God is Raising up the PILLARS OF THE EARTH

About a month ago, I had a dream in which I was standing in a high place looking down at the earth. I was amazed at what I saw. It was as if all the soil of the earth was removed so that I could see what laid underneath; and there in the middle of the earth, there were these giant pillars. The pillars or columns that I saw were much like the columns used in Roman and Greek architecture, or what you might see at the White House. They were huge and imposing. They were greater in size than any skyscraper I had ever seen. Entire towns and cities could rest upon the top of them. There wasn’t just one of these columns but there were many. Each together were holding the earth in its place. When I saw this, I really had no idea what it was that I was seeing. I knew that it was significant but didn’t have the interpretation of my dream yet. What I love about the body of Christ is that we are knitted together; because God wishes that we depend on each other. When I don’t have understanding of my dreams, I usually call people to help me interpret them. In this case, I called my mother. My mother is an amazing woman of God who has a great way of interpreting dreams, but in this instance she had very little understanding of the dream. As I was talking to my mother on my phone my wife was sitting at the kitchen table. She was trying to get my attention as she was pointing at her own phone. I knew she had something that she wanted to say but I was concentrating on the call with my mother. I know that I just got in a lot of trouble with wives everywhere. If I could insert a smiley face here – laughing at myself - I would. My wife had the interpretation of the dream! I wasn’t use to my wife getting the interpretation of my dreams, but she indeed had it. She looked at me and said, “Your dream is much like this scripture that I am reading in 1 Samuel 2:8,” which states, He raises the poor from the dust And lifts the beggar from the ash heap, To set them among princes And make them inherit the throne of glory. “For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, And He has set the world upon them This scripture is really a prophetic picture of you and me, in Christ. Not many of us were nobles, or rich when Christ found us. Perhaps you were like me. When Christ found me, I was in the middle of a suicide attempt. I was an atheist who didn’t believe that God could speak to me. I was also very sinful. I was both relieved and filled with terror when I heard God speak to me that day. I did not believe there was an afterlife. I thought that if I killed myself I would sink back into the black abyss from which I imagined I came; but now that God was speaking to me, I began to fathom eternity much differently than what I had conjured in my own mind. Perhaps there were consequences I would have to deal with if I killed myself after all! He literally rescued me from the “ash heap.” In other interpretations of this scripture you will see the word “Dung Hill.” I think we can all agree that this is not a good place for us to exist. It is a place where you find people in the worse possible conditions. They are broken and filled with every sordid sin, and yet God takes them and places them in seats of honor. God doesn’t need our permission to do this either! ​ You and I in Christ can become these pillars. We can become strength for many others. A person who is established and rooted in Christ has the ability to shed abroad the love of Jesus to many hearts. The key is to remain inside God’s voice and to be washed in his presence. You must allow Jesus to transform your life from the inside out. Hebrews 11:8 says that “by faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” This act of faith separated Abraham from his generation and helped him to enter into the promises that God had for him. Not many people would do what he did but those that will obey God will become strength for many generations to come. When I think of Pillars, I think of my grandparents. They believed in God and followed him fearlessly. They use to tell me when I was young that they prayed for me every day, and I know that they did. In their generation, they were faithful and as a result they strengthened the generations to come. My desire is to also become the same strength to my family for generations to come. My prayer is that my offspring will be found faithful because I have been faithful. The Pillars are men and women of God that stand up in hours of great darkness; and they become great lights in their times. I think of John Wesley who brought great revival to England and America. The times that he lived in were as dark as the times in which we live. In fact, when he started to minister, they say there were only four or five members of British Parliament who were actually Christian. Yet this man of God was faithful in his generation and effected great change in the culture of his time. Wesley had to resort to preaching in open fields, because the Anglican Church would not receive him. When I was in Sheffield England, I learned that 15,000 people (or one third of the city) showed up to hear Wesley preach in an open field. He was ridiculed, ignored and even persecuted by many; and yet today there are over thirty million people that still associate themselves to the Wesleyan or Methodist Church worldwide. I don’t imagine that in his lifetime he would have thought this would ever happen, and yet it did. He became a Pillar of the Earth in his generation, and in the generations to come. I believe that God is raising up people like Wesley in this generation. There is a call and an invitation to be faithful. I believe that God showed me these pillars in my dream to declare that our generation will also be faithful in Christ, and we will become known as a generation that put God above all things. In your heart today determine that you will become that pillar, and I believe you will. I pray that God strengthens you and empowers you to become the light of Christ to those around you, and to inspire them to great faithfulness.