"Surely the LORD God will do nothing without revealing his secrets to His servants the prophets." (Amos 3:7, My translation).
Prophecy is for everyone
All can prophesy, according to the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 14:31). He encourages us to desire this spiritual empowerment (and others), and to use it in the context of love. From his question, "Are all prophets?" we assume that not all are, but all are encouraged to eagerly desire the undeserved favours that include empowerment to prophecy.
Dreams and visions
How does God reveal His secrets to His servants? One way is through dreams and visions (Numbers 12:6). It is written that the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision (Genesis 15:1-3), and Solomon in a dream (1 Kings 3:5). There are many kinds of visions and Daniel understood them all (Daniel 1:17). There are many other records of God revealing things this way, and not only to His prophets.
Joel prophesied that God would pour/gush out His Spirit on all flesh, and they would prophesy. He also said, "Your sons and your daughters, your elders will dream dreams, and youths will have visions" (Joel 2:28-9, My Translation). Then Joel adds, the words "and also." This gives emphasis to God's Spirit being poured/gushed out upon servants and females as well, who will also prophesy and have dreams and visions. We have used the word "pour" for years, but maybe "gush" is a better translation of the Hebrew. It gives us the impression of the abundance and extravagence implied in the word.
21/4/23 A Second Giant Wave
Warning dream - and call to prayer.I was on police patrol duty. I walked along the beach watching the sea for sharks. I saw a number of people swimming in the sea. I thought I saw sharks, but on closer inspection saw they were just very fat, blow-up plastic sharks. They looked very scary but were harmless. Then I saw a great wave, like a wall of water. It was the biggest I’d seen. It was bigger than the one I’d seen in a previous dream (2016 that dream came to pass. I believe it was about Covid). The wave tossed many people and their things around, breaking them. I swam on top of it and knew I had to just keep swimming strongly towards the shore, so as not to be dragged back into the deep waters.
I thought the dream might be just for me but after telling someone who said he'd also had a wave dream, I'm sure it isn't. He'd seen a very big wave on the back of the first one.
While praying about the dream and whether to share it or not, I dreamt the lord led me with a strong hand to a few places but wasn't going to lead me to the next. It was just around the corner. The last time He said, "just around the corner" there was a disaster coming. That came to pass.
When I woke I heard the words, “If you can’t change the past, change the future or the present.”
Last night I had a dream and woke thinking it wasn't a God dream, but the Lord said, "Joseph" and revealed the similarities with Joseph's life, so I'm sharing this warning dream.
I'm praying the Lord will downsize the wave and it's effects.
This is the digital image I made of the first dream in 2016.
25/11/21
“Open the gate so the sheep can follow the shepherd. Blow the horn to gather the sheep and worship in the Spirit with gladness.”
This was the message I dreamt in the night.
July 2020 Buildings
I've had a number of dreams about buildings. In May of 2018 I dreamt the house I'd been travelling in, past the cows and milking shed, miraculously flew up and arrived where it was meant to be. Two men stood either side, like the two trees the building had flown though. One was called Pain, the other Pilgrim. I'd been calling my daughter to wake up and she finally did. I took hold of her hand and exited teh house. I watched as it fell over on it's side.I n 2020 in another dream, my duaghter leapt from the building and took off without a backward glance and I gingerly let myself down from it.
This time in my dream I heard a very loud sound and flash of light. It sounded to me like a nuclear explosion. I thought it must be one. The roof of the building melted away and all that was left were the beams of the building. The little children took off outside the building and the mothers didn’t follow them. They just let them go. I grabbed my daughter and held her close, so she wouldn’t go with them. She needed her nappy changed.
During Covid 19 we did see the church building fall over symbolically. Now are we going to see part of the protection it gives, melt away? Church buildings have been carrying the church in the past, but this is a new day. There is a way for the church to be church that is more satisfying than a sermon and songs.
Jesus doesn't always come to us looking like what we are expecting to see.
Quick sketch - Moulded by the wind - Windswept
31/7/19
Becoming a window to the world beyond.
I dreamt I was inside a house and saw a hole appearing in part of the wall that was filled up with old dark straw and sawdust. A big scary looking spider like creature was making the hole. I thought I should kill it or at least remove it. I looked more closely and saw its legs were hard like a crabs. Bits of stuff fell out of the hole including some insects. I thought they might have been its offspring so I looked inside but it had had gone. The hole was bigger and the light was coming in from the other side. All sorts of stuff was there. In the middle was a bouquet. Wrapped inside the clear cellophane were two tiny birds on a branch, one dark and the other suddenly was white. Then the cellophane began unwrapping like a flower opening and the two tiny birds woke up. The hole now looked like an open window in a white wall and I could see beyond. The window and the place beyond was filled with light and very, very beautiful.
