Twin towers dream

Haggai 2:21-22 “Tell Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, that I am about to shake the heavens and the earth. I will overthrow royal thrones, destroying the power of foreign kingdoms. I will overturn their chariots and charioteers. The horses will fall and their riders will kill each other.” NLT

I dreamt that I was in the World Trade Centre and I knew that the planes were going to hit. I was running frantically through the buildings screaming for people to get out before the planes hit. I was screaming that they knew it was going to happen because it had happened before. I could not understand why people were not responding to me. They didn’t seem to realise that this had happened before and they were not taking me seriously.

I ran up the floors continually yelling for people to get out. Some people did eventually respond and were running down the stairs to get out. Others just completely ignored me and kept on working at their desks, oblivious to the imminent danger. I could see others behind glass walls. They were looking at me through the glass and appeared extremely frightened, so much so that they were frozen to their seats. They were mouthing silently and appealing with their eyes that they wanted to run out but were too frightened to move. I couldn’t understand why until I saw tigers walking up and down on their desks. They were patrolling the desks to ensure that no one left their work stations. The tigers could see and hear me and became very menacing towards me; snarling and threatening me so I would leave their people alone.

In the dream I then started down the stairs. There were people in wheelchairs who couldn’t get down the stairs so I stopped and tried to help them. I physically carried a person in a wheelchair down the stairs to the front door.

I was now downstairs and outside the doors. Quite a number of the people had made it outside but strangely were now setting up picnic rugs right outside the doors. They were laughing and having a good time around a picnic even though the Twin Towers were about to come down on top of them. Once again I ran amongst them screaming for them to run further away because they were going to be crushed to death if they stayed there. They could not see my concern and continued enjoying their picnic. One man started to pull out of the picnic basket bottles that he had collected over time. He had a bottle in his hand that was made of glass and had been moulded into the shape of a bunch of grapes. He was so proud of it and wanted me to admire the bottle and others that he had in his collection. He seemed to be deaf to my cries that he should run as far away from the Towers as he could.

Then the Twin Towers started to collapse. The man with the bottles turned and started to run back into the building rather than away from it. I screamed to him that he was going the wrong way but he kept on running into the building. I then woke from the dream extremely disturbed and upset.

I believe the World Trade Centre represents the church and the planes represent the judgement of God upon the church. The twin towers represent righteousness and justice, how we relate to God and how we relate to those around us. I believe that God used the World Trade Centre tragedy , while the horror of it was still fresh, to illustrate the intensity of the times we live in.

I believe God is saying that his judgement is coming upon the church because He desires His house to be a house of prayer and worship; a house of refuge for the poor and lost, a house for Him to dwell with His people. But the church in general has traded intimacy for religion, righteousness for worldliness and worship for hype. For too long the church has built a towering edifice to herself, becoming a centre for religious business for all nations rather than a house of prayer for all nations. She does not genuinely desire God to be present at all, only that she is left to do her ‘own thing’. The bride is in the business of buying and selling rather than being intimate with her bridegroom. She has no time for being in the intimate place, she is too busy running programs and ‘doing’ church rather than ‘being’ church. There is very little holiness and all too much injustice in relating to those God entrusts to her. Isaiah 5:7 “This is the story of the Lord’s people, they are the vineyard of the Lord Almighty. Israel and Judah are his pleasant garden. He expected them to yield a crop of justice, but instead he found bloodshed. He expected to find righteousness, but instead he heard cries of oppression.” NLT

Now God is releasing his prophets to run through the church to give warning of impending judgements. In my dream I had the knowledge that the attacks on the towers had happened before. I believe that indicates that we should be taking notice of scriptural history as well as church history to see a pattern of God’s discipline upon His house. God is the same yesterday, today and forever and just as He disciplined the house of Israel through acts of war by surrounding nations as well as droughts and famines, so too we should be aware of these circumstances in our nations and what they are indicating.

