Prophetic word about Evangelism and Church Building
This was a specific message delivered to a specific congregation in Bulgaria in November 2005. However I a lot of this has relevance to the rest of the church, and not just in Bulgaria, and it is still relevant now.
There are a few visions but they are all on the same theme and expand the points/different angle on things. To summarise it is about God wanting us to be co-labourers, is warning us about timidity and apathy.
1. I saw someone walking around the bottom of an empty (outside) swimming pool, looking around him wondering why it was so empty. BUT the walls of the swimming pool were only half built and thus were uneven heights and the workman’s tools were also left lying around - it would have been foolish for anyone to fill the pool with water in this state of incompletion.Interpretation:
This is regarding the church in Bulgaria. Without the correct structure in place, God is not going to fill the swimming pool (this specific church) with water (the lost) as he cannot – where would the water go? He needs the pool structure to be built for him by the workmen (the Christians) in order for him to fill it for them. God works in participation with the workmen not doing it all on his own. The ‘workmen’ (the Christians) need to get to their abandoned tools left lying around and get building the pool for God. They build the pool by building the Church (in co-operation with Christ under the power of his Spirit) which means going out to the lost and building this church with newly reborn and discipled people. God will bless you every step of the way, and fill it for you (i.e. make it happen through YOUR activity). This is his promise, ‘you will not be put to shame, you will not be disappointed’, if the church obey him. You have felt afraid of shame in the past (of what the unsaved will think of you if you step out, of being embarrassed, of God not meeting his promises etc.) but God promises, ‘you will not be put to shame, you will not be disappointed’ before anyone.
God wants to bless the church with many more lost people coming in, on a scale they have never seen before, but he needs the workmen’s participation - instead the workman have left their tools (their gifts/talents/deeds) lying around, not using them to build the church, expecting it all to be done without their efforts. This Church have been slack workmen, God says this. The people need to repent of this and exert effort and bring in the lost and disciple them. Also in its current state the incorrectly built pool cannot hold the water (the lost people) and keep them in for long, and they will soon get lost/flow other the sides.
God has so much blessing waiting for this to church if they obey him in this and he wants to bless them, ‘Well done, good and faithful servants. (my plural) You have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ Matthew 25:23. Now you know how to get joy which has been lacking in many of you – there has been a depressed and sluggish spirit over this place – now you know how to counteract it!
2. I saw a vision of a mouse and a lion. The mouse was very scared of the lion and was so afraid of what the lion might say that he had all his head and particularly his ears covered over with (useless) cotton wool to protect himself, protecting himself particularly from hearing the lion’s words. This was very silly as the mouse had no reason to be afraid, he had God with him, and the lion was rather weak and impotent anyway, and furthermore the mouse looked ridiculous like this.
Interpretation
The mouse represents the church in Bulgaria and the lion is the nation of Bulgaria. The Church is too timid in Bulgaria, and is very afraid of what the lion (their nation) might say. Through their fear they have covered themselves with useless cotton wool (their own protection coming from the flesh) instead of God’s true protection which comes from obeying him in faith.
The church in Bulgaria have covered their ears over to protect themselves – I feel God is saying this means that THEY HAVE NOT PUT THEMSELVES IN A PLACE TO BE CRITICISED (by the lion = their lost people) by not being all they should be, doing what should be done, or saying what should be said through fear of the weak lion and what he might see. Through fear they do not speak God’s word to the lion (the lost) or go out and tell it like it REALLY is (they water it down or do not speak at all) and they are not the Church God wants them to be in the nation. The Church have become introvert to protect themselves (almost cultish) rather than extrovert. (It is no wonder if they are mocked sometimes by the lost as they look daft like this with wool over their ears as they are neither one thing or the other to themselves, God or the lost!) Through doing this they are also blocking God’s word coming through to them properly.
“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” II Timothy 1:7.
God wants you to repent of being ruled by this timidity, and to stop hiding behind cotton wool, and become full of the spirit of power as per above…..and speak the truth, living in the truth and living in the light where others can see you in that light.
3. I saw a builder walk up to a building site with a bucket of wet clay. The clay was to make clay bricks for a building. The builder rather carelessly dumped the bucket on the ground, so that the clay slopped about in the bucket, and left the bucket there before a place where a wall of a building needed to be built. The builder just walked away leaving the bucket with the wet clay there but the clay needed to be moulded and shaped into clay bricks to be built into the wall. The builder was somehow expecting the clay to turn to bricks by itself and then built into a wall. I then heard the people of this Bulgarian Church cry ‘Lord, build, build!’
Interpretation
This represents the building of the church (building up with people not church buildings). The people’s cries for the building of the church ‘Lord, build, build!’ are heard by God – this specific church is a praying Church and as such is commended by God as such. But these specific cries are rather vain cries, not because God does not want to answer this prayer – of course he does – but because THE PEOPLE ARE EXPECTING GOD TO DO IT WITHOUT ENOUGH OF THEIR ACTIVE PARTICIPATION. They wanted this wall (i.e. the church) built but were not preparing the bricks which God needed to be done first so he could build the Church with these prepared bricks. God needs workers to co-operate with him, not just to dump all the work on him. THIS CHURCH KNOWN FOR PRAYER MUST BECOME KNOWN FOR ACTIVITY TOO. God is saying that his workmen here are not doing their job properly - the people are not being active enough in going out to the lost – bringing the bricks for him to work with - to build the church. Go and make bricks and God will build them. Otherwise this church structure (like the first vision) is incomplete and weak.
4. I was reminded of the Children’s TV show ‘Lazytown.’ The premise of the TV show is that the fictional town is rather inactive. The energetic hero, Sporticus, tries to get them up and moving and being sporty, and the villain, Robbie Rotten, tries his best to keep them all inactive and doing nothing.
Interpretation.
A similar sort of thing is going on over this church and town – God wants you up and moving and doing stuff, but Satan wants to keep the church inactive (not necessary through laziness but through fear/wrongful expectations etc as discussed before).
Then I heard, ‘It’s a brand new day’. God wants to do new things among you and for you all to leave this inactivity behind. What is past is past. Repent of the inactivity and fear, ask for God’s forgiveness and move on: get moving and building with God with the knowledge of his blessing and promise of bounty for you. If you obey you will all bear much fruit (I see a large apple orchard, ALL THE TREES (i.e. every single person in the church from the youngest to oldest, not just one tree) bearing beautiful ripe juicy apples – it is also well fenced in meaning you have the promise of God’s protection) - and you will all superabound in joy with many of the lost you have been praying for for years (including currently unsaved family members) will then be among you bearing fruit themselves in this orchard.
General comments
I see the servants in Bulgaria with gold in their hands. God has promised to give his servants in Bulgaria gold to serve with, he is giving them something extra special (which he will not give to other countries) as that is his sovereign will. Let his servants make note of this..
If the gates of hell cannot prevail against the building of the Church, how much less can the nation of Bulgaria or even your town! God bless you all as you seek to obey the Lord.
