Write The Vision And Make It Plain Issue 2
Judgement Begins At The House Of The Lord
The Lord gave me a dream in which I saw the awfulness of His judgment against certain leaders. Judgment fell on them because they perverted the word of God and did not lead the people in the fullness of the salvation He has provided for them.
In my dream, I saw a wheel moving through the air. The Lord raised me up and I looked over the top of the wheel. I could see that on the other side of it there was a basket. In the basket were the heads of the leaders of various Pentecostal denominations. It was a big, deep basket, like the huge baskets they use in Europe for gathering fruit. On the top, I saw the faces of three leaders within the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. I shuddered at the awfulness of their faces and the idea of just a head lying in a basket with the blood dripping from its neck. Then the Lord closed off the vision and I did not see anything else. He spoke to me and said that these were the men of His Pentecostal leadership who have perverted His word, misled his people and allowed them to die prematurely.
I woke up early that morning, troubled about what I had seen. Later, as my family got up and were preparing for the things of the morning. I was still troubled about the dream. I didn’t have any particular passage in mind and as I opened the Bible, it opened to the first chapter of Ezekiel. I began to read in Ezekiel about a wheel. I read it and began to think about it but it didn’t make any sense to me, so I put the Bible aside. I then felt led to read it again, so I did and I began to research the Word and to study about the wheel throughout Ezekiel and to understand what it was all about. As I studied concerning the wheel that Ezekiel saw, I saw that the wheel appeared during a time of judgment among God’s people. Then I understood what the dream was about. I broke up and began to cry for the people of God and for the pastors and for the leadership.
As full comprehension and understanding came to me, I understood what God had shown me and what He was telling me. I couldn’t contain myself. I was wailing and crying and moaning about what I saw. I left the house. I seemingly couldn’t help myself. It was the winter of 1978 and the snow was deep as I walked, cried and wailed before the Lord. I searched for things to say, but all I could do was moan. I began to cry’ out, “Not so. Lord! Forgive us. Lord, forgive us! Forgive us. Lord! Forgive us! Forgive us! I don’t know how long I was out there walking and crying and wailing. My family heard me out in the woods and was wondering what was going on. I began to listen to myself, and I wondered why I was crying. “Forgive us!” I realized that the heads on the top of the basket were those of men I considered as fathers, who had in various ways nurtured me. Some of them had known me as a baby, and I could see the good in them. I felt close to them, part of them, we were a family. we were one. I went on to cry before the Lord. Forgive us.”
Then the Lord began to speak to me and show me how He had dealt with these various leaders. He showed me how, even in my own life, He had raised me up. I had stumbled into ministering healing and deliverance, particularly to epileptics or demon possessed people. God had raised up me - and other young people - to minister to people in need at our campgrounds and our church. We were persecuted, as were people before my time that God had raised up to meet
needs. The church had persecuted and crushed them. I began to cry out to the Lord. “Lord. I don’t matter. I don’t matter. Don’t bring judgment against them because of what they’ve done to me, Lord. You know it doesn’t matter to me.” And so I began to cry out. “Lord, you are mercy! Your name is mercy, Lord.” As I cried for mercy, He began to show me and I began to realize the awfulness of what many pastors have done to God’s people. He showed me men and women who had cried out for healing. Yet, because the pastors had taught them that God may not want them healed, they submitted and were silent in church. He showed me those who began to say that their sicknesses were for God’s glory, but God said His healing was for His glory. He showed me those who, because of their religious teaching, didn’t have it in them to fight. They were silent in the church, yet inwardly they were raving, angry, confused and hurt, they didn’t want to die. Their families that they were concerned about cried with them. God showed me that He put in ever man the will to live and that self-preservation was for saint or sinner. It was God’s intention from the beginning that man live forever. It was sin that broke that and separated man from God. He has restored salvation unto us so that we can live in health and well-being under His government. We should die in our old age, glad because of the way God’s salvation took care of us once we repented of our sins and turned unto Him. We could live full lives under His government. However, the men of God---the leadership of God’s people--- have superimposed their will and their unbelief on the minds of the people so that they are dying prematurely.
