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Audio and Written Versions: Spiritual Warfare Session 10 Biblical Spiritual Warfare Session 10 Audio Version Of This Web Page MP3 Player behaving funny? Try a different browser or a different device Session 9 My name is Basie Martins. I trust that you are all well and I want to thank you again for listening to this series. For you who do not know, this series is about spiritual warfare. In the previous session, we discussed the elements and the foundation of real spiritual warfare. We discussed the power and the reality of ordinary people possessing the same power that God does, in a limited capacity, but still so amazing, and that is the ability to create. We do it physically but also spiritually. In a spiritual sense, we can speak things into existence. We have been created in the image of God and that is why we have the same ability that God has in this regard. The Bible is clear on this. It says that there is power in the tongue. Life or death is in the tongue and even Jesus said that we can speak things into existence if we believe. Remember, the fig tree and the sycamine tree and the mountain that can be cast into the sea. Well, this happens daily in terms of our own circumstances and situations in our lives. Those that grasped the fact that this is supposed to be a way of life, live victoriously in Christ. A mountain was once literally moved by a person, in the Name of Christ, in North Africa. It really happened. Just check out my website, asrmartins.com and read all about it. In this session, we will be discussing a few myths about spiritual warfare and also some wonderful aspects of true Biblical spiritual warfare. Let’s start this session briefly on a subject called curses. Just like evil spirits, people like witches and satanist are powerless when it comes to them attempting to cast spells and curses on people. This includes them trying to hurt Christians and even unsaved people through this evil activity or method of witchcraft. They may have success when it comes to hurting each other this way but when it comes to people who are not part of the kingdom of darkness they are completely powerless in this regard. They just cannot curse people or bewitch people at all. This is a lie that they that they do not want people to know about. Yes they can bewitch each other but that is because they chose to be part of the evil kingdom of darkness. Of course, this is a well-guarded secret. The citizens of the kingdom of darkness do not want the world to know this truth. It is for this purpose that they “invented” all sorts of doctrines of devils to conceal this truth. Even the church and church leaders, unfortunately, play a huge role in assisting the kingdom of darkness with this evil strategy. The devil and all his dark and evil forces, including witches and satanists, have absolutely no power over Christians and even over unbelievers. They just cannot cast spells and curses on people. It is a lie from hell. Even if they get together to pray against Christians or certain things in the kingdom of God, they are wasting their time. That is if we are not ignorant about this. If you believe a lie that lie might become a reality in your life. However, these acts are all a powerless show of force. It is all just smoke and mirrors but the sad thing is that Christians fall for that. And because they do these acts have a devastating effect on their lives. This is a result caused by ignorance in the body of Christ. It is caused by a lack of knowledge. Unfortunately, the church does not know the word of God in this regard. I sincerely hope that this series will set you free. Jesus Christ conquered the devil and all the demonic creatures of the kingdom of darkness on the cross. He completely disarmed them and He delegated all power and authority to us, the church. We do not have to fear the kingdom of darkness one bit. They fear the church. Because of this they are adamant to keep the truth away from the children of God. They are fighting tooth and nail to keep the truth hidden and a secret. As long as the church does not know the truth and as long as they do not take up their inheritance, the children of God will suffer defeat. It is up to you and me to make a difference in this regard. Preach the truth wherever you go. Even if mainline Christianity and mainline churches preach the opposite. Do not be silenced. When we are silent, we cause people to stay exposed to oppression. About two years ago a friend of mine announced that he is returning to his old support group to change the bad circumstances that he experienced in his life at that time. This support group pursued a very distinct goal which is their official “trademark”. This trademark is, of course, the relentless breaking of curses and the subsequent spiritual warfare strategies that always form part of these rituals. He mentioned to me that he decided to do so because he missed their fellowship and their support, particularly concerning this aspect. I was visibly appalled by this decision. My friend again stepped into the trap of looking for the causes of his personal and spiritual failures and hardships at the wrong place. He was going through a tough time but not because of generational curses or the lack of spiritual warfare or because of demonic attacks or special strategies that evil spirits embarked upon to make his life miserable. Something else was to blame and I was about to tell my friend what it was. According to the people in the group that he wanted to join, all or most negative and bad things in people’s lives are either caused by generational curses or evil spirits and demonic attacks. When I asked my friend for the opportunity to discuss this matter with him before he joins this group again he reluctantly agreed. I again took him through the Scriptures that so clearly prove that generational curses were a reality early in the Old Testament but not since the time of Ezekiel. I showed him the Scriptures which proves that God joined the debate about generational curses at that time and how He once and for all publicly announced through his prophet how He feels about generational curses, and why He feels that way. I showed him clearly that God promised the nation of Israel, through His prophet Jeremiah, that He will repeal the law of generational curses. I also showed him where God confirmed that the promise that He made through Jeremiah was now, a few years later, in place, repealed and done away with, as announced through the prophet Ezekiel, during the debate that I mentioned. Let me read these Scriptures again: The promise in Jeremiah 31:29-30 In those days people will no longer say, The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes – their own teeth will be set on edge. The confirmation as per Ezekiel 18: 1-4  1 The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying,  2 What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?  3 As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.  4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. and Ezekiel 18:17 That hath taken off his hand from the poor, that hath not received usury nor increase, hath executed my judgments, hath walked in my statutes; he shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live. and Ezekiel 18:19 Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live. and Ezekiel 18:20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. I discussed these Scriptures and even more with my friend. Well, he did not listen to my arguments at all and he did join this group again. No, his circumstances did not change for the good at all. It got worse! Despite this, they are still breaking curses and they are still confessing the sins of their forefathers regularly although nothing changed. As I said, some situations even got worse. They are constantly busy with spiritual warfare. One moment they are fighting water spirits and the next moment some strong demon, a principality of some sort. They even know the names of some of these demons. This whole process just goes on and on. They are fighting relentlessly and the war is never over. This, of course, is different from what Jesus and the disciples did. And now I am going to discuss a very important principle in the body of Christ. If you understand this principle you will never be deceived again in your life. Let me explain this principle: Every word that ever came out of the mouth of Jesus was very significant. It was always anointed, it always did what it was sent out to do and it was said to teach us the will and the ways of God. Each and every action that Jesus performed was also very significant. It was done to show us the will and the ways of God. Jesus himself said, “I only do what I see my Father doing.” He never did anything and never said anything that the Father did not do or say. John 5:19-20 (KJV) Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.  John 5:19-20 (NIV) Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.  John 12:49 For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. This is very important. Jesus Said, “Verily, verily, these also doeth the Son likewise.”. If the Son of God regarded it very important to do exactly what the Father did and to say exactly what the Father did, how much more should we do the same? He even said that if you saw the Son then you saw the Father. Why did He say that? Because He was exactly like the Father. In words and deeds. He chose to be like the Father. He chose to only do and only say what he sees and what He hears his Father does and says. He closely looked at the Father. He closely observed the Father and He became exactly like the Father.  Jesus’ time on earth was focused on teaching us the will and the ways of the Father. He did not come to teach us about himself. He did it by doing and saying what the Father does and says. His whole ministry was a process of equipping us (the church). He taught the disciples and the disciples taught other disciples. They made converts and they made disciples in turn. A disciple is a person who follows Jesus. He showed them how to live and what to say in the kingdom of God. It is therefore very important what Jesus did and what He said. The disciples observed him very closely. They knew exactly what He said and what He did. John 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. So Jesus requested them to teach other people what He commanded them. If you study this aspect in the Bible you will find a remarkable thing. You will find that if you watch Jesus Christ in action you will know exactly what God the Father would have said and would have done if He was walking the earth. But that is not all. You will also find that the disciples did exactly what Jesus did and they said exactly what Jesus said. They followed his ways and his actions to the letter. They did not even once deviate from this. They never even once did something or said something that Jesus did not say or did not do. This is very significant. It means that even the disciples did and said what God the Father would have done and said if He was walking the earth.  I specifically carried out a thorough investigation of this aspect. I specifically looked for something different or any sort of deviation about this aspect in the Bible in the life of the disciples and the apostles. I could not find any contradictions or any additions. I dare you, study the Bible and see if Peter, John, James, Paul or any other disciple ever did or ever said something that Jesus did not do or say. Jesus told them to go out and to teach people the words that He taught the disciples. Jesus specifically referred to his own words and He asked the disciples to teach other people those words. He was asking the disciples to carry on what He started and that is to teach people to do what the Father does and to say what the Father says. Make disciples means to make followers.  However, the problem in the church today is that people have deviated from this instruction. Through the years a lot of new things and new ways emerged in the church. People started doing things and saying thinks that is not in the Bible. Take a look at the following and take note that these things are nowhere to be found in the Bible. The Father, Jesus Christ, and the disciples did not carry out these things, they did not use these words and they never instructed anyone to do these things: In the Name of Jesus, I break all curses in my life. I cut off every curse. In the Name of Jesus, I bind you satan. Lord, I confess the sins of my father, my mother, and all my ancestors. Please forgive me for their sins. In the Name of Jesus, I cast down any evil stronghold in my life. I break every plan that the enemy orchestrated in my life. Satan, I break all your works. I come against you in the Name of Jesus. All these commands and decrees sound spiritual but are in fact worthless words uttered in ignorance. Why do we use these words? Where does it come from? It is not in the Bible. Have you noticed that Christians in New Testament times never did any of this? Have you noticed that Christians in New Testament times never discussed generational curses? Nowhere in the Bible did God, Jesus or the disciples instruct us to break curses. Nobody in the Bible broke any curses. Nowhere in the Bible did God, Jesus or the disciples instruct us to confess the sins of our ancestors. In fact, there are numerous Scriptures in the Bible that instruct us to confess and repent of our own sins. Nowhere in the Bible did God, Jesus or the disciples bind satan. So people attempt to fight evil in a negative way instead of being positive and creative. We speak healing or command healing in a sick person’s life. We create positive circumstances in people’s lives. We do not fight evil by attempting to break negative things. We do not start our own ways and own initiatives. Jesus refused to do so in his life as we can see in John 8:28 Jesus therefore said, ‘When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me…  So if Jesus said that He does nothing of himself or on his own initiative, why did we start using words that are not in the Bible? Why did we start doing things of ourselves which is not in the Bible? Why did we start using our own initiative? Why did we start anointing windows and doors and vehicles with oil? Why did we start all these “house cleaning” rituals? Did Jesus Christ or the disciples ever anoint houses and windows and vehicles? Did Jesus or the disciples ever carried out house cleaning rituals or did they ever instruct us to do so? Did Jesus Christ or the disciples instruct us to do these things? If these things were authentic and important, why didn’t Jesus or the disciples ever instruct us to break generational curses? Why didn’t they instruct us to confess the sins of our ancestors? Why didn’t they instruct us to anoint our property and belongings with oil? By the way, the only thing that I do concerning “house cleaning” is the following: I make sure that I do not have any objects related to idols like Buddha statues or ornaments in my house. I make sure that I do not have sinful or sin inducing material in my house like pornography or really bad music and so on and then I am done. Nothing else… Nothing else… This is all I do… Anything more than this is just another soulish or religious ritual implemented in the church by people who believe in generational curses and the erroneous counterpart of the spiritual warfare doctrine.  Why do we carry out these things? We carry it out because we know not the word of God. We believed false doctrines like generational curses and the erroneous teachings of the false variation of spiritual warfare, the transferal of spirits and all sorts of doctrines of devils. Yes, there is a thing called spiritual warfare but it is completely different from the very popular teachings we have been taught through the years. Most of the decrees that I mentioned are the battle cries of the fake or ignorant spiritual warriors created by false teachers. It is the actions and the words of the ignorant. It is the actions of people who do not know their position of authority in Christ. That position of authority is not on the battlefield. It is from a position of rest in Christ on his throne. We are resting in the love of Christ from where we plug into all the resources that He made available to us through the cross. He gave us divine provision, divine protection, divine authority, and divine maintenance through his redemptive work on the cross. As kings in the kingdom of God, we learned to trust God, to believe God and his word, to be obedient to God and his word and to take up our inheritance through faith. We take what is ours by faith. We take it by force. We live by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. Matthews 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. We do not accuse the enemy of causing all sorts of negative and bad things in our lives. We know those bad things exist only because we failed to take up our inheritance. We know that the devil and the kingdom of darkness can cause us absolutely no harm unless we allow them to do so through us and through our ignorance. Through obedience and through faith we live victorious lives. We call good things into existence and we destroy bad things by the word of our testimony by declaring good things and creating good things in our lives. We fear nothing. We know that our battle is not against evil forces directly but against evil forces destroying our faith through temptations and lies. We know it is a battle of faith. We abstain from sin and we do not believe the lies of the enemy. We give evil no foothold in our lives. We resist evil by not giving in to temptation and lies. We know that evil can only attack one front; through lies and deceit. Evil cannot change our circumstances. Evil cannot damage our belongings. Evil cannot damage or injure our bodies. Evil cannot kill us. Evil cannot take away anything from us. Yes, evil cannot even steal from us. Evil cannot curse us because nothing can be cursed that was blessed by God. Evil forces are absolutely defenseless and powerless against the true warriors. There is absolutely no way that they can penetrate that armored shields of protection or the hedge that surround these warriors every second of their lives. We read about is in Job 1:10-11 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. Notice that the devil did not ask God to allow him to touch Job and his belongings. He said “you” touch him and his belongings and he will curse you. The devil just could not penetrate this hedge that God put around Job. He tried from every side. He could do Job no harm at all. He was absolutely helpless, powerless and hopeless against this man of God. Satan asked God to touch all that Job had. He could not do it himself. As you can see in the above Scripture that Job was blessed and that he enjoyed divine protection, divine provision, and divine maintenance. And let me tell you right now, Job did not break any curses and he did not engage in spiritual warfare. In fact, nowhere in the Bible do we see anybody getting involved in spiritual warfare according to the ways that the church has been taught. Why not? People like Job rested in God through obedience and faith. When there are chaos and havoc and lack in a man of God’s life, only one person is to blame; not God, not satan, not circumstances, not your wife, not your husband, not your friends, not your boss at work but only yourself. Evil just cannot cause you any harm whatsoever himself or through anybody except yourself. They cannot break your vacuum cleaner. They cannot break your car. They cannot make you sick. They cannot cause an accident in your life. They cannot steal from you. They cannot take your job from you. They cannot do anything at all. You are protected like Job was. There is a hedge of divine protection around you and your house and your belongings. This hedge is kept in place by God and is absolutely impenetrable. You just need to stay in faith, trust in God and stand on the word of God. It is a battle of faith and obedience. And the next two Scriptures reveal the significance of this. Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.  1 John 3:22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.  So as you can see, these Scriptures are all about faith and obedience. The problem is that people do not have faith and they are not obedient to God and his word. This is why they experience all sorts of problems in their lives. You can see it in the way they live. They trust in many things. They have alarm systems installed in their houses. They take out insurance on their belongings. They take out medical insurance. They trust in gates and electric fences and walls. They loan money from banks and other people. They are stingy. They go to church but they get involved in all sorts of sinful acts. They get sexually involved with people outside of marriage. Their lives sometimes do not differ much from unsaved people. No wonder things fall apart in their lives. No wonder their lives are falling apart. This is when they start accusing the devil of all sorts of attacks on their lives and when they start breaking curses and engaging in spiritual warfare and fighting demons and water spirits and so forth. Needless to say that these actions are a worthless waste of time and it does not bring any change. They are not addressing the real problem and that is why things do not change. We need to find the truth and we need to be obedient to God. That is the bottom line. Faith, faithfulness and obedience change everything. Did the disciples ever take part in Jewish holidays and festivals after the resurrection? Did they ever blow shofars and carry flags and banners around? Did they ever wear Jewish prayer shawls when they prayed or interceded for other people? Did they ever take part in Christmas? Did they take part in the Passover after the resurrection? The answer to all these questions is “no”. They did not, nor did they instruct us to do so. In fact, the Christian faith is the only faith that has no holy days, no holy places, no holy buildings, and no holy rituals. By doing these things, you open the door of legalism in your life. You open the door of own works in your life. You gradually replace Jesus Christ with legalism. You become disobedient. People do all these things and they are under the false impression that it is Christian whilst it is, in fact, Jewish and even Pagan and wrong. They do it because the church teaches them to do these things. No, it is not God’s festivals. It was festivals God gave the Jewish nation to keep. It is not our sabbath. It was the Jewish sabbath. Not anymore though because Judaism became obsolete when it was replaced by Christianity. Today Judaism is nothing but a false religion just like Islam. In fact, Paul warned the church about the danger of Christianizing Judaism. The same can be said for incorporating all sorts of pagan festivals and uses. Christmas has absolutely nothing to do with Christ or the church. It is a pagan festival. Christ must not be put back into Christmas. He was never in Christmas. There is absolutely no instruction in Scriptures that we as Christians should do all these things. The church moved away from the teachings of Christ and the teachings of the apostles. They ran after false teachings and false doctrines. Paul warned the church about the false prophets that will come to cause division, apostasy, and doctrines of devils to be embraced in the body of Christ. Well, these things have consequences. Do not believe the lie that these things are OK or innocent. It is not OK and it definitely has devastating effects on our lives. Whilst the so-called spiritual warfare warriors are fighting evil spirits they fail to take up their inheritance. They fail to find rest in the love of Christ. They fail to put their attention on the important things. They fail to focus on their calling and their real purpose in Christ. They are kept busy fighting one group of evil spirits whilst another group is burning down the city. They are occupied by evil whilst they were supposed to be occupied by Christ.  They experience false anointings, false emotions, and false victories. Many people mistake their emotions with the anointing of the Spirit of God daily. So many times, when a so-called “spiritual warfare warrior” makes his decrees and breaks the power of evil, people are emotionally lifted. At that moment they feel as strong as an angel. They feel how the enemy is defeated and they rejoice in it. Not even aware of the fact that they misinterpreted emotions for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes they do experience the true and authentic anointing of God and then they make the mistake by assuming that the anointing is the approval of God. I have seen many times that God does work when people act in faith even if it is not the way He wants them to act. He is God and He does come to our rescue even if we are not acting as we should. He is a God of grace and He will help us in times of trouble and in times of need even when the methods we use are wrong. This does not mean that He is happy with us and that He approves of what we are doing. This is a very important principle in the church that every Christian should know and understand: Never assume that the anointing is a sign of God’s approval. The anointing is a sign that God is at work or present. Also, never assume that when a man of God has an anointing on his life or anointed to minister unto people that his doctrines and teachings are sound and beyond reproach. The anointing only proves that God is working through such a person. The anointing can never support doctrines. Our emotions cannot support doctrines. Personal observations cannot support doctrines. There is absolutely one thing only that can support doctrines and that is the word of God. If you ignore this principle the enemy will use your emotions and your personal observations and even the anointing of the Holy Spirit to deceive you. You must ignore your emotions and you must ignore your personal observations. Both cannot be trusted at all. You must even ignore true anointing in this sense. Only the word of God can be trusted when it comes to supporting doctrines and teachings. I hope that this series helped you to make the right decision when it comes to generational curses and spiritual warfare. In the next session, we are starting a new series that is closely related to this series. It will be all about the reasons why we get sick and why we experience calamities in our lives. We will discuss in detail how we can successfully prevent sicknesses and diseases and calamities in our lives. I think we should call this series, How to Live successfully and victoriously in Christ. What I mean by this is that all people can live a prosperous, healthy and victorious life in the kingdom of God, right now. We can turn everything around. We can get rid of every sickness and disease in our bodies. We can experience complete healing. We can prevent sicknesses and diseases from taking hold in our bodies 100% successfully. We can experience divine protection and provision right now. It is all guaranteed for everyone and everybody, right now, in the kingdom of God. There are no exceptions. And this iRead more

Climb The Highest Mountain! This week’s find: Climb the Highest Mountain by Gene Edwards About the book: Few pieces of Christian literature ever address the subject of division in the body of Christ. Fewer still address the problem of how a Christian should conduct himself in such times and how to survive the aftermath. Every Christian will face division at some time in his life. Many will be caught up in the vortex of a conflagration so great that they very well may be destroyed. Few believers – if any at all – are spiritually prepared for such a devastating ordeal. Gene Edwards raises a new standard of conduct for Christians who find themselves in such a crisis, and points them to a way out…unscarred. I was recommended this book by several house church leaders. Gene Edwards is also involved in various house churches around the United States and the world. He is man of God that I highly respect and admire for his willingness to go against modern traditions to follow the Word of God. This book deals with a college group in the 1970’s that is undergoing termoil and splits. Edwards had helped start this informal church in California. The church had stared out wonderfully but has degressed into splits and even sin. This book is from the messages and teaching that Edwards gave to this group after being apart from them for one year in their fighting. The book offers insights into what it takes to love each other in the Church as Jesus commanded us (John 13:34-35). We are to climb the highest mountain (not settle for the standard of modern Christianity nor settle into lukewarmness). This book will offer you insights into how God calls us to live in peace with one another (Hebrews 12:14-15).  About the Author: Gene Edwards (born July 18, 1932) is an American house church planter, a Christian author, and a former Southern Baptist pastor and evangelist. A graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, he is an outspoken proponent of the house church concept in the United States. Gene Edwards is the author of around thirty Christian books, the best known of these being “The Divine Romance,” “A Tale of Three Kings,” and “The Chronicles of The Door.” He holds conferences around the country on the deeper Christian life and the house church movement. Buy now More good buys written by ASR Martins The truth about spiritual warfare This book proves that “Spiritual warfare” is a false doctrine. The necessary Scriptures that support this statement are discussed in detail. People are actually oppressed just because they believe in this doctrine. This book will challenge your beliefs on this subject and it will set you free. Understanding the prophetic times we live in During the morning hours of Tuesday, June 2, 2015, the Lord Jesus Christ instructed me to write this report. He called it a “report” because He wanted me to write it as a “report of imminent events” to those who wish to understand the prophetic times we live in. The aim of this report is to bring clarity and to counter confusion in the lives of many Christians regarding the end-times, especially regarding the prophetic time we live in at this moment. The Lord’s aim with this report is clear: Clarity will equip and enable God’s children to follow His vision for and in this time period we are living in now. It will enable them to report for duty. It will enable them to become mighty instruments in God’s hand. End-time ministry does not only mean that God is at work. It also means that we have some part to play in order to enable God to carry out His plans. This report will enable God’s children to stand up and be counted”. All local resources on this website are free of charge. Please help us by sharing it with your friends through the social networks. Social network sharing buttons available at the bottom of all pages  Back to tRead more

