"My Sins"

"I have counted all of your sins. I have numbered and recorded them. And every single one I see on the Cross, covered by the blood of Jesus. Every single sin you have ever committed and will ever commit has been put away on the Cross. I will never, ever count these sins against you; Heaven keeps no record of them to use against you.

"Your sins have been left on the Cross. Therefore do not fear! I will not judge you according to your works, but according to the work Jesus has accomplished fully in your place. I have given your punishment to Him and to no other, and I have given His righteousness to you."

*****

See also: "My Sins" (art link) and "The Final Word" (study)

"All For You"

"My children, I'm pleased with you! Not because of how much you know or how well you perform, but rather because you're My children, and I love you!

"You will never be able to see or perform 'right' enough to earn My favor—because I have already given it to you for free!

"I don't want your knowledge and perfect law-keeping; I want you! You are My pride, My joy, and My treasure. All I want is you."

"Glorified"

Several years ago an Adventist woman I know had a dream which moved her deeply and gave her peace, but also left her puzzled...

In her dream she was looking down from above on her own funeral. It was at a cemetery near her childhood home in the Midwestern part of the United States, where many dear Adventist people were buried whom she had known in her childhood. At her own funeral now, she saw a small gathering of her close family. She looked up from the scene and saw that she was with her angel. He took her by the hand (and she noticed that she was young again, like a little girl), and they went off towards the horizon, flying over cornfields which in real life are no longer there. It was the most peace she had ever known, and there was a beautiful music she heard.

She wondered what the dream meant, since as an Adventist she firmly did not believe that we are conscious after we die, nor that we are taken to heaven to be with Christ. Sometime later, however, when she was listening to the end of the Maranatha song Glorify Thy Name, she was amazed to hear the very same music that she had heard in her dream! Of course she bought the CD. Afterward, whenever she visited her family in the Midwest she would also make a trip to that cemetery, where she would stand on a hill and look out over the horizon, wondering about the dream. She knew the dream was from God because of the peace in the dream and the music at the end, but she didn't know what the dream meant.

*****

The meaning of her dream...

Her dream has two levels of meaning. Firstly it is a promise from God to her that He is keeping her safe, and that He will be with her when she dies and even after that. Although she has believed she will only sleep when she dies, He showed her that He has something much, much better for her:

Yet I am always with You;
You hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with Your counsel,
and afterward You will take me into glory.

- Psalm 73:23-24

He will take her home to be with Him! She will feel like a little child again, and like the cornfields in the dream, parts of her that have suffered and been lost during her life will be restored.

She doesn't believe that this is what will happen when she dies, because that is not what she was taught by the Adventism she was born and raised into. But God is much greater than what Adventism knows, and greater than what she herself knows. He has already shown her that His peace is greater than she is able to understand.



There is another message in her dream that God is sending to her—and to all Adventists:

"A time is coming for the death and burial of an old part of your life. Part of you needs to die and be buried, and then 'you' will no longer live, but I will live in you, and you will soar with Me in My Spirit to restoration and things you have never seen before. The peace that I will bring you will be greater than any you have ever known before.

"But first I will shake your beliefs, and you will feel like parts of you are dying. They need to die so that you may fly free in My Spirit.

"Just as My daughter saw a place where many Adventists she grew up with are buried, in the same way many Adventist beliefs you have grown up with are going to die and be buried, so that you may know My greater peace and restoration. I will break many of your beliefs so that you may watch Me work in your life in ways that you never knew I could work, and so that you may see Me fix things you always felt personally responsible for breaking.

"You haven't known how much I am able to do or how great My peace is. But I am telling you these things to comfort you now and in the future, so that when the time comes for your beliefs to 'die', you will not be afraid, but will know that greater peace lies beyond and is coming soon.

"You will see My hand moving in your life clearer than you have ever seen before, and you will look up and take My hand, and we will fly together in My Spirit.

"I will heal and restore parts of your heart that you did not even know had been lost. Just as the cornfields in My daughter's dream are gone and have been built over, so also parts of your heart have been destroyed and paved over. Parts of your growth were stunted and were not able to continue growing. Inside of you there is a child who died when those things happened. I will bring that child back to life.

"This kind of restoration and freedom in My peace is not something that you yourself can accomplish. Just as My daughter cannot fly without Me holding her hand, so too you cannot know My peace and restoration apart from My Spirit carrying you. Your Adventist beliefs must first die and be buried, but know now that I will fill you with My peace even as their 'death' comes and as you step into beliefs that you thought were false.

"I will be glorified in the death of your Adventist beliefs.
I will be glorified in your resurrection from that grave.
And I will be glorified in your new life and restoration."

*****

See also: "Glorified" (art link) and "Spirit" (study)

"Not As Advertised"

"I know things have not turned out as you imagined they would. When you first set your heart on following Me, you were ready to give all to Me, and it seemed that as soon as you did, your problems, doubts, faults and stains would be washed away and your life would be full of strength and faith ever after. The words of your church leaders and founders told of a change of character, lifestyle, and becoming an example to all those around you. You were led to expect that after coming up out of the water, you would be like Me.

"I know your pain. I know your tears. I know your disappointment and discouragment. I know how you've wanted to just give up. I know the pressure of how you have to try to look like everything is okay and pretend that you're not actually just hanging on for dear life. I know you feel like there must be something wrong with you because it seems like everyone else changed magically when they were baptized.

"I am not going to tell you to try harder. I am not going to tell you that you have been a failure, because the truth is that I never expected those things of you at all. Those expectations were placed on your by the teachings of your leaders and your church's founders, and by a church environment where everyone was aspiring to meet the church's expectations and could not openly admit the truth.

"I have never wanted you to pretend. I have never wanted you to be like your church's founders. I have never expected you to stand before My Father without a mediator. I have never based My love for you on the perfection of your character.

