April, - May 2008
		HANG-UPS. The Tale of Coat Hanger. This morning as Keith and I got into the car to take Keith to the train station I found a plastic coat hanger sitting behind the windscreen wipers on my car. I had no idea where it had come from, who had put it there, or how long it had actually been there. I hadn’t noticed it before this time, and I asked Keith if he’d noticed it the previous day. He hadn’t Keith and I joked about it for a little while and then Keith said something to this effect: “Perhaps the Lord put it there as a sign, or a Word to us.” Although we were joking about it, nevertheless Keith’s words were strongly quickened to me as TRUTH and when I realised this, the very first thing that popped into my mind and straight out of my mouth was, “Get rid of your hang-ups!” We chuckled nervously about that statement, and yet we also agreed that it was a “spot-on” Word from the Lord to us both. Driving home from the station I talked it over somemore with the Lord and the following observations came to me: The coat hanger (representing the hang-ups that we still carry around with us) was blocking the full view that I should have had through the windscreen. It was dangerous to leave it where it was because if it moved up the windscreen when we started moving in the car it could cause further and worse obstruction to my viewpoint in the future. If it rained and I needed to use the windscreen wipers so I could see through the rain on the windscreen, or if I needed to wash the windscreen to remove the grime that had accumulated, then the coat hanger would not only hinder the proper action of the wipers, but it could also damage both the wipers and the windscreen. Through this experience I feel the Lord is saying: - I want you to let Me help you get rid of your “hang ups.” - At present they are obstructing your correct and full view of My world and my people. - If your hang-ups remain in the same place, they will hinder My ability to give you a clearer view in the future. - Once they are gone, you will be able to see even further, because they won’t be forever in front of you distracting you from what else I want to show you. - If they remain, they will also obstruct My ability to wash you clean of the new “stuff” which comes against you each day. - Once you let Me help you to remove your sensitive hang-ups, I will be able to truly cleanse you and restore your vision. This will release you to see other people more perfectly through the truth of the clear lens of My own thoughts about them. Written, 11 April, 2008 by Janine Read. Janine and her husband Peter sow into a church plant at Swansea, near Newcastle, NSW.   CLEANSING THE TEMPLE - WITH AN INTERPRETATION. Janine Read, 29 October 2007. The interpretation as you may guess is in italics. I dreamt my house was being renovated with new floor tiles, carpet, plastering and painting. It was my own home, but not the actual house I live in at present, as it was extremely large – double-storied and quite palatial in appearance – with extensive manicured parkland and colourful gardens. This is really God’s house – and I saw just a small part of His church – possibly just the one I currently attend and which needs refurbishing, just like the entire Body needs at present. The church is in a time of transition. Because I only saw one house, I feel this house is speaking to me on a local level, but God has many such houses (John 14:2-4) and He’s renovating or preparing all of them at present, so this is a corporate Word for the Body as well. Basically the building and grounds represent the corporate church structure, and the workers represent the Holy Spirit at work within the Church – bringing it towards being the church He envisions for the future. Because I was an observer “inside” the dream and walked around interacting within the scenes, I represent “prophetic people” who see and hear what God is doing and carry out intercession over what He reveals. All of the Body of Christ is being put under hammer and chisel and is being pulled apart and sorted out at present, because God is determined to have a pure, clean and totally renewed Bride ready for Himself when He returns for Her. The dream is like a mini overview of the Kingdom of God in that God’s own dream for His church is far bigger and better than what we are currently experiencing as “church” or could ever imagine it to be. The mansion-like appearance of the house is reminiscent of Heaven,(“In My Father’s house are many mansions” which HE is preparing for us etc – John 14:2-4) and in the same way, the extensive and beautiful grounds are also a reminder of what I imagine Heaven’s gardens might look like. As I walked through the house I was dismayed at the huge amount of mess the builders were creating as a result of their work. Prophetically inclined people see the mess inside the structure of the church and recognize the Hand of God at work as He sets about pulling down old stronghold walls – getting back to the bare foundations and laying a new floor on which we can stand firmly in the future - in order to prepare the way for the next move of His Spirit within His house. Spirit-filled