Dreams, Visions, and Informed Intercession (Part 4)

Throughout the Bible, we are presented with the idea that there is a purpose for all of us and the given geographical locations in which we live. A few months ago, I had a very vivid dream which shook me to the core.  I was awakened by it and heard the Holy Spirit say, "I sent your forefathers and mothers to this land to preserve My work on this earth that was almost lost by the kings and wars of Europe. These ancient kingdoms warred against one another causing My work to almost cease. So, I re-positioned my people in this land so that My enduring kingdom would prevail.  Just as I took Abraham and his seed out of Ur, I took your ancestors and placed them on the shores of the Chesapeake to preserve the work of My hand - The Glorious Church!" This is the first time that the Holy Spirit ever spoke to me about why he brought my family to America in 1631. It was simply an amazing prophecy.  Historically, everything that God spoke to me in this prophecy can be proven accurately throughout “The Great Wars of Europe” in the 16th and 17th centuries and the founding of America. I also understood that night that America was in trouble.  The United States of America has been largely shaped as a democratic republic through the influence and work of three great men, William Penn, Algernon Sidney, and John Locke. 

Each of these men's writings would later become the basis for our constitutional government.  Most American's today have no clue who these men were and what they fought and died for.  (We will save that for another time).  Let's just say that French philosopher, statesman, and historian Alexis de Tocqueville once said, "Upon my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention, and the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this new state of things."  From the earliest days of Quakerism, through the First and Second Great Awakenings, nothing shaped the character and national identity more than the Christian faith.  Every historical outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our national history began with intercessors who were moved by God to prayer. Without intercessory prayer, we may not have been able to overcome the deep divisions and conflicts our nation has experienced.  The same holds true today.

Rees Howell was a powerful Welsh intercessor used by God in the 20th century. He took his calling to be an intercessor very seriously.  He believed that no situation was too small or too big. To him, intercessory prayer was meant to be used against every sphere of darkness and decay in his time. During World War II, Hitler engaged The German people into the biggest land-grab in European history. Hitler went to war throughout all of Europe with a tyrannical vision of building an Arian German Empire under his control. Hitler was crushing nation after nation under his seemingly unstoppable war machine. Scores of people were dying, and the fate of the world was hanging in the balance.  When Hitler's focus turned to Britain in 1940, very little stood in his way. Under the black clouds of world war, Rees and the young people under his leadership at The Swansea Bible College of Wales began to contend in intercession for God's intervention to save Europe from the grip of Hitler's power. As a result, many Christian people attributed the defeat of Hitler and the end of the war to the intercessory prayers that were made on Europe's behalf through Rees and the young people who joined him in prayer.  One thing for sure, Rees knew that the battles raging against his nation would naturally require him to take direct responsibility to see that the prayer needs of his and surrounding nations would be answered.   Rees Howell would later write, “Effectual praying must be guided praying…no longer to pray for all kinds of things at his own whim or fancy, but only the prayers that the Holy Ghost gave him.”  In other words, "we are called as intercessors to be led to pray specifically what the Holy Spirit wants us to intercede for instead of just praying for what we desire. This is the reason why prophetic words are useful for intercessors. They can be a guide for prayer.

And this is the reason why I am taking the time in this series to write about Bob Jones' Gulliver Prophecy. The call of the Holy Spirit in this hour is for the Church to awaken, to rise up, and take a firm stand for justice. However, like Gulliver, (who was a slave trader in the book, "Gulliver's Travels") the American Church has gotten tied down and is laying halfway in the dirt as a result of having gotten entangled in America's sin of slavery, segregation, and racism. It is a historic fact, that the White Eurocentric Church led the way, in battling the Native populations to dispossess them of their land and tried to force them into perpetual slavery for their newly formed plantations as cheap labor. It is the Body Of Christ that led the way in tearing Native children from their families and placed them into their colonialized "residential schools" to strip them of their identities and culture. The Church led the way in making African Americans sit in the back of their churches long before they were forced to sit on the back of the bus.  God is not sitting back and just letting all this unjust history get swept away under the rug.  He is calling the Church to unentangle itself and get up and do the right thing. If it doesn't, you can forget about another great outpouring of the Spirit in our time and generation.  The whole Hebrew Bible and New Testament holds people accountable for what they've done and what runs in them - sin, transgression, and iniquity.  Gulliver laying halfway in the dirt speaks to the fact that there is iniquity in the church that must be dealt with. The sins of the American Church have resulted in deep divisions in our nation and as a people, we are being called by the Holy Spirit to repentance, healing, and a place of reconciliation.  The German people are taught to never forget the history and atrocities of World War II. Likewise, the dispossession, genocide of Native people and slavery of Africans brought to the shores of Virginia in 1619 and onward must never be forgotten. This history needs to be exposed, held out in front of the American Church and nation in the same way that the German people always need to be reminded of their history of anti-Semitism. Why?  It is so that it never happens again!

