IT’S TIME FOR TRUE HARVESTERS RATHER THAN PLAYGROUND, THEME PARK CHURCHES. THERE WILL BE A CULTURE SHOCK AS THERE IS A CULTURE SHIFT.
Dream 13th April 2023
I was at this place that was decked with monkey bars and playground equipment. I looked out and I saw the heavens black and a tornado coming on the horizon.
As my attention returned to the playground equipment, a sense of overwhelming frustration and resistance began to well up in my heart. I seemed to be the “odd” one out as I just couldn’t “play” on this equipment. The resistance inside felt so strong to the point I began to feel condemned about how I felt, wondering why I was the ONLY one who didn’t desire to participate. Is this stubbornness? Is this rebellion in my heart? I wondered.
The dream continues, and I walk from the playground area downstairs to the administration area. I saw this girl who I knew, and it had been years since I had seen her, but she was like a child and hadn’t grown, was super short, and still childlike in appearance. She was the one in charge of the administration.
After seeing her here, I thought to myself, ok, I am going to try this whole playground thing. I’m just going to stop resisting and participate. As I came upstairs, the playground had turned into a water park and it was as if there were multiple stations, as you would see at a theme park, to go on the ride. There were ride attendees who were trying to entice me to try their ride. They were like “evangelists” for the ride, so to speak. They would see me walk by and try and “sell” their ride to me.
I kept walking by and I came to this pool area like a resort. There were many different pools, as large resorts have. I walk by a group of three people, and I overhear a conversation. They said, “I don’t know why they have made all these pools. This will cost them forever.” Then in the dream, it was revealed to me this whole place belonged to a church I know (which I won’t reveal the name of). They had made their church a resort and amusement park.
One of the guys speaking said, “I would not have gone to this kind of expense. What we need is A REAL HARVESTER.” I knew this to relate to the days of old. The old-time preaching of the gospel in purity, rather than the modern style evangelism models churches have taken on that reflect amusement parks in order to attract the masses.
As I overheard this conversation, it brought much peace to my heart why I didn’t want to participate and felt uncomfortable in this environment.
I began to leave and as I was walking out of the theme park, I saw restaurants at the entrance and an entrance that looked like that of a zoo that would attract kids. I thought it tacky, but as I looked at these restaurants, I knew they were positioned at the entrance on the advice of marketers for the sake of making money. It was as if the whole place was designed on the advice of marketers for money-making purposes like worldly corporations.
Interpretation
There is a storm on the horizon.
Some have built churches to replicate amusement parks to entertain and attract the masses rather than make disciples of Christ. These amusement-park-type churches are built upon worldly blueprints motivated by mammon and masses, not kingdom blueprints. These blueprints attract children and facilitate those who participate to remain children. Hence the lady in the administration section who had not aged in years. Entertainment-type church serves the needs of the flesh and Paul very clearly spells out that fleshly Christians are babies. The different stations where the ride attendants were trying to convince me to try their ride were different churches that had commissioned and trained people to evangelize and gather people to their church rather than evangelize people to come to the Lord.
I believe the three people discussing the unnecessary cost of building the theme park are the Lord (the counsel of God – Trinity) revealing and exposing these “kingdoms” have an eternal cost. A cost that the Lord has not called us into. Seeking first the worldly ways has eternal ramifications.
The Lord said, “What we really need is TRUE harvesters.” This means filling the kingdom with souls by simply preaching the gospel, no gimmicks, fanfare, or hoo-ha. The Lord is enough. His presence is enough. His word is enough. His power is enough. Many modern-day churches have compensated for the lack of presence and power with entertainment and systems. But this will not survive the storms, and it is not preparing people to walk through the storms in faith and maturity.
The voice of the Lord revealed the counterfeit harvesting mechanisms (theme park entertainment-style churches) are insufficient. They will be insufficient in the times ahead as we go through storms.
Entertainment Christianity is self-focused, with no call to lay down one’s life. When there is no teaching on faith, intimacy and trusting God, there is no understanding of how to overcome and walk in victory in times of uncertainty, chaos, and trouble. The shaking of the times causes many of those who call themselves believers to fall apart into fear and panic. The Lord said this will have an eternal effect! Wow! Those who participate in such practices are responsible for those who have not been prepared and may fall away in the testing times to come.
