End Times Prophetic, Prophecy, Visions, Dreams, Revelation, Christian Blog

On the night of 21st July 2007, I had a vision of a glassblower. I was reminded of the time I was at a crafts fair watching a skilled craftsman heat up glass until it was so hot he could blow upon this glass with a tube and shape and form this molten mass into amazingly intricate objects. I watched fascinated that something so ’solid’ could be shaped when under heat into something so beautiful and then go back into a solid form afterwards.

I asked God what this vision meant.

‘I want my church to be hot like this. When they are as hot as the molten glass, then they are yielded to me and can be easily shaped by me into my instruments. I can ‘blow’ upon them and shape them and mould them. I want my church hot like this, yet it is lukewarm and sometimes outright cold. The church or the ‘glass’ is therefore not molten so it cannot be shaped - it is only when it is hot the church or ‘glass’ becomes maleable into something by me. When it is not molten it is cold and hard and useless - unable to be shaped for my use and my glory.’

‘Oh Lord!’ I said, understanding immediately how seriously this grieved the Lord and also how true it were about the 21st century church. ‘I want your church hot like this. How can we make them hot like this? Hot with your love and aflame for you with real fire, heat and passion?’

‘You can call them to repent and come back to me so that they may become hot.’ He said. I sensed again God’s sadness, and almost saw the shaking of his head while he said this as I understood that he was telling me that many would not heed this call to repent of their lukewarmness. This greatly grieved the Lord who broods over his church and is fiercely jealous.

‘So what can we do, Lord, to make the church hot if they do not listen and do not repent - if they do not see their true state before you?’

‘I will bring affliction upon them,’ said the Lord. ‘This will force many to become hot for me.’ He said it with tears - like what else can I do, it has forced my arm? - rather than with gloating, hatred, pride or contempt. Also I felt that what He was telling me would happen was a certaintity as He was saying that the bulk would not repent.

I then saw a large army rushing forward, dressed in black armour, their helmets were affiliated to evil, they were rushing en-masse, pressing down and swooping down - God called it an ‘army from the North’* rushing down in a semi-circular formation - like a hurricane formation - and then it came too from the East so it was like a North East wave, momentus in its force, and it looked like it was coming down upon the map of the USA (the ’seat’ of 21st century lukewarm Christianity?) over from the North and then the East. ‘The army will be like bees,’ said God, ‘with a sting in their tail’. Just like God allowed pharoah and other ungodly kings to bring judgment upon Israel - in order that they may repent and come back to Him - so He would use ungodly forces to bring affliction upon the modern day church if they did not repent and become hot.

‘Surely there is another way to get your church to be hot?’ I asked, realising even while I said it there was not.

‘No.’ said God. ‘Call them to repent and call them to repent again. Let this cry rise and be unwavering. But if they do not listen, I will send affliction upon the church. It will be by my hand and it will be because I want my people to return to their first love, to turn away from their idolatorous spirits and blasphemies. ‘Return to me, so that I may return to you.’  *(It reminds me of a vision I had earlier that evening of a needle going in and out of material in a sewing motion but there was no thread in this needle. Without the thread in the needle, nothing was achieved, no sewing was done although the needle went through the motions - it was talk and hot air and no substance, nothing lasting. Without the thread - the substance of God - nothing was achieved. So it was with much in the modern day church - God was not with them. He did not move with them. He was not in their plans. Hence the lack of power and the lack of almost everything of substance evident in them.) I want to dwell amongst my people in glory, in power and might, yet my people restrict me by their lukewarmess, evil deeds and foul mouths. ‘Return to me so that I may bless you,’ says the Lord. ‘Return to me so that I may reward you. But those who set their faces against me, let it be known that they will be judged.”

God then showed me a vision of the first few chapters of the Book of Revelation (the message to the seven churches) and then against this backdrop I saw someone - a pilgrim - riding a camel with two humps filled with water with a Bible set firmly in between these humps. I saw that that they were being led into the desert.

‘So I will lead the church into a time of draught,’ said God. ‘A time of draught is coming. The righteous ones will also suffer along with the unrighteous because of the unrighteous one’s lack of repentance but what I do will be necessary. The righteous ones, however, will be like this pilgrim on the camel going into the desert. They are prepared - they know what is coming. They have the two humps of water in this camel that has drunk its fill and is stocked up for the journey - they are prepared - and they also have the word of God with them. So in the draught they will still have water. My word will be with them.’

