The Age To Come

To have a heart that is aligned with Yours.  To see what You are doing and do likewise.  To care about the things that You care about.  That is my desire.

So easy to focus on trinkets, things of no eternal value.  But we are finite creatures, with finite time.  So quickly it flies away.  Take captive every thought for Christ, the Book says, and it is right.  For on what you focus, there will your heart be also.

Not to say there is not room for interests, for hobbies, and the suchlike, but the relentless round of entertainment, of the endless procession of worldly things, can distract, confuse, beguile and mislead.

Better to have a heart that is focused on the things of the Lord – on His things, not on our concept of what serving should be.  His yoke is easy, and His burden light.  Ours, often not so much.  How much we miss by refusing Him, even as we think we serve Him.

Lord Jesus, help us care about the things You care about.  Help us to be where you are also.  Amen.

After some time away, I wanted to finish this series with something from the Fisherman, posted originally in 2007.

It is better, friend, that you get caught now
Even now, at last light
This is all that remains
The eternal Now
The final Choice

Therefore, choose
Choose now
Be caught by Love
Or spin and tumble into the eternal Dark
Alone and lost, forever

Choose

I will leave that with you for now and, God willing, I will post more shortly.

As this series comes to a close, I want to focus on the Church, the bride of Christ. In Jesus’s eyes, we are the pearl of great price, as He is also to us. I feel His lamenting over our fallen condition; so often we fall very short of what we could be, what He intends us to be. Truly did Jesus say, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18 v8b). We could be so much more! Yet, so often we find the ‘comforts’ of Egypt to be preferable to His promises. Why? Because it is hard, and we prefer the precariousness of false comforts. Still, He loves us so much, it will not stay this way….

The snake and the Church
16th February 2006

I saw a giant snake, long and thick, coiled around a reclined human figure. The figure was pasty white and bloated, obviously unhealthy. The figure seemed oblivious to his position (the figure seemed masculine, but the sex was not important), and was stuffing his face with cake.

It’s as if I was seeing this with the Lord. I perceived the snake as satan / the world, and the reclining figure as representative of the Church. I saw the grip that the world had on the Church, and the oblivious nature of Church to the entwining coils. Indeed, for me the relined posture and the cake represented an active complicity in the whole picture.

I guess I expected the Lord to be angry. But instead I became aware of his great compassion and unbounded love for the whole Church. Even a Church that was willingly complicit in its own enslavement. It often seems that way, either I get a sense of profound judgment, or of unlooked for and undeserved compassion and love. This time it was most definitely the latter, and I had the sense that I was given some understanding of how the Lord views our (western) Church.

As I was looking at this, I became aware that the Lord was totally in charge of this situation, and that He was biding His time. “When I’m ready……..”. I saw an axe in place to lop off the snakes’ head. The impression I had was that it would be an immediate and cathartic action – an overnight judgement. For the man, the human figure representing the Church, it would be to his ultimate salvation and healing. I saw that if this was not done, the Church would undergo a slow death through engorgement. The Lord made me aware of this, and that His judgement on the snake was to be to the Church’s salvation.

However, it would be far from easy, not comfortable in any way. For the man, it would be deeply painful, just like a drug addict forced to kick his habit. For a Church entwined by the world, and deeply complicit in that entwinement, this would be a most painful salvation; indeed to the Church it would seem nothing like being saved, at least to begin with.

The Lords’ ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts (Is 55 v8).

Consider also His judgment of the false teachers that lead His flock astray….

2 Peter 2
1But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. ……. 17These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. 20If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

For those who assume that Christianity is (or should be) ‘nice’, ‘kind’ or ‘gentle’, may find the above a little disconcerting. Why such a harsh denunciation? Well, before answering that question it’s worth considering first the genuine article.

That fact is Christianity is not safe, it is not timid, it is not about being nice and kind. Aslan is not a safe lion. He is, however, good. The Way of the Cross costs everything, and nothing, simultaneously. The path of salvation is free, and it will claim everything you have. It is the pearl of great price that costs both the finder and creator everything. It is our only hope, and it is a Hope that leads us to a Life that is beyond compare.