churches are by nature very messy places because it’s God’s purpose to pull down out-dated structures and He starts this within the hearts of the individual people. There is often “tears and snot everywhere” when the Spirit is at work – this is very messy business! But it’s OK because we know that eventually it will look even better than it did before He started making all those changes! The old but extremely valuable furniture hadn’t all been completely removed from any of the rooms, so there was cement or tile glue splattered all over the place and even sitting in huge globs on the uncovered furniture. There were also small piles of rubble scattered randomly throughout the building, so that you had to watch your step carefully to avoid stumbling over the debris. Cherished, strongly adhered-to doctrines and man-made religious traditions are difficult to budge from the structure of the denominational church, and no one quite knows what to do with them - but God will point out His contempt for these things by splattering them with new revelation as He transforms our minds and hearts to align them with His plans! He will even show us what stumbling blocks these things have become to us and that they’ve hindered our passage towards straight-forward communion with Him. The thought came to me that I should probably be seeing about providing a cup of tea or some other kind of refreshments for the workers, but I hardly knew where to start because the house was in such chaos and I hated to think about the dreadful state that the kitchen might be in, and besides this, I was really wanting to take a shower! As soon as it occurred to me that I should prepare something for them, I noticed there were several groups of workers standing around in twos and threes, sharing what seemed to be large opaque plastic bottles of a substance that looked like cold Milo. I realized they had come prepared with their own refreshments, so it took a huge burden off me when I saw I didn’t have to scrounge up something suitable for them amidst all the turmoil that surrounded me. This is me trying to do the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of other people, but He certainly doesn’t need any help from me to get His own job done! My job is to clean up myself, and leave it up to the Spirit to do the job of cleaning up the other people and getting His house in order. He’s perfectly capable of doing it without my help, and it comes as a huge relief when I finally realize how well-equipped God is to do His own work, so that I don’t have to interfere by telling Him what to do! There were so many workmen inside the building that it was very confusing because they seemed to occupy every room, rather than starting in one room and systematically working throughout the house one room at a time. The different rooms “belong” to different people. We might think at times that God is doing a major job in our own life and that we’re the only one He is testing so strongly at any given moment, but He is also very active in the lives of lots of other folk who make up “the church.” Once again, it is a messy business, because He is doing so much work in the hearts of so many people – and all at the same time! He doesn’t just clean up one person then move onto the next one – He gets onto all of us at once! God is in the process of the absolutely huge task of cleaning out the old junk and replacing it with something new – and He wants to completely revamp the entire church as we know it. This is not just a couple of things that He’s changing – it’s a complete new order of things He’s establishing in the church. (The “many workmen” seen here is just a beautiful picture of the Holy Spirit doing a simply fantastic job of multi-tasking!!) To further complicate matters, there was another large group of people – I imagine there were about 200 of them - wandering from room to room and also gathering in a group on the grass. These folk had apparently been invited to come to share in a meeting or a concert of some kind within the grounds of the house, but because the meeting seemed to have been delayed from the expected starting time, they ended up strolling throughout the house exclaiming over the work that was underway inside the building. This is evangelism at its best – or worst – or scariest! We invite unsaved people to come to God’s house, and some of them will see that it’s not all that it’s “supposed” to be inside the church! There’s a lot of “work in progress.” However, it’s perfectly OK (and actually quite good) for them to recognize that the church is not perfect, and in fact, it makes them even more accepting of Christianity when they see we don’t pretend to “have it all together.” Being “real” and unashamed during the transformation process - through opening up our lives to the inspection of others - is a good thing which encourages them to hang around in the church. When I entered one room I glimpsed my daughter standing bent over a fancy stone or cement pedestal – a bit like a birdbath or a christening font - as if she was changing her baby’s nappy. This is talking about generational teaching – as if she is helping