. I had no consciousness of any other day of the week. The scene kept opening with me arising abruptly from the uncomfortable drawer-like bed in the young couple's apartment. Almost the same chain of events would play out. Time kept tricking me.
My belongings were never delivered. I had no change of clothes, no place to bathe, only the sleeping drawer provided by the young couple. My black slacks became stained with brown earth from the old farm vehicles I had squeezed by in my attempts to move about the crowded church grounds.
There were just two Sundays when time didn't totally jerk ahead and hour. In those two services I was permitted to get into the worship about mid-service. The way I tried to deal with the time problem was by getting up earlier and earlier. But, no matter how early I arose or what I did to arrive earlier, time would still jerk ahead 60 minutes at the moment of my arrival, except in two instances that I will speak about momentarily!! Only a few of the old people ever realized that I was their new appointed minister. Otherwise I was never known or received by the church.
One Sunday I was privileged to get into the children's service and time only jerked ahead 30 minutes. I had arrived not at the end, but in the middle of the service, by some miracle. The Holy Spirit was upon the children in a very special way. The little children were raising their hands in exalted worship to the Lord. I rushed out of the building where the children were worshiping. I ran back to try and find the old-timers, whose services, it turned out, partially overlapped with the children's. I ran to see if I could get them to come and join in on what God was doing with the children. I knew they would be excited, because the old-timers knew God and loved the true move of God.
The old timers were excited to hear this news. I had been permitted to get into their service without time blocking me. They quickly attempted to follow me to the children's bungalow. But, they were so sickly that some of them nearly died trying to get out of their chairs to go to the children. I was grief stricken! I perceived that my idea had backfired and nearly caused some to die by suggesting they come to the children's meeting.
The next Sunday I again arrived in the children's meeting mid-service. The presence of God was upon the children again. I tried another idea: to coax the children's leaders to take the children to visit the old saints. My suggestion was less than ignored! The ladies supervising the children seemed not even to see or hear me. They made no eye contact with me as I pleaded with them to take the children to visit the old-timers! They ignored me as if they couldn't see me. I kept positioning myself in front of them to gain eye contact. But, they went on about their business turning to do whatever it was they were doing. They couldn't or wouldn't see or hear me!
The nicely dressed formalists who only frequented the main Sanctuary at 11 A.M. were apparently oblivious to the other two groups and unaware of my arrival. The saints and the children had no interest in the formalists, but seemed to be somewhat aware of the Spirit of God. The sanctuary group was only interested in looking pretty and making a weekly appearance for the sake of the approval of their friends in the Town. All three groups were oppressively bound by long years of tradition.
My dream went back into the locked-in mode. Each Sunday came and went with not a single day between Sundays. I was passing through what seemed like an eternity of Sundays. I was tense, frustrated, burdened, but mostly depressed! I again found it totally impossible to arrive at the start of any service. Time would jerk ahead an hour and I would arrive at the end of all services, not the beginning. I never got to preach, no matter how early I arose or how I rushed to be on the scene. And, I was almost always generally ignored by the people of the church.
The beautiful people in the nicely groomed front sanctuary never did notice that I was the new pastor. In fact, they could NOT see me. I was invisible to them!
I seemed to fit with the back two groups. My stained and slept-in clothes matched their poorer apparel and their shabby run-down facilities. My suit cases never arrived. I lived week after week in the same clothes I had arrived in. And each Sunday I got more and more mud from the old farm vehicles on me as I brushed between vehicles to get from one room to another.
The old saints seemed most aware of me and never condemned me. I was so frustrated that I could not fulfill the proper pastorly influences. I could not be what God had called me and men assigned me to be. Except for the two times I arrived early enough to ask folks to visit the other service, time would always jerk ahead on me. I would arrive just as services closed, no matter what remedy I sought.
This frustration went on and on as I grew more tired. That February night was filled by this painful part of the dream. I spent hours dreaming this part over and over again.
Then, somehow, in the depths of that agony I was shown a vision from Heaven concerning the anointing of the Holy Ghost.
Following that glorious vision I was able to meet with some of the old saints in between services in some informal discussion. I was trying to tell them about "the anointing of the Holy Spirit" upon which the vision had dealt. I tried to convey to them the glorious truth of what the anointing was all about. This is the anointing spoken of in First John, chapter two, verses 20 through 27.
"But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." [First John 2:27]
But, I utterly failed to interest them!! These saints could not receive the revelation that I had been given.
"Oh we know what 'the anointing' is," they said. "The anointing of the Holy Spirit is when God touches a preacher or a laymen and helps them to get an insight, causes them to preach with unction, gives them aid. Yes, we know very well what that is!"
Their insight on the anointing was very, very superficial! They had an incomplete understanding of the anointing of the Holy Ghost! In fact, I myself had an imperfect understanding of the anointing of God, until God gave the vision, within the dream itself. In that vision He revealed the essence of "the anointing" to me. I have never heard of God Almighty giving anyone a supernatural vision within a supernatural dream.
I saw a tiny little man who was perhaps only two inches tall! It was my dear friend, Brother Freedom. In the vision Brother Freedom and I stood facing each other, toe to toe. I towered over him. He was God's holy servant. He was an OVERCOMER, as spoken of in the book of Revelation, chapters 2 and 3! This meant that he was more than saved, more than sanctified, more than just Spirit filled. An OVERCOMER is one who has passed many, many trials and tests and come to a position of victory in the Lord.
He had progressed and matured in Christ to a point where he had entered the domain of "the overcomer." He had entered "the rest" spoken of in Hebrews chapter four: he had ceased from his own works. He had entered that arena of the "measure of the fullness of Christ," as Saint Paul speaks of in Ephesians 4:13. The Lord showed me that this tiny Brother Freedom was one who, from time to time, was moved upon by the Holy Ghost in "the anointing."
The Holy Spirit was free to do this because of the yieldedness that was now present in Freedom through the position that had been gained as Freedom had been lifted into heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This is why Brother Freedom was so small and miniscule. He had become as nothing! To gain the reaches of the heavenly places one must humble them self very significantly. Brother Freedom was "a nothing" as I looked down upon him.