"I gave you Myself on the Cross because I knew you could never ascend to heaven on your own, and I want to be with you forever. I didn't die so that you yourself could 'become righteous,' but instead I died to credit you with My righteousness. Your righteousness is not and will never be the standard by which I accept or reject you. I have already accepted you, I have already died on the Cross for you! And My love will never be removed from you. I died to set you free from your righteousness.

"I want you to be free! I want you to be free of thinking that your righteousness will save or condemn you. I want you to be free of the lie that you will have to stand before My Father without My intercession. I want you to be free of the environment in which you have to pretend that you are a 'spiritual' person and can't admit how you really feel. I want you to have rest.

"Come, rest in Me. You have already given Me your heart, and I accepted it gladly! Don't doubt your sincerity and don't think that you did something wrong or didn't give your heart to Me completely enough. Of course you didn't give me your heart completely! You can't! Only I can do that. I will undivide your heart in My time, in My power by My Spirit. That's My job.

"Come, take off the robe of expectations that your church has given you to wear, and rest in My righteousness instead."

"With Him"

"My child, I am with you always. And you are with Me always. I will never leave you nor forsake you, not even in death.

"You have been told that you will know nothing when you die, but I tell you that although you die, you will live. You have been told you are nothing but body and breath, but I tell you that you are spirit, just as I am Spirit.

"Your body can be destroyed, but your soul and your spirit do not die. For you have been born again, born of My Spirit, born of imperishable seed.

"I know your sadness for your loved one who died. I know your grief. I know that although you speak of hope, inside you still grieve because you feel you will never see them again. I know you've been trying to live in the way that they believed. But I tell you that they did not know the truth about their spirit. I am greater than they knew, and they are with Me now.

"I am greater than you know. Do not be afraid, neither for yourself nor for your loved one. Rest in Me."

*****

See also: "Spirit" (study)

"Massacre"

On November 15, 2008, my friend Dr. Cherry Brandstater (administrator of the Gently Broken website) related a dream to me that one of her medical students had. The student is not and never has been an Adventist; her only connection with Adventists was her four years in medical school at LLU (Loma Linda University). The dream she had upset her so much that she couldn't shake it. The dream follows:

She (Cherry's student) was in a large city in Southern California. She believed to be Los Angeles. She was walking toward a gathering that she felt compelled to find. When she found it she was in a large stadium on a campus. The stadium floor was filled with thousands of young Adventists—many of whom she recognized and knew from LLU. But there were many, many more than she knew. She felt a chill of fear go through her and realized that she was there, but not there—more as an observer.

From hidden locations all around guns began firing. Some were machine guns. The people began falling down bleeding and dead or dying. Some had been captured and were being sent down zip lines for sport so that the enemy could shoot at them—a bit like skeet. Everywhere blood flowed—it was a massacre. Those who remained alive were desperately trying to find a way out. They had out their cell phones and were calling for help—but she knew in her spirit that there would be no help. It was too late and there was no help. She was unable to do anything to help because she was only there in spirit. She was heartsick and devastated. She, herself, remained untouched in the midst of the fray. When all was done, none of all those thousands were left alive.

*****

Interpretation

The dream is set in Southern California because that is where Cherry's medical student has had contact with Adventists. The city of Los Angeles represents Seventh-day Adventism. The name "Los Angeles" means "The Angels" in Spanish, which of course name implies a kind of heavenliness. In the same way, Adventism has labeled itself as being the place of "the Three Angels' message". And Ellen White, the 'prophet' of Adventism, frequently claimed to have visitations and messages from angels.

The student is compelled by the Holy Spirit to seek out these people who are on God's heart. The people themselves have been gathered together, but not by God. They have been herded to a coliseum to be slaughtered for the enemy's sport. He laid the foundations of this coliseum (Adventism) and has been preparing its people to be spiritually slaughtered.

The stadium was on a campus, and the young people inside were its students. This is because main goal of Adventism has been studying the beliefs and messages of the early Adventists. The summit of spiritual knowledge is believed to be what founders of Adventism believed; since their passing each generation of Adventists have sought to rise to the height of the founders' spiritual learning. The young people in the dream represent the present generation of Adventists (of all ages). The "parents" of Adventism—the founders of the church—have been gone for many years, and each subsequent generation have been "students."

The young lady who had the dream is not really present inside the dream; she is not part of the dream, but is an observer. God showed it to her for intercession and for the purpose of communicating things that Adventists themselves have not been able to see. Since she is not and has never been Adventist, her spiritual vision about Adventism is clearer. She has never been a "student" who looked up to and tried to learn from the Adventist "parents."

God showed her that a spiritual massacre is coming to Adventism—the enemy is aiming to shoot, wound, dishearten, embitter and depress the souls of Adventists. To bring them to a point where they become hollow and bitter inside and reject all things of God. The enemy has been preparing his heavy weaponry for this since the beginning of Adventism. His weaponry is more advanced than the Adventists' means of protecting themselves—they have no shields! The locations of his weapons are also "hidden" from the eyes of the Adventists: they have not been able to see how the enemy has been working in Adventism. They have believed that their structure (their church's spiritual architecture, represented in the dream by the stadium) was a great center for massive revival. They didn't know that it had been constructed by the enemy to massacre them inside of.

Those whose faith stayed alive longer desperately searched for answers, but they couldn't escape the beliefs they had studied, been raised in, and had tried to rise up to. They were hemmed in because they had been taught to place their faith in their church—in its foundational beliefs, interpretations, and in its founders. Their faith was in the church being true, and its message being "truth."

In the dream the Adventists were desperately trying to call God on their cellphones. This represents how Adventism has tried to 'modernize' its means of communicating its message. I.e., adopting praise music, newer Bible translations, dynamic sermons, creative presentations, modern technology, and other "new" things that Christian churches have been using. But the spiritual 'technology' Adventism has imported has been used to try and call the same phone number that the founders called. The wrapping had changed, but the faith and message underneath had not.

