Springing Ahead: I've Already Started.
I
fell asleep almost immediately, and had this dream:
I
was in a church, attending a service.
The
church was very strange, though. It was a composite of many different ones that
I’ve been to.
The
sanctuary looked like the one in Philadelphia
Church just up the street from Loyal
Heights Playground in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle , but in the dream I had the impression
that it was the sanctuary of a particular church just south of SeaTac airport.
The
sanctuary furniture was a mix of things from many churches I’ve attended over
the course of several decades. The pews were from another church a mainline
denomination one, where SeaTac
Worship Center
had rented space in the evenings.
There
were people in every pew. The church was filled, but not full. In almost every
pew, there were empty spaces big enough to seat 2-4 people together.
Every
one was seated, the service was just ending, and the Minister had just
finished...
As
people began to stand and look around, I had an awkward feeling much like you
get when you’re in a room full of people whose faces are familiar, but whom you
don’t really know…a feeling of having to interact with people but not really
knowing what to say.
Then
things changed very quickly, as if I had blinked, or turned my head away for a
moment and things were different when I looked back again. I was still in the
same room, but now it was filled – crowded, in fact. The aisle was filled with
people, some standing, some sitting.
Instead
of being socially distant, everyone was interacting. Some were conversing with
others, some teaching or explaining something to another, some praying with
another, some laying hands on another.
The
aisle, empty before was now crowded folks standing in it. There were many
sitting or lying on the floor as well, overwhelmed by Holy Spirit.
AS
I looked around the room, a saw a number of dead apostles I was familiar with –
James Berkley whose ministry had largely emphasized God turning the hearts of
the fathers to their children and children to their fathers, Elvin Gadney, and
Harlan and Granville Graham. As I looked at each of these people, I thought, “There
So and So. Look, there’s Such and Such,” recognizing each man by name.
But
the faces didn’t match the names. In every case, it was a different person
identified by the apostle’s name and familiarity, even though every one of them
was a least a generation younger, and some two generations younger. These were
the men and women who had been impacted or equipped by those apostles.
Someone
began to sing, and without any worship team, the room filled with adoration to
the King. Those ministering to others didn’t stop when the worship started, but
continued what they were doing. Everyone in room was made (or was being made)
whole.
As
soon as I woke up, I wrote down the dream, and asked what it meant. Some of
what it means we’ve heard before, a lot. So much so that at first I questioned
whether I was really hearing God or the trite echo of “the day of the one man
ministry is over and I’m about to do a new thing” that we’ve heard so often
(both from true prophets and form some who are fairly convincing copies).
Having
made certain I’m hearing what I was, her it is.
It’s
not at all about what God’s about to do. It’s about what he’s already doing.
The
time for the man up front to be the primary minister is finished. The Lords
says, “What I’m doing isn’t in the church walls, the time for one man to be
recognized as the primary minister is finished, and I am giving visions to the
ones who have been overlooked, and strategies to the discounted ones.”
I
will build strong relationships and lifelong friendships between members of my
Body who have been strangers. I will give visions to the ones who were called
blind and strategies to the ones called foolish. I will release inside of you
my heart for people so broadly and so deeply that you will be called Those Who
Love Their Brothers by those who don’t know me.
You
are called the Ones Who Love by those who haven’t met me yet, because you are
loving them even when it is costly to you. You are growing more and more day by
day and week by week in love, wisdom, and power to make the broken whole.
Already
when you are walking in the way, you stop to heal, to liberate to bind up and
to loose.
the
day will come suddenly when those going from one place to another will have to
be careful where they step, because the way if filled people standing in me,
sitting with me, and resting in me.
Multitudes
of bound ones have been set free and a vast people who will know their Father
continue be liberated and will bring wholeness and peace form the Sunshine
Coast to the Siskyou and from the Olympic Coast to the Rockies.
Don’t
weep for the ones I sent out who have died where you are and live where I am. Look,
and see them in those they’ve birthed, those they’ve equipped, and those they’ve
trained. You’ll see their hands multiplied in the children of their love for my
Bride and I, and those sons and daughters will do more, and more freely than
the fathers ever dreamed of doing.
Spontaneous
worship in streets and squares.
Sudden
invasions of freedom in stores and parks.
Floods
of healing on every corner and under every tree.
A
plain illustration of the love of the Father spread abroad in the hearts of
men, bringing peace and wholeness.
Many
will be confused and don’t recognize what I’m doing and some of them will seem
intimidating to you. But don’t be afraid to demonstrate my love. It is more
extravagant and reaches much farther than many know.
Didn’t
I tell you it would be something you haven’t seen before? Don’t be surprised if
it is seems strange! Why are you amazed when I told you it was new, and not
like what you have seen before?
But
you will see me do more than you could ever ask, think, or imagine. I’ve
already started!
Don’t
hesitate.
Don’t
hold back.
Don’t
wait.
Run
to the lonely.
Bind
the broken.
Love
the ugly.
The
false little wind is stopping.
A
great Wind has begun to blow,
pushing
the sea before it!
~Craig Adams
https://www.facebook.com/craig.adams.9849
[Editor's Note: Craig is a northwestern native, currently on assignment in upstate New York.]