Prophetic word for today
Swelling
First posted: December 23, 2004
E-mailed: December 19, 2004
Word received by: Catha Miller
I had a dream about a pool of
water. I saw a beautiful, clear pool of water. There was a minister on one side, and I was on the other
side, and there was a young man that ran up and jumped in the pool. The minister leaned over and said
"Look at that; he got saved". I got down in the water and went over to the young man, and asked him if he was saved.
He said "I don't know". I knew then that he wasn't. I asked him to repeat the
sinner's prayer with me, and to start with "Jesus, I love you". He said
"Jesus, I ...", and he could not say "I love you". His tongue started swelling, and he pulled
back. He tried again, and the same thing happen. He never could say "I love
you".
Our comments
This dream is a sad reflection of the current state of the Church. The pool of water represents the charismatic manifestations of the Holy Spirit, and the young man represents those who are drawn into the Church because they are interested in enjoying the "emotional rush" of spiritual experiences -- this is why the young man ran towards the pool.
Many ministers nowadays (like the one in the dream) believe that a person's relationship with God can be measured by how excited he or she gets during praise and worship or by how enthusiastic he or she is when participating in church "activities". Obviously, there is nothing inherently "wrong" with either of those things, but they are completely worthless before God if they are not built on the right foundation: a heart that seeks after God's righteousness.
As we have shared before, God "writes from right to left", meaning that He always begins with a foundation of righteousness, judgments, and truth (right-handed concepts). When a person sincerely gives his or her heart to the Lord, that person must begin with a recognition of God's judgment and verdict, which is,
"The very essence of your carnal nature is worthless before Me; it is wicked, beyond remedy, and deserving of eternal damnation. However, I have provided a way for your restoration unto righteousness if you die to that irremediable nature by dying to your self-will and giving your life to Me. Give Me your disposition to pursue My righteousness and kingdom, and I will regenerate you from the inside out. I am your Lord and your God."
When a person sincerely repents and has a hunger to abide in God's righteousness, God provides the grace, freedom, and power (left-handed concepts) necessary to manifest that righteousness in us.
Most people bypass the foundation of righteousness because it takes much, much longer to set up. A foundation of righteousness is equivalent to making a building on top of rock instead of sand:
"24Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. 26And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it." (Matthew 7:24-27)
Building on top of rock implies the difficult and time-consuming effort of "cutting" through the hard rock in order to place the columns. Building on top of sand implies little more than "pushing" the columns down through the soft sand. A person building on sand will finish his house much more quickly and with less effort than a person building on top of rock. However, the sand house can only be a few stories tall, while the rock house can be an immense building that's many stories tall.
As we share in a previous article, the Lord speaks of two types of people: the people who put into practice logos word vs. those who put into practice dynamis power alone. Practicing logos implies the execution of judgments and the application of spiritual laws that "cut through" and may be painful, at least for a short time (Hebrews 12:11), whereas those who emphasize dynamis alone apply power to remove symptoms without dealing with the root issues of unrighteousness and iniquity.
In Acts chapter 19, the Spirit declares the following:
"8And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. 9But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. 10And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. 11And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: 12So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them." (Acts 19:8-12)
Notice how Paul decided to invest 3 months "disputing and persuading" first. The word "disputing" in verse 8 was translated from the Greek word dialegomai, which, as we have said before, is derived from the word logos, and can be translated as "to word-through" or "to apply the law throughout something". This means that brother Paul did not go into the synagogue to preach a message of "blessings" and "happiness". He wasn't going around saying, "Jump in the pool! The water is great!". He began with word of judgment to cut through the audience's spiritual hardness in order to forge a true repentance in them.
Notice that, as he did this for 3 months, he caused division in the audience. Instead of winning them all over, some of them became hardened, and Paul decided to take aside only those whose hearts were open to the truth, and he continued "disputing" with them daily in the school of Tyrannus (v9). The word "disputing" in verse 9 was also translated from dialegomai, meaning that Paul did not "cut down" on the judgment word, despite the fact that it had already caused division within the audience. He continued speaking spiritual judgment-word because God was making a deep logos foundation.
