pomegranatesandchains

I had this prophetic warning dream on August 13, 2011 while napping at my parents’ house in their cooler spare bedroom during a heat wave:

I am flying through the air with Holy Spirit by my side so I do not need a plane, just suspended in the sky. It has tall, new, impressive manmade skyscrapers against a clear blue sky, but is also “deserty,” dry and on the shore of an ocean at the same time. I ask God’s Spirit, “Where are we?” as I don’t recognize it. The immediate answer: “Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.”

“Oh….right,” I think. “Why are you showing me this place?” becomes my next question.

Response: “This city is proud of all its manmade accomplishments, but they have left ME out. I am planning to bring judgment against them through water or earth  shaking.”

Then I am driving a car, but an Arab in traditional dress is headed straight for me in another vehicle even though I’m waiting at a red light. I brace for the collision but he stops his vehicle a hair off of mine and grins at me mockingly. Then he lifts his shoulder and looks above me and uses his head to indicate I should get going. It’s a green light. So I drive around him, over the Dubai bridge…and wake up.

I never have been sure what to do with this warning — as it is for an entire country. But…I don’t want to face God some day and tell him I was not faithful in delivering his message. How you take it is up to you. My sincere prayer is that someone, somewhere will turn towards God and be saved. If an entire nation turned to him, heaven’s angels would rejoice…and we could all praise our merciful God who does nothing before sending warnings through his prophets, as he has done from ancient times.

Growing up, I remember a simple prayer before meals. “God is gracious; God is good…so we thank him for this food.” God IS gracious. Throughout the Bible’s Old Testament, He sends warnings to errant individuals, people groups and nations to change from sinful behavior and turn back to Him before risking a final judgement for pride and idol worship. God is love. God is patience. God is all the fruits of the Spirit. But, He is also righteous. He leads an ordered system where sin must have a consequence. Unbelief becomes a choice. Not choosing Jesus before your final breath becomes a choice. God is constantly trying to get your attention in a noisy, choice-filled planet of glittering worldliness. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. So what was true in ancient times is still true today.

God chooses His prophets. You cannot choose yourself. He sends prophetic dreams or speaks directly and audibly as warnings still today. The modern-day prophet must then pray over the knowledge given through Holy Spirit. Should the message be kept private? Should it be offered up to the general population as a warning? Prophetic messages are not for personal gain, but are to help people turn back to God, repent, return from a path that strays or be warned ahead of time of events that will come upon certain cities, countries or people. A prophet is to tell directly what he or she has been given from God — whether that message will be well received or popular. In most cases of the Old Testament prophets, the people did not want to hear the truth. Being a prophet can be lonely as you stand for God before mankind — regardless of consequence.

How does one know the message is from God? Prophetic dreams, for me at least, are different than the ones that disappear shortly after waking.  Years later, they are still clear because they were truth. Also, I am given knowledge I did not have before or had never thought of. Jeremiah the prophet records these words of God almighty: “…But when prophets speak for me, they must say only what I have told them. My words are a powerful fire; they are a hammer that shatters rocks.” (Jer. 23: 28-29). I will share examples of prophetic words from years past in future posts.