It is the beautiful sunrise, the music of angels, the new seed risen from the earth in springtime, the tall redwood lifting majestically from the forest floor, the white expanse stretching to the horizon in the deep cold of winter, the mysteries of the ocean depths, the high peaks of the distant mountains. It is all these things, and more, moving to places where words and human imagery do not suffice. Sometimes, when the veil is thin, we know. Othertimes, the weight of the world seems to all but crush that hope from us. This is our Hope, our only Hope, that Christ died, and rose, and even now prepares a place for us who have believed in His name, taken up our cross and followed Him.

When you understand this, when you can see these things, even though they seem far off, you must therefore understand why the harshest judgment is rendered to those who would lead the people astray. These false teachers and prophets who, not having the Truth within them, take the things of God, and turn them to the doctrines of demons.

The greatest heresy is the one that contains the greatest amount of truth. We respond to the truth, and then run the danger of swallowing the lie too. The things of God are used for the most debased ends – rather than conforming ourselves to the word of God we conform the word of God to our own image, twisting and perverting the Bible so that it will say what we want it to say, using it as a cheap salve to our rapidly deadening consciences.

No wonder there is such a great condemnation to those who ‘return to their vomit’, and more than that, actively encourage others to enter the same degradation. Those who would call good evil, and evil good. There is such a Life, such a Prize ahead of us, no wonder that those who seek to deceive, to offer a cheap gaudy imitation, are judged most severely.

What do we do when we discern those who are unrepentantly preaching heresy? Who will not be corrected, and whose consciences are seared? We know, for it is in the Book – flee from them, flee far from them. The Lord knows our frame, knows we are dust. Grappling with them is like grappling with the tar baby. The more we try to correct, the more they twist and turn, adding a dash of heresy here, and unorthodox thought there, until it is hard to discern anything. We are at spiritual risk while we stay near such people. Hence – flee from them – their mouths are like the open grave and their way leads only to death.

We must be sober, alert, and aware, for the time grows short. Deception will increase, even deception that will sway the elect. What then are we to do? For, in our humanity, we cannot discern, or understand the nature of all heresies.

Well friends, we can do no other and no better than to turn everything, including ourselves, over to God. He knows our hearts. If our hearts are for Him, it is because His heart was first for us. He knows our frame, and if we do not lean on our own understanding, but on Him, then we are leaning on the Rock of Ages that cannot crumble. There is no better place to be. He will keep our feet from stumbling, our eyes from blindness, our heart from hardness.

If we always keep our eyes fixed on Him, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, we will run the Race to the finish line, there to claim the great Prize for which Christ died.

As a diversion from the ‘prophetic words’ series, which will come to an end soon, I thought I would re-post this from January 2010. The reason being, that after something of a hiatus, this oddity seems to be back in a significant way.

Please read the original post:

I still don’t know exactly what to make of this. The only other thing that has occurred to me, inasmuch that ‘6’ is a sign of man’s number, indicating incompleteness / imperfection / falling short as compared to the completeness signified in ‘7’, so ’11’ may be regarded as having a similar relationship to ’12’ (another number that appears to signify completeness in the Bible).

I am no expert in such things, nor do I wish to get into numerology. Still, it would not come as any surprise to me that a verdict of ‘falling short’ would be rendered against our culture, our society. If so, then we may well be facing the scales of Justice, and sooner than we would like. Justice for the sins of others is easy to pronounce, but what about Justice for your own sins? If you will not go through the gate of Mercy, then you have no option but to go through the gate of Justice. I know of nobody who can attempt the latter unscathed. Therefore, find the former, while it still may be found! Tomorrow may be too late.

I write this choice on your hearts,
Life, or Death,
Hope, or Despair,
In the ink of eternity.

What I write,
No man can erase,
I wrote the stars,
I can write your heart.

When the Story that is being written,
Is opened, and read,
Where will you be?
The Story, from which all stories are written,
Where will you be?

