The Fire in Africa
(Posted originally in House Church Discussion List Facebook at:http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=136853737786&topic=16799
The dream of the fireball from the north-west.
Let me talk of the coming surge of the gospel relating specifically to the Western Cape Province of South Africa as it was shown to me in a dream one night. It was during a time of great stress throughout the land, the early stages of the period of unrest leading up to the overthrow of our very ungodly system of government in this country. We in the Churches in Cape Town were at that time experiencing a time of great ‘renewal’ with many people being added to the Church. It was then that I had this dream:
I saw in the dream a student who was ‘protesting’ on a mountain, somewhere near Cape Point. I went there to tell him that ‘this is not the way to protest: the true way is through The Lord Jesus’. I found him there, standing next to a Morris Minor motor car, leaning on the roof with one arm and on the open door with the other. He was gazing towards the north-west. I took a seat on a bench beside the car, but before I could talk, I saw from the direction in which he was looking, a huge ball of fire coming over the ocean, filling the whole view, and coming up a valley towards us. The student and I ran down the hill away from the coming fire, as far as the shore where we got into a rowing-boat and pushed out to sea. In the next scene, I was walking back down the coast towards Cape Town at a point somewhere near a town called Humansdorp. As I walked across a bridge I saw that the water was unnaturally clean, sparkling clean. The forest round about and all vegetation had also been purged by the fire and was left looking fresh and clean, clear of all dry grass, deadwood and twigs. As far as I looked, everything was cleansed and purified. I awoke knowing that the same would be true all the way to Cape Town and also inland, but how far I could not say, but certainly covering the area known as The Little Karoo.
Such was the dream. I awoke confident that The Lord had spoken, that this was not just an ordinary dream. It spoke of a coming rush of the word of God, cleansing and renewing Christians throughout this land and sweeping many others up into the Church of The Lord. It’s influence would reach who knows how far into the rest of the continent.
The years have past since then. The Apartheid regime is history. New governments since then have not succeeded in solving the problem of masses living in great poverty in the shadow of some extremely rich citizens and foreign residents who become even wealthier as day follows day. The freedom from previous oppressive rule has given rise to freedom also for criminal activity. We wait for profound change. Our trust is in God and we look to him, The vision tarries but it’s time is near. If anyone on this Facebook has intimations from the Spirit, share them here for us.
“For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” The elections of 1994 here in South Africa was the beginning of the unfolding of the vision. The hearts of the religious majority of the ruling class had to be changed. That is a process and it is happening steadily. Our trust is in the Lord our God.
Some years passed after the message of the fire from the North West and the another message came to me to say “The vision is yet to come. Wait for it”.
The message of the ruminating cattle.
Let me also tell you of a vision which came to me as we gathered around The Lord’s Table to break bread one day. I was shown a field, surrounded by tall gum trees on all sides. Along the lines of trees, there was a fence, with rusted strands broken in many places. The maize crop in the field had been harvested and the animals had been let in to graze on the stalks. There came a great wind from the north-west blowing twigs and leaves and dust before it. Most of the animals turned and ran with the wind, through the broken fence and out of the field. The cows, however, settled down with their faces towards the wind and lay there, quietly chewing the cud.
That was the vision and the interpretation was clear: There were going to come great rushes of ‘spiritual’ teachings and ministries and many would rush off ‘before the wind’. But those who quietly wait, meditating and building upon that which they had already received, would become mature Christians.
You need to know that this message of the ruminating cattle came as an exhortation to a community of Christians well taught in the Word of God and active in an ‘open church’, who later, almost as a total group, followed after each new ‘ministry’ which came to us ‘from the north-west’. Actually, the new ‘spiritual’ things they embraced served to crowd out the elements of the ‘open meeting’ which they had previously practised.
(‘From the north-west’ figures in several dreams and visions which I have recorded. To the north-west of Cape Town lies the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean until you get to North America. I think therefore that North America will have a part to play in the coming surge of God but, let me be frank, what has come to us so far from America has merely been ‘sensational’ ministry causing some excitement among the adherents of the Churches for a while and then fading away, leaving the people crying out “Revive us again, Oh Lord”.
Whether from America or not, the real thing is still to come, and we are waiting for it. I believe it will ‘produce’ the Real Church which I have described in the booklet ’Church Without Churches’).
“Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O Lord our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.” (Jeremiah 14:22).Yes, Lord, we wait upon thee. We saw the fire come from the northwest to start a work and we thought This is it! But it was not it, what came was noise and falling down and spurious healing, crowing as cockerels and barking as dogs. Your word came to say “This is not it. LIe down quietly and chew on the good things you have until the storm be past. The vision will come.” We waited, Lord, and the churches became concert halls of entertainment, the worship leaders taking over from the open ministry and the moving of your Spirit. The time was not yet — then your word came again, Lord, in a vision as before:
A vision of the need to gather round Jesus Himself when we meet.
Love is mediated through actively ministering one-to-another in the meetings of the saints (and outside). Acts of worship with one another have their place, but not to the detriment of ministry to one another. This was made very clear a vision given at a gathering round The Lord’s Table. I saw in the vision a broad road leading downhill and ending in an orchard of fruit trees in full fruit. The orchard lay in the valley and beyond were the rugged slopes of a rocky mountain. As we neared the orchard someone or something said to me: ‘The truth is not in the orchard but there on the hill where the shepherd sits’. I looked and saw a man with a shepherd’s staff in his hand sitting on a rock looking towards us. I knew it was Jesus. This came at a time when ‘chorus leaders’ and ‘worship leaders’ were just starting to become prominent in meetings of the churches and their contributions were taking up more and more of the available time. The warning was not against the gifts of the Holy Spirit or any valid Scriptural aspects in the meetings, but against the excesses of anything and everything at the cost of time spent in ministering the ‘word of Christ’. [Colossians 3:16]. Simply, the balance must not be lost. I told the vision to the meeting and everyone said Amen! Amen!
We wait for your visitation, Oh God.The vision is true and will come in it’s appointed time.
O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy. (Habakkuk 3:2)
Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O Lord our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.(Jeremiah 14:22)
Amen, Lord, we wait for you; for your hand to be revealed, then shall we know the Way to follow you in it.
