A42) A Realigning of National Churches in the Global Body of Christ, (S. Dobbs 2005).
This word links to words No's A54, C27, A3, A26, C42, A9, C46, A5, A7, A10, A50, A45,
A52, A24
On the 29th of August 2005 the Holy Spirit gave me the following short vision: I saw many different plants, these represented the churches of different nations. Some of these were large because they had grown much in the past, others were smaller. The soil they were all growing in was more fertile in some parts of the ground than in others. The larger plants were now surrounded by soil that had become stony, hard, dry and less fertile. Some of the smaller plants however were now growing in soil that had become very rich and fertile and they looked the healthiest.
The larger plants were in the background of this scene and seemed to have lost their prominent positions. The smaller plants were in the foreground and caught ones eye, they looked as if they had been planted more recently than the others. These smaller healthier plants, those in the most fertile soil, grew much faster than the larger plants. As I watched they suddenly grew and quickly became the dominent plants. Their growth was phenomenally rapid as if accelerated way beyond what one would naturally expect. Their foliage grew upwards and forwards and quickly obscured the view of most parts of the older plants behind them.
I understood that the older plants symbolised the churches of those nations that had dominated the global body of Christ in the past. The harder, stony ground they were now growing in reflected the fact that in many of these nations the Christians had become less dedicated to the Lord in recent times.
The smaller plants in the foreground symbolised the churches of some of those nations that have had less influence in the global body of Christ in the past. Some were in nations that had not been influenced by Christianity for that long. The more fertile ground they were now growing in symbolised how many of the believers in these nations were now following Christ with deep levels of commitment and submission. The health of these plants reflected the fact that there were already substantial moves of the Spirit and many unbelievers were already coming to know the Lord in these lands. These national churches were depicted in the foreground because in the future they are going to lead the way amongst Gods national churches at a global level. Their rapid almost startling growth shows that they are going to grow even more rapidly in the future and have such impact in the world that this will be impossible, even for unbelievers, to ignore. Their influence in the global body of Christ will then eclipse that of the other national churches which will remain in the background.
I noticed something else in this vision; the national churches that had dominated in the past were of a different type of plant to the newer ones in the foreground. I could see one of these older plants more clearly than the others. This was a calm stately and genteel looking plant. It had thin horizontal layers of foliage spaced apart at regular intervals up a straight central stem. I perceived that there were many other older plants in the background which had similar straight stems to this one although this was the only one that I had a clear view of. These types of plant were separated by a short distance from one another. The rapidly growing plants in the foreground were different. They started out having a similar straight stem to the others (although their leaves were proportionally larger). As they grew however their stems became flexible and they took the form of a sprawling mass of exotic shoots and stems which tumbled along the ground and up into the air, interweaving with one another so that it was hard to see where one plant ended and another began. This symbolised the more organic and less structured nature of these national churches which will grow as the Spirit leads and has opportunity. There is also going to be a greater level of unity, interdependence and cooperation between these national churches than has occurred between churches of nations in the past. It will appear as one new mass move of God which won’t be limited by national church boundaries.
The fast growing exotic looking plants had large leaves, in deep shades of green, which grew up and obscured much of the view of the older plants behind them. This revealed how much more important and influential they will become in Christ’s body than the churches of these other nations. One particularly large exotic leaf grew up suddenly and appeared in the foreground, right in the centre of this scene. It was almost as if it was imposing itself on ones view. I believe this was predicting how, in the near future, the works and purposes of God from these nations will be so dynamic and imposing that, even at a global level, they will be impossible for anyone to ignore. This may also symbolise how one particular, work or one part of Christ’s body, will become particularly pronounced and important in the world.
Parts of the straight stemmed plants could still be seen in the background through the dense foliage of the newer plants as they still have a part to play. I believe this also symbolises how the Lord will use some of these more historic national churches to back up and support the more dynamic newer churches that are emerging in the world today. As one of these more historic churches could be seen more clearly than the others, (the one described earlier), this could imply that it will have a particularly important role in supporting what God is doing through the newer national churches.
This vision was much like watching one of those nature programs where months of plant growth is speeded up and condensed into a short film; in this vision though it all happened within a second or two. It was so sudden that it was startling. I believe that this is very relevant. I believe that this vision predicts that many of the national churches that are already experiencing much growth and an expansion of Gods kingdom at present will experience even more explosive growth in the future. That this growth will happen in a very short space of time and be so dynamic that the body of Christ and the world will have never seen anything like it before.
S. Dobbs, Aug 2005.