to “change” the following generation by beginning at an early age, as she refreshes them (on the birdbath or font) with the “water” of the Word to make them realize they are a welcome part of “a radiant church … without stain.” (Ephesians 5:25-27) It’s OK to dirty your nappy occasionally within the church, because it’s all part of the maturing process, and the more spiritually mature people (who may not necessarily be older in years) will help the “younger” ones to get things sorted out. I caught a brief glimpse of the baby which I think was her first-born child Grace and I felt my heart stir with love towards them both. I walked closer to stand beside my daughter - yet I was also somehow looking over her shoulder at the baby – and because I couldn’t see her properly I exclaimed, “Oh! You don’t have your glasses on today!” Knowing that she doesn’t see very well without her glasses, I was surprised to see her apparently not wearing them. She turned her head to look at me face-on, saying, “Yes I do. See - I’ve got new glasses and they’re frameless ones, so you just couldn’t see them from where you were standing.” As we focus on the “Grace of God” it will also begin to help us look at others in a different way, but we also need to ask God to continue to open up our eyes and hearts towards those around us. Sometimes we find it difficult to recognize just how clearly the younger generation is “seeing things in the Spirit” because it may not manifest the way we expect it to because our cultures are different. However, this is reassurance that they are seeing very well indeed! In fact, they will hear and see God even more clearly than we have been able to, because their spiritual “sight” will not be hindered by the same legalistic “frame” that we grew up with. They have much more freedom to see things that have been hidden from us. It’s a call for the older generation to recognize the younger ones are perfectly aligned with God, even if we don’t readily recognize the fact when we observe them with the “natural” eyes of our different generational perspective. It’s also a bit of a personal chastisement for me as a parent to stop looking over the shoulders of the younger ones, and telling me to just let them get on with what God’s showing them, because they’re doing a splendid job! My daughter then laid out on the ground a brightly-coloured and hooded warm fleecy jacket which I had given to her for Grace when she was much smaller. She began to tell me that it would be OK for Caleb to wear it soon. We had a discussion about the fact that although I’d given it to Grace, the pattern on it was Winnie the Pooh, which was suitable for boys as well as girls, so it would not look out-of-place on Caleb. My daughter then said she was pleased to be able to get more wear out of the jacket because she really valued this gift I’d given to her. This scene tells us that God’s precious Words which we’ve spoken into the lives of others (the jacket was given to them) “will not return to Him void” (Isaiah 55:10-12) but will prove fruitful in the lives of many others apart from the person we originally gave the Word to. This is a lovely reassurance that is most welcome after the slight rebuke I received in the last scene! It’s saying not to be overly concerned about the times when we didn’t get it perfectly right, but to recognize that the things we’ve passed onto the younger ones are highly valued by them and will in turn be passed on again and again to the generations after theirs. The baby’s jacket represents the breastplate of righteousness and the hood on the jacket is the helmet of salvation, both of which are important parts of the Armour of God mentioned in Ephesians 6:10-20. These are specifically-mentioned parts of the unique type of equipping the generation after the currently emerging one will receive from God. In this way, their generational-specific revelation will powerfully connect their hearts and their minds to work as one unit and this two-fold revelation will also protect their minds from the bombardment of lies the enemy tries to shoot at them. Once again it speaks of an increase in understanding of the ways of God beyond that of previous generations. Their hearts will be warmed and protected by the true knowledge of their forgiven and therefore “righteous” standing before God. They will fully appreciate that Father God sees them as righteous and they will truly grab hold of the exchange made for them on the Cross by Jesus Christ their Lord and Saviour. They will break free from the legalism expressed in the church life of previous generations. This spirit would seek to keep them in bondage to shame, man-pleasing and fleshly judgment aimed towards others and also coming from others – but they will not be hindered in their Walk by these things because of the particular type of armour God is placing upon them. The reference to Caleb reminds us of those who are even now being equipped and prepared to “cross over” into the “promised land” God has prepared for them, and they will do this with confidence and faith in God’s ability to go before them. When I moved away from my daughter to continue walking