In the dream, Cherry's student saw clearly in the Spirit that crying out to God using the 'number' that the founders had called would not help. God would not respond to appeals to save Adventism's pride and 'unique' beliefs. In the dream there were no survivors because instead of taking refuge in Christ alone, the Adventists had taken refuge inside of Adventism—the very ground prepared for their massacre.

The Lord is saying,

"There is a time coming upon the Adventist church when the foundations of your faith will be torn apart before your very eyes, and before the eyes of the world. I will allow the foundations of Adventism to be laid bare. Things which were hidden will be made visible, and things which were covered up will be exposed. You will know that it was not I who laid the foundations of your church.

"No one left in the church will be left unshaken. Those who have put their faith in Adventism's 'truths' will suffer intense doubt, grief, and loss of faith. Many will 'die' spiritually. What measure of faith they have in Me during this time will be in mortal danger, for their faith in Me has been laid upon the foundation of faith in Adventism.

"I do not want this for you. I do not want your hearts to be torn apart. Nevertheless Adventism is going to collapse because it was made on sand instead of on My Son. Its foundations were built with pride, fear and manipulation. It is because I love you so much that I have been sending words to My prophets outside of your walls to warn you, to pray for you, and to love you.

"Come to Me today. Fall upon the Rock, My Son, and be broken. Face and accept your brokenness and need of Me. Acknowledge the cry you have repressed in your heart which has tried to witness to you that something is not quite right in Adventism. Deep in your spirit you know you have been striving. Deep in your spirit you know that My word does not support the interpretations Adventism's foundation was built on. Deep in your spirit you know that no amount of changing the outer-wrapping of Adventism's beliefs will make them any more true or fulfilling for your soul.

"I love you dearly, so much that I paid for you with My Son's life. I counted everything as loss for the sake of having you together with Me eternally. Do not be afraid to count all things as loss—even Adventism—for the sake of being with Me forever."

"Gospel & Enemy"

A dream I received on April 23rd, 2001

I was at the base of a ski mountain near the ski lodge. I had been skiing pretty well that day and I wanted to go onto more difficult slopes. I've only been skiing 4 or 5 times in real life, and I was not able to handle moguls but preferred simple downhills instead. But in the dream I noticed I was feeling pretty confident.

As I looked up in the direction of the other slopes, I saw something like a mountain ridge going off to the left. I didn't see a lift for it, either. It looked pretty difficult to get to. In fact, I couldn't even see the other slopes. So faced with that I stayed on the slope I was already at.

I looked for the lift and went over to the lift area, but I can't remember seeing the lift or being on it at all. The next thing I knew I was halfway up the mountain and it appeared to be somewhat dark outside. I was standing outside of a wooden cabin. I saw inside of it and it reminded me of a dusty old attic with a lot of cobwebs. Outside with me there was a middle-aged lady. She had dug out some white skis from under all the attic-like mess in the cabin.

They appeared to be old skis but they were good. At first I saw them on her, but the next thing I saw were the skis by themselves laying in the snow. I looked for the big ski boots or bindings on them because I wondered how they'd stay on a person's feet, but instead I saw something that looked like comfortable slippers on top of the skis, similar to what they'd give you to wear in a hospital.

In the next scene I was at the top of the slope and maneuvering to go down it. The downhill slope was on my left, and the rest of the mountain was going up on my right. In front of me there were some woods.

I remember a girl with dark hair and wearing a white backpack going past me in the direction I had just come from (she was going towards the woods with the little cabin where I had gotten the white skis). She seemed to be on skis, too, because of the smooth way she glided past me. She appeared very sad and depressed; she was crying and had her head in her hands. I watched her go by and then continued to my slope.

I went down the slope with the greatest skiing ease that I've ever known. Dodging, zipping around, sliding from side to side... it was fun and easy! As I went I noticed that I didn't have any poles for control, but seemed to be able to do all that stuff on the white skis alone. Realizing that momentarily worried me, or I thought maybe I should be worried, but I kept going safely and expertly as if on auto-pilot.

The skis took me down the slope and back to the lodge area, to an outdoor picnic area on a deck attached to the lodge. Around the picnic tables were several of my Adventist friends as well as many others I did not know.

Sitting at one of the tables in the midst of everyone there was a man who was hovering over something as if working on a blueprint for a plan. He had a dark look on his face: scheming, malicious, twisted, evil, hateful, plotting.

He was working on his blueprint for something like a building. He showed it to me somewhat proudly, telling me excitedly about what he was planning, confiding in me his secret plans to attack his enemies. He then showed me a calendar on the wall, and pointed to the day that his plan would happen.

Sometime around then, he made some remark about his plan and said the word "blood." My Adventist friends sitting down heard that word, and everyone started singing the popular Christian song, The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power.

The man sang along with everybody, but he left out certain words that sent chills up my spine. For example, when everyone sang the line, "the blood that gives me strength from day to day," the man sang along but left out the word 'that,' so what he actually sang was, "blood gives me strength from day to day."

It was sick and evil, and yet nobody seemed to notice! Disturbed and very alarmed, I went over to a small wooden shed (like an old outhouse) a few yards away from the lodge. It was like a closet inside. I looked in the top shelf and flipped through some thick booklets of early SDA church materials, mostly Ellen G. White. The booklets were old and yellowed with green writing. I kept flipping through the same booklets because I wasn't finding what I was looking for. I only saw booklets about health, temperance, and other mundane unrelated and useless things.

I was looking for something that would stop that man or wake up all of my friends and the other people who did not seem to notice him in their midst, filled with evil intent, plotting his attack against them. I was looking for some useful or helpful prophecy in these booklets, but could find nothing.

Finally I pulled something out of the shed and I went over to a picnic table off by itself, maybe 40 yards away from the lodge and closer to the base of the slope. There was a big leafy green tree nearby. I found myself looking down at an open book that looked like the vivid black letters of the books of the prophets in Scripture. It was a pretty bright day, and it seemed fresh and vivid at this point.

I woke up from the dream before my alarm went off.