Even though the Body of Christ has been entangled in our national sin of dehumanization, colonialization, and slavery; we have the opportunity to become a people who are repairers of the breach, restorer of paths to dwell in and raise up age-old foundations for future generations (See Isaiah 58:12). Like Guliiver, we are being called to break off the shackles of indifference, the sin of racism, apathy and status quo. We don't need a revival we need an awakening! The Body of Christ needs to wake up! Our current state of affairs will not be changed by an election, political promises, or a government.  It will only be changed by doing the work of the Lord on our knees in prayer. This is why the Gulliver Prophecy is a "Word From the Lord" that is so critical at this time for those called to do the work of intercession on behalf of our nation. This is why it needs it be reviewed, studied and discerned!  It is not about "revival!" This particular call to intercession is a call for a city, a region, and nation. Intercessors must do their work in their assigned areas if our nation is to avert judgement. God knows our broken churches, cities, and nation need prayer! Remember, God brought His Church to America so that His work would prevail from our early national history through to the time of the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit promised in the last days of human history.  

In 2005, Bob Jones said, 

"I saw a great man had fallen to sleep in the past, and his body was laying on his back and he was halfway buried in dirt.  We could call him Gulliver and little people, from little input, had tied him down, and the only reason he was tied down he’d been asleep for a long time, about thirty-eight years, and he was waking up, you could also call him the Body of Christ coming together."  

When reviewing the Gulliver Prophecy again, each of us need to recognize in this prophetic word that not only was Gulliver lying halfway in the dirt, but as Bob Jones says, "We can call him - The Body of Christ."  We know that the Latin root of humility is "humus" or dirt, reminding us that humility and mortality are tied together.  In a nation where arrogance and exceptionalism is held high, God is calling The Body of Christ to understand that He is calling us "from the dirt" or "from a place of humility" to rise up; while letting us know that our mortal fate is tied down by the iniquity of the land.  We need to recognize that as the Body of Christ, we are called to come out of a place of humility, brokenness, and recognize that what runs in the land – also runs in us!  Genesis 2:7 informs us that, "The body was formed by God from the dust of the ground." The Body is referred to throughout scripture as the dwelling place of the human spirit, a tabernacle and even the temple of God (Jn. 2:21; Ro. 12:4-5; I Cor. 6:19-20).  In Job 4:19, this scripture speaks of humanity as, those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust. Genesis 3:19 tells us "...you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The land was one of the most vibrant symbols for the people of ancient Israel. In the land they found both a promise and challenge. For them the land was a physical symbol of Israel's identity, life and a place for the gathering of the hopes, mission and purpose of the covenant people.

Have you ever taken a close look at the ground you walk on?  What does it mean to you? What has it meant to the people in the past who lived and worked on it centuries before you came? This leads to ask what is the condition of the soil?  How we see God, how we see others, and how we see ourselves certainly impacts how we view the land and its use. Recently, I heard a Native American friend of mine say, “The Land was not made for us, we were made for the Land.

In Mark chapter 4 Jesus said, “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.  Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up since it had no depth of soil.  And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.  Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain and other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”  And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  Later in the chapter, Jesus explains that the "fruitfulness" of the gospel is determined by the condition of the land.  This suggests to us that, even though the Body Of Christ may be "planted" or "rooted" in the land, the Gospel may or may not prevail in a given area because of the condition of the soil.  Does the history that occurred on the land have an impact on its inhabitants and the future?  Here are a few scriptures to consider: 

• In Genesis 4:10 after Cain had murdered his brother Abel The LORD said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.”

• Genesis 16:16; "Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete."

• Jeremiah presents land-loss as pollution and harlotry (See Hosea). “The land is polluted in that it has become impure by covenant breaking and violation of the relation with Yahweh”. Harlotry was the result of Israel ceasing to trust the “Land-Giver” and engaging in alternative ways of securing its own existence.

• Those who were remained in the land after the exile were the ultimately cursed and destroyed (See Dt 28:37).

This is why I believe that Bob's picture of "The Body of Christ" lying halfway in the dirt is an important aspect of this prophecy.  I think it suggests to all of us that our life experiences are influenced and conditioned by our relationship to “a place”.  Ephesian 6:12 says, "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers and wickedness in high places."

Years ago when I was in Bible College, I had a professor who had served as a missionary in Latin America.  He told us of a city he had gone to preach the Gospel in where he witnessed an unusual occurrence. He told us how the city was situated between two countries. One side of the city was in one country and the other was in another.  As he went into the streets to share the Gospel he found that one side of the city was open and receptive and the other side of the city was unreceptive.  He attributed this to the "iniquity in the land" having not been dealt with which resulted in the people being unreceptive to the Gospel. In my perspective from reading scriptures on “Earth-Care”, the land suffers because of what humans do. Certainly, examples of peoples' deteriorating health in some cities has been tied to past corporate pollution pouring out into our rivers.  Likewise, the Hebrew scripture teaches that what our ancestors have done affects the spiritual condition of a city.  The ground has done nothing to deserve this action; land is not the culprit but the innocent victim.  These are not new scientific notions - they're biblical. Likewise, the Body of Christ, in a given region, can be impacted in a negative way when  proper "intercession" is NOT made in its behalf.