God has heard the voice of His people crying out in pain and in agony. He has heard them crying out for their children and crying out on their deathbeds. Some were outwardly silent because of their religious beliefs, but He heard their inward cries. He heard their verbal cries as they died, many accusing Him. He was grieved, He was hurt, He was upset, and He was angry.
As He showed me these things, I could plead no more for mercy. There was nothing I could say before God on behalf of the leaders. I began to quiet down. It seemed as if there was a steeling in my heart as He hardened me to the task that was ahead. I resolved that there was nothing I could plead that hadn’t already been pled before the Lord. There was nothing I could say in defense of men and women who had misdirected God’s people because God had dealt with them before. I quieted down and went back to the house.
As I searched and prayed for something to say to the Lord, He showed me that without judgment among His People, there is no deliverance for them. It was not His desire to bring judgment, but it is His desire that men have salvation. So I had nothing to say to the Lord on behalf of my family, my people, God’s people, but I resolved to do His will.
Thus saith the Lord: “From time to time I have raised up your children to minister with the gifts and manifestations of My Spirit, to heal the sick, to discern spirits and to cast out demons: to speak by word of knowledge and word of wisdom, to act upon revelations, to speak in tongues and to give interpretation for the edifying of My people. But many of you pastors have crushed those whom I have raised up to minister among you.”
“You pastors have not made known to My people that healing and deliverance arc one and the same in their salvation. It is written in My word in Matthew 9:5: ‘For whether is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say. Arise, and walk.” James 5:15 reads. ‘And the prayer of faith shall save (make whole) the sick and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.’ ”
“Tools for understanding My word are found in your schools and you have not believed what you have found. You have not made My people to know the intent of the word ‘save’, meaning made whole, from the Greek sozo, it means to deliver or protect, literally or figuratively: to heal My people: to preserve the life of My people that they may save themselves by My word: that they may do well and prosper.”
The word ‘salvation’ is soteria. in the Greek, meaning rescue or safety, physically or morally: to deliver: health: salvation: save (make whole), saving. (preserving health).
“You have perverted the belief of My people and the faith of My people so that they do not have a common salvation or a saving knowledge of Me. You pastors have caused man to perish before their time, to live out their lives bound by the enemy of their souls (their lives). It is written, ‘I have come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly.’”
“Many of you have set yourselves up as leaders of My people and don’t believe Me yourselves. You don’t believe that when men and women turn to Me, regardless of what physical condition they are in, I am willing to make them whole: I can make them whole: I will make them whole. By your unbelief, you have perverted My word, you have short-changed My little ones. You set the course of their thinking and have separated the benefits of their salvation from the forgiveness of their sins.
“‘When I raised up your children to discern demon spirits and spirits of infirmity, to set the oppressed free and to cast out demons, many of you stopped them. When you stopped them, you stopped My salvation for whoever was in need. When you crushed those whom I raised up among you to give tongues with interpretation by My Spirit and prophecy by My Spirit, you stopped My words of deliverance and comfort for My people. When My word came forth that I would heal all that would believe, you killed it by saying, ‘If it be My will. ‘My will is certain,” saith the Lord God. Acts 2:21 reads. ‘And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. (made whole).’ ”
“The cry of My people for their salvation has come to My ears and I am grieved, saith the Lord, I am hurt for My people. The salvation that I purchased for My own by My Lamb, by the shedding of pure blood, by His horribly beaten body, is that My people might be made whole I have heard with My own ears, saith the Lord, the cries of My saints in their perverted understanding saying, ‘Why me, Lord?’, saying. ‘What are You trying to teach me with this sickness, Lord?’ I have seen them die with bitterness in their hearts against Me, saith the Lord. ”
“I have seen you slay My people with your religion. My people submitted to your words and I could not heal them because of their unbelief. Therefore, saith the Lord God to those pastors among you who think I cannot deliver My people from out of all works of the enemy of your lives, (Satan). To those of you who think that I do not see what you are doing to My people. and to those of who think the days are over that the Lord God can move in judgment against you for the deliverance of My people out of bondage. I, the Lord God Supreme, will do a work of judgment among you. Thus saith the Lord, ‘you pastors, repent of your sins of unfaithfulness before death that I bring against you claims you, and you pass into judgment with the blood of the saints against you.’”