There were four groups or types of people in the dream:

1. Some people will respond to the call for repentance and abandon tradition and pride, like those in my dream that responded and ran down the stairs.

2. Others will ignore the call, like those that remained at their desks working. Those people and congregations will continue to do what they’ve always done, oblivious to what God is saying. Programs will continue, good works will continue but without the anointing power of the Holy Spirit. For them they will consider the cost too great to pay.

3. Still others will be in fear and intimidation of the tigers – the religious spirit that motivates and controls unrighteous leadership – and feel unable to respond to the call for repentance and change. They will follow the pattern set down by tradition and religious ways rather than ‘buck the system’ even though they hear the voice of God calling them to come out. They are held in bondage by the religious spirit even though they are aware of what they are a part of. They too will come under the judgement of God, as well as the leaders and pastors who allow the religious spirit to operate in their lives and churches, those who use manipulation, fear and intimidation to control God’s sheep.

4. Then there were those who were disabled and confined to wheelchairs. These are the lives and ministries that have been abused and disabled by the religious system but have responded to the call for repentance and change. These people and congregations will require assistance to make the transitions and adjustments needed to set them free from the bondage of the religious spirit.

For those people, churches and ministries that respond to the call of God to ‘come out of her’ and are repentant and changed, there is a danger of simply setting up their picnics and celebrating. Repentance and reformation is the first step but there must also be a continual obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit, journeying down the highway of holiness.

The man with the bottle collection represents those movements and denominations within the church that have received an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and revelations of truth in the past but have not moved on, they have set up camp. Rather than continuing on in God the church has set up denominations and movements to institutionalize the truth that God has restored to them at the time. They too will come under the judgement of God. They are not concerned with the plight of those still in the World Trade Center or moving on in the purposes of God, they are just enjoying themselves with ‘empty bottles’ of truth. There is no new wine left, the Holy Spirit has moved on and left them because they are more interested in the container than the wine. They want the religious formats and traditions rather than the life of God. The Holy Spirit is not made welcome in their lives and meetings so he has moved out of their midst. These people are trying to sew a new patch onto an old garment and trying to fill old wineskins with new wine. Matthew 9:14-17 teaches us the danger of that mindset – the wine will be lost and the wineskin ruined. There is a continual cost to pay to be part of what the Holy Spirit is doing.

When the judgement of God starts to descend upon the church the danger is these people, churches and movements will actually increase their efforts to sustain their traditions and programs rather than abandoning all to follow the Spirit’s leading. They will not understand why there is a drop in attendance, finances are drying up, anointings are being lifted and sin exposed. So to try and ally fears they will increase programs, apply more pressure on the people and turn up the hype. They will not understand that this is the judgement of God on what they are doing. Rather than running to the mercy seat in repentance they will run back into to their traditions, relying on their charisma and giftings, not realising that the anointing has departed.

Much has been said and written about the 9/11 tragedy and most would say that yes, this was a wake up call for the church in America but I believe also the church as a whole. Why am I sharing this dream and interpretation now? Because I believe that by and large the church has ignored its wake up call and for those of us in Australia we have also ignored the wake up call that rang out to the church through the Bali Bombings. God is seriously desirous for His house to be holy and righteous so that we can be presented to Jesus pure, without spot or wrinkle.

God’s shakings are imminent, and in some quarters have already commenced, but he is sending out his watchmen to call the church to repentance; those who will run through the house calling out God’s heart to the people; those who will assist others who do come out in repentance; those who will not be intimidated by the religious spirit. Just as Ezekiel was commanded by the Lord to prophesy to the dead bones and to the winds, so too the command of the Lord is going out to the prophets in the land to prophesy the stirrings and shakings, causing the dead bones to come together, bodies to be renewed and the Spirit of life to breath in us again so that the church will arise as a mighty army coming out of exile, out of the wilderness and into the promised land of God’s inheritance (Ezekiel 37:4-14). Now is the time for the church of God to respond in humility, unite together and be filled with the fresh breath of His Spirit!