Chag sameach Rosh Chodesh kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and welcome back as we start the fifth month of the biblical year. As promised two days' ago at Shavu'ot we're going to run through the second half of Chapter 354 of the Olive Branch and then I want to share something personal with you.

Before we do that, let's just recap the first part which we covered last time, the first of three visions:

2. I saw a group of people, whom I recognised as my family and other members of [NCAY], walking along a narrow, rocky gorge.

3. The sides of the valley were steep and rugged, and the valley bottom itself was dry and stoney.

4. As the company of people turned around a bend they were confronted by a massive wall of rocks and rubble about 10 to 20 metres high that blocked their way, making further progress impossible, apparently the result of a natural rock fall.

5. All looked hopeless. And then, quite suddenly, I was lifted up into the air so that I could see beyond the rocky wall, and there before my view was a beautiful reservoir filled with blue, sparkling water of great depth, the waves of which were lapping against almost the very top of the rocky barrier.

6. Surprised and delighted at the sight, I was then gently lowered by the invisible force back onto the dry valley floor after a few seconds, and I found myself among the people, wondering how we could scale the rocky sides of the gorge, and fearful that the waters might spill over the top or break down the wall and so engulf us in a mighty and terrible deluge.

7. The vision then faded away, and I was left to wonder at the interpretation.

8. I understood that our lonely walk would soon be over and that great spiritual resources and blessings lay ready for us to tap, but I did not know what would immediately transpire, nor how we would overcome our problems.

9. Since I had in recent weeks been occupying my mind with the acquisition of land and the settlement of Kadesh by our people, I supposed that the vision might in some way relate to this and to the spiritual needs of [NCAY] in general" (OB 354:2-9).

This vision has not yet been fulfilled yet but I believe its fulfilment is imminent, and I'll tell you why at the end. The two that follow were fulfilled in the period 1994 during which time NCAY experienced tremendous upheaval in Norway as shortly after this prophecy was issued there was a rebellion and most of the membership defected and then began persecuting their former brethren and sisters. This was a most painful time as all of these were family, one of those who remained being the fulfilment of the third vision. However, it turns out that there was a masked prophecy in the second vision, and possibly the third (though not necessarily involving the same person) at least, which has in part been fulfilled and may well soon be fulfilled again. I think you will find this as interesting as have I.

So let's continue, but as we do so, bear in mind this revelation was received in 1994 while we were still living and headquartered in Norway, three years before we moved to Kadesh-biyqah here in Sweden where, as you can see, we have very high ceilings, about 5-6 meters tall, as this was once a school a century ago when this place was built. Previous to that, there had been a wooden building which stood a little way behind me and was demolished to make way for this stone and brick one. We also knew, before we discovered this place, that the assembly room which we're in would have pink walls, owing to a vision I had seen. The colour of the meting room walls here is a creamy-pink, the only room in the building with this colour scheme, and they have remained so the entire time we have been here since 1997.

I also want to remind you that the next room, which doubles up as a dining room sometimes, is also high-ceilinged, contains a very large table which, when fully extended, is about 2½ meters long that can comfortably seat 14 or more persons. We knew nothing of the dimensions of this house until the day before we checked it over in 1997, less than a week before we were due to vaccate our last home in Norway, which had been low-ceilinged as ordinary houses are. As you can see this assembly room has windows that extend all the way to the ceiling as does the room with the table next door, which also has a window almost touching the ceiling above an outer door that is partly made of glass. Some of you may remember another vision about the same big table which had a bright light above it and four beams of light extended from the in the direction of the four points of the compass, leaving the room and the building and circling around the world, bisecting the world twice into four quarters, indicating the scope of the reach of this ministry.

So bearing all these details in mind, that we now know with hindsight, let's read on, remembering also that like the first part of the vision of the reservoir and rocky wall, much is symbolic. Nevetrtheless the physical resembances to the description in the vision are astonishing:

10. A second vision then opened up before me and I saw leading members of [NCAY] seated behind a large table apparently in conference in a large, almost bare room with a very high ceiling, giving a feeling that matters of great solemnity and high spiritual content were being discussed.