“Thus saith the Lord to the pastors of churches called Pentecostals who are bound in unbelief, those of you who have been stubborn in head and heart against Me and My work among you: see if you can stand against Me, saith the Lord. I, the Lord God, will let the world know that I
and I alone can save and that I can deliver My people out of your hands. I say, repent so that My anger, My judgment, may not fall on you, saith the Lord.”
I wrote down the above and took it to the next national convention of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. They were meeting in Atlanta. Georgia. I did not cause a disturbance by saying or doing any thing other than passing out my book and articles about what I saw. I made sure I put literature in the hands of the men I had seen in the dream. They called the police and had me put out, so I stood outside the convention center on the sidewalk and passed out the warning. My wife was with me on this trip and she helped me pass the material out. We slept on the streets in a borrowed station wagon. Despite the August heat, we barely cracked the windows because of mosquitoes.
I then went to the next United Pentecostal convention. They also called the police and threatened me with arrest if I did not stop passing out the warning in the building. I slept along the streets in borrowed vehicles or my own van or truck.
From Boston to California, I passed out this warning in various Pentecostal denominations. All Pentecostal denominations are not the same. Most of them believe in the gifts and manifestations, unlike the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (the denomination I was raised in). Many of the Pentecostal denominations, however, still teach that salvation primarily means to be born again.
The denomination I was raised in went no further in teaching than tongues. It did not allow prophecy, tongues with interpretation, or any of the manifestations of the Spirit that are called gifts. When I started ministering in these areas, I was dumb as grass and did not understand what I was doing. The only thing I knew was that I was following the leading of the Lord. People were being delivered, but the church persecuted me for it.
When I had the dream, I thought the leadership was going to be judged because they, along with my pastor, lent their voices against me. The Lord showed me that I was wrong about that. The reason that leadership will be judged is found in Hebrews 7:24-26: “But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priest hood. Wherefore, he is able also to save (make whole) them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless. Undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.” The Lords ministry or job is being our High Priest. In His office, He looks throughout the body of Christ for those who are believing Him, those who have faith. He does not heal those who do not have faith.
In the scriptures, it tells us that He could not do many mighty works because of their unbelief. That’s true in the church today. He looks around the church as our High Priest and Chief Shepherd. He hears the prayers of those He can heal if they can overcome the unbelief that the pastor has taught. When He finds these people throughout the churches that are in the position to be healed by faith in His word, He energizes one of the manifestations. It may be word of wisdom, word of knowledge, discerning of spirits, or tongues. It will be energized to some believer to do the servant’s work. That is. to cast out spirits. to heal the sick, to raise the dead, to give the word of encouragement, or the word of prophecy that would set someone free Any man or woman who stops the ministry of the Lord.
Jesus among His people (to bring the benefits of their salvation --- healing, deliverance, peace, safety, rescue, preservation of life from premature death--- has usurped the authority of the High Priest over His people. That is what put the leadership in danger of judgment.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the Chief Shepherd of our lives, was ordained before the foundation of the world to preach and demonstrate the will of God. He was ordained to die to bear sin, sickness, disease and calamity. He was ordained to rise again to be our Mediator and to minister what He Himself is to us. He Himself is our salvation. He is our rescue, our safety. our deliverance, our peace, our aid, our well-being. He came to shed His blood that we might make a covenant with God for all the benefits of our salvation. He was the covenant lamb. The word testament, as in New Testament, means covenant. He is the Mediator of the benefits of the New Covenant.