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Authentic Biblical Deliverance How can I deliver demon oppressed and demon possessed people effectively? What strategies do evil spirits utilize to oppress people? Is there a correct, Biblical way in dealing with the deliverance of satanic oppressed people? In order to understand the answers to these questions, we need to know how people are oppressed and how people are possessed by demons. We also need to know what happens with these people, physically and spiritually, during the process of oppression and the subsequent possession. It is very important to understand that both satanic oppression and satanic possession do not happen overnight. It is a process. Of course we also need to know what our focus needs to be when we deliver demonic oppressed and possessed people. I have written a few posts regarding satanic oppression. It was quite a revelation for many people and quite a number of people gave me very positive feedback after they have read these posts. Click on the category, “Spiritual warfare” if you wish to read these related posts. It was also a very pleasant surprise to see that many people do understand that the devil and his demons just cannot harm us at all, in any way, because of the protection of God in our lives. That is of course if WE do not allow these evil spirits to harm us. People also know that we allow evil spirits to harm us when we give in to temptations or when we believe and accept their lies. When you believe evil spirits and when you do what evil spirits tell you to do, just here all your troubles start. If you do not believe their lies and if you don’t do what evil spirits tell you to do, you are absolutely safe. Evil spirits can only oppress people who are guilty of sin and unbelief. Evil spirits cannot oppress or possess innocent people. They need to find somebody who is willingly getting involved in sin in order to oppress them. In order to possess such a person, they need to convince such a person to give themselves over to the pleasures and the benefits of that particular sin to such an extend that they slowly and progressively give the control over to the demonic spirits influencing such a person. With every temptation to have more pleasure, the demonic spirit entices the person to go deeper and deeper in the particular sin for even more pleasure. People who loves sin will eventually sell their souls for more pleasure and more power or for whatever the demonic spirits entice them with. People cannot be possessed by evil spirits any other way. Demons just cannot oppress or possess people just like they want to. They need legal grounds to do that. For this reason not even nonbelievers can be oppressed or possessed if they do not allow demons to do that. The only way for demons to possess people is through sin. If they are enticed through all sorts of promises and lies to give their souls over to these evil spirits, then these people are seriously oppressed. If they, again through lies and deceit, go to a deeper level in their sins, they eventually willingly allow these evil spirits to enter their spirits which results in absolute possession. See my book, “The truth about spiritual warfare” for more information on this subject. In the book I have a comprehensive section on the reasons why there is no such thing called generational curses. People believing this false doctrine believe that innocent people can be possessed by demons because of the sins of their forefathers and numerous other “innocent” ways like unknowingly eating cursed food or food offered to idols. This is just not true! Any person who is demonic oppressed or possessed has only himself to blame for that. There is no way that an innocent person was ever oppressed or possessed. These are all lies from hell. The statements above make it very clear where our focus should be when dealing with evil spirits, demonic oppression and even demonic possession. Our focus is determined by the strategies that evil spirits utilize when attacking people. It may be a surprise to many people but the truth about the strategies of demonic forces is that it is not a complicated subject at all. They have only two strategies. The first strategy is to lie to people and the second strategy is to tempt people to sin. That is it! They have no other strategies. With their lies demons deceive people into believing all sorts of false doctrines. With their lies they also deceive people into all sorts of temptations. The more people give in to these lies and these temptations, the more it enables them to oppress those people. The ultimate goal of these spirits is to take control of our minds. The more they control our minds the more control they have over our beliefs and over our actions. When learning about demonic influences in the lives of people the Lord once showed me the strategies of evil spirits in a dream: First strategy (lies): In the dream the Lord showed me a very dark place that resembled a gold mine or an industrial plant or a salvage yard. I could see all sorts of rusted equipment made of steel all around me in the semi-dark area. Some of the implements and equipment were greasy and dirty. Most of the equipment were out of order and just lying around rusting away. This symbolized a dark world governed by worldly systems. Demonic spirits aided by corrupt human beings created this world. Steel symbolizes man-made doctrines and systems influenced by evil spirits. Dirty oil and grease symbolizes contaminated anointing or false anointing. People contaminate the anointing of the Holy Spirit with their own intellectual revelations influenced by the love of sin and by evil spirits. In the dream a person came to me and he gave me a cup filled with a black fluid which resembled old oil or transmission fluid. He gave it to me to drink like coffee. He did the same. He then showed me broken greasy car parts. He wanted me to taste the grease and dirty oil on these parts as we walked through this junkyard. I slowly realized that the fluid that he gave me to drink is highly toxic and that both of us will surely die a slow death because of this. Even the grease and oil he wanted me to taste were toxic. I decided not to taste it but only to smell the different substances. Smelling symbolizes spiritual discernment. He then showed me a transparent packet with what looked like rat poison of a blue-green color. I know that blue symbolizes the revelation and the authority of God. Green symbolizes soulish intellectual reasoning. This mixture of real truth with soulish revelation symbolized the strategies of demonic spirits when they deceive people. A little bit of truth mixed with lies. What God showed me in this dream is that the lies of evil spirits are really of a seriously toxic nature. That is why people die a slow death because of oppression and possession. This is literally the truth! Both oppression and possession, as you will see below, literally cause death! In the dream I took a hosepipe with pure clean running water. I turned a big rusted, greasy piece of equipment on its side. I thoroughly washed it with this pure running water. Water symbolizes the inspiration of the Holy Spirit through the word of God. The word of God is life and it is spirit. This symbolized that we as Christians can use the pure revelation power of the word of God to purify our belief systems. We can remove dirty lies and dirty worldly systems with the washing of pure water by the word of God. Ephesians 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word Second strategy (temptations to sin): In the dream the Lord showed me someone I know standing in his garden. This person was upset because of the noise that a rather big sun-bird was making when it feeds on the nectar in the flowers in his garden. This sound irritated this person. Although sun-birds are normally very small, this one in the dream was almost the size of a big dove. The color of this bird was a mixture of light yellow and light green. Birds in dreams symbolizes spirits. It also symbolizes the activities of evil spirits in a person’s life. The sun-bird symbolizes the constant pursuing of sweet nectar. It has a never-ending craving for sweet nectar in flowers and with its long down-curving beak it sucks out all the nectar it can get out of these flowers. The sun-bird has short wings which it can flap very fast which enables it to hang motionless in the air whilst sucking out nectar. The prominent long down-curving beak makes it well able to reach all the nectar it so craves. Nectar symbolizes sin. Sin is sweet like nectar in your mouth. It is wonderful to eat. It is quite an experience, but like nectar, in reality it has no nutritional value. In fact, pursuing sin is a constant running after nothing. It cannot fill one’s hunger. Our hunger can only be satisfied with the true bread of life, which is the word of God. The light yellow-green mixture (the color of the sun-bird) symbolizes hatred, jealousy, blasphemy and rebellion against God, the Holy Spirit and other Christians. The person’s irritation by the constant chirping of the sun-bird symbolizes the fact that this person do not want to be demon oppressed anymore. At first these enticing sounds were sweet in his ears but not anymore. This person decided he does not want to listen to the lies of the evil spirit(s) anymore. He wants to be set free.   In the dream the person asked me to kill the bird by throwing it with a piece of rock. I took the brownish dark-beige rock out of his hands, aimed at the bird but I missed. The sun-bird flew away but was back a few minutes later. It went strait for a flower and it immediately made that irritating chirping sounds again. The beige rock he gave me speaks of a person who, although he wants to do the right thing, is still involved in sin and still wants to be involved in these particular sins. This is why I failed to kill the bird. This speaks of the fact that people who do not want to be delivered from satanic oppression, because of the love of sin, cannot be delivered. This person asked me again to kill the bird. This time he gave me a flat piece of rock that resembled a flat piece of fossilized bread. In the dream I suspected that this fossilized rock is actually manna, which, like bread, symbolizes the revealed word of God. It specifically symbolizes the willingness to seek the deeper truths of God’s word. The fossilized manna also symbolizes that the word of God is the ancient truths of God and it is ageless. It can never loose its power. It also symbolized that this person is now willing to allow the word of God to change his life. People who are demon possessed need to willingly give their cooperation if they really want to be delivered. I took this piece of rock, aimed at the bird and I hit it dead center (on the side but middle of the body). The sun bird was seriously wounded and it made a nosedive right into the ground. The long beak and the head of the bird went right into the ground. This symbolizes the fact that the power of the word of God defeats any demonic spirit or demonic oppression immediately and effectively. The buried head and beak speak of intellectual reasoning and enticing words losing its power in a person’s life. The reason why the word of God is thrown like a rock, speaks of the word of God, when it is spoken, is able to go out and do what it was sent out to do. It is able to reach anything anywhere in the universe in any realm (physical and spiritual). The next moment the sun-bird was floundering on the grass. The head now not buried in the ground anymore. I hit it again with the word, by throwing it with the rock (fossilized manna), causing a wound to the head. A third blow killed the bird by cutting off its neck. This sequence symbolized the sequence of Godly demonic deliverance. First, as symbolized by the body hit, the persons spirit or soul needs to be delivered by casting out the demons or taking away the demons. Then as symbolized by the wound in the birds head, the person needs to be delivered of false lies and false doctrines (toxic thoughts). Then, as symbolized by the neck that was cut off by the rock, the yoke is broken by removing the head (removing toxic thoughts). The removing of the head speaks of submitting to the will and ways and truths of God. This was all done by the ancient fossilized rock, the word of God, which can never loose its power and which will stand fast until all eternity. What happens when a person is slowly loosing control over his mind? It is important to understand that all people are, most of the time, under demonic attack. Yes, all of us! By far, most people are demonic oppressed and many people are demonic possessed. Only a few people, those who live a victorious life in Christ, are really free from demonic oppression. However, to be a Christian does not exempt people from being demonic oppressed. In fact, although not demonic possessed, most Christians are demonic oppressed. Why so? Because most Christians are being deceived into all sorts of sins and deceived into believing all sorts of doctrines and lies which are not in line with the word of God! There is a very important principle regarding false doctrines that Christians do not realize. That principle is the following: “When a Christian believes a false doctrine, that doctrine brings him or her into bondage”. People act on false beliefs or false doctrines. They believe a lie and that lie brings certain realities into existence in their lives. These false doctrines cause people to say certain things and it causes people to do certain things. These words and these actions have devastating results in the lives of people. This is the reason why so many Christians are sick and why so many of them live really mediocre lives or lives of failure and defeat. It all starts in our minds. What happens when demonic forces slowly take control over our minds? The first things that are evident in people’s lives are the following? Doubt, unbelief and sin People start to doubt God’s word and God’s favor in their lives. That causes people to become insecure. People start to worry, stress and walking in fear. This happens in the lives of both Christians and nonbelievers. This is probably the first or lowest degree of demonic oppression. However, there are believers who really believe God and His word. These people do not walk in fear and they do not stress about anything in their lives. People like this are absolutely free in Christ. They are happy. They are healthy and they lack absolutely nothing.  People also get involved in all sorts of sins. Nonbelievers obviously more that Christians. Galatians 5:19-21 – Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings… Sickness Because of doubt, unbelief and sin, all sorts of sickness and diseases start to surface in the lives of Christians and nonbelievers. It is important to understand that these sickness and diseases are the natural result of sin, stress, fear and unbelief. Fear and stress are the most destructive cause of most diseases! Just because we doubt in God’s word and in His goodness, even Christians pay a very expensive price! These diseases and calamities do not come from God and it does not come from the devil. It is the fruit of our own actions and our own words of unbelief that we declare in our own lives. Although the Bible do refer to people who are sick, as being oppressed by satan, the sickness and diseases are actually caused by people getting involved in sin, doubt and unbelief. The devil cannot make you sick but he can cause sicknesses to come over you if you fall for his lies and temptations. You actually bring all these things over yourself! Undesirable behavior Depending on the severity of the control that evil spirits obtain over people’s minds, all sorts of unacceptable behavior start to surface in peoples lives. People feel a compulsion to abuse animals or other people. They feel that they have no control over their sexual desires. Things like sexual perversion and immorality like homosexuality and molestation start to surface in people’s lives. A compulsion to abuse their bodies with drugs, alcohol, gluttony and abuse or misuse of other substances start to surface in peoples lives. People start seeking spiritual knowledge through Eastern religions and other counterfeit religious groups like yoga, humanism and the many other false religions in the world today. People start getting involved in practices of the occult like fortune-telling, satanism and magic. Severe mental distress or oppression like anxiety, fear, anger, and disorientation at more serious levels in terms of severity start to surface in people’s lives. Psychological disorders like split and multiple personalities, schizophrenia and paranoia start to surface in people’s lives. People experience a constant inability to function normally. People experience a lack of freedom or joy and also an inability or constant refusal to repent of sin, though they know that they are sinning against God and against other people. Seriously violent demonic activities The most serious degree of satanic oppression results in seriously violent demonic activities. People start to act radically violent and intolerable towards other people. Murder, rape, satanism and satanic rituals and witchcraft start to surface in such peoples lives. These people are normally demon possessed and have almost lost complete control over their minds souls and spirits. Evil spirits run rampant in these peoples lives. These people are usually completely in serious bondage and cannot free themselves out of this nightmare that they allowed themselves into. They are a serious danger to themselves and to other people and needs to be delivered from satanic possession and oppression. How to deliver satanic oppressed people When it comes to deliverance, there is a very important principle that needs to be taken into consideration before a person is delivered. Every believer and even nonbelievers have a conscience and therefore the will and ability to choose what is right. The Lord taught me once that the human “kidney”, in dreams and visions, symbolizes the conscience of man. Just as the kidney purifies the blood, so the conscience of man “purifies” the life or soul of man. The “life” or the “soul” is in the blood. The spirit of man is already saved and in harmony with God. The soul however, needs to be purified by means of pursuing holiness. We need to live holy lives. It is all about making the right choices. It is all about removing specific sins out of our lives. When a person dreams that his “kidneys” are damaged or his “veins” are damaged or that something is wrong with his “blood”, it means that the process of “purification” cannot be carried out. This means that the person’s blood cannot be cleaned or purified. These organs need to be healed first before the blood can be cleansed or purified by the kidney. When the organs are all functioning, it speaks of the ability of the kidney to purify a person’s blood. When this happens, it symbolizes the acknowledgment of sin in a person’s life. The result or the outcome of this purification is usually symbolized in dreams by a person releasing himself (urinating). When the blood is purified by the kidneys, it releases a side product called urine. The urine goes to the bladder from where it is released. If you dream that you release yourself it speaks of victory over a particular sin in your life. This same principle is true when it comes to the “purification” of our souls. Most of the time a person can be delivered by mere counseling. Remember we said that the focus with deliverance is the word of God and the will of God for our lives. We need to change a person’s behavior through ministering the word of God to him. Such a person is given the opportunity to replace toxic thoughts (lies) with the pure living word of God. This word will purify the person’s thought pattern and will set him free. Sometimes however, mere counseling will have no effect. Such a person needs to be delivered from evil spirits first. The blockage that’s preventing this process of detoxification needs to be removed first. The word of God is powerful. We shall know the truth and the truth shall set us free. It is all about getting a person to find the truth. When we hear the word of God and we believe it, we are being delivered. There is absolutely enough power in the word of God to set us free. The moment we believe the word of God, we will declare it over our lives and it will put wonderful things in place in our lives. Real Biblical deliverance is not about waving a magic wand around. It is not about all sorts of rituals and all sorts of soulish spiritual warfare against evil. All the rituals that we so often see during deliverance have absolutely no value. People feel emotional and people’s hair are raising, they get goosebumps and it just feels to many people that they have really defeated the enemy by means of carrying out these rituals. The truth however is just the opposite. It sometimes unknowingly causes even more problems. The enemy is not the problem. People are always the problem. We allow the enemy to carry out unwanted things in our lives. They can do absolutely nothing if we do not allow them to. They have absolutely no power over us, even over nonbelievers. The influence of the word of God or the lack of the word of God in a person life is actually the problem. It might be a revelation to many people to understand that the primary focus, when delivering people from satanic oppression, is not the devil or the demons but rather the ministering of the word of God. We need to allow the word of God to deliver people. The problem however with people who are demon possessed, is that their conscience does not function anymore. Just like the damaged kidney or damage veins, which cause the purification process of the kidneys to malfunction, so the ability to pursue holiness in a person who has no control over his conscience or his own will, will also malfunction when it comes to living a holy life before God. Such a person has given the control over to demonic spirits and cannot really choose to do the right thing. Such a person needs to be delivered from demonic influences first before he can be truly delivered by means of counseling. In cases like this we briefly put our focus on the evil spirits. Practically this means we, if the person is demon possessed, cast the evil spirit or spirits out of the person or, if the person is demon oppressed, we take the demonic spirits away from them. When this is done, we put our attention immediately back where we need to; the power of the word of God in terms of proper Biblical counseling. Just by casting out demons or taking demons away, a person is not really delivered. The evil spirits will merely come back and possess the same person again together with even more other demons worse than themselves. By merely taking demonic spirits away from a person we will basically have the same result. Real deliverance is helping a person to be obedient to God and His word. Remember the Scripture, “Submit yourselves to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you”. We need to introduce people to the living Christ and the living word of God. We need to teach people to be obedient to God, His word and His will. We need to motivate people to pursue holiness. When people focus on God and his word, they will truly be delivered from demonic influences and demonic oppression. What does the taking away of spirits mean? The Scriptural grounds of this statement is found in Mark 16:18 Mark 16:18 (Geneva Pilgrims Bible – 1560) They shall take away serpents; and if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay their hands on the sick, and they shall recover. I truly view the 1560 Geneva Pilgrims Bible the most authentic Bible ever translated. Quite a number of versus in this Bible is different from other Bibles. The reason for this is that the reformers in the middle 1500’s, who translated this Bible from the original text, did an excellent job. Contrary to Bible translators in the Catholic church, these reformers truly translated exactly what they read in the original text. They did not adapt certain Scriptures to fit their own beliefs. Take this Scripture (Mark 16:18) as an example. In the original Greek text, the word incorrectly translated as “take up” by other translators is in fact “take away”. It says that they shall take away serpents. Serpents symbolizes demons. Mark 16:18 actually says that these Spirit filled believers will “take away” demons. They will take them away from people or from certain situations. They will actually deliver people from demonic influences. We know that there are two types of people who needs to be delivered from demons before we can minister the word of God to them effectively. People who are demon oppressed but still in control of their own free will and their own conscience, do not need to be delivered from demonic influences. We can minister the word of God to them and they can be delivered from oppression by merely applying the word of God in their lives. The second group, those who are demon oppressed but struggling to stay in control of their conscience and own free will, are those who need to be delivered from evil spirits by removing these spirits away from them. Removing evil spirits from them means to stop these spirits from influencing these people. However, it can also mean casting out evil spirits from their souls (not their spirits). This means they are not demon possessed but the evil spirits did take control over their souls. The third group, those who are demon possessed, have no control over their conscience and their own free will. We need to deliver these people by casting out the evil spirits from their spirits. In the life of Kenneth Hagin, something happened which shed more light on Mark 16:18 Years ago, Kenneth had a problem with a family member who was really struggling living a holy life. Although he did give his life and his heart to Jesus Christ, this guy was really struggling. He was backsliding often. He often did things that was not acceptable in the church of Christ. He lost his job many times. Other family members often complained to Kenneth about this family member who was really untrustworthy and a disgrace to the family. Kenneth often prayed for this guy. One day, after yet another family scandal, Kenneth again prayed for this man. He was seeking wisdom from God to change this person’s behavior. Whilst Kenneth was praying, he suddenly saw a vision of this man walking down a familiar street in their hometown. He then noticed that on the other side of the street, three huge demons that looked like baboons were walking alongside his family member. He could see how these demons interacted with this person. They were shouting at him. They were making all sorts of vulgar suggestions and remarks. Sometimes some of them ran across the street to the person and they jumped on him. It was clear that these three demons were giving this man a hard time. They were a really bad influence on this person. Although this man has been oppressed by these demons, he was only reaping what he sowed. He obviously allowed these baboons to influence him and he was seemingly not able to reverse this oppression. The Lord then told Kenneth that this person was struggling because of the influence of these demons. He then told him that he (Kenneth Hagin), being a child of God, can and may intervene by commanding these demons to leave this person, in the Name of Jesus Christ of course. Kenneth did just that. He reported that these demons, immediately when he told them to leave this person alone they did. He commanded them, in the Name of Jesus Christ, to leave (and then Kenneth spoke the name of this person), immediately. He commanded them to stop their manoeuvres in this person’s life. He also commanded them to never return to this person ever again. These demons got the fright of their lives and they left immediately. When Kenneth saw this family member again a few days later he immediately noticed a huge difference. This man immediately changed for the better. God was able to restore this man’s life after this incident. The Lord showed me in a dream that one of the major causes of demonic oppression is ignorance: In the dream I was lying on my back, half asleep, similar to what one experience when slowly waking up. Although not really awake I knew, in the dream, that I was eating something. I knew it was not food. It was hard like metal but I tasted a really sweet and pleasant liquid flowing into my mouth. Somebody woke me up just as I was enjoying this sweet taste in my mouth. When fully awake I decided that I need to check what I was eating. When I checked I realized that I was chewing on four penlight batteries. The number “4” symbolizes knowledge. In this dream it symbolized intellectual knowledge or intellectual revelation. I punctured some of these batteries with my teeth and that allowed this sweet liquid to flow into my mouth. This liquid was none other than battery acid. I immediately knew that the acid was about to burn and damage my mouth, teeth and stomach. I also noticed that the four batteries were connected to each other and wrapped inside a package. There was a label on the package. I attempted to read the label but realized that I destroyed the label with my teeth while chewing on the package in my sleep. The Lord showed me that this dream symbolized the method that demonic spirits utilize to oppress people. They look for a person who is ignorant regarding their spiritual conditions and obligations. That is symbolized by me being half asleep in the dream. While people are spiritually ignorant, demonic spirits deceive them by all sorts of lies that really taste wonderful as symbolized by the sweetness in my mouth in the dream. The damaged label symbolized the fact that people are totally unaware of what they are really eating. They are in fact eating toxic poison without even knowing it. This poison will destroy their ability to digest the word of God as symbolized by the damaged teeth, mouth and stomach. If demonic lies damage your spiritual teeth and spiritual stomach, it cannot digest the word of God. This is why demonic oppressed and demonic possessed people need to be delivered. The Lord also showed me in a dream what the enemy’s strategy is concerning the word of God: In the dream I was in a darkish rural area. I supernaturally knew that huge water tanks filled with water are hidden underground. I could see that sprayers were installed all over on top of these tanks but I could see that either the sprayers did not work or were missing. I could see that somebody threw alarm systems into these tanks at the sprayer holes. People were walking all around these tanks. I noticed that these people were ignorant and did not know what exactly was going on. One person asked me why the sprayers were not working. I told him that somebody (the enemy) installed alarm systems in the tanks and at the sprayers. Although huge resources of water were available to people, they did not use it because of it being hidden, equipment being missing and broken and alarm systems warning the enemy whenever somebody attempted to use the water. When the evil spirits is warned by the alarm system, they move in immediately to counter the word of God with lies. By this strategy (keeping the word of God in obscurity by means of unbelief), evil spirits prevent people from applying the word of God in their lives. If you have no access to the pure revelation power of the word of God, which can be applied in your live by removing impurities with the washing of water by the word of God, people cannot be delivered. Ephesians 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. I wrote this post to help people to be set free from demonic oppression effectively. It clearly explained the strategies of evil spirits and it clearly explained what our focus and strategies should be in order to set people free. It is all about true authentic, Biblical deliverance and that is why I attempted to cut away all the “clutter”. The “clutter” do not only confuse people, it also minimize the success of real deliverance. It sometimes even causes oppression! Deliverance is actually really simple. It is not the big thing with all the useless rituals the people so easily get involved with. There is no need for breaking all sorts of curses and cleaning houses and all the focusing on spirits and all sorts of spiritual warfare. It is all about God and His word. It is all about proper Biblical counseling. Of course we do teach people to stay away from occultism, pornography, astrology, demonic music, drugs, magazines of the occult, books of false religions and idols of pagan gods and so forth. It is however not the big spiritual thing that people make it. Just tell the person to go to his house and if he is guilty doing these things or knows of things like this in his house, to stop doing it and to get rid of these things. He can do it himself. These things are wrong and should be stopped or removed from his house yes but do not make a big thing out of it. The focus should be God and His word. I believe that this post will bring more clarity on proper Biblical deliverance and that it will help people to effectively deliver people from demonic oppression and possession. All local resources on this website are free of charge. Please help us by sharing it with your friends through the social networks. Social network sharing buttons available atRead more

Pastors Do Not Believe In Rapture A large number of evangelical pastors do not believe in the rapture. This was a finding after a survey was conducted recently in the USA. This post is an excerpt of the survey as reported by the Christian broadcasting Network. End-times theology is wavering in the Christian church and a large number of Protestant pastors believe there is no rapture. Whether pre-tribulation or post rapture, a new study by LifeWay research reveals that pinning down details of the apocalypse among a group of pastors is hard to do.  Although the scriptures make it clear that Jesus is coming back researchers found varying views on three aspects of end-times theology: the rapture, the Antichrist, and the millennial kingdom.  Out of the 1,000 senior Protestant pastors surveyed, only a third (36 percent) believed in a pre-tribulation rapture where Christians disappear at the start of the apocalypse and those left behind suffer tribulation.  Thirty-six percent of pastors say the rapture is not literal, while almost 1 in 5 believe the rapture happens after the tribulation (18 percent).  End-times theology is popular with churchgoers but it is not an easy topic to preach about, Scott McConnell, vice president of LifeWay Research, explained. “Most people want their pastor to preach about the Book of Revelation and the end of the world,” he said. “But that’s a complicated task. Pastors and the scholars they cite often disagree about how the end times will unfold.” The diversity among eschatological views includes varying opinions on the Anti-Christ and beliefs in a millennial kingdom.  About half of pastors (49 percent) see the Anti-Christ as a figure who will arise in the future, 14 percent believe he is the personification of evil, while 12 percent say he is not an actual person.  Close to half of the pastors surveyed believe in pre-millennialism (48 percent), which is the view that the thousand year reign of Christ happens in the future.  A third (31 percent) of leaders don’t believe in a thousand year reign but they do believe that Jesus already rules in the hearts and minds of Christians. Close to 1 in 10 (11 percent) believe in post-millennialism, the idea that the world will gradually become more Christian until Jesus returns. McConnell said it isn’t a bad thing that pastors disagree on the details of the apocalypse because most agree on the main teachings about the Second Coming of Jesus. He said the rest doesn’t affect the day-to-day life of most Christians. “The big picture of Revelation is clear: Jesus returns, people must be ready, evil is defeated,” he said. “With the rest of the details, there is room for disagreement.” – CBN A large number of pastors believe that although there is a second coming, it will however not be preceded by a rapture or any of the very popular events believed by many Christians all over the world. End-times beliefs have it’s roots deep from within the Roman Catholic Church. These beliefs are in fact not that old. Based on historical records and information, the early church did not believe in the end-times doctrines or theology as we do today. It was much later, after Constantine institutionalized the church that this believe was birthed and preached by the Catholic church. It became very popular and spread right across the world within many church denominations. Although it is still very popular, the end-times theology as we know it is rapidly wavering in the Christian church. Many believe that the Scriptures do not depict these events at all. On the contrary, many Scriptures in the Bible depicts quite a different story. Well the debate around the end-times theology is still very far from over. For more information on this subject, check out our “Resources” page. The book, “Understanding the prophetic times we live in” covers this subject in detail. All local resources on this website are free of charge. Please help us by sharing it with your friends through the social networks. Social network sharing buttons availaRead more

House Churches For Global Impact Simple/organic church folk might be key to the army God is preparing for needed global impact. Though progress is being made, some estimate there are still over 6,000 unreached people groups (out of 11,700 total people groups) in which less than 2% are believers.  To live within such an unreached group means that it is highly likely you will live and die never hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Here is a simple overview of unreached people groups worldwide along with the reminder that Jesus clearly said his target is ‘all nations’ meaning all people groups (‘ta ethne’). So, why might simple/organic church folk be the very army that God is preparing for global impact? 1. Training is needed throughout the world in disciplemaking movements that lead to church planting movements so that these large groups of unreached people can be reached with the Gospel.  While business/institutional models of church hinder these movements, simple/organic church folk understand the type of church gatherings that can help facilitate and release such movements.  This understanding is needed throughout the world. 2. Simple/organic church folk understand that money is not needed for the church to grow and reproduce making it much easier for the Gospel to go forward.  Furthermore, much money can be freed up from the west, through simple/organic church expressions to flow into unreached parts of the world.  3. Simple/organic church folk understand that the life of a Jesus follower is a 24/7 lifestyle rather than the passive attendance of church services.  This means more vibrant, impactful disciples are made. 4. Simple/organic church folk are committed to hearing and following the voice of Jesus and none other.  As we continue to tune our ears more and more to him, it is likely that his heart for ‘all peoples’ will motivate more and more people to reach beyond the comfort of their own people group and extend themselves to reach others. 5. Simple/organic church folk understand that the church is a going organism, not a come-and-sit event.  Our mentality is to be involved with Jesus in his mission throughout the world.  We live with a readiness to go where he sends! All local resources on this website are free of charge. Please help us by sharing it with your friends through the social networks. Social network sharing buttons availablRead more