through the house, I became more and more agitated at the deplorable unfinished state of the building because it seemed to be way behind schedule and I thought it was supposed to have been ready in time for the meeting/concert. I couldn’t work out why I’d still invited all these people to come over when the house was so obviously still a work-in-progress. This is once again speaking about seeing things from a prophetic perspective. We often see “the big picture” of what’s wrong in the church and we get so frustrated by it all! We just want everyone to straighten up – and as quickly as possible! There is often a low tolerance for what we perceive to be foolish behaviour in others, little realizing that they just haven’t yet had the same revelation that we’ve been given. We want them to “get it” when we want them to “get it” but we have to remember to leave it up to God’s timing, and not try to force it to happen when we think it should. One interpretation of the “meeting/concert” is when we are placed in a position to share the Good News with newcomers. We may be aware that we’re not really ready to do this yet because God is still working on us, but nevertheless He trusts us to share with them the things He’s already given to us to pass on. I think another very important interpretation of the “meeting/concert” could be an analogy for the return of Christ, and we sometimes assume everything has to be perfect in the church before this can happen, and this causes a great deal of frustration. Nevertheless, it is going to happen in His timing, not ours, and we are reminded that He will come at an unexpected moment, so we need to make sure we are personally prepared. It’s as if God is saying to the church, “Coming - ready or not!” Yes, He will come for a spotless Bride, but I am also reminded of the 10 virgins and how some were faithfully waiting and prepared for the Bridegroom and others were still “a work in progress” and unprepared for His arrival. (Matthew 25:1-13) As I walked through the pergola between the grassed area and the house I noticed a nasty looking pest about and inch long walking across the pavers on its many legs, so I sprayed it with a can of insecticidethat was already in my hand. This is talking about spiritual warfare that will always be present whenever God is working on us! It should be noted that we have been supernaturally supplied with the equipment we need to combat the enemy, and we shouldn’t have to miss a step in order to get rid of him. After all, he’s puny and defenseless compared to the weapons God has armed us with. I felt that both the bug and the poison were potentially harmful so I quickly kicked it off the pavers, thinking it might be dangerous if one of my pets came across it and licked or ate the nasty bug that had been sprayed with so much poison. Once we’ve battled and overcome the enemy we need to quickly remove the situation from ourselves, and just get on with life. We also need to recognize that the demonic encounters we experience should probably not be shared with others, as these people could also become contaminated through the retelling of our experience if we are not careful about how or what we share. The personal battles we face are really no one else’s business; unless the Lord makes it plain we are to speak about it. Even if we have dispatched with a soul-giant from our life, it may not be wise to share with others how God accomplished this feat, as it might poison their personal walk with the Lord if they become distracted by being tempted to investigate such situations for themselves. (Having said this, I also need to say that there will be times when God will prompt us, letting us know that it will be helpful and encouraging to others if we share with them some aspects of the story of God’s victory in our lives, so they will also have the courage to triumph over similar circumstances.) The ugly creature landed in a huge cesspool of black muddy water – like a swimming pool dug out of the bare earth – into which all the household refuse, including scraps of new and old building materials had been dumped to form a stinking quagmire. God has a place prepared to receive all the “junk” that He removes from our lives. This reminds me of Matthew 8:28-33 where Jesus sent the demons into the pigs and then off the cliff. This could consist of the daily yucky stuff we pick up along our pathway as we endeavour to follow Him. He will continue to cleanse us of all the unnecessary items that clutter up our lives, and He knows just where to put it! Some of the junk could be newly-acquired beliefs or structures that will become unnecessary to the next phase of our Christian walk, and other “junk” could have been part of the church structure or our belief system for a long time - but regardless of how useful it may have once been to us - it all needs to be chucked out when “the Builder” says there’s no more use for it. After this I had a heightened sense of urgency that I still hadn’t taken my morning shower and that it needed to be done before I proceeded to the meeting on the lawn. This is a reminder that we should always be prompt to ask God to