Be not deceived,
As I am the Author,
So also the Perfecter,
The Story is Mine.

So, what part will you play?
As the Story is written,
The choice is given you,
To write with Me,
Or to write that which will fail.

To write letters on the ground in pale ash,
Now here, now blown away in a swirl of wind.

Or to write letters in fire,
Burned into the soul of the universe,
Letters that will pass into eternity,
For nothing perishes that resides in Me.

What if your story is over tomorrow? What kind of story might it be?

Do not trust in what can be seen, in the comfortable, in the familiar; rather trust in the Unseen One on whose scales everything is measured.

10th April 2007

I saw a tranquil subtropical scene, lush greenery, a house amongst the growth. At the same time I saw as an immediate backdrop an enormous pyroclastic cloud that was about to sweep through this scene, taking all before it.

One moment, the greenery, the buildings, tranquility. The next, destruction – all is swept away.

I was aware of the immediate nature of the event, how everything appears peaceful, the same as normal, and then it all suddenly changes.

I saw the need to prepare – not trusting in our immediate surroundings and the false sense of security that it gives – but to see in the Lord and prepare in Him, to be secure in Him ahead of this time.

What has been desert will become fruitful land, and what has been fruitful land will become desert (Ps107 v33-35). How often it is that the Lord turns the established order on its head – perhaps to afflict the comfortable, and comfort the afflicted, both of which is to our good, and His glory.

From here.

How much do we desire the Living Water of Life? And how often do we find ourselves at the broken cisterns, drinking in the illusions, pretence lending a form to the madness?

How much of the Church’s history have we lived in a desert, grasping at withered husks, once alive but now long dead, deluding ourselves that we see life, that we are actually in an abundant and verdant land, flowing with milk and honey?

The Church’s history sometimes seems like an arid desert. On occasion it is drenched by the grace of God, leading to an abundant flowering, as the whole desert blooms into life. But then we trust to that beauty and no longer look to the source. So, in time, the beauty withers, and what once was verdant, becomes parched desert again. And we again delude ourselves that the withered husks that once contained life, still do.

All through the ages, I see oases in the midst of this, places where the beauty of God can be seen amidst the arid barrenness. And those that cling to the husks, they hate these places, they rail against them, they close their eyes and blaspheme against them – for the Life that is contained within reveals to them their poverty – showing the illusion for what it is – a sham and a mockery of the kingdom.

Yet, just like the desert, there are still seeds of faith sown within the arid land, faithful deposits left by those now long gone. Would that we might pray for, desire, beseech and seek the rain of Grace – to water what has long been desert, and see those seeds grow once again. What beauty there would be!

One day, one final day, there will flow a River, the River that makes glad the City of God. Then the desert, the desert that so many of us dwell in, will become forever verdant and fruitful. We will at last enter in to the fullness of life that He Himself has ordained for us – ordained before the founding of the world.

Apologies for the haitus, but the previous post is really the core of the message. Will anybody hear it, until it is too late? I do not know, but I will proclaim. Do you feel that the hour is late? Can you feel the storm clouds gathering? The economy, the social, the political; it is said the whole world will worship the beast and receive his mark. The world turns away in apostasy; what was unthinkable a generation ago is celebrated today. And we imagine that our comfortable existence will remain, when ALL that will be left is a hideous strength.

The axe is at the foot of the tree.
Matthew 3 v10-12
(John the Baptist speaking to the Pharisees and Sadducees)
The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

There will be storms. There will also be grace. Please read this word from 2006 – ‘Such a time as this’.

The signs are there – we have seen the storms that are coming and they will rattle us out of our false security. There is, as ever, only one resting place and that is Jesus. We are given, by the grace of the Lord, time in which to prepare. Or time to pretend that everything will stay the same.

The storms to come will bring both adversity and revival, persecution and blessing. When our false securities are stripped away, so we will have to lean on our real Security. Or dance away to other false gods. Indeed, the very storm that will appear a curse will produce the greatest blessing – when we have eyes to see it.

