A few weeks ago I had a gruesome dream. When I woke up and began to pray about it, the Lord reminded me of how it was similar to a dream I had many years ago.
He gave us the dream from years ago as one of many dramatic words and dreams during a season when we were wholeheartedly seeking Him to know whether He was calling us to leave our congregation to go to another. In the dream, people were being held captive in a church. Eventually, those who did not escape were being cut apart (limbs severed) by their captors. Jesse and I were hiding in the water from those taking people captive. We kept looking deep under the surface of the water to see if there was any reason for us to remain there, but the only things in the water were discarded severed body parts. We realized this would be our future if we stayed; we escaped.
The Lord showed us the interpretation that at times people are “held captive” in a particular church. Though God is calling them elsewhere, they are made to feel for various reasons that if they left they would be out of God’s will for their lives. Some stay because it’s where they’ve always gone, others out of obligation to family members or friends (fear of rejection, fear of man), some because they’ve gotten involved in service there and it would be difficult to replace them, etc. Eventually those held captive were “dismembered.” The Lord showed us that when people are not allowed to follow the leading of His Spirit to find the church He has called them to be connected to, they end up “dismembered” from the body of Christ. They are “cut off” from being connected to His body where they are meant to be and are, therefore, unable to fulfill their purpose. When they are “dismembered” from the place in Christ’s body where He created them to be connected, His life can no longer flow through them as it should. These “dismembered” body parts “wither and die.” Jesse and I were hiding in the water which symbolized being hidden in the Spirit. We were looking deep under the surface in the Spirit to see if there was any reason for us to remain (any hidden treasure in the Spirit to stay for), but there were only “dismembered” body parts of those who had been held captive. We did not want this to be our future. Though the Lord had called us to that church many years earlier for a season of our lives, after many many months of wholeheartedly seeking Him and receiving so many astounding words and confirmations that we finally knew beyond the shadow of a doubt what He was saying, we followed Him to the new congregation He was calling us to at that time.
The more recent dream, from a few weeks ago, was about a minister, who has a para-church ministry, and his mother. Jesse and I noticed something was not quite right about the mother (something about her head was very abnormal). We went on an undercover mission to investigate. As we observed their operation, we watched in horror as we saw a picture of the minister’s real mother and realized that the woman posing as his mother was not really his mother. Rather the minister was actually also masquerading as his mother. Our horror increased as we noticed severed body parts around the room. The minister was attempting to connect them together on a synthetic frame of a body. He was attaching ends of fingers to wire hands, and other body parts on metal frames in order to create his own freakish franken-bodies. Their heads were an especially frightening sight.
As I prayed about what I thought the Lord was saying, I received a clear confirmation of one aspect of the dream the first day, and another confirmation last night of the interpretation I believe the Lord gave. The minister’s name in the dream meant “gift of God.” A mother in a dream can be symbolic of the church. I believe the Lord was showing us that, whether or not they intend to, some para-church ministries, which are built around a person’s spiritual gift (“gift of God”), are masquerading as the church. We understand the church refers to the people (Christians), but in this context, the Lord is illustrating how many are viewing involvement with certain para-church ministries as a substitute for involvement with a local church body. Many follow these ministries to the exclusion of becoming involved in a local church where God has called them to be connected. In doing so, as in the first dream, they end up “dismembered” from His body. Again, though it may not be their intention, in essence, some of these ministers are attempting to create their own “body” of Christ from among these “dismembered” body parts of their followers. The result is an abnormal and ghastly franken-body of Christ. The significance of the frightening sight of the distorted and abnormal heads on these bodies is that Jesus Christ is the true Head of the church (His body). Yet, these artificial bodies all had their own distorted heads. This symbolizes that those who are exclusively following these ministries, not allowing the Lord to connect them to His body where He has truly called them to be, are not under the Headship, the Lordship, of Jesus. They are under their own distorted and abnormal headship/lordship.
God has a special place for each of us. He wants to connect us to His body to fulfill a specific purpose. Let’s make sure we have not been “dismembered” from the place He created us to be. Let’s also make sure we have not become part of a franken-body or franken-bride of Christ ~ made up of “dismembered” body parts artificially connected by man. I pray we will all wholeheartedly seek God’s will for where He has called us to be connected that we may serve and be part of His family. May we all truly be under His Headship/Lordship, get in our divine place, and fulfill our divine purpose in Him.
Copyright © Laura Jewell Tyree
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Humble Service in the Body of Christ
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. Romans 12:1-8
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Ephesians 4:11-16
see also: I Corinthians 12-13
