The Dream That Started It All

Some 20 years ago, when I was in my early 20’s, I had a very disturbing dream that stayed with me for long time before it faded into a memory in the back of my mind.

In the dream, I witnessed a murder of a woman in a community where, when I still lived with my parents, we attended church. There was a older couple that came up from Florida for the summers, M.H. and Rose Goins that attended also. They lived less that half a mile from the church, up on a hill, partially hidden by tall white pines. I had been in their house once, when I was a youngster, and barely remembered much about it. The dream took place in their house.

 

In the dream, a tall, thin, dark-complexioned man had his arms wrapped around a woman from behind, standing near a door that led outside. In his hand was a large kitchen knife, and he held it across the woman’s throat. He was speaking harshly to her, but it was just garble to me. Then, in the heat of anger, he cut her throat, and the blood ran down her body and pooled up on the floor. At that point the dream ‘went black’, and opened up with a new scene. In it, this man was tossing the woman’s body, wrapped in a sheet, over an embankment lined with rocks. I knew that it was a place on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Two years later, when visiting my parents, I went with them to church. I had not been in that area for about five years, since marrying and moving away. Just before we passed what would have been the Goins’ driveway, I noticed that a modular had been erected on the property adjacent to them. I made a comment to my mother about it, to which she replied that it was where ‘the woman had lived that had gone missing two years before.’

I felt my hands get clammy, and asked her to explain. She went on to say that the woman was a daughter of a member of the community who had married a man from South America, and they had put the modular on a parcel of land given to them by her parents. According to the locals, he was a man who was away a lot on business trip, and sometimes the daughter would go along, and sometimes not.

Two years before, the man had flown to Colombia, where he was from, and then returned a few days later, immediately asking her parents of her whereabouts. They were under the impression that she had gone with him, so a missing person’s report was filed. She never turned up.

I immediately remembered my dream two years earlier. All through the church service, I replayed it over and over in mind. When we got back home, I coaxed my mother into telling me all she knew, without revealing why I wanted to know.

To my surprise, the man was due in court the following week on drug charges stemming from being caught trafficking drugs from Colombia into the US, and the local news had been following the story thoroughly. Numerous questions had been asked of him about his wife, but he maintained ignorance of her whereabouts. Before I left going back home, I told my mother that they~the law enforcement~would find her body on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The next week, after all the court ordeal was over, my mother called me to tell me how the case had ended up. After getting nowhere with a confession, investigators were sent to the modular to search for anything that had been missed during previous searches. The house had stood empty for almost the whole of the two years, and nothing had been moved. While there, a chemical test on the carpet by the front door had revealed that a large amount of human blood had been shed there. Later tests revealed that the type was the same as the missing daughter. When confronted with the new evidence, the man confessed to her murder, and led the law enforcement to the pullover on the Parkway where he had thrown her over. While wild animals had mutilated most of her remains, there was enough to conclude that it indeed was her.

After telling me all this, she asked me how I knew about the body being on the Parkway. I told her about the dream. While we both blown away at the accuracy of what I dreamed, there was a question from my mom about the dream scenario taking place at the Goins’ residence, and not where it actually happened. Thinking about it for a moment, I told her that I had not been in that community since the modular had been put in, so I was given the next closest residence. It made sense to me.

In the days afterward, I realized God had given this dream as a ‘wake-up call’, for me to begin to pay attention to the dreams He gave me. So, I deem that the dream ‘the one that started it all’, because it made me ‘sit up and take notice’ of God’s messages to me.

　

Find Joash

(I drew the above picture the next morning after having the following dream.)

This dream began with me looking at what seemed to be a painting in its very beginning stages, where the scenery was lightly drawn out in pencil. The elements given the most detail were the two trees on either side of the rock wall, and the words 'FIND JOASH' written in all-caps on the top of the wall. The trees seemed to be silhouetted against the sky, with a hint of mountain tops drawn in the background.

At the same time I read the words 'Find Joash' in the dream, the words were spoken into my right ear. I got my bible and began searching for Joash. I found several: the boy king that was hidden away, then crowned at seven years old to be king of Judah.. Then, there was the king of Israel some years later that sat with Elisha on his deathbed. Gideon's father was named Joash, as well as the keeper of the oil for King David.

So, which Joash was I supposed to find? And, how would I know once I found him? And, what would I say?

Over the next few days, and after searching the scriptures continually with no success, I decided to let it rest awhile, then come back to it later.

Then, on Wednesday, September 4, we decided to go for a walk in Pisgah National Forest near Davidson River. As we approached the footbridge, we saw a tall, African American man standing in the middle, looking down at the water. He appeared to be in deep thought, as if something was weighing heavy on his mind.

We almost walked on by, but we felt the inclination to stop. We anointed the *bridge, and asked him if he minded if we took his picture to include on our website. He didn't, so we took the picture, talked to him about the love of Yeshua, and gave him a **card for our ministry.

We walked approximately a mile, then turned back. As we walked, we discussed the meeting we just had, and what it might have meant. When we questioned each other as to whether he might have been the Joash we had to find, the spirit came over us in a huge way. There was no mistake~he was the Joash!

We walked back, pleased with the fact that we had 'found' Joash. We pray Alonzo (aka Joash) also got something from us, so that he doesn't have to go look over a bridge to mull over the questions in his life.

(Did you notice how much the picture I took resembles the one I drew? God used the 'picture' to show me the location where we would meet this Joash!)

*https://plus.google.com/u/1/100202880263888261488?tab=mX&gpsrc=gplp0&partnerid=gplp0#communities/108920670148815214650

** www.philippiprospectministries.org



Given In Marriage

 

A few months ago, I had a wonderful dream about a young man we had gotten to know. He is in his early ‘20’s, and has a tremendous burden for other young adults in his community.