Besides "disputing" (dialegomai), verse 8 declares that Paul was also "persuading". The word "persuading" was translated from the Greek word peitho, which is related to the word for "faith" (pistis), all of which points to the following verse:
"For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Romans 10:10)
The word "believeth" in the verse above was translated from the Greek word pisteuo, which is the verb form of the word for "faith" (pistis) mentioned above. Therefore, we can safely say that man has faith with the heart and that that faith leads to righteousness. Notice that Romans 10:10 does not say that we have faith "unto blessings" or "unto happiness". When Paul was "persuading" (peitho) the audience in Acts 19:8 for 3 months, he was tugging at their hearts in an effort to convince them to pursue God's righteousness. Since the heart is where our will resides (Ephesians 6:6), we can say that those who were "persuaded" surrendered their wills to God, and allowed God to be King over their lives. We can see, therefore, that Paul's "disputing" (dialegomai) and "persuading" (peitho) led to a group of people who longed after God's righteousness and kingdom:
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)
The name "Tyrannus" mentioned in Acts 19:9 literally means "sovereign", and shows how those who stayed with Paul had made God the sovereign King of their hearts. Since their hearts were already "persuaded", Paul did not continue with the "persuading" mentioned in Acts 19:8, and focused primarily on "disputing" (dialegomai) with them (Acts 19:9).
As Paul continued practicing logos word of judgment over a period of 2 years, Acts 19:11-12 declares that overwhelming manifestations of dynamis power emerged.
The phrase "God wrought special miracles" in Acts 19:11 literally says "God put into practice non-ordinary dynamis (power)" in Greek. This means that, as Paul continued putting into practice logos judgment-word over a period of 2 years, unusual manifestations of dynamis power began to be released. Over a strong logos foundation, God Himself comes to manifest His dynamis power at levels that go way beyond the ordinary. Acts 19:12 declares that people were being healed by bringing to them handkerchiefs and aprons worn by Paul!!! Paul's willingness to spend 2 years and 3 months laying a foundation of righteousness produced extraordinary spiritual fruits. Most believers today, especially pastors, are unwilling to be patient enough to lay such a foundation. They want the "young, unrepentant men" to jump in the pool of spiritual experiences without undergoing a true conversion of the heart, which leads to congregations that are exposed to a dynamis power that produces emotional peaks, but is incapable of truly transforming people's lives. If believers were willing to lay the foundation of judgment, they would become channels of extraordinary miracles and wonders. They would become channels of a dynamis power that would do more than entertain: it would utterly transform people from the inside out.
In the dream, sister Miller was concerned about the young man's salvation; there is a prophetic reason for this. In "Christian circles", the word "salvation" is taken to mean the moment when we receive Jesus into our hearts and are born again. Even though this moment is a moment of "salvation", the Bible also uses the word "salvation" in a much deeper sense, portraying it as a process, not just a moment.
This confusion between "salvation the moment" and "salvation the process" has led to the controversy over whether or not a believer can lose his or her salvation. Those who believe that salvation cannot be lost base their belief on passages from Scripture that are actually referring to salvation the moment, whereas those who believe that salvation can be lost base their belief on passages that are actually referring to salvation the process.
I am personally convinced that a believer cannot "lose" his or her salvation and go to hell after having been born again; the Israelites who left Egypt with Moses never saw Egypt again:
"And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever." (Exodus 14:13)
However, not all the adults who left Egypt entered the Promised Land. All of them perished in the desert, except for Joshua and Caleb:
"29Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, 30Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun." (Numbers 14:29-30)
This means that not all the Israelites who were saved out of Egypt completed their salvation. In the same way, there are many, many believers in the Church who will not go to hell, but who will not enter into eternal life either, because they were unwilling to complete their salvation process, settling instead for temporary blessings and comfort:
"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12)
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If "salvation" was only a moment, why would the Lord speak of "working out our salvation"?]
When the minister in the dream saw the young man jump in the pool, the minister said, "he got saved", without understanding that man's full salvation is the restoration of all which man lost when he sinned against God in the garden of Eden, which implies a growth process, and, therefore, also implies growing pains (Hebrews 12:4-13).
The word in Hebrew for "process", mishpat, is the same word for "judgment". This confirms the fact that salvation in the lives of others comes through the application of spiritual judgments (not carnal judgments) that work to produce righteousness in the other person. If my pleasing of others does not work towards producing righteousness in them, it is not working towards their salvation. If my pleasing of another person is done to prevent that person from pain and suffering that he or she needs to go through in order to have fruits of righteousness produced in him or her, I am working towards the destruction of that person, not the person's salvation (Proverbs 23:14, 13:24, 29:15; Matthew 18:15; James 5:19-20, 2 Corinthians 7:8-11). When pastors shield fellow believers from God's judgments, they are hindering their salvation process. Being born again is not full salvation; it is the beginning of salvation. Jumping in the pool is not enough. In this sense, there are many believers in Church who will not go to hell but are still "unsaved".