*****

The meaning of the dream...

The first part of the dream portrays my awakening to living in God. I began living in Him when I was sent as an Adventist missionary to Japan for a year (Aug/1999 to Aug/2000). As a missionary I had learned a lot, more than I ever had known with God in my whole life up until then (in the dream, I felt that I had "skied" well that day). So when I returned to my Adventist university back in America, I was ready to do some more "skiing" so to speak!

But as I looked up at my church, I saw it was a huge, giant mountain of an organization! At my university I started to enter the pastoral studies course, but the greatness of the bureaucracy daunted me. Maybe there were great 'ministries' in the system, but there seemed to be no way to get to them, and I just wanted to go back to down-to-earth ministry helping people (like I had done in Japan). So I didn't attempt to plunge into the system, but stayed where I was, looking for a place to "ski" (minister) again.

I looked for a way to help people through the ministries on my campus, but I didn't really find a way. But one day, just as suddenly as I found myself at the top of the slope in the dream, I suddenly found myself inside the Adventist system in a place where my voice mattered and it seemed I could actually help in some way: I had been invited to the Adventist Forum, and had been welcomed there by people hungry for passion. Right afterward, however, God led me to read an investigation of Ellen White that exposed many problems. This was a dark time for me, and my faith in Him was nearly destroyed. In the dream this is shown by it being dark and that I was near some woods—because in real life after I read the Ellen White report, it was night time and I literally wanted to walk off into the mountains and leave everything! I had believed she was wholly Biblical in her life and teaching, so if she was found to be false than the whole of the Bible and God would have to be false, too. But this darkness didn't last long, thankfully! In the dream I immediately came to a small cabin, and in real life it could not have been ten minutes after I despairingly wanted to leave my life altogether that God led me to read a prophetic book about Adventism by Hazel Holland.

The lady in the dream represents her. The dusty old cabin, filled with attic-like junk and cobwebs, represents the early events, teachings and prophecies of Adventism that I was heavily researching at the time. When I stumbled upon the investigative report about Ellen White, I had also stumbled onto Hazel's book because something she had written connected to the old Adventist things I had been researching. Right after my terrible moment "in the dark" when Ellen White fell (and "God" almost fell with her), I read the prophetic dream Hazel had written about. In it God showed me that He understood how I felt and that He had seen the things I had gone through being raised and educated in Adventism. I contacted Hazel and "tested" her as any good Adventist would. But in response she just spoke the gospel to me... simple, clear and true. It shone of His pure white righteousness, His lightness, power and freedom. And it cut through all the confusing cobwebs of Adventism.

The skis in the dream represent the gospel, which God had used Hazel to unearth for me from being buried underneath all the old doctrines of Adventism I had been researching. (In Ephesians 6:15 the gospel is compared by Paul to something you wear on your feet!) The founders of Adventism had known the gospel when they first became Christians, before they left to follow Miller and before they later formed the Adventist church out of their new doctrines. But in their excitement and pride they felt they were discovering more up-to-date things (which they called "present truth" or "new light"), and the gospel was considered something elementary, old, and not important enough to keep around for regular use. It was put in the attic, so to speak. (Not even all of the old things of Adventism are in regular use today by most Adventists, of course; well-meaning Adventists have tried to re-introduce "Christ" and "grace", however like the picnic tables on the deck later on in the dream, these rest on top of the Adventist foundation and can collapse when the Adventist foundation collapses). There was a lot of "junk" in there, but God used Hazel to bring out the gospel—the only thing worth redeeming!—from underneath all of the mess we had added on top of it.

At first I saw Hazel holding the gospel, but soon I saw the gospel alone. I and some of my Adventist friends from university began to meet and pray every Thursday night at Hazel’s home over the course of the next year or two. At first I was interested in the things of the Holy Spirit, His gifts, etc. But soon God began a work of healing in me, bringing me to forgive those who had hurt me, and calling me to repent for my own unforgiveness. The Holy Spirit exposed many wounds in my heart and guided me through applying the simple truth of the gospel to each memory, situation, thought and feeling. As He did this, everything in my heart was laid out on the table. My heart was "naked" before God and the few people in the group. I felt like I was in the hospital.

When you're staying in the hospital before and after surgery, there is nothing you can do. You just have to trust that the doctors know what they are doing with you and inside of you. In the same way, as God performed His healing on my heart at the Thursday night prayer meetings, I often felt just like I was in the hospital. There was little that "I" could do except to trust that He knew what He was doing, and wait on His timing. I felt open and vulnerable, but yet very refreshed. I was leaning on Him!

This is why the "bindings" on the skis in the dream looked like hospital slippers. The soft, slipper-like straps on the skis represent the total trust, exposure, vulnerability, openness, and healing that comes with the Gospel and that binds us to His truth. His truths are not meant to be merely academic, but to truly open us, lay bare our hearts, and even more wonderfully His truths are meant to be healing for our broken and wounded hearts! This is how He makes us "stand" in Him, by tearing us down to our foundations and rebuilding us on our ruins!

As I began standing on the gospel alone, I continued on where He led. For a time this was at my university, and He used me to minister to friends and others during that time before He sent me to live and work in Japan. But there soon came a time when I was at a turning point in my life: I could choose to stay in the Adventist church (on this "mountain"), or I could leave "the mountain."

About a month before leaving Adventism (which I had not planned to do and did not know was coming), I returned to my university to visit my friends. While there I briefly met a young student and God used me to help her out one day in a very simple, ordinary way. But the result of it was that she ended up going to Hazel's home, and this became the beginning of a deep healing time for her. I didn't know from looking at her, but she had been through a lot of pain in life, and she was still carrying it around.

In the dream she is represented by the dark-haired girl, who was being carried smoothly by the Spirit towards the place where I had met Hazel. In real life I couldn't see that she was sad and depressed, but God could see her tears. He showed them to me in the dream, as well as the terrible weight she was carrying around on her back. Her burdens were buried deep in her heart, which is why the backpack in the dream was white. From the outside it was hard to see what was burdening her, but the weight was crushing her and she needed freedom.

