You Are Participants

“My body, the church, has become lackadaisical. You are not VIEWERS of revival. You are PARTICIPANTS."

I had a series of dreams the other night. I am not given to dreams, so my having any dream at all stands out. These were single scenes, flash visions with a common theme.

In the first, I’d become a member of something, and I was full of rejoicing. At first, I didn’t know what I’d joined, but God explained I was now part of His church. Understand, as I’ve stated before, by “THE CHURCH,” I mean believers as one body of Christ, outside of individual denominations and various cultures. (1Co 12:20)

•THE CHURCH’S LACK OF EFFORT HAS KEPT ME FROM WORKING.

God spoke sharp following the vision. He said, "I can only go anywhere and do anything when my body [the church] makes the effort to move, to walk, to reach out its hands. As the head requires the limbs to function in order to move from one location to another, unless the body takes action, the head cannot actually do anything at all. THE CHURCH'S LACK OF EFFORT HAS KEPT ME FROM WORKING. My body, the church, has become lackadaisical. You are not VIEWERS of revival. You are PARTICIPANTS."

PARTICIPANT and PARTICIPATE come from a Latin word meaning “to partner.” (Dictionary)

This reflects Jesus’ words. “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mk 16:15) You GO with Me, He says. GO is an action verb. It requires movement. As part of THE CHURCH, we must act. We must GO. We must PREACH the good news. We cannot simply TALK revival. Instead, we provide the place and time for God to move. We expect Him to move!

•GO OUT OF THE BUILDING, INTO THE STREETS.

Here, I had a second vision. I saw a woman gazing through a window at events on the outside. She could not see them fully, as they were at a distance, nor could she hear at all. She said, "Over there is Azusa Street. How great that revival is." Once again, she TALKED about the move of God, but the self-imposed window and the adjoining wall prevented her from entering in.

God says, "This is my church today. You've closed yourself behind the walls, content to view revival from afar when I created you to FAN THE FLAMES. GO OUT OF THE BUILDING, INTO THE STREETS. Feel the wind and the rain and raise your voice so that those sitting on the edge of My salvation can hear it, can feel it, and be changed."

In the book of Acts, the disciples, along with Mary, Jesus’ mother, and His brothers, forming a total of 120 souls, were closed in the upper room, awaiting the presence of the Holy Spirit, but what happened after He fell as tongues of fire? They left the room. They went in the streets where people heard them, where people saw them, and after Peter’s proclamation, “This is that,” some 3,000 were saved. (Act 2:41)

We are told Jesus would leave the remaining flock of 99 to seek that one lost sheep. How much more should we, HIS CHURCH, do for those He’s placed within our influence? (Mt 18:12) Jehovah bids us to ACT, not to watch.

Hear His words to me in October of 2020, “YOU CAN’T ESCAPE THE RAIN. It falls on the just and the unjust, the wheat and the tares. It affects everyone. It waters the earth and causes it to bring forth and bud, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater because I willed it to work that way. No man can stop it from falling. No man can restrain it or hold it back. Though you run from it, it still lands on you…You can’t keep from getting wet.”

THE PURPOSE OF THE RAIN IS TO BRING IN THE HARVEST. It is God’s presence affecting hearts and changing lives. It is not solely for us to gather it to ourselves and hoard.

•STOP FEEDING THE BEAR!

In a third dream, I saw a large bear, surrounded by empty food containers, his fur smeared with food. He’d been eating copious amounts for quite a while.

God says, "STOP FEEDING THE BEAR. My church has been fending off the enemy with portions of the food I've provided for them. They keep putting out the trash in hopes the bear will stay content and leave them be. Instead, PICK UP YOUR WEAPON and RUN HIM OFF. The feast is for the celebration I’ve prepared, and the bear gets no part in it."

Jesus provided us with all the weaponry we’d need and gave us the authority to use it. STOP FEEDING THE ENEMY. There is no placating the devil, as if we can buy him off and avoid doing the work of a soldier. Because the truth is, you are either standing firm in his face, sword ready, or you are following his plan. There is not an in-between. (Lk 10:19; Eph 6:10-11)

•HOW LONG MUST THE GROOM WAIT?

I saw yet one more vision.
A bride stood on a pedestal, waiting on her gown. She expected the bridesmaids to clothe her, the seamstress to sew, but the dress hadn’t even been started. The workers were too busy gossiping about the weather and current events, too busy slandering others with judgment and complaints, to do their job.

God says, "THERE IS A WEDDING TO PLAN, the marriage of the bride and the groom is coming, but until those hired to prepare it get to work, the ceremony cannot happen. The seamstresses must sew. They must fit the dress to the bride and prepare her for the wedding. Others must decorate the sanctuary and invite the guests. The minister has been hired, AND THE GROOM IS WAITING. How long must He wait?"

Jesus told a parable in Matthew 22 of a king preparing a marriage feast for his son. Verse 9, He says, “Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.”

GO and BID THEM. Don’t talk revival as of yesteryear. CREATE revival today. PARTICIPATE in revival. How do you do that?

God says, “Build the altar. Lay the sacrifice. Pour the water on it and let it fill the trench, THEN I WILL SEND THE FIRE TO CONSUME IT ALL. That is my part. Preparing the altar is yours."

“Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God.” (1Ki 18:31-39)

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.feelgoodromance.com
www.suzannedwilliams.com