Why Was the Azusa Street Revival So Dynamic? AA Allen and Azusa Street Revival Audio Version Of This Web Page MP3 Player behaving funny? Try a different browser or a different device Although the Azusa street revival was a well known phenomenon, most people today do not really know what happened at all during those three wonderful years in the early 1900’s in Los Angeles. This short post is just a short summary, which will bring you up to date on this historic revival that changed the world so dramatically: In a nutshell, what really happened at 312 Azuza street, Los Angeles, California? William J. Seymore, a black man, was born to former slaves Simon and Phyllis Salabar Seymour in Centerville, Louisiana on May 2, 1870. He was baptized at the Roman Catholic Church of the Assumption in Franklin, and attended the New Providence Baptist Church in Centerville with his family. Moving into the home of Edward Lee, a janitor at a local bank, Bishop William J. Seymour began ministry with a prayer group that had been meeting regularly at the home of Richard and Ruth Asbery, at 214 North Bonnie Brae. Asbery was also employed as a janitor. Most of the worshippers were African-American, with occasional visits from whites. As the group sought God for revival, their hunger intensified. Finally, on April 9, Lee was baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. When the news of his baptism was shared with the true believers at Bonnie Brae, a powerful outpouring followed. Many received the Holy Spirit baptism as Pentecostal revival arrived on the West Coast. That evening would be hard to describe. People fell to the floor as if unconscious, others shouted and ran through the house. One neighbor, Jennie Evans Moore played the piano, something she did not have the ability to do before. Over the next few days of continuous outpouring, hundreds gathered. The streets were filled and Seymour preached from the Asbery’s porch. On April 12, three days after the initial outpouring, Seymour received his baptism of power. Quickly outgrowing the Asbery home, the faithful searched for a home for a new church. They found their building at 312 Azusa Street. The mission had been built as an African Methodist Episcopal Church, but when the former tenets vacated, the upstairs sanctuary had been converted into apartments. A fire destroyed the pitched roof and it was replaced with a flat roof giving the 40 X 60 feet building the appearance of a square box. The unfinished downstairs with a low ceiling and dirt floor was used as a storage building and stable. This downstairs became the home of the Apostolic Faith Mission. Mix matched chairs and wooden planks were collected for seats and a prayer altar and two wooden crates covered by a cheap cloth became the pulpit. From this humble location, the Pentecostal truth was spread around the world. Visitors came from locations both far and near to be part of the great revival at the Apostolic Faith Mission at 312 Azusa Street in Los Angeles. On April 17, The Los Angeles Daily Times sent a reporter to the revival. In his article the next day, he baffooned the meeting and the pastor, calling the worshippers “a new sect of fanatics” and Seymour “an old exhorter.” He mocked their glossolalia as “weird babel of tongues.” More important than the critical opinions expressed by the reporter was the providential timing of his visit. The article was published on the same day as the great earthquake in San Fransciso. Southern Californians, already gripped with fear, learned of a revival where doomsday prophecies were common. Immediately, Frank Bartleman, an itenerate evangelist and Azusa Street participant published a tract about the earthquake. Thousands of the tracts, filled with end-time prophecies, were distributed. Soon, multitudes gathered at Azusa Street. One attendee said more than a thousand at a time would crowd onto the property. Hundreds would fill the little building; others would watch from the boardwalk; and, more would overflow into the dirt street. Services at the mission were conducted three times each day at 10 AM, noon and 7 PM. They often ran together until the entire day became one worship service. This schedule was continued seven days a week for more than three years. It was common for the lost to be saved, sick healed, demonized delivered, and seekers to be baptized in the Spirit in almost every meeting. Many of the early leaders of the Pentecostal movement received their Holy Ghost baptism or worshipped at the Azusa “plank” altar. In 1906 when there were more lynchings of black men then in any other year of America’s history, Seymour led an interracial worship service. At Azusa Street there were no preferences for age, gender, or race. One worshipper said, “The blood of Jesus washed the color line away.” – 312 Azusa Street In a nutshell, what characterized this revival? Meetings began at 10 o’clock every morning and continued until near midnight. There were three altar services daily. The altar was a plank on two chairs in the centre of the room, and here the Holy Ghost fell on men and women and children in old Pentecostal fashion as soon as they have a clear experience of heart purity. Proud preachers and laymen with great heads, filled and inflated with all kinds of theories and beliefs, have come here from all parts, have humbled themselves and got down, not “in the straw,” but “on” the straw matting, and have thrown away their notions, and have wept in conscious emptiness before God and begged to be “endued with power from on high,” and every honest believer has received the wonderful incoming of the Holy Spirit to fill and thrill and melt and energize his physical frame and faculties, and the Spirit has witnessed to His presence by using the vocal organs in the speaking forth of a ‘new tongue.’” There were no hymn-books nor musical instruments, and no collections were taken. A sign on the wall over a free-will offering box declared, “Settle with the Lord.” No teachings or ministries were prepared; everything was left to the spontaneity of the Spirit. The pulpit was composed of two large wooden “shoe boxes.” The preaching was simple and direct and covered themes taught in many other holiness missions: salvation by a personal acceptance of Jesus as Saviour sanctification by renunciation of sin and turning from worldiness, abandonment of rigid traditions and the legalisms of man-made religion, the baptism of the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues, divine healing and the premillennial return of Jesus. Often personal testimonies were given or were read from correspondence from those elsewhere. In Bartleman’s ‘What really happened at Azusa Street’ he states, “ Suddenly the Spirit would fall upon the congregation. God himself would give the altar call. Men would fall all over the house, like the slain in battle, or rush for the altar en masse to seek God. The scene often resembled a forest of fallen trees…. Some claim to have seen the (shekinah) glory by night over the building.” “Especially did the enchanting strains of the so-called “Heavenly Choir,” or hymns sung under the evident direction of the Holy Spirit both as to words and tune, thrill my whole being. It was not something that could be repeated at will, but supernaturally given for each special occasion and was one of the most indisputable evidences of the presence of the power of God. Perhaps nothing so greatly impressed people as this singing; at once inspiring a holy awe, or a feeling of indescribable wonder, especially if the hearers were in devout attitude.” “Divine love was wonderfully manifest in the meetings. They would not even allow an unkind word said against their opposers or the churches. The message was ‘the love of God.’ It was a sort of ‘first love’ of the early church returned. The ‘baptism,’ as we received it in the beginning, did not allow us to think, speak or hear evil of any man. The Spirit was very sensitive, tender as a dove.” One man at Azusa said, “I would have rather lived six months at that time than fifty years of ordinary life. I have stopped more than once within two blocks of the place and prayed for strength before I dared go on. The presence of the Lord was so real.” Scores of people were seen dropping into a prostrate position in the streets before they ever reached the mission. Then many would get up, speaking in tongues without any influence from the Azusa people. God had come to accomplish His work! G. H. Lang reports that some who came to investigate were baptised in the Holy Spirit in their lodgings. “Scores of personal and eyewitness accounts attest that many who came to ridicule the meetings were knocked to the floor where they seemed to wrestle with unseen opponents, sometimes for hours. These people generally arose convicted of sin and seeking God. One foreign-born reporter had been assigned by his paper to record the “circus-like” atmosphere in a comic-relief fashion. He attended a night-time meeting, sitting far in the back. In the midst of the meeting a young woman began to testify about how God had baptized her with the Holy Spirit when she suddenly broke into tongues. After the meeting the reporter sought her out and asked her where she had learned the language of his native country. She answered that she didn’t have any idea what she had said, and that she spoke only English. He then related to her that she had given an entirely accurate account of his sinful life, all in the language of his native tongue .” IDFC art. Other eyewitnesses reported seeing a holy glow emanating from the building that could be seen from streets away. Others reported hearing sounds from the wooden building like explosions that reverberated around the neighbourhood. Such phenomena caused onlookers to call the Fire Department out on several occasions when a blaze or explosion was reported at the mission building. The Child Welfare Agency tried to shut down the meetings because there were unsupervised children within and around the building at all hours of the day and night. The Health Department tried to stop the meetings because they said the cramped quarters were unsanitary and a danger to public health. God-hungry Christians flocked in from everywhere. Bartleman states that “about a dozen saints,” met at Azusa on Thursday, Apr. 19, although this may be how many were there when he arrived. Arthur Osterberg, an early member, later claimed the first service at Azusa, was made up of 100 people. The Los Angeles Times reported a “crowd” that included a majority of blacks with “a sprinkling of whites.” Weekend crowds were larger than those on weekdays. Growth was quick and substantial. Most sources indicate the presence of about 300 to 350 worshipers inside the 40-by-60-foot whitewashed, wood-frame structure, with others mingling outside before the end of summer, including seekers, hecklers, and children. At times it may have been double that. By summer, crowds had reached staggering numbers, often into the thousands. The scene had become an international gathering. One account states that, “Every day trains unloaded numbers of visitors who came from all over the continent. News accounts of the meeting spread over the nation in both the secular and religious press.” – Revival Library In a nutshell, why was the Azuza street revival so significant, so successful and so dynamic? Jesus Christ, the Head of the church, was actually in control of the meetings: At Azusa, the services were so anointed that if anyone got up to speak from their intellectual understanding, the Spirit filled believers would break out in wailing sobs. This had been illustrated well in a story about a woman called Mother Jones. One man arose to speak, apparently not being led by the Spirit. As he stood and preached, Mother Jones is said to have quietly hurried up to the platform, where she sat at the the foot of the pulpit, then stared up at the fellow with icy, foreboding eyes. Finally she said, “Can’t you see that you aren’t anointed to preach?” Because of this incident, Mother Jones quickly earned a reputation that discouraged any unanointed preacher from standing at the pulpit. It is said that all she had to do was stand up, and the unanointed preacher would run from the pulpit! – Roberts Liardon At Azusa, the body of Christ, as an “all partaking and all functioning” unit, ministered unto each other as instruments in the hands of God, equal in position despite their race, gender and age. With the Holy Spirit free to move as He pleased, the meetings were spontaneous. No one ever knew what would happen or who the speaker would be. All the music was impromptu without the use of instruments or hymn books. The meetings began with someone singing a song or giving a testimony. There was no program to follow. Under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, someone would finally arise to bring forth the message. Everyone knew it was instigated, anointed, and approved by the Holy Spirit. The speaker could be any race, age, or gender. Everyone felt that God was responsible for the altar calls which would take place at any point during the meetings. The sermons were inspired in English or in tongues with interpretation. The anointing of God was so strong that if anyone got up to speak from their own flesh for glory, the Spirit would move on the believers and they would break out in wailing cries and sobs. Sometimes the services would last continuously for ten to twelve hours. Some for several days and nights! The people never tired because they were so energized by the Holy Spirit. When services ended in the early morning hours many could be seen congregating under the street lights talking about the Lord. Great emphasis was placed on the blood of Jesus. A higher standard of living in Christ was stressed. Divine love began to manifest among the people, allowing no unkind words to be spoken of another. Everyone was so careful that the Spirit of God would not be grieved. – Cane Creek The experience of this group of people was very interesting. It tells us a lot about the will and the ways of God when it comes to the church of Christ getting together in his Name. To me, it was the body of Christ gathering together as equals to meet God. It was a gathering where God was in control. People were not in control and programs were not in control. This changed everything. It is for this reason that people converted to Christianity at an unprecedented pace. This is why the church expanded dramatically and why there was so much spiritual growth. This is why so many people were delivered and healed and restored. This was the true Biblical church in action. They truly got together the Biblical way as described in 1 Corinthians 14:26. How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. These meetings were truly New-Testament house church style! It is my honest opinion that this is what God wants to bring into existence in the world. This is what the world needs right now. They need to meet Spirit-filled Christians who are not only capable of delivering them and heal them and restore them, they also need churches and congregation that can introduce them to an authentic and powerful lifestyle and an authentic living God that they can truly experience in a significant and wonderful way every time that they get together. When we live holy lives and if we learn to allow the Holy Spirit to move freely among us, we will change the lives of many people. If we allow Jesus Christ to be the Head of the church again, we will change this world. For more about this move of God, read my post, “The latest news on house churches” All local resources on this website are free of charge. Please help us by sharing it with your friends through the social networks. SocRead more

How To Outsource Your Worries? Most of the teachings I’ve heard about overcoming worry were the equivalent of handing out umbrellas during a hurricane. The New Testament encourages us to outsource our worry. (The word “outsource” means to delegate a task to someone else) Consider this text: “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and He will exalt you in due time. Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” ~ 1 Peter 5:6-7 Peter instructs the Christians to whom he’s writing to cast their anxiety, their worry, and their care upon the Lord because He cares for them. I will shamelessly admit that I’m a recovering worrier. Over the years, however, I discovered a way to overcome worry when it comes knocking on the door of my mind. Here are three steps that will enable you give worry an atomic knee drop: 1) Humble yourself under God’s mighty hand This means, among other things, admitting to yourself that you’re a mere mortal who cannot control your circumstances. It means accepting that the unexplained twists and unfair turns of life are in God’s hands. It means believing that God has a good and positive purpose for allowing everything that comes your way, the good, the bad, and the unbearable. In other words, Romans 8:28 is still in the Bible. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” The act of recognizing that God is sovereign, that He’s in control, and that He has a purpose for everything that comes into your life demands humility. There’s a certain surrender involved that’s good for the mind and heart. 2) Cast your care upon the Lord “Care” in this passage means anxiety, worry, concern, or fear. “Cast” means to throw something upon another. The same verb is used in Luke 19:35 where the disciples toss (or cast) their cloaks over a donkey to make a saddle for Jesus. The idea here is one of transference. To cast my anxiety, worry, and care upon the Lord means that I transfer, delegate, and outsource it to Him. When you do this, the anxiety is no longer yours. You’ve handed the situation over to God, so it’s His worry now. The basis for this outsourcing is His care for you. Because He cares, you don’t have to. You can live care-free. On one level, you still care about the situation. But on a higher level, you no longer care because you’ve transferred your care over to God. For this reason, a worry-free person appears to not care. Consequently, there’s great liberty and freedom in outsourcing your worry to God. To illustrate, suppose that you give your smart phone to a friend. Your friend puts his contacts and apps on the phone and begins using it. The next day your spouse asks, “Where’s your phone?” You answer, “I don’t have it. I gave it to my friend. It belongs to him. It’s his business now.” The same dynamic occurs when you outsource your worry to God. The worry is no longer yours. It’s His. So let God do the worrying. Remember, He cares for you, so He has a stake in the situation too. 3) Use a tangible symbol to remind yourself that you’ve outsourced your worry to God You can come up with your own symbol for this, but when I cast a specific care on the Lord, I tell the Lord what I want to see Him do in the situation (this is called petition). Then I throw the burden of it on His shoulders. After that, I write down the situation using one word or (even one letter) on a 3 x 5 index card. As I’ve described in my new Prolific program, the act of writing clears space in our mind. I then place the index card in a specific Bible that’s sitting on my bookshelf — a Bible that I only use for this exercise. I open the Bible to one of the Psalms (randomly) and place the card there. This symbolizes that I no longer own the worry. It’s now God’s When the enemy tries to assault my mind with the worry, I simply call to mind the card that I inserted in the Psalms. God has it. The situation is in hands more capable than my own. The worry doesn’t belong to me anymore. To be free from worry, you may want to do the same. You see, after you cast your worry on the Lord, you will be tempted to take it back and fret over it again. Especially when time passes and you see nothing happen with the situation. That’s the time to remind yourself that you’ve outsourced the problem to God and it belongs to Him. To put it in the words of James: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” ~ James 4:7 A Critical Insight Over the years, I’ve come to realize that having peace in my heart amid a turbulent or disconcerting situation is critically important to the Lord. And it’s critical for my spiritual, emotional, and physical well being. The goal is to remain at peace in the face of conflict, opposition, and crisis. If you’re at peace, you have faith, and faith is what pleases God. It’s also what releases God’s action in the situation. Worrying produces damage to your spirit as well as to your soul and body. As Jesus-followers, we don’t have to fret. Peace is part of our inheritance. For this reason, Paul told the Philippians, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” ~ Philippians 4:6 Jesus also gave a lengthy discourse on why His followers have no need to worry (Matthew 6:25-34). He said, “don’t worry about your life … look at the birds and the lilies.” To a person who is in Christ, worry should be as impossible as it is for birds and flowers, both of which are incapable of anxiety. Even in the Old Testament, we have the precursor to Peter’s instruction to cast our care upon the Lord: “Cast your burden on the Lord and He will sustain you” ~ Psalm 55:22 During His earthly life, Jesus was the most care-free person in the universe. He cast all His care upon His Father and lived worry-free. Since the same Spirit that was in Christ is now in you, you can respond to the Lord is the same way, making God your Source. Remember, God the Father loves and cares for you just as much as He loves and cares for His Son, Jesus. … So that the world may know that You (Father) sent Me, and loved them (My disciples), even as You have loved Me. ~ John 17:23 So take some time to deliberately cast your burden, your care, your anxiety, and your worry over to the Lord, knowing that He cares for you. And when you’re tempted to take it back into your own hands, stand your ground and reaffirm that the care belongs to God and not to you. In so doing, you will learn Christ as your Peace in times when it’s logical to worry. What in this article did you find to be the most meaningful? If you’ve found an additional strategy to defeat worry, what was it? – Frank Viola All local resources on this website are free of charge. Please help us by sharing it with your friends through the social networks. Social network sharing buttons available at thRead more

We Need a Parent Compass! Parent Compass television launched an online web series about Christian parents who will share the struggles and joys of raising godly children in a changing culture. The twelve part series began on May 20, 2016. Families will open up their hearts and homes to talk about marriage, child-rearing, and faith. This is an online web series and therefore you can watch all episodes at your own time and convenience. All the families differ in race and economic status but one thing they have in common is their faith in God. Parent Compass Founder and President Natalie Jones believes this one-of-a-kind series will offer hope to moms and dads who need encouragement. “Parents feeling overwhelmed and isolated now have true stories of God’s peace amidst endless difficulties,” said the mother of five. The Pitts are one family featured on the new series. They’re raising four daughters, including Alena, the jump-roping child star of the box office smash War Room. Mark and Shanell Rusk are also on the show. They’re raising a blended family of 11 in a Habitat Humanity home they helped build. The show will cover issues like raising girls, teen arguments, dealing with job loss, and finding forgiveness. “Parent Compass parents open their homes and families to let their lives encourage, inspire and empower,” said Jones on the show’s website.  On the Parent Compass website, meanwhile, parents may request prayer and, with each episode, go deeper with more information.  “No one has to parent alone,” Jones added. “God, Christ and the Holy Spirit are waiting for us to ask for help.” Please take note that this is an online web series. You need to subscribe in order to receive an email notification when each episode is released. Click on the link below to watch the first episode which was released on 20 May 2016: All local resources on this website are free of charge. Please help us by sharing it with your friends through the social networks. Social network sharing buttons available at the bottom of allRead more

Is Sicknesses And Diseases From God? This is a very important question. The Bible clearly tells us what the will of God is regarding thisRead more

Community Church: The Next Five Years Let me be clear at the outset. I’m not making a prediction. Nor am I prophesying. (That being interpreted means, stoning is off the table.) What I’m about to share are simply deep impressions I have of what I envision happening in the body of Christ over the next five years. I’m by no means claiming immaculate perception. But right or wrong, I do expect these things to take place. There will be a restoration of the full message of the kingdom of God. Over the last 50 years until the present day, when the kingdom of God has been presented, it’s usually piecemeal (only one or two aspects of it are emphasized), it’s couched in legalism and guilt, or it’s presented in highly academic manner void of any practical application. I see this changing over the next five years. The blistering, high-voltage, deeply-subversive, earth-shaking kingdom message will begin to be unleashed in the earth again. Many who are called to the Lord’s work, but who are presently in a holding pattern of waiting, will be released to minister. A number of well-known leaders from different streams in the body of Christ will begin co-working together. They will no longer stay in their safe comfort zones and religious cliques. Related to the above, God will begin laying the groundwork for a powerful ministry team to emerge and cut loose in the world. This team will bear the kingdom message together. The Lord will raise up a tribe of Christians whose devotion to Jesus Christ and His kingdom will be just as radical, absolute, and unshakable as the devotion that the members of ISIS have to their cause. (Without the violence and barbarism, of course. I’m speaking about their level of allegiance.) A growing number of Christian Millennials will be stirred by the Spirit of God to hunger and thirst for the deeper things of Christ. This hunger and thirst will spread worldwide…. – Frank Viola Click on this link to read more: The Next Five Years All local resources on this website are free of charge. Please help us by sharing it with your friends through the social networks. Social network sharingRead more