One final aspect I'd like to consider has to do with another perspective as to why “Gulliver may be laying halfway in the dirt." Remember Bob Jones stated that "This is a picture of the current condition of the Body of Christ. It is planted "halfway" into the dirt. Our question should be, "Why is the body laying halfway in the dirt?" Quite often, when things are planted halfway in the dirt, the "roots" of the plant are exposed. One possibility is that The Body of Christ is not committed fully to the land. In our time and generation, most Americans are not tied to the land. We are no longer an agricultural or agrarian society. We are disconnected from the dirt. So we are not committed to the idea of a “place”. We are just committed to our jobs until a better one comes along. We are only committed to our churches until they cease to meet our expectations. We are only committed to our local schools until our kids graduate from them. We don't even know our neighbors. Instead, we carry our communities in our pockets (Cellphones). What did Jesus really mean when He said, "I go to prepare a place for you?" (See John 14:1) Are we committed to that “Place”? Real transformation can never happen within a place we have been called to, without our commitment to it. Another Great Awakening or nationwide revival will not happen until we make that commitment to the place God has assigned us to. We can't be "halfway" committed to it. We must rise up and stand firmly in it! God is calling The Body Of Christ to understand that He is calling us "from the dirt" or "from a place of humility" to rise up and take responsibility to intercede for our "own" communities, cities and nation. In closing we should reflect on these scriptures as we consider what God has spoken through this "Gulliver Prophecy" so far: 

Micah 6:9 

The voice of the LORD will call to the city-- And it is sound wisdom to fear Your name: 

"Hear, O tribe. Who has appointed its time?

Luke 19:41

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it.

Isaiah 66:8

“Who has ever heard of such things? Who has ever seen things like this? Can a country be born in a day, or a nation be brought forth in a moment?

Rev. 11:15 

"The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord"

JUST IMAGINE…IN ONE DAY A NATION COULD BECOME BORN AGAIN!

Dreams, Visions, and Informed Intercession (Part 3)

Recently, I met a wonderful man of God, named Andre' Van Zyl, from South Africa that was called to the United States to challenge Christians to pray. As I've gotten to know him I've learned from him that there are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world who bow 5 times a day, even in public, toward Mecca and pray to Allah. Yet, you can't get Christians to spend one hour of their time in prayer. Muslim prayers follow a very elaborate, formula. This is what their prayers include:  "Guide us to the straight path, the path of those whom You have favored, not of those who have incurred your wrath, nor of those who have gone astray.  Shame and misery were stamped upon [the Israelites] and they incurred the wrath of Allah; because they disbelieved Allah’s signs and slew His prophets unjustly; because they were rebels and transgressors. Consider those to whom a portion of the Scriptures was given [i.e., Christians]. They purchase error for themselves and wish to see you go astray."  Don’t you find it interesting that they pray for us and we hardly even think about them? The only thought we are concerned about is securing our borders, yet we seem unconcerned about the principalities and powers that are being unleashed on our nation.   I wonder if God is allowing this religion to prevail and gain ground in our land because American Christians are just too busy to pray!

Andre' Van Zyl points out that the main problem we have in America is that you can hardly get Christians to show up to a prayer meeting for a (“Living God”) and yet 1.6 billion Muslims stop their busy schedules and get on their knees 5 times a day to pray to a God (who is NOT Yahweh) because of their faith and upbringing. Christians all over the world are just too busy to pray and then we wonder why there is no spiritual awakening. Prayer and intercession are a matter of the heart and reflective of our relationship with God.  When our schedules are filled up with important priorities each day and God is not even written in our calendar - we have a problem.  Too many only call out to God in petitions and emergency calls as though He is our “sugar daddy” or a “first responder.”  Then people wonder why God does not answer them when they call on him. Proverbs 1:28 says, "When they cry for help, I will not answer. Though they anxiously search for me, they will not find me."   Why? Because too many of us fail to spend time with the Lord.  What did Jesus mean when He said: "Depart from me I never knew you?" (Matt.7:21-23).  Prayer is the foundation for an intimate relationship with God.  People often wonder why they've never heard God speak, or had a dream, vision or prophecy given to them. It's because they never spend time with the God to whom they claim they are committed; believing their visit to Church once a week is enough. Our Muslim friends are committed to prayer 5 times a day, 7 days a week. They are committed to bathing themselves in the Koran, but we who claim we are in relationship to Jesus, can't even write Him into our schedules because “we don’t have time!”

