HomeARC ML 1288
THIS OLD HOUSE!--Are You In or Out of It? Tenerife, 13/10/76 DFO1288
--To remind us from whence we've come & a warning not to go back!
1. THIS DREAM I DREAMED WAS SO VIVID, & I immediately woke up, because I figured the Lord must want me to remember it, although I haven't the faintest, idea what it means. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Lord. Help me remember it, in Jesus' name.
2. I WAS WALKING THROUGH OUR OLD HOME IN MIAMI, the house I was raised in as a boy from the time I was about seven till I was about twelve, I think, maybe more. The house seemed to be deserted & rather old & rundown like it might be now after many years. Forty goodness, maybe it's not even there anymore! Forty years, no, forty-five years! Think of that! I can't believe it's been that long!
3. HOUSES DON'T REALLY LAST VERY LONG UNLESS THEY'RE BUILT PRETTY WELL, & that one was built pretty well, though, of concrete blocks & stucco. That's the house we were in when we were in the hurricane.
4. IT SEEMED LIKE WE WERE MOVING INTO IT OR GOING TO STAY IN IT OR SOMETHING, at least overnight. It was more like I was sort of checking it out & I was trying to lock it up.
5. BUT I DISCOVERED TO MY ASTONISHMENT THAT THE LOCKS ON THE FRONT DOORS HAD BEEN COMPLETELY TORN OFF, those Yale-type locks that fasten to the surface of the door. They'd been torn off by somebody with such violence they'd even torn off part of the door frame with the locks, both doors, the old office or study door & the main front door. They'd even torn the hooks off the screen doors like somebody wanted to make sure the place wasn't going to be locked up again, almost like some kind of vandalism, & there were a few windows broken just like somebody wanted to make sure that nobody could lock it up again.
6. I WAS WONDERING WHO IT WAS THAT WANTED TO MAKE SURE WE COULDN'T LOCK THE HOUSE & I HAD A VERY FOREBODING FEELING like it was some kind of an enemy that didn't want us to lock it up, somebody who planned to come back if we were there & try to get in or harm us or something.
7. ABOUT THAT TIME THREE MEN CAME WALKING UP ON THE ROAD ABOVE IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE, & for some reason or other the road was real high, almost as high as the top of the house, whereas really the road in front was flat & the whole neighborhood was flat. It was like they were coming over this hill.
8. AND THERE WERE A COUPLE OF WORKMEN WORKING SORT OF DOWN IN A DITCH BELOW THE HILL, right in front of the next house, & for some reason they signalled me that these guys were coming, like I should be warned. So I quick hid down out of sight.
9. I CROUCHED DOWN ON THE GROUND BEHIND THE PORCH STEPS IN THE LITTLE CARPORT, so that even if they came into the house by the front door they wouldn't see me. But as they got closer I recognised them as three Alliance preachers, one of them very tall & bald & dignified & sort of a little threadbare. But anyhow, I crouched down behind the steps & out of sight, & suddenly it seemed like I was only twelve years of age then, sort of like a little boy again!
10. BUT WHILE I WAS HIDING THERE BEHIND THE STEPS, OF ALL THINGS, UP CAME THESE TWO LITTLE PUPPY DOGS & they began playing around me & barking, & they thought I was crouched down there to play with them & they kept tugging on my clothes & snuggling up to me & licking me & everything. Finally they snuggled up beside me like I was down there on the ground, you know how you go down to play with a dog, like they thought I was doing it just to play with a dog, like they thought I was doing it just to play with them, so they finally both sort of saw I wasn't going to play & they just snuggled up beside me & lay down. I was so afraid that they were going to draw the attention of these preachers.
11. IT SEEMED LIKE WHEN I FINALLY SAW THEY WERE THREE ALLIANCE PREACHERS I WASN'T AFRAID, but I was timid & I just didn't want them to see me & I didn't want to see them. But they went on in the house & they acted like they were quite familiar with the place, like they were either living there or guests or something. So after they disappeared into the house I got up & for some reason or other I finally decided I had to go in the house, too.
12. AS I WENT IN THERE WAS ONE OF THEM IN THIS ROOM, a big sort of tall Ichabod Crane type, sitting in the room typing. As he saw me he got up very respectfully & greeted me & sort of thanked me for my hospitality or something. Anyhow, he was very nice & very kind, almost like he was sort of recognising me with considerable deference. (Maria: Were you still 12 years old?) No, now it seemed like I was older again. And that's all I can remember. He was almost sort of bowing to me. I can't think of what that can possibly mean.
