Spirit and Truth Ministries

WORLD WIDE FIRE

A Prophetic Dream Given the Night of August 12, 1995

Don Hawley

PREFACE: I believe in the principle that a prophetic word from the Lord may have more than one application. Consider Joel's prophecy about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days. In Acts 2:16 Peter clearly states that the manifestations of the Spirit at Pentecost were a fulfillment of Joel's prophecy. However, most Christians look for another such outpouring just prior to the return of Christ. The final harvest calls for both an "early rain," and a "latter rain."

On August 12, 1995, I urged a congregation in the state of Washington to fully commit to the leading of the Holy Spirit, rather than compromise with certain dictates from human leaders. That night a loving God confirmed what I had preached with a dream so vivid, so frightening, that I was awakened from sleep.

Now the Lord has convinced me that my dream, like Joel's prophecy, has a dual application. Although it first was given for a particular group with a particular problem, I now believe it contains a message for professed Christians worldwide. With that in mind I want to share the dream once again, and then make a broader application.

THE DREAM

The scenario began in my own home, but the latter was generic; not a home I have ever lived in. My wife was present, but again she was a generic person; not my actual wife. We were hosting a committee of about a half dozen men and women from a congregation; it was a business meeting rather than a social event.

I was sitting facing a large picture window that opened toward the north; all the others present were facing me with their back to the window. During the proceedings I caught a glimpse to the right of a black column of smoke rising up into the sky. It rather startled me, and I thought it might indicate a crashed airplane. I didn't deem it important enough, however, to mention the matter to the others.

A few minutes later I spotted a similar column of smoke over to the left, but still didn't remark about it. Then without warning I saw straight ahead of me a huge inferno of boiling smoke that obviously was a volcanic eruption. Before I could comment a tiny piece of molten lava, about half the size of a dime, lit on my bare leg ( I almost never wear shorts, but did so in the dream). It was fortunate that the fragment was so small, as even so it burned badly. I put a plastic strip on the wound.

By now everyone was aware of the danger to the north and began to rush outside. The participants had all come in one car, and my wife and I didn't seem to have any transportation. Like so many people in immediate danger, we felt it necessary to do a few things before taking flight. I asked my wife if she had some money and the checkbook, and she assured me that she did. I reached into a box of flashlights and had trouble deciding between a longer or a more bulky one. Before I could make up my mind, one of the men came back in and urged me to take the small one he had in his hand.

In order to protect our earthly goods, I frantically tried to lock the door to the home. In spite of several attempts it proved to be hopeless, as the door had shrunk away from the frame. The key turned in the lock, but there was no real closure. I decided we had to run, and scooped up our pet Chihuahua from among several animals as we made our way across the yard.

In my dream there were only two significant directions, north and south. I couldn't see any of the committee members so assumed they had gotten frightened waiting and left without us. Desperately I looked south, away from the volcano to the north. My vision was limited because of a slight rise at the edge of our property. I hurried up over the rise, only to find myself on my back, head toward the rise, and about to slip way. When I yelled for help, my wife called out, "What's the matter?" I knew I was about to slide away, and called out louder than ever. My wife responded and, grasping my hand, was able to pull me back up into the yard.

I cannot find words to describe the fearful scene I witnessed as I stood on the rise looking southward. The entire landscape as far as the eye could see was a desolate wasteland covered with two or three inches of ugly, black crude oil. There were no people, cars, towns, trees, nothing; just a terrible, oily desert incapable of sustaining life. My wife and I now found ourselves in an apparently hopeless situation, between the danger to the north and the danger to the south. The narrow strip of land between was diminishing, and there was no way out. At this point the dream became too terrifying to handle, and I awoke.

THE INTERPRETATION

The northern vista represents the working of God today (Isaiah says God sits "in the sides of the north."). Originally I paid too much attention to the smoke, forgetting that "where there's smoke, there's fire." When the Holy Spirit manifested himself in the early rain, Pentecost, he did so with cloven tongues of fire. I believe the first evidence of fire I saw on the right represents the Pentecostal movement of the early 1900's. I, like most Christians, paid it little heed. If anything, I found the unusual manifestations to be repugnant.

I believe the second show of fire to the left represents the more recent charismatic movement. Again most Christians either ignored the Spirit's manifestations or were frightened by them. I did pay some heed; I preached from the pulpit that "the charismatic movement is the devil's latter rain." How boldly we speak from ignorance. And according to Matt. 12:31-32, how dangerous to make snap judgments rather than testing the spirits according to God's command.