So be of good heart. The devil does not have the final say. He lost – and lost a long, long time ago. All the smoke and mirrors, all the thunder and lightening, all the fierce roaring and raging are no more than the death throes of a wounded beast.

Even when the storm rages around you, when you are beset all around and the devil seems to hold all the cards from an unassailable position, remember it is simply a lie. He is a usurper apeing God. He has lost, and he knows it. His time is short, and getting shorter.

God has already procured the victory. The gates of hell will never prevail against the Church, His elect. Yes, the storm may rage, but press into Jesus and there you will find the victory, the victory that was won before the ages ever began.

Christ alone! Christ alone in the Mercy judgement to come. Only He will be unshaken, only He can offer a place of refuge. The world will fail – He will remain. Therefore friends, purchase the Salt now while you can, that you might “have salt in yourselves, and peace with each other” (Mark 9 v50b).

The Mercy Judgment
(adapted from the original)

1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, speak to your countrymen and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, 3 and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, 4 then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not take warning and the sword comes and takes his life, his blood will be on his own head. 5 Since he heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning, his blood will be on his own head. If he had taken warning, he would have saved himself. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.’

The Lord spoke into my heart; these were the words given:

It is the twilight of the current age, and we bask in its fading gleams. Much that can be shaken, soon will be.

With apologies to those who are not Tolkien fans, this is what informed my hearts response:

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I, said Gandalf, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

So, what is to happen, and what are we to do with the time that is given us? Probably the best explanation would be from another word:

A storm is coming
This is a word I must bring to you, a word for 2007. Indeed, this is something I have alluded to a number of times before, but the hour grows short, and the word more urgent.

Many will come to Him, if His Church is ready. That is what He is calling us to now. Be ready. Purchase oil that your lamps will not run out. See, the bridegroom is at the threshold even now! Therefore, put away your toys, your vanities, and gird yourself for the times to come. Then your light will indeed shine. Hear the Spirit of the Lord, He is crying amongst the churches! Wake up, wake up! A new day is dawning and you must be ready.

So, to what kind of storm am I referring? Well, that is something that is not yet revealed (though perhaps it is clearer, now). Perhaps we might see terrorist acts? An economic crash? Times of war? Earthquakes, or floods? Persecution within the Church? Or perhaps something else entirely? I do not know the details of what is to come.

Are we speaking of the second coming of Christ? In this context, no. Of course, you cannot unbind events from each other, but this is not to what I am referring.

Is it possible at this time we see some foreshocks of coming judgment? It is hard to say, but it is certainly necessary to be sober, alert and aware of the times. One might ask why God should not judge nations that appear to be moving far from Him and descending into wickedness?

Also, one might look at the current turbulent economy and wonder whether there is judgment there? Or perhaps consequence would be a better word – the consequence of greed and living beyond our means?

Simply put, we do not know exactly what this storm will look like, or when it will occur. The reason this word is being given now is because of an increasing sense of urgency. How urgency translates to timing is less clear, especially as we serve a God for whom a day is a thousand years and a thousand years is a day. In His economy, timing and even the judgment itself is fluid – what concerns Him is our response. The only words I might be able to give you are ‘near’, ‘soon’, and ‘at the threshold’.

I’ve taken to calling this approaching storm the Mercy Judgment, in that what is Judgment will also be Mercy. What do I mean by this? Well, understand that what will be a difficult and chaotic time, a time where there will be suffering, will also have a redemptive and cathartic quality. Many things that are currently idols for us will no longer be idols – perhaps partly because they will no longer be present, partly because we will be able to see more clearly what is genuinely important. And if we have eyes to see and trust in our heavenly Father, we may be able to bring others currently enmeshed in the kingdom of this world, into the Kingdom of the world that is to come.