That small Brother Freedom could never initiate the move of the Holy Spirit. He could hinder the move of the Spirit, by living in an unholy manner, not being an overcomer, or by working in himself. But, he could not turn the anointing on and off at will, or cause it to perform in himself. He was totally at the mercy of the Lord God Almighty, who would cause the anointing to arise upon Freedom, by the Holy Ghost, when the Lord willed it, and in the manner that the Lord willed it, and at the time and moment that God wanted it! Brother Freedom had no power over the anointing of the Holy Ghost. He was merely a yielded temple, a tool in the hand of the Holy Ghost.
And when this mighty move through the anointing came Freedom had to become totally passive in himself. He had to know nothing but "Christ, and Him crucified." [See 1st Corinthians 2:2] He had to yield to the Holy Spirit like a co-pilot takes his hands off the controls when the Captain takes the ship over. Any attempt on Freedom's part to manipulate the anointing would stop it, or hinder it, and grieve the Spirit of God, causing the Holy Spirit to back off. Freedom did not want to grieve the Spirit, and so he yielded to the Spirit and faded into nothingness.
It is a very, very difficult thing for the saints to give up their own works and become as nothing, as no one, as nobody, so that the Captain might be exclusively glorified. This amounts to a death, dying out that God might be totally glorified.
And so it was that as I watched, God showed me in picture-parable form a revelation of the miracle of the anointing of the Holy Ghost. This move in the anointing of the Holy Ghost is far more marvelous than a human mind can understand. The Lord had to use a picture analogy to give me a tiny peek at the infinite truth of the anointing.
I gazed down upon the tiny, little Brother Freedom, as he was about to minister. He faced me, toe to toe. He stood perfectly still, not moving a muscle. Like a little toy soldier at my feet; he was nothing!
First there appeared on his forehead a moisture. Through pores of some kind, all over his body, a moisture began to arise. Every pore on his tiny little body began to exude this thick, totally clear honey-like liquid. The moisture stayed upon him. It did not run completely down and fall to the ground. Instead it spread evenly all over his body. This anointing even poured through his little brown suit. It began to cover him.
The moisture swelled up, becoming greater and greater, like liquid glass. The size of the little person before me began to expand greatly. His own features and little brown suit began to sink from sight, into the depths of the crystal clear liquid.
Very soon there stood before me, toe to toe, an internally lit, glass man, taller than myself. He was illuminated by a burning interior light. His body was glass! His face was lighted glass. I could not see any sign of Brother Freedom, even as I tried to peer into the depths of the brilliant glass core. This glass man was so bright that I had to partly shield my eyes from the radiance that was pouring from the center of the glass figure. He was built like a weight lifter, and stood over six feet tall, motionless! He towered above me. My eyes remained focused upon the core of the glass man, as I peered into the chest of the man, I looked for any sign of Brother Freedom. Brother Freedom was no where to be seen, even in the depths of the radiant interior of the glass being before me.
When my efforts to find Brother Freedom failed I decided to focus on the glass face of the man to see how Brother Freedom's facial features looked in glass. That face was alight with the glory of God. I gasped as I saw that the glass man's face was the face of the resurrected Christ! Brother Freedom was no more! Then this burning, anointed, illuminated one who had stood still before me, as I watched the transformation, came to life!
He turned from facing me and went right to work. He began to heal the sick, raise the dead and preach with words, words instantly borne from the Throne Room of God Almighty, words that were not studied nor prepared.
Then I understood why the Sanhedrin stopped up their ears, and all in unison ran at Stephen to destroy him! (Acts 7:57) It was the anointing upon Stephen, by the move of the Holy Spirit, that the Sanhedrin reacted to. The anointing amounted to Christ standing before them all over again! The same disturbingly powerful Presence they had crucified, in Christ Jesus, had returned by the anointing of the Holy Ghost! The Sanhedrin faced "that Presence" all over again! And that presence they could feel, but they could not recognize. The Sanhedrin could not tell that "the Presence" was the Holy Ghost. It just seemed to them that the same feeling they felt when Jesus stood before them was now manifesting again. And they hated that feeling. It was the Spirit of God that they did not like! For them it was a nightmare. They ran at Stephen to destroy what they preceived as the source of The Presence. But of course Stephen was not The Source at all. Stephen was just a vessel of honor, a vessel of praise unto God.
The old saints of that church, I spoke with, could not comprehend the revelation I had tried to tell them about! As I attempted to relate the vision these senior saints cut me off part way through my monologue, informing me that they knew perfectly well what the anointing was. I think they were insulted with me trying to enlighten them on a subject that they felt so knowledgeable in. They could not receive the truth I had received. It was a revelation that the Holy Spirit had imparted particularly to me. I was not the Holy Spirit. I was not operating in the anointing. Here too I sensed my deep failure as the pastor of those people. I was useless.
And dear reader, you will not understand either unless the Holy Ghost reveals it to you, for my words are unable to reveal. Only the Spirit of God can do this! Nevertheless, from that point on in the dream I understood for the very first time something more about the Anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Carrying that new revelation from the vision in my being, I awoke in the young couple's little apartment, before dawn on the final Sunday morning.
Tired, dirty, disheveled, in my same old clothes that I had worn for weeks, I arose. Because of the vision I now supernaturally knew things I had not known about myself at the start of my dream. Even though the young minister, I portrayed, had an experience with the Holy Spirit years before, and had also been called of God, and had entered scholarly training for ministry, I (that young minister) did not function in that pure, fullest anointing of the Holy Ghost that Brother Freedom functions in.
Though God had called me to pastor, I had been anointed and qualified by men to pastor. I knew that I had been trained by men. I knew that God deems very little of man's preparations as essential for ministry. I knew that I was a failure. I knew that I had mixed men's ways with God's ways because I had not ceased from my own religious workings. I had produced mixture. I knew that I could not fix or improve anything. All I could do was to worsen the situation by my MANeuvering and my MANipulating. My very presence on the scene was a hindrance to the work of God. It was so clear to me what I had to do.
I walked, in the early morning darkness, to the mid-point of the property at the center of the gravel driveway, where the children always dis-embarked. After many Sundays of total failure I stood, dirty, soiled, still without my belongings, a misfit, unable to function or operate as pastor in any way. I knew I did not have that supernatural level of anointing that Stephen operated in before the Sanhedrin. I knew that I had worked in the flesh and I had depended on my learning, my training, the wisdom of men, the experiences of men, the guidance of men, the interpretations of men, the technology of men and the power of men.