You will know them by their fruit
1/5/2018
A few days ago the Lord made my paintbrush shine in very bright light, then last night it was my glasses. Today my reading was about doing the Lords pleasure, not mine, so I got my paint brushes out.
Some days ago in a dream I saw black grapes in a thicket bush. Last night I had two dreams about sharks. One I saw the underbelly of, the other was about a false prophet being like a shark, snapping at the tail of a guard dog, who had rushed in between it and the ones it was sent to protect, to herd them out of the water.
“Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit …” Matthew 7:16
Flood from Rain
23/1/18
I was making a quick concept sketch in preparation for the Commonwealth games. I hadn't meant to sketch a flood, just a cliff, some rocks and a wave but it ended looking like a flood. I saw parts of buildings underwater and I believed a flood was coming, because of a dream I'd had. In the dream I had set out to warn people the whole valley was about to be flooded.
In February 2019 Townsville had the biggest flood for 100 years.
Don't feed your fears
12/8/17I had a strange dream. I had a round flat bladder like object sealed in strong clear plastic like stuff. I knew the stuff inside was dangerous. It would grow. So I cut the plastic to try and flush it away. Immediately I knew I shouldn't have done that. Then I saw it growing in my hand, like a foetus. It divided and grew into two dinosaur like creatures. I broke what was left of the bladder up. It was like grasshoppers. I feed it to the creatures so they wouldn’t eat me. They came and stood before me like harmless people. They had turned what they ate into a loaf of bread and held it out in their hands.
The scene changed and I was an old man. I bought enough seed to make a gigantic loaf of bread, so the creatures would have something to eat as long as I lived, so they wouldn’t devour people.
The scene changed again and I saw that the enormous loaf of bread was mouldy and nearly finished. There was an old bread factory and the old man's children were all busy rushing around. I asked one, a woman, if the man had died. He had. The woman looked worried. I wondered if the creatures would now devour the old man's children, or if they would continue to feed them and eat the bread they produced.
When I woke and went to church, the Holy Spirit reminded me that Jesus is the bread of life. This bread doesn't produce death in us, but life. What are people feeding themselves with to satisfy earthly desires and fears? If we feed the devourer and he feeds us, death is the natural outcome. If we feed from the Word of God, Jesus, we shall live.
Song: Bread of Life (youtube)
Building the church
"... the one propheying builds the church" (1 Corinthians 14:4, my translation)
22/11/21
As I was praying, I heard the Lord say, "Be radiant my bride, for my desire is for you."
What does the Lord want?
5/7/19
In July 2019 I dreamt I went into a church like building. It was a library with ancient books from ceiling to floor. The water came a short way up the legs of a piano which had slid out of place. From the back it looked like a mini grand. I moved it back into place ...
Maybe this is your church. Seek the Lord. I believe His desire is to see the piano in its right place again and He will move it back into place.
In some churches the piano/electric piano/keyboard is often drowned out by the amplifiers attached to other instruments. The sound drowns out the singers in the congregation and sometimes on stage as well. What are they doing there if they can't be heard?
Who is our music directed to? Is the Lord hard of hearing that we need to roar at Him when there is no other competing noise inside our building?
Will you follow the safe path you have always walked, or will you walk the paths you have never travelled before in response to the leading of the Spirit of God? Will your church do the same things you have always done, or will you launch out into the deep when the Spirit of God says, "Come." Maybe you will in some things, but all? How about the way you "do" worship? When was the last time you sought the Lord about what He wanted in this area? Who are you seeking to please in your music, the oldies, the youth, the children, the Lord? Do you know what kind of music He loves? Are you willing to risk all and follow His leading or is it just easier to do what you've always done?
Here is something that may encourage you or open your eyes to new possibilities: Prophetic Music by K Wright
Rejoice in the river
There are many ways and different words we can use to convey the concept of how wonderful life in Jesus is. There are many ways of encouraging one another to be glad in Jesus. Art is one way. I have been exhibiting my art works at Church and writing down the message behind the art. The message has been printed in the church newsletter.
2014
I felt it was time to change the art work I was exhibiting in church so I asked God what image I should create. Immediately an image of music and dancing came into my mind and the song by Vineyard, "Down the mountain the river flows ... The river of God sets my feet a dancing ..." So I made an art work on that theme using part of another earlier art work called, "Let the rivers clap their hands."