T – Symbols Dreams And Visions The “Dreams Dictionary” is now available to all our readers at a special discount price, and what’s more; it is yours for life! Other than the Free online Dreams Dictionary, the book will be updated regularly and will be a lot more comprehensive. Please check out all the benefits you receive on purchase of the Dictionary: The Dreams and Visions Dictionary (Book) will be updated as new symbols and the meanings of new symbols are identified. For this reason the book’s edition number or revision date will be important to take note of. Dictionary owners will always be able to download the latest edition of the Dreams Dictionary by means of the “download link” that they received when they purchased the dictionary. Keep your download link saved on your PC or on your email server. Links can be regenerated and emailed to you by requesting for it by email. How should I use the free online dreams and visions symbols dictionary? Read through the explanation of the meanings(s) of the particular symbol. Make sure you take note of deviations and exceptions regarding the different meanings. Record the meanings. Identify the incident that triggered the dream or the vision. This is the basis or the foundation from where you start or build your interpretation process. Before you start, you need to understand what triggered the dream or the vision. Read about this principle at this link: The Golden Key Please take note, in order to learn the Biblical language of symbols, you need to read this information: How to interpret dreams and visions symbols correctly Click on the following letters of the alphabet for the relevant symbol that you are looking for: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Colors in dreams and visions Numbers in dreams and visions Shapes in dreams and visions Directions, movement and positions in dreams and visions Substitution in dreams and visions T – Symbols (The meanings or the interpretation of most symbols in this dictionary are derived from the Bible) Table Psalm 23:5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. A table in dreams and visions symbolizes a place where spiritual food is served. It speaks a place where people can enjoy “eating” the word of God. It is where the teaching ministry is functioning in the body of Christ. Table (Meeting) In another sense, a table in dreams and visions symbolizes the decision-making process of the church or a specific congregation. This is where the congregation meets to make decisions. Tank (With water) See “Water (tank)” Tap Acts 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Romans 13:2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. A tap in dreams and visions is a symbol of the will of a person. It is all about people’s willingness to accept the word of God and the will of God. It is about their willingness to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is about accepting workings of the Holy Spirit. It can be in general sense but it can also be in a particular situation or move of God. A tap in a dream can also symbolize the will of a person in a natural sense. In such a case, it speaks of the willingness of a person to participate in something or to accept something. Taps in dreams and visions speak of a person’s willingness to allow something (water) to pass (flow) through him. A person’s will is, therefore, a flow or a movement. If a person is not willing to do or to accept something it is similar to him closing the tap so that there is no flow. See “Tap (Black)” and “Tap (Red)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Tap (Closed) A closed tap speaks of a person who is unwilling to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. See “Tap” Taste See “Bitter” an see “Sweet” for a better understanding of this symbol. Tea (Bag or cup or pot) Tea in dreams and visions symbolizes having a break or a time of relaxation. We always need to look after our bodies, our mental conditions and our states of mind. If we become too much involved in things for too long we sometimes burn ourselves out. It is very difficult for God to speak to people who are too busy or too tired. We need to get enough sleep and even enough time for relaxation so that we can cope with the tensions and the trials of life. We need to be still or to quiet down often enough so that we can hear the voice of God. Do not be surprised if God shows you a vision of a teapot or tea bag or teacups to get you to relax a bit. See “Teabags (With a hot kettle)” Teeth The condition of our teeth in dreams and visions indicates our ability to “eat” the word of God. The biting in smaller chunks and the crushing and mincing of our food to allow our digestive systems to congest our food is very important. It all starts with our teeth. Any defects regarding our teeth indicate why we struggle with the word of God. People who dream that there is something wrong with their teeth have a problem with accepting the word of God. For instance, a person dreaming that their teeth are breaking whilst eating speaks of the true and solid word of God being too much for them to accept or to digest. People like this normally have all sorts of problems with doctrines like prosperity teachings, the moving of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, the gifts of the Spirit, divine healing, casting out of demons, etc. Many of these people live in fear when it comes to doctrines that I mentioned above. They are constantly warning each other against all sorts of false doctrines and false preachers. Their fears actually become a very serious hindrance in their lives and they stay in bondage and in fear and skepticism when it comes to solid spiritual foods. Always remember to take the difference in meanings into consideration in terms of whether it is the left or right body part that you dreamed of. See “Directions and Locations (movement or location) in dreams and visions (Human body parts)” See “Brushing teeth” and “Food” for a better understanding of this symbol. Tennis 1 Corinthians 2:4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Tennis in dreams and visions symbolizes a person or a situation where firm but gentle reasoning will come into play. It is almost like “golf” in terms of each player getting a fair chance to make his argument or to present his views or beliefs. The purpose is however always to win the argument and therefore a tennis player is constantly and purposely trying to outplay his opponent. It is a bit more aggressive than golf. See “Games (Sport/Playing)” to understand the reason why we dream of this symbol. See “Tennis racket” Thicket See “Tree (Thicket)” Throne (Person on a throne with staff in hand) A person on a throne with a staff in his or her hand symbolizes a person who is victorious in his or her spiritual life. Such a person has taken up his position of authority and kingship in the kingdom of God. See “King” for a better and more detailed explanation of this symbol. Tick A tick symbolizes a person who is drawing excitement and inspiration from others. It speaks of people who act like parasites. They suck all energy and life out of other people. They do not have their own spiritual revelations and inspiration and innovation or creativity. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Tidal wave A tidal wave in dreams and visions symbolizes a big event that comes out of the world. It is usually a major change or move or event that influence a lot of people. Tiger Jeremiah 5:6 Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased. Romans 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. In a natural sense (non-spiritual), a tiger in dreams and visions symbolizes an obsessive drive to satisfy basic or carnal needs. It speaks of a person with a strong motivation to dominate or to rule others. It sometimes indicates domination or the ruling over a certain political or social domain. Like a tiger, such a person is not submitting himself to others. He lives for himself and his own basic needs and is led by carnal instincts and natural drives. In a spiritual sense, such a person is completely dead to the revelation and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He will not submit himself to God. A tiger in this sense symbolizes blasphemy against God and the gifts and workings of the Holy Spirit. A tiger is closely related to the blasphemous nature of the leopard. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. See “Tiger (Head – Big and pale)” Tiles Tiles are flimsy building material which is used for decorative purposes and not so much for strengthening a building. In the church, this speaks of spiritual additions in the life of a person which are not really useful or valuable in a spiritual sense. In a positive sense, tiles symbolize spiritual beauty as a foundational characteristic in the life of a person (floor). Beauty in a spiritual sense is a virtue and it symbolizes a good and beautiful finished status in the life of a person. See “Buildings” There are so many people who do not know about the FREE online Dreams Symbols Dictionary or the FREE Dreams Symbols Interpretation Course! This is SAD. It has the potential to enrich their lives so much and bring them closer to God. Please make it a habit to share all our content by means of the Social Sharing Buttons at the bottom of all our pages. We are eternally grateful for that. Toes Toes in dreams and visions speak of the courageous actions of spiritual leaders and apostles taking possession of a country for Christ in a spiritual sense and leading and motivating people. Whilst the fingers speak of organizing, arranging, and guiding of spiritual matters in ministry, the toes speak of actually performing the work of the ministry as it was planned. It speaks of a willingness to preach the gospel of Christ. See “Shoes” Always remember to take the difference in meanings into consideration in terms of whether it is the left or right body part that you dreamed of. See “Directions and Locations (movement or location) in dreams and visions (Human body parts)” Toilet (Passing solids) Galatians 4:24-25 24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. Hebrews 6:1-2 6 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, 2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. A toilet symbolizes the repentance and confession of a Christian to deal with inner emotional issues and emotional sins in their lives. A person going to the toilet is cleansing himself (his inner being) of bitterness, hate, unforgiveness, and other bad and sinful emotional issues through confession and repentance. It is a sin to harbor feelings of bitterness and unforgiveness. This is the last step of the process called “the spiritual digestion process” in terms of the digestive system of the spirit man. A person going to the toilet to pass out solids speaks of the removal of spiritual blocks and garbage through repentance and confession. Note that this is not the same as bathing where one repents to becomes a child of God as symbolized through the washing of one’s body with soap in a bathtub. See “Bathing” I once had a dream of a woman in a toilet. I noticed that there was no toilet inside the cubicle, only a hand-basin. I saw this woman walking up and down in the small cubicle clearly in a lot of distress. She desperately needed to use a toilet but there was none. This speaks of this woman being in a lot of spiritual distress because for some reason she could not be released of all sorts of emotional garbage and emotional sins in her life. She wanted to but something prevented her from doing that. That is why there was no toilet in the cubicle in the dream. I knew that this woman needed special counseling and assistance and the opportunity to deal with her emotional sins in this regard. Sometimes people dream that they are searching for a toilet and cannot find one. This suggests that the person needs counseling or a person are not allowed by something or someone to deal with emotional issues and sin in their lives. Sometimes they dream that they accidentally pass solids inside their trousers in public. This speaks of them having a great need to repent and get rid of emotional issues but they fail to so. They, however, know that they need to deal with their issues which leads to “little accidents” in public. Sometimes they dream that they want to go to a toilet but that they do not have toilet paper. The use of toilet paper after we used the toilet speaks of us completely dealing with an issue. It speaks of closure. The absence of toilet paper or toilet paper which is unusable for some reason, speaks of a person not ready or able yet to completely deal with the issue. Dirty toilet paper speaks of a person who is not yet ready to deal with emotional issues and sins in their lives because they still enjoy those things that they halfheartedly want to get rid of. Sometimes people dream that they use the toilet but that they attempt to push the solids back into their digestive system with their hands. This speaks of someone not completely willing to deal with emotional garbage and sins in their lives. See “Constipation” and “Hemorrhoids” When we use the toilet in a dream it is a good sign. We have dealt with the issues in our lives. When we use toilet paper to clean ourselves it is a good sign because that speaks of closure in this regard. See “Food” for a better understanding of why we have a buildup of spiritual solids in our spiritual digestive system. It is mainly bitter, negative, insulting, hateful words that we allowed into our souls which is bad spiritual food. It is words of resentment. It is the lies that people speak over our lives. It is toxic spiritual food. It is words of unbelief that people cause us to believe but it is also undesired events and incidents that happen to us. Being healed and cleansed of emotional issues and sins in our lives (passing solids) are different from being healed and cleansed from pain and emotional issues caused by other people’s wrongdoing in our lives and even innocent traumatic experiences in our lives. See “Boils” and “Skin infections” Toilet (Passing urine) Your kidneys are bean-shaped organs, each about the size of your fist. They are located near the middle of your back, just below the rib cage. The kidneys are sophisticated trash collectors. Every day, your kidneys process more than two hundred liters of blood to sift out more than two liters of waste products and extra water. The waste and extra water become urine, which flows to your bladder through tubes called ureters. Your bladder stores urine until you go to the bathroom. A person urinating in a dream symbolizes repentance. It speaks of the confession of a particular sin in the life of a person. This is not emotional sins of bitterness and unforgiveness leading to emotional distress which is symbolized by us using the toilet to pass solids. These are normal sins that do not cause bitterness, unforgiveness and emotional distress. In this sense, it is important to understand that the life is in the blood. The kidneys purify the blood. In a spiritual sense, when you dream of kidneys it is all about purifying your life which is the pursuit of holiness as a child of God. Urinating in a dream actually speaks of a person who dealt with a particular sin in his life. He has conquered over that sin. A person urinating in public speaks of a person who dealt with and conquered a particular sin publicly. A person who cannot find a private place to urinate and therefore struggling to release himself speaks of a person who is struggling with a particular sin in private all on his own. This speaks of a person not getting closure or the victory that he needs. A person urinating in his trousers speaks of a person who is not willing to deal with particular sins in his life like he should and therefore, this condition is affecting his power in a spiritual sense. See “Trousers” and “Legs” and “Kidneys” for a better understanding of this symbol. Tower A tower in dreams and visions symbolizes a stronghold. It is like a castle. The Name of the Lord is a strong tower. See “Castle” for a better understanding of this symbol. Train and Trams See “Vehicles (Train)” Tree Psalm 1:3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Daniel 4:20-23 20 The tree that thou sawest, which grew, and was strong, whose height reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to all the earth; 21 Whose leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all; under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and upon whose branches the fowls of the heaven had their habitation: 22 It is thou, O king, that art grown and become strong: for thy greatness is grown, and reacheth unto heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth. 23 And whereas the king saw a watcher and an holy one coming down from heaven, and saying, Hew the tree down, and destroy it; yet leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven times pass over him… Zechariah 4:12-14 12 And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? 13 And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. 14 Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth. Luke 3:9 And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. A tree in dreams and visions symbolizes a human being and a forest or an orchard symbolize a group of people. Groups of people are usually a nation when it is a huge forest or a church or a congregation when it is a smaller group of trees or an orchard. Take note that in some cases, one tree can symbolize a group of people like a nation, an institutional church or a denomination and so forth. For instance, a fig tree is a symbol of the Jewish nation. Even the church is symbolized by a tree in the gospels. When you see different needs or problems or circumstances about the tree or the forest in a dream or a vision, it tells you more about the characteristics, circumstances, needs, and situations in the particular person’s life or regarding the group of people. A tree bearing much fruit speaks of the spiritual fruit in such a person’s life or group of people’s situation. A tree bending low in the wind or in a storm speaks of a person or a group of people who are experiencing a lot of trials and tribulations in his or her lives. A tree falling speaks of a person who is dying or a group of people who reached the end of their existence as a group. See “Tree (Almond)” Tree (Apple tree in a garden) Song of Solomon 2:3 As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. Song of Solomon 2:5 Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love. An apple tree speaks of the fruit of love in marriage or with the Lord Jesus Christ. It speaks of a person that you love. It also speaks of refreshment from the Lord. See “Tree” for a better understanding of this symbol. Tree (Apple) An apple tree symbolizes a person you love. More detail about the tree and the apples will reveal more information about the meaning of the dream or vision. See “Tree (Apple trees like in an orchard)” Tree (ax (hatchet) applied to roots) An ax or a hatchet in dreams and visions symbolizes God’s judgment in a person’s life or in terms of a group of people. This suggests that God is about to cut such a person off from his kingdom or that He is about to destroy the existence of a group of people. This speaks of the end of a church or an organization. This rarely happens and should be regarded as a serious warning. See “Tree” and “Tree (With Blossoms)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Tree (Branches) John 12:13 Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. Song of Solomon 7:8 I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples. Nehemiah 8:15 And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written. Branches of a tree in a dream or a vision symbolize victory or rejoicing, especially palm tree branches but other tree branches as well. People who are glad show their gladness and joy by waving palm tree branches whilst singing and shouting. This happened in Biblical times already. In Old Testament times branches of trees were used to build booths which were part of the feast of Tabernacles. This feast was all about rejoicing in God because of what the He did for the nation of Israel by setting them free from bondage. See “Tree (Cedar)” Tree (Fig) Judges 9:10 And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us. Revelation 6:13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. Luke 13:6-7 6 He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. 7 Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? A fig tree in dreams and visions symbolizes the national and political life of the nation of Israel. Tree (Forest) Isaiah 44:23 Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel. Ezekiel 15:6 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; As the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Ezekiel 20:46-49 46 Son of man, set thy face toward the south, and drop thy word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field; 47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein. 48 And all flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it: it shall not be quenched. 49 Then said I, Ah Lord God! they say of me, Doth he not speak parables? Psalm 1:3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. As you can see in the verse above that a tree symbolizes a man. Therefore, many trees like a forest or a thicket or an orchard symbolize a group of people. A huge forest with big strong trees symbolizes a big and strong nation or group of people. On the other hand, a thicket symbolizes a smaller or weaker nation or group of people. See “Tree (With fruit)” Tree (High) A high tree symbolizes the importance of a person and his work or ministry or political position. See “Tree” for a better understanding of this symbol. See “Tree (Large and wide)” Tree (Mulberry) Luke 17:6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine (mulberry) tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. A mulberry tree speaks of a project or a business opportunity which appears to be promising but at the end of the day is not profitable at all. This is symbolized by the tree growing up quite fast but then producing small fruit which takes a great effort to harvest although having no or little market value, leaving stains on people’s hands which is extremely difficult to remove. A project may be fast-growing at first but ultimately ends up unprofitable. The fruit of a mulberry tree is naturally unprofitable. A mulberry tree also symbolizes death and sorrow (weeping). See “Tree (Mustard)” Tree (Myrtle) Isaiah 41:19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together. Nehemiah 8:15 And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written. Zechariah 14:16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. As an evergreen, fragrant shrub associated with watercourses, the myrtle tree in dreams and visions is a symbol of the recovery of God’s promises and the establishment of God’s promises. In another sense, the myrtle tree symbolizes a covenant or an agreement or marriage. See “Tree (Oak)” Tree (Olive, Oil) Zechariah 4:12-14 12 And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? 13 And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. 14 Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth. Psalm 52:8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever. Psalm 128:3 Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Isaiah 41:19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together. An olive tree symbolizes an anointed servant of God. He “planted” us as his anointed ambassadors in the deserts of this world so that we can change the lives of people. See “Tree” and “Oil” for a better understanding of this symbol. Tree (Palm) Psalm 92:12 The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. John 12:13 Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. Song of Solomon 7:7-8 7 This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes. 8 I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples. A palm tree symbolizes a person or a group of people who experiences victory and who are rejoicing. See “Tree” for a better understanding of this symbol. Tree (Pine) Nehemiah 8:15 And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written. Isaiah 41:19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together. Isaiah 60:13 The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious. A pine tree in dreams and visions symbolizes fragrance and beauty. It speaks of a person or a congregation whose lives are a pleasant fragrance in the presence of God. Through pure obedience, their lives are a sacrifice of praise and worship unto God. They do not only praise and worship God with their mouths but with their lives. They live beautiful lives in his presence. See “Tree” for a better understanding of this symbol. Tree (Being Pruned) A tree being pruned in dreams and visions symbolizes God purifying a person or a group of people by cutting off worldly things and fleshly behavior. See “Tree” for a better understanding of this symbol. Tree (Snake in a tree) A tree with a snake in the tree in dreams and visions speaks of a person or a group of people who are or who have been deceived by an evil spirit. It speaks of demonic oppression. See “Tree” for a better understanding of this symbol. Tree (In a Storm) A tree in a storm in dreams and visions symbolizes a person or a group of people under pressure, torment or trials. See “Tree” for a better understanding of this symbol. See “Tree (Surroundings)” Tree (Thicket) A huge forest with big strong trees symbolizes a big and strong nation or group of people. On the other hand, a thicket symbolizes a smaller or weaker nation or group of people. Tree (Thorn) Isaiah 55:13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. A thorn tree in dreams and visions symbolizes a person or a group of people exhibiting a hurtful nature. These people do not care for others as much as they should and usually, they do not make or keep friends. See “Tree” for a better understanding of this symbol. Tree (Willow) Isaiah 44:4 And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses. Ezekiel 17:5 He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow tree. A willow tree in dreams and visions speaks of a person or a group of people who enjoys spiritual and/or material prosperity. He or they are like a willow tree planted on the banks of a river. A willow tree’s roots are very near and even inside water, being so close to a river or a dam. Water is a symbol of spiritual and/or financial blessings. See “Tree” for a better understanding of this symbol. Trees (Forest) An orchard or a group of trees symbolizes (a group of people) or (a group of groups of people). When an orchard symbolizes many individuals, the trees in the dream, symbolize a group of people or many people. When a group of trees in a dream symbolize churches or congregations it speaks of a group of churches (several or a group of churches). See “Tree” for a better understanding of this symbol. Triangle See “Shapes in dreams and visions” Trousers Psalm 147:10 He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. Galatians 5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Trousers speak of the power and strength of a person in terms of being spiritually prepared for ministry. Human beings stand on their legs, which speaks of power. Trousers cover the legs which symbolize the strength and power of a person. The color and the length of the trousers reveal more information about a persons spiritual strength and power and also their weaknesses. See “Clothing” and “Legs” and “Girdle” for a better understanding of this symbol. Trousers (Person aggressively attempting to remove your trousers) A few years ago I had a dream of an invisible force hitting me to the ground and then violently attempting to remove my trousers. In the dream, I was shocked and surprised about the ferocity of this attack. All I could do in the dream was to tightly hold onto my trousers until this invisible force gave up and left the room. When our congregation gathered that Sunday a certain man, assisted by another man, attacked my integrity and my calling as a minister of God. A person who is naked or a person without trousers symbolizes a person who is not prepared for ministry. Although I was prepared for ministry, this person actually wanted to unfairly remove my trousers to expose me. Because I was warned about this attack beforehand I calmly explained the opposite and both men, although they refused to accept my explanation, had to give up the attack which was symbolized in the dream by me holding onto my trousers. See “Clothing” and see “Nakedness” for a better understanding of this symbol. Truck See “Car (Truck)” Trumpet A trumpet in dreams and visions symbolizes a prophetic call that attracts people’s attention. It speaks of the children of God or a specific person being called to action. Hosea 8:1 “Set the trumpet to your mouth! He shall come like an eagle against the house of the Lord, Because they have transgressed My covenant And rebelled against My law. A trumpet sometimes symbolizes an announcement of the judgment of God. Tunnel A tunnel in dreams and visions symbolizes a dark and difficult period of time in the life of a person. Turkey A turkey in dreams and visions symbolizes a person who exalts himself. In another sense, it speaks of a person with a presumptuous bad-tempered attitude. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Tires See “Vehicles (Tires) This was an excerpt of only about 50% of symbols that is available in the paid version of the Dreams and visions symbols dictionary. By purchasing the Dreams Dictionary, you gain the following: You will have access to about twice as many dreams and visions symbols as online visitors (almost 1000 pages of symbols). You have access to the Dreams and Visions Interpretation Course Manual which is exclusively available to dictionary owners as a free add-on. This manual puts the theoretical knowledge (dictionary) into practice (manual). You have access to real-life dreams and visions which explain symbols more comprehensively. If you registered for the free Dreams Interpretation Course, you have all the study material that you need. To effectively complete the Dreams Interpretation Course, you really do need the paid version of the dictionary and you do need the Dreams Interpretation Course Manual. Without these resources, you will be limited in your efforts to master the Biblical language of symbols. By purchasing the dictionary, you support my ministry, which won’t be possible if you don’t. The selling of books is my only source of income and any writer will confirm that it is not easy to make a living solely from the sales of books. By rating my books, you enable me to improve the quality and the standard of the books and, by doing so, you help other people to make their purchasing experience a lot easier. You can purchase the Dreams Symbols Dictionary here: Dreams Dictionary Please take note, in order to learn the Biblical language of symbols, you need to read this information: How to interpret dreams and visions symbols correctly Click on the following letters of the alphabet for the relevant symbol that you are looking for: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Colors in dreams and visions Numbers in dreams and visions Shapes in dreams and visions Directions, movement and positions in dreams and visions Substitution in dreams and visions Back to the Homepage All local resources on this website are free of charge. Please help us by sharing it with your friends through the social networks. Social network sharing buttons available at the bottoRead more

How Does Satan Oppress People? How does the devil oppress Christians? This just do not sound right! How on earth does he succeed doing this? When Jesus Christ still walked this earth this very thing kept Him very busy. He went through Judea and healed the sick right through His earthly ministry. He delivered people who were oppressed by satan. Yes I admit that those people were not Christians; they were Jews. But yet, even after the redemption work of Christ on the cross, this is still a problem for most Christians today. In the Bible we see that people were oppressed by satan although we clearly see that Christ redeemed us from that oppression: Luke 4:18 (NKJV) The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; Matthew 4:24 (ESV) So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. Now how does the devil go oppressing people even after Christ paid the price for them and after He delivered them from sin and diseases? No, the devil does not have the power to go out and oppress people all over by inflicting them with all sorts of diseases. It does appear that way but it is just not the truth. He however does oppress people and this is why I am writing this post today. Christians need to know how he does that in order to understand how to resist being oppressed by him. Firstly we do need to understand the following about hell, diseases and the punishment of God: God created hell to punish satan, demons and unrighteous people if they die without Christ. Those who reject Christ cannot escape hell. God created sickness and diseases to punish people who sin. We however know that God the Father do not punish anyone anymore because of the redemption work of Christ. This includes the saved and the unsaved. Even the unsaved live in a time of grace. Anyone who dies without Jesus Christ however brings the curse of the law unto himself the moment he dies without Christ. At that moment he descends into hell where he must now carry his own punishment. Because he rejected the blood of Christ God the Father now punishes him for that. The point I want to make here however is that God the father created sickness just as He created hell. Both came into existence because of a decision made by the Father. Both belong to Him.   Only a God can punish. Only a ruler of a kingdom can make laws and force his subjects to live according to those laws. In order for such a ruler to make laws, to enforce those laws and to punish his subjects if they do not conform to those laws, he needs to be a lawful ruler. His ruler-ship needs to be legitimate. These are some of the reasons why satan cannot punish people. He is not a lawful ruler or a God who can make laws, who can enforce laws and who can punish people who do not conform to those laws. Satan cannot throw you in hell and he cannot put sicknesses and diseases upon you even if he wanted to. Firstly he is not God the Father and secondly a child of God cannot be punished anymore by anyone at all. Not even God the Father can punish you because of the redemptive work of Christ. A child of God can legally not be punished and sicknesses and diseases are nothing but punishment. That is what it was created for. It serves and cannot serve any other purpose. Right through the Bible it is clearly stated that God punishes people with sickness. He also throws people in hell and He uses His angels to throw those people in hell. Does that make Him a bad God? Does that make Him an unjust God? No, that makes Him a fair God. This world is filled with bad, unholy people who murder and oppress women, children and good people! God always protects the weak. These people need to be punished. They need to pay for their atrocities! That is only fair and that must be done! God cannot allow people to do what they want and just get away with it! All righteous people do understand this. Don’t you believe that this wonderful and loving God of us is able to carry out such violent and harsh acts? This does not make Him cruel you know. It makes Him just. Read the Scriptures below and see how God used to punish people and how He did it: Isaiah 45:6-7 6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.  7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things The evil that God refers to in verse 7 is the “punishment” of God. That includes hell and it includes diseases, famine and all sorts of other ways of punishment in order to bring people to justice. Just read the following Scriptures as proof for this statement: Deuteronomy 28:21-25 21 The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it. 22 The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.  23 And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.  24 The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.  25 The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. These verses are just a few among a lot of Scripture saying the same thing. It was a warning from God to Israel. He warned them but they did not listen. God then kept His word and HE brought all the evil described in this Scripture over the nation of Israel. He did not use the devil to do it for Him. No, He did it Himself. He is God and He does this when necessary. God uses angels to throw the devil, demons and even people in hell. Do you know what type of torment and afflictions people have to go through in hell? God is certainly capable of punishing people and He uses the good guys to punish the bad guys. When a man committed a crime the police arrest him and they, along with prison wardens, throw him in jail. It is the good guys who are enforcing the law. It is the good guys who bring people to justice. The government does not utilize criminals to bring other people to justice. God does not use satan to punish people. God even punished His own Son in our place there on the cross. He did not call satan to come and punish Jesus. No, He did it Himself. It is recorded in Isaiah 53: Isaiah 53:4,6,10 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Now we know that God punished Jesus so that we may walk free. For this reason God does NOT punish anymore. After He punished Jesus Christ for the sins of all men, there is no more punishment except for those who die without Jesus Christ. The day a person dies without Jesus Christ, on that day God’s grace runs out on that person. Isaiah clearly predicted that there will be a period of grace in the dispensation of the Messiah: Isaiah 65:20 There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. Please take note that the curse of the law is nothing else than punishment. When someone, according to Deuteronomy 27:11-26, declared a curse onto someone it meant that the law was broken and that the person who trespassed the law must now be punished. In the dispensation of Christ that cannot happen because all sins have been paid for by Christ when he took all punishment on Him. A person has to die without Christ before the curse can come over Him. The curse kicks into action when a person dies if he rejected the blood of Christ. Such a person must then pay for his own sins. This is a clear indication that God does not punish anyone anymore. So how can people believe the lie that the devil makes them sick. No, nobody confiscated or hijacked hell or God’s methods of punishment or God’s legal right to punish from Him. The devil cannot throw you in hell and he cannot put diseases onto you. He is not God! What caused the confusion in terms of punishment and diseases? It is clear from certain Scriptures in the Bible and from personal testimonies that there definitely is a connection between diseases and satanic oppression. Jesus referred to sick people as being oppressed by satan. One testimony that I heard was in the life of Kenneth Hagin. He testified that he once prayed for a lady with lung cancer for four evenings in a row. She just did not get healed in the healing services. The next evening, the fifth service that he held, she was in the healing-line again and Kenneth decided to pray for her again. The moment he started praying for her he suddenly saw in the spirit realm. He could see a small demon hanging onto this lady’s lungs. Kenneth immediately knew that the cancer was caused by this little demon. He immediately cast it out and the lady was immediately and miraculously healed. Now Scriptures referring to sick people being oppressed by satan and testimonies like the one above may bring us under the impression that satan can go around to randomly inflict people with diseases. This is however not true. Satan hasn’t got that power. If he had he would have gone rampant on all mankind. He hates us so much that he would have killed us like flies. Exactly how does the devil oppress Christians? In order to answer this question we need to make it clear why people and even why Christians still get sick today. There are two very important reasons for this. Firstly sickness is a natural and a direct result of sin. That means any person using drugs, smoking or getting involved in any sin will eventually bring diseases into their bodies directly because of that particular sin. Smoking can cause lung cancer and so can drugs also cause a number of diseases. Even spiritual sin like unforgiveness can cause sicknesses like cancer. It is not God the Father punishing people. It is people naturally causes sicknesses to germinate and to grow inside their bodies because of sin. Secondly Christians get sick because of unbelief. They just do not believe that God can protect them against danger, sicknesses and any other acts and occurrences that can and may cause injury or damage to their bodies. Because of unbelief many Christians are exposed to this kind of thing. This is where satanic oppression gets to such people. Satan’s primary goal is to get Christians involved in sin. His secondary objective is to cause people to doubt in God’s word of protection. This is how satanic oppression starts. Every sickness and every disease starts at the “border posts” of the kingdom of God. It starts at the “border posts” of your circumstances. It starts at the “border posts” of your life which is your own little kingdom that God wants you to have dominion over. Let me explain: Jesus Christ conquered over the devil on the cross. As a sinless human being He paid the price on the cross for the redemption of our souls. With this victory Jesus took the reign of the earth back from satan. He totally disarmed him and He gave us dominion over our own personal circumstances, the earth and over satan and his demons. We read about this in the book of Colossians: Colossians 2:15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Jesus won the battle for us. He openly triumphed over satan and He disarmed him. The devil really has no power over us. He is a defeated foe. For this reason we are not involved in a war with him. The instruction from God is to submit ourselves to God and to resist the devil. Resisting is a somewhat passive resistance like manning a border post. The sole purpose of a border post is to keep illegal people out. Yes, God did equip us with strong and potent armor in order to protect ourselves. We need to be ready for evil forces by clothing ourselves with the full armor of God. Although we are not involved in a warfare we do need to protect our borders and we do need to be strong. Like any nation we deploy our soldiers on our border posts, ready and clothed in full armor. At this border post our enemy arrives with lies and deception. He does not arrive at the border post with firearms, canons or bazookas. He is not even clothed in spiritual warfare armor because the Lord Jesus Christ completely disarmed him on that wonderful day. He however does have a very strong weapon! His tongue! At the border post he seeks only one thing and that is entry. He wants an open door. He wants a place in our lives. In order to achieve this he starts to negotiate with us. He starts to reason with us. He tries all his dirty little tricks in order to persuade us to open the gate for him. He even tries to creep past us without us noticing. He entices us to open the door for him by allowing sin in our lives. He attempts to get us so far as to confess negative things over our lives. He lies and he deceives hoping that we will fall for those lies. Exactly what he did with Eve. And again, Adam and Eve were not involved in a spiritual warfare with satan. Even today the devil use the same tactics as he did with Adam and Eve. He questions the word and the promises of God in order to make us doubt in God. There at the border post is where it all starts. As a result we sometimes start harboring ungodly and toxic thoughts. The more we give in to his lies, temptations and deceptions, the more we act and the more we say what he wants us to do and wants us to say. This leads to sin and sin brings death. We start smoking and drinking. We start despising other people and we start to be unforgiving towards other people. Sin is the cause of sickness. Smoking causes all sorts of lung diseases. Hate and bitterness (unforgiveness) causes cancer and other diseases. This is how we open the door for the devil. This is how satan slowly but surely starts oppressing a child of God. We allow him to influence us and that causes us to become sick. We sometimes allow demons to cause affliction in our bodies by giving them permission to do so. We give in to his ways, his will and the pressure that he puts on us. He cannot make you sick unless you open the door for him by getting involved in all these ungodly practices, disobedience and fear. The devil does not oppress innocent Christians by putting all kinds of disease onto them. In fact, the devil can do absolutely nothing to an innocent Christian. It is the “not so innocent Christian” who picks up problems. People, we can never blame God because He does not tempt us and He does not punish us. We can never blame the devil because he just hasn’t got any power over us. We can only blame ourselves because we got involved in bad thinking and sin because of the lies, temptations and deception that we listened to and adhered to. We accepted the lies of the enemy there at the border post and we allowed him to enter into our lives. We are absolutely NEVER a victim of circumstances outside our control. That is a lie from hell! We are always to blame for anything and everything that goes wrong in our lives. God gave us Divine protection, Divine healing, Divine provision and Divine maintenance. If we serve God the way we should we are totally protected. The problem is that we are not obedient to God and His word. We do not believe his word and we do not make his word part of our lives. We do not meditate on His word so that the Holy Spirit can use the word to build up our most holy faith. Stop blaming the devil and stop blaming God. Accept your responsibility to reign as a king in the kingdom of God and over your personal circumstances according to His will and His word. Do not give the devil any place in your life and do not open any door for him. Submit yourself to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. If you do this, he cannot do anything to you at all. What a wonderful truth this is? We can always be victorious in all circumstances in life. Praise God for the work he has done! With His blood he saved us! With His power He raised us! Praise God for the work He has done! All local resources on this website are free of charge. Please help us by sharing it with your friends through the social networks. Social network sharing buttons available atRead more

