It has been an intense season for many in the body of Christ. We had to endure intense fires of tests and trials.

Not only did the Lord test us, He also brought us to a place of complete death to self. The cross each of us had to pick up was tailor made for each individual. Each of us had to struggle through different things, but it served the same purpose: The seeds had to fall to the ground and die. We had to abandon all trust in ourselves. We had to surrender to the point that we wondered if we would ever rise again.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” ~ John 12:24

“For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us.” ~ 2 Cor 1:8-10

The season is slowly shifting. Seeds are sprouting again. We are still tired, some still carrying wounds from the past, unsure of what this new season will bring. But we are rising, God is raising us from the dead.

We need to allow Him to completely heal our wounds even if we don’t have answers. Trusting that He is resurrecting something new in us: A pure seed for a pure harvest.

We are now in a transition season of healing. I strongly sense that we should not skip our healing process. You should not be too quick to try to enter the new season. You should allow God to heal you first, as He allowed you to be wounded for a season:

“And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.”

“Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” ~ Hebrews 12:5-7, 11

Encountering the God of Comfort

God is a loving Father, who wants to bind up our wounds and restore us. He does not take pleasure in our suffering but He loves us enough to train us through suffering, for our own good. We need to run to the God of comfort and mercy. We need to yield our woundedness to Him, knowing that He alone is able to heal us. If we fail to do this, we might end up becoming bitter. The following verses in Hebrews 12, after speaking about God’s discipline says:

“Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled” ~ Hebrews 12:12-15

The context of these verses is significant. Often God reveals what is still in our hearts through others that mistreat or disappoint us. If we do not forgive and let our hearts be healed, we will end up in enmity and bitterness.

If we do not draw on the grace of God to overcome these things a root of bitterness can spring up and cause our bitterness to spread and defile many.

Hebrews 12 ends with verses 28 and 29: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.”

Allow the Lord to heal you by drawing on His comfort and grace so that you can steward what has been given to you and serve Him acceptably.

A call to enter the Ark of His Presence.

I want to share a dream I received as a warning for the body of Christ. In the dream many believers were swimming in murky waters. The water was not very deep. We were careless and not aware of any danger.

The children also swam in the water, quite a distance away from us. Then, suddenly, the water levels rose, and it became very stormy. No one was prepared for this and as a result, some of the children drowned. It was too late and nothing could be done.

The murky waters are symbolic of unstable and nonessential doctrines, opinions of man causing confusion and judgments we have towards other believers. It is also symbolic of the murky waters of bitterness, unforgiveness and an unwillingness to try and understand the journeys others are on. It also points to the woundedness the members Christ’s body have caused one another.

The children that drowned are part of our inheritance, the visions and assignments the Lord gave us to steward. We acted carelessly and didn’t guard and watch over what God entrusted us with. Instead we decided to stay in the murky waters of our disappointments with others. Most of our inheritance is found in community with others. But we allowed the inheritance of community to be swept away because we cannot get over our silly differences, opinions and disappointments.

While I shared this dream with friends, my son came to show me a picture he was busy drawing. He said, ‘Mommy you are talking about water and look, I am busy drawing Noah’s ark.’

The moment he said this I felt the Lord telling me, ‘You are not supposed to be in the murky waters, you are supposed to be in My Ark.’

We need to enter into Christ the Ark of God’s presence and safety! We need to abide in Him – the Spirit of Truth, and not in the murky waters of unstable nonessential doctrines and opinions causing confusion and division in the body of Christ. If we stay there, the waters will rise, and drown what God has entrusted to us. It will cause us to lose our focus on Jesus, the High Priest and Head of the Body.

In the Ark of His presence, our perspective is changed as He heals our wounds and silences our turbulent hearts. We will no longer be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine and allow bitterness to enter our hearts. In His presence our hearts will be established in grace, and as we repent we will be restored to love and in essential truth.

Let us take heed of this warning and listen to the trumpet call and enter into the Ark!

“14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” ~ Ephesians 4:14-16

We would like to share a dream Charmaine had early Saturday (21/09) morning about Israel and Lebanon. Please read and pray with us into it, as the Spirit leads.

