Prophetic Word: The Middle of the Road
One afternoon last fall, I had a particularly unnerving experience that I knew was not only a wake-up call for me, but also an important word for the Church. But, I have not felt released to share it until now.
At the time, I had been lamenting over the difficulties in my life and was feeling doubtful, sad and discouraged. I had gone to a park near the water to walk my dogs and after spending some time in the car first praying and journaling, I had gotten out and started walking down the path, when I realized that a group of vultures had flown in and were now sitting in the tops of the trees and on the roof of a building next to the water. Immediately, I felt an uneasiness in my spirit, but I tried to ignore it and continue on my walk. For a little while, they didn’t move. They just stayed perched there - seeming to watch my every move.
After walking the dogs down the path for a few minutes, I decided I was just going to turn around and go back to the car. But, just as I turned to head back, I heard a loud noise from the water. I didn’t know what it was, but when I got back to the parking lot, I found out. The vultures, who had swooped down and grabbed a fish right out of the water, were now in a circle around it, taking turns pecking at it and ripping it apart while it was still alive and flailing around. The smell coming from it and the sheer sight of what was happening turned my stomach and I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
Every bit of my spirit was aware of the significance of what I had just seen. But, it wasn’t until a few moments later when the Holy Spirit began speaking, that it all started to make sense.
Right now, at this very moment, there are evil spirits swooping in and grabbing souls that are IN the Body of Christ (IN the Church!) and attacking them and “killing” them. They are literally prowling and observing to find weaknesses and strongholds where they can swoop in and grab them right out of the “safety” of the Church by deceiving them, pulling them into false doctrine, lulling them to sleep and/or having them attack one another.
It was a serious wake-up call. For me to stop worrying about the little things and to focus on the bigger picture of what the Lord needed me for. There is a WAR going on for souls at this very moment and so many IN the Body of Christ are lost and don’t even know it. They are primed for being picked off and “killed” by the enemy. And it’s time for His Church to wake up and start fighting!
In January of 2019, I had a disturbing prophetic dream that the Lord is also bringing back up now. In the dream, I was walking on the road near this shopping mall (from where I used to live) that’s called Francis Scott Key mall. It was pitch black out and there were cars scattered along the road that were on fire. I looked around, thinking it looked like Armageddon and wondered how I was going to get around them since I couldn’t get back to where I had lived before because there were fires behind me too. I managed to get around the burning cars and as I walked, vultures passed me going in the opposite direction as they headed back to feed on the dead in the fires. Eventually, I got to a motel and there were people standing outside of it smoking and dropping lit cigarettes. I was so angry because they hadn’t learned and they were just going to start more fires. I ended up going into the motel, where Jack Wagner said he would pay for my room and I was able to rest.
The mall in the dream represents America and the cars are ministries/churches that are under the judgment fire of God. It is a time of great darkness and when the last great battle of good and evil will be fought (Armageddon). As I continued to move forward and not look back, I was able to get through the “fires,” but the vultures - the enemy and his evil spirits - were “feeding” on all of those who had gotten trapped in the wreckage of the ministries and churches that were now under God’s judgment. But, instead of the people waking up and repenting and finding rest and refreshment in covenant with Jesus, they hadn’t learned and were continuing their same behavior, even though it was going to cause more of God’s judgment to come on them. The motel, which represents a place of rest and refreshment, was “paid” for by Jack Wagner - who played a character on TV named “Frisco,” which means “free man.” Which means, we are only able to find and enjoy rest through a pure relationship with Jesus, with no mixture with the world, idols or the enemy.
It was another graphic and unnerving warning. But, He is bringing it back up now because this is the time we are in. God’s judgment is coming on His own house (the Church) FIRST.
“For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News?” (1 Pet. 4:17 NLT)
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again... unfortunately, the majority of the Body of Christ hasn’t been prepared for this. At least in America. There’s been very little, if any, talk of repentance. And, there’s been rampant mixture with the world, the flesh and false (even evil) practices. Which has left a large number of Christians as vulnerable as the fish in the water or the people in the burning cars.
But, God is bringing these warnings out of His love. He doesn’t want anyone to perish, but to come running back to Him in repentance, asking Him to purify their hearts and restore them to Him!
