I dreamt last night that I was on my last leg working at a church. The current pastor was failing to pastor and love the congregation. So the previous, older pastor, (who was currently in the hospital), took charge, got up from his bed, and redirected the church staff with how to love the community properly. He was going to have a picture taken and sent to every family in the community with a powerful Word and Prayer.
The current younger pastor kept saying he just “didn’t pastor that way”.
The older pastor’s picture was taken; but part of me wondered if it would be delivered as he wanted, or if the younger pastor would interfere with it.
Several weeks passed, and I was in a documentary on the matter. I stood in the front entrance to the church office and the camera watched me press 1-1-2-3 on an office phone before me. A recording of a police report informed me of a recent break-in to the back of the building, in which a monument of the former pastor’s legacy was burned. The older retired pastor was in the hospital again.
I hung up the phone, crying, but I was unsure if the tears were real or just for the camera.
Specifically, I believe that the current generation that is trying to lead the church with “fresh” ideas and marketing schemes is failing. The true pastoring of a community needs to come from a picture of love, a powerful Word and Prayer—nothing neither more nor less.
I also believe that those who have led before and hung up their proverbial hats need to get out of the hospital bed and start taking care of business. Stop waiting for the Physician to fix you, and get active loving and proclaiming the Good News of Christ to your community.
Furthermore, in this reactivation of former leaders, those of us who are leading ineffectually need to be prepared to shut up, move out of the way, and let God do what He needs to do.
An attack is happening; and it’s not coming at us through the front door, but through the back. It is tearing down monuments and legacies of the former generations that got us here. And it’s not going to happen—it’s already happening.
Our police report is found in 1-1-2-3.
I went searching through the Word to find what scriptures are linked to 11:23 in the New Testament. It’s hard not to find things that line up with each Book that has that verse (each Gospel, Acts, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Hebrews). For that, I can only add each of them, interpreting how I see them working through this dream.
Matthew 11:23 And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
Christ is not going to give us a free-pass because of what former generations have done. It’s going to take our earnest, desperate cries to God and pleas for righteousness. It’s going to take our removal of sin and wearing the grace and holiness of Christ.
Mark 11:23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.
We are the generation of God’s Children who move mountains; not in mere idea, lip-service or T-shirts, but in true, honest, powerful faith that crumbles strongholds and mountains around us. Believe and do not doubt. Get angry at sin and plead for your city.
Luke11:23 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.
A house divided cannot stand, and a soul expunged of spirits but not shown the glory of God is destined only to fall into even greater torment. In a season when we want nothing more than to clean up people’s current status and cover up a multitude of sins with affirmation and pat’s on the back, we are setting up a generation to fall crumbling under the weight of demonic influence unbeknownst to any of us. We must preach the Gospel and nothing else. We must pray and preach His goodness and stop with this Self-help rubbish.
John 11:23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Death is not final. And God always waits one day beyond; one day further than you, I, or anyone has an ability to point the miracle at something other than Him. He wants us desperate and earnest. He wants us waiting. Christ could have come sooner to help Lazarus, but He waited for the sake of Martha, Mary and all those watching, that they would know only God could have raised Lazarus from the dead. Day Three was the last chance to claim Lazarus hadn’t really died. Day Four was when a miracle happened in all the Jews’ eyes.
Acts 11:23 When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord.
Barnabas was a man of faith; a good man full of the Holy Spirit. He is the background character, the second-fiddle, the one forgotten and overlooked in every sermon. But he is the one who encourages and inspires and believes. We need more men and women like that.
Romans 11:23 And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again
Do not be proud; but fear. All have fallen short, and all can be grafted in again.
1 Corinthians 11:23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;
Communion and reverence. Oh, how we need reverence again! We are like Corinth, stealing from each other and, in a drunken stupor, blaming our love for sin on grace. Reverence, come. Reverence, come.
2 Corinthians 11:23 Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often.
None speaks truer to my heart than this. The fear of watching the flock fall to false teachers and prophets who want to defile the Grace of God and Name of Christ for more “followers and likes”. But how can I or Paul tell anyone to watch out and be wary of this devilry flowing in our midst without pride bubbling out? Hark! Look for the Lord. Follow Christ and no one else. Dump these idols popping up in the Church named “so and so” and whom sings “such and such”!
Hebrews 11:23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command.
Faith! Yes, faith will be our beginning and our end. The proof of our Lord and the thing drawing us to Him. Some of us have died in faith not having yet received the reward of what we believed for, but all of us, as Followers of Christ, will have received all the reward of Christ’s abundance, peace, joy, life, and freedom. Faith moves a mountain. Faith changes a generation.
Lastly, I want to note what occurred at the end of this prophetic dream. Specifically, my attitude toward the message on the phone, in which I cried, but wasn’t sure if the tears were real. I cannot express enough how dangerous our showmanship and desire for surreality is. In the 21st century, we fallibly worship God whilst thinking of the amazing photo it will capture; and every gained revelation comes with a desire to post and share it with the world. This is idolatry; and the very snare I dance around on a continual basis as a writer and preacher. I myself cannot go a day without thinking of something to share with the world; yet I know I must hold such revelations for myself and those whom God tells me to share precisely. Only when He directly tells us to share broadly, should we. And worship should always be sacred and never recorded for its marketability.
Who are we if we cannot share compassion without sharing the photo with the world? Christ told us to not let the right hand know what the left hand is doing. Those Pharisees who told the entire city they were fasting received their reward.
Keith G. Alderman 