Twenty-five years ago. in the beginning of the Charismatic movement, many people came into the enduement of power-- - speaking with other tongues, experiencing healing and deliverance. The reason for this was that they met the real Jesus for the first time. They received salvation benefits by grace. It was not so much of what they were taught or believed, but by the grace of God that they had many miracles. They came from backgrounds that preached against healing and deliverance--- -- Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Nazarene, Pentecostal and Catholic--- -- and they met the real Jesus for the first time. They had grace miracles, but then things began to change. Some of those who were healed became sick again. Some who have been dying, both leaders and followers, began to say that God does not heal all the time. They began making excuses for why they are not seeing the healing anymore: they say that God does not want everybody healed. The real reason is that when they came to the Lord at their Baptist or Nazarene evangelistic meeting, they never made a covenant with God to be made whole.
I heard one pastor, Rod Parsley, say at his church that when one of their members died, he jumped up and down on the bed, screaming at the relatives, “You’ve killed him! You’ve killed him! You have not been confessing!” What he does not realize is that he is using that word wrongly. Most of the people in his church come from other backgrounds and have never made a covenant (a verbal, binding agreement) to be made whole. I’ve heard Kenneth Copeland say that the Baptists are preaching salvation, but they’re not. They’re just preaching the “born again experience” in preparation for dying. They arc not preaching to people to “get ready to live.”
The church is facing the consummation or ultimate end of the age. Great judgment is coming on this earth. God does not want His people dying in these judgments. He wants them to be victorious. For this reason, He’s calling His people to Himself. He’s calling them to take a fresh look at His word that He might be their salvation--healing, deliverance, rescue and safety---in the days to come.
This doctrine of SOTERIA is nothing new. I’ve found it in an old Presbyterian book: I’ve found it in an old Methodist book. I’ve found it in old Seventh Day Adventist writings. If you don’t believe that your pastors have fed themselves and not fed the sheep, go to your denomination’s seminary. Ask the Greek department there what the word saved or salvation means. Go to your pastor and ask for his Bible dictionary and look it up. You’ll see that they had the ability, but they have fed themselves and not fed God’s sheep. They have not preached the doctrine of Jesus. They have looked out in the audiences and seen the crippled, the blind, the halt, and the twisted bodies. They have thought in their hearts that, if they preached what they know is in their dictionary, people will not believe and will not come to the Lord. In their blindness, they have preached a watered-down gospel and prepared you to die, but not to live.
There were times in the Old Testament that the people of God realized that they had gotten far away from the will of God. Nehemiah 8:5 reads. “Ezra opened the book in the sight of the people. (for he was above all the people)” and when he read from the book of the law, they discovered how far off’ they were and how far in sin they were. Verse 8 reads, “So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.” That is what needs to be done at this hour. The Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals, Lutherans, Seventh Day Adventists, et. al., need to call a Holy Convocation. They need to forget their politics and begin to seek God. They need to use wholesome words that promote God’s definition of salvation. They need to repent and come into the fullness of God and what God wants them to have in this hour.
This church world has been like an unfaithful wife who has no honor for her husband and has gone after another lover. She refuses to enter into his life and tries to save herself by her own way. This church does not know what “you are not your own” means. They find no fulfillment in His word. This church has chosen a gospel that suits its faithlessness because it is ashamed of the gospel of its God. Jeremiah 2:13 reads, “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” The church will believe a lie before it will walk in the truth.
The Lord brings the church to the crossroads of life. The church must choose which way it will go. There will be pastors who will not see God’s face in peace. Their names will be taken out of the Lamb’s book of life if they do not repent and take the Lord’s narrow way.
I am currently writing a second book called, Write the Vision and Make It Plain. If you would like a copy, send a self- addressed, stamped envelope and we will let you know when it is completed.
Books you need to read:
Healing the Sick by T. L. Osborn, published by Harrison House, Inc.
The Blood Covenant by H. K. Trumbull. published by Impact Books 137 W Jefferson, Kirkwood, MO 63162
War On the Saints by Jessie Penn-Lewis, published by Christian Literature Crusade, Fort Washington. PA 19034
The Pre-wrath Rapture of the Church by Marvin Rosenthal, published by Zion’s Hope, Inc., P.O Box 690909, Orlando. FL 32869