It should also be said that we do not see this to be cataclysmic destruction, but more of a severe judgment or judgments to chastise, simplify and ultimately purify. A genuine judgment, but one that will be ultimately to our mercy. Indeed, if God really wanted to destroy us, He would just leave us just as we are. We are doing, as a society, a pretty good job at self-destruction anyway. So, by His mercy He will not leave us just as we are. And through judgment and following persecution, we will get to bring the harvest home.

The Response of the Church

So, the question that we need to ask in light of coming judgment is this: “what then do we do?”. If these things really are coming, how do we respond? How then shall we live?

Firstly – do not be afraid.
Fear is the weapon of our enemy, and nothing that that is written here is intended to cause fear. As it says in 1 John 4 v17-19:

17In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19We love because he first loved us.

Indeed, as Romans 8 v14-16 also says:

14those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

So, I repeat again – Do not be afraid. If you are found in Christ, the source of your salvation, then you cannot be shaken, because He cannot be shaken. Indeed, in the times to come Jesus Christ will be the only secure place that can be found.

So, we are being shown these things ahead of time not to cast a shadow of fear, but to forewarn and allow us to prepare.

Secondly, are you entangled in the world?

Drugs?
Drink?
Pornography?
Gambling?
Greed?
Sloth?
Adultery?
Fornication?

These things are quicksand to your soul. Divest of them, while you still have time.

Many live for transitory gains, gambling in the stock market, finding security in shares, or setting up RRSPs and GICs to provide for themselves a security apart from God. Granted, these things are not evil in and of themselves – but what we do with them often is. Always, the question is asked, where is your heart? Could you also be a rich fool – desiring to give God everything but the idol you worship? God had some things to say about riches – listen to this from Luke 16 v13:

13No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Who or what do you love more than Christ? Listen to Luke 14 v25-27:

25Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26″If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Hard words, do you think? We need to understand what they mean.

Do we love our brothers and sisters more than Christ? Then we are not worthy of Him.
Do we love our wives or husbands more than Christ? Then we are not worthy of Him.
Do we love our children more than Christ? Then we are not worthy of Him.

Your family is not your salvation. Only Christ is. If He is not Lord of your life: your whole life – then He is no Lord to you at all. Is it difficult to hear this? Yes, but better the pain now than pain later.

Only when our whole life is under His Lordship, only then will we have both feet upon the Rock. And – I tell you the truth – the only place that will be secure in the coming days is to have both feet on the Rock of Jesus Christ. As the Psalmist said:

40:2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and the mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

Everything else but Christ will fade, all else will fall into ruin. And the secrets of all hearts will be laid bare.

Please consider this word given in January 2005.

What is hidden will be revealed
I saw the Holy Spirit, brooding over the earth and the seas covering it. I perceived His plans for us. I saw Him dry up all the seas, and as this was done, what was hidden under the seas was revealed – mountains, valleys, plains and trenches.

What will this mean, and how extensive will it be? I do not know. Only that a time of natural adversity with supernatural blessing will occur, with the intent of revealing what has been hidden under the Seas of Plenty for many years. Both the best and the worst will be laid bare for all to see.

Thirdly, we are called – both now and in the days ahead – to be a lighthouse

– bringing light to an increasingly dark world. What is it that a lighthouse does? It warns of dangerous waters. It guides to safe harbours. It provides a community, a haven, a hope in the tumultuous seas of our world.

As I saw this this lighthouse; it was as if the light rays were shining out into the darkness. Then, it was as if I was inside the lighthouse itself, another layer being unveiled to the vision. The light source was at the centre of the lighthouse, I became aware of who this Light represented – Jesus Himself. Perhaps that is a little obvious, but I saw it deeper that I had before.

We, as the church, are represented by the panes of glass that make up the lighthouse reflectors. When we are dirty and grubby, the light does not shine through us well. When we are cleaned, the light can shine through us and out into the world much more brightly.

Indeed, if we are reflecting Christ in His fullness we may be able, in the times to come, to save those who have lost everything they once held dear. This may be our great opportunity, if we are alive in Christ enough to see it. As Jude says in verse 22:

Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear – hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

I also saw that the Light of Christ is the centre of the Church, without His Light we are nothing, worse than nothing – a counterfeit – a building that pretends to be something that it is most evidently not as darkness falls. If the light in you be darkness, how great is that darkness – as our Lord said in Matthew 6 v23.