11. Behind the people were several very tall, elongated windows that stretched almost up to the ceiling, and through which a brilliant light was shining. This vision closed quite rapidly.

Four of the original 12 leaders assembled here in 1997. As the economic collapse gets underway and as anarchy prevails across the land, we can expect all kinds of difficulties that will require us to have some serious consultations together, as we have in the past. We certainly know there are going to be immense economic problems this winter and that the aftermath will likely last years. Last year electricity prices amost trebled and we have been told they will double again this winter. The world we once knew will never return, and the formerly Christisan West is being punished for its revolt against Yahweh. A different spirit will prevail over the land and people will have to learn to be as self-sufficient as they can be as in olden times by using the land to grow their own food. The dark powers-that-be are already planning to roll out another pandemic with lockdowns that will not only destroy the economy even more but also ussher in a full-blown dictatorship...if they're allowed to succeed. They're already losing the war their provoked in the Ukraine in their bid to destroy their main rival.

I mention this as the likely setting of the third vision, which remember was fulfilled about 25 years ago, but which may have other layers, which now follows:

12. Finally, a third vision opened up equally rapidly, almost thrust under my nose, as it were.

13. I saw the distressed face of one of the [NCAY] members with her right arm outstretched as though signalling 'stop'.

14. She was greatly alarmed by something, and seemed to be saying, 'No! no! no!'

15. Whether she was looking at me or beyond me I am not sure, perhaps the latter, as someone or some persons seemed to be giving her great difficulties. This vision also closed very rapidly.

16. I subsequently gave this sister prophetic counsel not to fear the difficulties that would appear to overwhelm her in the near future, for the dark night of persecution would eventually pass and that she, and her persecutors, would be greatly enriched as a result.

As I already remarked , if this is repeated again like the Solemn Assembly vision showed at a time of either persecution or great difficulty, there it will almost certainly be someone else who comes close to cracking because of the sacrifices required. And tremendous sacrifice is required of those who are serious about following Yah'shua (Jesus) in these times. We can all of us count our losses over the years, with tragedies too private and painful to talk about in a public meeting. All of us have wanted to give up at times, not least because we feel unworthy. I myself am no exception.

One of the most interesting things we have been witness to as we have served the Christ's Kingdom as Messianic Evangelicals is to discover what sort of character lies in each of us. Many people whom we thought were stalworts deserted us when the going got tough or when they vainly supposed they could better Yahweh's ways. The pastor of Oslo attempted a coup d'état while I was away in England and tried to hijack the branch and start his own church, which failed. He and his family, who were behind the rebellion, now count themselves as atheists or agnostics.

We lost several congregations in our early days. One mission, numbering a little over a 100 souls in our first East African Mission in Kenyan, refused to stop the wicked and abusive practice of cliterectomy on women which is a deep-seated tradition in that part of the world.

We lost over a thousand members in India, partly because the government threatened to sieze the land they had given the leadership there to build a clinic and orphanage on if the leadership continued to receive economic assistance from anyone abroad, that is, that is, us here in Scandinavia (something I have always found bizzare) or if they maintained any ties to 'foreign' (non-Indian) churches. They wanted everything to be independent. So our churches became independent of us. It was around this time that Yahweh taught us the biblical Creation Calendar which was undoubtedly what broke the back of the Indian leadership because they rejected it, for reasons they never explained, deciding they would go it alone, keep the land for the clinic and orphanage, and continue in Saturday worship. It was a sad loss as the mission was growing fast and even spreading into Pakistan.

