Hi, this is Dave Olson. I'm the senior leader of
Heartland Church located in Ankeny, IA.
I hope the following message challenges, encourages and
ultimately changes you. Thanks for joining us.
So we have Chris Berglund with us this weekend, and I know I've
been talking about Chris for a number of months, telling you
that I invited him. I met Chris through Dean Briggs.
We were together down in Burlington and then we did a
conference together over in Omaha and I just fell in love
with him. I'd heard of Chris for many,
many years. I've heard Lou Engel.
We've hosted Lou several times and he always talks about this,
his personal profit, his dreamer.
And and so it was Chris and they've been connected for many
years. Chris made a comment yesterday
that I think is worth repeating. He, he as he was teaching, he
was talking about how he and Lou were just doing AQ and a time
recently and Lou was talking about how, you know, this, this
tremendous dreamer that's sitting next to him that he's
had in his life. And, and Lou is kind of
leveraged that in his life. And, and Chris stopped him and,
and, and said, you know, you need to understand something.
Chris that or Lou, I didn't. I didn't dream like I do until I
connected with you. And he, he put it this way, he
said my dreams had no missional value until I connected with
you. And all of a sudden there was a
purpose behind those dreams. I'm sure that other people had
been blessed previously, but it's a lesson in this that when
we find the tribe and the people were to run with, all of a
sudden our gifts are heightened. There's there's they come
online, so to speak. It's like they're they're
heightened. And and our mission, Our
Calling, our assignment in life is connected to those around us.
And so there's no way for us to enter into what God has for us
without one another. We've talked about this before,
but fusions is very clear. The fullness of God is in the
body. Ephesians chapter one last two
verses. He hath put everything under
Christ's feet. Comma for the church, comma the
fullness of him. You have a piece, I have a
piece. But when none of us will ever
have the fullness and in fact, God will withhold from you what
you need in your quiet time so that you'll get it through
fellowship and community. There are things that you need
you will never get with just you and Jesus because he designed it
that way. It's going to be the Jesus and
someone else that's going to meet your need.
And as we were talking about the, I've never seen it this
way, but it's like a puzzle piece, you know, it's like the
puzzle. A puzzle has a picture on it.
That's one of the ways, you know, But then the pieces fit
together. There's a void in one that the
other fills, and as they click together, all of a sudden you
get a greater picture. And every one of us are a piece
of the puzzle, but we need the one sitting next to us.
And often God will hide the very thing you need and the person
that irritates you the most. Now, that'll be for another
Sunday morning. We'll talk about that.
But anyway, I've just really grown to appreciate Chris and he
and he, he runs with a group of intercessors, prophetic
intercessors for a number of years.
It's fascinating the way they do it.
We've learned a lot from them from afar on how they steward
the word of the Lord and pray that.
And so it's just a pleasure to have Chris.
Chris, come on. Let's give Chris Berglund a good
heartland welcome. Yeah.
Love you, man, Bless you. Love you.
Yeah, I think, I think Dave is right.
I don't think there was really any value to anybody else
besides me and my dream life before Lou because I wasn't
giving anybody. I think that my dream life was
encouraging to me and the Lord would speak to me.
But when we connected covenantally is when that
missional covenantal heart and we made a we had the language of
Jonathan and David. I want to say that with Lou, and
this was 40 years ago, you know what Jonathan did with David,
right? He gave him his cloak.
Basically, Jonathan is in is the Prince and he's in line to the
throne and he's, he's clothing David and said, it's OK if
you're the one in line to the throne, which he was, right?
He's giving him his his identity.
And there's something that happens in covenantal
relationships where Luke gave me his identity, his calling for
the nations. And so I wore that.
I wear that. And then my dream had missional
value to it. I share that because it really
didn't have. I don't remember my dreams
affecting anyone else besides me until we made covenant together.
I do remember one of the first I shared I think yesterday
dreaming is easy. You just go to sleep right?
And you there's nothing to brag about.
It's like maybe it's worse than bragging because you God can't
speak to you in the daytime. He puts you to sleep right.
So you're so dull on the put you to sleep and but there is a
preparation I and I don't want to negate the preparation the
Lord showed me early on. You know, this is how you know
there's always levels of interpretation right of
Scripture. And I remember the Lord speaking
to me and don't let the sun go down on your wrath.
And he was speaking to me in the context, Chris, because if you
have wrath, if you go down, let the sun go down your wrath, you
will not dream, you will not have the pure dream life because
you're hindering the flow of the spirit at night.
And then he would encourage me. I know for for our team, we go
on assignments and we may spend 2 weeks or 4 weeks or or
whatever, praying, fasting, breaking fast, starting again
during the fast. But I there won't those nights.