Audio and Written Versions: Victorious Living In Christ Session 5 Victorious Living In Christ Session 5 Audio Version Of This Web Page MP3 Player behaving funny? Try a different browser or a different device Session 4 My name is Basie Martins. I trust that you are all well and I want to thank you again for listening to this program. For you who do not know, the topic of this series is, “How to Live Successfully and Victoriously in Christ”. It is all about us, the body of Christ, and us the church and us as individuals in the kingdom of God, being successful in all areas of life. It is about us claiming our full inheritance. It is about us putting in place on earth, which is already in heaven. In the previous session, we discussed the steps that we need to take to cultivate miracle-working faith in our hearts. We have discovered that the true word of God is the foundation that makes miracle-working faith possible in our lives. We have discovered that the word of God and God himself can be utterly trusted. We have discovered the reason why people like Paul and Abram were so fearless when it comes to trusting God. They were always cool and calm and they even ignored life-threatening incidents in their lives because of the utter trust and the utter faith they had in God. We have discovered that it is possible to live victoriously and successfully in Christ but we have also discovered that it takes discipline and commitment to do that. We have discovered that it is absolutely worth the effort and trouble. We gain so much if we sign up for this and we lose so much if we don’t. Taking all the pros and cons into consideration, we do not have a choice. We do not have a choice because the alternative to this is to live mediocre lives of defeat, full of disappointment and full of calamities and grave challenges. The alternative is a life of failure. We do not have a choice because this is what God wants all of us to achieve and to experience. He wants us to experience this ultimate satisfaction, the joy and the fulfillment of living in victory in the kingdom of God. He wants all of us to experience what it is to reign over our circumstances and our areas of influence as kings of the most high God. It brings joy and it brings satisfaction. It honors God and it magnifies and glorifies him in our lives. When we live victoriously in Christ we reveal him. We make him known to the world. We magnify him, but in the process, we will gain so much for ourselves, for our families and for the people that come into contact with us. It is absolutely worth the trouble! It takes a bit of discipline and it takes a bit of an effort but not too much. It is certainly possible and quite achievable. Yes we need to study the Bible and we need to renew our minds and we need to make the word of God our own by building it into our hearts. That is about the hardest thing that we have to do. It does take a bit of an effort because we need to be serious when it comes to the word of God. We need to be serious when it comes to renewing our minds. Once we have renewed our minds and once we have decided to be obedient to God in all areas of our lives, we are almost there. Once that is achieved the hard work is done. It will take you a year or two and then it is done forever. Once we have cultivated the miracle-working faith in our hearts, nobody can take it away again. It is there and it is ours and it will last forever if we keep our hope in Christ. We also need to be patient and faithful and consistent. We need to pursue holiness and we need to submit our souls to God and the leading of the Holy Spirit. By taking this first step, we already made it impossible to get sick or to experience all sorts of calamities in our lives. It means we have stopped the tide. Like the writer of Psalm 91, we do not fear sicknesses and diseases and calamities and evil and criminals and undesired events in our lives. We see other people fall all around us but it does not happen to us. Yes, that means that we did not yet deal with existing sicknesses and diseases and calamities in our lives but at least we have stopped the tide. Holiness and obedience and faith already stop the tide. It means our situations and conditions cannot get worse. It is already a good start but as I said, we do need to restore our lives completely.  I call this process, “Getting your soul in order”. When the soul is in order when the soul reached a state of complete obedience, that is when the tide of destruction in our lives is stopped, but that is also when the door is opened for us to restore our lives. Let us briefly discuss a few Scriptures about this process: Galatians 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. So in this verse, we see that there will be a battle in our minds and our hearts. Remember that the heart represents the soul. The human soul wants to do what it wants to do. The Holy Spirit wants us to be obedient to God. He wants to lead us and guide us to pursue holiness and obedience. 1 Peter 2:11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. In this verse, we see that fleshly lusts war against the soul. If it defeats the soul we will experience a lot of calamities in our lives. It means that when the soul rejects the leading of the Holy Spirit and runs after fleshly lusts, it is disobedient to God which is a sin and we will be held accountable for our sins and we will face negative situations in our lives. Everything comes at a price. Some bad things come automatically as a result of this. Romans 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. This verse confirms the reality of the fleshly nature that is in all of us. It always wants to be disobedient to God. It is obvious in this verse that the law of sin wants to bring us into captivity. People who are in captivity are not free and cannot reign in the kingdom of God. So sin destroys our ability to reign as kings in the kingdom of God. 1 Thessalonian 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this verse, Paul emphasizes the importance of us being completely sanctified and that our whole being, spirit, soul, and body be blameless before God. This condition suggests that it is possible to restore ourselves completely. We can be completely healthy in our bodies and our souls and our spirits. Complete sanctification protects us from the results of sin. The opposite causes us to experience the results of sin which are sicknesses, diseases, and calamities. By pursuing holiness we protect ourselves against these things. 1 Timothy 4:16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. This verse confirms this fact even better. It confirms that we can save ourselves by doing something very important. It says that we need to heed to certain things that we were taught. This suggests that if we are obedient to the word and the will of God that we will save ourselves. We know that this part is not addressing our spirits because our spirits are already saved by grace. This Scripture refers to the soul and our responsibility to save our souls by pursuing holiness, through obedience.  James 1:21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. This Scripture confirms the statement that I just made very clearly. It confirms that if we do a very important thing, and that thing is the pursuit of holiness and the renewing of our minds, that we will save our souls. It suggests that this is something that wé need to do. God saved our spirits through grace but we need to save our souls through obedience to the word and the will of God. These two Scriptures support this: Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. This Scripture confirms that only God can save us through grace and that works on our behalf cannot do a thing in this regard. It cannot save us at all. There are countless Scriptures in the New testament that all confirm this fact. So these Scriptures appear to contradict what I have said so far. It is because these Scriptures are not referring to the soul of man but it refers to the spirit of man. However, James 2:24 says something that seems to contradict this Scripture. It says the following: Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. By works a man is justified and not by grace alone. It means that grace alone cannot justify us. Grace alone cannot justify us but we need the works also. It appears to contradict the “by grace alone” message or believe that we discussed just now. The reason for this is because this Scripture is referring to the soul. Our spirits are saved by grace only but not our souls. Our souls are saved by doing the works of God. Unfortunately, our souls want to sin and it does not want to carry out the good works that God wants it to do. The Holy Spirit desires against the soul and the soul stands directly against the Spirit of God. Take note that the soul does not stand against the human spirit as so many people believe. The soul stands against the Holy Spirit. Our souls need to be brought under submission. We need to submit ourselves to the will and the word and the leading of God and the Holy Spirit. If we refuse to do this we are not completely justified. We are completely justified by works and by grace and not by grace only as James 2:24 clearly says. This is what Matthew 7:15-17 say about this: Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. This Scripture proves that we all need to produce good fruit, which speaks of good things in our lives or good works. So this Scripture suggests that although we are saved by grace and not by works, that we do need to produce good works in our lives. It is not an option. It is a requirement. Titus 1:16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. This Scripture confirms that by doing bad works we deny Christ. So this Scripture confirms that we do need to have good works in our lives. We need to produce good fruit in our lives. If we do not bear good fruit or do good works, we are disobedient to God. This explains why Romans 8:2 says that there is no condemnation to them that walks after the Spirit and not the flesh. James 2 verse 17 even says that faith without good works is dead. So good works are a necessity. It is a requirement in our daily walk of faith in Christ. So grace is a reality in our lives and it is from God but good works also need to be a reality in our lives and that is something that we are responsible for. Grace is the foundation on which the good works are built. It means the good works are not out of ourselves but based on the grace of God. So to put this into perspective, the human spirit is saved through faith by grace, the human soul is saved through obedience by good works and the complete human being is saved by works and by grace. This is what the Bible says. It says that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only in James 2:24. It says that without good works, faith is dead. God did the difficult part for us by saving us by grace but we are responsible for our souls. As a previous Scripture that we discussed in this session already suggests, we need to save our souls. 1 Timothy 4:16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.  Take note of this Scripture. It says that you shall save yourself. So we can save ourselves by being obedient to God and by submitting our souls to the leading of the Holy Spirit. This is just another word for pursuing holiness. And by doing this we stop all sicknesses and diseases and calamities in its tracks. By doing this we become immune to these things. It is sin that automatically results in sicknesses and diseases and calamities. Being obedient to God stops it. This is, in fact, our biggest weapon when it comes to spiritual warfare. The devil wants you to sin. If you do, you already lost the battle because by doing so you give him a foothold in your life and you open doors to the devil but also to the results of sin. If you sin you bring sicknesses, diseases, and calamities over yourself. This is evil’s primary strategy. The secondary strategy is to lie and deceive you so that you start to doubt God and his word.  We need to submit ourselves to God, referring to our souls. We cannot live like we want to and we cannot do whatever we want to do. The problem is not with our spirits. Our spirits are always in harmony with God. Our spirits are always obedient to God. Our spirits never sin. It never takes part in the sins that the soul commits. Our spirits are always faithful to God. It always submits itself to the will and the ways of God. It always appeals to the soul not to sin but it will never attempt to force the soul and it will never be part of the sins that the soul commits. The Holy Spirit is in our spirits. He is not in our souls and He is not in our bodies. The Holy Spirit is in our spirits because our spirits are completely saved and completely holy and justified. The Holy Spirit and our spirits are continuously in holy communion. There is a constant sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings. They are continuously communicating with each other and the spirit of man knows things that the soul of man is completely unaware of. The regenerated human spirit is the candle of the Lord. It says this in Proverbs 20:27. The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly. Why is it searching the inward parts of the belly? The regenerated human spirit compares the condition of the soul with what the Spirit of God has taught it and enlightened it with. That is why the spirit is a candle. It sheds light on matters and conditions inside man or about man. It looks for things that are not in line with the word and the will and the ways of God, and when it finds something, it brings those things under the attention of the soul. Remember, the spirit of man cannot sin and it is always in complete harmony with God. The spirit is like God and therefore it gently appeals to the soul to come in line with the will and the ways of God. It never forces the soul to submit to God and his will and his ways. The spirit appeals to the soul to submit itself. If the soul refuses to submit and if the soul gets involved in sin, the spirit of man allows the soul to do what it wants but it never takes part in those sins. We read this in 1 John 3: verse 6 and verse 9: And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 1 John 3:2-3 says the following: Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. So a Christian cannot sin and is always pure and holy and righteous in the presence of God because of a few reasons. This is what these Scriptures say: They cannot sin because they are in Christ and in Christ there is no sin. They cannot sin because they are born of God. They cannot sin because their seed is in God. They cannot sin because they abide in him. They stay pure and holy, just as completely pure and holy as Christ himself, because their hope is in him. These two Scriptures emphasize a few things: It says that Children of God cannot sin because they are in and from him and because they abide in him and they have put their hope in him. So this is what happens with Christians the moment they repent of their sins. This emphasizes the fact that Jesus literally does take sin away from people who accepted him as their Savior. He manifested to take sins away. He manifested for this purpose. He does not merely cover sins like the blood of rams and animals. So what does it mean when we do sin? I mean, we are all struggling to submit our souls to the will and the word of God. It means that we are not held accountable for the sins that are done by our souls. It means we cannot lose our salvation because of the soul. However, the soul can cause a lot of turmoil in our lives. It brings sicknesses and diseases and calamities over us as an automatic result of the sins. But in some cases, because of a continuous walking after the flesh, it can cause God to bring sicknesses and diseases over us (which is the chastisement of God) and it can even cause us to lose our salvation if we stop to abide in Christ and if we stop to put our hope in him.  As I said this is a reality when Christians are living in the flesh continuously. This is when Romans 8:1 comes into play. It says the following: There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Because these people are now walking after the flesh, there is condemnation to them. There is a condition that we all need to follow if we do not want to be condemned. We need to walk after the Spirit. We need to submit ourselves to the Spirit of God and we need to be obedient to the Spirit of God. This is what Paul refers to in Corinthians. He said that if we judge ourselves then we do not have to be judged by God. But if we fail to judge ourselves, then God needs to judge us and that is why so many of you are sick and some even dead. When Christians are walking after the flesh continuously, God will eventually chastise them. He will cast them on a sickbed to put pressure on them to repent. He does this because He does not want them to go astray. When Christians walk after the flesh continuously the church or the congregation need to hand them over to satan so that their flesh can be destructed so that their souls can at least be saved. This does not mean that the devil puts sicknesses and diseases on such a person. It means the church kicks such a person out so that he is on his own. They regard him as part of the world. He is regarded as a nonbeliever and they allow him to live as an unsaved person doing whatever he wants. This is when such a person brings a lot of calamities over himself. This is also when God brings sicknesses and diseases and calamities over such a person. The congregation does not heal such a person. The elders ignore such a person when he calls for them to pray for him, but when he repents, when he indicates that he wants to repent, they will pray for him and he will be healed and his sins will be forgiven him. This is why God created sicknesses, diseases, and calamities in the first place. He did that in the Old Testament already and He followed it through in the New testament. Read Deuteronomy 28, Read Isaiah 45:7, Read Jonah 1 and 3, Read Hebrews 13:8, Read Hebrews 12:6, Read Revelation 2:20-23, Read 1 Corinthians 11:30-32, Read Mark 9:47, Read James 5:14-15. These are all Scriptures that proofs that God does punish his children when they start to walk after the flesh. Remember, this is what this course is all about. It tells us why we get sick and what we need to do to prevent sicknesses, diseases, and calamities and what we need to do to restore ourselves. I know that there are people who believe that Children of God cannot go astray. They say that when a person rejects Christ that they were never saved in the first place. That is not true. There are Scriptures in the Bible that support the opposite. The one Scripture says that these people will arrive at the gates of heaven and they will say that they have driven out demons in his Name. They will say that they healed the sick in his Name and what they say will be true. Nobody can drive out devils and heal the sick if they are not Spirit-filled Christians. These people were indeed once saved. The Bible also says that it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. This Scripture does confirm that it is possible for people to fall away or to go astray, otherwise, this verse would not have been in the Bible. The problem is, this world is filled with really bad people. Although it is not supposed to be like that, this world is also filled with bad Christians. Just look at the letters that Paul wrote to the church of Corinth. Christians were living like unsaved people. In one congregation the son and the father had the same woman. Christians did whatever they wanted to. Paul mentioned quite a few sins in the congregation that was really serious. God’s people have always been rebellious. In the Old Testament, the children of Israel were involved in pagan worship. They started worshiping the gods of the gentiles. They rejected God. In the New Testament, they rejected Christ. Christians are no different. Many of them live just like they want to. Just look at the way people and even Christians live today all over the world. Look at the lies and the deceit, the atrocities, the murder, the rape the fraud and the shameless actions and open rebellion and hatred for God and Christians and everything that is good and right and beautiful. No wonder God had to put measures into place to hold people accountable for their actions. In the Old Testament and the New Testament and even today. That is why He created evil things, sicknesses and diseases, and calamities. That is why sin automatically causes all sorts of bad things to come over people who get involved in all sorts of sins. That is why He chastises those He loves. That is why God has a law in place that always follows a specific path or a certain sequence, orchestrated by him to bring people or to pressure people to repent. That law, the law of sin or the punishment of God or the judgment of God, always has the following sequence: People sin, if they persist in sinning, evil things come over them automatically. It is direct causes like damages to internal organs by dangerous chemicals like drugs, alcohol, and nicotine. Even spiritual toxic causes like unforgiveness, bitterness, and hate. People who are involved in sin and Christians who are walking after the flesh continuously will receive warnings to repent and if they don’t, eventually God will chastise them by causing sicknesses and diseases and calamities in their lives on top of those that came over them automatically as a result of sin in their lives. At this point, two things happen, either people repent or they refuse to repent. Those who refuse to repent just carry on with their lives but the bad things that they brought over themselves eventually put an end to their lives. For a time they might succeed in counteracting the sicknesses and diseases and calamities in their lives by treating those things, but in the end, those things kill them. This is one of the reasons why the medical profession is helpful but not a full alternative for divine healing. In most of their lives, the curse suddenly hits them and they die. Those who repent stopping the tide in terms of the bad things in their lives but they still need to deal with the bad things that are already part of their lives. Of course, they have the privilege to call the elders to pray for them and to heal them. God promised so many times in the Bible, in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that if we repent, and if we call out to him, that He will forgive our sins and that He will heal us. He says in the book of James that we will be healed and our sins will be forgiven. However, the problem for many people is that when things have progressed right up to this stage, they usually cannot find an elder or someone with the required faith to pray for them and they themselves never cultivated faith or built up their most holy faith in their own hearts. So they sit with situations that are just too much for them to handle or too difficult for them to deal with. At least they did repent and their souls will not go astray. Many of them can still restore their lives completely if they want to but most of them just do not have the guts or the will to do it and most are too ignorant to do that. They do not even know that there is a way to completely restore their bodies and their lives. This is what ignorance does in people’s lives. Church leaders have failed people in this regard. This is the reality about the judgment of God: Only a legitimate ruler of a kingdom can make decrees or make laws that have to be adhered to by everybody in that kingdom. Only the ruler and the government of such a kingdom have the legal right and the power to enforce those laws. Only the legitimate ruler and government of such a kingdom can punish the citizens and the people in that kingdom. God is the sole ruler of the universe. He is the only person that has the legal right and the power to enforce the laws that He has put in place. He records the sins and the unrighteousness of every human being in his book. It is all recorded. Everything. God is the only person who can punish the people in his kingdom. He created hell and He created sicknesses, diseases and all sorts of calamities as tools to punish people who fail or who refuse to obey or to adhere to his laws. Sicknesses, diseases, calamities, and hell are from God. It belongs to him. He created it for a purpose. These things are not from the devil. The devil cannot cast you in hell and he cannot make you sick. However, the devil and his demons are indirectly responsible for those things in our lives because of the strategies that they follow. They cause oppression in our lives by deceiving us and enticing us to sin. When we fall for those lies and those temptations we bring sicknesses and diseases and calamities over ourselves. God does not use the devil to punish people. It is the angels of God who will cast people into hell. They will cast demons into hell as well. Hell is a very bad place where people will be tormented and suffer forever. Sicknesses, diseases, and calamities either come automatically over us or God puts it on us as He did in the wilderness with Israel and as he did with Ananias and Sapphira. Read Deuteronomy 28 and see what God promised to do to Israel. He promised to do that if they did not obey him. They did not obey him and He really did bring all those things over them. This is the God that we serve. Every good gift comes from the Father of lights and He is wonderful and amazing. His love and his grace and his mercy know no boundaries. His mercies are new every morning. But He is also a very strict God. He will and He does punish his children if they become rebellious and if they continuously walk after the flesh. God hates sin and He punishes all sin. Everybody who ever sinned will be punished and they will pay the penalty for their sins unless they accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. He took the punishment for our sins on him and therefore we do not have to go to hell because of our sins. Even nonbelievers will not be punished for their sins whilst they are still living in the time of grace. However, when they die without Christ, the curse hits them immediately with full force and they are punished in Hades right now and they will be punished in hell one day. The reason that we need to hear the truth about the character and the will and the ways of God in this regard is to allow us to live victoriously and successfully in Christ. We do not have to become sick. If we know what causes sicknesses and diseases and calamities in our lives, we know how to prevent it. God even wants us to know how to restore ourselves. He wants us to live like kings in his kingdom. He does not want us to struggle. In this session, I aimed to show you why people get sick daily and why they cannot get healed. Contrary to what many people believe, sicknesses, diseases, and calamities do come from God. Contrary to what people believe, we can do something about sicknesses, diseases, and calamities in our lives. Contrary to what people believe, sicknesses and diseases and calamities do not come from the devil. Contrary to what people believe, sicknesses and diseases and calamities are not just natural things that randomly happen but warnings that we are not in line with the will and the word of God. Contrary to what people believe, sicknesses, diseases, and calamities call for action. We need to act when we get sick or when calamities show up at our doorstep. This is the time that we need to seek God in prayer, This is the time when we need to determine why it happened. We need to find out what we did wrong or where we have sinned. It can be anything. We might have been using a very aggressive medication which is causing damage to our organs. It might be because of drugs. It might be because of bitterness or hate. It might be because of stress. It might have been because of a specific sin. It might be because of us walking after the flesh by persisting to do certain things that we are not supposed to do. It might be because of us being disobedient to God or his word in a particular area of our lives. It might be because we did not believe that God can protect us against criminals or sicknesses and other diseases every second of our lives. It might be because we failed to believe and act on the word of God. It might be because we failed to renew our minds. It might be that we never learned how awesome and great and strong and powerful God is. It might be that we do not know how capable God is. All of these things are wrong. And whatever the reason was, we are never innocent. We are solely responsible for allowing that thing to become part of our lives and to stay part of our lives. We cannot blame God or the devil or other people or circumstances or anything whatsoever except ourselves. God delegated his power and authority to us and we are always in control of all things in our lives. We can prevent anything and make anything happen and control anything in our lives. We were made in the image of God and we have the ability to change the future through faith and obedience and our actions. Through faith, we believe things into existence. We call things into existence because we believe. We have life and death in our mouths. We live by the word of God which is every word that ever came out of the mouth of God. We live in faith and by faith. Faith changes everything. The Bible is full of the promises of God and all these promises are yea and amen in Christ. This means that it is all guaranteed and that is what I experienced in my life. I realized that God can be utterly trusted. God can never fail you. If you fail it is not because of God or his word but it is because of you not being obedient or you not doing what you are supposed to do. God always does what He said He would. God is amazing. The problem with many people is that they do not know God. They do not know what He is and what He can do. Most people did not yet fully grasp the power and the abilities of God. Most people never will. Allow me to tell you a few things about God that you probably did not realize yet. God knows what every human being ever thought and ever will think every second of every day of their lives from Adam until for all eternity. God knows every movement of every human being, of every limb and every part of their bodies since Adam, until forever. He knows every time that you blinked and He can tell you exactly when and where and why you blinked, every time you ever did, and He can do that with every human being since Adam. He can do that with every animal, whether it is a land animal, or sea animal or bird or insect or whatever. Each and everyone of them since creation until all eternity. God does not miss a millisecond in the lives of all living creatures. He can tell you what every elephant thought at any specific time in the life of such an elephant. He can tell you the same for every worm or every maggot. God knows everything about everyone. He observes everyone in real-time. No living creature can make the slightest movement right now without catching the attention of God. God even knew that it was going to happen beforehand. He misses nothing. He cannot be surprised. Even if there were thousands or millions or trillions of other worlds or universes with the same amount of living creatures on all of them, it would not have been an additional effort for God to do the same with all those living creatures. There is absolutely no limit to the power and the abilities of God whatsoever. He knows when your bank charges you for administration cost the second they do it. He knows what each and every person speaks or thinks about you the second they do it, or even before they do. He knows every second of your life from beginning to end. Absolutely nothing is a surprise for God. If He knows in advance, the exact second and the exact way, that any particular ant or bee or shark act, how can anything be a surprise to God? He knows the exact condition of every cell and every fiber of your body, every millisecond of every day of your life. Not a single cell in your body can change anytime in your life without God knowing it. This creature called God is amazing and there is nothing that He cannot do. He does not miss a millisecond of everything about you, no matter who you are, even if you are unsaved. If you feel that God forgot about you or that He does not care about you, your feelings cannot be further from the truth. If you really know God and if you really know Jesus you know that He is just so much in love with you. This is what S.M. Lockridge said about Jesus: “He is the King of all kings, He is the King of righteousness, He is the King of the ages, He is the King of heaven, He is the King of glory, He is the Lord of lords, He is a sovereign King, no means of measure can define His limitless love, He’s enduringly strong, entirely sincere, eternally steadfast, He’s immortally graceful, imperially powerful, impartially merciful, He’s the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizon of this world, He’s God’s Son, He’s the sinners Savior, He’s the centerpiece of civilization, He’s unparalleled, He’s unprecedented, He’s the loftiest idea in literature, He’s the highest personality in philosophy, He’s the fundamental doctrine of true theology, He’s the only one qualified to be an all sufficient Savior, He supplies strength to the weak, He’s available for the tempted and the tried, He sympathizes and He saves, He strengthens and He sustains, He guards and He guides, He heals the sick, He cleanses the lepers, He forgives sinners, He discharges debtors, He delivers the captives, He defends the feeble, He blesses the young, He serves the unfortunate, He regards the aged, He rewards the diligent, He beautifies the meek, He’s the key of knowledge, He’s the wellspring of wisdom, He’s the doorway of deliverance, He’s the pathway of peace, He’s the roadway of righteousness, He’s the highway of holiness, He’s the gateway of glory, His life is matchless, His goodness is limitless, His mercy is everlasting, His love never changes, His word is enough, His grace is sufficient, His reign is righteousness, His yoke is easy, His burden is light, He’s indescribable, He’s incomprehensible, He’s invincible, He’s irresistible, You can’t get Him out of your mind, you can’t get Him off your hand, you can’t outlive Him and you can’t live without Him, the Pharisees couldn’t stand Him, but they found out they couldn’t stop Him, Pilate couldn’t find any fault in Him, Herod couldn’t kill Him, death couldn’t handle Him and the grave couldn’t hold Him. – SM Lockridge Let’s discuss Ephesians 3:17-21 briefly. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. If you really know God, and if you really understand and know the breadth and the length and the depth and the height of the love of God, you will be able to trust God to such a degree, that you will succeed in living a full and satisfactory life of victory in Christ. You will be able to slay each and every giant in your life. You will be an overcomer. Stay tuned and learn how to achieve this in your life. Many have done it andRead more

