This morning I had a dream. And in the dream this odd couple in their 30's or 40's came driving into our garden riding a strange cross between a van and a motorbike. It had all kinds of bizzare equipment on it. If there was one word that could be used to describe them it was 'eccentric'. Actually, some years ago, a self-entitled hippie-like Irishman with his cat arrived unannounced at our house in his tiny jam-packed car and started telling us how he would take over our summer house and plant his own garden there. I politely told him to hop it. In the dream, the couple arrived at night and were still there the following day. Curious to know what these strangers were doing on my land in the middle of the night, I followed them around to see if I needed to help them or drive them off.

All kinds of people come to you when you are in the ministry, from the crazy to the pure evil; from the half serious 'camp-follwoers', as I call them, to the dedicated, industrious talmid (disciple) hungry to learn, willing to help, and keen to grow. As a pastor you have to be prepared for all types, but of course you never are. There's always 'somebody' you don't know how to deal with because you've never met their 'type' before. You learn as you go along particularly if you are young and your discernment it lacking. That's why being apprenticed to a seasoned minister is so important. I had none, which is why my journey was so long and hard. I had to learn the hard way, in the Midianite wilderness.

This couple in the dream reminded me of another couple I once knew who came to us apparently interested in the work we had been called to do but in reality not the slightest bit interested in changing or in doing things in any other way but theirs. They were very generous with their possessions but did not respect family boundaries, often turning up unnannounced in the middle of the night at the most inconvenient time when we had other things happening or even other people staying who needed one-to-one ministry. But I was young and naïve in those days and wasted a lot of time.

The Besorah (Gospel) is first and foremost about dying to self so that the New Creation in Messiah can be planted in the soul. You can't plant a garden until you have first dug it up and weeded it. Whenever new people come to us I tell them up front what we expect and what we will give. This may sound 'unchristian' to some but I guarantee if some Amalekites had turned up at Gilgal and asked to be 'included' just as they were (uncircumcised in heart and flesh), Joshua would have had problems with that. Is that somehow a 'bad' Old Testament mindset? No, if a Calvinist or a Mormon turned up asking to become a teacher in one of our congregations, would you hand over your class to him? We're talking practical common sense, not being uncharitable. I'd want to thoroughly disciple the Calvinist and Mormon first before even contemplating unleasing them on an NCAY class.

Most who come to this work turn out not to be sincere and turn tail. We help guide them to other churches more in line with their dispositions. The original couple we had known, with their strange children, were highly dysfunctional in real life, and I could tell that the couple in the dream were similar to them though pretending to be different. I knew that if they stayed that they would be enormous time-wasters, resource-drainers and health impediments. They would be helpful, up to a point (simply to be accepted and get their own way) but in reality would end up preventing us from carrying out our calling. Of course, good malakim (angels) do sometimes turn up in the strangest of disguises and we have to be prepared for them but it is an unwise man who assumes that every Tom, Dick or Harry is a bona fide angel from Yahweh. (The baddies can also turn up in disguise). You have to be careful especially if you have children. And most of you have probably not grown up land lived in authoritarian states. I have ministered in former communist lands and know how terribly careful they had to be. We are entering an age of global authoritarianism and won't have the luxury to be careless. So mark these words well. True, some are "tares" who won't become visible until the final harvest and they we will always have with us because they so much look like the real thing. I think they're the most potentially frightening of all. Those we leave in Yahweh's hands (Mt.13) for the malakim (angels) to flush out and burn.

It is our duty and calling to accept and help all who come to us - in principle, as the default. However, the relationship between those being helped and the helpers has, at some point, to be a reciprocal one. You accept people where they are, however strange, complicated or difficult they may be, just as the Saviour did, provided they really do want to be helped and to help others. You can't always know what their intentions are immediately, and intentions can, and do, unfortunatelty, change. I have had time-wasters in the past, who were taking me away from people who genuinely did need my help - true seekers who were prepared to do what Yahweh required of them. In the end I had to put my foot down and tell the time-wasters that they had to do their part or move on, as the Body of Messiah isn't about self-entitled individuals all wanting their own way. It's about cooperation and mutual assistance. Egotism is supposed to die at the front door of the meeting house. Left alive, it is like a bull in a china shop destroying everything around it.

And then, of course, there are those who consciously (by groups like satanic covens or state agencies) and unconsciously (by dark spirits hidden within their souls) have been deliberately sent to destroy you. They're the hardest sometimes to know how to deal with until they start breaking very specific mitzvot (commandments) that endanger the safety of your people and you are obliged to send them away after all attempts at ministry have failed. Again, you have to have discernment. There are times when I just 'know' who a person is and what their dark mission consists of because the Ruach (Spirit) tells me. The worst and hardest is when you are shown people who are turning to the dark side in your very midst. I've been shown that too, usually in advance, because I have a flock to guard and prepare.