I had received the Holy Spirit into my being. I had lifted my hands up off the ship's helm for the Captain to take over. But, I had kept my hands near, at the ready to catch the wheel, in case the Spirit of God did not take over control. As a result of my little trust and my great human efforts the precious Spirit of God had not taken control. He had been grieved. My readiness to save the ship was a manly and earthy, yes even an unholy thing! My fears that something could go wrong were unbelief. Unbelief grieves the Holy Spirit away. Fear in the believer's heart proves that perfect love is not in charge, that I didn't really trust God, that I merely believed in God. Fear that God might not take over is a terrible insult to the Almighty. HE is the ONE who never fails, does not know failure, cannot possibly fail. Oh, what a sin I was wrapped up in!
The Holy Ghost had been grieved and He had turned away. I had then attempted to steady the wildly spinning helm and to turn the ship where I thought safety resided. My works had not ceased and God's works could not begin.
I should have surrendered the wheel, looking away from the wheel and the windshield. I should have moved away from the helm, with hands folded and eyes riveted upon the lovely face of the Captain only! I should have rested and ignored the waves and the suggestions of men. Yet, no man has the power in himself to do such things!!!
Standing in the driveway I came to stand before God and to surrender the work! I knew that only one holy possibility remained. I must confess and admit that I was undone. I must turn my resignation in to the One who is ultimately in charge.
Like a criminal coming to surrender at the police station for a crime, I came to give myself up, to face judgment and yes, even execution. Somehow I sensed that I must come before God and give myself up for whatever the Master chose to do to me. I felt a great peace, that if God should even execute me or erase me from all time and space that by surrendering to HIM, that church of God might be saved. My punishment, even if it be death, would be perfectly and fairly accomplished by God Almighty. I knew I was doing the right thing and that I need not fear, even if death be my lot. I realized that my MANipulations were as witchcraft in HIS church. I was as much on the Road to Damascus as Saul of Tarsus ever was! And yet, I had come in the robes of a clergyman, not knowing until that final day that I was part of the problem instead of the solution!
In that driveway I looked up toward Heaven. In that moment of utter humiliation and total surrender GOD GAVE ME THE POWER TO DIE!
Somehow I knew that I needed to be erased from the scene. And I wasn't afraid, even if God should execute me! I raised my hands to my Heavenly Father. I was at the end of myself. I ceased my works. I died! I surrendered, yielded, capitulated, exhaled the spirit of man's working. I was given the power to rest: the rest of a self that has expired, passed away! Before that moment I did not even have the power to rest. Even the power to rest had to come by the Spirit of God! With my hands raised high and my eyes looking up into the darkened clouds of the heavens
I said,
"Lord,
Thick, dark, rolling, billowing, boiling clouds tumbled vigorously above me. A hole opened in the clouds, maybe 1,000 feet in diameter exposing a glorious light. A beam of that light, the diameter of a man's arm shot out from that opening, directly at me. The ray of glory came like a streaking missile, striking me in the forehead. As the light came at me I thought, this is it, I'm gone. There will be no more memories, no more anything.
Like lightening, my mouth was pouring out a supernaturally resonant baritone song as if a high energy beam was coming up out of me and rushing out and beyond forever. The quality of the voice was so supernatural, so full, so melodic that I knew a miracle of some kind was in progress. The sound was so big, but not painful. Nevertheless, that voice had the magnitude of a sound system in a large building.
I heard the song coming from my lips. From that instant the dream that had been a heavy depression became an ecstasy!! I enjoyed my lungs, throat, tongue and lips almost tasting the words that were so swiftly arriving from Heaven and then coming up out of me. They came so fast that my tongue could barely keep up with them.
The words seemed to spring up off of my tongue and through my lips. My mind could only briefly gasp in wonder at each word and each note as my ears heard them. My mind was awed by the words. My mind had nothing to do with the words, and actually was only aware of each word after it was sung. Those words were so supernatural that my mind could not even retain them.
The melody was magnificent! The meter, rhythm and rhyme were inexplicable perfection as I have never heard before. The words were living, life giving sustenance! I feasted upon the words and the melody! I bathed in them. They soothed me, healed me, vitalized me. The words lifted me into heavenly realms. I was in ecstasies of ecstasies.
The song was all about the glorious, marvelous Holy One of God, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit. I cannot recall much about the words! They were life, and as soon as they went through me, they went out to do their work. I was too small to retain them! I was mortal. Those words were immortal! My mind could not record them.
Oh, but the melody was so captivating and the words were so delicious. They were of divine poetic virtue, beyond what any man could ever write. My tongue and my lips felt them as they passed from me. They were substantial, solid words, more than air and sounds!
There were only two factors that I in my flesh could control about the song. I could have stopped it, if I had desired. And I could control the volume.
As to the content, it came from the Spirit of God. I yearned to sing the song with ever greater volume. The louder I sang the more healing the words were to me, and the more the Spirit of God was upon me. With each breath I sang louder.
A second miracle began to unfold. As I attempted to increase the volume, supernatural resources were released that were limitless. I was amazed. The volume was growing beyond any auditorium. The volume grew until the voice that poured from my lips reached for miles.
The meaning of the lyrics about the Holy Ghost were a description of Him. Something like: the Comforter, the Helper, the Guide, the Orchestrater, the Fixer, the Teacher, the Establisher, the Governor, the Cleanser, the Sanctifier, the Carrier, the Power.... The words spoke about how pure, how glorious, how beautiful, how marvelous, the Spirit of God Almighty is. The words were a Divine description of Him and His glorious work and characteristics.
A flood of people began to stream, on foot, from 360 different degrees. No one came in a vehicle! No one came by way of any of the streets or roads. Instead they came on foot from every degree of the compass!
The people filled every back building, but avoided the manicured front sanctuary. They never noticed me, nor did anyone even glance in my direction. I was gone. I was no more. I was lost in God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Ghost!
They began to kneel everywhere and do business with the Lord, God Almighty. They were each having their own personal, individual meeting with the living God. It was by the Holy Ghost that this was made possible, something to do with the song and it's words.
The "beautiful people" from the front sanctuary did not appear. Only the thirsting ones among the old, the weak, the young, the poor, the lame, the bound, the sick, the lost and the hurting came in overwhelming numbers.
I never preached to them, nor did I touch them. I had no desire to preach to them. I was totally consumed in, healed by, revived through, and ministered to by the words. I was drinking an ecstasy of joy from the fountain of life, a greater ecstasy than I have ever known in my normal conscious life! My entire being was full of heavenly glory, joy, peace, love and other glories I cannot even explain.
