Ardorpes

I am currently reading Mark Driscoll’s book, Confessions of a reformission rev. where he shares his success and hardship in setting up the church Mars Hill. I came across an interesting story where Mark experiences a prophetic dream.  I’ve cut bits out so its not heaps long.

“A few weeks before we launched our little church plant in the fall of 1996, I was perplexed by an older man who had become something of a mentor to me. He was pushing some theological ideas that i did not agree with, such as ministers in skirts. So since it was ultimately Jesus’ church, we began praying that God would reveal to us what we should do about this man who wanted to be a pastor in the church and oversee our discipleship process.

The first clue that something was funky was when i let him preach his first sermen in our church. He brought his wife up to team teach with him, something I had not agreed with. As they were teaching, he told the story of Jesus’ triumph entry into Jerusalem on the back of an ass in fulfillment Old Testament prophecy. He actually pulled me up onto stage in front of the church and asked me to get on my hands and knees to play the part of an ass. The move seemed like an overt power play and was at least mildly disrepectful. I remembered Paul’s command to to rebuke an older man harshly and quietly wondered if that included punching one in the mouth.

The 2nd clue came in the form of a prophetic dream. I had never had a prophetic dream. I was not sure  that such miraculous things still happened and was skeptical of prophetic dreams altogether. But while sleeping one night, the Holy Spirit gave me a dream in which i was standing in the foyer of our rented church on the opening night of our church plant. As i turned around in my dream, the older man walked in by himself, carrying a Bible in a brown leather case and wearing a blue shirt, green shorts, sandals, and a homemade cross around his neck. He informed me that he wanted to pastor the church and i should step aside and let him. God then spoke Acts 20:28-31 and then 1 Peter 5:1-4. (look them up)

I then woke up to tell my wife that God has revealed to me that the older man was a wolf sent by Satan and that Jesus wanted me to protect and lead the small flock he had given me. We prayed together.

On the opening night of our church plant in October of 1996, the service was just getting started when my wife realized that she had forgotten her Bible in the foyer. I jumped up to get it and as I turned around, I found myself standing alone in the foyer, just as I had been in my dream. I was so stunned that I was momentarily speechless. When i collected my thoughts, I told him to leave our church and never come back.

A few months later, another pastor contacted me and said that the man God warned me about had been kicked out of his denomination of suspicion of undermining young pastors and taking money from young churches.”

What do you think of Prophetic Dreams? Have you ever had one or know someone who has? Please comment below.