When I was in Bible College, our college president Owen Carr made a huge statement to those of us who intended to spend our lives in ministry.  He said, "If you read your bible in private, the people in your congregation will read the bible too.  If you commit yourself to a life of prayer and spending time with God, they will too."  Because of his exhortation, I have spent my life devoted to emptying myself of my “self-life” and took the time to spend in quiet moments of prayer with no one looking on.  The unfortunate thing about the Western Contemporary Church is that the show has replaced the importance of prayer meetings. The Holy Spirit and His supernatural presence have been pushed out of the center of all our religious activity. The goal for worship leaders has become the Grammy Awards or the Bill Board charts instead of leading people into an intimate place with the Lord. Don't we understand that prayer is the backbone of the Church? Without prayer and intercession, we cannot and will not experience a major move of God. If leaders don't lead the way, teaching new people the importance of praying and hearing God - then why do they even expect God to honor us with a major move of God? First Things First.  Before you can understand how to discern the voice of the Lord you must position yourself in a quiet place. See Matthew 6:6.

Let me take a moment and get on my soapbox!  There is an argument that some very well-known "Religious Leaders" have made to me.  I asked them; “Why are you pushing the Holy Spirit and expression of spiritual gifts out of their services?  The response was: “(1) We don't want to offend the people we are trying to reach.  (2) Look at the size of the crowds we are gaining, as a result of our Church formula.”  Can I just point out that Muslims are not worried if their faith expressions offend others? In fact, Christian Churches are now inviting bold Muslims into their services and asking them to lead their congregations into Islamic calls to prayer in the name of inter-faith ministry. Secondly, hasn't Jesus made clear through his own ministry, signs and wonders, and teaching that some people will get offended? In Matthew 24:10 Jesus clearly stated, "Many shall be offended."  Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, "The religion of Jesus Christ never was, nor ever can be, the religion of this present evil world. He has chosen a people out of the world who believe it, but the world itself has always hated it. Did not our Lord tell us (John 14:17), concerning the Spirit of Truth, that the world cannot receive Him because it sees Him not, neither knows Him? Whenever you find a religion which unites itself with pomp, show, and worldly power, if there is any truth in it at all, it has, at any rate, deteriorated from the standard of its purity and is not according to the mind of Christ. But there are some who are so fond of everything that is fashionable—everything that is great and famous—that, if the Lord Jesus Christ is despised and rejected of men, they despise and reject Him too." I understand that we need to not become stumbling blocks in our witness to the unchurched but the unchurched cannot come to Christ without the work of the Holy Spirit.  So to relegate the Holy Spirit out of our services, is to ensure that intimacy with God is not a priority.  Why is it that so many contemporary church worships teams are standing in front of a people who don't even sing along them anymore? For those who do not know their theater history: Did you know that theater arts began in the Church? As a result, huge crowds started attending the shows and neglected to engage in worship? Please understand this is not an argument against the use of arts in our corporate and private expressions of worship, but the arts should never take priority over teaching people how to pray in the Spirit, sing in the Spirit, becoming intimate with God and listening for His voice.  John 16:13 speaks to the importance of having the Holy Spirit present in both individual and corporate experiences - "When Holy Spirit comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come."  The job of church leadership is to disciple people into an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ so they can, in turn, hear God for themselves and learn how to hear, discern, and engage themselves in informed intercession. It is interesting that the first disciples did not ask Jesus to teach them to preach after the Sermon on the Mount. We have no record in the Bible that they asked him to teach them to work miracles after the feeding of the 5,000 or the raising of Lazarus. When we look at all four gospels, prayer is the one thing the disciples asked Jesus to teach them. I wonder why. Perhaps it is because they knew, and we need to be reminded, that all of Jesus' teaching and preaching and healing came from one source—his life of prayer. And if this is true, surely we should join in this same request, "Lord, teach us to pray...." (Luke 11:1-2).

"Prayer is a universal human desire and experience. 

Every culture in the world has some form of prayer.

 As a Christian, I believe this is because God created us, 

and we naturally desire a relationship with God."

James 5:16 states, "The effectual prayer of a righteous person avails much."  Revivalist, Charles G. Finney in his classic work, “Prevailing Prayer" wrote, "Prayer is an essential link in the chain of causes that lead to a revival; as much so as truth is. Some have zealously used truth to convert men and laid very little stress on prayer. They have preached, and talked, and distributed tracts with great zeal, and then wondered that they had so little success. And the reason was, that they forgot to use the other branch of the means, effectual prayer. They overlooked the fact, that truth by itself will never produce the effect, without the Spirit of God, and that Spirit is given in answer to earnest prayer."  Any student of revival who has examined major outpourings of the Spirit, which resulted in thousands coming to Christ, will learn that every major move of God began when ordinary people prayed.  Simply stated, prayer is communication with God. It is two-way communication—speaking and listening. Prayer can involve spoken words, inward thoughts or sighs too deep for words. It is an act of love that draws us closer to God.  Biblically speaking, prayer is relationship. Adam and Eve enjoyed a close relationship with God, walking and talking with God in the garden (Genesis 1—2). The Old Testament prophets and priests were people of prayer. Prayer is central to Jesus' life and mission. The same is true for the apostles and the early Church.