I have two other dreams that I feel led to share as part of this word, as well as a rhema word from the Lord, that will hopefully illuminate how to do that and what that looks like.
In a dream from May 2019, I was at a wedding and I was the coordinator. When I got upstairs to the ceremony, the young woman (whose name in real life is Abby) was speaking to the crowd on a microphone but it didn’t work, so they couldn’t hear her. I went and got her another one to try, but that didn’t work either. So, I went back downstairs to talk to the people who were in control of the venue, but got stopped on my way there. This very handsome man in a suit was standing in the hallway and he started telling me how he was going to “pray” (although I knew he was evil and didn’t really mean pray) that the Holy Spirit would be taken away from everyone because it was “for their own good.” Just then, I saw a whole processional of people walking by and they all looked like zombies that were in a blank trance. I ran behind a wall, put my hand up and began praying out loud and a few others followed me. When I finished praying, the woman who was next to me, thanked me profusely.
The wedding is when Christ comes back for “His Bride” - the Church - and there isn’t much time left. Those in the Body who are a source of joy to the Father by walking in discernment, righteousness and wisdom (represented by Abby), have been trying to speak truth to the Church but they can’t “hear” it, they aren’t listening. When I went to talk to the people who were in control of the venue (the church), I ran into what looked like a handsome, well-intending man, but he was actually working for the devil. Not only was he not really “praying” to Jesus, but he also was intentionally leading them away (or avoiding) the Holy Spirit because he said it was for their own good. This represents all of the churches today that have cut the Spirit out of everything, either out of ignorance, evil intent or out of wanting to please man. The people in the Church looked like zombies that were in a trance because they are “walking dead” without the Spirit of God. But, me and some others put on our “armor” and began praying for the Church to wake up.
“Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that I have loved you.” -Rev. 3:9
In December 2019, I dreamt that I was at the beach with two friends of mine. At one point, the waves got really big and someone said it was the biggest wave there had ever been. It lifted all the people that were on the beach up and out over a sand bar and I couldn’t believe we had ended up so far out on the other side because I knew it wasn’t safe to be out there. One of my friends had gotten buried in the sand because it was really soft and she was calling out to me because she couldn’t breathe, so I went and dug her out and freed her.
The beach represents the place where souls are won and lost. The big wave is the biggest outpouring/move of the Holy Spirit yet - which is the time we are coming into now. There will be many authentic signs and wonders as we return to an “Acts 2 Church.” But, many people will get swept up by the enemy and false signs and wonders, and end up where they are not safe. Where they do not have strong spiritual foundations (the soft sand) with Jesus and He gets “buried” (represented by my best friend in the dream) in the fixation on the “signs and wonders.”
“For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” (Matt 24:24)
So, where are we safe? Where can we not be plucked up like a dead fish, left behind in a burning car, be walking like a zombie or swept out to sea?
In the middle of the road.
As I have shared in so many posts before, God is a God of paradoxes. He’s a God of both. As you get to know Him and come into relationship with Him, you will start to see this over and over again. Where we, as humans, try to make things one way or the other and He is always somewhere in between. In the “middle of the road.”
He first used that phrase with me in a rhema word He gave me back in May 2019. Although I don’t feel released to share the whole thing, I will give you the basic gist and share part of it. Basically, I had gotten myself confused.
I knew He had been speaking to me so clearly about some of the blessings He was going to release in my life and how a major part of my ministry was going to be to demonstrate the love and goodness of the Father - tangibly. Yet, I had read a bunch of blog posts and watched a bunch of YouTube videos that had left me feeling confused and guilty for even thinking such a thing. That maybe I shouldn’t be blessed by Him? And that any other talk otherwise was false?
I found myself in the middle of two conflicting thoughts and I needed direction. And, boy did He give it to me! In a three-page rhema word that left my hand hurting and my head reeling. Here is part of it:
There is a peace in the middle of the road. Wealth and health are gifts from Me, as are all things, but they’re not Jesus. Jesus is your life. Jesus is why you breathe. Without Him, you are nothing. He is My biggest gift to the world. But, that doesn’t mean I stop giving other gifts. I love you. You do mean more to Me than you know. Some people, though well-intentioned, take it too far in a misguided effort to “protect” Me. It’s like the Pharisees of old, they think they’re doing right by Me, but they’re limiting Me. To what they can see and understand. If I bless you, that does not make you “bad,” it makes you MINE. Do not seek it. I will give to you as I please. Do not try to undo it or mask it. Do not cover it up or be ashamed. For I am your Father and I can do as I wish.
