Past episodes have looked at the ways jealousy and ambition can grieve and quench the ministry of the Spirit. Likewise man’s church system which sustains itself through systemically suppressing the witness of the Spirit. I’d like to share a vision from the Lord that showed me what’s behind it all, and a dream that contrasts a ministry of compassion and healing with the ministry of selfish men. Both have helped to show me the nature of man’s church system and what the Lord wants ministry to be.

It was while meditating on the saying “the ground is level at the foot of the cross” that the Lord prompted me to consider His perspective through a vision.

As if looking down from the cross, through the eyes of Jesus, I saw a great crowd gathered beneath his feet. Grief was written on every face and I was overwhelmed with emotion by the sight of them. Suddenly, I saw several men emerge as if from thin air who began to scurry about, trying to gain the attention of those who were gathered. They worked frantically to corral the followers of Christ, like wranglers trying to cut and rope cattle to form smaller, manageable herds for themselves. They literally inserted themselves between Jesus and his followers as if to say “look at me, not Jesus”.

With such offensive imagery now lodged in my minds-eye, the Lord had me consider several scriptures for insight. It’s recorded that the soldiers gambled over Jesus clothing. It never occurred to me that dividing His clothes was symbolic of dividing up Jesus followers after His death. Metaphorically, Jesus wears us like clothing in this world in as much as He lives in and through us by the Holy Spirit. In the same way, it’s written that we are clothed with Christ.

So who are these scurrilous men who divide up the followers of Christ like the spoils of war?

To answer that question, the Lord brought me to John 10 and the difference between Jesus, who is the Good Shepherd and the door to the sheep, and those despicable men, known as thieves, robbers and hirelings who enter the sheep fold by means other than Jesus. Paid men with no concern for the Lord’s sheep, who gather unto themselves for a profit – reducing the saints to a loaf of bread (Proverbs 6:26).

On another occasion, the Lord gave me a dream that has long guided me in ministry and conveyed a strong warning for the children of God about the men who seek to poach them from the river of God.

I was fishing from a large rock that extended into the river. There was someone with me – a faceless friend would be a good way to describe my fishing buddy. Using my steelhead pole and level wind reel, I cast out and reeled in slowly to work the bait along the bottom of the river where the big fish are.

With the first cast, I reeled in too quickly and the bait did not reach the bottom. My fishing buddy suggested I reel in more slowly and keep my rod tip up to achieve more depth. With the 2nd cast, I felt the sinker bumping along the bottom of the river and I waited for the hesitation that would tell me I had a bite. When I felt what seemed like a bite, I set the hook and began to reel in quickly. My ‘fishing buddy’ instructed me to slow down and take my time, as a slow retrieve is better for landing a big fish.

As the fish came in, I saw that it was foul hooked in its side and knew that I’d have to release it. When the fish was at my feet I knelt to remove the hook from its side. As I did, the fish took on human qualities: eyes that expressed feelings and speech. On seeing me it expressed great fear that I might hurt it. My heart went out to the fish.

As I reached for the pliers to remove the hook, I noticed there were several other hooks embedded in its side and mouth. I comforted the fish and said that after removing all the hooks, I would release it. Slowly and carefully I used pliers to remove them all, some large, some rusty, and several with broken fishing line still attached. When they were removed, I ran my hand over its skin to smooth the scarring. Some of the wounds were festered and in time the hooks would have fallen out. But since I had the opportunity and the fish and I were developing trust, I removed them all.

As I worked, the fish began to taunt a pair of fisherman up river who were fishing from a sand bar. They were trophy hunters who did not practice catch and release. Instead of fishing poles, they used gaff hooks and simply ripped fish out of the river and flipped them onto the sand bar behind them. I don’t remember word for word what the fish yelled at them, but it was an expression of joy and relief that this time a merciful fisherman had caught it, healed its wounds and intended to release it back to the river. The gaff fisherman reacted with a look of anger.

When all the hooks were removed and the scarring healed, we bid each other farewell and I let the fish go with a loving pat. I enjoyed catching, helping and releasing the fish far more than I ever enjoyed catching, keeping and eating one. And I had the distinct feeling that my success at fishing would improve, because the fish would tell others about the kindly fisherman. In fact, I had the sense that my days of using a fishing pole were over. The other fish would voluntarily come to me based on the witness of the fish I caught, healed and released.

My fishing buddy seemed to affirm me as I was doing all this, always with with a hand on my shoulder and helpful advice. At the end, He put his arm around me and commented that we’d had “a good day”.

After the dream, I prayed for insight and talked about it with a few brothers. The most important insight to me is that we were all fishing from the River of Life, within which there are countless believers who have been wounded by trophy hunters. The servant of God fishes under His anointing from the rock that is Christ to heal and return the fish to the river that gives them life. God owns the river and all the fish that live in it. Conversely, the gaffers steal from God and deprive the fish of their very lives.

As believers, we tend to think of fishing in terms of being fishers of men in the sea of the unsaved. So the visual of fishing in the River of Life is unusual. About that, have you ever given serious thought to church growth? In the churches God sent us to, it’s been my observation that membership is like a revolving door. New members are rarely new converts, rather they’re established Christians who simply change churches for a variety of reasons. Membership numbers change little as births keep up with deaths; loss of a member through marriage is offset by a marriage that gains a member. Families move and another takes their place. Churches routinely poach talented members from other churches. Thus gains at one church come at the expense of another. It’s disingenuous when a church crows about a new member, who is not a new convert to Christ, but rather, a transfer from a cross town rival or worse yet, poached talent. If instead churches were going out into the world with the Gospel to make new disciples, like Jesus told them to do, you’d expect to see more baptisms scheduled. Yet I’ve been to churches where there haven’t been any adult baptisms in years, only christenings. No wonder men resort to ever more aggressive means to beach a fish from God’s River of Life to feed themselves, to build houses on sand, to boast of their flesh, and so on.

In the end, the vision and dream left me with the impression that there is nothing so abominable in the eyes of the Lord, as men who dare come between Him and His sheep. Would that men quit poaching from the River of Life and show some love and respect for those who belong to the Father. And, it goes without saying, fish from the sea of unsaved men like the Lord told us to do in the great commission.