S – Symbols Dreams And Visions The “Dreams Dictionary” is now available to all our readers at a special discount price, and what’s more; it is yours for life! Other than the Free online Dreams Dictionary, the book will be updated regularly and will be a lot more comprehensive. Please check out all the benefits you receive on purchase of the Dictionary: The Dreams and Visions Dictionary (Book) will be updated as new symbols and the meanings of new symbols are identified. For this reason the book’s edition number or revision date will be important to take note of. Dictionary owners will always be able to download the latest edition of the Dreams Dictionary by means of the “download link” that they received when they purchased the dictionary. Keep your download link saved on your PC or on your email server. Links can be regenerated and emailed to you by requesting for it by email. How should I use the free online dreams and visions symbols dictionary? Read through the explanation of the meanings(s) of the particular symbol. Make sure you take note of deviations and exceptions regarding the different meanings. Record the meanings. Identify the incident that triggered the dream or the vision. This is the basis or the foundation from where you start or build your interpretation process. Before you start, you need to understand what triggered the dream or the vision. Read about this principle at this link: The Golden Key Please take note, in order to learn the Biblical language of symbols, you need to read this information: How to interpret dreams and visions symbols correctly Click on the following letters of the alphabet for the relevant symbol that you are looking for: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Colors in dreams and visions Numbers in dreams and visions Shapes in dreams and visions Directions, movement and positions in dreams and visions Substitution in dreams and visions S – Symbols (The meanings or the interpretation of most symbols in this dictionary are derived from the Bible) Sable antelope A sable antelope in dreams and visions symbolizes a person or a family where the wife plays the dominant role. The husband stays in his own known boundaries. He does not lead the family as the head of the family. He also does not take up his responsibilities when “danger” looms or when the family goes through some spiritual attack. When the family experiences hardships such a husband withdraws and he leaves the problem for the wife to fix. All the above actions and attitudes are symbolic characteristics observed with the African sable antelope where the male allows a dominant female to take the lead in the herd. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Scales or balances Proverbs 11:1 A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is his delight. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for hearing and obedience refers to a balanced scale. The scale is balanced because “hearing” and “obedience” weigh the same. It speaks of a person who does what he heard. Psalm 40:6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. If we “hear” and “do” we are balanced in our spiritual walk. Our ears cause our bodies to be perfectly balanced. When our spiritual ears are open to hear from God and when we are obedient to that word it brings balance in our lives. When we are spiritually death or unbalanced (partially death or hard of hearing) it causes problems in our lives. John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Scales and balances also symbolize honesty and obedience to God’s instructions when it comes to business and other situations in our lives. In a negative sense, it speaks of a dishonest person. Such people changes the mechanism of their scales to benefit financially through being dishonest. These people sometimes also pretend that they are struggling and going through hard times financially to receive more financial benefits although they are actually very prosperous. In some cases, scales or balances symbolize the judgment of God when nations and even people have been weighed and found wanting. God’s grace and God’s judgment are symbolized by the two balances of a scale. According to Isaiah 65:20 (There shall be no more there an infant of days, nor an old man that has not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed) the time of grace, given us all because of the blood and grace of Christ, runs out if a sinner is still alive at an old age, when the curse of sin will suddenly become a reality in such a person’s life. Usually, old people receive warnings in dreams and visions about the devastating conditions of their lives and souls a few years before the grace of God runs out on them. Many of them do not know what these dreams mean. They also do not bother to find out. I have heard of a lot of old people who, a few years or months after such a warning, experienced things seriously going wrong in their lives and most of them end up dead after such a dream. This is an example of such a person: Someone I know once had a dream about him being the captain of his own ship. In the dream, he was sailing fast and straight toward a huge and thick wall right in the middle of the sea. He could see that the ship was going to collide with this wall. This was a wake-up call. It was a chance to allow God to be the Captain of his ship. This person, although very old, until his death (only a couple of months after this dream), never accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Needless to say, in spite of the warning, he stubbornly stayed on a collision course with that wall until it cost him his salvation. Even with nations, although there are differences, God from time to time visits them with acts of judgment to change the course some of these nations have taken. There is no condemnation or judgment on the righteous. Even unsaved people are not punished by God the Father because of the blood of Jesus Christ. He took the punishment for our sins but, when the time of grace runs out when unsaved people reach the end of their lives, the judgment (curse) of God will suddenly fall on them. See “Ship” where you can also read about the dream of the person I mentioned above. Scars (Sores, holes, damaged areas, medical conditions, physical impairment, etc.) In dreams, scars, sores, holes, damaged areas, medical conditions and physical impairment on human bodies or body parts speak of hindrances, spiritual inabilities and stumbling blocks preventing spiritual maturity, growth, development, obedience, responsibilities, and authority in peoples lives. The area on the body or the body part and the condition of the damaged area (new, old, scar, fresh, cut, infection, swollen, etc.) reveal more information regarding the relevant spiritual hindrances in such a person’s life. Always remember to take the difference in meanings into consideration in terms of whether it is the left or right body part that you dreamed of (In this case, injured or damaged). See “Directions and Locations (movement or location) in dreams and visions (Human body parts)” Sea Isaiah 57:20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea, When it cannot rest, Whose waters cast up mire and dirt. Revelation17:15 Then he said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. Isaiah 60:5 Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. The sea symbolizes the multitudes of people and nations of the world. It also symbolizes the spirit of the world and the treasures of the world. Beneath the surface of the sea is a vast source of treasures. Think of the fish which symbolizes the souls of mankind. A fishing boat or fisherman at word symbolizes the church winning the precious souls of men among all the ungodly multitudes of the earth. The sea also symbolizes the worldly or fleshly systems of the human race. A cargo ship or any other ship which is used to generate a financial income symbolizes businesses and other financial systems searching for all the riches the world has to offer. Sea monster (Yellow) A yellow sea monster in dreams and visions symbolizes a large or a strong deceiving rebellious spirit causing jealousy and hate. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the sea)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Seed (In bags) Seed in bags speaks of a financial harvest. The crop has been harvested and the harvest is stored in bags in a store. In a negative sense, bags with seed speak of the seed not being sowed but remaining stored in a bag. I once had a dream of the seed pouring out on the floor through a hole in one of the bags. This speaks of losing financial blessing instead of sowing and claiming a harvest. Serpent See “snake” Sex In dreams, apostles, teachers, and missionaries, (especially teachers), are often called to minister the word of God in another country by dreaming they have sex with females of such a particular country or region. God is actually giving such a person the following instruction: “I have permanently imparted and established my word in you. I want you to impart this specific word (seed) that I have put in you in the church of… (the relevant country or people). Remember a woman symbolizes the church or a specific congregation and therefore this can even speak of a specific congregation and even a specific person for that matter. Even Jesus Christ injected his spiritual seed into his bride, the church. These dreams differ from erotic dreams. People having these dreams are not sexually aroused and they do not physically experience an ejaculation. Someone I know had a dream once having sex with a specific woman. It turned out God wanted him to teach this specific woman a specific doctrine that she needed to set her free from a specific bondage. When, in a dream, sex is perceived as wrong, immoral or not acceptable, it speaks of a person teaching wrong doctrines, having a wrong attitude or a having a wrong motivation. When sex is perceived to be right (when there is no guilt or nothing in the dream that suggests that the sex deed is wrong) it speaks of a person teaching the church or a specific congregation the true authentic word of God. In some cases though, the acts of people in dreams and visions look as if they disapprove of the sex act but in fact, they are disapproving of what the symbol represents. In a specific dream that I interpreted for a person, it was clear that the person in the dream disapproved of the false teachings that a specific pastor preached. The sex act was thus a message from God and it had a symbolic meaning although a person in the dream disapproved of the act. This seed can be compared with the seed of wheat or a tree except that it is the spiritual seed of everybody born of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is the Word of God. When that word is truly part of believers it becomes a seed and therefore part of their spiritual DNA. When the five-fold ministry or any believer are ministering the word of God onto other people, it is sometimes symbolized in dreams by them injecting that seed into a woman or having sex with a woman. A lady friend of mine once had the following dream: She was lying on a beautiful green lawn in the sun close to a swimming pool. She was very aware of the rays of the sun on her skin whilst she was attempting to get a bit of a summer tan. A white man was standing close to her with a smile on his face. He was quietly watching her. The next moment another white man and a white woman approached her. They were friendly and smiling at her. They started a conversation with her and after a short time the white man started to have sex with her whilst the lady embraced her and kept on kissing her. Whilst this was in progress she saw that the swimming pool was square with the most beautiful pure water. She again noticed that the lawn was lusciously green and well maintained. Then she noticed the first white man still watching her whilst the other man was still having sex with her and the lady was still embracing and kissing her. When their eyes met she noticed the look of approval and the smile of satisfaction on his face. This is where the dream ended. This lady used to be very traditional in her faith-walk with Christ. She attended a congregation where the Holy Spirit was not moving at all. It was a very legalistic congregation and the church members were against any moves and workings of the Holy Spirit. I noticed over quite a few years how God was slowly but surely delivering this friend of mine from that congregation. She really did not want to disappoint her natural father who was still an elder in that congregation and therefore she was very reluctant to leave the particular denomination. It was a very slow and painstaking process. After a few years, I suddenly noticed that this lady was making a lot of progress. She was starting to open up to the truths of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. She increasingly allowed Pentecostal ministers and other people to teach her the true doctrines of the kingdom of God. Soon after this change in attitude, she started to attend a Pentecostal church. She also made a clean break from the congregation her father attended. This dream was actually a direct message from Jesus Christ showing his gratitude and his approval of her change of attitude. He was, in fact, the man in the dream, who watched over her. He arranged for those true ministers to inject the true seed of Christ (the word of God) into her. The white man who had sex with her in the dream probably symbolized all the ministers who taught her the true word of God. The white lady who embraced and kissed her symbolized the Christ-like congregation who cared for her when she joined the Pentecostal congregation. Embracing her and kissing her speak of care and favor. See “Kissing” and “Embracing” for a better understanding of this symbol. The tanning in the sun (God the Father) symbolizes the willingness to be under the influence of God. It speaks of the righteousness of Christ (rays of the sun – the son of righteousness) and also of the healing of Christ. The green lawn speaks the spiritual blessings that became part of her life after she changed her attitude about God’s will for her. The swimming pool speaks of spiritual blessings but also about the inspirational spiritual blessings of the Holy Spirit that became part of her life. The fact that the swimming pool was square in the dream, speaks of the true word of God (truth or revelation knowledge) setting her free. You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free. See “Numbers in dreams and visions (the number four).” See “Shapes in dreams and visions (square)” See “Sex (Oral)” and “Rape” for a better understanding of this symbol. Shark Jeremiah 23:29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? A shark in dreams and visions symbolizes a person with hidden aggression and rebellion. Such a person has the attitude of a shark by aggressively and openly rebelliously showing discontent. Like a shark, people with this attitude attack very suddenly, without prior warning and very aggressively with the purpose to kill, usually when least expected. In a natural sense (non-spiritual), a shark speaks of a person who is aggressive toward other people. Such a person’s attitude is hidden until the moment that he “launches” the attack. All creatures in the sea are under water and therefore hidden. This symbol is the opposite of an aggressive creature of the land, like a gorilla, who is openly aggressive toward people. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the sea)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Sheep John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Ezekiel 34:12 As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. Matthew 25:32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. Sheep symbolizes obedient people of God. A person who is sheep-like is a person who repented of all goat-like sins like stubbornness, disobedience and rebellious reasoning. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Sheets Bed sheets speak of sexual intimacy. Through the years many people had dreams of spiders on beds or on or between the bed sheets. In this case, a bed and the sheets speak of sexual intimacy and the spider of false suspicion or jealousy. This indicates that a person has a false suspicion that his or her spouse is cheating on him or her. Shin A shin speaks of a spiritual stumbling block. Usually, people dream that they have a scar or a sore or damaged area on their shins which reveals more information on the reason for the stumbling block in their lives. If there is not a scar or damaged area on the shin it still speaks of a stumbling block. The details of such a stumbling block might not be revealed or the details are in some cases revealed by other symbols in the dream or vision. Always remember to take the difference in meanings into consideration in terms of whether it is the left or right body part that you dreamed of. See “Directions and Locations (movement or location) in dreams and visions (Human body parts)” See “Shin (With a sore on the left shin)” Shin (With a sore on the right shin) A sore on the right shin speaks of a stumbling block that will cause a person to carry out negative actions or a person getting involved in sin or bad things. Always remember to take the difference in meanings into consideration in terms of whether it is the left or right body part that you dreamed of. See “Directions and Locations (movement or location) in dreams and visions (Human body parts)” Ship A ship symbolizes the church’s evangelistic ministry or outreaches in the world (sea). Under normal circumstance the church is symbolized by a white woman (nothing to do with race but all about the meaning of the color white), or by a tree (spiritual congregation), or a plantation (a group of spiritual congregations), or by a little girl (expansion) or a little boy (new ministry). The institutional church is symbolized by a house (local congregation) or a big building (local or national church institution), or a skyscraper (national or global church institution). Take note that the true spiritual church within the institutional church is also symbolized by the natural organic symbols like a tree, a woman, a little girl or a boy. A ship and boats are all about evangelical outreaches. A ship is symbolic to the church on its way to fulfill the desires of God. It is important to note the color of the ship, the color of the sails, the condition of the water and the waves, the direction of the ship and deep or shallow waters. All this information will tell you more about the situation in the life of a person, a congregation or a ministry regarding their evangelistic outreaches. In another sense, a ship symbolizes the personal zeal and tenacity in a matter. A person embarking on a very important quest which takes up a lot of time and energy can also be symbolized by a ship or a boat depending on the scale of the quest. A ship can speak of the motivation of a specific person. Someone I know once had a dream about him being the captain of his own ship. In the dream, he was sailing fast and straight toward a huge and thick wall right in the middle of the sea. He could see that the ship was going to collide with this wall. This was a wake-up call. It was a chance to allow God to be the Captain of his ship. This person, although very old, until his death (only a couple of months after this dream), never accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Needless to say, in spite of the warning, he stubbornly stayed on a collision course with that wall until it cost him his salvation. See “Vehicles” and “Ship (Battleship” for a better understanding of ships. Ship (Canoe) A canoe speaks of a person’s own personal quest, tenacity, and zeal to achieve something that he feels strongly about. This quest can be negative or positive. A person rowing a blue canoe speaks of a person who goes through a lot of trouble obtaining and supplying people with true revelations from God. A canoe with the colors of a leopard skin symbolizes a person who zealously attacks the church with all sorts of blasphemous and rebellious acts and strategies. A black canoe speaks of a person with the same zeal and attitude with the purpose to destroy. See “Vehicles” and “Ship (Cargo)” and “Shipwreck or ship becoming stranded” for a better understanding of ships. Shoes Ephesians 6:14-15 14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; 15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Clothes symbolize our spiritual preparation. Shoes symbolize our readiness and willingness to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. It also speaks of our readiness and willingness in other situations. Always remember to take the difference in meanings into consideration in terms of whether it is the left or right body part that you dreamed of. See “Directions and Locations (movement or location) in dreams and visions (Human body parts)” See “Clothing” and “Shoes (Black)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Shoes (Pale) A pale shoe speaks of a person who is ready and willing to die. Such a person is not prepared or willing to walk the road of life anymore. There are so many people who do not know about the FREE online Dreams Symbols Dictionary or the FREE Dreams Symbols Interpretation Course! This is SAD. It has the potential to enrich their lives so much and bring them closer to God. Please make it a habit to share all our content by means of the Social Sharing Buttons at the bottom of all our pages. We are eternally grateful for that. Shop or store God has “shops” in heaven. These different shops in heaven which are all selling different spiritual food or spiritual equipment, are always open. We have access to these shops whenever we need something. We buy from God with our spiritual currency which is “faith.” God said in the Bible that we must “come” and “buy” from Him (Isaiah 55:1 and Revelation 3:18). We do that with faith. Money in dreams and visions can also symbolize the word of God (money bills symbolize the written word and coins symbolizes the spoken word). See “Money” for a better understanding of this symbol. When we actually dream without any focus on the money itself, but instead on the “buying”, then it symbolizes the purchasing from God with our spiritual currency called faith. See “Shopping center” Shot (Dead) When a person is shot dead in dreams and visions it symbolizes the end of a relationship because of bad and destructive words. See “Revolver” Shot (In the back) Fiery darts and bullets symbolize words of bitterness, hatred, and criticism with the intention to damage or to hurt other people. Shower A shower symbolizes the repentance of sins that tires the spirit. It differs from bathing in the sense that we stop certain sins in our lives which cause a lot of emotional problems in our families or in our lives. These type of sins tires people and we need to stop it to bring refreshment and restoration in our lives. See “Bathing” Sicknesses See “Diseases” Silver See “Colors (Silver)” Sister Matthew 12:50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother. 1 Corinthians 5:11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. Dreaming of a person who, in the dream, is your sister or resembles your sister it speaks of likeness or character or relationship. It really depends on the context of this symbol in relation to the other symbols in the dream. The likeness and the character and the relationship between you and this person are therefore emphasized and need to be considered. In terms of relationship, it speaks of us needing to get along with our Christian family because we are family. In terms of character and likeness, it is all about us being like each other because we are all born of God and we are all the same. A medical sister in a dream speaks of a person who is in the healing ministry assisting a doctor. See “Brother” and “Nurse” and “Doctor” for a better understanding of this symbol. Skateboard See “Vehicle (Skateboard)” Skin infections See “Boils” and “Sicknesses” for a better understanding of this symbol. Skunk A skunk symbolizes a homosexual person. The terrible stench of a skunk can be associated with a homosexual person. It has been reported by exorcists that a terrible stench often can be experienced when casting out demons from a homosexual person. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Sleep Sleeping in dreams and visions speaks of spiritual inactivity. It can be because of a positive cause but also because of negative circumstances. In a positive sense, being asleep in dreams and visions symbolizes spiritual rest or refreshment. Such a person is temporary inactive in a spiritual sense with the purpose to rest. In a negative sense, it symbolizes a person who is spiritually indifferent, lazy or spiritually insensible. Such a person do not understand the ways and the will of God and is ignorant of God’s ways. In a natural sense, a person sleeping can be a call to rest from work. Smiling See “Kissing” and “Embracing” and “Smiling” for a better understanding of this symbol. Smoke Isaiah 42:3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. Revelation 8:4 And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. Isaiah 65:3,5 A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day. Proverbs 10:26 As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him. Smoke symbolizes the prayers of the righteous like the smoke that goes up from the Old Testament altars of God. In a negative sense, smoke symbolizes religious activities of unrighteousness. It speaks of ungodly ways or activities that is offending to God. When religious people attempt to please God by means of religious rituals or hypocritical behavior, it offends God. It may appear righteous but in fact, it is a form of self-righteousness. These acts are like smoke irritating once’s eyes. Biblical examples of smoke offending God is the smoke that rises up from the altars of idols. See “Cigarettes” I have noticed that a money making scheme like a pyramid scheme or something similar can be very offending to God, especially when the organizers of such a scheme operates and sell the scheme like a religion. A lazy man is an offense to God and other people. Smoke can also symbolize this aspect of mankind. In another sense, smoke polluting a room can indicate that the atmosphere during a meeting will be powerless and heavy (feebleness and heaviness). Such an atmosphere will cause people to be depressed and negative and there will be a resistance toward the Holy Spirit. See “Clouds (Dark or black)” Smoke may also mean that somebody lost their excitement and zeal for their relationship with God (the fire went out and now it smokes). In another sense, a terminal sick person dreaming that he starts breathing out a “darkish” colored smoke whilst he is on a sick bed speaks of the “breath of death.” It is like breathing out their last breath. Usually, after a few of these “breaths”, the room will become dark because of the smoke hanging around. This speaks of an atmosphere of heaviness or depression. The dark breath speaks of negativity or unbelief. It speaks of a person who feels concerned about his chances to make it through the sickness or disease. Usually, this is a call for praise and worship. God wants us to trust in Him for healing and deliverance. If we do, our healing is guaranteed. He does not want us to sink into a pit of depression when we face dire circumstances. He wants us to believe in Him and his word and He wants us to trust him. There is nothing better than praise, worship, prayer and meditating on the word of God in times like this. Smoking (Cigarettes) Somebody smoking cigarettes cause offense to other people. It is a symbol of a person giving other people offense by the way he acts. Religious activities of unrighteousness or pride or bitterness or envy or unforgiveness or jealousy or self-righteousness or conflict are all activities that can cause people to be offended. It is like the smoke of a cigarette in their eyes and faces. People sometimes dream of a person throwing a packet of cigarettes or a cigarette butt at them. This symbolizes that you offended them. You can also be offended at the same time. See “Smoke” and “Smoking (Pipe)” for a detailed explanation of this symbol. Snacks (Salty) Salty snacks symbolize the solid (bread and meat) word of God presented to people in a more attractive way than normal with the purpose of promoting the word of God in their lives. For instance, these are training sessions and Biblical courses that have been prepared in such a way that it makes it more enjoyable and easy for people to understand. Compared to chocolate and cakes, salty snacks do have a lot of nutritional value, especially when meat is part of the snack. Finger lunches (mini meat pies, samosas, glazed smokies, ham balls, roast meat sandwiches, etc.) falls under this category. See “Food” and “Chocolate” and “Cake” for a better understanding of this symbol. Snake Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Genesis 3:13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Snakes in dreams and visions symbolize the workings of the devil or the work of evil. The devil and demons are basically utilizing two strategies; to deceive or to tempt. The Scriptures above say it all. The devil and demons cannot do you any harm at all. They cannot kill you and they cannot physically do anything to harm you or your belongings. The only weapon they have is their mouths. The only strategy they have is by lying to people and/or tempting people to influence them to sin. Both are achieved through our intellect and therefore attacks by evil are always intellectual deception. The lying is all about bringing doubt in God and his word. The temptation is all about influencing people to sin. Both these strategies are deceptive in nature and make no mistake, if we give the enemy a foothold here it can and will result in us allowing harm in our own lives. Although evil cannot harm us, we, if we believe their lies and if we give in to their temptations, will end up being oppressed, sick and injured. It can even result in death. A snake, therefore, symbolizes the sly or cunning or deceiving acts of evil. Technically, it is not an attack of power and authority that harms us. No, it is the deception and cunning influences of evil spirits to move us to believe, to say and to do what they want us to believe, to say and do that harm us. The devil leads God’s people astray by seducing or deceiving or beguiling them (sly, cunning, and deceiving influences). This is done by means of reasoning and intellectual deception. The enemy is occupied with our minds. If he can get any access into our minds we are in trouble. He succeeds to control people’s minds when his reasoning appears logical or true. This is the danger area for the people of God. He never comes with outright lies. When you dream of snakes you need to take notice. Think “deception.” Evil forces are attempting to deceive you. Remember, the devil also uses people to deceive people. If you see snakes in dreams and visions, although the deception sometimes comes through people, demonic forces are always behind it. It is important to notice that when you receive a warning of this nature, your focus should always be on God and his word, meaning the truth, to counteract the onslaught from evil forces. It is not our actions but rather the truth that we believe that defends us against evil forces. When you dream of snakes, it does not mean you must now attack demons (the wrong way of spiritual warfare). It means you must be aware of the lies and the temptation. Try to identify the specific lie and the specific temptation when you are warned about an imminent attack. Look out for lies and temptations so that you can resist it successfully. The best way to deal with lies and temptation is to be close to God. Pray, praise, worship, pray in tongues, meditate on the word of God and so forth. This is true Biblical warfare. When you dream you kill a snake it symbolizes that you have conquered the enemy during a particular attack. This usually happens when you managed to achieve victory over a specific area of your life where you suffered a lot of defeats in the past. This means that you managed to resist the lies and the temptations of evil forces for good in the particular area of your life. The color of the snake will reveal the area of victory. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Snake (Adder) Psalm 140:3 They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. This is a symbol of false teachers. These people are sly, cunning, and full of deceit like vipers, serpents, or satan himself. Adders symbolize people with a deceiving spirit like the Pharisees. Jesus called them “adders”. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Snake (Black) Revelations 6:5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. A black snake symbolizes a demonic deception with the purpose of deceiving God’s people through intellectual reasoning. This intellectual reasoning influences people to accept failure and/or defeat which results in people becoming depressed. It causes unbelief in the lives of people. Evil forces always want us to give up hope and to sink in a hole of depression and to doubt in God’s word and promises. A black snake, therefore, symbolizes lies of unbelief to accept failure, defeat, and poverty. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Snake (Brown) A brown snake symbolizes the seduction and deceit of people through intellectual reasoning and unclean thoughts to lust after and to get involved in fleshly desires like pornography or other selfish ambition, striving and indecent acts. Brown speaks of the flesh and fleshly desires. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Snake (Cobra) Psalm 58:4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear. Isaiah 42:20 Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not. Zechariah 7:11 But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. A cobra snake symbolizes a person who is deceptive regarding his relationship with you. It speaks of a person who appears to listen to you and even partakes in certain actions with you but is secretly deceiving you. It appears that such a person listens and that he responds to you, or to the gospel truths, but in reality, he does not. The problem with such a person is that they cannot respond to the truth because of their ears being shut. They do not want to listen to the truth and they cannot respond to the truth because of the shut ears. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Snake (Killing snake by crushing head with staff) When a person kills a snake in dreams and visions it symbolizes the person being victorious over evil spirits who were trying to tempt or deceive him. It could also mean that a person spiritually reached maturity in terms of dealing with temptation and deceit in a specific area. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Snake (Golden) Colossians 2:15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. A golden snake symbolizes a person being deceived into a false belief that the devil is powerful. The devil often uses other people to influence us. In this case, the snake can speak of a person who is teaching you that the devil is powerful. People who are deceived into believing that the devil and demons possess authority and power actually provides a foothold to demonic activities in their lives. There is a saying going around that “God is almighty but the devil is mighty.” This is not the truth. The devil is not mighty. The devil and demons have no power other than telling lies and tempting people to sin. This is not a great power. Jesus Christ stripped the devil from all the power and the authority he enjoyed before the crucifixion of Christ. Evil definitely has no power or authority over people. It is a dangerous deception to believe the contrary. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Snake (Green) Psalm 23:2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. A green snake symbolizes a person being deceived by an evil spirit by means of deceptive intellectual reasoning. Such people are deceived and they also deceive others. The color green is about fleshly intellectual reasoning. A green snake represents the deceit of God’s people through intellectual reasoning to accept false doctrines or false religion or false peace. Usually, this symbolizes people who believe in Christ Jesus but their experience is of a fleshly nature and based on intellectual knowledge. There is no relationship with God and, therefore, this symbolizes a dead religion. A green snake, therefore, speaks of a false doctrine or religion which is usually based on intellectual reasoning or intellectual knowledge without a deep spiritual experience. A green snake primarily symbolizes a false peace based on deceptive intellectual reasoning. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Snake (Rattle) A rattlesnake in dreams and visions symbolizes an intellectual attack from the enemy by deceiving a person by diverting the attention from an important matter to an unimportant one. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Snake (Red) A red snake symbolizes the seduction and the deceit of God’s people through intellectual reasoning and selfish thoughts to get involved in a conflict. This often leads to violence or hate or racism or murder. Evil spirits symbolized by a red serpent causes conflict, hate, and strife in people’s lives. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Snake (Pale) Revelations 6:8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. A pale snake is a deception on the mind of a person to cause death. The aim is to kill by deceiving or seducing a person into suicide or to murder somebody else. A pale snake in a dream should be countered by the wonderful and the positive Scriptures of hope, life, and peace. The promises and the word of God bring hope, peace, and deliverance. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Snake (Python) A python, which is also known as a monster snake, is not poisonous but huge and strong. A python in dreams and visions symbolizes the workings of a strong evil spirit which operates by means of intellectual thoughts of deception by attempting to make people passive by overpowering their emotions and their will. People are being deceived by this evil spirit to believe that everything is hopeless and they soon feel totally overwhelmed and powerless. With this attack, the enemy attempts to put a lot of pressure on people similar to the way a python squeezes the life out of its prey. People under such a deception gives up easily if they do not resist it. The whole purpose for the deception of a “python” is to get you to stop praying and meditating on the word of God because of a feeling of hopelessness. When you dream about a python you urgently need to do the following: Praise and worship God, especially in tongues, pray and meditate on the word of God and thank him for everything that He has done in your life. This easily stops the enemy in its tracks. Meditating on the promises of God is very effective to conquer over this type of attack. The color of the python indicates the area of the deception. This type of deception makes it difficult for the people of God to achieve victory in certain areas of their lives. The aim of this type of deception is sometimes to make God’s people give up in certain areas of their lives. Remember that such evil spirits are sometimes making use of other people to influence us. For this reason, a python can symbolize certain people in our lives who try to overpower us with force. A red python can symbolize a person with a violent attitude and a black python a person with a negative attitude of unbelief. In another sense, a python symbolizes the spirit or attitude of a lazy person. This has nothing to do with deception but about the attitude of such a person. Usually, when such a person has made “enough” money, he decides to quit his job and live on this money until it is finished and then he starts working again. The python is very active until it has devoured its prey. It is then very passive for quite a time before it needs to feed again. This applies to financial matters and spiritual matters. In a spiritual sense, such a person may seek God for some insight or he may sign up for a Bible course for a period of time only to follow up with quite a long period being inactive. They can easily abstain from prayer or from Bible study for quite a period of time. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Snake (White) A white snake symbolizes the deceit of people through intellectual reasoning by influencing them to believe that they are righteous although they did not receive Jesus Christ as their Savior. This is a false righteousness through own works or martyrdom. Even Christians who are already righteous through faith are similarly deceived to do certain religious acts to obtain righteousness. They are also gradually deceived into believing and embracing a false peace and a false righteousness. Dreaming of a white snake, therefore, is being warned of deception to accept a false righteousness. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Snake (Yellow) A yellow snake speaks of the seduction and deceit of people by evil spirits through intellectual reasoning and selfish thoughts leading to hate and jealousy. This includes deceptions of a racist nature like a belief that only white people can be saved and that all black people are forever lost and other similar scenarios. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Snakebite Proverbs 23:32 At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. A snake biting a person in a dream or visions symbolizes that demonic forces or an evil spirit succeeded in tempting a person. It means that such a person allowed the evil spirit to deceive him or to tempt him. This symbol is often seen in dreams and visions when evil spirits tempt people to make financial debt without considering the interest rate of a loan or other negative conditions in terms of the agreement. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Soap Malachi 3:2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap. Soap symbolizes the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from sin. It refers to the forgiveness of sins and the cleansing of sin. See “Bathing” for a better understanding of this symbol. Son (Young Boy) Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. A baby boy or a young boy speaks of renewal in a ministry or in a specific situation. If you prayed for a couple or a woman to conceive, a baby boy could mean that she will bring a little boy into this world. See “Baby” Sombrero See “Hat (Sombrero)” Sores External sores in dreams and visions symbolize spiritual injuries or damage of some kind that causes hindrances in the life of people in a spiritual sense. The body parts and areas on the body that’s injured will provide more detail in terms of the type or spiritual area that’s injured or damaged. Sores like cuts and bruises differ from boils and infections. Where boils and infections speak of past hurts that a person struggles to deal with, cuts and bruises and all sorts of fresh injuries deal with recent injuries or incidents that hurt a person spiritually. See “Boils” Always remember to take the difference in meanings into consideration in terms of whether it is the left or right body part that you dreamed of. See “Directions and Locations (movement or location) in dreams and visions (Human body parts)” Spacecraft See “Rockets and Spacecraft” Spider Isaiah 59:4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. A spider symbolizes false thoughts of suspicion and jealousy. Just as a spider regards any movement around its web as suspicious, so people symbolized by a spider regards random incidents or events as suspicious. They can easily become jealous because of this. Through the years many people had dreams of spiders on beds or on or between the bed sheets. In this case, a bed and the sheets speak of sexual intimacy and the spider speaks of a false suspicion or jealousy. This indicates that a person has a false suspicion that his or her spouse is cheating on him or her. The spider indicates that the suspicion is not true. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the land)” and “Spider (Web)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Square See “Shapes in dreams and visions” Stainless steel Raw iron is not like stainless steel. Stainless steel is iron, representing man, of which all impurities have been removed by its creator representing the holiness of God, into which other substances are added and subsequently changed, representing input from God and the Holy Spirit. Because of this “co-operation” or this “mixture” of “earth” and “heaven”, stainless steel symbolizes the mature child of God who is a vessel of excellence or an instrument of excellence in the hand of God. Such a person allowed God to change him into a vessel of excellence which cannot “rust” by being contaminated by man-made influences. See “Steel” and see “Beam” for a better understanding of this symbol. See “Stains (Spot, wrinkle,blemish)” See “Stains (Sheets)” and “Stains (Wedding dress)” Stairs 1 Peter 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Psalm 75:6-7 6 For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. 7 But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another. Stairs have the same meaning as an elevator or a lift with one difference; with stairs, human effort is required. Not so much effort is required as with a ladder but still, some effort is required to obtain the promotion. This speaks of some spiritual activities needed to obtain spiritual promotion. Stairs speak of promotion (going up) or demotion (going down) in a spiritual ministry or in a work situation. See “Elevator” and “Ladder” and “Stairs (Down)” and “Stairs (Up)”for a better understanding of this symbol. Star A star speaks of a prominent person. Star (Falling) A falling star symbolizes a backsliding person who is removed from an authority like satan and the demons were removed from authority. A falling star also speaks of a Christian who has lost his faith by turning his back on God. Stars Stars in dreams and visions symbolize the descendants of Abraham (Christians). Star Fish A starfish is a living creature from the sea. It is regarded as a living animal (fish) but yet it is like a plant. This symbolizes people who look very promising but yet nothing ever becomes a reality in their lives. It is if they are living in an unrealistic and fanciful world and therefore not able to make sound assessments of financial situations. A starfish is actually a worthless creature and so are the financial decisions these people make. See “Animals” and “Creatures (Of the sea)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Steel See “Stainless steel” and “Beam” Stomach Proverbs 25:28 He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls. 1 Corinthians 2:10-11 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so, the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Luke 9:55 …Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. Ezekiel 3:1-3 1 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel. 2 So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll. 3 And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness. Job 20:12-16,23 12 Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue; 13 Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth: 14 Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him. 15 He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly. 16 He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him. 23 When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating. Psalm 31:9 Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly. Proverbs 18:8 The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly. Proverbs 20:27 The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly. The stomach symbolizes the spirit of a human being. We feed our spirits (spiritual stomach) with the word of God. The soul, in this sense, is represented by our brains (intellect). An unrighteous person eats without being fed because his spiritual stomach is unable to receive spiritual food. Such a person has a cobra snake in his stomach. He listens to spiritual messages but does not hear. He eats spiritual food (swallowing riches) but without it being beneficial to his spirit. It is not absorbed into his spirit but diverted to his soul. He judges (digests) spiritual food (word of God) with his brains (fleshly intellect). See “Food” for a better understanding of this symbol. Stone (Marble) See “Marble” Storm Psalm 107:28-29 28 Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. 29 He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. A storm in dreams and visions speaks of a drastic change in the spiritual atmosphere which causes disturbance and conflict. This causes trials and times of difficulty in the lives of people. A storm suggests that a person or people suddenly have to deal with people or difficult circumstances caused by people and even by God and sometimes satan. See “Cyclone” If a person prayed for rain a storm in a dream can indicate that rain is on the way. Street Streets speak of spiritual direction and the circumstances that we experience in our spiritual journeys (walking or driving). It speaks of the spiritual conditions on the way ahead in our lives. It is important to note the surrounding objects or places that we pass when are traveling or moving on these roads. Buildings and areas and obstacles and geographical locations play an important role in the sense. It is important to understand that just a few seconds or minutes of traveling or walking on roads and paths and streets can symbolize or represent months or even years in our lives. The meanings of “streets” and “roads” in dreams and visions differ in the sense that streets are more about our interaction with denominational churches when it is among skyscrapers and similar buildings. It is about people or small churches like house churches when it is among houses. Roads are more about our spiritual journeys in life. See “Path” and “Roads” for a better understanding of this symbol. Substitutions See “Substitution in dreams and visions” Suitcase A suitcase speaks of a place for spiritual “giftings” or where spiritual “giftings” are kept. Clothing in dreams and visions symbolizes the preparation for ministry. When a person has been thoroughly prepared for ministry, such a person possesses quite a few pieces of “clothing” that he can dress himself with to minister the gospel of Christ and the word of God. In a dream, you might even see all sorts of food like chocolate, cake and even other kinds of food among the clothing. This speaks of the spiritual food that such a person possesses which he can give people. See “Clothing” and see “Food” Sun Genesis 19:23 The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Genesis 32:31 And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. Proverbs 4:18 But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The sun in dreams and visions symbolizes God the Father. When a person, in a dream, lies in the sun to tan, it speaks of the person allowing God the Father to “influence” him with his righteousness. The righteousness is symbolized by the rays of the sun on a person’s skin. It heats the skin. We are absorbing the righteousness and goodness of God by intently lingering and resting in his presence similar to the earth being heated by the rays of the sun. See “Sun (Rising)” and “Sun (Setting)”  Sweet Ezekiel 3:3 And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness. Proverbs 16:21 The wise in heart shall be called prudent: and the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning. Proverbs 27:9 Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel. Judges 9:11 But the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees? Sweet tastes in dreams and visions symbolize happy circumstances and joy because of the word of God and the good counsel of friends and people. Remember that everything we eat in dreams and visions symbolizes either the word of God or lies or “bad” words of evil and people who are ignorant in terms of teachings and counsel. See “Food” and see “Herb (Bitter)” and “Bitter” for a better understanding of this symbol. Swimming pool A swimming pool symbolizes the spiritual or financial situation of a family or a church. The color and the condition of the water will reveal more information on the financial situation or the spiritual condition of the congregation or the family. In another sense, a swimming pool speaks of the excitement and enjoyment in terms of the ministry and functioning of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It speaks of the preparation and training and excitement and joy to minister in the flow and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Sword Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Ephesians 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God… Revelation 2:15-16 15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate. 16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. A sword symbolizes the written word of God (“Logos”) or the inspired or revealed word of God (“Rhema”). It speaks of the power of the written word as well as the inspired or “spoken” word of God. It is sharper than a two-edged sword and cut through all resistance. When a word comes alive in our spirits and we use it to change our circumstances, that word is actually “anointed” and therefore Holy Spirit driven or quickened. A sword can also be a symbol of the teaching ministry. It cuts away tradition and wrong teachings. According to Revelations 2:15-16, a sword symbolizes the judgment of God on people who are refusing to distance themselves from wrong doctrinal teachings and erroneous ways in the church. See Sword (Black or dark)” and “Sword (Golden)” and “Sword (White)” for a better understanding of this symbol. Sword (Green) A green sword symbolizes an attack on the lies of the enemy resulting in intellectual thoughts being renewed and replaced by the true word of God. Sword (Silver) A silver sword speaks of the word of God used in faith to bring about deliverance, purification, and cleansing in a person’s life. This was an excerpt of only about 50% of symbols that is available in the paid version of the Dreams and visions symbols dictionary. By purchasing the Dreams Dictionary, you gain the following: You will have access to about twice as many dreams and visions symbols as online visitors (almost 1000 pages of symbols). You have access to the Dreams and Visions Interpretation Course Manual which is exclusively available to dictionary owners as a free add-on. This manual puts the theoretical knowledge (dictionary) into practice (manual). You have access to real-life dreams and visions which explain symbols more comprehensively. If you registered for the free Dreams Interpretation Course, you have all the study material that you need. To effectively complete the Dreams Interpretation Course, you really do need the paid version of the dictionary and you do need the Dreams Interpretation Course Manual. Without these resources, you will be limited in your efforts to master the Biblical language of symbols. By purchasing the dictionary, you support my ministry, which won’t be possible if you don’t. The selling of books is my only source of income and any writer will confirm that it is not easy to make a living solely from the sales of books. By rating my books, you enable me to improve the quality and the standard of the books and, by doing so, you help other people to make their purchasing experience a lot easier. You can purchase the Dreams Symbols Dictionary here: Dreams Dictionary Please take note, in order to learn the Biblical language of symbols, you need to read this information: How to interpret dreams and visions symbols correctly Click on the following letters of the alphabet for the relevant symbol that you are looking for: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Colors in dreams and visions Numbers in dreams and visions Shapes in dreams and visions Directions, movement and positions in dreams and visions Substitution in dreams and visions Back to tRead more

