The Gathering






The huge, plushly furnished hall was filled with an air of excitement and expectancy amongst the people who had gathered in their thousands.  I was sitting at the end of a row not very far from the front, wondering why I was there.

The voice of one on the platform announced, "Please welcomeThe President of the .... (a well known country)"! 

A huge applause went up as this highly exalted man, the one who held office over what was often referred to as the World's Foremost Superpower, confidently walked over to his podium.  He wore a victorious expression as he ushered in with him the shocking sight of a poorly dressed, tortured man who's fingers were broken, and who had obviously been through a dreadful ordeal only to lose his battle.

As his captivated audience began to quieten, the President looked straight over at me and called me by name, saying "Come forward.  I would like to present to you someone whom I think you know."

"Me?  Who - ME?" I called back to him in disbelief - he had never seen or heard of me before!

He stood and held my gaze unwaveringly and I obediently got up and walked forward.  As I did so, the spectre whom he held captive was gently pushed forwards to the edge of the platform where I was now standing.

I looked into his disfigured face and suddenly realised who this was.  Yes I did indeed know him.

"This is Jesus!"  I cried out.

A shocked gasp was heard throughout the hall, as the realisation of who this man really was caught at the hearts of the people.

Someone called out the very words I was thinking "He saved me!"  Others called out "He enabled me to walk again!"  "He gave me back my sight!"  "He comforted me when I was grieving!"  "Look at all the miracles he's done in our midst!"  And many more things were cried out as recognition grasped at their hearts and their consciences. 

This was immediately followed by a great cheer and heart-felt worship for this Saviour of theirs - the True Saviour.  As this happened, I saw that the President suddenly looked very small and crumpled by the overwhelming response which was now no longer focussed on him.

I went up on the platform and stood with this man, crying as I looked, because all his fingers were so very badly broken and he had been so sorely treated.  I asked him why this had happened to him - and why was the President so pleased.

The man looked up, glanced at the President, then at the crowd, then lifting his disfigured hands to hush the crowd, he said,

"My people, what can I do when I have been bound, my fingers have been broken, I can no longer walk on my own, and I have been silenced and condemned a criminal? 

YOU are my fingers, my arms and feet, you are my voice... and it's through each of you that I am able to carry on my work here on earth, for my power and my glory are not seen in this place.

Take care my people, lest you also bind me up and silence me because you desire the power and the glory for yourselves and don't give it back to the One who created you, your talents and gifts, the very Source of your being..  Take care in all your deeds that you do not exalt yourselves beyond the fact that you did none of these things without those abilities having first been given to you.

For if you do this, you will surely perish!  For your ideas and your plans, your very actions and the words that you say and write will surely bring this about and the world itself shall indeed perish because of it!"

And there was a great hush in the hall, broken here and there only by the sounds of sobbing and expressions of remorse and repentance...

From a dream by AnnaKirsten on 10th August 2007.


NOTE:  Some may have wondered why Jesus in this dream had broken bones when we know the Scriptures tell that not a single bone in his body was broken.  However, if we read the following Scripture from Hebrews 6:4-6, we can only imagine what further damage we could possibly be doing to him if we quench him and his Spirit and fall away from what we once knew:

'It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit,  who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.' (NIV)

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