Witnesses and Watchmen, Step Up!
8/16/24 9:21 PM
Anno.Domini.144K
August 16, 2024
In a dream vision, I found myself in what looked like a town meeting in the center of the nation, possibly Tennessee. I wondered what the meeting was about, so I sat in a folding chair and listened.
I watched a petite yet strong older Chinese American immigrant woman step up to the podium, introduce herself, and speak to the crowd. With blunt honesty, as blunt as her pageboy haircut, she described her early life under Communism in China. She experienced a difficult childhood in the years of the Cultural Revolution and just following it. She grew up in poverty, separated from her parents who worked elsewhere. Fending for herself much of the time, she survived because of the mercy of a woman neighbor. She learned how to fashion an earth oven and cooked her food in it. Eventually, her sharp intelligence, ingenuity, and self-discipline enabled her to pursue a higher education in chemistry. Her exceptional skills allowed her to travel to the United States, where she eventually found work as a chemist for a large pharmaceutical company and became a US citizen. During these years in the United States, she developed a love for Jesus and was baptized. She saw how God had been at work in her Iife, even in the years in China when she had not known Him. She closed her speech by saying to the townspeople, “Take it from me. You don’t want Socialism. You don’t want Communism. You don’t want Atheism. You don’t want Materialism. You don’t want to go where I’ve been.”
When the woman finished, she left in a shiny green coat with her small matching green suitcase-on-wheels in tow, on to the next speaking engagement. She was a woman on a mission to warn the people of the United States, who were seriously considering socialism as a form of government. She knew what she did held risk, and that she was being watched, yet she understood that the hands of God had formed her over a lifetime for this precise mission. She no longer sought to please the world, but wanted to please her Father in Heaven.
When I awoke from the dream vision, I asked the Holy Spirit for its message. “It is time! Those with the wisdom of experience, and the love of Jesus, are called to boldly speak up as witnesses and watchmen,” He said. “Many have lived their entire lives for this culminating moment. Heaven is watching and cheering them on. The bright green of this woman’s coat and suitcase are like the green light of a traffic light, indicating, ‘Go! Go! Go!’”
And then I heard the melodies of hymns like “Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus” that got me humming…
Scripture:
Leviticus 5:1 NIV
5 “If anyone sins because they do not speak up when they hear a public charge to testify regarding something they have seen or learned about, they will be held responsible.”
Joshua 1:9 NIV
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Isaiah 40:31 NIV
31 but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 58:1-2 NIV
58 “Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
2 For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.”
Ezekiel 3:17-19 NIV
17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 18 When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself.
Matthew 10:26-33 NIV
26 “So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
32 “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.
Ephesians 6:10-17 NIV
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
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