A Significant Dream
This is a dream George, my husband, had on April 21, 2020.
I [George] guess I am getting old because I never used to remember my
dreams. I still don’t dream much and only remember one once every several
months and almost all have no significance, but last night was something
different.
As the dream started, suddenly I was swept into a familiar
setting, a Local Church I used to attend. At once, I felt nostalgia, but
then I also noticed some differences. The decorations of the Church were
very intentional and had nothing to do with Christian trappings. In fact,
they seemed to be geared to what is probably a large segment of that community
which was a rustic western theme. Anyone who knows me knows I do not
typically care about decorations, but these were so different than when I was
there before and so striking that it was jarring enough for me to remember this
detail when I woke up.
Next, I was minding my own business and a Woman approached
me. I knew her but she was “generic.” This was perplexing to me.
I later prayed about this and I believe Holy Spirit showed me that this was a
representation of THE WOMAN, THE BRIDE. When I got this revelation, I
decided I needed to write this down immediately. She told me that she
could not preach today and said that I should fill in. I was shocked.
Why me? I mean I had not been here for a long time. Maybe I was a
leader there 25-30 years ago, but why me now? She gave me some
notes. They were discombobulated and the message that she said to convey was
just confusing and incomprehensible. So after she walked away I looked at
some of the scriptures she had listed and they were about “love,” but were
taken out of context and applied to society in general, where the context of
the scriptures were about love for God directly.
So, the pressure was on, the people were assembled, and I had to
say something. Fortunately, or unfortunately, a man got up and went on
for what seemed like an hour listing all the programs the Church had going on
that week or month or whatever. As he was going thru his materials, I saw
a scripture she had listed in Ephesians 3, which in part states that we are to
be rooted and grounded in love. I then remembered Revelation 2 where
Ephesus is rebuked for having forgot their first love.
When it was time to stand, I preached to this Church and
proclaimed that they had lost their first love. I commended them on how
they discerned and rooted out false teachers (which this Church did in real
life). I commended them on how they try to serve the community, but I had
to say with tears in my eyes (something else I do not do very often) that they
had lost their first love. I reminded them what it was like when they
were first saved. I reminded many of how they could not wait to read the
Bible or talk to their friends about Jesus and how they worshiped and
prayed. The prescription is to remember and do the deeds that you
did at first. They at first had a communal relationship with God.
He was with them and led them by the hand, but now they had become cold and
ritualistic responding with works to the community with minimal impact.
They were trying to make their gatherings geared to the community, but
marginalized God in the process. In their lives, there was little to no
prayer or true worship and Bible reading was a drudgery. Even though they were
not weary, compromise had seeped in and was undermining all the good that was
once done.
Oh, the mighty Ephesus Church, founded by Paul, the Apostle, and
once pastored by no less than Timothy and the Apostle John doing works and out
in the community. Trying to be a light to mankind, a leading Church,
raising a standard, and yet utterly ineffective and in danger of losing the
very light they try to be. The only answer is to repent,
remember, and redo what you once did! If you go to Ephesus today,
what is there but ruin?
So, after all this, when I woke up, I asked what was all this
about? Why so vivid where I could remember actual faces of actual people (people
I chose not to mention here)? And that generic woman that is familiar, not
anyone and yet everyone.
The answer is there are multitudes of people in the Church of
Ephesus. What nature and the devil mean for harm, God can use for
good. Use this down time to pray, reflect and take inventory of where you
really are with God. Read Revelation 2-3 and ask the Holy Spirit to help
you see. Why Ephesus? It’s because it is where I live and where
millions of other American Christians live, but there are six other
Churches. To him/her that overcomes God will grant you to eat of the Tree
of Life in the Paradise of God! Eternal rewards are real and coupled with
a true love for God, will cause you to do things and go further than self-will
or religious discipline ever can.
Which Church do you go to? I believe it is no accident
there are seven listed, as seven is the number of completeness. Is it
Philadelphia or Smyrna who received no such rebuke? Even if that’s your
“Church,” there are still things you need to do. Or it could be Pergamum,
Thyatira, Sardis, or Laodicea; churches that are really messed up, but even
now, there is a reward for those that repent and overcome.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
churches.
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