Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
Lions are the only members of the cat family that are social. That means they live and interact in a group that is called a pride of lions. Evidently, because of their majestic appearance they call the group a pride of lions. I think that speaks prophetically of what we are called to be; a majestic group of people joined together under the leadership of the Lion of the tribe of Judah. We call our group church.
Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus captures the essence of the church. The Message Bible brings out some of the richness of who we really are.
The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which He speaks and acts, by which He fills everything with His presence. Ephesians 1:23
The church is the most exalted, esteemed, and important group that anyone on earth could ever be joined to because it is the body of the most precious Man who ever walked on the earth. The church is also the only thing on the planet that holds the unique distinction of being the Bride of Christ. Being a a part of the church is one of the highest honors we have been given.
We must be careful to not resort to compromise, gimmicks or worldly methods in our efforts to make church more appealing. We may not always look nor act like His body or His Bride, but that does not disqualify us from being who we really are. We are just looking and acting contrary to who we really are. That is going to change. God has a plan for the church and I believe I have seen some of it.
A few years ago during a worship evening at our church I had a vision. I saw our church on fire and the flames were over 200 feet high. I then saw a church in what I believe is the Kannapolis area become engulfed in flames and then some other churches in our area caught on fire. The flames combined and then I saw a map of the United States and churches all over the nation were on fire. These fires combined and swept across our nation like a prairie fire.
Recently I saw that fire again in a vision, but this time I saw the source of it. It was the Lord Himself. He said, “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” Luke 12:49
I believe the Lord Himself is going to visit congregations all over our nation and the fire that envelopes Him is going to be released into the congregations. We are destined to become firebrands in the hand of the Lord (Zech. 3:2).
Earlier this month Israel experienced the largest forest fire in its history. Every single fire fighter in the whole country, 1550 in number, was used to fight this fire along with much needed international help. What is interesting is the fire was on Mount Carmel, the same place that Elijah called fire down from heaven when he confronted the nation to choose between following Baal or the Lord (1 Kings 18). At one point during the fire one official said, “The fight for Carmel is now a fight for Israel.” That speaks volumes. Let us prepare the altar of our hearts and churches for the fire that is coming from heaven.
Many Blessings, BW