Received 16 April 2020
Johan Bester
On April 8th, I had a dream in which I saw an article with the headline, ‘The Virus Will Be Done at 54’.
In the dream, I proceeded to sprinkle salt over young and old in the room, after which I woke up with the words of a song ‘’Check your shame at the door, cause it ain’t welcome anymore….you’re in the Father’s house.’’
I felt the Lord say to me that He has given the virus ‘boundaries’.
These boundaries differ for each location, depending on various aspects. But the boundaries are definitive, yet differing.
I felt Him say that it’s not the Church’s role to figure out the reason (origin) for the boundaries, neither is it to remove or shorten the boundaries.
The role of the Church is to learn to operate as the Church while inside these boundaries, operating inside His sovereignty, with an understanding and surrender to the sovereignty of God.
The boundaries of the virus are not just about the cleansing of the church but are also about the next level of understanding the ways and nature of God. The Lord will emerge as the victor.
As salt both flavors and preserves food, I felt the Lord speak to me of what He’s doing both in the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ (what’s been established and what is being established). He desires for leadership to bring both anointing to minister (flavor) and anointing to endure (preserve), for both young and old, established ministries and new ministries.
At this point I felt the Lord direct me to Isaiah 54 (symbolized by 54 in the dream). Isaiah 54 is a description of the boundary lines.
It is a spiritual length of time.
The boundary lines, set by Isaiah 54:2-4, is an invitation for us as the church to…
“Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations and will inhabit the desolate cities. Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.”
The end of the virus is the invitation to the Church to extend its boundaries! And it seems to me that leaving shame behind is a significant part of this invitation.
That same night my wife had a dream in which she was trying to read a map to see where we are at, but realized we had to somehow get a perspective of the whole map in order to see. Basically emphasizing the importance of seeing the big picture in order to understand our role.
She also had a dream/word the night before about believers enduring the fire and being refined, fitting with the picture of salt/persevere/endure.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (MSG): These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.