I then saw a sieve. As the flour was sifted through it the lumps that did not pass through the holes were left in the sieve. These hard unyielding ones - the lumps of flour - would be discarded/thrown away. God showed me that as the church was allowed to be sifted by Satan, the hard unyielding one that were left would be discarded and thrown off - there would be a large falling away from the church of those that did not truly love God. Their true colours if you like would be revealed and those that did pass through sifted would have become ‘hot’ for God.

Prepare yourselves  - make sure you have your own camel humps filled with water and know the word of God - make sure you are hot and aflame for him - as the song goes: ‘You know my heart, my deeds…..I’m calling out, light that fire again…’ or like the parable of the ten virgins you have enough oil to remain ‘hot’ and awake - so when the church as a whole is forced into the desert and is sifted, then at least you will be pre-prepared and will not fall away or lose heart at the time of this affliction. Make sure you become part of that faithful remnant and are not the hard and unyielding ‘lump’ that gets thrown away out of the sieve. And I understand also now what the remnant returning with joy really means. Those who stand firm despite affliction will have great joy.

The crucible is for refining silver and the smelter for gold, but the one who purifies hearts by fire is the LORD (Proverbs 17:3).

And then I realise that the glassblowers use furnaces and crucibles, and that God knows all along what is needed to heat up a generally lukewarm and unrepentant church.

The crucible for silver
And the furnace for gold,
But the Lord tests the heart of this child,
Standing in all purity God,
our passion is for holiness,
Lead us to the secret place of praise.

Jesus, holy one
You are my heart’s desire,
King of kings, my ev’rything
You’ve set this heart on fire.

Father take our offering,
With our song we humbly praise you,
You have brought your holy fire to our lips.
Standing in your beauty Lord
Your gift to us is holiness,
Lead us to the place where we can sing. (Martin Smith)

May as many of the church become part of the remnant as possible and may they remain singing come what may.

But Oh God, may the church as a whole repent!

* These are reflections on the above that should not be viewed specifically as part of the revelation as they are my thoughts based on human understanding and may not be completely accurate. ‘The Army from the North’ is mentioned several times in scripture as an instrument God uses as judgment against His people when they do not repent. See the whole of the Book of Joel which matches a lot of what I have spoken of -and his vision when I reread it is very similar to mine in terms of this army and what it looks like etc and the locusts sound like my bees. The Book of Joel is speaking of the end times and a call to repent and a warning of difficulties to which God says they can be saved from if they repent and make their hearts become hot for God. ‘“Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.’ (Joel 2:12-13) and then the army is mentioned again in Jeremiah 6:22 where there again is a call for national repentance and it goes on in verse 27: ‘Jeremiah, test my people as though they were metal. And you’ll find they are hard like bronze and iron. They are stubborn rebels, always spreading lies. Silver can be purified in a fiery furnace but my people are too wicked to be made pure, and so I have rejected them….‘  I also think that this affliction/trouble/calamity may not just affect the church but also unbelievers too - so perhaps a nation as a whole will suffer from this ‘army from the north’.

The Church Must First Repent - By J. Edwin Orr

…The condition of the Laodicean Church fits our present-day state in Christendom exactly.

“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked…As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” …

Lukewarmness, self-satisfaction, halfheartedness, backsliding, formalism, indifference, self righteousness, greed for gold, worldliness, pride, self-deception, spiritual destitution, blindness and lack of vision, easily-seen-through–these are the characteristics of Laodicea, and these are the characteristics abounding today. …..

Are there any lukewarm Christians in your church ? Any self-satisfied ? Any indifferent ? Any self-righteous ? Any backsliding? Any formalistic ? Any half-hearted ? Any greedy after lucre ? Any worldly ? Any proud ? Any self-deceived ? Any spiritually destitute ? Any without vision ? Any shameless ? Put together they look rather bad. If the majority of your church members share a majority of these indications of spiritual poverty, then your church is a Laodicean church.

And if the majority of churches in your district are thus backslidden, then everything said to Laodicea applies to your neighbourhood. What would you do with an individual Christian who was thus backslidden in heart and life ? You would first pray for him. You would seek to show him his need. You would seek to make him concerned about his need. You would point out to him the life more abundant. You would tell him that Calvary means power, and that Christ will restore.

All that has been said about individuals applies with equal force to the larger groups in which individual Christians find themselves a place. The life of the majority of churches and societies is sub-normal, stunted in growth, paralysed instead of powerful. What is the trouble ? It is just general backsliding….

