Probably the coolest vision I have received while in Joppa was my Falling Arrows dream. Much like when Peter was in Joppa he had a vision about all the animals of the Earth being pure to eat, as God cleans things that were once impure (Acts 10:9-16). I could imagine being Peter on that rooftop before the noon lunch, in the heat of the day, getting hungry and praying while this fast was occurring. I have fasted before and received cool messages, revelations and prophecies, but nothing like the dream I am going to share with you.
Much like Peter's vision, I too was riled up in the Holy Spirit before I fell asleep. I was already on a Holy Spirit filled Dunamis Friday night in early March 2012, and I had made the foolish decision to ask God a question before going to bed.
Ask and you shall receive.
"How bad is the world going to have to get before Jesus comes back? I mean we all have stability and security for the most part. We'll always have homes or dwellings to live in and food to scrounge. What is going to have to happen?" [Keep in mind, as the opening section begins, I had no idea that Syria attacked Turkey earlier that week--in fact I hadn't watched or read the news in months. And currently with Russia sending attack helicopters to Syria I need to get this out, NOW. God's been on me for two months to get this written so I'm going to do what he tells me].
Falling Arrows: An apocalyptic dream (3/2/12)
Attack on Turkey
There was such vivid illustration in the dream that these first few sequences cannot be fully expressed, but I will do the the best to describe to you what I saw.
Syria had enough. They needed to regain the power they once claimed in the region and they decided to go up against the more "westernized" culture of Turkey. What a more clear way to send a message than through a shock and awe bombing campaign against a dormant enemy. Syria threw all they had against Turkey, and this began civil uprising within the region. It wasn't only mechanical violence that reigned down in the Mediterranean country, but human violence as well. Syrians who lived within Turkey began targeted attacks against their Turkish neighbors by shooting, suicide bombing and torturing their once friends.
At once Turkey revolted and struck back, as would any country, nation or people who were ambushed suddenly and violently. What began as an act of self defense turned into an ethnic and nationalist war. Turkey and those who identified with Turkey broke out sectarian violence not only against the Syrians, but against all in the Middle East and North Africa. What started as Syria wanting to flex its muscles turned into an all out ideological war.
The sectarian Syria attack and counter attack by Turkey helped fuel the Palestinians to seek revenge against the nation of Israel. Since most of the fighting between Turkey and Syria was between Muslims, Jews and Christians, Palestine felt even more empowered to take it to Israel and other Judeo-Christians in the region. Other conflicts also arose in the region, some religiously fueled, others just because they had a strong distaste for their neighbor.
The most interesting part was the changing in alliances. Depending on who was getting attacked for various reasons, enemies became friends and friends became enemies. If a third party became involved, pure chaos erupted and what would seem the most rational (enemies fighting enemies), actually became unpredictable (enemies turning against the third party and allying together to fight off the new intruders). By the middle of the regional crisis, the genesis of this conflict was forgotten, and many of the boundaries of the Middle East, Northern Africa, and Southern Europe were destroyed. The ebb and flow of alliances caused too much confusion, and the entire area turned to anarchy.
There was one startling detail missing though--the lack of the United States, UN and EU presence in this widespread violence.
[In the dream, the conflict was illustrated on a sweet looking ancient map of the region described. I saw ellipses of enemies morphing into allies against other ellipses, and so on and so forth. I wish I knew how to graphically create it because it was really neat to watch unfold.]
At home in the United States:
The Environment
Growing up in the country I knew that if apocalyptic times ever came about I would always have my hunting and gathering skills, as there are always animals around to hunt or scavenge and plants to eat. The apparent lack of animals was astounding...no rabbits in yards, squirrels in trees, birds in the air, deer in the fields, nothing. Not a peep of animal was to be heard, nor a flash of tail was to be seen. The main food source left besides the dwindling and over priced grocery supply was grass and tree roots.
A several year crippling drought in the farmlands (Midwest) and floods in the fertile crescents (Mississippi/Ohio River valleys) drove grocery food supplies to a desperate low. Even the abundance of corn for ethanol was dwindled to nothing thanks to the floods and drought.