In the dream me and Gideon were visiting Israel. It was our last day there and I felt an urgency that we have an assignment that we need to do for the Lord. It is interesting that in reality, yesterday was also the day before the attacks between Lebanon and Israel.

In the dream, as Gideon and I walked through the streets and public plains we saw a red blanket, and Gideon said we must come back and spread it out and set it up as a display for the people. I then cut lots of small pieces of paper and wrote on them: on the one side Isaiah 53 (the prophecy of the crucifixion of Jesus), and on the other side John 3:16. I felt led to spread them in the streets so that people could pick it up and read.

We then went to a hilltop, and two policemen (authorities symbolising angelic authorities) escorted us to the top. The hill was overlooking Lebanon. As we got on top we saw two groups of people with children amongst them. They were dressed in dark clothes.

They observed us to see who we were and what we were doing. They took out shofars and started blowing them. I knew they were of the enemies camp. They were mocking us. The second group also took their shofars out and started to blow but the sound came out very flat and sounded terrible. This symbolises that one group’s call for battle is clear but the other group’s is unclear. “If, for example, the trumpet makes an unclear sound, who will get ready for battle?” – 1 Cor 14:8. One group will get ready for battle, but the other will be confused as to what to do.

Gideon then took out his shofar and the sound came out perfectly and resonated in the heavens. This means that God’s prayer warriors are now clearly hearing the call to start praying.

The people in the opposing groups had a mocking spirit, and I told Gideon, let’s forget about them and focus on our assignment. We started prophesying over the valleys of Lebanon.

The last scene of the dream was again in a public plain in Israel, I felt an urgency to share the gospel. I saw a beautiful little girl, about 8 years of age and told her about the Messiah. I shared the whole story with her about Jesus and the prophecies about the old testament that was fulfilled in Him. She started to grasp it and I could see the excitement in her eyes.

I knew her parents were on their way and had an urgency to finish and explained the death and resurrection of Christ, and that everyone who called on His name will be saved. At that moment her parents arrived. She told them I told her the most beautiful story.

I went to fold up my red picnic blanket sensing the parents were angry at me. Then they came towards me and all of a sudden their faces changed into demonic manifestations and they looked like angry clowns.

Interpretation
I believe we as the ecclesia have an important assignment in this hour concerning the people of Israel. As the hour is getting darker and darker, the good news about the Messiah needs to spread!

Lots of Muslims and Jews are operating in a mocking spirit, mocking the Christian faith, blinded by their own traditions and hardened hearts. However, we need to spread the Word of God and partner with the Lord to lay a table for His word in the presence of those who oppose the gospel (Psalm 23). We need to display the goodness of God’s word and the joy of eating at His table. The red blanket is symbolic of the redeeming work of Christ’s blood which is the basis on which people are invited to come and taste of the goodness of God and His gospel. We need to display God’s redeeming work publicly.

The mocking spirits are trying to release their sound, but it will fail. We need to counter the false sound by focusing on Jesus, prophesying His Word over the current situation in the middle east.

I believe the young girl with whom I shared the gospel represents the upcoming generation, whose hearts will soften towards the gospel. However, a mocking spirit will try to intimidate against the truth, and try to choke out the seed of the gospel.

Ultimately it’s not about Israel being protected from attack as much as it is about Israel turning to their Messiah when they face threats and troubles. Yes, let’s pray for protection, not for the sake of protection, but so that Jews and Muslims will get saved.

May God preserve lives so that they will have a chance to meet their saviour and trust Him for their lives.

Conflict is an opportunity for people to get saved. People rarely seek God when things are comfortable.

May the sound go out to call God’s people to pray and spread His word in this hour.

I am excited to announce the launch of my husband’s training and equipping course SPIRIT-GYM. The focus of this course is to get the body ‘harvest-ready’ and get individuals trained to walk in their callings. You can get more information on the website at www.spirit-gym.com

Registration is open for one week only from the 1^st to the 7^th of February 2023. Don’t miss this opportunity!

Since the beginning of January, I have felt this incredible drawing. God’s Spirit is calling us deeper! We often say this, but I have never felt it so intensely!

He is calling us into deeper realms of His Presence. He is calling us deeper for a very specific purpose: He wants to build our spiritual capacity!

