Jan 22, 2020

I had a dream my husband and I were visiting a church. The chairs were set up around long tables and people were gathered around them much like a classroom. Worship began and it was okay, nothing special and seemed disconnected because of the setup of the table and chairs. Every person had a paper, crayons and pencils to sketch during the entire service.  I thought this was strange and disruptive to cultivate any flow of the Holy Spirit. After the worship the pastor got up to speak. Before he started to speak he went out and prayed for a couple people touching them and they encountered the Holy Spirit. When people saw this encounter happen for those few, many of the people ran to the wall (to get in position to receive a prayer) but the pastor said we are not doing that right now. The people didn’t listen and went and stood at the wall waiting for the pastor to come and pray for them. I could see the pastor was frustrated, torn between what he knew the Lord was wanting to do in desiring to move into a different part of the service, and looking at those who were at the wall waiting for him to pray over them.  I also could sense the pastor was frustrated he didn’t know how to stop the environment he created and is now having to sustain. For a moment I felt like going to the wall too, why wouldn’t I want prayer from this pastor? But I then thought, I really don’t need prayer and I just stayed in my seat. We were sitting with a group of young men (in their 20’s) and they were visibly struggling and frustrated at what was happening (not in a bad way but just annoyed that they wanted more than what this service was giving). We began talking to them and they were sharing with us how they wanted more then a church where they were coming and waiting for a moment of prayer or impartation to happen. These young men were ready to go out and share the gospel but needed empowerment and support as they went out not another service, they already had what they needed and didn’t need this kind of service anymore… I woke up

 

I didn’t ask for a dream regarding the poor state of the church, but I often ask the Lord, what is on your heart? This dream can be considered a critique on the church as it moves today. My heart doesn’t feel critical of the church, I grew up in church and love the church.  Like a child who always feels comfortable heading back home to their parents house, that is what the church is to me personally.  I grew up IN church. Literally, leaving school and my pastor Dad would take me back to the church. I would fall asleep different places in the church, under my Dad’s desk, on the pews. I loved the people who I grew up with in my church, they were the church. The church was my comfortable place, I don’t have harsh feelings towards the church. This is why the dream I had caught me off-guard.

When I shared this dream with one of our boys, the one who happens to be 20….. asking what he thought of the dream. He said, “I am ready to go and pray for people.” He continued “I want my time in church to be learning and doing what Jesus tells us to do, and what I will be doing outside of the church.” “I am not afraid to pray for people, but I should be doing it in the church, so I can also do it outside of the church.”

Then we talked about family business. We own a family business, at least we call it a family business even though my husband is the one who works it and owns the business. Our 20 year old and I paralleled our family business with our heavenly Father’s purposes that also looks like a family business, and the Lord desires us to be intricately involved. I believe we have a generation rising up who cannot do church the way we have been doing church, but a generation who has no fear to step out furthering our heavenly Father’s business here on the earth. I believe this generation is not to come in the future…. but is already here, in their 20’s……

In Isaiah 43 (18-21)

“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.

The wild animals honor me,
the jackals and the owls,
because I provide water in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland,
to give drink to my people, my chosen, (verse 20)

the people I formed for myself
that they may proclaim my praise.

 

If we desire to be right smack in the middle of the will of God, we will allow Him to speak to the shift He desires to happen, and the timing. Where church and God have been a wasteland within generations and the children of generations, the Lord desires to do a new thing. If we dwell on creating what worked in the past, we very well may miss how He desires to captivate the generations now. I even ask myself, am I so stuck in the former things and moving, style of church and worship that I no longer am open to His new?  I want to remain open, desiring for His new, but I also know my heart needs to know the new is the Lord’s not a new man-made way to captivate people. Ultimately the Lord desires for those who He formed for himself to proclaim His praise, this is us, this is our children, this is our children’s children…….