The Old Church Dream
12/26/24 2:44 PM
Solitary Man
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Over the last few years as the Lord began to give me dreams and interpretations, I have found that there seem to be two primary characteristics as to whether or not a dream is from the Lord. The first is that I dream of someone or something from my distant past that I had not thought of in a very long time. The second is that the contents of the dream remain with me for a time, as opposed to those natural dreams that we have, of which I forget almost as soon as I wake up.
In this case, the dream is still with me a day later, so I will share what I recall, and write the interpretation as I believe that the Holy Spirit leads.
I grew up on a farm until I was about 10 years old. We would attend an old country church out in the middle of nowhere. I then moved into a small town until it was time for university, when I then moved into a nearby city, until God had us move to the country last year.
In the dream, I was riding in a vehicle with my best friend from high school, before I was saved. We would party and get high together back then. There was also another person in the truck who was driving. He was someone I had not thought about, except perhaps in passing, for many, many years. He was another person that we would occasionally party with. He was a foolish fellow, quite offbeat in his humor, but could be relied upon for a couple of laughs whenever we got together.
Now we were driving along an old country road, and we were supposed to be going to the local golf course. Somehow, that golf course was supposed to be where the church property was (though in real life that was not where it was). As we barrelled along the road, I looked to the right and noticed that we were rapidly passing the place where the church was. But there was no church building. Not even the foundation was left. Also, the adjoining cemetery was also missing. The only thing that was present was the church hall, where social events took place.
I began to tell the driver (the goofy, silly one) to slow down and turn back, as we had zoomed right by our destination. He didn’t seem to be paying attention, so I started to shout louder. Sooner than should be possible, we were barrelling through the nearest town. Our driver did not stop or even slow down, but turned right onto the highway and was taking us even further away. I was by now getting pretty frantic, and demanding that he stop and make a u-turn as, if we didn’t go back the way we came, we were going to get lost, and I knew no other way to reach that church. After quite a bit of insistent yelling, he finally agreed. Then I woke up.
The impressions of this dream that I have received are as follows: Many of us in the church are stuck in the past, speeding down the road of life. In our hearts, we are really always going after our entertainments, as in the dream we were trying to get to the local golf course. I didn’t realize that the destination that we were actually going to was our own local church! In effect, that is where our entertainments now come from. We don’t consciously realize that many of us go to church to be entertained.
This was the original church that I had grown up in. So too, many in the body refuse to let go of whatever church they are most comfortable in, one that is really known for its entertainments, and nothing else. This was confirmed by the fact that as I had a quick look at it while we flew by, there was really no church there at all! Not only that, but even the foundation had disappeared! This represents the fact that not only are our churches not churches anymore, but the reason that they are invisible and gone from the landscape is that we have abandoned the foundation that had once made it solid and stable. The foundation of the fear of the Lord and our obedience to the holy commandments of the word of God, following Jesus with all our heart. Now, in our hearts and minds we see it only as a place of worldly pleasure, a hobby place, as in our minds we thought we were going to the golf course, and not to the house of the Lord.
Note that the only structure still left standing was the place where social events took place (the hall). That is all that is left of these houses of worship. The fact that all the graves were also missing was significant. Some may think that this represents the rapture, but I don’t think so, as that does not fit into the context of the dream. I believe it represents the saints of old, back when our churches were founded, whether in the age of the apostles, or those by which some were led to start new, God ordained movements. We have forgotten their teachings and their examples of holy living. They did not live to be entertained. They lived to follow Jesus, and to do his will. We have forgotten the holy patterns the founding saints have laid down for us. Thus, the graves were gone.
My two companions did not even seem to notice that we had barrelled past our destination. They were too intent on just continuing the journey. They wanted to keep moving, to stay in motion. No matter that I was trying to warn them and get their attention, they simply ignored me.
This represents the fact that the remnant has been trying to get the attention of those fellow saints stuck in their man-made traditions (ie, my old friends represent those that have been part of the church all their lives). We speak, then we urge, then we get more alarmed, then we shout, and yet those lifers do not seem to hear, or choose not to. They refuse to slow down, and want to keep going in the same direction that they have always been going. There is no slowing down. Someone telling them that they have missed the boat in life, that they are going the wrong way, is ignored. They seemed deaf to my urgent please for them to turn back.
How many of us have tried to get the attention of those whom we have had a relationship with? Whether relative, acquaintance or friend, they are flying down the road of life, hell bent on getting somewhere, their minds on their entertainments, but not listening to any word of warning or direction, no matter how hard we try or how loud we speak? They just keep on driving and driving, and act like they don’t even hear us.
The fact that we hit a town much sooner than I expected, seemingly not in a place that I was expecting, represents the fact that the distractions of life will be placed in people’s paths by the devil, almost immediately when someone begins to try and warn them that they are going the wrong way, or that they are missing the boat. The town sprang up much sooner than it should have, according to my memory of the roads that we were travelling on. In fact, it sprang up almost immediately after I began to warn them that they had missed the turnoff to the church.
The fact that the church was on the right side of the road as we drove by rather than the left represents the fact that the church of the living God is mankind’s only hope. The right hand in the scriptures always represents the good, righteous path, whereas the left hand represents evil and wickedness.
The fact that after the town the driver turned right represents that there is yet a little hope left for those who are speeding through life, looking to be entertained in their hearts, but not recognizing the true destination that they are searching for, which is the body of Christ and the kingdom of God. The driver was the silliest, goofiest fellow that I had partied with in my youth. This represents the foolishness of the Laodicean church, this last generation of believers that is looking for pleasure rather than the things of God. The disappeared church also represents the spiritual condition of the church in the west, being rendered so spiritually powerless as to be effectively invisible in our culture.
My increasingly incessant screaming at the silly driver represents the intensity of the intercession needed in these final days in order to make these old acquaintances turn back from the deadly path that they are on. It will take a level of intercession as never before, in order to make these foolish ones stop and turn around. The fact that I proclaimed that we must go back the way we came, as I knew that we would become lost should we try to find that church via any other road represents the fact that there is only one way to heaven, one way to salvation, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, the tried and true path only found in the scripture. We cannot hope to find our way home by continuing to drive the wrong way, and hope somehow that we will find some sort of connecting road that will shortcut our way back to where we needed to go. In my heart, I knew that we would never find another route.
The fact that my best friend was with us in that vehicle at all times, yet had no interaction with either myself or the silly one, represents the fact that you do not know who your words and your actions are influencing. You may think that you never really had a good opportunity to witness to your next door neighbor, or your co worker, but the fact that they have been a long time in your presence may have affected their lives in ways that will only be revealed in the next life. We can take comfort in knowing that there may be many that unknowingly have heard and observed your life in Christ, and only God knows what role you have played in the mapping out of their eternal destiny.
The fact that I woke up just after the driver decided to heed my most urgent plea shows us that we do not know for sure if our intercessions will produce fruit or not. We may have found our way back to that church, or we may not have. God is not obligated to manifest the final result of our prayer in this life. However he does want us to continue to intercede, and to intercede as long and as hard as the Holy Spirit leads, and to leave the results up to him.
Let us not become weary in well doing. Witnessing and interceding are labors that do not often produce immediate fruit. Yet the Lord of the harvest bids us to continue therein, until our journey has run its course. Who knows which seeds that we plant will spring up and be harvested?
Solitary Man
Photos courtesy Depositphotos