We lost our mission in Benin, West Africa, when the leader cheated us and two other ministries (unbeknown to us at first) whom he played off one against the other. The pastor pretended to be a part of each of our ministries without the other two knowing the other existed. We only found out when one of the other ministries got in contact with us, surprised that we were calling it 'our' mission when they had been led to believe it was theirs. We paid to set up a chicken farm for the leader there to make him financially self-suffient. Hde lost his support from all three missions in the end and was blacklisted.

And finally, we lost our second east African Mission in Kenya when the leader there did something similar, though in this case he played the doctrinal compriomise and appeasement game so as not to lose members with some of his congregations observing the Creation Calendar, some the Saturday 'sabbath' and others the 'Sunday' sabbath. Not until someone investigated for us locally did we find out the truth. I personally invested heavily in that, giving him a tenth of my inheritance to build a mission home, a large worship center, train the leader in aquaponics and furnish the buildings with equipment. He also lied about quitting gibberish tongue-speaking [2]. And they were not the only ones. And like I said before, we have gone from several thousand members to less than a dozen today.

In retrospect I can look back and praise Yahweh for this for none of them were really with us, and who wants to perpetrate a lie? It was steep learning curve for us about trust. I suppose many would have quit at this stage, especially as we have got older and more infirm, but we did not, and have waited long and hard. And today we are at the edge of both a financial collapse and an authentic revival. There are many other reasons we have plodded on and that is because so many of the prophecies Yahweh has given us over the years have been fulfilled. You'll find most of them in the Olive Branch [1], at least the earlier ones up to the time we moved to Sweden to complete this work in 1997. The reason I bring this particular set of three prophecies up now it precisely because I believe the first vision of the reservoir is about to be fulfilled, if not with the original pioneers then definitely with the next and final generation. And there are other prophecies too, like Brother Herman's prophetic dream of the Fishnet seen in 1998 of revival in Norway that is soon to come.

It takes courage and loyalty to serve in this work because the world, let alone the churches steeped in unscriptural fossilised traditions, is not friendly to the emet (truth). In a word, it takes character, and I want to end today by talking a little about that by sharing a vision I had yesterday morning.

In the vision there were two animals standing outside the front door of Kadesh-biyqah. One was larger than the other but I could not see what kind of animal is was but I knew it represented me. The second was a sturdy ram, a male sheep, with large curly horns, the kind the Israelites used to make shofarim with with to call assemblies and warn of enemy advances. The ram was standing in front of me. Then I noticed a group of people approaching Kadesh-biyqah. I seemed to know that they were not genuine and were coming to visit us under false pretenses, as many have done in the past. The moment the ram saw these people, it leaped into action and charged down the front yard and chased them all away. They hid behind the garden wall separating our two properties but the ram found them out and drove them away from there too and entirely off the property. It was Brother Herman who, like one of my family, is a no-nonsense sort of person, a Caleb of sorts, who calls a spade a spade and shows no mercy to liars and deceivers. You always know where you stand with him. He's a former Lutheran and Pentecostal and is our longest serving member from Scandinavia, and has served in a number of leadership positions over the years [3]. We're very glad to have him with us today over this summer conference season!

While I'm on the subject of character let me end today by sharing an experience of my own this morning which if nothing else will serve as an illustration of how some things in dreams work as self-revelation devices so that we may know where we stand in our spiritual walk. This is not a prophetic dream about the future, or anything else like that, but is rather what I would call a 'testing dream' where we find ourselves placed in different circumstances and can guage our spiritual well-being by our reactions and responses to them. I am not sharing this with you to toot my own horn, because I am more than aware of my personal failings, but rather to encourage you when you go through periods of self-doubt to allow Yahweh to be the judge. You see, in dreams we are more or less forced to be our 'natural selves' with all cloaks and masks which we might use in the conscious state removed. In the sleep state we are obliged to be genuine. Here are motives and drives are clearly revealed.

