Who Will Rescue the Foundering Boat?

Tuesday, 12/23/25 at 14:20
Anno.Domini.144K

December 23, 2025

In a dream vision, the Holy Spirit took me to a town’s port beside the ocean. Where two docks met at a right angle, I saw a boat float in laden with people. The boat was open and didn’t have much of a roof over the deck, so I was able to see entire families of Asian people standing up. They looked forlorn, and I assumed they were refugees awaiting rescue. The boat was so heavy that it was taking on water and foundering.

Given the urgent situation—I saw children on board, some too young to swim—I expected the townspeople to start an operation to get these boat people to the safety of land. I also expected the boat people—the ones who didn’t have children and could swim—to jump overboard and swim to shore.

Then the Holy Spirit showed me the same scene less than an hour later. None of the townspeople had done anything to help the boat people. No life rafts had appeared. No flotation devices had been thrown to the boat people. No portable gangway stretched from the dock to the boat. It was as if the boat people did not exist or were invisible. Or the boat people were not the townspeople’s problem and no one was going to stick their neck out to help them. What was even stranger is that none of the hapless passengers had jumped off the boat to safety either, even though the water was so high in the boat that only the upper parts of the deck remained above water.

Suddenly, a fire broke out on the boat. What water had not already submerged of the boat, fire would burn what was left above the risen waterline. Even with the urgency of fire, no one moved. Not the townspeople. Not the boat people. It was as if all were hypnotized into inaction, waiting for instructions to move that never came.

In horror, I watched the entire boat sink in flames into the water, every passenger drowning with no resistance. They stood up and kept silent until the water covered their heads and they could no longer breathe.

I cried, and awoke from the dream vision in tears.

Grieving, I asked the Holy Spirit, “Why did you show me this? It hurts to see this!” The Holy Spirit replied, “It grieves me to see the souls that need saving doing nothing because they cannot see their need for salvation. It grieves me to see the inaction of those in safety unwilling to save others in danger, assuming the authority and responsibility for saving action necessarily lies with another.”

The Holy Spirit reminded me that though the maritime distress signal “S.O.S.” is not actually defined as “Save Our Souls” and “Save Our Ship”, for many decades people have ascribed these meanings to the term for a reason.

When I inquired as to why the people on the sinking boat had Asian features, the Holy Spirit told me that war and natural disasters in Asia will cause a crisis of “boat people”, and that humanitarian response will be limited and, in some cases, nonexistent.

Thank you, God the Father, for your loving warning and correction. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for your counsel and true friendship. May we never give you cause to grieve. Thank you, Jesus Christ our Savior, for rescuing us when our boats of faith begin to founder. May you help us to save others in the Harvest. Amen.

Scripture:

Matthew 8:23-27 (NIV)

Jesus Calms the Storm

23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”

26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

Matthew 14:25-32 (NIV)
Jesus Walks on the Water
25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

29 “Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Ephesians 4:30 (NIV)

30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.