The Holy Ghost was ministering Jesus in me, and upon me. I had become nothing and Jesus had arisen upon me. I had disappeared. He had appeared, by the Holy Spirit! My only desire was to sing the glorious, living words that came directly from Heaven and bounced into, out of, and through me.
But those words that so touched me were also going beyond to touch the people! The words did a work in the people as much as they did a work in me. I never entered the buildings to stand behind a pulpit. I simply stood in that gravel driveway and sang. The Word in the song healed, the Word saved, the Word delivered and the Word changed all those who were seeking for God. I was only a passive radiator. I neither changed the words, nor manipulated them, nor studied them. I did nothing but sing them. The Holy Ghost did 100 percent of the work.
Oh, the joy that I felt while the Holy Ghost was upon me. Oh, the ecstasy of worship. Oh, the Life in the Word. Oh, the communion of the Holy Spirit!!
Later, when I awoke from this dream I tried to tell my wife of what I had witnessed. My tears flowed because I greatly missed the unique Presence of the Holy Spirit in the anointing I had enjoyed during the dream.
We cannot control the anointing. We do not own the anointing.
But those words poured in infinite melody. The song was unending. I know the song can never end. I never saw myself cease to sing. I was still standing and singing as the scene of the Divine song faded to a waking epilogue. The endless song of the Spirit went on, but I was then shown something else as I awoke.
As I was awakening in my own bed again in Northern California, the Lord showed me a great wonder and a deep sadness. I saw that the Holy Ghost is the One the Father has delegated as "The Carrier" of the Word of God to the hearers. Just as a mountain stream carries food to hungry fish, so the Holy Ghost is the only carrier of manna to God's saints.
I saw that the portion of the Word that the Holy Ghost is allowed to carry to the people has been greatly reduced. This reduction has occurred through traditional methods of sermon preparation and study. As a result, the Spirit is fortunate to have 10 percent of the work, when He should have almost 100 percent! Men have assumed that since their physical voices speak the Word of God in a sermon that they are "the carriers" of the Word.
I saw that when preachers take the Words of God and prepare a sermon, they work at a minimal level. They are doing the spiritual equivalent of taking fresh, warm, moist, bread from an oven; slicing it; crumbling it; exposing it and leaving it to dry in the open air. On Sunday they bring the neatly distributed, but very dry crumbs with them from their study.
I was shown the manna delivered to the people of God in the wilderness, fresh every 24 hours. Each person could gather as much or as little as they desired and would have enough. But, if they saved some for a second day (except for the day of preparation) it bred worms and became foul. That which was sweet and nutritious one day was reprehensible and full of maggots the second day!
So it is when believers study the Word of God to prepare a sermon or a study. I saw that the Word of God is not primarily informational. It is, instead, meat and drink (John 6:55). Jesus is the living Word of God and He is not information. He is a person who contains all wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:2-3) Without the moisture of the Holy Spirit the Word of God perishes into a substance that brings spiritual malnutritian! Remember they crucified the Living Word and succeeded in killing Him when He gave up His Spirit. When the Spirit is driven from the Word the written words become death. "...for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." (2nd Cor. 3:6)
The Word is to be ingested, mixed WITH the Holy Spirit and mixed BY the Holy Spirit, in each believer as life for their own personal spirit. The Word of God is not to be studied for the purpose of getting a message for anyone else.
The Anointing by the Holy Ghost is the only means by which oven fresh Truth can pour from the lips of an overcomer, be they preacher or not. That piping hot bread comes only directly from the Holy Spirit...no detours, no delays, no reformulations, no adulterations, no mixtures! This is what "the foolishness of preaching" is all about. [See 1st Corinthians 1:18-21]
A craftily prepared sermon is NOT "foolishness" in the light of the "wisdom of the wise." Politicians formulate crafty sermons all the time. A winning speech is an intellectual jewel and highly prized. But to stand up with only the Holy Spirit, prayer and much Scripture reading, and then to speak what you may not even understand, what you may even be a first-time listener to, all as it directly comes from Heaven, is "foolishness" to the intellectual mind!
When appropriate conditions are met, the Holy Spirit does this as an anointed believer prays and reads the Word of God in their own private time with the Lord. The Holy Ghost can cause the bread of the Word to be served direct from Heaven's bakery in the believer's prayer closet to feed that believer.
Secondly, when an "overcomer" yields their lips to the Spirit, the Holy Ghost can do a similar miracle and cause the bread of Heaven to come directly out of their lips to hungry hearers. In both cases the words are not prepared or studied. They are written by the Holy Ghost and do not come from the speaker's intellect! A preacher may start in the natural...but if he is in obedience there comes a moment when the preacher is lifted up from the natural into the supernatural arena where God can use the preacher most properly. God takes over, and the message comes from the Throne Room.
At the moment of delivery, the Holy Ghost produces fresh Manna for the hearers through the move of the Holy Spirit by the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Remember, I'm talking about something that is available, but is almost totally unknown today, few have ever seen this.
When speakers PREpare sermons they make mixture. They add flesh to spirit, reasonings to truth, MANipulations to holiness, distortions to perfection. They take a lesser way!
When speakers force the immortal, infinite Word of God through the sieve of a limited mortal mind they are photocopying a masterpiece and producing an unreasonable facsimile!! Imagine touring a world famous art museum and finding the masterpieces removed, replaced by cheap photocopies, drained of the artists brush stokes and the original colors! That is what prepared sermons are, embalmed messages.
When I was a boy first reading the Scriptures I used to envy the disciples because they were privileged to hear the Master, the Lord Jesus speak! They heard Him, his matchless words, the coloration of His messages as He spoke by the Spirit of God. Oh how I envied them!
Instead of the lesser way, the way of man making a facsimile of the Word, God the Father has provided a better way! He has sent His Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, the very Spirit that anointed Jesus, the very Spirit that gave Jesus the Words that burned into the hearts of the Twelve! Through the Holy Spirit and the anointing of the Spirit every believer who follows aright can hear Jesus, touch Jesus and know Jesus! In fact, by the Holy Spirit it is possible to have an experience of Jesus that is beyond what the disciples experienced. The disciples experienced Jesus in the natural. We can experience Jesus by way of the Holy Ghost. This is a greater miracle! This can happen as we read the Word of God, drinking the Word of God in, while under the anointing of the Holy Ghost!