13. THE OLD HOUSE SEEMED ALMOST IRREPARABLE & SO BADLY DAMAGED, I just looked at those doors & locks gone, windows broken, & I thought, "Oh my, what a mess! We'd have to buy whole new doors & windows & everything else to get this place fixed up. It would be a big job! In the meantime there would be no security here whatsoever!" I didn't see how anybody could even live in it with the doors hanging ajar & all busted up.
14. WELL, I COULD SEE HOW MAYBE THAT COULD REPRESENT SORT OF LIKE MY OLD LIFE IN THE CHURCH. It was like I'd been & gone a long time & I came back & it was a mess. It could even represent the Old Church which is a mess. And no security, why that should be there, I don't know, no locks.
15. I GUESS THE CHURCH TODAY IS IN A PRETTY VULNERABLE POSITION BECAUSE THEY'RE NOT UNDERGROUND, they are not hiding out or anything. There were no locks, the doors were busted & almost anybody could walk in. But these Alliance preachers seemed to be perfectly at home & it didn't seem to brother them a bit that the house was in such bad shape, they were just going right on with their work. (Maria: Like they didn't even notice.) Yes, like, "Well, of course that's the usual thing, why get all upset about it?", like it was just something you had to put up with, like the churches today.
16. I THINK MY HIDING FROM THEM IS ALMOST LIKE THE WAY THAT I FINALLY GOT OUT OF THE CHURCH & I didn't like the System & the preacher system & all that. (Maria: You became as a little child.)
17. YES, I BECAME LIKE A LITTLE BOY AGAIN & WAS DOWN THERE PLAYING WITH THE LITTLE PUPPIES, KIND OF LIKE THE YOUTH OF TODAY! Dogs are considered about one of the lowest of creatures, like the hippies. The little puppy dogs wanted to play with me but I was afraid their barking & playing around was going to attract the attention of the preachers. We do have a little problem with our kids on security sometimes, don't we, barking when they shouldn't & where they shouldn't.
18. THEN WHEN I GOT UP & WALKED INTO THE HOUSE IT WAS LIKE I WAS CURIOUS TO SEE WHAT THE PREACHERS WERE DOING THERE ANYWAY. How could they live in such a place, it was such a mess! But the guy was just typing away like nothing ever happened, like all things continue as they were. But he got up & sort of bowed to me like he was recognising that I was somebody special & he was enjoying our hospitality. The verse comes to me about what the Lord said about me in the Philadelphia Church prophecy, something about that they will bow down before you. (Rev.3:9)
19. MAYBE THE DAY'S COMING WHEN THE CHURCH WILL FINALLY RECOGNISE THAT WE WERE SOMETHING GOOD AFTER ALL, that we did some good things, even though they're not willing to leave their old worn-out house with its broken-down doors & no security.
20. THAT'S FUNNY, ISN'T IT, THAT THE HOUSE REALLY BELONGS TO US & SHOULD HAVE BEEN OURS, but who wants it in such condition? In other words, we're really the real owners, the real ones to whom it should belong, but they're occupying it. But it's in such bad shape we don't even want it.
21. WHO WANTS THE CHURCH TODAY? Like Sergio said, "The Bishop said he'd be happy to offer you half his cathedral for half of your girls!" I said, "What would I do with it?" He said, "Well, the man who runs the cathedral is pretty powerful." I said, "Well, I'm not looking for power, I'm perfectly happy with my girls. I'd rather have my girls than the whole cathedral!" So I suppose that must be what it means, that's all I can think of.
22. I JUST FELT LIKE, "WELL, GOODNESS, IF THEY WANT THIS OLD WRECK, LET THEM HAVE IT!" They still wore these funny old clothes that looked like Ichabod Crane, they were so old-fashioned it was ridiculous!--
23. AND I FELT SO YOUNG! I thought, "Goodness! How can they live in such a place, this thing is a mess!" I just marveled at the fact that they were just carrying on like nothing ever happened, like everything was just like it always was, when I didn't even want to stay in the place overnight with it in that shape! So I guess I'm really dropped out! (Maria: Amen! Thank you, Lord!) Praise the Lord!
