FAY ROWE

I had this dream years ago, and have not known what to do with it. I am unable to dismiss it, so I will just leave it here.

I usually don’t pay much attention to visions or dreams I have heard about, especially if they speak of judgments coming on the earth. My experience and knowledge of God tells me that God is loving and merciful, and His will is good and not evil. I also know that Jesus bore the “wages of sin” for every one of us, and has provided freedom for all who, by faith, receive the grace He has given.

Now, first, to the e-mail I received some time ago (2009) from a friend. It was one of those forwards one tends to briefly peruse and then delete. This one was entitled “An Urgent Message” from Rev. David Wilkerson of The Cross and the Switchblade fame, well known for his prophetic warnings. As I said, I generally have not paid much attention to any of them.  This one brought the same response, at first. It was about fires coming to cities in the United States and other countries around the world, and indicated that these horrific events were judgments of God. I quickly went on to my next email, but then remembered something I had seen in the first sentence of the message. I went back to check. There it was: He said, “For ten years I have been talking about fires coming to…” Ten years ago. At that time, ten years previously would be 1999. That’s when I had the dream.

1999

In 1999, several of my friends who were part of an “intercessor group” were invited to take part in a “Train of Tears” organized by Dr. David Damien, a Christian Egyptian medical doctor from Vancouver. He invited groups of Canadian Christian intercessors to get on a train and cross Canada, praying daily for God’s mercy on Canada for its treatment of the Jews decades ago when their ship of exiles came to our shores.

Apparently, God had impressed Dr. Damien that a time of judgment was coming, and that Canada would be judged if the Canadian church didn’t repent for our government’s refusal to accept them.

I was dubious about this “call”. Then, one night during that time, I had this dream.

The Dream

It was dusk. I was with a group of about 30 people in a large room on the second floor of a large house. It had windows all along two adjacent sides of the room and, while everyone was chatting and visiting, suddenly we all looked out and saw a huge wall of fire burning across the plain and toward us. I could see flames ahead of and behind soldiers in metal armor bouncing up and down on horses. Their faces were set, intent on the work ahead of them. I knew the fire had burned everything behind it and that we were in its path, in danger. No one else in the room seemed to understand that. Their response was just curiosity. I was terrified and woke up.

As I was waking I “heard” a voice, powerful and clear, say twice, “The day of the Lord is at hand!” I looked at my sleeping husband and wondered that he hadn’t heard it because it felt like my whole body had heard it, from my hair to my toes.

The Discovery

Being one who dreams often, I knew this one was different. I told several of my friends about it — friends who pay attention to dreams — hoping they could interpret it, or at least put my mind at rest that it was nothing. No one helped, so I chose to forget about it, deciding it must be some sort of dream manifestation of my own frame of mind at that time.

Sometime later, I was at a prayer meeting. During a quiet time, I started thinking about that dream. Then I had this thought: Look up “the day of  the Lord” in your concordance!

The only reference in my small concordance was in Joel. Imagine my shock when, there in Joel 2:1-11, I saw my dream. The text is clear about the purpose if that “army.”

More

There have been several things in recent years that have brought the dream to mind. The first happened in 2004, when I heard of a vision Oral Roberts experienced, a description of which can be seen in Joel 2:28.

The second was in 2007 when I heard Billye Brim, a Bible student/teacher who regularly visits Israel, say that the Jewish ancients believed that 1999 would be the “year everything changes”. She asked several of her Rabbi friends to elaborate on that saying, and they told her that Jewish lore marked 1999 as the beginning of God’s judgment of nations that persecute Israel. In 2008, in a streamed prayer meeting from a place called Prayer Mountain in the Ozarks, Mrs. Brim spoke by phone to a man who described a prophetic dream he had recently experienced. As he began telling about being “in a room with a group of people”, I knew he would talk about “a wall of fire”, and he did. His dream was a much more detailed version of the one I experienced in 1999.

Does this mean I am affirming the prophecy I wrote about first, or any of the other dreams or visions that have been mentioned here? To be very honest, I can’t say that I am. I am only sure of what I experienced. I am — perhaps like any of you who haven’t already dismissed this as too strange — willing to wait and see.

Those who have read my posts will be aware that my hope for the blog (except for the occasional and sometimes regrettable lapse into political commentary) was that it be empowering and encouraging. This post has been included on my site because I felt compelled to share something that might be empowering to you in some way — if not now, then maybe in the future. When Jesus told his disciples of things to come that were disturbing to them, he said that he did so in order that they wouldn’t be frightened when they saw it come to pass. “God so loved the world” that he told them ahead of time what would be taking place. There is no fear in that.

Often, what is called judgment in scripture is actually the natural outcome of a nation’s actions, not deliberate punishment for wrong-doing. The warnings of such judgment, therefore, should be seen as a loving act, not a prophecy of what must be. Whichever this dream or other claims of portents might be — warnings of what will follow present actions, so we can change, or foretelling of what will take place in order that we might be prepared—the encouragement that comes to me from scripture is this: Mercy and grace is its purpose, and always follows in its path.