There is encouragement for those who feel like the odd ones out in a system that seems unauthentic. There are many of you who feel like the “only” ones that don’t fit the expression of worship that is vastly on display in this day. The Lord wants to encourage you; your frustration and wrestle are correct. You aren’t rebellious nor stubborn, but rather hungry and desperate to worship the King in Spirit and in Truth.
CULTURE SHOCK COMING AS THERE IS A CULTURE SHIFT.
In my ears, I keep hearing the words “Culture Shock.” There is a culture shift happening in the body of Christ. It has been happening for over a decade or two, but in the days ahead, it will move so swiftly that it will bring a large sense of “culture shock” to the church. So many in this generation have been fashioned by performance-based, entertainment-style church that lacks focus on the presence of God and maturing in Christ. Those that have been like John the Baptist in the wilderness preparing for the new thing have been small in number. Many have looked at size and judged those ones based on their “masses = success” man-made philosophy blueprints. But the truth is, they are small in number because the gate is narrow, and it hasn’t looked appealing to the flesh to pursue the presence and lay down everything in order to mature in Christ. Those that seek the presence welcome and desire challenging words that deal with the heart and pursue pure worship that doesn’t give space for performance. The truth is, they are small in number, like Gideon’s army.
WARRIORS ARE RISING
In this hour, the Lord is mobilizing Gideon’s army and that which has looked unattractive and unpopular will, in the days coming, be sought out and desirable. I once heard a quote that said, “No one loves a warrior until the enemy is at the gate.” When programs and playing church fail, people seek out the warriors. Initially, these warriors are too “real” or “out there,” too unconventional and passionate about truth. But as people continue in their journey and the storms start raging, they begin to realize it is the truth that will set them free.
Warriors are passionate about freedom, “full-on,” as some may say, self-sacrificing, and they pay a price not many are willing to pay. Warriors aren’t normally those who people gravitate toward unless they belong to one of two groups. 1. They, too, carry the warrior heart, or 2. They are in crisis and need a person who can fight, or should I say rather, “knows” how to fight.
In past seasons and even still today, warriors have been judged as too spiritual as those who put too much focus on spiritual warfare. They are mocked as ones who look for a devil under every bush. While there are flakes around, that is true. True warriors, however, understand the realm of the spirit and have waged warfare not many would even understand. Like David, they have been battling the lion and the bear in secret while those who mock are enlisted in Saul’s army.
Warriors are favored in the seasons of impossibility and storms. Look at David. His moment of favor came when all else was failing for the systems of Saul’s kind of warfare. When the armor of Saul failed, the armor of the flesh and the effort of the natural ability proved to be inferior to the strongman Goliath. They needed a radical plan! I wonder if Saul’s army thought in that moment that David was guilty of looking under every bush for a spiritual battle? David knew how to fight because worship, intimacy, and warfare by God’s spirit weren’t foreign to him.
Warriors arise in moments of crisis. They aren’t the normal choice. They don’t match the mold of the system. They don’t wear the same clothes or talk the same talk. They are prepared in the wilderness for such a time as this. They cannot come from the system as they would be limited by it. This is where they have learned it’s “Not by might, nor by power but by the Spirit of God.”
Get ready for a culture shift that may bring a culture shock. It is a sad thing that the presence of God would cause a culture shock to many, but that is the reality we are faced with in an age where many have built theme park churches to host the masses and not the presence. My dear friend Lana Vawser shared a word once that said, “Ready or not, here He comes.” Whether you desire the culture shift or not will not make a difference to the culture shift that the Lord is bringing.
The culture shift is the shift of government from the House of Saul to the House of David. The presence of God is the culture shift and where the tabernacle of David (true worship in spirit and truth) has laid in ruins, it will be raised up in this hour.
Lift up your heads oh ye Gates that the King of Glory may come in (Psalm 24). He is coming in and He is coming as the Mighty Man of War. Get ready.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Revival Flame Ministries
Featured Image by Pavita Jangprasit on Unsplash
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