It's a hard job being a pastor, very hard indeed. I don't recommend it to any but the most dedicated, loving and tough...and called (Heb.5:4). If you haven't been called...if you have called yourself...then you'll probably get beaten up and run for your life at some point. And you have to be tough, and in particular, firm even if it means being hated. In a word, you have to be a parent.

There is something interesting about the congregation of Israel under the leadership of Joshua that we either miss or don't pay much attention to which is nonetheless vitally important to the Remnant. They were disciplined and united. They acted and behaved as an army under command. Whether in spiritual or literal warfare, you have to be disciplined to be effective. I am an ex-soldier myself so I do at least understand that principle. As an Under Officer in the infantry I had a group of men under my command, some of whom were unruly and one or two - NCO's (Non-Commissioned Officers), alas - who didn't like me and wanted me gone, sought to trip me up whenever they could. I had to be on the alert all the time, strict but fair. The confrontations were worst, especially when on one occasion a corporal challlenged me in front of the men on the parade ground! If I hadn't torn a strip off him there and then my authority in the Company would have been permanently undermined. I had to forego being 'liked' and 'accepted' simply to get the job done and to maintain harmony and order. The corporal hated my guts after that but it was his own doing. He did not, in any case, last long, being subsequently cashiered for some misdemeanour. I was not sorry to see him go though I never wanted him to be an enemy.

I guess I took something of this mentality with me when for many years I was a school teacher. I worked my students hard and expected them to be disciplined. Some of them grumbled and complained though I have to say the parents loved it and an ambassador insisted I teach his son when I was thinking of stepping down because the work load was so heavy. (You know what they say - if you want something done, give the job to a busy person). Unless you understand something about the requirements of leadership you can be deceived sometimes into thinking that being strict and expecting hard work is to somehow to not be 'nice'. Certainly the modern liberal mindset thinks there is something terrible about conservative, biblical values. One pupil came up to me when she graduated and thanked me for being a 'slave-driver', as she charmingly put it, but added that my style of teaching had given her a foundation of knowledge that she would never regret. She meant it too and I was grateful for that. That's one thing you soon learn - leaders are rarely thanked or appreciated. Ask any serious-minded parent.

The city of Jericho would never have been defeated if the soldiers and cohenim (priests) under Joshua's command hadn't been united in their emunah (faith). For a commander to lose the trust of his men is disasterous but up until then Joshua's record had been good. Only once was he ever tricked and outwitted, by the Gibeonites. The walls of that city would never have crumbled if he had said, 'do your own thing, whatever you think is fine. Just be yourself.' A whole generation - our young generation - has been destroyed because of these undisciplined, liberal 'values' - values that appear to be 'nice' on the outside, values that win the approval of the masses when 'leaders' tip-toe over their emotions (if they even legitimatelty be called 'leaders'), have actually been the ruination of so many young people. These days most people are commonly completely independent, egotistical and thoroughly obnoxious - nice on the surface but dare to challenge them and their pampered egos soon rise up in violent rage. I'd rather be tough on the outside and soft on the inside, than soft on the outside and mean on the inside. Call me 'old fashioned' if you like but my generation and the ones before it, for all their faults, actually built something whilst the modern on is busily tearing everything down and attempting to rewrite history George Orwell-fashion. Fascism (or Marxism) with a smile on its face is still the same beast when it's finally (and all too easily) enraged.

Honestly, I am worried about the young generation of believers because you can't protect them completely from the mindset of the current age unless you can raise them in the metaphorical 'wilderness'. The difference between those of my children schooled in the system and those homeschooled is marked. We didn't do it perfectly (either way) but we did our best. However, they were raised in 'normal' times, by which I mean it has been compartitively 'peaceful' out here in the West. But that is all going to change. The Final Generation will get 20-30 years in a world very different from this one in which we must suppose they will be shaped in a similar way to the second generation under Moses which Joshua led into the Priomised Land. When they got to Jericho they had only ever known the ways of Yahweh, plus they had seen the defects of their parents and learned from them, we must suppose. Praise Yah there won't be a 'third generation' to corrupt because by then the Millennium will have begun.

And so we - my generation - in all our imperfections, continue as best we can to get everything prepared, as Moses did for Joshua. There's still a lot to do and there is still the Second Jericho for the Last Exoduseers to face some day in the future. In the meantime we must deal with today's obstaces and do so with resolve, under authority and as a disciplined company trusting implicity in Messiah Yah'shua (Jesus).