I gave the art work the title "Rejoice in the river." The river is the life that Jesus said would flow from those who believe in Him. The life is His own Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who baptized us into one body and from whom we drink. We are encouraged to live in the Spirit, live in the river of God, which is how we keep in step with Jesus. It is more than "following." Our concept of "following" doesn't really capture what it means to be a Christian. We don't "follow" in the sense of "from a distance," but God is now not only with us, but also in us. He wants the closest relationship with us that is possible.
When I told our minister about this art work, he said that was his favourite song.
Knowing the future
One of the purposes of prophecy is to let us know what the the future will be if nothing intervenes or changes. It can empower us to seek God for solutions to possible troubles. Jesus stilled the storm and we can ask Him to do that too. Jesus walked on the water and we can ask him to stop floods too. Nothing is beyond His control. He shares His ministry with us so we can grow up into Him. Sometimes He waits for us to invite Him to act so we can learn about His power.
God spoke to me about a volcano errupting. I was rostered to pray in church, so I prayed that people living near volcanoes would have enough time to get out safely. A week later I heard on the news about a volcanic erruption. They said everyone got out in time. I prayed for the safety of those travelling in aeroplanes at that time as well, and in 2015 I met a lady who had been on one of the planes. Her plane had been diverted from their destination, and they spent some days grounded before they could continue on to their destination. God answered my prayers, and let me know he had.
The Land Rose Up
The Lord spoke to me about going to a land He'd show me. I had two dreams about this place and it was covered in trees. In 2000, we moved to Australia, and I asked the Lord if this was the land.
I loved the bark peeling off the eucalyptus trees and made poems and art about it, including the one above. I didn't know it was prophetic at the time. To me, it showed the land of my physical birth (NZ) peeling off like bark and the land of my spirtual birth (AU) growing up.
In 2012 my husband wanted to retire to the Gold Coast and I saw trees on the Gold Coast like the trees God had shown me, so we moved to Mount Nathan. We sarted going to a church in Nerang. The Holy Spirit then let me know God had planted me here and I knew I was in the right area.
In 2018, because I heard in a dream the word, "Map. I hardly ever see one now," I asked God what it meant and researched it, discovering the concept of spiritual mapping. Consequently, I looked up the history of Nerang and the Gold Coast. I was amazed. A few nights before, I'd dreamed some of what had happened in Nerang's history.
I also discovered the original name for Nerang. It is Birribi meaning spirals of dead bark hanging from eucalypts, like the painting I'd done and photos I'd taken and poems I'd written when I first came to Australia.
I also dreamed about the land rising up, and discovered the land here rose up according to a dreamtime legend.
So, although I didn't know it at the time, the Lord had been showing the land, the place where He wanted us to go to, just like He said He would. The art work I did in 2000 has the aboriginal symbolism for this area
Warfare
Prophetic warfare takes many forms. Sometimes its a prayer for others in response to knowing the heart of God in a matter, but sometimes it takes the form of images, actions or music and is part of the watchman's guard duty for themselves and others.
Zechariah 1:19-21
God will use artisans and their crafts to terroroize the enemy (I use the word crafts in a very broad sense here, so they include, images, words and sounds).
Sometimes prophetic warfare is about hearing the Word of God and guarding it, like a soldier on duty. This might include remembering a promise from God. A phylactery is used by some to do this. One way I used to guard the Word of God to me, was by making an image to represent it, so that when I looked at the image, I remembered God's promise.
This image reminds me that, "Even to your old age I will be the same, And even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; And I will bear you and I will deliver you(New American Standard Bible (©1995))."
Images
Do you expect God to speak to you? Humankind was created in God's likeness. We communicate in different ways and so does God. Images are all around us. Our eyes take them in and our brain interprets them. Sometimes we need to see something in order to "hear" what God is saying. God has sent people as actors to speak His mind and visual artists as well. Have you ever thought about the different ways God communicates?
In Your Mouth
Dreams, visions and images are not the only way that prophesy comes. Sometimes we find ourselves speaking the Word of God. It comes out of our mouth in conversation, sometimes without any premeditation and sometimes it's in our mind and we can chose to speak it or not.
On one occassion I found myself answering a person's question. A word about the grace of God, came out so fast, like lightening. It even suprised me. I heard the sound of water rushing with it. If I hadn't heard the water, I might've been embarrased at how fast I answered before anyone else in the group, including me, even had a chance to think about it.
"Because the Word is near unto you, very much in your mouth, you may accomplish it" (Deuteronomy 30:14, My translation).