24. IT'S FUNNY HOW THEY WERE SORT OF NICE TO ME THOUGH, like they finally woke up to the fact that we did have something good, but they still didn't want to leave their old wreck. It had been ours but we'd left it. They seemed perfectly content to stay, just like the churches & the church people & the preachers. They just go through the same old motions & the same old things, they don't even seem to know there is anything else.
25. WHEN I GOT UP TO WALK TO THE HOUSE I WAS OLDER, BUT MORE LIKE A YOUNG MAN, almost like I was a teenager. When I crouched down with the dogs I felt like I was about 12, but when I walked in the house I felt like I was a teenager, isn't that funny?
26. I GUESS I HAD TO REALLY STOOP TO THE LEVEL OF THE DOGS OF SOCIETY, THE HIPPIES, to almost a little child in order to bring them up, to reach them. but now in a way we're a little more mature than we were then, we're not doing quite as crazy things as we did then. (Maria: And more recognised, too. When you get older, people recognise you a little more than when you're young.)
27. THEY'RE BEGINNING TO ACCEPT US, RECOGNISING THAT WE'RE HERE TO STAY, we're not something that they can shut their eyes & hope will go away. Even books being written about us say that we're now a new religion, a new sect, a new cult, a new denomination that apparently is going to survive, it's going to keep on going & be a new church.
28. SO HE BOWED TO ME WITH DEFERENCE LIKE, "Well, we realise it's your house, thank you for your hospitality." Goodness, I couldn't even see why he should be thanking me for that old wreck, I was glad to let him have it, if that meant the church. I just looked at the fellow in almost amazement to think he could just sit there typing away like there was no emergency, nothing important about getting the doors fixed or getting the locks put on to keep the Enemy out or anything. "So what if the Enemy just walks in, well, let him walk in." Of course, I don't know, from the looks of that place I don't see why the Enemy would even want it!
29. LIKE THE LOOKS OF THE CHURCH TODAY, I DON'T KNOW THAT THE DEVIL WOULD EVEN WANT IT--MAYBE BECAUSE HE'S ALREADY GOT IT! In other words, he's ripped off the locks & the protection & the security & he can just walk in & out anytime he wants to now in the Old Church. There's no way to keep him out now because the church is in such bad shape.
30. AFTER ALL, A HOUSE IS SUPPOSED TO OFFER SOME PROTECTION & SECURITY but that old wreck couldn't possibly protect anybody. It was wide open to the Enemy just like the churches today, isn't that something? And I just looked at them all like, "How could you guys stay here like this & you're not even worried about the doors or locks?"
31. WE'RE ALWAYS TRYING TO BE SO CAREFUL ABOUT SECURITY & EVERYTHING OURSELVES, SO WE DON'T LET THE ENEMY IN, but they didn't even seem to be concerned about it. Just like the churches, you know--after all, they're recognised & they're legal & official & wide open to the public, anybody can walk in. Instead of like our Homes.
32. OUR HOMES ARE PRETTY CLOSED SOCIETIES & PRETTY HIGHLY SECURITY CONSCIOUS, & we don't let just anybody walk in or just anybody attend out meetings like the churches do. The churches are no longer even afraid of persecution because they're so accepted. (Maria: No wonder they have to be so watered down in their message, they just let anybody listen to it.) Yes, I mean they're wide open to the public, anybody can walk in.
33. BOY, WHEN WE HAD A FAMILY MEETING WE'D LOCK THE DOORS & SHUT THE WINDOWS & TURN OFF THE LIGHTS, & PRACTICALLY EVERYTHING WE DO LIKE THAT'S IN SECRET so that nobody could even find out. And we're very cautious about our new converts & how we introduce them to the Family, & how far we let them get in, attend classes & so on, & we don't let those new outsiders in at all to the inner Family meetings. (Tenerife, Spain--a closed country!)
34. BUT THE CHURCHES ARE JUST THERE, DOORS HANGING WIDE OPEN, anybody can walk in including the Devil himself! Think of it! And it doesn't even seem to concern them! After all, like you said, they're not preaching anything that the Devil would worry about or that the government would be concerned about.
35. I HAD A FEELING IT LOOKED LIKE THE ENEMY HAD CONQUERED THE HOUSE & HAD FIXED IT SO THAT NOBODY COULD EVER REALLY OCCUPY IT or be safe in it again, that it was a total wreck & offered no protection, no security at all anymore & he had really really wrecked the place so you couldn't use it anymore securely. But these three preachers just walked right in like nothing ever happened, went to their rooms typing away. The busted doors & absence of locks didn't even seem to brother them, isn't that funny?