Now I understand what our precious Lord Jesus meant when he said, "I am the living bread...Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life: and I will raise him up at the last day." [John 6:51a,54]
By the Holy Spirit God the Father wants for HIS saints to eat and drink the Word of God all week into their spirits with the anointing of the Holy Spirit. He wants them to listen to the Holy Ghost and celebrate the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. He wants them to have sweet communion in the Spirit and the Word all week. He wants them to seek HIS face and to listen and hear the precious admonitions of the Holy Spirit from the Word and from the Throne Room. He wants them to rest from laborious intellectual preparations which amount to being "vain in their imaginations." Instead He wants His Bible Words to go into the spirit of a person first, not into their mind first.
He wants them instead to rest in the flow of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, listening and worshiping and weeping and even laughing in the Spirit..., all as they eat and drink the Word of God.
Of course only Holy Ghost Baptized believers can live at this level. New believers need teachers, disciplers and pastors to nurse them and lead them to the Holy Ghost for a Holy Ghost Baptism.
Eating and drinking the Word of God is totally different from studying it. Studying the Word of God is an intellectual activity. God wants His people to eat and drink the Word, to internalize it in their spirits.
As I awoke, I saw the mystery of the Word of God. But, then I was shown a great sadness by the Holy Spirit. I saw hungry believers all over the World in churches receiving hard, old, dry, molded, stale crusts of truth. They were happily and voraciously consuming crusts of truth that had lost much of the moisture of Heaven, the moisture of the Spirit! The "letter" was killing them when the Holy Spirit wanted to give them life! (2nd Cor. 3:6)
I saw pastors with buckets of croutons, small, hard pieces of bread. These pastors stood behind their pulpits flinging handfuls to their congregations. The hungry believers jumped from their seats and crawled about the floor, wildly stuffing their mouths like starving children!
Can you imagine a person opening a box of powdered milk and spooning heaping spoonfuls into their mouth in order to get their daily requirement of calcium?? The dusty mixture would probably choke them severely. The plain Word of God, without the moisture of the Holy Spirit will kill. But, when the Word of God is joined with the Holy Spirit, the Word gives life, because the Spirit is "the carrier" of the Word: the water of life!
The Lord showed me that throughout the World believers have grown to love and prefer stale and spoiled manna. They have grown to love to hear leftovers, to hear revelations that the preacher has heard at another time and another place, instead of having a fresh revelation by the anointing of the Holy Ghost, directly from the Throne Room.
God wants to anoint saints and preachers as he anointed Stephen, as he anointed Paul. Remember how Paul asked for prayer that he would be given "WORDS" to speak??? (Ephesians 6:19-20) But, today we try to collect words in advance, like a man collecting perishable butterflies in a net, not realizing that the Word of God spoils when it is allowed to be reconstituted through the mind of a person. It is only fresh when the speaker is taken over by the Spirit of God, through the Holy Anointing and speaks as the Holy Ghost gives the message.
God has given His Spirit to bring this feeding into His children's private devotional time of prayer and Bible reading. It is wrong to believe that pastors and teachers are the only ones who are to experience this anointing. God wants to anoint Spirit-filled believers to hear from the Holy Ghost in their own secret place with God. He wants to feed them, by the Spirit, to cause the Word of God to come alive. Then believers will eat and drink the Word as food for their inner being.
Believers need the baptism in the Holy Spirit in order to move out of the bottle feeding department and into the school of the Holy Spirit, where they can hear directly from the Throne Room for themselves. Then they can move on to maturity and eventually become overcomers!
As I tell you the dream I must admit that I have not attained to what I was shown in the dream. Nonetheless, the Word of God and the revelation of the dream have convinced me that God Almighty, through Jesus, and by the Holy Ghost offers the position of "overcomer" to the mature saint. There is something beyond sanctification! As salvation is the doorway to holiness, the Baptism of the Holy Ghost followed by maturing holiness is the doorway to the position of "overcomer."
This dream is very thickly packed with revelations. I'm sure I have not begun to see them all. I am aware of several though.
The darkness, tiredness and lack of light at the beginning and throughout the dream indicate the general state of affairs in the church of this era and in the lives of many of we believers. Much of the church has a very limited amount of true Holy Spirit insight. It is a church that depends heavily on common sense, religious tradition and business techniques for guidance.
My lack of a change of clothes, and a comfortable place to sleep, for the minister whose shoes I walked in, indicate the true condition of much of today's clergy, from the point of view of the Lord. Spiritually they have little ability to cleanse themselves or to be truly spiritually prepared. They are not at rest in God. They have not ceased their own works and rested in the Lord God's work.
The constant late arrivals of the pastor and the fact that he was hardly recognized indicate that we have entered an era where the clergy can no longer lean on training and traditional skills to do the job. Things have come to a level where only supernatural agency from the Holy Spirit can make a pastor effective. Technology, education, degrees, reason, continuing education, seminars are all of little help. Only what has been received directly from Heaven will aid the pastor, or any believer for that matter.
The three sub-congregations tell a very revealing story about today's church. The visible church has gone to pieces. She is made up of three parts. The largest part is symbolized by the formal front congregation. This largest part of today's visible church is totally clueless as to what the body of Christ really is. They have taken the form of a civic organization. They are simply many confused and/or carnal and/or backslidden and/or pagan persons who are part of a religious Sunday Civic Club. They don't want or desire or understand what the Body of Christ is. Generally they would quickly reject a true move of God. That is why none of them showed up in the final mighty move of God. This group places outward appearances high on their list. This is why their building and their grounds were so immaculate and well cared for.
The old saints represent the remains of a by-gone era. In the by-gone era the church had many more true believers who were aware of the Holy Spirit and His mighty workings. Although these past saints are also plagued by tradition and are also spiritually needy, at least they represent the best on the scene. They are now few in number, sick, tired and old. They have been relegated to the back. They are not considered important. They are even looked down up and thought of as "spiritual relics," out of touch with reality. They are even perceived by some church goers as trouble makers. In reality they are more in touch with God than the other two groups! We are losing them! They are dying. Many are in rest homes. They are fading out of the picture. But, those whose minds are not gone could tell you some grand secrets the church needs to recall!
Also, when I attempted to get the old saints to move to be with the children, whom God was dealing with, they nearly died trying to get up out of their seats, wheelchairs and gurney. They had to stop, as they all began to have heart attacks and dizzy spells. This was because the children were very new believers. I was asking the old saints to back down the mountain to a lower spiritual level. In God's economy one never turns back or returns to a lower level. To do so brings Hebrews chapter six into play and can bring spiritual death!!