In this season we need to stretch ourselves. We need to train our spirits in godliness so that we will be prepared for the times ahead.

“For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.”
~ 1 Timothy 4:8-9

I want to urge you to respond to His call! Do not get distracted and miss the mark!

A Warning: Mass Distraction is released!
Early in January, God showed me the plans of the enemy for this season in a dream: My husband and I, along with a group of believers, stood in a large beautiful white hall. I saw a figure standing on the stairs close to the bottom, observing what we were doing.

Suddenly my husband challenged this being. I could not hear what he was saying, but he spoke to the being with an attitude that we are not afraid of him and that he is rebuked.

I perceived that this was satan himself. He stepped down onto the floor and at that moment chaos broke loose in the spiritual realm.

I knew that mass distraction had been launched! It looked like a scene from the movies where they show a timelapse of the traffic in a large city: Everything moved fast and looked blurry.

Everything around me “blurred” in high intensity. All I could do was look steadily into my husband’s face. He remained absolutely calm and my eyes locked with his.

I felt how we connected spirit to spirit. I felt this incredible inner peace amidst the chaos around me. I also had a sense that all these distractions weren’t even evil or sinful things. They mainly were cares of this world and things that keep us busy daily. I just knew not to pay any attention to them and to keep my focus on my husband’s eyes!

May we take heed of this warning! While God is calling us deeper in these crucial times, the enemy will use daily distractions to get us off track. It won’t even seem evil. We need to be vigilant and spiritually awake, lest we are caught off guard and drawn away by various distractions.

We need to keep our eyes fixed on our bridegroom. In the midst of utmost chaos, He will teach us deeper levels of focus. It is time to build our spiritual capacity and prepare ourselves.

A key to enter the River of Glory
For more than a decade God has been giving me many dreams with the same theme: spontaneous singing! In all of these dreams, significant things unlock because of spontaneous singing.

The singing is always in acapella. It’s mostly what I refer to as heavenly songs: songs not yet released on earth. I believe this is an important key that God is giving us in this season. He wants to put new songs into our mouths. These songs will tune us into and position us in the river of glory.

This is an amazing tool that you can use in your time with the Lord. It will help you enter deeper into His Presence.

On the 15^th of January, I had a vision in our church gathering. We are part of a fellowship where every member can function freely (read 1 Corinthians 14:26-40). We sing in acapella and any member can call out a song or start singing as the Spirit leads.

While we were singing, the Spirit led us into spontaneous worship. We sang phrases and hummed tunes led by the Spirit. As we were in deep worship, I saw a beautiful clear river. I could feel how, as we sang and released spontaneous sounds, we were taken deeper into the river. The river was filled with precious stones. We could take the stones and they would then be built into us. I believe this refers to the nature and character of Jesus that becomes part of us when we enter the river of His glory.

The following declaration was released from one of the brothers: “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will trust in the name of the Lord our God (based on Psalm 20:7).”

As soon as he released this word about trust, a great shift took place in the atmosphere and I saw that we were on a raft, able to row much deeper into the river.

Trust is a major key to taking us deeper into the river of His glory. Only if we fully trust the Lord, will we be able to go along with the flow of His Spirit. I felt how the river was leading us up to the throne of God.

The vision transitioned and I saw a golden pipe connecting heaven and earth. I was handed a key and I saw how heavenly oil was unlocked through our singing. The oil started flowing through the pipe. Suddenly the oil stopped and I saw that the inside of the pipe was clogged up. If the oil continued to flow, it would have been defiled.

I then heard: “CLEAN OUT THE VESSELS!” I knew that the pipes represented us! God’s oil cannot flow through us because our flesh is blocking the way.

God desires for His Spirit (oil) to flow through us, but our flesh limits His ability to flow freely. If we clean out our vessels, our spiritual capacity will be enlarged. More of Jesus will be seen in and through our lives. His heavenly oil will flow through the lives of His people and be released on the earth.

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.”
~ Romans 8:5

After this vision, my awareness was awakened by the loud phrase I heard: CLEAN OUT THE VESSELS! God started showing me specific things that block the flow of His Spirit. I will share about this in part 2 along with practical tools on how we can build spiritual capacity.