It seems to me that the sin of the Church has to be heinous and protracted before this happens – before the lampstand is removed from its place.

The grace of the Lord is deep, He is long-suffering and desires all to repent….indeed far more than we can imagine.

But yet, there comes a time when the lampstand is removed and then, well then, a dark lighthouse is a horrible thing indeed – the spirit of the antichrist.

So we come back to the question – “what then do we do?”. Be assured that this is Gods primary concern. He is eager, with the heart of love itself, to know how we will respond to His call. Are we to be indifferent? Disbelieving? Letting the more immediate things of this world take precedence? Or will we seek Him with our whole heart, wanting to know Him with a passion, wanting to know His will for our life and in this time, and earnestly desiring to put to death all that stands between us and Him?

This is the most important thing that we can do. For sure, we may listen to Him, and ask if there is anything in particular He would have us do in preparation. But what we do is very much secondary to who we are. Are we the Lords? Or are we play-acting? Going though the motions, if you like? Are we serious about the Lord whom we say we serve? This is the most important, the most urgent question before us now. By His grace, we have a window, a short window of time, to decide where our hearts priorities lie.

The truth is this – there is only one place where there is light, life, salvation and security. Only one place that can never be shaken -and that is in Christ. This place is free, but not cheap. It will cost you nothing, and will cost you everything. It offers you life abundantly, joyfully and eternally – and to enter it you must die. Indeed, there is no other way. If you have not entered this life – this Kingdom life, or you were once in the Kingdom and now find yourself once again on the grey plain of the world, then please – turn to Jesus Christ while you still can.

Please consider this final word, The heart of winter, given to me October 2004:

Grey clouds scurry across a twilight sky.
A cool wind blows from the North.
The last of the leaves are blown from the trees.
Dead leaves make patterns in the swirl of the wind.

There is still time.
Come home to Me – there is still time.
Before the heart of winter grips you forever.
Before it is too late.
Come home to Me.

Come home to the one who loves you dearly, and has loved you from before the foundations of the world. Come home to the only sure foundation in the coming storm.

Let Christ be before us,
Let Christ be behind us,
Let Christ be below us,
Let Christ be above us,
Let Christ be within us,
And let Christ be without us.

This is the only place to be, the only place that will endure. This is His call to us now, and in the coming times.

After something of a hiatus, I’d like to continue with a summary of the words received over the last 10 years. Perhaps it is a good time to go back to the first word I received, back in 2002:

I saw a tree, most particularly the root structure, in profile. The soil was shallow and there was a large boulder, or mass of rock underneath. Most roots spread out widely into shallow soil. While the tree was alive, there was no depth to sustain the tree should there be a drought. Neither was there sufficient depth of soil to feed the tree properly.

At the same time I also saw a tap root, extending down through the heart of the rock. The root had the potential to grow and break up the rock, which was preventing a deep and healthy root system.

This vision is both a warning and a hope. The tree represents the Church, in particular the western Church. The warning is that the Church is reliant on shallow soil, and as a result it cannot grow further and it cannot withstand times of trial. We spread our roots widely through all the avenues of shallow faith and faint spiritual reality.

…

This is still so very true in this culture. Did the first waves of the Tsunami shift us in our complacency? I would suggest it was enough to make us a little uneasy, concerned, perhaps a little fearful. But did we look to the right places for answers? And did we really wake up? What would another, stronger wave do? Perhaps we will see, perhaps the Lord of the Sea will send waves to form a mercy judgment. But more on that next time. For now:

Pray therefore, not for judgment or separation, though these things may come, but that even at the 11th hour folk may awaken to their reality, turn and be healed.

Let us have a heart for reconciliation, a heart to save, a heart to bring the harvest home, a heart to love with the Lords burning love. For the Lord desires the destruction of no man.