I was more correct in asking the children's leaders to bring the children to the old saints. The children's leaders ignored me. If they had taken the children to meet the older saints, the children might have grown up, spiritually, and slipped out of the nursery that was locked and controlled, so that the new believers could never grow up!
The little children are the most interesting group of all. They are the growing edge of the church today. Today if you study statistics you will see that the visible evangelistic churches are growing in numbers. But, this dream shows God's perspective. The new believers are being kept, nursed and incubated as premature babes. This is why they appeared in the dream as a children's church.
The nurse-maids who care for them represent the church leadership, both clergy and laity, that is intent on building organizational infrastructures. They are glad to have the move of the Lord, they are interested in getting as many new ones saved as possible; and some of the leaders are even interested in seeing these new believers come into an initial experience with the Holy Spirit, a second blessing if you will.
The sad part about these little children is that they will never be allowed to fully mature. They will be taught that the Sunday Church organization is the key, the center and the secret of their spiritual lives. They will never be allowed to come under the direct and full control of the Holy Spirit. The reason why the children will not be allowed to grow up is that if they should grow up they would go on to be directly controlled by the Holy Spirit. They would take their orders directly from the Lord God Almighty and they would be very useless for the building of strong denominational and organizational mechanisms!
This is why when I suggested to the nurse-maids that they allow the children to visit the old folks I was totally ignored. The organization would not have been benefited. The nurse-maids did not want the new believers to be infected with that "Holy Ghost stuff" the old folks believe in. The nursemaids did not want any child to grow enough so as to get weaned to the Holy Ghost. When a person becomes weaned to the Holy Ghost, then they cannot be controlled and manipulated. Today's church leaders are afraid of the fullness of the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit doesn't "assist in the leader's works." Instead the Holy Spirit totally takes over a believer and uses them to achieve Heaven's goals and designs. Heaven has little interest in building man's religious infrastructure!
Today's church leaders are trying to assist God in HIS work, impressing HIM with their ability to build HIM a kingdom that the leaders control. But God isn't interested in their crafty ways. God only wants obedience and total control of HIS church...HIS people. God isn't interested in building organizations, buildings and monuments of religion.
The little children were transported in vehicles from the middle of the 1900s. The front believers wore 1950's styles. I believe this reveals that the 1940s and 50s were a watershed time in the visible church. Those years were a time when changes that had been developing for a couple hundred years finally hardened into cement. Even today, when you visit a contemporary congregation you may hear new music, see casual clothing and witness much more participative worship, yet, if you examine the total scene you will see that underneath is the foundation of the 40s and 50s. That foundation is that the church operates like a business enterprise depending on advertising, promotion, committees, voting in it's leadership, setting goals, etc. All these methods became increasingly more acceptable in the church starting in the 40s and 50s. Prior to that "the ways of the world" were more foreign and not as widely accepted by the saints.
The earth caked farm vehicles underlines God's point of view, and that view is that the evangelistic church of today is heavily caked with the world system! It does not run on God's organizational system.
The vision that I received inside the dream, which I told to the older saints: they could not grasp it. There were two reasons for that. First, I was not operating in the supernatural power of the Holy Ghost. I was attempting to simply tell the story, a story that is only understood via Holy Ghost discernment! And, like today as I tell this again I am not under the mighty movement of the Holy Spirit. I am telling this from my natural mind. However, the Holy Spirit could still use it and He may still be working on it in some lesser way for which I am not fully aware.
I might add at this point that when a person is totally taken over by the Holy Spirit and they begin to speak to others, that person cannot contain whatever it is that the Holy Ghost speaks through them. They cannot tell you a whole lot about it a few minutes after the anointing has lifted off them. That is a key point!
Most preachers can tell you over and over again what "their" message to the congregation was. But, when the Holy Ghost comes on a lay person or pastor and speaks words from Heaven, well, in a few minutes that message fades and they can tell you little of what it was. Now you understand why this is such a rare thing. You and I have probably hardly ever witnessed such a manifestation in the Body of Christ. I only know of one person that I have ever seen this happen to, and that is Brother Freedom, the little man I saw in the dream who disappeared as the anointing took over.
The second reason the saints could not receive my vision or comprehend the deepest truths in it was because they were bound by tradition. Even Jesus, in speaking to the Pharisees, pointed out that tradition is such a powerful thing that it can bind the very Word of God (Mark 7:13)!
The wonderful truth of the position of "overcomer" is perhaps the most awesome revelation given in the dream.
Remember how the little "overcomer" became a nothing?? That was why he stood only two inches tall at my feet. There was nothing about him that made him attractive, or winsome. The only reason I stared down at him was because he was so strange and small. He was peculiar!
Remember the Word of God says, "Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Titus 2:14) Also the Word says, "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." (1 Peter 2:9)
The modern translations drop the word "peculiar." But, I checked it out and there is a word there and it means "a very unusual possession" of God! The Greek and the Hebrew both have a word there. The Old Testament uses the word "peculiar" also. "For the LORD hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure." (Psalm 135:4)
This little guy I was looking down on in the vision, inside the dream, was definitely unusual, but in a peculiar sort of way. He was not anyone that I yearned to be like. I did not desire to be so small, such a nothing! But that is the secret of being an overcomer!
This little guy had become like Jesus. "...made himself of no reputation,...humbled himself, and became obedient unto death..." (Philippians 2: parts of verses 7 and 8)
And by becoming obedient unto death, a spiritual death, he achieved the nothingness level that made him useful to God! The Lord God wants a temple that is so pure, so dead to the things of the World that when his holy graces pass through that holy channel no dirty colorations will be added to the pure grace of God! As an example in the hospital each new patient gets clean I.V. tubes to carry medication into their blood stream. The hospital won't use a dirty I.V. tube from the last patient!
Only when a believer has been saved, baptized in the Holy Ghost and then advanced on into holiness (overcoming many, many, many temptations and having unconditional and perfect love) until they become "a nothing," and, the Lord becomes "Everything" in their life, only then can they advance to the position of an "overcomer." And then Ephesians 4:13 can come to pass "Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."
When Jesus became nothing, dying on the cross, He became all that God desired, the perfect lamb, the perfect sacrifice. He won the battle against sin and death.
