I'm a doer. I've never been good at being still, to take information in & just sit on it. Glancing at our phones a million times a day, sifting through information overload with no practical outlet - I'm just not good at it. I'm convinced it's not healthy. The amount of access we have. I don't want to sit & wring my hands & fuss. For me, it's always been - if there's an issue, fix it.
With all that is happening in the world, I've asked God over & over - what will You have me do? In my tiny corner of the world, with very little in open hands - what will You have me do?
When I think of the prophets, often they were given only a handful of visions or statements to record & then their service was done. Ezekiel had six. I have one.
A few years ago, I snapped awake from a dream that was so lucid & disturbing; I knew it was from the Lord (& I am not quick to say that, because I take it seriously).
I was driving west on one of the main streets in my hometown - a shopping center on the left-hand side of the road, a pre-school, then bank & convenience store on the right.
The sky was what you probably think of when you think apocalyptic. Reds streaked through a cloudless sky, everything hued in amber, but not warm or uplifting. The air was heavy, dark & all elements around me were shaded in varying tones of black.
Looking out each side of my car, I was driving in a river of blood, and the blood was rushing toward the mountains. There were abandoned cars on all sides of the road. People were standing nearby, some shielding their eyes looking up in bewilderment, others calling out in mass hysteria & confusion. There were also dead horses & bodies all along the side of the road & scattered in the shopping center's parking lot. There were arrows sticking out of the horses, & many of the bodies were missing heads.
Just as I started to panic in the dream, I heard a loud voice say: "War is coming. I need my People to be ready."
And my eyes snapped open.
I have never had a dream before or after, on the scale of this one. I don't dream about God. I don't dream spiritual dreams. This was three or four years ago. I have asked the Lord, since then, to confirm it for me or to send another dream, but He hasn't.
Please don't mishear me. I don't think I am a prophet, or that my dream is on the same level as Scripture, but I also don't discount Scripture, the words of Joel, echoed by Peter in Acts when they said:
"In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord."
So why mention this, & why now? It's because the verse goes on:
"And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."