Dream about the church Continued

In the past couple of years, a message keeps coming through to me loud and clear. God is going to get his church back. He’s tired of what the church has become.

Lately, I’ve been feeling a great deal of churning in the Spirit. The image I have is a great body of water, slowly, almost unnoticed beginning to move in a circular motion. Many don’t know it’s happening. The movement is slow, but the power behind it is irresistible. I believe it’s picking up speed and it’s going to wreck some things, shake up many things and will change everything. I don’t believe it is something that can be stopped. I believe God himself is doing it.

This is additional reflection about a dream I posted about last week.

THE DREAM

I don’t often dream, but last week I had one. I’ve included what I believe the Lord was giving me as an interpretation, but I am open to correction. As I said, I rarely have dreams, so this was unusual for me.I saw an aircraft carrier. It looked impressive as aircraft carriers usually do.

Just a note of information: American aircraft carriers are the most powerful conventional warfare ship in the world. I say conventional warfare because they are equipped with a variety of aircraft (up to 80) that can control the sea around them, the air, and are capable of long range land attacks. The only ship arguably more powerful is the ballistic missile submarine ( they carry 24 missiles each with 8-10 nuclear warheads). All large deck US aircraft carriers are also capable of nuclear strike as well.

The ship looked impressive from the outside, but suddenly I was inside and it was very much a different situation. People were looking for explosives. They were sure that someone was trying to blow up the ship. I was going to start looking to when I realized there was something very wrong with this ship. It had a top deck, it had the side walls. It had a bottom. But there was nothing in it. There were no supporting structures. There were no decks at all. From near the top, I could see down to the very bottom of the ship. There were no hangar decks. There were no airplanes. There was no machinery, no engines. The ship was actually powerless to move. It was equally powerless to defend itself or to attack. In essence it was nothing more than an illusion.

I wrote the dream down and asked the Lord about it. I felt like the Lord was telling me that was the Church in the United States.. With grand buildings it looks impressive. But it is lacking in power and purpose.A real aircraft carrier is a hub of activity. Sailors are running engines, steering, navigating, serving fellow sailors by cooking and doing laundry. There are electronic experts. There are gunners and armament experts. There are mechanics. What sets apart a real aircraft carrier, what makes it powerful, are the people in it. Without them, it’s only a shell.

That’s happening in the American church. The church is the people of God not the structure or form they find themselves in. Many churches have fantastic structures or outward appearances, but the truth is they are not equipping the Saints to fulfill their Kingdom purpose.

Most churches can’t get people set free of demonic activity. Most people aren’t encouraged to make disciples, instead they are prompted to invite them to church so they can hear the preacher and get saved. Most people are not being encouraged to feed the hungry (unless it’s a church special event or project.)

I got the real sense that in the dream, someone was trying to blow up the carrier. It was God himself. He wants to break the illusion of the church being one thing, when he intends it to be something else.

The following scripture came to mind:

2 Timothy 3:1-91

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; 9 but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was. "

Further Reflection

I wasn’t satisfied with this dream as it was. I believe that if God gives you something like this then he has something he wants his people to do. There has to be a response from us. What is God looking for. So I asked the Lord and I reflected on it.

One question I asked however had an answer that chilled me. In the original dream it was a small group. Then I saw the following. It wasn’t a dream, it was more like movies clips running.

But I saw what looked like a Navy Seal team, coming ashore in their Zodiac boats. They penetrated enemy territory. I saw them destroying his works and I watched them set people who were in bondage free. They took these newly liberated people in villages and other places and they began to teach them. These villagers, became powerful soldiers themselves, to go out and fight against tyrants, releasing more people. It was more of a guerilla war than a full frontal military assault.

So what does it mean?

God’s new navy (or the church), will be made up of small little boats of people. They are not “rag tag” however. They are purposeful they know their calling and their destiny.
There won’t be any one Lording over the others. They will love God and each other fervently. They will be willing to lay their lives down for the Lord and each other.

“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.” John 15: 12-14

The Navy seals are believers. They are in small groups, or teams. These are possibly small organic home churches and or Apostolic teams. There will be Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Teachers and Pastors. There will be those who work miracles and do signs and wonders. There will be those that heal the sick and raise the dead. They will cast out devils.

They are confident. There confidence is in God though not themselves. They know they will not fail, because they are confident that God is in control and the has sent them

“Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.” Daniel 11:32

These soldiers are willing to take risks and are willing to risk their lives.

”And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” Revelation 12:11

God also showed me something else that was frightening. When I saw the original aircraft carrier image in my dream, there were people looking for explosives. The number of people I saw was a small group, not a large group. A real aircraft carrier would have 4000-5000 people on it. I asked the Lord about all of the people in the churches today. What I felt the Lord saying was that I the small group I saw were the believers. They may have been misdirected, but the number of real believers in the American church is a small number relative to the people in the church structure. This was actually frightening for me.

The last thing God pointed me out in this set of images is that Navy Seals do learn in the classroom, but where the learning and confidence comes is out in the world. They face the elements. They face the reality of the world around them. As closely as possible, they face the real risks and threats that they would in war. They are equipped. You cannot become equipped sitting in a church building or a bible study. You can learn scriptures and concepts, but a soldier is not simply taught concepts. The people of God will never be effective advancing the Kingdom until they put into practice the things they learn in scripture in the real world. A surgeon doesn’t learn to operate simply by reading books, but by doing.

Another thing the Lord showed me is that these Seals operate stealthily. The whole idea is not to bring attention to themselves. That will be the same with the Christian teams. They will be part of the body of Christ, doing the work of Jesus, but they will not draw attention to themselves. The focus will be Jesus and they will always turn the attention of others toward Jesus.

What does this mean for me and the Dallas Street Church?

I felt like I had failed in the street church. Even though we’ve discussed dying to self. The fact of the matter, we haven’t focused nearly enough effort and attention on equipping the saints to go out and do the work of the ministry. My job is to get the guys on the street ready to serve in teams like these. I really don’t know what that will look like, but we’ll be starting next week. Frankly, the thought of this is overwhelming, but God has directed us so far, and I believe he will accomplish what he wants to do.

What does this mean for the Church in North America?

I believe a lot of changes are coming and I believe there will be some very difficult times ahead. But God is going to get his church back.