Today I was looking at the progress of our building project,
and remembered a dream from a little over 7 years ago. Our house is yet unfinished, and in the dream
the Lord brought me up to His house, which was unfinished. Here is the dream, from 3/2/08:
The Lord first showed me in Kona, Hawaii, and He talked to
me about their judgment. It involved a
tidal wave and He indicated how high up the water would come when the
catastrophe happened. Then He said “I
didn’t think your heart could carry My burden.” (He had moved us from Kona back
to California before this dream).
Then I was walking in rugged hills in the continental US, separated
from others, and not knowing where the Lord would lead me. I was hoping someone would find me soon as I
was thirsty. I looked out over the
ridged mountains as I descended down a side from on high. There was a royal cluster of mountains, like
red and white marble. All the mountains
were red with white marbling on them. I
understood that it was a time of judgment and I had been shown what was to take
place in the land, for no matter how tall or great the mountains were, they
would bear God’s judgment.
Then I was in a house being built. It was on the tallest
mountain; the mountain of the Lord. It
overlooked all the other mountains.
There was an area inside where wood was sawn, with a window in it. The sawdust and unfinished look to the room
let me know that work still needed to be done. A man came in briefly and talked
with me but did not stay. After he left
I asked the Lord, saying “I wish you would give me just one man.”
After this dream the Lord spoke to me about there being work
not yet finished in the Kingdom of God.
Other generations began this work, but at some point people stopped
working on it. Today I asked the Lord
what the work is that we should be doing, and here is the lesson He gave me:
It begins with the work of the 5-fold ministry. In Eph 4 we read about the Apostles,
Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers.
God instituted these ministries “to prepare God’s people for works of
service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in
the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to
the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Eph 4:12-13). The 5-fold ministry should help us become who
God destined us to be, doing what He predestined us to do. Then we bear fruit
for the Lord.
There is a good example of the function of the 5-fold
ministry in one of Jesus’ parables, and here is how it goes;
“A man had a fig tree, planted in
his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the
vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig
tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down!
Why should it use up the soil?
‘Sir’, the man replied, ‘leave it
alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not,
then cut it down.’” (Lk 13:6-9).
The man who tended to the fig tree wanted to make sure it
bore its intended fruit for the Master.
This is the calling on the 5-fold ministry; do everything you can so
that God’s people bear fruit. What,
then, prevents people from bearing fruit?
The parable of the Sower and the Seed tells us that there
are three areas where a Christian can fall short of bearing fruit. They are 1) letting the devil steal the word
of God, 2) not enduring through our times of testing, and 3) becoming choked by
life’s worries, riches and pleasures, therefore not becoming mature enough to
bear fruit. We all have access to the
seed, which is the Word of God. But we
all do not bear fruit. (see Lk 8:5-15).
The 5-fold ministers are to get God’s people to the point of
maturity so that we will bear fruit, and this is the work in the house of the
Lord on the mountain of the Lord that has been abandoned. Many other lessons
and sermons are being taught and preached, but not everyone in the ministry has
the heart of the one who tended the fig tree.
I imagine in our times that tree-tender would be giving examples of how
the devil gets us to stop believing what God says, thereby preventing him from
stealing God’s powerful Word from our hearts.
He would not sugar-coat Christianity by saying that God prevents our
problems. Instead, he would equip the
saints for the trials they would one day endure so that they could overcome. He would lead God’s people away from the
world and not to it. His heart would be
intent on the individuals before him succeeding, instead of keeping his eye out
for his own success.
If we want to accomplish God’s work in the Kingdom of God,
let us set aside all other ambitions and tend to the fig trees before us. In God’s Kingdom, others have laid the
foundation, raised the walls and even put a roof on the house of the Lord. We, therefore, need to do the works that will
complete it and make it a habitation for the people of the Lord. Amen.