I had this dream more than a year before I met her, and after I met her I had no idea that she was the girl in the dream. When I first began to understand parts of the dream ten years ago, I had no idea what this dark-haired girl represented. I knew she was broken and that she needed God's love and healing. I knew God wanted me to pray for her, and I did. Only much later did I realize that God had put this young lady with dark hair in my dream a year before I met her, and that He had led her to the same house where He had healed me in order to heal her! I wasn't there to witness the amazing healing and restoration that God brought about in her life during her time there, but I praise God because of it! And I am in awe and wonder at His love and His ways!

It was about a month after meeting her that I left Adventism to "ride" on the gospel alone down the "course" He had laid out for me. I have been riding on Him down my course for ten years since I had this dream and nine years since I left Adventism! In the dream it was the greatest skiing I had ever done—dodging, zipping from side to side, and moguls were not a problem anymore! In real life these last nine years have been an incredible time. I can't say it's always felt as easy as the skiing in the dream was, but God's Spirit and truth have carried me and my family and He hasn't let us fall at all. Just as in the dream I had no ski poles for control, in real life I have had times where I thought I should be more worried about how He was carrying and guiding me, but He has been faithful the whole time. It hasn't been me that was doing this "skiing" in my life, but rather Him!

After a most incredible time skiing in the dream, I found myself back at the lodge area. God has brought me back to the area of Adventism, where many of my friends and loved ones continue on as before, not to mention countless others I don't know.

Among them is one they do not know, a spirit hidden from their sight. For a long time he has been setting up Adventists for a fall, planning his strategy and his blueprints for his attack against them. He knows the time is coming soon. In fact, the blueprint he was working on was not only the blueprint for attack: it was also the blueprint of the ski lodge itself! He had built it! And he had built it with weaknesses which he would later exploit. It had been designed to collapse in such a way that it would cause the greatest amount of pain and bitterness to those inside of it.

The twisted man represents the spirit that is the architect of the Adventist church. It laid the foundations on a "platform of truth" (the deck in the dream) that is not built on the solid rock, not built on Christ alone. But the foundation was laid with much religious fervor and many religious-sounding words. This is why in the dream what the twisted man said caused the people to begin singing! The words that this spirit spoke in the ears of the founders of Adventism still cause Adventists to "sing along" today, unaware of the intent of this religious-looking but terribly malicious spirit!

In the dream I was alarmed that such a sick man (this spirit) was among my friends, loved ones, and among all these other innocent people planning to attack them! I was alarmed that no one seemed to notice what was sitting in their very midst.

When I received this dream exactly ten years ago, the first things I understood were about the gospel of freedom (the skis) which God had used Hazel to introduce me to, and I understood about this twisted spirit being in the midst of my loved ones in Adventism, plotting their destruction. It took some time for the rest of the dream to be understood, and this has come in bits and pieces over the last ten years.

During this time since leaving Adventism, at times I have tried to share things with my friends and family about Adventist history, writings and doctrines, in the hope of guiding them to peace, safety, rest and freedom in Jesus alone. In the dream this is represented by how I went over to a wooden shed to try and find truths to help the people see both the gospel (the skis) and the enemy in their midst (the architect of Adventism). I did this in the hopes of finding something that would help them see this twisted spirit sitting at the table—this spirit who hates you and is planning your ruin. But trying to point out truths (information) about history, writings and doctrines has been useless.

And now, God has told me to leave those things behind, to not spend time trying to point out information about Adventism's foundation. He has called me instead to prophesy what He gives me to say to you. He has called me to come sit under His shade and in His light to prophesy and wait. I am not to go to the "ski lodge" to try and help people see, but rather I am called to wait for those who He will send.

If you are reading this now, please know that I love you and God loves you even more! Come sit with me here awhile under His shade and in His light! He has brought you and me to His banqueting (picnic!) table so that we may feast on Him in freedom and rest!

When I had this dream ten years ago, I woke up before my alarm went off. I believe that God is calling His beloved children in Adventism to wake up before it is too late! The clock is ticking and the time is approaching when the enemy will launch his attack. God will sovereignly allow the enemy to attack because it was not Him who built the house in the first place, and everything that can be shaken will be shaken.

Look to Him alone and rest in Him alone! (He's the best "skiing" you'll ever know—and without poles!)

"Inner Cry"

"I know how you feel inside. I know even better than you do yourself. I hear the cries inside. I feel your pain.

"I know you long for rest. I know the disappointment you feel because My ways had promised to be easy and light, but the way you have been led has not lived up to the promise you first saw in Me.

"You have been led astray, taken away from My rest. The promise you first saw in Me--when you first heard that My burden is light--is true. Your hope was not false, but your shepherds were.

"You have been taught to deny your pain, your longing for rest. You have been told that this heaviness is rest. But this is not My Sabbath-rest. Trying to keep the Sabbath day correctly will only leave you weary in your soul, and you have been wearied enough by your ways already; come find rest in Me now. I care about your soul. I don't care about how you observe old holy days. I want to meet with you today; I want to give you My peace today.

"Turn from your ways and the ways in which you have been led away from Me. You don't have to try to please Me with holy days. Come to Me and I will give you rest for free, which no sunrise or sunset will ever take away from you."

*****

See also: "The Adventist Sabbath"

"The Spirit of Prophecy"

"I am the essence of prophecy. I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the testimony of God the Father. I am the Beginning and the End.

"There is One Holy Spirit. He gives many gifts; prophecy is one of them. But I am the spirit of prophecy. I am the heart of all prophecy. All prophets see in part, but I am the whole. I am the end-picture; I am the final vision.

"Because you have tried to find a safe way ahead in times that were not yours, you have wandered away from your resting place. You searched the prophets trying to find hidden light with which you could see during dark days that were not yet upon you. And with your ways and your light you fortified and wearied yourselves. Your hearts became troubled, full of anxiety yet also proud that you knew what others did not. Others had only Me, you thought, but you had more light.