When the believer losses all of their own stature, or standing, then they can become anointed at times by the Holy Ghost and Jesus can arise upon them. They disappear and Jesus appears. Jesus will not appear upon them for ministry until or unless they will completely disappear! God doesn't want mixture. He wants us to disappear so that He can appear. Then we attain to the stature of Christ. This is what happened to Stephen before the Sanhedrin. He disappeared. They saw, the Bible says, the face of an angel on him. The presence of Christ was manifested. So they attacked that presence again. The Sanhedrin couldn't stand that powerful presence of Christ manifested upon Stephen by the Holy Ghost. Nevertheless the work of God was accomplished in Stephen by the anointing of the Holy Ghost and Stephen was shown to be an overcomer!
This truth is too hard to explain in the natural. I can't do it justice. Only the Holy Ghost can show you about this. Many people are helped by the Holy Spirit as they minister. And, they receive lesser degrees of anointing. But, what I was shown was the ultimate anointing that the Lord God Almighty desires to have in all His saints. But, unfortunately very few have ever witnessed this level of anointing, let alone experienced it in our era.
I have not experienced it, except in the dream. I was only allowed to experience it in the dream as I surrendered. It was glorious! Words cannot explain the level of joy and ecstasy I experienced when I was given the power to die.
Then I began to live in the presence of the Holy Ghost. What joy, what ecstasy! He was able to flow through me without any dirt or filth getting mixed into HIS holy stream of purity. My dying out cleansed me so that I was truly clean and I could truly be a clean channel for the Holy Spirit to use. Then no mixture came through me...just purity from Heaven.
I am seeking that work in my life today. I did not wake up miraculously brought into that work. Instead I woke up knowing I desperately needed that work! I now desire to be wholly sanctified, and led on to be an overcomer.
The Song of the Holy Spirit underlines the importance of the Holy Ghost in these times. The Holy Spirit has been overlooked and neglected. But, this is HIS era.
The Father dealt with His people in the Old Testament times. That was hard because the people could not stand the pure righteousness of God. They knew that they would die if they continued to hear his voice coming from Mount Sinai. So they begged that the messages could come via Moses. God the Father had to send the "Angel of the Lord" along with them because the presence of the Father was too strong for them. And so the Father was rejected in place of prophets, mediators and angels.
Then Jesus came and walked the dusty roads. He was God's only begotten Son full of grace and truth. He was also rejected. He was love. But they called him a drunk and a glutton, a friend of sinners.
Now Jesus and the Father have sent the precious Holy Spirit! And He too is being rejected by God's people. Now they accept Jesus. Now they accept the Father. But, they have a problem with the Holy Spirit!
Nevertheless Jesus is not here. He is at the right hand of the Father. The Father is not here. He is on the throne in glory. But, the Holy Ghost is here! He is the carrier of the Word of God. The Holy Ghost is the One who manifests the presence of Jesus and the Father! By turning away from the Holy Ghost the church is turning away from the whole Trinity! They are cutting themselves off from the presence of God Almighty!
They have forgotten that this is the Era of the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit is to be the "governor" of the church. When Stephen was dragged before the Sanhedrin he didn't clear his sermon with Peter, James or John. Stephen really didn't know all that would come out of his mouth. He simply let out the first word, then the second and so on. The Holy Spirit wrote the Sermon.
When the Holy Spirit told the Church of Antioch to set apart Paul and Barnabas for a work the Holy Ghost had for them, the Spirit did not tell them details, or ask for their approval. The Holy Ghost just commanded them to release Paul and Barnabas for a work. And so they did. (Acts Chapter 13) Out of that came the first missionaries. The Holy Ghost created the work of missions!
But, today we have to have committees, missions boards, goal setting groups, studies and all types of analysis before the church moves forward. Why??
The answer is that the church is not governed primarily by the Holy Ghost. She is governed primarily by men!
But, the Holy Spirit is the Carrier, the Power, the Governor, the Orchestrater, the Fixer, the Establisher, the Arranger, the Mover whom the Father and the Son have agreed upon and sent.
I need to stop at this point and bring out something I've neglected to do thus far. Someone who reads this might be asking: If this is true why did God reveal it to a nobody somewhere in Northern California. If this were really something to be revealed the Lord would have given this information to someone who could get the message out better.
Remember, this all came because I tested a principal that believers need to eat and drink the Word of God. For over a year I drank in the Scripture in massive amounts as I prayed and sought the Lord.
The Lord God revealed this to me, for me. I needed to hear it. It needed to change me! This wasn't revealed to me so that I could get the word out to the whole church. It was given to me, for me, for my need, for my correction.
God's way is to speak directly to His people through the Bible and the Holy Ghost! And that's what He did in my case.
If another believer truly and honestly starts drinking the Word of God and listening to the Spirit of God they will receive the truth that they need for their lives!
The Lord wants all of HIS people wired directly up to Heaven so that they hear from Heaven for themselves. That's part of maturity. Remember Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:" [John 10:27] What good is knowing HIS voice if you don't hear anything from Him. Why should GOD send His directives to the mature through intermediaries. Intermediaries are for baby Christians. But, the mature need to have a personal communication with the Lord every day, every second, every moment!
Having a constant hook-up with Heaven brings up the matter of the manna. God's Word spoils and becomes corrupt when it is collected and passed through the mind of a man. That is why I am breaking a fundamental rule by even trying to write these truths down that I received back on February 9, 1997. These truths are preserved for me because they came direct from Heaven to me. But, they can't be reproduced except by the Holy Spirit. So, if the Spirit is not doing a miracle on the reader's end these truths are of no value. Without the Spirit they are just old, hard crusts of bread.
This is why we must drink the Word of God daily. And that is where listening to the Bible every day has become a staple for me in my daily Christian walk. When I listen I hear much more than if I just read the Bible. I listen to pages and pages!
How I Know This Dream Is True
Someone might wonder how I realized that the dream was not something concocted by my subconscious. After all,... many dreams are very highly developed, dreams that come from the sub-conscious mind.
I believe one of the reasons the Lord chose to speak to me via a dream was because unlike other people my own dreams during the night are not highly organized or clearly developed. My own dreams consist of short subjects, highly disorganized, non-, foggy, hard to remember and constantly changing in topic as the night progresses. During my regular dreams I often think about the fact that what I am dreaming is not real. But, the dream from Heaven was more real than life itself!!