36. LIKE THE CHURCH TODAY DOESN'T SEEM TO EVEN KNOW THERE IS ANY DANGER, YOU KNOW? Think how we warned & warned & warned those Americans so many times about the coming trouble, & the British, too, & all that. They think you're a little crazy, "Nothing's going to happen, everything's going to be fine, we're all nice & free & we'll be able to keep on like this forever."
37. WHEN THEY'RE IN A WRECKED JOINT, IN A WRECKED HOUSE that's already absolutely wrecked & no good for habitation, no protection, no security, they didn't even seem to know the difference! Isn't that something! I couldn't see any meaning to that dream at all--I just have to start telling it to you. The Lord just seems like He refuses to give me the meaning at all unless I'll go ahead by faith & tell it. (Maria: Amen!) Thank You, Lord.
38. NOW EVERYTHING IN THOSE DREAMS IS SIGNIFICANT--I don't know why that road was so high in front of the house, like a high road. Well, they descended off of the high road apparently off of God's main high road, & came down to the level of that old wrecked broken house.
39. AND IT WAS THESE COMMON LABOURERS, THESE POOR PEOPLE THAT WARNED ME THEY WERE COMING. Isn't that funny? Like, "Look out, here comes those preachers!" (Maria: They really know what's going on, the people.) Yes, they warned me about the preachers. When I saw they were alliance preachers finally, I wasn't really scared of them then, but I just didn't want to talk to them, I didn't want to face them, I just couldn't see any point in even meeting them or greeting them. I mean, you can't change their minds, their minds are made are made up, they don't want to be confused with the facts, that they're has-beens, their day is over, but they don't even know it!--They don't even know it! I mean, they're not even beginning to prepare for the future! (Maria: They're not even prepared for the present!)
40. LIKE I TOLD EVE'S BROTHER-IN-LAW, THE PASTOR OF THAT BIG METHODIST CHURCH IN KENTUCKY, 600 members, I've forgotten his name now, but I said, "What would happen if tomorrow before next Sunday the government would lock up your church, burn all the Bibles & the hymn books, forbid you to have services, what would happen to your people?--If they'd kill you, liquidate you, what would happen to your people, how would they carry on? Would they know what to do?" I said, "How many of them would their religion survive if they couldn't go to church and sing their hymns & listen to the pretty organ lullabies & have their choir, Sunday School & all? How long would their faith survive, how long would their religion survive??
41. THAT REMINDS ME OF THAT SONG WE USED TO SING: "This old house ain't going to last much longer, this old house..." I asked my brother-in-law, "How many of your people do you think their faith would survive & they'd carry on some kind of fellowship or witnessing or something? How many of them do you think would stick together & carry on?" Now mind you, that was a church of 600 members! He said, "I think I've probably got about maybe at least a dozen people here whose faith & religion would survive it & who would carry on." 12 out of 600!--And that's just about right, in fact, I think he was being pretty optimistic.
42. YOU KNOW WHO'S GOING TO CARRY ON BY WHO'S CARRYING ON NOW! And in most of the churches I ever went to & talked about personal soul-winning & witnessing, who's passing tracts, who's witnessing, who's winning souls?--I would say that the average church of 100 people usually only had 1 or 2 people in the whole church who witnessed at all--passed out tracts, gave testimonies about witnessing or anything. Well, let's see, if you multiply that by six it was two out of a hundred in a church of 600 members, they might have a dozen, but I would say it would be pretty unlikely! (Maria: Real soul-winners for the Lord?)--
43. NO, I WOULDN'T EVEN SAY THEY WERE NECESSARILY REAL SOUL-WINNERS, but just some people who were crazy enough to think that they ought to do something to witness, they at least go out & invite people to church or try to bring them in. They go out on Saturday night downtown passing out tracts & they go on visitation for the Sunday School kids that didn't come last Sunday & all kind of stuff, people who really have a little bit of concern about other people besides the church members, about the sinners & the lost. (Maria: But they can't win them themselves, they want to bring them to the church.)
44. THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO WIN THEM THEMSELVES, THEY HAVE TO BRING THEM TO CHURCH to get them officially saved, they don't know how to lead a soul to Christ at all. About all they can do is pass out church advertising, or invite people to church or Sunday School or go visiting them & invite them, try to get them into church. Or they go downtown & pass out tracts to the bums & the drunks & hope the tract might get them saved, with the church address on it so they'll know where to go if they want God or they want Jesus.