"But there is no other light than Me, and there is no other way. There is nothing before Me and there is nothing beyond Me. There is no additional light. I AM the Light. There is no further way because I AM the Way. You have not known peace in your souls because you have left the narrow way.

"Return! Return to Me! I am your place of rest, I am your true light. I am the One who will heal your weariness from your ways. I am the One who will give you rest about the times of the end. I am the One who will give you understanding about My words, and I am the One who will give you peace when you do not understand. I am the One who saves you regardless of the level of your understanding, because I save you by My own knowledge, not by yours.

"Return to Me. I AM the spirit of prophecy!"

*****

See also: "Reconsecrating Eschatology"

"A Way in the Wilderness"

"I am setting a path before you today. I will lead you through the wilderness and through every dry and barren place. I am calling you to follow me out of where you are now and into the desert.

"I am calling you to leave captivity. I am calling you out of Egypt. You were born into slavery under the law, held by chains of fear and by dishonest prophecies. But you were created to be free—you are a child of the King! And there is a longing in you for fulfillment.

I will be with you as you step out in courage, out of the veil of false teaching and into the desert of uncertainty. You already know the 'answers' you were taught were no answers at all; they could not fulfill you and give you rest. But now I will be your answer. At the beginning you may not know where you are or where you are going, but you will know that I am with you. And I will give you rest."

"What Else is Necessary?"

"Behold My hands! Behold My sacrifice! What have I done for you? What have I not done for you?

"Everything that was necessary to save you I have done for you. All of the works you needed have been accomplished by My hands. Is there anything your hands can do that My hands could not? Was My work not good enough to secure your salvation?

"Why are you tying My hands? Why do you hold Me back and insist that I will go only so far, and you must go the rest of the way yourself? Why do you think that your sanctification is in your hands instead of in Mine?

"Look at My hands. Everything you need is accomplished in what I did for you on the Cross.

"You can trust Me. I will take care of you the rest of the way."

"The Sabbath Rest"

"Come rest in Me. Your efforts to keep and know how to keep the Sabbath day correctly have not brought you rest but left you in confusion and darkness, arguing in the shadows with yourselves.

"Come to Me. The Sabbath day was a shadow of Me, of what I did for you on the Cross. Let go of your works to keep the Sabbath correctly, and let go of the Sabbath day because I want you today, not just once a week. I want to give you rest for your soul right now.

"Come to the waters, you who are thirsty for peace in your souls! I AM the only way to rest. There is no other way to rest except through Me. Your careful observance will not give you rest for your souls; it will only bring you into insecurity, and My word to you will become only command after command, task after task, rule after rule and law after law.

"Come out from the shadows and into the light of Me. I died so that you could have peace in Me, full and free, relieving and surpassing every other kind of rest to be found in the world. I do not offer you any peace that can be found in the world, but I offer you the peace of My own Spirit. There is but one way: by laying down your works to attain rest by observance, and trusting instead in My free gift of grace. Come rest and drink deeply."

*****

See also:
• "Ultimate Rest" (study)
• "Christ, the Substance of the Two Shadows"

"Shelter"

The prudent see danger and take refuge,
but the deceived keep going and suffer for it.
(Proverbs 22:3 & 27:12)

"Behold, a storm is coming and is nigh. The house your spiritual forefathers built will not stand. Come into My shelter! Take refuge in the Cross alone! I am the only safe place you will find in this storm.

"Even now many people among you are discovering that the foundations of your house are not safe, and they are taking refuge in Me alone. More and more warnings are coming forth, and more and more signs are appearing. I do not want you to be caught in the storm or hurt by it. I want you to be safe in Me. I want you to be at rest in the shelter of My Cross.

"I love you. I love you dearly. I do not want you to panic. I do not want you to be afraid. I want to spare you the day of darkness. Come into My shelter and rest on Me alone. Your house will fall. But in Me you will be safe. You and your family."

"Eternal"

"Do you know what I have put in you? Do you know what you really are?

"You are a spirit. You are eternal. You are made for eternity. This is how I made you. I do not make mistakes. You cannot be annihilated. I did not make you extinguishable. Either you will live forever, or you will die forever.

"I know you are afraid of believing this. I know you are afraid of being deceived and being lost. But I am the Father of your spirit, and I am able to keep you safe by My Spirit. Trying to believe that you are less than I have made you is no protection against deception. It only makes it harder for you to hear Me, to communicate with My Spirit.

"You are more than you think you are. You are more than flesh and air. Deep inside you know it, but you are afraid of it. Give Me your fear. Trust Me, that I will take care of you and preserve you. I am the Father of your spirit and the One who will preserve your spirit, soul and body blameless until the day My Son returns."

*****

See also: "A Spirit of Life" and "Spirit" (study)

"Just Jesus!"

"My word, My message, My truth for you today is the same as it was at the beginning: it is My Son, Jesus, your Savior. Not what you have to do. Not what you have to know. Not what you have to abstain from. Not what identity you need to have. Not how perfect you must become. My salvation is simple: it is My grace to you by giving you My Son. He is a free gift. Live in Him alone! He Himself is your salvation!"

"The Scapegoat"

"I am the scapegoat. I am the innocent one who took the blame, who took the fall. They were your sins, but I accepted them and took them away from you so that you may have life and live with Me forever."

*****

See also: "Who is the Scapegoat?"

"Dying Family"

I received this dream and its meaning in 2010:

I was in a depression-era scene and was part of a family in the poor mountain countryside (like a scene from "The Waltons" except with no big house or possessions) with one of those old 1930s pick-up trucks. My family were all dying of malnutrition and even our little boy, our youngest, was going to die with us. Then I was that boy, and I knew I was going to die. It was extremely sad, but then it was kind of sweet, bittersweet, because I knew I would die with my family whom I loved. And then it seemed like I was going to survive, and I would be the only survivor. My family would die but I would be found and I would tell people about what had happened. The sadness from the dream was so strong, so so so strong that when I woke up I was still deeply sad and full of sorrow.