So, before we go on in explaining how to interpret dreams and informed intercession, I wanted to point out that all spiritual discernment involving dreams, visions, and informed intercession must begin with a commitment to being intimate with God, knowing His voice and opening ourselves up to the intimacy that comes from being in a "Spirit of Prayer." There is a difference between praying prayers and developing a "Spirit of Prayer."  Praying is usually known as a time when people raise their concerns to God. Conscious of your human weakness, and trusting in God’s power, goodness, and fidelity, we can cultivate an awareness of God's presence throughout our day. Because prayer is primarily a living relationship with the Living God, it is spiritual and mysterious. Through prayer, we experience the presence of God; we are nourished and strengthened in ways we cannot always explain or express. Prayer is oxygen for the soul; we cannot live without it. The “Spirit of Prayer” — or habitual prayer — can result in a lasting and sympathetic awareness of God’s pres­ence in our everyday routines of life. John Wesley, Methodism's founder, defined prayer as "lifting the heart to God." He taught that everyone could pray because a sincere desire is an authentic prayer. And, he went so far as to assert, "God does nothing apart from believing prayer." Too many people today keep looking for someone to give them a prophecy or assurance of a better life or future forecast of blessing, instead of taking a time to listen to God for themselves. God hasn't called us to base our lives on prophecies. He called us to base our lives on being intimate with Him. Quite frankly, too many people rely on the professional clergy to tell them what God thinks about them, has for them or how God has designed them to succeed in life - instead of learning to know God's voice for themselves. This results in, many people wondering why their prophecies fail and then they want to blame those who exercise the gift of prophecy. Prophecy fails because intimacy with God is not a part of our daily lives. It's summed up in James 4:3 this way, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."  Our motivation for prayer should be to build an intimate relationship with Jesus. The only “prophetic call” that really should catch our attention is a call that draws us closer to Him.  It is the task of Christians everywhere to pray.  I Thessalonians 5:17 exhorts us to "pray without ceasing." He wants us to walk in a garden with Him just as Adam and Eve first did.  This is the purpose of Jesus coming - to restore our relationship with Him.

When Bob Jones gave his Gulliver Prophecy in 2005, (See Part 1 & 2 in this series) the yearning of his message was based on; "God why has the work of your Spirit ceased?"  It's a cry for any of us who been privileged to witness a major revival, awakening, or move of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church.  The reason the prophecy should be of importance to the Body of Christ should be seen in the fact, that Gulliver is tied down to the ground, held captive because of the sin in the land and by people who have “little input” (those who have little relationship with God). For those who want to know and discern what this prophecy is calling us to do; it is to begin praying for the Church to be awakened, unentangled and to arise so that it can bring about the transformation of people and cities. Unless the Body of Christ is awakened from its’ sleep, there will be no great awakening.  Only by each of us cultivating a "Spirit of Prayer" in our own individual daily lives, are we going to see God's people rise up and accomplish the mission they have been given to do in their cities?  Every city has its own unique calling.  This is the foundational base of Bob Jones' word.  The only question that still remains in my mind is; "Will we, the Body of Christ, be provoked enough to pray when we see that 1.6 billion Muslims pray fervently each day?”  What I mean is; “Will we ever be provoked enough to seek out every opportunity to make time to pray for a great awakening and revival?  What will cause us to be “broken enough” to want to do what Jesus has called us to do?” Even the disciples fell asleep as Jesus was struggling in prayer over his impending crucifixion.  What does the Body of Christ need, to be awakened and set free from the things that hold us down? Until then it will be business as usual if that is all the corporate Body of Christ and its leadership want.

Dreams, Visions, and Informed Intercession (Part 2)

Where there is fruit there are roots.  According to Luke 13:6-9
 Jesus said, “Cut down the tree only if it does not produce
 the fruit it should bear.” The ax is being applied to the
real roots of our nation today.

Let me begin by saying, "God never promises to bring a revival without prayer and the acknowledgement of our sin.  Every revival through history began with these two important biblical precepts." Instead of praying random prayers God is calling Christians everywhere to develop strategic prayer strategies for their cities to see their towns transformed for the kingdom of God. In Part 1 of "Dreams, Visions and Informed Intercession”, I took a prophetic vision of Bob Jones which walks through our nation various states and cities and have begun to show how this prophetic word might be used as a spiritual mapping tool. The principles of spiritual mapping and strategic prayer are simple and biblical. According to Ephesians 6 and other passages, spiritual mapping and prayer is a means of spiritual warfare in which we confront the principalities, powers, and wickedness in high places.  