The dream began somewhere in the Midlands of England, a part of the country I know little about, though my mother is from there. In the dream I was lost. I did not know where I was and could not get my bearings. I was in my car which I had pulled up as I was getting nowhere. The next thing I know is a dwarf man comes up to me offering to help. I took him into a pub and bought him a soft drink. He had his own tiny, short little table, because of his height, and so I joined him on the floor while the publican and his customers mocked the dwarf who was obviously acclimatised to being the buff of jokes in poor taste and sometimes outright cruelty. So I sat with him at his level. After that we left the pub and he got into the driver's seat of the car and offered to get me back on the right road and so get properly oriented. I was happy for him to do so. He was a competent driver but I had a sneaking suspicion. 'You do have a Driver's Licence, don't you?' I asked him, slightly worried.

No, he said, he didn't, but he was clearly competent so I let him continue as he seemed to be getting the job done. I am reminded of the time in Oxford when I ran my own private tutorial collage when I hired an English teacher who was brilliant and utterly dedicated but had no teaching qualifications - I wouldn't ordinarily have hired someone who was unqualified but his pupils liked him so much and he was so successful in getting them to pass their examinations that I not only let him continue in my employment but also offered him a room in my flat (apartment) to live. It turned out he was an epileptic which came as quite a shock to me when he had his first seizure as he had not informed me of it, too ashamed to do so, and afraid that if one happened during a class he might lose his job. But I let him stay and took care of him the best I could. To his enormous credit, he got his self-confidence back working for me (he couldn't get a job previous to this and was on social benefit) and subsequently went on to get a degree in his 50's. You see, he had been the black sheep in his family. His father was a distinguished Harley Street surgeon in London and his brother a successful accountant with his own accountancy firm. Because he did poorly his family rejected him which led to mental problems and epilepsy. In the end his father performed a lobotomy on him to 'cure' him, but this only exaccerbated his epilepsy. All he needed was to be accepted and given a chance. As Christians we are not to look down on the less fortunate because everyone has value. It was not his fault that he wasn't loved because he wasn't as bright and capable as his father and brother any more than it is a dwarf's fault that he's a dwarf. In the end, he turned out to be a successful teacher and had students all over the world, mostly Iranian, who are doing well in their professions. I know one who is a radiologist in a London hospital whom this English teacher helped get a place in University and treated him as a son.

So that was my first dream. The next dream took place at the opposite end of the social spectrum. The Queen of England was celebrating her 100th birthday and there were thousands of guests at Buckingham Palace. Much as I loathe the corruption of the Roal Family I do believe Queen Elizabeth is a genuine Christian of sorts and has done much to maintain the cohesion of her country. In the next dream scenario the Queen had personally asked me to give a speech. Why, or how, I don't know. I was given a box containing an old vinyl record with a song that was to be played for her and I was also to present her with some kind of dessert that I was to personally prepare. All the ingredients were in the box and I was sent to the huge kitchen to prepare it. My speech was short and simple which said something along the lines that I was there representing a Sovereign (Yahweh) greater than us both and congratulated her on reaching her 100th birthday. My mother died just short of 100 and the Queen's own mother died at 101, so it's possible. The Queen is 96 at present. I'm not saying the Queen will reach 100 as this is not, as I said, a prophetic dream, but a test. This section of the dream ended in the kitchen where I joined the staff to sing Happy Birthday in the languages of the United Kingdom - English, Welsh, Cornish and Gaelic. We were watching from a huge TV screen and when the Welsh version came up I sang with great enthusaism because my mother, whose first husband had been Welsh before being killed in the last war, taught her some Welsh and she in her turn taught me how to pronounce it. So there I was singing in Welsh enthusiastically as the words appeared on the screen. A servant girl in the kitchen was very annoyed because she thought I was just showing off. In truth I was simply singing heartily to congratulate the Queen.