Little by little, the church loses its grip on essential things, becomes a social club, goes to sleep or flies off at a tangent. All over the world we find sleeping churches, and all round them are the gospel-starved masses. Instead of performing the first thing of importance, evangelising the rnasses, they are engaged in a bewildering variety of pastimes–anything but the real thing.

It has pleased the Lord to intervene at times to bring back His people to a more normal life. This is called revival. Revival, it must be noted, is solely the concern of believers, and is not an evangelistic campaign as many seem to think, although such a gospel effort may be the outcome of revival among Christians.

Revival is of course a matter for individuals as well as churches–and in such cases, it is often called ‘full surrender’, or ‘a clean heart’, or ‘victory over sin’,–the term is not of such vast importance provided we recognise that the experience is simply the forsaking of a subnormal experience for the normal Christian life. This is individual revival.

Returning to the words of Scripture, we find the message of the Lord blunt and powerful. “I counsel thee…” There is no mistaking what the Lord thinks of that Church. His denunciation; “You say that you stand in need of nothing” is met by an offer of pure gold instead of dross, clothing instead of shame, ointment to cure the blindness.

Again…repentance ! What does it mean? Be in earnest, and change your warped mind, change your backslidden heart, change your wrong attitude, change your contrary direction. Repent ! The next exhortation is one of mixed tenderness and urgency; “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in and sup with him, and he with Me.” This plea, preached so often with effect to unregenerate sinners, would be even more effective with believers in the Church.

It is the Lord Christ Who stands outside the door of the Laodicean Church. He is patiently, tenderly knocking. Few hear Him, and many of those that do are too busy with other things to open the door. And those that are eager to open the door are often hindered by others who stand in the way. Still He is knocking.

To the individual, there is wonderful comfort. Christ does not say, ” If you persuade all the rest to let Me in—-” but rather ” If any man hear My voice” Individual responsibility is as great regarding revival as regarding salvation. Letting Christ into the heart means revival for the individual who does it.

If “revival is the reception by the church of life abundant”, revival is also reception by the individual of the life abundant. Revival has always begun through the obedience of individuals. Four young men, together with individuals scattered throughout the Province, prayed down the Ulster Revival Of 1859. Evan Roberts and other individual servants of God prayed down the Welsh Revival Of 1904. God lit little fires here and there, in individual heam, and when they became numerous the place went on fire. Andrew Gih, listening to a plea made by Paget Wilkes, in Shanghai, did not wait until the rest of China was moved. He opened his heart to revival, and God has been using him as a revivalist ever since. Instances could be multiplied.

“If any man hear My voice, I will come in and sup with him, and he with Me.” Revival must begin somewhere. It must begin in some heart. Who knows but it might start with You ?

Many Christians are waiting for a collective stirring…something which will be labelled “revival” right away. God is waiting for individual stirrings, and He is waiting for you. Get the perspective right. “If any man…”

The Church will be moved when its members are moved. Who will be one of Revival’s advance guard? And so the fact remains, revival is the greatest need of both individual and Church. We must not regard revival as some supernatural occurrence which we cannot understand. Revival for the individual is simply deeper blessing. Revival in the Church is simply deeper blessing. And deeper blessing is the reward for growth in grace.

…. The Lord stirs up His people in many mysterious ways, but the fact remains, He has promised revival to those who ask, to those who will pay the price.

…Sin is very deceptive. The backslider or backsliding Church makes all the excuses possible for the deplorable state of backsliding and powerlessness. There may be a noticeable amount of energy–that is all part of the pretence. Backsliders see so few better than themselves that they begin to feel secure–they lull themselves to sleep, and snore so loudly that they cannot hear the call ” Awake.”

But many individuals feel a sense of disappointment and failure. Their hearts are hungry for deeper blessing. Many more pretend that their lives are all right, when they are not all right. They are more dangerous than conscious backsliders, for they are always praying for blessing upon ’somebody else’, ignoring their own greater need.

Pretence and disappointment-disappointment and pretence. This is the condition of multitudes of starved Christians. The author has been privileged to witness God’s power manifested in many genuine revivals–and it has always been noticed that those who are disappointed get a glimpse of new hope…those who pretend get shown up. “Search me, 0 God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts see if there be any wicked way in me; and lead me in the way everlasting.”

The important thing to remember is repentance is the prelude to revival. The Church must first Repent. ”