I have chewed over this dream for some time now. My closest friends know about it (or parts of it) but I now feel to write it down and make it plain so that they who read it may run with it (if they wish).
The dream began with me being invited to church. The person inviting me said, “Something new is happening. We are listening to the spirit of God and He is doing a new thing.” So as I listened to them speak, I thought, “I think I will go.”
When I arrived at the church, it was positioned at the top of a massively tall quarry. The landscape was dry. Barren. Made up of limestone and completely angular surfaces.
Rows of seats with a few people occupying them faced the front where the pulpit was positioned. Behind the pulpit ran a fence with barbed wire circled across the top to prevent people from falling over the side.
A long way down from the top of the quarry was a river. The river seemed to be running rapidly from what I could tell, and the closest thing I could liken it to is was maybe the Grand Canyon.
I was excited to be visiting this church and to be among fellow believers; I was looking forward to seeing what Papa God was up to in this place.
I sat down on a wooden pew, and removed some grit from my mouth. It had blown up from the ground and stung my eyes a little too.
The pastor stood up and began the service. Everything was as in it always been. Same two fast songs, three slow, tithing message, and so on and so forth—nothing new. I was perplexed.
I looked around at the congregation and there seemed to be no connection happening between them and the Spirit of God. One of them was asleep, several more were staring out into space, and many more were transfixed by what the pastor was saying… only…
…i turned to my left to see Jesus walking among the congregants and trying to speak with their hearts. The congregants swatted him away because they wanted to hear what the pastor was saying— not what Jesus himself had to say.
I felt grief. So much grief that Jesus was trying to meet with people in-person in the one place He should be able to meet with them, but they were swatting him away in favour of mankind’s intelligence. Mankind’s rituals. Mankind’s understanding.
I looked behind the pulpit to see Holy Spirit trying to whisper into the ear of the pastor. The pastor swatted Holy Spirit away and said, “Not now! I have to finish my program. The program has to be followed completely. Stop interrupting me!”
My grief increased. The Spirit of God was trying to communicate with the one person He had initally positioned there, and that one person was purposely ignoring the fresh manna the Spirit of God had brought, in favour of his own stale food.”
The sheep were not being fed; they were being programmed. No one was living in freedom. They had become captives again to ritualism and the gods of their own minds.
Inwardly, I was trembling. I wiped at tears, and said, “Papa, why can’t they see Jesus? Why can’t they hear Holy Spirit? Why are they defaulting to what they have always known (Egypt) instead of stepping into everything you have for them in the kingdom (the promised land)? Where is their first love for You gone? Papa, please help the eyes of their hearts to be enlightened that they may know the heart to which they have been called.”
I looked to the left and Jesus beckoned me to follow him. I stood up quietly so as not to make a scene, left my pew, and followed behind Jesus.
Jesus walked along the top of the cliff’s edge until He came to a long, narrow swinging bridge. He looked at me and then stepped onto the bridge. I followed.
The Bridge was up very high and looking down, I could see the stream far below. It creaked and groaned as we walked; the wooden planks seemed to be acknowledging the lonely journey.
About halfway across the bridge, I felt someone else step onto it. I looked back to see that behind that someone else, were other someone elses. Momentary panic gripped me because I thought I had caused some kind of insurrection or mass exodus.
“Jesus!” I said. “ I don’t want to cause people to exit their religious rituals or their familiar places if it’s not time for them to do so. I’m sorry Jesus if I have caused disruption. I don’t want to cause any of your sheep to stumble!”
Jesus looked at me and said, “They are not following you. They are leaving religion to follow me. It is time.” Then He turned around and kept walking to the other side of the massive quarry.
As I reached the other side and stepped onto land again, I was in shock. The other side of the quarry was possibly the closest thing to the Garden of Eden I had ever seen.
Miraculously, this side of the quarry was brimming with life, colour—beauty everywhere. I could smell the perfume of nearby trees and shrubs; hear the conversations of birds; see the gathering of wild fruits; and hear the gurgling of some kinds of streams off in the distance. And gathered together was a remnant of people who had been brought there by the Spirit of God.
“You have now entered the new day!” I heard Jesus say with such joy that it nearly took my breath away.
Then, as I stood there, I watched Holy Spirit speak to one heart, yet somehow all hearts heard what He had spoken at the same time. There were no platforms. No notoriety. No fame.
There was no sickness. No lack. No confusion.
There was each one growing into the fullness of the Godhead together—not separately, but as one—with the Word Himself fully alive in every single part of their beings.
***
Let me be clear: I am not anti-church. I am anti-religion.
There are churches who have come alive to their existence in Yeshua. They deny themselves, reckon themselves dead to sin, and alive in Christ. There are churches who are walking in unity, who are seeing a new thing done on the Earth by the power of the Spirit of God. And there are churches who understand that they are Sons and Daughters of God, and co-heirs with Jesus.
These churches are literally setting the captives free and not just talking about it. They are loving one another and loving others. They are bringing recovery of sight to the spirutually blind. Jesus is truly the one they love and the one who receives their affections. And they long to see things accomplished on earth as they already are in heaven.
There are also churches who deny the person of Jesus and who favour ritual, religion, and self-atonement in place of the gifts He provided for them when He tore the veil.
These ones, have re-instituted the veil, and have become self-conscious rather than God conscious. They have become sin-conscious rather than Jesus-conscious. They have become ‘impossible’-conscious rather than ‘possible’-conscious.
For these ones, I feel the weight of the weighing and balancing system that sits on their shoulders. I feel the deception of atoning for one’s sins through over 600 laws. I feel the hypocrisy of imparting this impossible way of living to innocent sheep who don’t know that Jesus came to set them free and complete the law.
In this new day that we are entering into, there is an open invitation for all to come in and eat at the banqueting table with Jesus. There is an invitation to the person on the side of the road; there is an invitation to the person playing soccer; there is an invitation to the business drug addict making millions but never being truly satisfied by their own efforts— the invitation is not just to the church but to ALL.
The banqueting table is ready. The new wine is flowing. Religion has no place at the table. Relationship is the only thing that has created the invitation for us to be seated to eat and drink of Him.
This is the new day. Are you ready?
Photo by Bonnie Kittle
