One of the purposes of sabbatical was to create for myself and my congregation a season of prayer in which we could discover the road ahead. I went into sabbatical asking God to give me and the rest of our congregation “words” that would direct our future.
As I have come back I have made it a point to meet with everyone of the DLT (Doing Life Together) groups around which are church is grounded. I have literally a whole room full of notes. The walls in our conference room are plastered with large post it sheets.
The staff and I have n’t had time to discern all of the common words that have been spoken but a few are very clear:
Fourteen people in our congregation heard the word “PREPARE”. Usually this word was coupled with the idea that there was trouble coming or something hard we needed to be ready to face. Over the course of the last week I have come to understand that this word needs to manifest in three ways. We must prepare physically, emotionally and spiritually.
“LOVE” was another word prominent in every group I met with. Interestingly the emphasis was never on God loving us. The word “LOVE” as it was spoken to the congregation is a word of action and the action is ours to perform. Further we are being called not just to love people within the church but to love all people in our community, especially those who think and believe very differently than we do.
Our world, even our church world, is struggling with the road ahead. love and preparation are twin struggles which must be engaged and figured out if we are to move forward. My church seems ready to engage ion the struggle.
Notes From the Vicarage 
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Pastor J, I was brought up in a Fundamental, Independant Baptist church and so knew nothing about ‘words’ or dreams or visions. I asked Holy Spirit to teach me those things and lead me in whatever He had for me. He started showing me pictures just as I was waking in the morning. I don’t know if I have told you about any of them, or if you saw my postings about them on Facebook but one of the ones I had last spring was of myself looking out our living room window at a snowstorm and I heard just one word. ‘Prepare”. A couple days later we had a snowstorm. I thought maybe that was it, but since then I have been getting the feeling that it is not complete yet.
I got the directive to “get your house in order” and have been being led to get rid of a lot of things, hearing the word ‘prepare’ more than once. As I was going through my clothes closet, I held each article of clothing and asked, “This one?” If I hesitated or in any way disagreed in my thoughts, I heard “This is about survival. Prepare.” I felt led to give away most of my “Sunday best” as it was not as important now to dress up like I used to.
There have been numerous warnings about a global collapse – power infrastucture, financial, governmental – most from secular media but other from Christian prophets. That is something else I have always had a problem believing and understanding, but have seen recently some that have been proven correct more than once. They predict dire things coming as God brings judgment.
Yet at the same time, I have an overwhelming sense of peace that He will take care of us and protect us, because whatever is coming is about His enemies and it will be within His plan and purpose and not directed at His people. I’ve been blogging again for about a month and posting a lot of videos from Dutch Sheets, who has done a lot of praying and decreeing over this nation. Listening to him, I am reassured that America will be saved now in order to bring about God’s original purposes for this nation until the rapture.
There have been a lot of warnings about not being afraid of what is going on around us because it is God’s plan to also “get His house in order”; and I find myself wondering if the preparation is not only for physical living as it is about spiritual strength so that we will not be moved by what is happening in the world. And if His judgment begins in His church, with those that are supposed to be His but are not, that is going to shake up the Church as a whole as truths are revealed about things that have been going on that have been hidden.
Interested in your thoughts and what else your people are getting about this.
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