Then the third dream happened. I am back in the pub where I had been with the dwarf but this time elsewhere in he building. My 'wife' was with me this time (though I didn't recognise her) and was very mistrustful of me because there was a completely naked woman in the room who wanted to commit suicide, and my wife was afraid I would gaze at her and have lustful thoughts. I assured her that that was the farthest thing from my mind - I couldn't even see her at this point. But then we found ourselves in a bathroom with a bathtub twice the size of a normal tub filled to the brim with water and in it, submerged, was the naked woman in question. She was attempting to drown herself but nobody was intervening. She had her arms outstretched, her fingers frozen solid as though trying to clutch something, and the last trickle of bubbles was coming out of her mouth as she entered her death throes. I grabbed her left hand and pulled her out of the bath as she gasped for air. And then the dream ended.

Now I know exactly what these dreams were about. The 'pub' represents the public arena of life, the dwarf the downstrodden, the Queen those in authority over us, the servant girl and 'wife' those who question our motives, and the suicidal woman those souls needing our help in life. All these scenarios were a test of character, for me to personally guage my own responses in imaginary, though at the time of dreaming, seemingly situations. We are, for instance, to treat the rich and poor alike, and are not to judge according to outer appearance, as Yah'shua (Jesus) taught us. There is nothing quite as horrible as being falsely accused (it's a kind of psychic murder) or to be rejected because one has 'failed' in someone else's eyes. These are debilitating experiencing and require healing. However, we are always to respond with grace to the unkind and mean-spirited even when abused by others, something that's not easy to do without Yah'shua (Jesus). I seem to have passed these tests, for now, but I know there are other things I have to work with. My health and my attitude to it being probably the main test right now which I feely admit I have not done well in thus far.

The preacher Bill Johnson recently said that the backslider commonly blames Elohim (God) for what He didn't do that we expected Him to do; but those who run with tenderness for who He is will always define Him by what He has said, by what He has promised, and by what He has already done. It's easy to look back and view our traumas and tragedies as either failures on our part, or punishments from Elohim (God), or to treat them as evidence that there is no Elohim (God), or simply to view them as part of a bigger, mysterious (to us) Plan that we cannot yet fathom. Recently I related to you the shocking story of a friend of ours who met Yah'shua (Jesus) face-to-face in hospital and was healed from a fatal illness, who then went on to deny Him so as to get a roof over her head with her daughter, a convert to a militanmt Jewish sect, and see her granddaughter. We are such contrary, illogical, ungrateful beings at time, presuming always to know better than others, and at times, even Yahweh Himself.

If you have been a believer for a while, you should be able to look back and see plenty of evidence of Yahweh's kindness toward you and others. As you push aside all your doubts and fears, and let the Scriptural witness speak for itself, and consider all the incredible things He has already done for you, you can only reasonably conclude that He is absolutely good and that the explanation for tragedy and suffering and pain and illness is not because He isn't good. Indeed, we can say that He is always good because He is love (1 Jn.4:8,16).

We don't get the right to choose things like, 'I don't want to experience any pain in life'. That's not our decision. It isn't an option. Embrace that truth and you will save yourself a lot of heartache and save yourself from doing what my friend who was saved and miraculously healed by Him by grace alone did. She just called out to Him, sincerely, as an unbeliever and He came. Life is not supposed to be Paradise even if we may experience 'paradise moments' down here. May you have many! Nevertheless the final Paradise is the next phase, the coming millennial resurrection world. Life is a mixed bag but in this mixed bag Yahweh commands us to "rejoice always" (Lk.6:23; Phil.4:4), "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess.5:17), and "in everything give thanks" (1 Thess.5:18).

Now think about it. Those verses are completely useless unless you're going to experience loss and disappointment. Nobody needs to be taught to rejoice if everything is working the way you want it to work. It would be pointless, wouldn't it? Yahweh's nature - His character- is defined by His promises and His history recorded in Scripture - the Bible is the primary witness or testimony as to who He is, what He does, and why. That's why we need that book so desperately. Here you will find Him defined. His testimony is who He is. His Name, Yahweh, means 'I am who I am', 'I am that I am', 'I am what I am'. He doesn't conceal who He is but demonstrates it in His promises and deeds.

