Prophetic Dream (Oct 12, 1996)

I had a dream last night (Saturday October 12, 1996) which I believe is prophetic.

I was up somewhere where there was glaciers. I was staying at a hotel that was on the side of a glacier. Across the road from us, was another glacier that was a bit of a tourist site. It was incredibly beautiful, and people would spend a lot of time just looking at it.

From time to time, it would have these colorful little advolanches. They occurred on the far part of the glacier and were spectacular to watch. We would feel safe during these advolances since the force of it never came all that near us. I was standing there in the road infront of the hotel watching the scenic glacier with another person. All of the sudden, it started to advolance again. Only this one was much closer. In fact, it was only a few feet from us. I remember watching the snow pile up near my feet. It the advolance looked like a waterfall of snow and was quite beautiful. But it was also dangerous. Despite the danger, I felt tempted to step into the advolance. I did, in fact, step into the snow that was piling up just in front of the avalanche. Within seconds, I was up to my waste in slush. If felt like quicksand, except that I was not sinking, it was not cold and there was no fear or anxioty. I was captivated by the advolance and was sorely tempted to step right under it. I knew that would be dangerous, but I did not feel afraid. I stood there weighing the decision for a few minues, the slush/snow around me climbing up to mid-chest. The person I was with was warning me to get out of there. I cannot remember if the person I was with pulled me out of if I worked my own way out. But we were standing on the road again, just in front of this advolance. Then the slush/snow from the advolance started falling on the road. We ran back into the hotel.

Once I was in the hotel, it was like I was in a different world and the advolance (which was just across the street from us) seemed terribly far away. I went upstairs to my room. All of the sudden, the advolance started pouring into my room. It feel right on top of me and felt something like standing under a light waterfall. It was wonderful and exhillerating. The room started to fill up with that snowy slush. I realized that if I stayed there much longer, the room would fill up and I would end up drowning in it. So I opened my door to go outside of my room. When I opened the door, the force of the snow/slush from the avalanche forced me out of the room and down the stairs. I realized that the whole building was going to overflow with the waterlike-snow from the avalanche. I started to move rapidly away from it and soon found myself in a dining room. It was incredibly elequent and most of the hotel patrons were there dressed up very fancy and were eating and drinking and celebrating.

I knew that the room was going to fill up with snow, and that I had to warn them to get out of there. So I started warning people that an avalanche was occurring in the building and that they needed to get outside so they would not be buried in it. A few people looked at me blankly, but most did not seem to hear me. Just as I started to repeat myself, an announcement came over a loud speaker telling the people that an avalance was coming and asking them to vacate the premises. At the same instant, the waterlike-snow from the avalanche began to pour into the room. The people started to move towards the door as a large mob, and I was caught up (trapped) in them. I wanted to move faster, but there was a solid wall of people ahead of me and I was constrained to go at their pace. After what seemed like far too long of a time, we finally made it outside.

A strange thing had happened. Instead of being up on the glacier beside the road, we were in a villiage or city at the foot of the glacier mountian. The buildings around us were shaking, as though there was an earthquake. Something came crashing down from one of the buildings and seemed to grow in size as it fell towards us. We scurried out of it's path and no one was injured by the falling object. Then we passed a building which must have been a bus station. It had a minuture bus over it's enterence. As the building shook, the bus worked loose and started to fall on top of us. It seemed to increase in size as it fell. We scurried out of it's way. It finally hit the pavement with a large crash. It had grown to the size of a full bus, and was laying on it's side, a total wreck. I remembered thinking 'good thing we were able to get out of it's way as it fell, because someone would have been killed if they were under it when it fell'. I walked up to examine it closer. My eyes were drawn to the exhaust pipes which were shinning and clean chrome. Then I realized that this was not a miniture, but a fully functioning bus. It had not been used much and still looked brand new. But now it had fallen and was destroyed.

Then I woke up.

The instant I woke up, I felt the intensity on me that I feel when I'm moving under the prophetic and I realized this was a dream from the Lord. So I took it to Him and asked Him to confirm whether or not it was from Him and what it meant. I usually cannot remember dreams after about 1 or 2 minutes of waking up, but the clarity of this dream stayed with me. I spent some time asking Him to show me what it means and then went back to sleep.

When I woke in the morning, I remembered the dream and spent more time asking Him to show me what it meant. I got a few hazy senses, such as the avalanche was God's power and the hotel was the church, but not enough to put any meaning to it. Then I got on my computer and started dealing with email. Saturday evening, I had seen an invite to all new-wine list members to partisipate in a renewal missions trip to India. I had spent some time praying about whether or not to go on this and this morning I decided to contact the organizer for more information. As I was sending an email to contact him, all of the sudden there was incredible clarity on some parts of the dream.

The avalanche represented a release of God's power at a level we were not used to seeing. True, we'd seem some releases of His power in the current renewal... similar to those colorful avalanches we'd seen up on the mountian top from the hotel. I think that being up on the mountian top was God calling His church into intimacy with Him and fellowship with Him. I think the snow of the avalanche represented holiness... that He has been calling the church back into holiness, as per the verse (come let us reason together, says the Lord, throuh your sins be as scarlet I will make them as white as snow). The hotel represented the Church. Interesting that the avalanche started falling inside of the hotel. I think that was the renewal... which started in the church and was aimed at refreshing and restoring christians. And those gathered in the dining room were the church, who were feasting on God's word and fellowshipping with each other. But as the release of God's power increased, they could not stay in the church or they would drown in it, as per the waterlike-snow filling the place up. So they were forced outside, into the world.

I believe that the Lord is saying that He is going to increase His power among us. But as that power increases, we cannot just stay in our nice churches being comfortable and enjoying His presense. He is going to push us out into the world where we can be His witnesses, just like He always intended for us to be. The time is rapidly approaching where God will ask us to take His renewal anointing/power outside of our churches and to the streets (to win the lost).

Finally, I believe that the bus station (where the bus fell off from above the door and crashed to the street) represents our current missions and evanagelism strategies. They are not used all that much and are not all that effective. When the increased outpouring of God's power comes, the old vehicles of evangelism and outreach will be rendered totally ineffective. God will have a new way of reaching people through His church... sending ALL of His children into the streets in His power and authority instead of just sending the few specially trained elect (the missionaries and professional evangelists). We are not to hang on to the methods of evangelism and missions that we used before. Rather we are to look to God as He does a new thing and unleashes His power and glory among us. We are to abandon "old" (traditional) ways of doing evangelims and flow with what He is doing. We are not to remain in the safety and comfort of our churches, but to take His power and His glory to the streets and to BE His witnesses.