Spiritual mapping is "an attempt to see your city as it really is, not what it appears to be." The goal is to push back the demonic darkness by identifying strongholds, attacking these areas with concentrated prayer, then infiltrating vanquished enemy's domain with the good news of Jesus Christ. Spiritual mapping is a means to an end: to move beyond breakthrough into complete transformation for your city or region. Please do not confuse the idea of "transformation" with "revival."  Certainly, a move of the Holy Spirit within the life of a region is something we all desire, however, "transformation" is addressing fundamental problems that need to be changed within our nation, city, or region to prep the culture for a visitation of God. I believe and have concluded that dreams and visions, like the “Gulliver Prophecy” by Bob Jones, need to be understood within the biblical guidelines of interpreting dreams and visions. God uses dreams and visions to help us prepare ourselves for the future. As we review this prophetic vision, we need to look at the story, the cities, the types, the symbols, and history of each place to find what each facet of the vision means and what God is calling us to do. In every world event or crisis, prayer needs to be strategic and defined. Wherever the enemy used rogue governments or dictators to oppose the freedom to share the gospel with the unsaved, intercessors had to intercede and become like an army fighting on their knees in spiritual battles. If you have not read Part 1, I would like to encourage you to do so before you take the time to read this second installment, on the subject.   

A few years ago, The Lord gave me Jeremiah 6:16 which says: "Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask which paths are the old, reliable paths. Ask which way leads to blessings. Live that way, and find a resting place for yourselves." Then He spoke to me and said, "America is at a crossroads."  This ancient prophecy was a call to the ancient Hebrew people to return to the God of their covenant.  Unfortunately, many American Christians are still under the delusion that like ancient Israel, our national founders had made a covenant with God. They have been misled into believing that, like ancient Israel, our nation has departed from our national covenant with Him and now standing faced with impending judgement if we do not return to that covenant.  My only questions are: "What Covenant?"  "When was it established?"  And, "By Whom?"  America is not, nor has it ever been in a covenant with God as a people.  So, when the Holy Spirit speaks to us we need to leave our Americanism at the door and explore the original intent of Jeremiah as he spoke to his target audience and then ask; “How does this apply to me today?”  My take is that some people think that America is under judgement for abortion or gay marriage, but my view is that America is under judgement for its original sin of slavery. The late C. Peter Wagner in his article in the “Renewal Journal” on July 18, 2011, entitled "The Power to Heal the Past", stated; "We must recognize that nations can and do sin corporately.  God loves nations, and I join those who believe that God has a redemptive plan for each nation, or for that matter for each city or people group or neighborhood or any visible network of human beings.  But corporate national sin damages the relationship of the nation to God and prevents that nation from being all that God wants it to be." 

In the Hebrew Scripture God judged, not only Israel, but he judged, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and various tribal groups for their specific sins.  Wagner continued by stating that he believed America was being judged for its specific original sin - the sin of slavery. He wrote, "The broadest and most pervasive sin that our nation ever committed was bringing Africans to our shores as slaves ‑ human merchandise to be bought, sold and used for any conceivable purpose to satisfy the desires of their White masters.  But beyond this, the deepest root of national iniquity, as I see it, and one of the primary causes of our subsequent lust for slaves, was the horrendous way we, White Americans, treated our hosts, the American Indians.  What does the breaking of over 350 solemn treaties say about U.S. national integrity?" Our nation is a covenant-breaking nation. If I can apply the Prophet Jeremiah's exhortation – as we take an honest look at our history and address the wrongs of the past. From the painful legacy of American Slavery (which included Native people and Africans) to the mistreatment, beatings, lynchings and genocide wrought between the Jamestown and Virginia landings up to the Vietnam War; God is calling all of us to journey through history to explore the roots of America's major wounds and examine how these acts still affect us today. Just as the Kingdom of Judah and Israel were embroiled in "reaping the fruit of what they had sown", I think Jeremiah's word calls us to look at the old reliable paths that God initiated with ancient Israel and exhorts us today to ask Him the way forward out of this mess our Nation now finds itself in.  We are at a crossroads because we did not heed the warnings of great God-given leaders like Francis Asbury, Charles G. Finney, and even Dr. Martin Luther King.