The central focus of my dream was the great volcano to the north. A volcano is an "act of God, " men can neither trigger nor stop a volcanic eruption. To many it is the ultimate display of power with fire and smoke, and a fitting representation of the power with which God will work when his Spirit is poured out in the latter rain. It will take such intervention to force slumbering and indifferent Christians to decide whether they want to end up as sheep or goats. I will come back to this once I have dealt with other portions of my dream.

In history men have feared the face of God, often trying to flee from his presence. Before making my exodus, however, I felt there were certain things that needed consideration. So often we see our security tied to material possessions, and it seemed foolish to depart without some cash and the checkbook. We need to understand that one day, soon I think, neither our cash nor our checkbooks will be of value.

Some of my delay was due to sorting through the box of flashlights. God says his Word is a lamp unto our feet. The flashlights, then, represent the various doctrines that we almost worship, and that so effectively divide the Body of Christ. I finally settled on the very small one that I believe represents the Gospel of Jesus Christ. John 3:16 is a small portion of Scripture, but the very truth that will see us through to the Kingdom.

Like Lot's wife I couldn't bear to abruptly leave my earthly trappings; I had to lock things up safely in case I ever came back again. God warns that no man looking back is fit for the Kingdom. The lock wouldn't work anyway, and in a panic I dashed for apparent safety.

ONLY TWO MASTERS

The scene to the north looked so scary that I turned south. There was no significant east or west; there are only two masters to choose between. Satan would like to sit on God's throne in the sides of the north, but the south is his territory--he is everything God is not. Many Christians feel safe on that little sliver of land between the north and south, it is their "comfort zone." What it really represents is a refusal to make a total commitment to God. Not to choose God is to choose the devil by default, and time is running out. The volcano is rumbling.

The small rise that kept me from seeing clearly could represent our inability to discern the future, or perhaps the things of this world that cloud our vision. Although we must make individual choices, we can encourage and support each other just as in the dream my wife extended a helping hand. The oily wasteland poses no danger to the volcano, but one day soon a mere spark from the volcano will turn the wasteland into a fiery inferno. Not the place to be when ignition takes place.

I have never found words to describe the horror of the wasteland to the south. But it portrays the utter, eternal loss of those who, during earth's last crisis, make the wrong choice--or refuse to choose at all. So terrifying was that vista that I awoke as from a nightmare.

Our focus today should be on the volcano, on what God is doing and plans to do in the near future. Right now the greatest renewal since Pentecost is emanating from Toronto, Canada, and igniting other fires all around the world. I've visited there, and consider it to be the most important thing God is doing in the world just now. To be ignorant of what is taking place is pitiable; to reject what is happening without testing the Spirits is highly dangerous.

By this time most of us have had at least a tiny "burn" as I experienced in my dream; we've read or seen something about the renewal. Hundreds of thousands, instead of applying a small plastic strip of indifference, have flown from virtually every country on earth to see for themselves. The vast majority return to their homes on fire for God, and a new person in Jesus Christ. They then set renewal fires in their own part of the vineyard.

Some have taken the attitude that since it didn't start in "my denomination" it can't be of much consequence. Too bad. One of the important things I discerned in Toronto was that the movement simply transcends denominationalism. Although nightly there are people there from every denomination imaginable, such man-made divisions are rendered meaningless. It truly is the Body of Christ in congregation.

Most disconcerting are those who see in the "Toronto Blessing" a counterfeit or even something demonic. It's true that the manifestations there are, to say the least, unusual for the average Christian who's been walking in dry places. But a careful study of renewals throughout history has shown me that every significant such happening has evidenced identical manifestations. Some would have us believe that what happened at Pentecost was a sedate, uptight little affair. That is not the case. What the disciples were manifesting was such that they were accused of being drunk at only nine in the morning.

The Holy Spirit is sovereign; we cannot write his agenda for him. He's too big to be strapped into our little straight jacket. We can reject him, but we can't change the representative of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah into a tame pussy cat.

Did I see some things of the flesh in Toronto? Or course, one can do that in any congregation in the world on a weekly basis. But it took very little time for me to discern that what was happening there uplifted Jesus and glorified the Father. People came away more conformed to the Lord's image, more hungry for the Word of God, and eager to share their blessing.

The volcano hasn't fully erupted yet, but I think it is about to do so. Christians are still focused on "church growth," when God has set his face to finish his work and establish his Kingdom of Glory. Now, in our lifetime.