The Economy
Economic depression had ripped through the U.S. starting with soaring gas prices at $10 a gallon thanks to greed, high taxation and faulty futures predictions, and there was no mass transit systems to allow for travel across the vast country. The crumbling economy forced leaders to make a strategic and crippling decision to bring all of the worldwide troop presence home and shut down all of our foreign military bases. The only active branches left were the National Guard, Reserves and Coast Guard.
The economy also led to massive nationwide layoffs causing many people to move back to their original homes to help support each other. This caused a lot of tension as there were multiple families and as many as 5 to 6 generations living under one roof or on one plot of land. In the dream, the illustration was quite interesting to watch the migration of people. I saw massive migratory shifts across the United States back to their original hometowns. One example was people who lived in Eau Claire moved to Superior; families who lived in Minneapolis moved to Dallas; Denver families left everything and moved to Orlando; etc. Basically, whatever family member had the biggest house or biggest plot of land, the nuclear relatives moved there.
Of course, no money meant record housing foreclosures as well. There were vacant houses and lots all over the United States. Some due to families leaving all they knew behind to live with other family members; whereas, others were vacant due to people just giving up and living in the streets or wherever they could find shelter. This included sewer ducts and drains, concrete overpasses and awnings, caves, tents, trees, wherever.
The shocking thing was no one lived in the vacant homes. Squatters did not exist, and I do not know why that was. Maybe it was because they had given up hope, had seen what living in homes really cost and their souls were crushed as a result, or they were afraid the banks would kick them out again. Whatever the case, the empty houses sat dormant and dilapidated.
The Politics
With dwindling resources, overburdened taxation, and public confidence at an all time low, the politicians became weary and desperate. Instead of drawing closer with their constituents and citizens they represented by pooling the resources, they turned to even more extreme politics. The weapon of choice, words: cutting, alienating words. No violence was ever used in the crumbling of the United States politico, but where weapons would have limited the overall damage, the cold and calculated rehtroic cut deeper than ever. Not only were the democrats and liberals fighting republicans, who were fighting the libertarians, who were out for blood against the tea partiers and constitutionalists, but the federal reps were fighting the states, states fighting each other, and in-fighting within the states over resources was out of control.
The dream highlighted Wisconsin, and how the people and families of Superior were fighting Eau Claire residents (even though many were only days ago close friends); Eau Claire screamed at Madison who was in yelling fits with Milwaukee. Of course all of these areas were also fighting against Minnesota, so on and so forth. But nothing was getting accomplished. Only deeper wounds and deeper anger.
Since the government was not functioning and corporate leaders were callously indifferent to the suffering (they were still mobile and affluent), nonprofits tried to jump in and help the cause. They pooled all their resources, put on clothing and food drives, tried to raise money, and in Eau Claire (and across the country) they moved into a one stop shop facility for ease of access for those in desperate need. But even they couldn't keep up and their racks and shelves soon became bare...except for one:
Goodwill
I personally have nothing against Goodwill, but the dream specifically pointed out Goodwill.
Since Goodwill had the brand recognition and national resources, they were able to flex their muscles and use the deseperation marketing to sell their image and convince the public to give them all donations. Usually Goodwill is great with sharing and allocating resources to the community, but now the power of being the trusted brand and seeing the public's response, they too became indifferent to the suffering and became hungry for riches. Their reps would go as far as turning people out of the donation lines for the local nonprofits and showing them their storeroom at the central location where all the nonprofits were housed.
"Look at all the resources we have. How could they, who have empty pegboard walls and shelves, compete with us? Give us your donations and we'll appropriately and responsibly allocate these to those who really need it."
What the public did not know was no one received the donations, as the Goodwill execs were getting rich off withholding the resources the deprived public so badly needed.
Nervous State Leaders
It was around this time word was getting out about the sectarian violence in Turkey, Syria and Middle East. Fearing the worst with the abroad conflicts but also fearing national outbreak of violence in the US, the governors decided to activate their National Guard soldiers to protect their states. This caused more tension between already isolated families (some families were split up--wives from children and spouses, children from parents, etc., due to not being able to afford to travel), as now fathers, mothers, sons and daughters were forced to leave the confines of home and head to the state's main National Guard bases for an indefinite amount of time.
The federal government could not do anything about it as their hands were tied with budget constraints on their own military branches. The federal military branches (Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force) was literally shut down due to lack of funding, and the bases were closed. Only the Pentagon remained open where the top military officials could confer in a central location in case if evasive action was needed.