On November 26, 1957, Dr. King submitted an article to the Christian Century magazine in which he wrote; "The first Negroes landed on the shores of this nation in 1619, one year ahead of the Pilgrim Fathers. They were brought here from Africa and, unlike the Pilgrims, they were brought against their will, as slaves. Throughout the era of slavery, the Negro was treated in an inhuman fashion. He was considered a thing to be used, not a person to be respected. He was merely a depersonalized cog in a vast plantation machine. The famous Dred Scott decision of 1857 well illustrates his status during slavery. In this decision, the Supreme Court of the United States said, in substance, that the Negro is not a citizen of the United States; he is merely property. After his emancipation in 1863, the Negro still confronted oppression and inequality. It is true that for a time, while the army of occupation remained in the South and Reconstruction ruled, he had a brief period of eminence and political power. But he was quickly overwhelmed by the White majority. Then in 1896, through the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, a new kind of slavery came into being. In this decision, the Supreme Court of the nation established the doctrine of “separate but equal” as the law of the land. Very soon it was discovered that the concrete result of this doctrine was strict enforcement of the “separate,” without the slightest intention to abide by the “equal.” So, the Plessy doctrine ended up plunging the Negro into the abyss of exploitation where he experienced the bleakness of nagging injustice." 

Even though American Whites wish the issue would just go away, it will not until our national sins are acknowledged, repented for and proper amends are made, will we find the promised rest or peace that Jeremiah 6:16 promises. Dr. King continued, "It is commonly observed that the crisis in race relations dominates the arena of American life. This crisis has been precipitated by two factors: the determined resistance of reactionary elements in the South to the Supreme Court’s momentous decision outlawing segregation in the Public schools, and the radical change in the Negro’s evaluation of himself. While southern legislative halls ring with open defiance through “interposition” and “nullification”, while a modern version of the Ku Klux KIan has arisen in the form of “respectable” White citizens’ councils, a revolutionary change has taken place in the Negro’s conception of his own nature and destiny. Once he thought of himself as an inferior and patiently accepted injustice and exploitation. Those days are gone."   

It's time to own up to our national sin and finally tell the truth about what happened in America.  We have all learned the sanitized version of America’s founding and believed it was all for religious freedom for our forefathers to practice their Christian faith. However, land-grabbing, dehumanization, slavery, racism, lynching and genocide are not exactly biblical principles instituted by God in my view.  Dr. King believed "that God is on the side of truth and justice which comes down to us from the long tradition of our Christian faith." This is precisely why I think that Bob Jones’ vision, which I wrote about in my last article became so important to the team of intercessors I work with.  They concluded that Bob Jones' vision was a “Slave Trader named Gulliver” - which Bob Jones said, “Is the Body of Christ."  After reading, Elaine L. Robinson’s book “Gulliver as a Slave Trader", the team explained to me that abolitionist Jonathan Swift authored “Gulliver’s Travels”, as an allegory of a slave trader - much in the same tradition of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book “Uncle Tom's Cabin”. So, if Gulliver is a slave trader and Bob Jones calls him the “Body of Christ”, then the Body of Christ was involved in slavery. And this is a well-documented historical fact.

Over the period of the Atlantic Slave Trade, from approximately 1526 to 1867, some 12.5 million slaves had been shipped from Africa, and 10.7 million had arrived in the Americas. The Atlantic Slave Trade was perhaps the most costly event, in terms of the loss of human life, of all of the long-distance global migrations.  As they were brought over from the lands they were dispossessed from, many of them were chained on boards in the hull of the ships.  Bob Jones starts his vision with: " I saw a great man had fallen to sleep in the past, and his body was laying on his back and he was halfway buried in dirt."  As you begin to listen and try to discern a prophetic word, it's important that you pay close attention to the details. Gulliver is laying on his back tied down in this vision - halfway buried in the dirt.  There are two-pieces of truth here. (1) The principle of sowing and reaping now has the slave trader tied down and laying on his back held captive just as the old slave ship captain and crew had tied down their cargo (slaves) in the hull of their ships. (2) “halfway buried in the dirt” is a direct reference to the "iniquity in the land" - slave trading.  As Bob Jones continued, he gave us a prophetic insight of who this great man was. "We could call him Gulliver and little people, from little input, had tied him down, and the only reason he was tied down he’d been asleep for a long time, about thirty-eight years, and he was waking up, you could also call him the Body of Christ coming together.” 

