01/21/2014
Prophetic word Sunday January 19, 2014
I had a dream last night regarding a principal of a Far Rockaway school that The New York Post has been running articles on now for weeks. She drives around in a BMW, renovated her office like a high powered executive does, makes over $140,000 a year; yet the kids attending the school don’t have text books. The children do not have art classes, gym classes or a nurse’s office. The school has been labeled the school of “no.” Most of the parents barely make ends meet, yet they are required to have their 5th graders attend a bizarre graduation event where the girls dress up like brides and the boys like grooms. The principal dresses in a white bridal-like dress as well. The outfits and cost of the party is over $250.00 per student, paid for by the financially strapped parents. There is a picture that ran in the Post of this school principal wearing a fur coat and clownish make up all over her face. I saw this picture of her in my spirit during the worship; which is what I saw in my dream.
In my dream of this woman in this get up, I saw that over her head was a veil holding back the blessings of God. While I was gazing up at this, the Holy Spirit started to speak. He was very excited about what He was telling me. He said just like Aslan had to rip the dragon off of Eustace in C.S. Lewis’, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader because Eustace couldn’t go deep enough to do it himself; the Holy Spirit was going to get His claws into the canopy of Jezebel’s and rip out the “no.” My dog Samantha was with me in the dream and her name means fragrance. I knew this had to do with a deep deliverance necessary for the Bride to become truly fragrant. A deep deliverance within us resulting in our becoming Christ- centered instead of self-centered. This will break Jezebel’s hold on us, but there was something else; some sort of victory over Jezebel herself. Again, the Holy Spirit was very excited about it.
So during the worship when the Holy Spirit brought this scenario up again I heard Him say that Jezebel has had access to Jesus’ Bride long enough. For Jezebel’s desire is to keep My rocks, My living stones, far away from their promises and their destiny. Her false bridal scenario has cost my people, but I say that her “no” shall now become My yes. For I am ripping through the veil in a way only I can.
I felt impressed to explain the passage from C.S. Lewis,’ Voyage of the Dawn Treader referred to in the prophetic word. I wrote about this concept in a section of a piece I once wrote under the subtitle: The Scratch Off. In the piece I was explaining a dream I had about a scratch off lotto ticket.
The scratch off:
The concept comes from a book written by C.S. Lewis from His Chronicles of Narnia series. In The Voyage of The Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis introduced a new character to the series: cousin Eustace. Eustace means “fruitful.” It is keeping with repentance that we become fruitful.
In the story Eustace goes after gold: not good gold i.e. the faith walk; the opposite: money. He gets a gold bangle caught on his leg. It cuts into his leg, his walk and causes him great pain. Bangles are a symbol for me. These are the things the Lord strips off of us that we’ve adorned ourselves with other than Him (See Isaiah 3:16).
The gold Eustace went for was cursed and he turned into a dragon. How he was delivered of this fate was revealed in a conversation Eustace had with his cousin Edmund after the fact. In the exchange below the symbol of the scratch off will jump out at you:
"Well, last night I was more miserable than ever. And that beastly arm-ring was hurting like anything - "
"Is that all right now?"
Eustace laughed - a different laugh from any Edmund had heard him give before - and slipped the bracelet easily off his arm. "There it is," he said, "and anyone who likes can have it as far as I'm concerned. Well, as I say, I was lying awake and wondering what on earth would become of me. And then - but, mind you, it may have been all a dream. I don't know."
"Go on," said Edmund, with considerable patience.
"Well, anyway, I looked up and saw the very last thing I expected: a huge lion coming slowly towards me. And one q***r thing was that there was no moon last night, but there was moonlight where the lion was. So it came nearer and nearer. I was terribly afraid of it. You may think that, being a dragon, I could have knocked any lion out easily enough. But it wasn't that kind of fear. I wasn't afraid of it eating me, I was just afraid of it - if you can understand. Well, it came close up to me and looked straight into my eyes. And I shut my eyes tight. But that wasn't any good because it told me to follow it."
"You mean it spoke?"
"I don't know. Now that you mention it, I don't think it did. But it told me all the same. And I knew I'd have to do what it told me, so I got up and followed it. And it led me a long way into the mountains. And there was always this moonlight over and round the lion wherever we went. So at last we came to the top of a mountain I'd never seen before and on the top of this mountain there was a garden - trees and fruit and everything. In the middle of it there was a well.
"I knew it was a well because you could see the water bubbling up from the bottom of it: but it was a lot bigger than most wells - like a very big, round bath with marble steps going down into it. The water was as clear as anything and I thought if I could get in there and bathe it would ease the pain in my leg. But the lion told me I must undress first. Mind you, I don't know if he said any words out loud or not.
"I was just going to say that I couldn't undress because I hadn't any clothes on when I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course, thought I, that's what the lion means. So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bathe.
"But just as I was going to put my feet into the water I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as they had been before. Oh, that's all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I'll have to get out of it too. So 1 scratched and tore again and this under skin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well for my bathe.
"Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good.
"Then the lion said" - but I don't know if it spoke - "You will have to let me undress you." I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.
"The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know - if you've ever picked the scab off a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away."
"I know exactly what you mean," said Edmund.
"Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off - just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt - and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me - I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on - and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again. You'd think me simply phoney if I told you how I felt about my own arms. I know they've no muscle and are pretty mouldy compared with Caspian's, but I was so glad to see them.
"After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me - "
"Dressed you. With his paws?"
"Well, I don't exactly remember that bit. But he did somehow or other: in new clothes - the same I've got on now, as a matter of fact. And then suddenly I was back here. Which is what makes me think it must have been a dream."
"No. It wasn't a dream," said Edmund.
"Why not?"
"Well, there are the clothes, for one thing. And you have been - well, un-dragoned, for another."
"What do you think it was, then?" asked Eustace.
"I think you've seen Aslan," said Edmund.
The scratch off: a willingness to endure a true stripping. Not our vain attempts, but by way of an encounter with the Lord Jesus so we can bear fruit that lasts. I remember one time after a pretty painful scratch off I said, “Lord, I watch Christians running around doing their own thing, but as for me I am constantly being stripped by you.” The Lord’s reply was immediate: “It is because you are willing.”