When I awake I am fortunate to be able to remember only a very small part of what I dreamed in a regular night of dreams. I remember that I had other dreams, but only recall a snatch here and there. My own natural dreams are rather unrealistic and very contrived, for the most part.
This dream was the opposite of my own dreams in every way. It was long. There were no loose ends. It was so real that I had no idea that I was having a dream. There was a presence of the Divine in the dream that was more real than reality! The joy that came as I sang the Song of the Spirit was something that I shall never forget and that I shall always long to experience in the natural!
The Holy Spirit has shown me that the reason the dream locked me into an eternity of Sundays, and the reason that no other day of the week appeared in the dream is a revelation. It is a revelation of the fact that the modern church has changed from the first century church in it's focus.
Jesus and His First Century Pentecost church focus the ministry primarily on the other six days of the week. Jesus' greatest sermons, miracles, signs and wonders generally occurred on weekdays in the highways and byways of that day.
Today Sunday and the church sanctuary have become the focus, the center of ministry. Jesus' ministry was a "go" centered ministry. Today, the church is "come" centered. "Come to our Sunday Celebration. Hear our pastor. Listen to our Choir. Enjoy the insightful teaching of our Adult Sunday School Team. The Worship Team will thrill you with great worship!"
In the dream, as I attempted to minister, my black slacks became more and more soiled and caked with the brown earth from the old farm vehicles. I had to slip in between the vehicles to move about the grounds each Sunday. My clothes touched the caked earth from those cars and trucks parked so close to each other.
I have been shown that this points out that the clergy today is highly dependent on the technology, the worldly system of the day. The longer a pastor ministers, generally, the more he is compromised with the mixture of man's ways. My physical moving about the grounds symbolized the MANeuvering that pastors have to do to work in the natural. But God has called HIS saints to work in the supernatural, in the power, authority and leadership of the Holy Ghost!
In this era the pastor's destiny is to be ignored. Pastor's are lower than used car salesman in the eyes of society, anyway. This is due to the media's dealing with pastor's moral and ethical failures. Pastors are not taken very seriously by the world. But, the Spirit filled pastor who is an overcomer needs to be a nothing in a supernatural sense so that Jesus can arise upon and in him. This kind of nothingness is far better than the Worldly kind.
Pastors are never again going to arise to the high level they had in the past in men's eyes!!! On the other hand pastors must needs now fulfil their destiny as Holy Ghost filled persons in the church of Jesus Christ or they need to resign. No longer can pastors be CEOs of the church. In the authentic church of Jesus Christ the Holy Ghost is the CEO!! Pastors must be truly called and filled by God as never before, free from the caked earth of worldliness and man's ways!
During the entire dream I never was allowed to preach, never! In our society the sermon has become the apex of pastoral ministry, a point of pride! The Lord is saying that the pastor's sermon has become a stumbling block.
Pastor's today focus on "their" sermon. Many pastors spend the entire week living to get up before the people only to go on and on with swelling words!
We are living in a day when the only sermon that is needed is the message of the pure Word of God and the message of the Holy Ghost to the Church. Sermons have evolved into religious speeches. What we hear today is a far cry from the anointed messages that Stephen, Peter and other First Century men of God spoke out! Today's sermons are not generally fresh words from Heaven. They are instead too often cleverly crafted speeches filled with leftovers from other anointed times, or worse yet, they are merely the MANipulated words of a public speaker who has studied the Bible and the words of scholars who wrote about the Bible!
During the final move of God I was removed from the sight of the people in that final scene. They could hardly see me prior to the move because they were so blind. During the move of the Holy Spirit nobody could see me because that would have distracted them from focusing on the Lord. The anointing erases man and the Lord arises by the Holy Ghost. I was not seen. I still never got to do my sermon. But, the Holy Ghost got to do HIS sermon! Pastor's desperately need to jettison their egos. Their egos are making them useless to God and separating them from the will of God.
When a person is truly under the anointing ministry becomes easy. But, arriving at the place of being an anointed overcomer is where the heavy duty seeking is done!
Among the old saints, who are dying off, is about the only place one can search and hope to find someone who discerns the true move of God, the true work of God and the pastor's calling in that work. That is why the old saints were the only ones in the dream who paid any attention to me! Nevertheless many of the old saints have blindnesses, bondages, dead traditions and dead religion. There are only a few of them that are able to discern clearly. This does not mean that there are not a few in other age groups who have not lost ground. It just means that the old saints have lost the lesser amount of ground, whereas the more recent converts may not have lost it, they just never had a chance to gain the ground in the first place.
Pride makes us tall in men's eyes. Humility makes us small in men's eyes. But, in God's true economy it is just the opposite. And that is why I was the giant over the overcomer. I represented pride and he represented godly humility!
The overcomer had gained this unique position by humbling himself utterly before the Lord. He was not well respected among his peers. He was insignificant to them. Then when the anointing came upon him his peers became jealous. An overcomer will not last long in a fellowship that has no stomach for the total control of the Holy Ghost. He or she will be asked to leave, or be given the cold shoulder.
Remember how the anointing came up our of pores like honey, but never fell to the ground?? God's anointing doesn't fall to the ground! The moisture of the anointing works in, through and out of the overcomer, but it doesn't fall to the ground! The ground is cursed. There is a separation between the ground and the anointing.
Even our world was taken in by technology. I remember in the 1960s that computers were touted as the answer to saving our forests. I read articles that stated computers would drastically lessen the need for paper and perhaps even remove paper documents from our lives. But in reality computers have drastically increased our need for paper. Ship loads of computer generated reports piled in warehouses is the surprise legacy of the technology that was to save the forests. So also in the church the medium of high tech has begun to swallow us in cool bells and whistles, movie sound byte illustrations and other myriad religious gadgetry that impresses people more than our God.
The people seeking God avoided the sanctuary during the great final move of God because it was not a sanctuary of God, but of man.
The back of the church property was congested with old, broken down, buildings. It was crowded with sheds, storage buildings, portables, modulars, bungalows, all in ill repair. But the front sanctuary was freshly painted, well kept, immaculate, with a professionally manicured lawn! This tells us that like the pharisees who washed the outside of the cup and whitewashed the tombs of the saints, today's church has a candy coated shell, but dead men's bones are inside! There is a darkness and a sickness in the average American church today.
We desperately need the ministry of the Holy Ghost in the believer and in the church today!!