So, if you traced the 38 years back from the time he gave the prophecy; this prophecy points to the end of the Charismatic movement.  The easy question that can be asked about why this significant move of God ended was that the Body of Christ (who is Gulliver) had fallen asleep and had been tied down by the people of the land who had little input.  The important clues given here is the name "Gulliver" and the images from "Gulliver's Travels" and that Gulliver is a picture of the Body of Christ.  Since Gulliver was a slave trader and our national sin (iniquity in the land) is slavery; why then is the Body of Christ implicated in this sin?  There are two possible parts to exploring this section of the prophetic vision. (1) The Roman Catholic Church in the early 1500's issued an edict known as the "Doctrine of Discovery". It states; “Go to pagan, heathen and unchristian lands and dispossess the people of the land and bring them into perpetual slavery.”  This was the original reason why Europeans came to America.  That is why the Gulliver prophecy is so important in identifying the Church’s role in slavery, segregation, and racism. (2)  Bob Jones stated that the Church has been sleeping for thirty-eight years.  We know that he was referencing the ending of the Charismatic outpouring that took place thirty-eight years earlier - but the question remains; “Why did this revival end?”  A dear African-American friend of mine named, Dr. Jeff Edwards, a prominent leader of the Charismatic movement, said to me recently; “That there were two parallel movements during that time. The move of God that took over whole denominations and the Civil Rights Movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King and others.  These two movements were the voices of their time but never came together.”  I personally believe that is the answer why the Charismatic Movement ended – they never came together.  Psalm 85:10 says, "Mercy and truth have met. Righteousness and peace have kissed."  We know that the finished work of Jesus has brought about the fulfillment of this Psalm. However, unconverted American Christian hearts did not heed or work for "truth and justice" after Dr. King gave his prophetic word to America on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in August, 1963 even though there was this major revival that began a few short years after God spoke to us through Dr. King.  We did not listen or obey the "Word of the Lord."  Thus, the move of God ended and the Church fell asleep.  So here we are over thirty-eight years later - crying out for a new fresh move of God like the early days of the “Jesus People Revival”, but we still have a problem.  The Land is still filled with iniquity. Leviticus 26:39 states, "Those who are left will waste away in the lands of their enemies because of their sins and the sins of their ancestors."  Eccl. 3:16 describes what our condition as a nation is: “Furthermore, I have seen under the sun that in the place of justice there is wickedness and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness.” God has certainly been mercy to us but He will not bless us until this mercy meets the "Truth" and righteousness and peace have kissed each other.  Black lives do matter and that's what this Gulliver vision is addressing. We have been given two warnings from God in the 20th Century.  

God used two African American men to speak to the Church, both were ministers. William Joseph Seymour, 1870-1922, was an African American minister, and a catalyst of the Azusa Street Revival in 1906. Even though, Seymour rejected the existing racial barriers in favor of “Unity in Christ", White Supremacists infiltrated his multicultural congregation and divided the congregation on racial issues and most of the White people left the congregation and started White Pentecostal congregations to replace the Azusa Street Revival.  As a result, the Azusa Street Revival ended.  Leaders today, from Oral Roberts University President, Billy Wilson to “The Call's” renowned Lou Engle, keep calling intercessors to pray for a kind of “Renewed” Azusa Street Revival. However, do they really understand what God was doing in their midst, during the time that Jim Crow laws and segregation were being perpetuated by the White Church of the day? So, what did God do?  He waited for another fifty years and poured out His Spirit in the mid-1960s on His Church and raised up another African American pastor to cry out for justice - Dr. Martin Luther King. The major reason I find that Dr. King is important to the Gulliver vision is because of the “Gulliver’s Travels” story.  When Gulliver is awakened in the original story, the people of Lilliput (the little people in the Gulliver’s Travels story who tied him down) they lift him and place him on a cart. Once he is on the cart they move him to take him to the king.  Near the end of Bob Jones vision, he says, "I saw this great man raise up and begin to take and break off all restraints and He put his foot down, both of them, in Atlanta, Georgia. This is where Dr. King lived, pastored, and is buried.  Bob Jones basically uses the Gulliver allegory of being brought before the KING; that he saw the great man raise up and... “put his foot down, both of them, in Atlanta, Georgia.”  So, after researching, discerning, and praying I began to understand that the Gulliver prophecy is about racial reconciliation and justice.  On a hot day in August, 1963 Dr. King was overcome by the presence of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus began to speak through a BLACK man once again in the days of racial bigotry, segregation and police abuse; this prophetic word:

“I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, that one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”

Why would God raise up two BLACK men to speak to a nation?  It's because He chose vessels that would be despised by the bigotry and racist hearts in the Body of Christ. Bob Jones, prophetically points out that the American Church, which was engaged in the slave history of our nation, whether segregating through congregational seating, running residential schools which stripped Native Americans from their cultural heritages, or not marching with Dr. King in the time of revival, will remain tied down by the sins of their fathers. It's just like God to use two men from different races, to speak a vision of God’s intended destiny for the “Body of Christ” in our nation.  But, he also had to use a White man named Bob Jones to show us, members of the Body of Christ, that God wants us to be unshackled and unfettered from our slave trading heritage. Once again, here we are at another crossroad and God is calling for an awakening. Why? Because we've been asleep for the last 38 years! What kind of awakening?  It is one in which "Mercy and Truth" and "Righteousness and Peace" are brought together. This prophetic vision calls intercessors everywhere to pray for this awakening, to lead the way to repentance for racial healing and reconciliation.  

In my next article, we will begin to unpack the history and meaning behind the parts of Gulliver's Body and the relationship with the corresponding cities.