Prayer and the Holy Spirit

One night in 1988 after praying for a good while in my bathroom for the body of Christ, I went to bed and had a dream from the Lord about a monumental event that is still yet to come. I will write it here exactly as it was, and I will get the point across that the Lord made known to me. In the dream, I was in a great canyon with tall walls, and above what a portion of a beautiful clear blue sky. It was brought to my attention that the ground in the canyon was very, very dry. Actually, 'parched' was the word on my mind as I looked across the landscape. There were plants and such, but they were all withered and dead. Then there were little ponds that caught my attention, but they also were completely dry, as the rest of the land was. I was grieved over the ponds, which in my mind were 'pools,' like as mentioned in the Bible. I thought about how men had at one time caught a great many fish from these pools, but now there was nothing to catch, and no one to fish. This grieved me, and yet I had not thought one spiritual thought in the dream, and neither did I for the duration of the dream. Then something told me to look up, and I saw the clear blue sky, but suddenly a white cloud just kind of puffed out from beyond one side of the canyon and settled in the middle of the sky. Then another cloud did the same. And then, one by one, many clouds followed in the same order, as though they were being thrown like a frisbee by some great hand that was out of sight. Then the sky was completely filled with clouds, till there was no sky left to be seen. Then something told me to look back down, and when I did I saw one raindrop fall to the dry ground. Then another, and after that more. Then the scene changed to where The entire canyon was filling with water, and the walls of the canyon were now perfectly straight up and down, and totally slick like granite. As the water rose higher in the canyon, I saw people in the water. Some were swimming and treading water, and these rose as the water level rose. But others were trying to hold on to the walls, and there was absolutely no place at all where a grip could be gotten on the walls. These went under and drowned as the water rose. That was the end of the dream.

When I awoke in the morning, the dream was heavily on my mind, and I prayed and asked the Lord what it meant. This is what the holy Ghost revealed to me: "Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field" (Zech. 10:1). Amen! That is EXACTLY what I was doing in my bathroom, pouring out my heart to God to move upon his people, to bring us one and all into "the unity of the faith" (Eph. 4:13). No, I wasn't praying the exact words from the scripture in Zechariah, but that was the effect and result that my soul was seeking God for. I was asking for "the latter rain," to bring the "strength of salvation" to God's dear souls (Isa. 33:6). The dried up ground that I saw represented the body of Christ itself. Long years of being ruled by the traditions and doctrines of men have drained the holy Ghost from God's people to such an extent that that there are very few who even believe that we can and must rid our hearts and spirits of every trace of sin in order to be saved in the end, though all the scriptures declare the same (Mat. 5:8; Heb. 12:14; I Jn. 3:2,3; Rev. 20:6; Rev. 21:27). The dried 'pools' that I saw represented the power and truth of God that brings miracle deliverance, healing, and restoration to God's people. Only parts of these elements have been seen since the days of the apostles, and those parts have been few and far between. Then this scripture also became part of the equation: "And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water" (Isa. 35:7). The clouds of course were being made by the Lord, as Zechariah wrote, for the purpose of the final outpouring of the Spirit of God to this world. And of course the rain and the deluge of water was the Spirit itself being poured out in a measure surpassing anything in the history of the world. Those who I saw rising with the deluge were those who had already been conditioned to hold to NOTHING but the power, the love, and the truth of God's holy Spirit. They had not regarded, trusted, or believed anything other than the Spirit itself, and that which is taught and done by means of the Spirit. Those who were trying to hold to the slick, straight up walls of the canyon, were those among God's people who have held to any traditions and doctrines of men that are not of God's Spirit. There will simply be nothing to hold to except the holy Ghost itself when this outpouring occurs. The truth is my friend, there is nothing else to hold to now. It will be as when the Lord Jesus came to this world, as prophesied by Isaiah: "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low" (Isa. 40:4). If you hold humbly and purely to the Spirit alone, you will rise. If you hold to the exalting spirit of the traditions and doctrines of men, you will sink. It truly is that simple. Amen.