Spiritually-speaking, being raised in Adventism was often like being brought up in hard-hit parts of America during the Great Depression: We were spiritually malnourished and had no hope of being saved (we were especially taught to never dare to speak with any sureness about being saved). Searching for consolation, we thought that at least we had each other.

I was raised without the sure hope, and like many of my friends was 'dying' as I continued on a course into the atheism, or into the perpetual guilt of a backslider, or into the emptiness of celebrating our "culture" while starving for real spiritual spiritual substance. But then the picture changed. God brought me to Himself, to full Sabbath-rest in Himself (in the Cross alone) and later out of the Adventist church itself. In the dream, this is when I knew I would survive. Indeed I have gone out and lived among those who are better-fed, among those who are alive in Christ, among those who know they will be rescued and already have been rescued. And I praise God for this.

Yet as I have been out among Christians in the Body of Christ, sometimes all I have been able to share about my old church is how they live dying of spiritual malnourishment and without hope of being saved.

The sadness! The sadness of leaving my family behind!
The sadness remained and did not go away!
It overwhelms me!

How much more does God's heart break for His beloved children in Adventism?

"Most Holy Place"

"I am calling you to the Most Holy Place. I am calling you today because the Most Holy Place is not what you have thought. In the coming days I will begin to break down your former image of the Most Holy so that you may know the truth and find rest in Me, the Most Holy One. I will shake and tear the foundation of what your church has been built on since the beginning.

"Your spiritual forefathers invented their own 'sanctuary' and have not known Mine. They have taught you to attempt to climb higher and higher in perfection and character in order to dwell in the Most Holy. They have taught you that I have not forgotten your sins and blotted out their record with My blood.

"As a result you have been striving in the opposite direction, trying to go up instead of coming down where I have been longing to meet you—in the place of your brokenness, darkness and despair that you won't make it or be good enough. You have been trying to 'ascend on high', but I have been waiting for you at the foot of the stairs. Come back to Me.

"The 'steps to Me' that you have been told to climb will not reach Me. They have only taken you further away from Me, from knowing deep and fulfilling rest for your soul, and climbing them has put you in greater danger of being hurt when they collapse because the steps are rotting. They have been made of dead wood, not living wood. They have been severed from the Root and assembled, nailed together and constructed in order to reach a height of perfection and perfect character I do not demand of you.

"I stand at the foot of your rotting stairs, waiting for you to come to me. I do not want you to be hurt when they collapse because of the shaking of the earth. So I long for you to come to Me now. I long for you to turn around and take the descending path of humility and repentance.

"I long to show you that even in the midst of your darkest fears and humiliation, that here I love you and accept you. I have already wiped away your sins with My blood. I have already atoned for your sins. I long for you to be with me here where I am. I long to reach out My hand, eternally scarred with My love for you, and touch and caress your face. I long to show you that you have nothing to fear, because I am with you! I am for you! I am on your side! I love you!"

"Superseded"

Note from Ramone: A friend in Australia shared a vision that the Lord showed her some years ago...

Vision from Wednesday May 8, 2002

I'm inside my old church and I see before me the 10 Commandments written on tablets of stone. As I stand looking at them they begin to grow. Soon they are so huge that I realise I am now outside the church building and standing on an open plain. The Commandments keep on growing until they are so huge that they overshadow me and I feel really insignificant and incredibly threatened by them. I become terrified that they will actually topple over onto me and crush the very life out of me. They then take on the form of a dark presence – like an angel of darkness. God reaches down and His huge right hand picks them up and they change back to stone and their original size. He picks me up in His left hand and cradles me against His heart. I can feel the warmth of His body and the beat of His heart. He places the Law down to the side on the ground so that He can embrace me more fully with both of His hands. I feel warm, serene, protected and totally cherished.

He is simply showing me that my emphasis has been on the wrong thing. In the past I have mainly focussed on keeping the Law and making sure that I believe the "correct" doctrines. In this vision it wasn't until I was actually outside the church that I was able to encounter Him in a significant way. I didn’t realise that I had been so overshadowed by "doing the right thing" that I couldn’t even fully comprehend and accept the significance of Jesus' death and resurrection for me. His face and loving touch were hidden from me by the rules and restrictions that I was vainly striving to maintain. I had no way of knowing about or feeling our Father's awesome love. The Law was always standing between me and God, so that I could not even sense the presence of the Holy Spirit within the church or in my life. His actions tell me that the closeness of my relationship with Him is even more important to Him than if I strictly keep the Law. I saw in this vision that God Himself put the Law to the side in order to make a more intimate relationship between us possible, because above all else this is the desire of His own heart.

Ramone again: I was so blessed by the profoundity and perfect love God showed in this vision that I asked Him if I could make a picture of it, and He said yes. He showed me five scenes from her vision and I painted them. Of course, this painting does not compare to the beauty of what she actually saw, nor to her own words describing what He showed her:



*****

See also: "The Fulfillment of the Ten Commandments"

"Reduced"

"You have thought the 'heritage' of your church has been a treasure, a unique package of special, privileged revelation and clarity. Your heritage has seemed rich to you, but you have been wandering around in the barren wilderness carrying this heavy load of your 'heritage', feeling far less assurance than your literature advertises.

"I am calling you to let go of this heavy package, these countless volumes of writings and unique beliefs, at the foot of the cross. It is time for you to find find freedom and life once and for all.

"As much 'fruit' as you've tried to boast that your heritage brought, deep down you have known it was barren, but you have kept trying to make it something, trying harder and harder. You have carried many things in addition to the Cross, and these have been a burden to you that I never meant for you to carry. The good news is about Me, not about you, your church, your 'heritage' or unique beliefs.