Then later, in regard to religion in particular...
They think they know so much, telling everyone what to say and what to think, yet they don’t come to Me and ask Me. They’re stuck in the past. I am right here, yet they don’t talk to Me. They go to My Word, but forget I’m the One who wrote it. I don’t need to be reminded what it says. I don’t need to be told how to follow it. It is not man’s job to monitor Me or one another. They are to love Jesus. To BE Jesus to the lost. To spread the Gospel and the truth. The enemy is Satan, not each other. Stop fussing about things that don’t matter and LOOK UP! Look at Me! I have been here all along, though many have forgotten Me. They argue in My name just like the days of the past. Will you never learn? Stop fighting! I AM the way, the truth and the life. Stop looking at each other and look at Me! None of that matters. I am in control. Focus on Me. Put your eyes on Me. Put your heart on Me. THAT is what matters.
I know, right?! And that was only part of the word He gave me! So, He covered a lot there. But, the reason I feel Him prompting me to include it here is because it again, brings it all back to the middle lane.
On the left, there’s the “religious” side of the road that says there are no more workings of the Spirit - no prophets, no apostles, you don’t need the Holy Spirit or to talk to God outside of the Word, God is not interested in blessing you, you should only suffer, etc. Then, on the right side of the road is the other extreme, where it’s all about the “Spirit”, mystical signs and wonders, God as a magic genie, all about me and very little or no talk of repentance or consecration.
And guess where God wants us to be? In the middle!
He does not want us walking around like religious zombies with no Spirit. And He doesn’t want us deceived and swept away by goosebumps and magic tricks.
The foundation is Jesus. It’s always Jesus. Jesus is the Word made flesh. The entire Bible is the story of Jesus. Jesus is the Father’s love for us incarnate. But, He also died to give us a personal relationship with the Father. To allow us a way back to the original relationship that He designed in the Garden of Eden. And to give us the Holy Spirit so we’d have the same (actually, more!) power and authority that He did!
“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.” (John 14:12 NLT)
It’s like He had me share once with a woman I was ministering to that was stuck in religion - if you were supposed to still only read the Bible and never hear from Him outside of it, then why did Jesus make a way for you to speak to the Father? Why did the veil tear in half? The whole point was for you to have a personal relationship with Him! That’s what He wants!
He wants to talk to each one of us personally. He wants us to know Him personally. It’s like if you follow a celebrity or influencer online - you may have read all their books, watched all their videos and feel like you know everything about them, but if you were to walk up to them on the street, they wouldn’t know you. And because you don’t know them, they’re not going to invite you into their home.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matt 7:21-23)
Jesus wants to know you. The Father wants to know you. The Holy Spirit wants to know you.
Not through false humility and tradition. And not through mystical experiences.
He wants to know you through relationship. That is how you stay safe in these times we are coming into. Because that is where you receive discernment, wisdom and spiritual sight that comes only from the Lord.
He is the one that will take the scales off your eyes and help you not to be deceived. He is the one that will lead you back onto the correct path when you’ve gone astray. He is the one that will keep you grounded in truth.
But, you have to know Him and be surrendered to Him above everything else.
Remember, the apostles were in relationship with Jesus first. They learned from Him and knew Him in a personal way. But, they also saw Him do many miraculous signs and wonders, and eventually, did them themselves in His name.
It’s like I said in the post, “It’s Both,” when I talked about it being Elijah + Jesus. God’s Church is the Word + the power of the Spirit. It’s BOTH! If you leave out one side or the other, you leave out an important part of God’s character and His plan.
So, you don’t have to be afraid of either “side.” But, it is time to wake up! Stay in the middle lane and stay close to Jesus.
He will guide you. He will protect you. And He will keep you safe.
Stay in the middle of the road.
