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Another Wave

Another Wave

28 September 2004

Here's a dream I had which I believe deserves our consideration.

I was standing on a beach being upbraided by a pastor for using language when I preached which he considered unacceptable. As he reproached me, I was able to watch over his shoulder; the waves were breaking continually onto the sand. He had his back to the sea.

As he went on chiding, I pointed out to him language used by the Lord which was definitely on the rough side of smooth. E.g. Calling Herod "that fox". (Luke 13.32) Bearing in mind that the Old Testament synonym for "fox" is "jackal"! And telling religious leaders that they were like "beautiful mausoleums, full of dead men's bones, and of foulness, filth and corruption, rotten". (Matthew 23.27)

As we debated, I saw a wave 100 times bigger than the others, appear out of the sea. It came onto the beach, caught me up to its tops and then carried me as far inland and away from the coast as it was possible to go.

My reflections on this dream are:

1) We need to position ourselves for Revival by turning and holding our faces towards the mighty ocean of God's immense love for this world. Simultaneously we need to turn away from all of our own piffling, whiddling like's and dislike's, no matter how sugar-coated with spirituality and religiosity we might contrive to render them.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and you have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.
"You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel." (Matthew 23.23-24)

2) A mighty Revival is at hand, which is going to incorporate and eclipse every previous revival we've seen in the past 100 years. Are we actually anticipating and preparing for this, or merely believing it may or may not happen? The "let's wait and see" movement is not faith enough to open Heaven over the whole of New Zealand until the Lord returns!

3) This next Revival is going penetrate our society to its very depths...even to its pits. God's grace and truth are going to impact groups of people that New Zealand and the Church have forgotten about and written off as hopeless cases. A great question is, Are we presently ordering our lives (personal and local church) so that we are ready in an instant to spring up and serve God's vision to save the whole of our nation, employing divine methods we may not understand or be comfortable with?

"(God our Saviour) who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." (1 Timothy 2.4)

"For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men." (Titus 2.11)

"For the Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." (2 Peter 3.9)