Back in Europe:
The Politics
Meanwhile, tensions in the European Union and affiliated countries were growing stronger as the regional sectarian violence was becoming wide spread. The stronghold Western European countries (France, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Britain) were in the same political and economic battle as the United States, but had more of a sense of urgency in pulling together to find solutions to the situations before it spread to the "free world", and less verbal wars than what was experienced in the United States. However, even their great ideals of finding a solution was starting to come to an end, and hope was being lost.
Then it happened:
Falling Arrows
I was in my close friend's house with him, his girlfriend, and my father. My brother was working and my mom was absent, looking for food possibly. Chalsea was at home in Eau Claire. I had made the trip up to gather what little remaining resources we had left before heading back. I was standing by a window looking out at the gray, murky, cloud-filled sky, as the sun hadn't shown in days, looking over the streets and seeing the desperation setting in on the people below.
Out of no where I heard a "thwack" and a blood curdling scream. A man keeled over and a huge, 4-foot-long, 3-inch-wide, wooden arrow was stuck in him--ran him through. All of a sudden the window next to me crashed as an arrow flew in from out of nowhere. Then a barrage of wooden arrows came flying out of the sky, bouncing off people's rooftops and walls, smashing windows and denting vehicles. Carnage was in the streets as now people were being picked off left and right.
Pure panic filled the city, and no one knew what to do! People rushed for any sort of shelter and protection, including vacant houses, storm drains, caves, underpasses, buildings, anything with a roof and a narrow entrance.
I yelled throughout the house to gather everyone into the innermost rooms of the building away from windows, doors and exterior walls, as the arrows could only penetrate the first layer of the wall structures, and the roofs of the houses were impenetrable.
Immediately we turned on the television and scoured the internet to see if this was widespread. Certainly carnage was flowing throughout the United States and Canada as news reports flooded the airwaves and internet pages about the mass annihilation of innocent bystanders. The arrows also took out many satellites, communication towers and the trans-Atlantic wire (does that even exist anymore?) so communication with Europe and the rest of the world became obsolete. Cell phone usage was hit and miss, but people were able to access the internet and call each other, at least in the United States, through land line and dial up modems.
Meanwhile, back in Eurasia...
The fighting and desolation between the warring countries was starting to spread to more of Europe, all of Africa and the western part of the Asian continent. All over the region, Jews and Christians were being tortured, exiled and killed for their beliefs in God. Men and women were being stoned to death, hung from crosses, hanged, whipped, boiled, and any other means of death possible. The EU had given up hope and left it up to the independent countries to call truces or peace among the nations. It seemed that all power and control was lost and total anarchy was upon the Eastern hemisphere. Then the Falling Arrows started its descent on Western Europe--on those countries that had just given up hope (Spain, France, Britain, Ireland, Scotland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, etc).
The Stranger
Suddenly, a man of middle eastern descent, rose from the Mecca area of Saudi Arabia and began to purposefully and powerfully move throughout the region finding the most outcast and desperate people possible in the promise of bringing peace to the region. This guy was untouchable. He could walk right through live battles and not even be glanced by a bullet or touched by violence. In fact, time would stand still as he searched out and selected his chosen followers. His journey started in Egypt, moved to Morocco and Libya, then to Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Italy, Romania, Russia and even Poland.
It was in Poland where the vision, through a polarized orange/yellow hue, graphically showed a man of unknown religion being crucified by brazen armored soldiers. This peacemaker stranger, through what seemed pure unconcern and oblivion to the violence around him, had the audacity to walk right past all that was going on, reached out his hand and pulled the suffering victim down from the cross. From that point on the 12 followers of his were established, each one from a distant lineage of the tribes of Israel, and his crusade of bringing peace began.
He won the hearts of many, and the confidence politically and economically of the Western European countries as treaties were drawn up, the economy strengthened and hope restored. In fact, the arrows even quit falling on those parts of Europe that had given up all hope and started falling in Asia major.
However, the peace that was being won was a deceitful power play of more violence and carnage. Even though this stranger was able to unite the European and Middle Eastern cultures to solidarity, the violence grew even more widespread as he commanded the armies to spread to the rest of Asia to begin the world takeover. To kill anyone who was a survivor of the arrow attacks. And as the violence moved eastward, the arrows started falling again behind them, picking off all who weren't following.
