A Vision From God

Over the last few weeks I have thought about young people. People in their late teens, people in the their twenties and thirties. My own twenty-three year old son’s troubles have perhaps brought it more clearly into focus and at the least, it has made my spirit more sensitive to the Lord’s heart on this issue. That was the context of the Holy Spirit moving my heart with a vision that was horrific, but at the same time it was inspiring.

My wife and I and my youngest son were in St Louis for a weekend break a couple of weeks ago. We were driving from the hotel to listen to the St Louis Symphony on a Saturday night and the Holy Spirit came upon me. As usual this would not be a time of my choosing J yet I know from experience that the Holy Spirit is not a respecter of time.I kept on driving and I knew my wife was talking but I was caught up in the Spirit. Tears were falling from my face and the car was pretty dark so my wife did not notice. The Holy Spirit continued to move in my Spirit for the next couple of hours, all through the performance, and came in waves, one “scene,” unfolding after another. The grandness of the orchestra seem to only heighten my experience. I am sure people around me may have thought that I was deeply moved by the music, and the truth is I was somewhere else altogether.

The beginning of the vision was a loud booming voice calling all Christians to awake , “Awake you sleepy Christians.” “Who will ascend Gods Holy Hill? Those with a pure heart and clean hands. This was scene 1, a call to arms. Then the second scene unfolded. I saw thousands of baby turtles heading from the dunes towards the sea. They had a wide beach ahead of them. Before most of them could cross the beach and reach the water they were attacked by birds of every kind. The power of the air had come to attack them, seagulls by the hundreds making a horrendous shrieking noise as they feasted on their helpless prey. Birds of every kind joined the attack, swooping down and pecking and carrying the baby turtles off. Then from the dunes from where they came, came raccoons and critters of every kind to join in the frenzy and drag these hapless baby turtles away. Just when I thought the slaughter could not get worse, out from under the sand came crabs, crabs with large pincers which tore into the turtles and they dragged them into holes in the sand to be devoured. As all of this was going on, I could see Scripture framing this whole scene. “Many are called but few are chosen,” “Broad is the road that leads to destruction, narrow is the path that leads to life.”

Suddenly the scene changes, I am on a beach, but it is the scene from Saving private Ryan. Death was all around me. Young men being killed right where I stood and the severely wounded all around, desperately seeking for a place to hide, for some kind of barrier to protect them from the onslaught. There were kids with there innards hanging out and they were trying to stop them from spilling onto the beach, while screaming for their mothers. Men with their limbs blown of, the one man walking around in shock with his right hand carrying his left arm which had been blown off.

Suddenly the scene changes again. There is a Rock with a sword embedded into it. This sits right in the middle of an arena, like Kemper or arrowhead. This is also the scene from Braveheart.On strolls a man that is dressed like William Wallace in the scene from the movie where he addresses his vastly outnumbered army who are thinking about fleeing from the battle. The man, who is actually Jesus dressed in full Scottish battledress, reaches forward , and with both hands, pulls the Claymore from the Rock and turns to address the crowd in the arena.

“ I am Jesus Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I am maker of heaven and earth and I am the Holy Son of the Living God. I hold in my hand the two edged sword. And with this sword I will surely destroy all the enemies, this vast army of evil that you see here before you. This army that has dared to challenge the living God, this army that has exposed itself on the battlefield will be completely destroyed this very day. I see another army here before, the army of the Living God. You have gathered here today in defiance of darkness and tyranny. You have come here to fight as free men and free men you are, for it is I that gave you that very freedom. So you see with your eyes that you are few and they are many, you see that you are vastly outnumbered. Will you fight today? “No, we will run and we will live,” shouts a man from the crowd. “Yes, if you run now you will live a while. If you stay and fight you may die, but I have called you here this day to die in a battle that will be celebrated for all eternity. Yet for those who run and “live,” what kind of life will you live? When you are dying in your beds, many years from now, how many of you will cry out with regret, having lived a life of compromise and shame and know in your heart that you would be willing to trade forty years of compromise for one day of glory in this great battlefield of the flesh. This light against darkness. To be able to say to your enemies “eye, you may kill me this day and I may have to lose everything this very day but one thing you will never take, you will never take my spirit!!!!

Now the scene changes again. I am in the stadium or arena . Men of God form a semicircle in front of the crowd of young people. Behind them is a sea of flags. The flags are blowing in the wind. The flags represent the enemies that the Holy Spirit had just showed me. The enemies that attacked the turtles each had names and the names were written on the flags. Some of the names were Rebellion, lust, sex, drugs, beer, abuse, suicide, bitterness, hatred, greed, materialism, incest, rape, murder and many many more. The call is made to the crowd, its the call that Jesus has just made, “Will you come forward and die to these thing this day?” They respond to the call to arms and begin to move forward in obedience to the call. They run towards the enemy, they kneel and pray with the men of God and then move past them and with pure hearts and clean hands they make their way towards the flag that represents what they have just laid down, they pull up the flag and they break it over their knees and throw it to the ground. Freedom rings out into the night sky, the rejoicing rises up into heaven itself and all of heaven rejoices to see Satan's kingdom torn down and Gods young people taking back that which is theirs, that which is Gods, their very heart. And Satan trembles at the rise of this army…………..Amen