"I am calling you back to the simplicity of the Cross, where My grace alone is your salvation. I have taken your sins, and if you are willing to surrender them at the Cross, I have even taken our efforts to adorn, improve upon and complicate the simplicty of My gospel.

"Come lay down your burdensome additions at the foot of the Cross. And in their place receive My heritage, My inheritance that you did not deserve. Receive a crown of beauty instead of ashes, a garment of praise instead of heaviness, My free gift of righteousness instead of an earned righteousness of your own according to the Old Covenant law.

"The hour is late, the sun is setting and the night is almost here. Hear Me today. Come to the foot of the Cros and release your heavy package!"

*****

See also: "For the Apostles' Creed"

"Letting Go"

"You've been holding on for so long. You thought there was something of value. It couldn't have all been for nothing. There had to be something special, you thought.

"I am calling you to let go. You've begun to taste the power of My gospel because the message of grace is coming to you from other churches, from mainstream Christianity. You've been trying to fit it into the unique beliefs which you believed had to somehow be important. But from time to time you've glimpsed how peripheral, irrelevant, unnecessary and distracting those unique beliefs are. Grace has offered you a taste of something that eclipses them all.

"But it's been hard for you to completely let go and rest on My grace alone. You don't realize or understand it, but this difficulty of fitting the Cross into your church's unique beliefs is a heritage that has been passed down to you through many generations. Over 165 years ago your spiritual forefathers were faced with the same problem. They had tried to calculate the date of My coming, and when I didn't come they had a hard time letting go of what they had 'built'. It couldn't have all been for nothing. It couldn't be irrelevant. It had to be special, they thought. They reinterpreted their errors, made new ones, and have passed them down through the generations to you today. This is why it has been difficult for you to simply let go and embrace the Cross alone, to rest in My grace alone.

"You've been taught to be afraid that maybe you'll be in danger if you don't hold onto these things. Sometimes you hold onto them 'just in case' My grace isn't sufficient. Part of you has been afraid to let go of these things because part of you worries, 'What if they were correct?' You realize that yes, people who focus on these old things are often legalistic or extreme, but the unique beliefs couldn't wholly be wrong, you think. There has to be something right about them, you think. And that means that there has to be something really important about them... and so you're afraid that letting go of them will mean losing Me and losing My favor.

"After all, you think that it was Me who began your church. But you haven't thought very deeply about that. You don't realize that the fresh breath of the gospel of My grace which you are beginning to embrace today is what Christians believed back when your spiritual forefathers were calculating the date for My coming. You don't realize that your spiritual forefathers chose to believe that My grace was not sufficient, and that if they didn't calculate the date correctly, they believed and preached that one would be lost. You know I'm not like that. You know the Bible you've read. You know that I would love you and carry you home to Me even if you didn't know the day or the hour, even if you couldn't get outside a building and into a field in time.

"You know that if someone were preaching such a message to you today (like they did back then), you know that it would not be Me speaking. I would tell you to believe My word, to trust in Me and My grace instead of your calculations. My child, that is what My people did over 165 years ago when your spiritual forefathers tried to preach to them. My people stood on My word and stood on My grace, and they refused to follow your spiritual forefathers out of their churches and into the fields on that cold October night.

"I was not the one who called your spiritual forefathers to calculate the date of My return. I was not the one whose hand guided those calculations. I was not the one who called people out of their churches to join that movement. I was not the one who told your spiritual forefathers to try and salvage something from their failed calculations. I was not the one who gave them reinterpretations and visions leading them into new errors. I was not the one who 'sent' them to found a new church and attempt to correct other churches. I was not the one who led them away from My grace. And I was not the one who called you to accept the beliefs based on their calculations. I have never called you rest on anything other than My finished work on the Cross on your behalf.

"You don't have to 'calculate' anything to be saved! You don't have to get it all 'right' to be saved! You don't have to know more than other 'regular' Christians in order to please Me! You don't have to possess some special 'truth' or message for My people! See the cross? I love you! I save you! I myself will keep you safe through the end!

"I am bringing you back to the root of your church. I am bringing you back to the place where your spiritual forefathers refused to repent and chose to walk away from My grace because of their fear of shame, humiliation and futility. I am bringing you to the Cross where you can be free of your burdens—and the ones they passed to you—once and for all. I am bringing you to a place of rest if you will let go of everything except for My grace in the Cross.

"Yes, your spiritual forefathers were wrong. Yes, there is nothing worth saving in the unique doctrines they created and built the house of your church on. The sooner you can admit this and cling to My grace in the Cross alone, the sooner you will find rest, true security, and joy unspeakable!

"Here is the choice I am presenting to you, and which I have been presenting to your church for over 165 years: Will it be the this (these futile calculations), or will it be the Cross?"

*****

See also: "Faith or Fear?" (study)

"Gently Broken"

"My beloved, My bride. You are broken. Your efforts to try and keep the old covenant laws only showed you how much you failed and fell short. You have no hope, no rest, and you are dressed in filthy rags.

"In this place of brokenness, I long to reach down and lift up your head. I long for you to look in My eyes instead of attempting to piece together your broken law-keeping. I long for you to lose yourself in My perfection instead of losing yourself trying to become perfect enough for Me to receive you.

"I will receive you just as you are. Lay down your burden. It is a yoke too heavy for you to carry. Come rest in Me, and I will give you rest for your soul, and rest from your fear of sinning and fear of being lost.

"Come to Me and I will give you real rest in Myself."

*****

See also: "Ultimate Rest" (study) and "The Fulfillment of the Law"

"The Way"

"I am your only way.
You've been among the stone tablets of death long enough,
never able to rise out of the darkness of your faults and imperfection.

"And you're never going to be able to, either.
It's not that you have to hold onto them
or stand on them to reach Me and then I'll help you.

"No. Instead it is that I will pick you up
and set you in a different place.

"Come. Let me have you."

*****

See also:
"The Fulfillment of the Ten Commandments"