cleanse and refresh us through the Holy Spirit (water) after a demonic/spiritual warfare encounter, or when He has removed something ugly from our soul. It is very important to ask Him to wash over us with His blood and His Word, bringing cleansing to our body, soul and spirit – particularly before we minister to anyone else. If we don’t ask Him to strip away the defilement, we could unwittingly “pass it on” to others. I walked into my bedroom and looked into the ensuite, only to discover to my dismay that there was still someone working in there. I felt very frustrated because this part of the house should have been completed ages ago. This is talking about my own personal frustration over the amount of time it’s taking to get around to getting rid of all my own junk. I get so frustrated that my own personal spiritual cleanliness is held up so much (it was MY ensuite I wanted to access in the dream!), and I get so discouraged when I fall down in the same areas again and again when I should have learned those particular lessons many years ago! There have been so many times when I’ve wished that God would just get it all over and done with in one huge ZAP but I would probably not survive the experience if He did this, and I wouldn’t learn each lesson as thoroughly as I can by walking through the individual lessons one at a time either! (Exodus 23:27-30) Walking through the bedroom in order to reach the ensuite for a shower tells us that the place of cleansing and refreshing is accessed through the place of intimacy with our Bridegroom - Jesus. I found out that he’d nearly finished his work, but that I couldn’t have a shower in there yet because he still hadn’t connected the electricity to the shower, and the shower wouldn’t work at all if there was no power connected to it! I was told that it would happen very soon and I wouldn’t have to wait too long, but I was feeling more and more anxious and annoyed with each delay I encountered. This is really cool! It shows that God understands my frustration over my lack of spiritual maturity. It also really reassures me that I can’t rush through it in my own time, or in my own way. It has to be instigated at a God-moment, not when I want it to happen, so there’s not much I can do about it personally, except wait on Him. This takes the pressure off me a bit! The electricity-in-the-shower bit is really funny! How much like God this is - to combine two opposing elements (that just make no sense at all to us humans!) in order to bring about the very circumstances we desire - our cleansing from sin and soul giants!! It also has to be noted that this cannot be accomplished at all without His Holy Spirit Power being connected to the work! Trying to just get clean by ourselves without His Power doing the job, just doesn’t work at all! Wow! It also takes a huge load of pressure off us when we recognize we cannot do anything without the Holy Spirit to enable us – we can’t even clean ourselves up!!! All I wanted to do right now was to get cleaned up in a hurry so I could join the rest of the people outside and begin the meeting. I felt that once I was clean myself it wouldn’t matter so much about the state of the rest of the house. This shows recognition of the fact that cleansing and purifying of the fleshly and soulish parts of our life is a normal part of the Christian walk. Everyone has to go through it, and there should be no shame involved in the process. It is something that we eventually come to welcome in our lives, because we realize that each time God takes us to task about something it means there’s “a little less of me, and a little more of God” in our life - once we survive the ordeal of extracting the rubbish. This is such an amazing and beautiful aspect of grace under the New Covenant! We become so focused “upward” upon God and His beauty that we yearn to become more like Him. This in turn keeps our eyes from looking “down” upon any messes that may be happening in the lives of other believers. As we surrender to His transforming Power, the critical, judgmental, legalistic parts of our old nature become overwhelmed by the glory of His goodness and love towards us and we no longer view others from an“elevated” position of pride, but see them through God’s eyes of love and have compassion upon them during their struggles. I also knew the other guests were most definitely getting restless and wanted to start the meeting, and so this further delay of waiting for the power-connection to take place added to my personal dilemma of needing to get cleaned up so I could quickly go outside to them and begin the meeting. God graciously places us amongst other believers who are passionate about Him and who are also eagerly looking forward to the day when we will all meet together with Him. Meanwhile, we can spur each other on as we grow more in love with Him. This also speaks about how urgently necessary it is for each individual Christian to earnestly desire the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit to take place in their life - so that the corporate Bride can be made ready to meet Him – our beloved Bridegroom.   Janine Read, 29 October 2007.