Wolves in the House: A Prophetic Dream
[Editor’s Note: From time to time I hope to publish dreams that are relevant not only to our house church but to the larger body of Christ. This dream which was shared in the meeting mentioned in my last post, was shared by Aroea, a member of our house church. You can check out my thoughts below.]
[My husband and I] were living in a nice house in a small town. A large car dealership had bought out a small business much to the town’s protest. The dealership assured the town that it would be fine and said they would keep the manager of the local business on as an act of good will. The towns people gave in but the dealership didn’t keep their word with the manager. In addition they were keeping a large pen of wolves in the town next to the fancy dealership. The people began to protest again. It was as if this had
happened before.
The slick talking agent from the dealership once again assured the people that everything would be fine and that the wolves were harmless. I knew differently. I also knew that the cattle in the fields were protected and so the wolves would be rummaging through our garbage cans and trying to get into our homes. I began to go around my house locking the doors. There were three doors upstairs and one downstairs. As I went around locking the doors I saw a black wolf cub in the backyard. He was beautiful against the snowy backdrop. I hurried downstairs to lock the last door and then started cleaning. Upon entering the storage room though I found the little wolf cub had made it into my house through the vents and was rummaging through my Christmas gifts. He’d also torn open a package of animal crackers. I quickly alpha-rolled the cub and made it lay in my arms, on it’s back like a baby.
Soon a couple people from town showed up and wanted to put me on the news. They were hoping to rally people against the dealership by showing how the wolf had made it’s way into my house. However I warned them we couldn’t. I knew that putting the cub on TV would actually work against us because it was so cute. The dealership would be able to argue that it had done no real damage and show how easily I had handled the cub. It would actually invoke sympathy for their cause. I was adamant that we could not fight them that way or it would backfire. I also knew that no matter how cute the cub looked (even to me) it was going to grow large and fierce.
Editor’s Thoughts: One of the things that struck me about this dream was the danger that false teachers and prophets will pose to the whole body of Christ at the end of the age. Obviously the wolf is a symbol of heresy that starts out small and “cute” but can grow into something much more dangerous. These wolves could get in through the smallest openings in a house (spiritual family) and prove deadly. The obvious argument (especially in early stages) is that these wolves are cute and harmless, but this lulls the people into a false sense of security.
How should we prepare to deal with false prophets, false teachers, and heresy? What does this mean for you and the church you are a part of? Is the Lord speaking to you about anything in this dream? The answers to any of these questions can be left by clicking “Leave A Comment” below this article.
False Prophets, Acts Chapter 2, and our House Church
[Editor’s Note: This post was written in December of 2009. I post it now because it set’s the stage for some of the posts that will follow. I plan on posting the full text of the dream mentioned here in a separate post. This also will give you a glimpse into what our house church meetings look like.]
We just finished with a marathon house church meeting that was unlike anything we’ve touched as a church in a long time. I think by the end of the meeting a couple of people had significant spiritual healing, a degree of physical healing took place in someone’s back, and a lot of people feeling a lot closer to Jesus than when we started! Praise the Lord!
It all started when someone in our church shared a dream that had some end-time implications. The jist of the dream was that we have to address heresy as soon as possible before it springs up and becomes something more difficult to deal with. We began to discuss and the conversation shifted to the idea of personal responsibility in our church: It’s not one person’s job to look out for heresy, it’s everyone’s job.
It was at this point Sean started talking about Acts 2 and the necessity of living the lifestyle that we find there (eating together, prayer, fellowship, devotion to the apostolic message, etc). As we began to talk about Acts 2 and meeting Jesus in powerful ways, it became obvious that the Holy Spirit was present in a tangible way, so we began to pray for one another. There was continual prayer, proclamation, and teaching for the next two hours! The most fun for me was to watch the whole church spontaneously love and serve each other without prodding from anyone. It’s how church should be.
All in all, Jesus met us. I post this to stir you up wherever you are, no matter what type of church you meet in. Jesus desires to meet you and will rock your world. Stay hungry to meet Him and He will find you.
My Daughter: The Newest Fiery Believer I Know
[Editor’s Note: This post was written in April.]
A couple of weeks ago I walked into my house after a hard day at work and was greeted by my daughter who excitedly announced to me, “Daddy, I prayed the prayer with mommy.” I looked at my wife who excitedly nodded her head. At this point I knew that something different had happened. It wasn’t unusual for my daughter to pray with my wife. This time they hadn’t just prayed, my daughter had actually prayed with Christy to receive Jesus!
I’ll leave the story of how she received Christ for her to tell someday. What caught me off guard though was the change that happened in her life. I had always thought that accepting Christ when you were small was something that had to be repeated time after time throughout your life in order to be real and supernatural. But right from my very first encounter with her after her salvation, she has been different. She’s full of more joy than she was before she accepted Christ. I’m not sure how that is even possible, because she’s just a toddler! But it’s really happened and others have commented on it as well. And she’s way more interested in things of the Kingdom than she used to be.
Yesterday, I got a call from my wife while I was at work. She had just finished spending twenty minutes worshipping and interceding with my daughter for all of her friends, an upcoming missions trip, and the people of Ethiopia. When I got home, we spent another twenty minutes doing the same thing as a family…and here’s the great part—she is pushing us! She’s the one who wants to do it!
Not content to raise a daughter who doesn’t see the Bible acted out before her eyes, we began talking to her about the concept of baptism. Youtube made the whole discussion a ton easier, because I think seeing kids being baptized took a lot of the fear and unknown out of the equation. After watching a few videos, my daughter has decided to follow Jesus in baptism, so she will be our house church’s first baptism this Sunday. We’ll celebrate with a little cake commemorating the day.
All of this is to say, Jesus is moving in my daughter’s life. I’m so excited. It’s been the chief goal of my life that I would lead my children in the Way of Christ and I’m starting to see it really manifest. And while we’re discipling her, she is also discipling us. Her zeal is pushing us not to be so old and unwilling in following Jesus and pursuing His presence. If you know us…pray for us. Pray that we would steward this new disciple well and learn from her. She will be a general in the Lord’s army one day.
[Sweetie, if you ever read this one day, know that this has been the happiest you have ever made me. You are your daddy’s pride and joy. I love you.]
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 