But what about loss? What when one loses a loved one? Or if one is deserted by a spouse, children, friends, brothers and sisters in the Gospel? How do we deal with that? That will always be a mystery and though I have tried to fathom it by every intellectial and emotional tool at my disposal, I have never been able to. Nor will you. And I expect I will try again because I am stubborn and want to press the outer limits of my understanding as far as they will go. And this is the mystery that we have the privilege of carrying. Now there's a thought to cradle and examine. The level of revelation that Elohim (God) gives you will always be equal to the measure of mystery you are willing to live with. Let me repeat that: The level of revelation that Elohim (God) gives you will always will always be equal to the measure of mystery you are willing to live with. And the inability to live with mystery is your resistance to childlikeness. Let me repeat that too: the inability to live with mystery is your resistance to childlikeness, to being child-like...not childish, but being child-like, which depends utterly on trust. You see, it is child-likeness that actually gives us access to dimensions and realms of Yahweh's Kingdom that you can't get in any other way, however hard you try. And the harder you try, the more frustrated you will become. There are certain things that our Heavenly Father has hidden in your journey through life, fro a reason, one of which is to develop trust or faith.

Let me give you an example. In the "valley of the shadow of death" in which David says of Yahweh in Psalm 23, "for Thou art with me" (Ps.23:4, KJV), there are measures of His presence that you can find nowhere else. That's not, of course, to say that His presence isn't to be found elsewhere...it's primarily to be found in our prayer closets and here in assemblies when we worship Him and study His word and receive prophecy and the like. All that's true but certain aspects of Yahweh's presence can only be found in mystery, and much of His mystery is to be found in suffering because there He can reveal Himself in a unque way that he can't anywhere else. Since there is no greater treasure than Yahweh and His presence, we should not, in a moment of anger or desperation, reject the opporunity to experience Him in that valley, particularly when loved ones die. Do you want to go to Heaven? Of course you do! Well, Heaven is itself Him, and we can only know Him by embracing the mystery of suffering when it descends upon us as it will at least once, but more than liklely several times, in our lives. The ultimate mystery is, of course, our own death, where we can meet Him in a state of utter powerlessness to do anything to remain alive, and can only commit our spirits to Him as He committed His to His Father (Lk.23:46). It is only in the darkness of soul, in the trial of not knowing what's going on, and doing everything you know to do, and having things not work out the way you wanted or expected and thought they should, that you may meet Him as close as close can be.

Yahweh is not a vending machine, something I've said many, many times particularly with the 'name it, and claim it' folks in mind. You don't get to make an offering and get back from Him what you want. Our relationship to Him isn't like that, nor indeed in genuine relationships with other human beings either. All the best things that have ever happened to us, and ever will happen to us, are those that we could never earn or deserve. None of us has the right to re-evaluate what Yahweh is like by replacing the Scriptural witness with our own made-up versions.

Now I could talk about this subject a lot more and probably will another time, hopefully soon, because we do need to talk more about the character of Elohim (God). But for now I just wanted to sensitise you to some of the mystery of Elohim (God) in advance of the hard times that are already upon us and will accelerate in intensity now. Do you remember the tavnith (pattern) I taught you yesterday in the seals, trumpets and bowls of Revelation 6-16? Hopefully you will be able to relate these thoughts I have shared with you today as we get further into the Book of Revelation.

I pray this has been a blessing to you as the faithful prepare for the blessings of tjhe great spiritual reservoir. I look forward to seeing you in a week's time at Sabbath. Yah'shua (Jesus) bless you all. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] You can obtain a hardcopy of this from us in either Sweden by mail or by visiting, or in Norway by visiting or receiving a visit from our representative by appointment.
[2] See the East Africa Mission which is currently thriving.
[3] See Leadership and the Norwegian Mission website