 

In this dream, there were eight young women lined up on a very narrow path on the side of a steep, rocky face. Each of these girls were wearing a beautiful purple dress, with a bouquet of white flowers in their hands.

 

They each moved in unison, one step at a time, on the narrow ledge. What they could not see was near the end of this ledge, where there should have been a step to safety, there was a wide chasm instead.

 

Standing there to help each one was Chris, dressed in a tuxedo. He gave each his arm, as if he were asking them to dance, and when she accepted, she stepped over the chasm as if it weren’t even there. He then led her a few steps further, where a minister awaited her arrival to perform a wedding ceremony.

 

This dream moved me considerably, as well as members of his family. When I told his mother about it, she informed me of the burden he had for some of the young women in his church who had not received salvation. He had led at least one of them to the Lord, and was counseling the rest about their lives thus far.

 

It was then that I understood my dream fully. Each of these young women were being wooed by the Holy Spirit, and were on their way to being ‘married’. That is, accepting Jesus as their Savior.

 

But, as we know, the enemy had them walking where they could easily fall. And, if they didn’t fall, he had a chasm waiting in front of them so that they could not cross on their own.

 

God had shown me Chris’ purpose in their lives: to help them across the difficulties that would keep them from their awaiting groom, Jesus Christ.

Out of the Whirlwind

In June of 2010, about two months before we gave up our house and set out on the road, God gave me a dream telling us how we were to go about our ministry.

In my dream, I was standing in our living room and, from the ceiling came a swirling wind that enveloped me. It continued to moved in a circular motion around me, resembling the funnel of a small tornado.

I was mesmerized by the movement of air around me, yet on the inside, it was peaceful and still. Then, out of the wind, I heard a voice speak:

“Your job is to tell those that already know.”

In the last three years, we have done exactly as were told. We have been sent to numerous people, all of which claim Christianity, but don’t live it. God has sent us to remind people of their commitment to Him. Some people pledge their lives to God at the time of salvation, or when God has brought them through some great trouble.

Just like the children of Israel in the Old Testament, when things were going good, they forgot their commitment to God, and He had to send a prophet to remind them that they were His people. Our mission, it turns out, has not been that different.

Since God spoke to me out of the whirlwind, I thought it would be interesting to see what else a *whirlwind was used for. (*In Hebrew, the word is translated as tempest.)

In 2 Kings, Elijah was taken up to heaven alive in a whirlwind.

In Job 37:9, we are told that the whirlwind comes out of the south. South, in Hebrew, is chamber. Does that mean that a whirlwind comes out of God’s chambers?

In Psalm 107:25, God commands a ‘stormy wind’ to come upon the people.

In Isaiah, there are three instance of ‘whirlwind’. In 5:28, Isaiah compares the turning of chariot wheels to that of a whirlwind. In 17:13, a mass of people running away from God are compared to a tumbleweed being blown by a wind storm. And 66:15 tells us that God uses a whirlwind ‘to render His anger in fury.’

In Jeremiah, there are two scriptures dealing with whirlwinds. In 23:19, God uses a whirlwind to show His fury against the wicked. 30:23 is a repeat of the same scripture.

Ezekiel uses some of the most symbolic imagery in Scripture to describe what the whirlwind was made of.

In Amos 1:14, God uses a whirlwind and fire to destroy palaces.

In Nahum 1:3, it says that ‘the Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet.’

It would seem that most of the Scripture about whirlwinds is about when God is about to pronounce a judgment upon someone. That has been our experience in our journey thus far. Everyone that has rejected what God had to offer very soon had many troubles enter their lives.

If God ever speaks to anyone from a whirlwind, take heed. If the Scriptures are anything to go by, God means business.

Attenborough Black

The above image was given to me in a dream on the morning of March 15, 2013. I drew this sketch as soon as I got up to try to capture the message it seemed to convey. It seemed that I was looking at a picture~a very old picture. The man in the picture seemed to have somewhat of a Johnny Depp in the character of Jack Sparrow look about him. His shirt seemed to be made out of burlap fabric, because the weave was very coarse and rough. Even though the clothing was very prominent, it was the eyes that seemed to stand out the most. As the image faded away, the words spoken into my ear was “Attenborough Black.”

All that morning, I struggled to figure out just what ‘Attenborough Black’ meant. The only ‘Attenborough’ I knew of was David, the English narrator of nature shows. So, I googled the name, to see what popped up. I ended reading all about David and his brothers, Richard and John, but nothing really jumped out at me, so I mulled it over for the next two days.

The one thing that I had watched that first day that kept coming into my mind was a video of David Attenborough narrating a segment about underwater thermal vents, and the role they play in the oceanic environment. I had watched several different videos, but nothing really ‘spoke’ to me. But, at that point, I knew I was on the right track, so I kept searching. After finding nothing in search after search, I typed ‘David Attenborough’ one last time and looked through the list of websites that came up. I realized there was one I had not previously clicked. Within the first few seconds of the less-than-3 minute video, I found what God was leading me to find. (follow link below)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/habitats/Hydrothermal_vent#p00fff1y



Mr. Attenborough explained how life was sustainable for certain oceanic animals, even at high temperatures, and with no light from the sun. Until these creatures were discovered, scientists thought that no life could sustain without sunlight. It was then that I knew what the dream meant.

My daughter had met, about four months prior, a young man named Johnny that was just checking himself into a drug rehabilitation center after 14 years of heroin use. He had tried several detox centers during those years, but this time he had a new attitude, because he had asked Jesus into his heart.

The Lord led us to minister to him, which we did for 3 months, and he has become a new person. While he still has ‘urges’, God is helping him overcome all the temptation thrown at him.

As David Attenborough pointed out, life can be found in even the deepest, darkest places, even if others never thought it was possible.