The Anti-Christ had established himself in the world, and the Western world was no where to be found.
The Desolation in the United States
My vision then shifted back to the United States as the arrows flung themselves upon the once free country. I went from city to city, state to state seeing the desperation and loss of hope that began to sink in to so many hearts. Many people were hoping for a quick end to their lives so they wouldn't have to suffer anymore. There was a lot of wailing and sorrowful voices crying out to each other to find any solace possible.
The vision then focused in on Washington, D.C. It was like I saw the city through the same polarized yellow/orange lenses, as what used to be the capitol city lie before me in ruin. It looked as if an atom bomb had gone off, as the national monuments, buildings and offices were destroyed. All of our political leaders had been slayed by the arrows, and the Pentagon, Capitol Building and White House were nothing but mortar and bricks with the shell of the buildings left.
A New Hope in the United States
The vision then turned back to where I was huddled in the inner room of my friends house. I found myself crying out to God asking him what was going on and what needed to be done. I was desperately pleading with the Lord to stop the arrows from falling and to bring peace to the United States once again. The Lord simply answered,
"Go outside."
"Are you crazy, Lord! Arrows are flying out of the sky, picking people off left and right and you want me to go outside!!!??? Isn't praying from in here enough? Must I risk my life for nothing? Are you kidding me? Only a madman would go outside right now!"
"I'm with you, go outside and pray out loud. I will protect you."
"OK, I will do it," I answered hesitantly, "I will go outside and pray to you my Lord."
At first I didn't know what to pray so I just prayed out to God asking for his sovereignty and goodness even in times like this and admitting to him how scared I was. I really, really prayed about how scared I was and how badly I needed him in that moment. Suddenly, an umbrella type arch appeared over my head as I walked through the threshold of the door and onto the driveway outside. People who stood by their windows watched in awe.
"What are you doing!?" they screamed.
"Praying! Praying to my Lord, God!" I replied bewilderingly. I prayed a bit more and sure enough, I was safe. The arrows were bouncing off the protective shield above my head. I yelled out, "God will protect you, come outside and pray with me!" to all that would hear.
Eventually people came out, seeing that I was bold enough to stand the test. They too joined in with scared prayers at first but eventually grew confidence that their one true God was going to save them, too. People immediately started calling, texting and e-mailing friends and family reporting the good news of salvation; how God had delivered them from the falling arrows and was protecting them.
As the news spread like wildfire, the umbrella type bubbles over peoples' heads grew into huge, HUGE hands. I asked God what this all meant, and he replied, "The arrows are falling stars. All of creation has been groaning for this moment and is starting to fall in upon itself. Through your prayers and testimony of faith, my Angel armies have been called upon the Earth to protect all that follow me. What you see above the heads of my chosen ones are the hands of Angels. They have always been there but now you are able to see them."
In that moment, communication with Western Europe was restored and the gospel was spread to them. The falling arrows were ceasing in the countries that held faith and hope that the one true God would save them.
Shortly after, as people were coming out of the dwellings, no longer praying for the mountains to cave in but to find faith and protection from God the arrows quit falling. The sun came out, the believing nations regained color, and a new hope arose. People became united in Love for each other as old enemies became friends again, and families were reunited.
Joy and worship erupted in the streets of North America and Western Europe. Never before in the history of humankind were we so excited to be alive! Our God had come through and we were living proof of his power.
The Arrival
All of a sudden Jesus appeared before us and walked with us preaching and commending God for his good work done through us. He rounded all who followed him, as people from all over the North American continent drew in close. He looked at us with compassion and a fierce, burning jealousy raged through him. "Are you ready?" he asked.
"Ready for what, Lord?" I replied.
"We are going to take back what is ours. We are going to defeat darkness, the Anti Christ and his armies once and for all, are you with me?"
"But Lord, we have no weapons and no way to travel overseas," I protested.
"You have me, that's enough. I'm all you need," He replied earnestly.
At that moment a peace came upon us all as the Holy Spirit raced through all present. We started hovering above the ground, and we began to fly with Christ to cross the Atlantic and take the battle to the front lines. Jesus Christ as our leader.
And that's when the vision ended.
Amen.
I love you,
Ken
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