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The Latest News On House Churches House churches! Where do we stand right now globally? What is God up to regarding house churches? What strategies are to be followed when it comes to house churches? With this short post, I hope that I can shed some light on the situation we face across the globe right now. Misunderstandings and misconceptions! Across the globe, many Christians within the different house church communities hear and see a lot of what is going on right now in terms of the persecution of Christians, the global onslaught on religious freedom and also the latest trends regarding house church planting and house church structures. In many instances these trends and happenings are closely linked to each other, integrated with each other and influenced by each other. All these factors and influences dynamically change things and open doors for yet more changes to come. The diversion to house churches by the institutional church during recent years, because of persecution, is a very good example of this. The persistent pressure on churches and congregations to grow and expand in terms of numbers is another. Church leadership constantly make important and proactive decisions in order to develop but also to protect themselves against the pressures that they are facing on a daily basis. Since world war two persecution levels has risen to very high levels in recent years. The degree of persecution in terms of severity also rose to devastating and unacceptable levels. Because of this, when it comes to house churches and house church structures, I really do not believe that what we hear and see today is really what God is bringing into existence in the body of Christ. Adapting because of external influences has never been a good thing in the church of Christ. House churches are not what we think it is When people refer to house churches many different points of view come to mind. People sometimes say things and do things with the understanding that they are all on the same page regarding this subject. People are sometimes under the impression that everybody have the same understanding in terms of the definition of house churches and house church structures. We look at house churches in China and other areas in the world that came into existence because of persecution and we think that these house church structures and these methods properly define the Biblical “Ekklesia”. The early church was also persecuted and maybe this influenced the early church to function similar to what we see today. The same can be said for house churches that came into existence in the institutional church in the form of cell groups or small groups. Church leadership saw the need for this method of gathering and felt that it would bring them closer to what the early church experienced. In terms of a closer relationship among the members of the congregation when it comes to the shared community life, this was indeed an improvement and it certainly developed people. The same can also be said for house churches planted by institutional church leaders institutional church style. Although these congregations gather in houses and although they are small communities, there is really not much difference between them and bigger congregations gathering in a building specifically built for this purpose. These people however feel that they brought back healthy intimacy and closer relationship among believers as it was during New Testament times. We even see the so called “pure” or “authentic” house church movements all across the world and some people may think that these structures and methods properly define what God had in mind when he birthed the church in New Testament times. My believe is that none of these structures and methods truly define what God is giving birth to in the body of Christ. These structures basically came into existence because of external influences, external pressure and internal needs. The Biblical Ekklesia was birthed by God irrespective of external influences and internal needs. God is always working for the good of the church and always putting strategies in place in order to develop the church. He is constantly bringing restoration and constantly causing the church to grow, to expand and to develop. It is a well known fact and a reality among many people who support house churches that the future of the church is the birth and development of the Ekklesia as it was in New testament times. Because of the Biblical principals governing the weekly gatherings of the Ekklesia, this is only possible within the authentic house church setting. The size of a congregation makes all the difference in the world. It always has been and still is the most important factor undermining church structures and church life in the church. We do not doubt this fact for a moment. More and more people understand and accept the fact that the institutional church probably will not be able to change. If Martin Luther could speak to us today regarding this issue he probably would have told us that the institutional church will rather persecute than change. The institutional church has always been that way and it still is. Yet we have always and we will always give the institutional church the opportunity to change. It is always possible and it might just happen. Read the “About us” page to see how I feel about this issue. This is however not what this post is about. This post is about the current situation in the world relating to house churches. The big transition My personal opinion is that proper Biblical house churches do not really exist yet. We are currently in a period of transition. Many people who support house churches or who accepted the fact that real restoration is in the birth of the authentic Biblical Ekklesia, currently find themselves in this period of transition. For them it rather feels like they find themselves in the middle of a desert. Many are very confused and many have no idea why and what they are going through. Many of those who are actively involved in the house church structures that I mentioned above are often very disappointed. Their experiences of house churches are often not what they envisioned. House church planters are really struggling because of the many obstacles on this lonely road and because of the lack of interest among Christians. Yes there are house church planters who are successful and who do indeed plant numerous house churches all over the world. Most people are however struggling a lot. Through the years many became dispirited and many gave up completely. In fact, many returned to the institutional church although they did not really want to. Although confused, many people do understand that they have been called by God for this purpose and although the road is lonely, although they have to face many obstacles and although they lose heart sometimes, they do know and they do understand that they cannot give up. They know that they must allow God to shape them and prepare them for the next step of the restoration of the church that is about to take place. A season of preparation and a season of equipping The season of transition is fundamentally a season of preparation. God identified His servants and He called them, mostly from the institutional church, to prepare them and to empower them for this purpose. These people are His prophets and His instruments of excellence! These people have been prepared for a time like this. Many of them have no idea what is coming. Many are going through difficult times of preparation and hardship. Many of them went through the initial preparation stages within the ranks of the house church structures that I mentioned above. Many have been in the desert since they left the institutional church. The bottom line is that they all have been and are still being prepared for the real thing! They are willing and obedient instruments in the hand of God. They reported for duty and they are willing to allow God to fulfill His plan and purpose in their lives. No questions asked! All of us have experienced and are still experiencing very difficult challenges and circumstances when it comes to planting Biblical based house churches. One of the biggest problems is that people are just not ready for house churches and they are just not interested in house churches yet. That is a fact. This makes things very difficult for house church planters. My message to them is, “Do not lose heart”. We are not there yet. I am convinced that God is now busy with the preparation phases. He is developing and preparing His instruments, His servants, His Biblical based five-fold ministry and workers. When the proper time comes everything will change! There will be no short cuts This is one of the reasons why the workers of God need to undergo extensive training and why they all need to go through this intensive preparation phase. The institutional church did not and cannot prepare these type(s) of ministers. Training and development in the institutional church compared to house churches differ like night and day. People are just not able and capable of planting house churches the way God wants them to, unless He prepares and equip them for that. We need this training, preparation and development because there will be no short cuts when the Ekklesia is birthed. We will not be able to plant house churches if we are not prepared and equipped for that in especially two areas of our faith walk with Christ. We will have to be spiritually developed in these two aspects in order to plant house churches correctly and effectively. I am discussing these two areas of development below. There really are no shortcuts in this respect. Without being spiritually developed in these two aspects you are bound to fail. One seriously important disadvantage is the fact that the Gifts of the Spirit were never developed in the institutional church. Today, we as Spirit filled children of God actually have no idea what the Gifts of the Spirit really are! We haven’t really seen well developed Gifts of the Spirit in action yet. I think if we could see true and well developed spiritual gifts in action we would be very surprised and even shocked! It would be quite strange to us and we would not be able to handle it like we should. For this reason we need the proper foundation which only comes through proper preparation and proper Godly empowerment. We really do not know what the Gifts of the Spirit really are! I am not exaggerating! It was never developed in the church of Christ accept for the early days. I think just after the apostles died the gifts of the Spirit rapidly ceased to exist. Paul warned the church against false apostles who will soon viciously resist the Gifts of the Spirit. That happened. Eventually the Catholic church literally put an end to it. For many years the gifts of the Spirit virtually did not manifest at all until the late eighteen hundreds. Although there were Holy Spirit revivals during the nineteen hundreds, even today, the gifts of the Spirit virtually do not exist. We have never even come close to the levels of New Testament times and that was only the start. It was supposed to develop even further. Up to now we only briefly scratched the surface. We really do not know much about the gifts of the Spirit. We have had quite a shallow experience since Pentecost. I am convinced that in the years to come we will see the gifts of the Spirit manifest in a way never seen before. When it comes to the birth of the Biblical Ekklesia, we all know that this needs to change. I say again there will be no short cuts. The gifts of the Spirit need to be developed in the church before we will be able to plant authentic Biblical house churches. The church needs an absolute Godly reformation when it comes to this aspect of our faith and Biblical community life. Proper Biblical house churches cannot function correctly without the gifts of the Spirit. In fact it cannot function at all without the gifts of the Spirit. People think it can. This is why I really do believe that the true and authentic Ekklesia that complies with Biblical principles and requirements does not exist yet. This brings me to the second major problem: The gifts of the Spirit cannot be developed unless the children of God have a very close and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. Again I say, there are really no short cuts. People need to turn their backs onto religion and embrace Christ alone. Without an all important very intimate love relationship with our heavenly Bridegroom, the gifts of the Spirit just cannot develop in us. I have written a post in Afrikaans, “Wat is ‘n Jesus bediening?” about this serious problem. You need to read this to really understand this problem. Many Christians and even church leaders are under the false impression that the love that we experience when we get together is enough. Isn’t this the most important aspect of all, the love that we have for each other? Of course love is very important! Of course the gifts of the Spirit need to be built on the foundation of love, however, love can never replace the work and the moving of the Holy Spirit. The gifts of the Spirit is God (Holy Spirit) in action. That is why the Bible clearly tells us how our gatherings should be conducted: 1 Corinthians 14:26  How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. The word love is not even present in this verse. The gifts of the Spirit are! Does that mean love is not important? No, love is very important because without love the gifts of the Spirit will not be effective. Does this mean love should replace the gifts? Absolutely not! When you prevent or block the gifts of the Spirit you are actually preventing the Holy Spirit from working in the congregation! Never make the mistake of thinking that love can replace the Holy Spirit in our meetings because it cannot. What we see today in terms of house church networks and structures are merely the result of the factors that I mentioned in the introductory part of this post. I do believe that these diversions did carry the approval of God and I do believe that He used it as initial preparation tools in order to prepare us for the real thing that He, I believe, soon will give life to. I believe as soon as God completed this phase of preparation, this transitional period will make way for a new season. This will be a season of a new birth and newness in the body of Christ. This is what God showed Lana Vawser recently regarding this aspect: I AM TRAINING YOU MY PEOPLE IN EXCELLENCE LIKE JOSEPH AND DANIEL. THE FAVOR I AM NOW INCREASING OVER YOUR LIFE IN THIS TRAINING WILL CAUSE THE WORLD TO TURN ITS HEAD AND NEW SIGNIFICANT DOORS OPEN TO YOU… Recently the Lord spoke to me regarding this season we are in as the body of Christ. I felt Him say “I am training you My people, in excellence like Joseph and Daniel. The favor I am now increasing over your life in this “training”, will cause the world to turn its head.” I saw the people of God in “new vineyards” and they were tending the vines, they then collected the fruit and brought in the ‘harvest’. Their baskets were plentiful. In each “stage” of the process I saw Jesus with them and training them in EXCELLENCE. He was teaching His people how to steward with integrity, with love, purity, tenderness and care. He was developing humility, strengthening root systems and perseverance. EXCELLENCE IS NOT STRIVING; PERFECTIONISM OR PERFORMANCE.. Jesus was being very intentional in defining excellence, that it was not striving, performance or perfectionism, but it was rooted in a life of intimacy. Knowing who He is, living in the deep revelation of His goodness and nature and EVERYTHING that His people put their hands to, is worship. “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:17) I watched as Jesus taught His people in EVERY AREA of their influence to be INTENTIONAL. To be PRESENT. To steward and to go the “extra mile”, “above and beyond” in grace, empowerment of the Spirit and integrity. STEWARD THE NEW – THE JOSEPH’S, DANIEL’S AND ESTHER’S ARE ARISING IN GREATER INCREASE AND FURTHER INTO THEIR GOD-GIVEN POSITIONS OF INFLUENCE – IT IS YOUR TIME OF INCREASED MEASURE AND EXTENSION. I then heard the Lord say “My people you have been stewarding in the darkness. You have been learning to steward in the caves. I have now brought you out into the “new vineyards” and I am teaching you to STEWARD THE NEW. What you have learnt in the caves, has prepared you to now be trained at a higher level. You are being positioned as Kings and Queens in your area and mantle of influence. I am now training you in excellence like Joseph and Daniel and the world is going to turn it’s head towards you as My favor is released over you and your life. The spirit of excellence I am developing in and through you will attract the Kings and Queens of the earth to you, and you are about to be promoted and increased. Get ready for significant doors to open in the seven mountains, to move in like Daniel and Joseph and bring life giving wisdom and insight to shape people, cities and nations. Now is the time! The time is not ‘nigh’, the time has arrived. It’s now! It’s now! It’s now! Your time in the caves and dark nights of the soul have prepared you for such a time as this. The Joseph’s, Daniel’s and Esther’s are arising in GREATER INCREASE and FURTHER into their God-given positions of influence. It is their time of INCREASED MEASURE AND EXTENSION. This has been the season of governmental anointings being awakened and released and this is about to INCREASE.” NEW DIVINE HANDSHAKES I saw “DIVINE HANDSHAKES” taking place all over the world. God is setting up new divine agreements, new ventures, new partnerships and networks – that are going to release His Glory and LOVE into the earth in NEW creative, INCREASED ways that will SHOUT the EXCELLENCE and BEAUTY of Jesus. “My people are FURTHER taking their place as the “light of the world”, the “cities on a hill”, releasing My Glory and My creativity. Witty inventions, strategies to do life with excellence, abundance and prosperity of heart and soul are about to be released in INCREASE through the further favor filled positioning of My people. My people are about to LEAD cities and nations in greater ways than has EVER been seen before.” “Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.” And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.” (Genesis 41:39-41) “Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him…” (Daniel 6:3) Whatever your “sphere of influence” the Lord has you placed in right now, the Lord is about to increase you, promote you and accelerate you in favor as you surrender and submit to His process of learning to steward all He has given you with deeper intimacy, humility, integrity and excellence. I felt the Lord saying that it is going to become apparent in this season those who have stewarded with excellence and integrity, and those who have walked in compromise and complacency. The Lord’s heart for His people are for ALL to be AWAKE, PRESENT and moving in EXCELLENT. The invitation is before us all in this season. Give Him your YES in this EXCELLENCE training. He will give you grace upon grace upon grace to be present, intentional and excellent. Weariness will fall away and tidal waves of refreshment will strengthen you. Every area of your life will flourish with new fruit, increase and resurrection life AS YOU SAY YES! OPPORTUNITY IS GOING TO MARK YOUR SPHERE OF INFLUENCE OPPORTUNITY is going to MARK your sphere of INFLUENCE and open doors to you in this season that you could NEVER imagine. Where the enemy and doubt has been screaming at you “the rest of this year is going to remain dark and hard, the Lord is decreeing over you that the rest of this year is going to be BRIGHT and FULL as the spirit of excellence manifests through you and opens doors of favour and increase to you that you have NEVER imagined. (Ephesians 3:20) Steward with intentionality, excellence, purity, integrity and humility your day to day life and routines from the place of rest and worship to Jesus and hold onto your hat… For this beautiful adventure ride with Jesus is about to pick up speed again and become a lot more fun and exciting!!! – Lana Vawser House churches need to stand in the gap The Lord recently showed me that His servants need to stay focused in order to be prepared and equipped. The time is fast approaching for them to stand in the gap for the institutional church. They will have to be prepared and ready because the collapse of the institutional church is iminent. He showed me that the institutional church will lose the appeal that it currently enjoys among Christians. I saw something like a concert on a very professional and well prepared stage. It was just beautiful to watch. The way that this concert or performance was conducted was really good and I could see that people really enjoyed it. Although I supernaturally knew that this symbolized the institutional church in action, it really did not look like a church and it did not look like a gathering of the saints. It looked more like a theater and it looked like a concert. After watching this for a few minutes I was supernaturally (wisdom) required to look down to the floor for exactly three minutes. After the three minute period came to an end I was required to look up again. When I looked up I discovered that literally everything disappeared from the stage. I could only see the three bare walls and the bare wooden floor of the stage. All the lights, the instruments and all the theatrical property were all missing. Nothing was left on the stage. It was like an empty house with absolutely no furniture, no curtains, or anything else. Immediately after everything disappeared, the clergy of the institutional church and the members of the congregation that were with me were all absolutely dumbstruck. They looked at me with bewildered eyes in absolute amazement. They all had the same questions written on their faces as they looked at me, “What happened?” “Where is everything?” It was clear that they did not expect this to happen and that they were totally confused, shocked and shaken. I supernaturally knew that God removed the appeal that the performance based programs of the church have on people. I do not know what the “three minute” time period represents but the performance based programs of the church as we now experience on Sundays will disappear when this period comes to an end. One explanation is that a “three minute” period represents twenty five months (just over two years) according to “Divinecoders” (www.divinecoders.com). Even if this explanation is correct, I do not know when this time period will start or what it really represents. I also do not know what is going to happen to the institutional church. I however do know that when these things happen, everything will change. God will bring into existence what He planned all along through His prophets and His workers of excellence. Although Christianity is the fastest growing religion in the world, the Institutional church is already rapidly shrinking. Right at this moment the Church of England is considering closing 16,000 church buildings. They plan on opening these churches only on Christmas and Easter and some other important holidays. Read all about that in the post, “Institutional Church shrinking rapidly” Religion will not play a major role anymore. An authentic relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and the Ekklesia will be a reality once again, just like God intended when the New-Testament church was birthed in the days of the apostles. Reformation within the church will never stop. The right focus will be restored. it is just a matter of time. God revealed to me that the greatest reformation that will take place will be the restoration of relationships. First the intimate love relationship with Christ and then the relationships with our brothers in the body of Christ. This will lay the foundation for the Gifts of the Spirit and also the Fruit of the Spirit to be restored in the church and in the kingdom of God. I could see how a basket which contained a fruit salad with olives were handed over to His anointed ones. I could see that it was handed over to them by people who did not want it. To them this fruit salad with the olives was a bit disgusting. They did not like the taste of it. The anointed ones were amazed and astonished as to why these people did not enjoy the fruit salad. They gladly took it from them. It is exactly their willingness to embrace the Gifts of the Spirit that will change everything. This will play a major role in terms of the strategies of God and the development and spiritual growth of the church. Please read this word from Lana Vawser about this aspect: THE LORD IS LEADING MANY INTO A NEW ‘STRATEGY SPACE’ FOR THE DOORS INTO NEW REALMS THAT ARE NOW OPENING UP. For quite a while now I have been seeing the ‘shifting of gears’ over the body of Christ, where the Lord is bringing changes and in some circumstances a change of focus regarding destiny direction. Many have been “feeling it coming” in the sense of that almost “unsettled transition” feeling, but not yet “seeing” the doors open to what this “change” actually is. These “doors into new realms” and “change” are literally beginning to open up. The Lord is about to highlight and confirm in supernatural ways the new ‘realms’ that He is taking many of His people into in this season. I kept hearing the words “I am singing RISE and SHINE” and the sense of the Lord singing over you that a new morning and new day is upon you, but it is also a season of stepping into greater realms of your destiny and shining in that area. (Isaiah 60:1) Many that have continued to embrace the fire and process of the Lord are about to find themselves in places of significant promotion and increased responsibility and influence for the Lord. There are new assignments that the Lord has been releasing all year, but they are now increasing significantly in their quantity, provision and manifestation. As I watched the Lord handing out these new mantles they seemed so much bigger in size than the people He was handing them to. There was a sense that these ones have been prepared for “such a time as this”, their intimacy with Him was deep, and their character had been shaped significantly, but there was still the place of deep dependence needed upon the Lord at all times to function in this new anointing, and ‘grow up into knowing how to carry it’. He was birthing such a beautiful dependency in His people through these new mantles, not only in ‘growing up into them’ but also in the operation of them. I saw the Lord take these ones into a new “strategy space”. These new assignments and mantles were nothing that they had stepped into before, so the “land” was completely foreign. I saw Jesus sitting at a table with these ones and He was laying out new strategies, He was teaching them the ‘new way’ and revealing deeper revelation of Scripture that would be needed to move in these new strategies. As He was sitting with them and training them the winds of acceleration were blowing STRONGLY around them. As the winds blew I saw angelic hosts standing all around and they were declaring “Welcome to the ACCELERATED HOLY SPIRIT BOOT CAMP”. The people of God were eating ‘scroll after scroll’ and impartation was FLOODING into them. I heard Jesus speak to them “What would have taken years to learn in the natural is being downloaded in moments through My Spirit.” There was so much activation and revelation taking place it was like tidal waves. The strategies were at levels and manifestations that were completely new, but there was SO MUCH EASE and GRACE. “Promotion! Promotion! Promotion!” buzzed all around the atmosphere like electricity. Such excitement and anticipation of what He was doing. As this was taking place in the spirit, in the natural, the people of God were moving out into these new assignments in the earth with such grace, such ease, anointing, favour and royalty over them. Isaiah 22:22 “I will place on His shoulder the key to the house of David. What He opens no man can shut and what He shuts no one can open.” flooded all around. Where there was nervousness or fear of “I don’t know how to do this Jesus” as soon as they stepped in, all that the Lord is depositing in them in the secret place came FLOODING OUT as the anointing flowed. New realms and doors bigger than you could imagine are about to open up to many of you, and you have been prepared for such a time as this. “As you go” KNOW that in your secret place you are in the Holy Spirit boot camp. Know that He has gone before you and goes with you. Let those roots of dependency upon Jesus go deep as you are called further and further out of your “comfort zone”. You are growing up into these new mantles and assignments and you will receive the impartation and revelation of the NEW STRATEGIES as you step in. You will see the Glory of God rise upon you and through you in ways you have NEVER imagined in these doors into new realms of influence. You will carry the insight, wisdom and witty inventions of the Lord that will begin to shape and change atmospheres, people, cities and nations. – Lana Vawser My intention with this post is to encourage the workers of God who have embarked on this lonely and difficult road. Do not give up and do not lose heart. I know that this is a difficult road with many obstacles. I know that you, like me, sometimes have to face difficult circumstances whilst you feel that you do not really know where you are going. Like me you sometimes wonder what you are being prepared for. This can be quite challenging. I know many of you want some answers on all your questions regarding house churches and your faith walk with Christ. Many of you want some leading and some guidance. The truth is however that I and no one else can actually give you guidance. This whole thing is in the hands of God. He controls the church and He controls His servants. It is all between Him and you. Just stay focused and just stay aligned with God and with the Holy Spirit. He will lead you into His perfect will in this regard. Do not look at circumstances and do not look at what appear to be failures. It is not failures at all. It is in fact building blocks and stepping stones. Do not lose heart when it comes to house churches. It is just that God is busy preparing His workers and also preparing the church for the next step. The next quotation by Lana Vawser just about sums it up. A remnant moving out as compasses A REMNANT IS NOW RISING THAT HAVE BEEN TRAINED IN THE CAVES Recently the Lord spoke to me and He said “A remnant is now rising that have been trained in the caves.” I saw two groups in this remnant. The first was those who the Lord had taken them into a cave for a season of deep hiddenness and a season of deep intimacy with Him. I then also saw a group of people who were hiding in caves because they were either out on the front-line and Jezebel has come after them full force and they have run for their lives and hidden in these caves. Some have been there a short time and some have been there a long time. In those two ‘groups’ if you can call them that, I saw them as a remnant that the Lord has been working VERY deeply on in these caves. I saw that whether they were in the cave the Lord took them into or they were hiding in fear, there was a HUGE YES that was being released from their hearts. Despite what was going on, they were still crying out with a YES to Him to have deep intimacy with Him. TRAINING In the YES that they were giving to the Lord in their intimacy, that pure cry to simply know Him, to know His love, to know His presence, there has been a DEEP hunger for Jesus, despite the questions and what has been swirling around them for years and especially recently. There was one MAJOR MAIN theme in this training and it was STEWARDSHIP!!!!!!! I saw the Lord teaching these ones how to steward His presence and Glory with such purity. How to steward HIS HEART with such care, such sensitivity and such integrity. Stewarding His presence, the revelation of His heart and His Word with such humility, character and integrity. There was a very deep purity of heart about these ones. They have often been rejected by man because of their devotion to Jesus, but they live in a place of such deep intimacy with Jesus, they really know what it is to walk with God. The lord has been protecting them for such a time as this. Some of them have begun to leave the caves and some of them are about to leave the caves. The KEY was learning to steward His presence and Glory with purity. From that place of pure stewardship the Lord has been preparing them to carry much more than they have ever carried. There has been AMAZING teaching released into the body of Christ by AMAZING teachers on stewardship of His presence, our lives and gifting. This remnant is now being released to stand upon that foundation that has been so beautifully built by others and bring INCREASE to it. There is an IMPARTATION of the REVELATION OF STEWARDSHIP that God is about to release through them in a significant way to the body of Christ. Through them the trumpet is being sounded to the body of Christ ‘COME UP HIGHER’ not only in intimacy but in integrity of how we live our lives as believers. In the caves He has trained them in how to steward their hearts and their character, and the Lord has been training them in spiritual warfare, not focusing on the enemy, but looking at Jesus and fighting from there. I saw these ones wearing cloaks that were purple and they looked very ‘weighty’ (in a good way) and I felt the Lord saying that in the training they have been awakened to their royalty. “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9) They were not only awakened to their identity as royalty, but they live in the ever present deep convicting beautiful reality of the darkness that they once lived in, and how Jesus brought them out into His wonderful light. They are full of the praises to Jesus for the pure Gospel message, salvation and their hearts are full and burning with the message of the LOVE of GOD for all. I noticed all the way around the bottom of their cloaks woven in gold John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He sent His One and only son”. The bottom of their cloak was so long it went under their feet. Where I thought it would cause them to “trip”, I saw such strength in the hem of this cloak that it was if it was the very thing that was keeping them from stumbling. It was like a strong, thick foundation that was under their feet that kept ‘lifting them up’. It totally defied the natural of what would happen if we walked with the hem of a cloak under our feet, but it was clear to me that they were walking upon the foundation of John 3:16 INTERTWINED with the awakening of their identity in Him!!! The cloak was “weighty” because it also represented a weighty level of heavenly WISDOM that they carried from living in that deep place of purity in intimacy with Jesus. This remnant is about to be strategically positioned to bring increase to the teaching of living in divine wisdom, receiving kingdom keys of strategy from the place of intimacy with Jesus and the reality that we have the mind of Christ. DEEPLY FOUNDED AND ROOTED IN SCRIPTURE As I looked at this remnant, I kept seeing the word “ENOCH” over them, and felt the Lord was likening this remnant to Enoch in Scripture. There are many Enoch’s across the earth right now, but I felt the Lord was highlighting this remnant, because they are coming out of the caves with the MESSAGE of admonition to the body of Christ to WALK FAITHFULLY with God. “Enoch walked faithfully with God, then he was no more, because God took him away” (Genesis 5:24) This remnant are HIGHLY sensitive to Jesus and what He is saying. They live deep in revelation and in the third heaven, they know what it is to live before the throne of God, and their encounters with Jesus are so detailed, beautiful and specific, there’s a very deep revelation of Jesus that they carry, and what He is wanting to do on the earth. They are hearing from heaven of what He is doing and what is to come. There was a MAJOR EMPHASIS on this remnant and it was they were DEEPLY BIBLICAL!!! They were ROOTED DEEPLY in the Word. Their high level of sensitivity to Jesus and encounters were not something that was filled with mixture or deception, but they were ones that live deeply in the Word and stay in line with it. THIS REMNANT IS NOW BEING POSITIONED I saw this remnant now being led out of the caves by Jesus. The healing and breakthrough of fear has been broken off ones that were hiding in the fear. Both groups of this remnant were moving into their position now. Their time of intensive training in the caves were over. They are now moving out to release His Glory in new and fresh ways. They are moving in a new realm of creativity and the Glory of God is going to be released in such tangible, creative ways through this one that people in the world and in the body of Christ are going to stand and look at this remnant and say “I’ve never seen this!”, “What is this?” but they are being sent out by the Lord with a SPECIFIC TASK and that is to release IMPARTATION to the body of Christ and to lead them in a new direction and new way to see the manifested Glory of God released across the world in a fresh way. They are moving out as COMPASSES to the body of Christ. This remnant is also about to find themselves positioned with some very significant culture shifting assignments and projects in the seven mountains to release the wisdom, strategy and revelation of God to them. Not only the heavenly insight but teaching people the importance of integrity and character alongside high level gifting. THEIR POSITIONING IS AWAKENING THE BODY OF CHRIST TO ISAIAH 62:3 The nations will see your righteousness, And all kings your glory; And you will be called by a new name which the mouth of the LORD will designate. You will also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, And a royal diadem in the hand of your God. (Isaiah 62:3) They are going to be used to awaken the Church to purity in intimacy and living lives of purity. They are going to reignite the call upon the Church for the world and the nations. They are being positioned to be part of awakening the body of Christ to her identity and the NEW NAME that has been given to us through Jesus. The Lord is also placing them in strategic places of great favour and promotion to release a specific increase in acceleration of the revelation of intimacy and identity to get the body of Christ back on track in ways that they have ‘come off track’. I also saw the Lord releasing this remnant almost like a set of DIVINE SPECIAL OPS. They were coming to release a breaker anointing against circumstances and the enemy that has come against the body of Christ so violently lately, they were going to come up ‘behind him’ without the enemy seeing them, almost like ‘stealth’ and were about to disarm some major operations of the enemy. Because of their DEEP “cave time” with Jesus they have learnt to be able to operate in any environment because of their intimacy with Jesus. Wikipedia defines special ops as: “Special operations (S.O.) are military operations that are “special” or unconventional and carried out by dedicated special forces and other special operations forces units using unconventional methods and resources. The primary goal is to achieve a political or military objective where a conventional force requirement does not exist or might adversely affect the overall strategic outcome. Special operations are usually conducted in a low-profile manner that aims to achieve the advantages of speed, surprise, and violence of action against an unsuspecting target.” THERE IS A PROTECTION OF HEAVEN THAT IS BEING RELEASED OVER THIS REMNANT I felt the Lord wanting to encourage this remnant that there is great protection, the protection of heaven over them. There is a mighty angelic army that has been assigned to them in this assignment the Lord is releasing them on because of the level of favour and anointing they will move in. BEWARE OF JEALOUSY – There will be jealousy that will come towards them because others have been ploughing certain grounds for so long and now this remnant will enter with a ‘breaker anointing’ to crack things open for them and lead them into new levels of encounter with Jesus and fruitfulness in their land. The enemy is going to attempt to link into the soul of many to try and twist what God is wanting to do through this remnant so others will see them coming as a “threat” to attempt to “steal their ground.” The enemy is going to attempt to DISTORT majorly concerning this but the Lord is sending this remnant to others in the body of Christ with a BREAKER ANOINTING to bring INCREASE to the ground, so it will be more FERTILE, it will have MORE FRUIT, they will release greater wisdom and strategy on how to STEWARD the land, and as a result there will be greater abundance, provision and fruitfulness. Tent pegs will be extended in significant ways and a breaker released to see His Glory increase and manifest in those lands in a whole new way. MAJOR CONFIRMATION FROM GOD WILL FOLLOW THIS REMNANT As this remnant rise up many will question them “what is this new thing that you’re carrying?”, “Is this even God?”, “This doesn’t fit my box”, “This is not like anything I have ever seen before”, but look past what doesn’t fit into your box. Be discerning, seek the Lord, but I saw there will be HUGE signs and wonders and confirmation that will confirm their intimacy with Jesus, their gifting, their words and confirm they are moving in PURITY and walking closely with the Lord and have been sent forth to release the NEW, to release the breaker anointing to take you and the land that you are stewarding to a whole new level. – Lana Vawser I really hope that this post brings a bit of clarity about the situation we are currently facing and the motions that we are currently going through within the global house church community of the world. For those of you who are really suffering in this regard and who really needs exhortation, please read the post, “Encouragement to the called”. It really is uplifting. Please read the post, “Embarking on the most wonderful journey”. It tells you why the institutional church won’t embark on this incredible journey. Recently I wrote a post called, “Why was the Azusa street revival so dynamic?” This post will give you an idea of what God is about to do within the house church communities of the world. All local resources on this website are free of charge. Please help us by sharing it with your friends through the social networks. Social network sharing buttons availaRead more