Numbers 5:11-29 declares that, when an Israelite man suspected his wife of cheating, he was to take her before a priest, who would then take her before the Lord, pour holy water into an earthen vessel, and take dust from the floor of the tabernacle and add it to the water. The priest was then to pronounce a judgment over her and charge her to drink the water:
"27And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people. 28And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed. 29This is the law of jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband, and is defiled;" (Numbers 5:27-29)
The pool in the dream acted as the "holy water in an earthen vessel". When sister Miller went to the young man to get him to say the sinner's prayer, she was acting as the priest, and she carried the dust of her spiritual tabernacle under her feet when she got down in the water. The young man represents the soul of a believer that has made a "marriage covenant" with God, vowing to be faithful to Him for life. The fact that the young man's tongue swelled up represents the great number of souls who make a word commitment to follow Christ and to make Him their Lord, but who then renege on that commitment by retaking the lordship of their own lives, relegating Christ to a mere supplier of "spiritual thrills", much like an unfaithful wife who doesn't love her husband, but uses her money to "live it up". This explains why the young man could not say "I love you" to Jesus.
The fact that there are so many "swollen" souls freely roaming about the Church is caused by the following people:
"14Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: 15Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet. 17These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. 18For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. 19While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. 20For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning" (2 Peter 2:14-20)
Notice that verse 18 says that these men lure others through the lusts of the flesh, promising them "liberty". Therefore, it becomes evident that this passage is speaking about people in leadership within the Church. Notice also that verse 18 says that these leaders "speak great swelling words of vanity". The word "speak" was translated from the Greek word phtheggomai, which literally means, "to give out a sound or cry" and can refer to the sounds of a man, a musical instrument, or even an animal. These men love to howl out "blessings" and "grace" in an effort to evoke their brethren's lower instincts. Why? Because, like Balaam, they derive benefits from their brethren's unrighteousness. By acting like generous clowns, they consolidate their "leadership" position and maintain their control over others:
"These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage." (Jude 1:16)
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A better translation of the latter part of this verse would be "flattering others for the sake of benefit"]
They become the "swell" pastors, the "cool" pastors who give people the freedom to fashion calves to their own liking and call them "God". This explains why Moses did the following after Aaron had enticed the Israelites into making a golden calf:
"19And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. 20And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it." (
Exodus 32:19-20)
This is equivalent to the holy water with dust that the Levitical priest made the woman drink in Numbers 5:11-29 mentioned above.
The fact that these pastors "speak great swelling words of vanity" (2 Peter 2:18) explains why the young man's tongue was swollen. "Swell" pastors use their tongues to promote a vain grace, a grace without prophetic purpose, and, as they do so, they forge congregations of swollen-tongue believers who get together for the purpose of chatting and soul communion, and not for the purpose of facing God's Glory and being shaped by the judgments that emanate from His Righteous Nature.
As God comes against the kingdoms of these "swell" pastors in these latter days, the adulterous tongues that speak against pain and suffering shall be judged:
"And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain" (Revelation 16:10)
As we share in a previous article, a close study of the famous "love chapter" --- 1 Corinthians chapter 13 --- makes it evident that love implies sacrifice, and sacrifice points to the prophetic ministry, since prophets are designed to give their lives in sacrifice for the sake of God's vision and purposes. The young man in the dream could not say "Jesus, I love you", because he was not willing to give his life in prophetic sacrifice unto God. When Canaanite pastors "speak swelling words of vanity" (2 Peter 2:18), they replace God's prophetic purpose with Hittite purposelessness. This is when congregations become like wandering sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36).
The Lord says the following about "swell" pastors in the book of Jude:
"These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots" (Jude 1:12)
The phrase "feeding themselves without fear" points to the pastoral ministry, as can be seen from the following passage:
"1And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 2Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? 3Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock." (Ezekiel 34:1-3)
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The words for "shepherd" and "pastor" are the same in Hebrew and Greek]
The phrase "feasts of charity" in Jude 1:12 quoted above was translated from the Greek word agape, which literally means "love", while the word "spots" was translated from the word spilas, which literally means "rock in the sea, reef". Therefore, the phrase "spots in your feasts of charity" means that these men and women act like rocks in the sea that shipwreck the brethren's capability to truly love God. It is no wonder, therefore, that the young man in the dream was incapable of saying "Jesus, I love you".
The reason why sister Miller asked the young man to say "Jesus, I love you" twice is a prophetic figure of the phrase "twice dead" mentioned in Jude 1:12 quoted above.
You shall be judged, oh "swell" pastors, for you have hindered God's people long enough. I shall come against you -- says the Lord -- and I shall dethrone you and cast you into the sea, and your iniquity shall be made evident to the nations. You shall be revealed as deceivers and manipulators, and ignominy shall cover your faces. I shall destroy you, and I will reveal Myself among My people -- says the Lord.