Each Joint Supplying

The title refers to Ephesians 4. I want to share my experience and let you slice and dice — as in “rightly dividing” — what you should make of it.

First a little background. For me, the Holy Spirit can move in various ways. At times it’s just a conviction that there is a moral boundary in front of me that I cannot cross. Sometimes it comes in dreams that stick in my mind after I wake. Sometimes it’s in visions while I’m awake. A vision is a little hard to explain unless you’ve already experienced it. Something rolls through the imagination mechanism of my mind, but gets my attention because it’s not from my own creativity. And it’s typically symbolic, not literal in meaning. But with the symbolism I’ve always found that, after a bit of contemplation, the meaning is rather clear.

So that’s what happened this morning. I was reading some news analysis type articles and one of those visions came rolling through my mind as I was trying to envision the meaning of one article. The imagery triggered was not from my own stock of creative associations. It came loaded with a powerful sense of feeling that was actually contrary to my wishes.

That feeling told me that, if human activity in the US continues along the same path, we will have martial law. The recent quarantines were a taste, but this martial law coming will be harsher. It won’t be the same everywhere, I suppose because the problem TPTB will claim it addresses isn’t such a big problem everywhere. Still, I got the feeling the quarantines were a trial run.

There will be the same shortages of consumer goods, hoarding, etc. A part of it is the odd sense that some public utilities will be affected, maybe electricity. A vision is seldom very specific. The whole point is that you are granted a warning that you may or may not need to share. Some visions are rather sweet, telling you to keep confidence and be ready in another sense. Once in awhile, I’ve had visions that were neutral to me personally, but part of a bigger picture that I was praying about.

Of course, I’ve been sensing something that was neither dream nor vision, but a very strong sense that God is about to use me in a way I’ve never before encountered. And I’ve been praying quite a bit about that. It keeps pulling up memories of my time in the military, but stripped of certain elements. I can’t really put it into words, but it involves the overall experience of dealing with a reduction in creature comforts, of having to bear some privation for the sake of more important things. It feels like an adventure to me.

At this point, I cannot estimate what that should mean to you. The whole point in offering so much teaching is that you learn to find your own path. I’d be glad to compare notes, but the last thing I want to do is hinder you from finding your own path of obedience to Christ. So what I’m sharing is my experience so you can turn inside yourself to the divine Presence with a clue to things you might not have considered before. And I surely hope that some of you will find a way to share with others your experiences of the Lord. That’s how we grow as a covenant family.

You see, I don’t want to see things go downhill to the point America is under martial law and starts looking like a Third World country. But apparently that’s what awaits us down the road somewhere. I would much rather see sufficient repentance that God relents. However, I think He’s telling me not to expect that at all. It’s going to be like parts of the vision of the Apocalypse, where people will gnaw their tongues in pain but refuse to bow the knee to their Creator.

And I get the feeling I’ll be writing a lot about visions, dreams and boundaries. It will be an adventure like no other.