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Institutional Church Shrinking Rapidly Why are Churches Closing? Christianity is the fastest growing religion in the world! Despite that, the institutional church is rapidly shrinking. Considering the growth rate of the world’s religious blocks: Christianity is by far the fastest-growing religion in the world today. The total population of the world increases by 1.72% annually. The world’s religions growth percentiles are as follows: Buddhists 1.7% Nominal Christians 2.2% Hindus 2.3% Muslims 2.7% Non-religious 2.8% Bible-believing Christians 6.9% True Christianity has grown by more than 300 million believers in the past ten years. About 10 million of these new Christians are from North America and Europe, and the rest -290 million-are from developing countries like Nigeria, Argentina, India and China. – Growth of the church The following articles were posted on CBN News recently. This emphasize the situation in the institutional church right now! Closing of Churches in England Some Churches May Open Only on ‘Festival’ Days The Church of England is considering a radical plan to close thousands of historic village churches, opening them only on major holidays like Christmas and Easter. The Church says a “festival church” concept will need to be analyzed but could provide a way to utilize buildings in communities that can no longer support heavy maintenance burdens. The Church of England’s new report focuses on 16,000 church buildings. Many are in rural areas and have an attendance of less than 37 people. The report examines the financial burden that many of these congregations face in maintaining their historic buildings and suggests “festival churches” as a good option. Fewer than 800,000 worshipers attend a Church of England church on an average Sunday, less than half the worshipers that attended in the 1960s. More than 33 million people in England and Wales list Christianity as their religion in the latest government census. That is a decline of more than 4 million from the last census in 2001. John Inge, bishop of Worcester, oversaw the new report and acknowledged the complicated path forward. “We believe that, apart from growing the church, there is no single solution to the challenges posed by our extensive responsibility for part of the nation’s heritage,” he explained. “We hope therefore that this work will be a catalyst for discussion about how churches can be better cared for and used for the common good,” he said. – CBN News Church Declining in the USA A new study found that the long-term declines in church membership and member giving are continuing. Despite that, the study says the church in the United States still has the potential to accomplish great good. The study, “The State of Church Giving through 2014: Speaking Truth to Power” (October 2016) was conducted by Empty Tomb, Inc. It showed that giving among church members declined as a percent of income, from 2013 to 2014. Overall, giving from people who attend church regularly as membership declined 28 percent, from 3.02 percent in 1968 to 2.16 percent in 2014. Membership in some of the fastest growing denominations also declined according to the study, including the Roman Catholic Church. In 1968, the group represented 45 percent of U.S. population, compared to 35 percent in 2014. But the authors of the study, John and Sylvia Ronsville, point out the historically Christian church in the country is one of the, if not the, largest identity groups in the United States. They also estimate that church-goers control the equivalent of the third-largest gross domestic product in the world. Without guidance, church members have turned inward, both individually and in their congregations. The declines in giving and membership, the authors propose, are a result. – CBN News Wrong statistics versus the real numbers Initially prompted to discover how church plants in America were really doing, David Olson, director of church planting for the Evangelical Covenant Church (covchurch.org), began collecting data in the late ’80s, gradually expanding his research to encompass overall attendance trends in the church. In his study, he tracked the annual attendance of more than 200,000 individual Orthodox Christian churches (the accepted U.S. church universe is 330,000). To determine attendance at the remaining 100,000-plus Orthodox Christian churches, he used statistical models, which included multiplying a church’s membership number by the denomination’s membership-to-attendance ratio. The Numbers His findings reveal that the actual rate of church attendance from head counts is less than half of the 40 percent the pollsters report. Numbers from actual counts of people in Orthodox Christian churches (Catholic, mainline and evangelical) show that in 2004, 17.7 percent of the population attended a Christian church on any given weekend. Another study published in 2005 in The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion by sociologists C. Kirk Hadaway and Penny Long Marler—known for their scholarly research on the church—backs up his findings. Their report reveals that the actual number of people worshiping each week is closer to Olson’s 17.7 percent figure—52 million people instead of the pollster-reported 132 million (40 percent). “We knew that over the past 30 to 40 years, denominations had increasingly reported a decline in their numbers,” Marler says. “Even a still-growing denomination like the Southern Baptist Convention had reported slowed growth. Most of the mainline denominations were all reporting a net loss over the past 30 years. And at the same time, the Gallup polls had remained stable. It didn’t make sense.” In another study surveying the growth of U.S. Protestants, Marler and Hadaway discovered that while the majority of people they interviewed don’t belong to a local church, they still identify with their church roots. “Never mind the fact that they attend church less than 12 times a year,” Marler observes. “We estimate that 78 million Protestants are in that place. Ask most pastors what percentage of inactive members they have—they”ll say anything from 40–60 percent.” – Churchleaders All local resources on this website are free of charge. Please help us by sharing it with your friends through the social networks. Social network sharingRead more