45. WELL, THAT'S ABUT THE SIZE OF IT, THAT'S ABOUT THE SHAPE THE CHURCH IS IN, IT'S AN OLD, BROKEN-DOWN, INSECURE, UNSAFE HOUSE, but its occupants don't even know the difference, they don't even know it, think of that!
46. WE'RE YOUNG & VIGOROUS & LOOKING FOR NEW HOUSING, new ways of security & protection to carry on we're even willing to go down & play with the puppy dogs, stoop to conquer the hippies!
47. WE SURE DON'T CARE TO HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THOSE PREACHERS & THOSE CHURCHES! Those old preachers, you should have seen them! They looked about as broken-down as the house!--Their clothes kind of threadbare. That must be the way the Lord looks at them. Actually, the preachers in America are fancy dressed, two-hundred-dollar suits, Cadillac limousines & the rest! But these guys were afoot, they were walking, they looked like old, old-fashioned clothes, kind of worn & dirty. I guess that's the way the Lord looks at them spiritually.
48. AND THE HOUSE THERE IS ALL BROKEN-DOWN & THE DOORS FALLING OFF & THE WINDOWS BROKEN. I guess that's the way the Lord looks at their spiritual house, their church, or their prized fine multi-million-dollar buildings. (Maria: Like the Scripture that they don't know they're destitute & blind, they think they have need of nothing.)
Yes, like that one on the next final church, the Laodicean Church which said, "I am rich & increased with goods & have need of nothing." But the Lord said, "Thou art wretched & naked & blind!" That's just about the way they were. (Rev.3:14-19.)
49. THEY WEREN'T ACTUALLY NAKED BUT THEY SURE HAD OLD, OLD CLOTHES. They were dressed up sort of like,--they looked like the clothes they used to wear back in the Revolutionary War days 200 years ago, they were really dowdy though, they were really in bad shape. I guess that's the way the Lord looks at the Old Church & its occupants & the difference between us & them.
50. THAT'S ONE THING ABOUT THOSE PUPPY DOGS, THEY WERE SURE FULL OF LIFE & happy, jumping around & playing, you know how puppy dogs do when they think you're playing with them! They were jumping around & sort of laughing & yapping & grabbing ahold of my pants & tugging on them, & my shoes & tugging on them & really happy just like our kids! They seemed to really love me like our kids do.
51. AND I SEEMED TO BE SO YOUNG COMPARED TO THOSE OLD PREACHERS. So I guess it's a new day for youth, thank God! I wouldn't have stayed in that house overnight the mess it was in! It's unsafe, just like the churches. Thank God for youth & His New Church, amen? We're the little puppy-dog church!
52. SOME OF THOSE GUYS SIT THERE EYEING ME LIKE LITTLE PUPPY DOGS some nights. They sit there & give me those adoring looks like little puppy dogs! (Maria: Mateo told Susanne, "I could just sit there & look at David for hours!") Isn't that funny, I mean it's amazing!
53. AND CARLOS HARBOUR SAT THERE JUST LOOKING AT ME & GIVING ME ALL THOSE LOOKS OF LOVE, ai yai yai, just like a little puppy dog! Who was it first said that, I think it was Sara, said he just sits there & looks at you like a little puppy dog!
54. (MARIA: THEY REALLY FEEL LIKE YOU'RE THEIR FATHER. Mateo told Susanne, "He's my father.") Thank you, Lord, isn't that sweet! Lord, help me not to disappoint them & never fail them, in Jesus' name.--Amen.
55. (1982 P.S.: WELL PTL! THAT'S THE PICTURE GOD GAVE OF US & THE CHURCHES! Perhaps it's still a valid warning not to get too involved with'm even for support! Usually sooner or later they'll reject you anyhow.--Like in the "Renovation" Dream (No.1287): Most of'm'll never change, their minds are made up, you're just confusing'm with the facts!
56. "LET EPHRAIM ALONE (THE OLD CHURCH, OLD ISRAEL), HE IS JOINED TO HIS IDOLS!" (Hos.4:17) God have mercy on'm!--And He has, by letting us at least go to'm & warn'm!--Amen? So watch your step in those churches! They could be a tricky trap! God help you to stay the young & frisky, playful, lovable puppies you always were!--ILY! In Jesus' name, Amen!--Amen?)
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