The preparation is making sure there's no offense in the heart.
I'm making sure I'm praying in the spirit.
I want to enter into the most holy faith, right?
I want to go into the, the the place with the Lord without
there. All's I'm saying is no matter
what the gifting and calling is on our life, there is a there is
a surrender that allows that gifting to flow.
So I don't want to minimize the consecration because the
consecration in the Kingdom with one another.
And that's why it was such a joy to meet to covenant with Lou,
because you don't always find a man that's so consecrated that's
night and day. He's just thinking about Jesus
and revival, right? It's just he wakes up in the
morning, goes to sleep at night. He's burning.
He's burning with the Lord's heart for the nations and, and
so there is a great cost in the, in the, you know, I, this is
kind of funny, but we, we had taken 70 young people from the
Trail of Tears. The Lord, we had a dream and in
the dream, the Lord told us that we had to wear the shoes of the
Native Americans to overcome abortion in the land because of
what, what we found out was that the first abortions in the land
were the some of the white men ripping open the wombs of the
Native Americans in the war, in the battles and stuff.
Some of the first, I'm not saying it was necessarily the
first, but it was. So we took these 70 young
people. We were going to walk the Trail
of Tears from Charlotte area to Oklahoma and oh, so we're in the
middle of this long fast, Lou. Lou thought it'd be a good idea
to start with a 40 day fast. So we're on this 40 day fast and
he didn't feel like we were doing that well.
So somebody has a dream. We're supposed to do an Ester
fast. I'm like, you got to be kidding.
We're on a 40 day water fast. Now you want us to go 3 days
with no food? I remember we were young.
I remember telling one of the young people, he said, can we
brush our teeth? I said, no, you can't.
You can't use toothpaste and you can't, you know, and don't sit
in the shower and open your mouth.
It was totally, really legalistic.
It was not God. And yeah, got some of those
stories. I pastored.
I shouldn't have been pastoring. I'm not a pastor, but I helped
the Korean church and they asked us to come and help them walk
through some difficulties for three months and it ended up to
be 3 1/2 years. And I remember calling a fast
and one of the young Korean girls called me and said, can I
do this this certain fast? I said no problem, you'll you'll
be fine. I think I don't know what it
was, but I get a call the next day.
She's in the emergency room. I'm like, OK, well you didn't
tell me you had these different issues.
Anyway, so a guy prophesied to me and said I'd be a pastor and
I knew he was missing it. I thought there is no way.
And then I got tricked. Jehovah, Sneaky, whatever his
name is, my wife's the pastor. My one of the Koreans came to my
wife and said we really feel like since Chris's pastor that
he should stand at the door and greet people.
My wife goes, if you want a greeter, you're going to have to
do it yourself. My husband's not going to sit at
the door anyway. Sorry.
That's what happens when you're an introvert.
You're like, that's your greatest fear, right?
Your greatest fear is being in church.
And the pastor gets up and says, let's break into groups and
pray. No, I don't mind so much
anymore. But a couple weeks ago, I was at
the church, a small church with 50 people and Leah that was
pastoring. And she's so like, everyone
break up with somebody you love and what?
Take communion. And I just did.
I didn't move. I was sitting alone.
And she comes over and says, Chris, I said break, move
somebody love. And I said, I am anyway, So the
introverts in here will understand.
But it's been fun to be with you.
I, I want to share a couple dreams just for fun and, and
because in the dreams we can learn things.
And Lou, Lou called me a couple weeks ago and said, Chris, it
was on a Tuesday, said on Wednesday, he's leaving for
Manchester, England. He said, will you see if the
Lord gives you any dream? And of course that's I just pray
and ask the Lord for Lou. And because of that covenantal
unity, I, I start getting things for him in in the dreams.
And that night I had an interesting dream.
Manchester United was in a soccer match with Arab Emirates,
Arab United Emirates in the soccer match that it was tied 11
to 11 in my dream. And the first team to get 12 and
sudden death would win. And at 1111, Manchester United
goes to the sideline and I'm I'm over there listening to them and
they're saying we should have paid the price for these certain
players. And the the overtime lasted.
It seemed like a couple hours in the dream.
It was like one of those extended listening to them.
We should have paid her the price for this.
We should have got this, this player named Johnson.
And in some of my dreams, Johnson becomes a a continued
theme with either the sons of John the beloved or sons of John
the Baptist has some meaning to them more than more than just
the literal name. So I share the dream with Lou.
I said, well, Lou, here's what I got last night.
And so he's, he's going to Manchester.
It was, well, he, he was on his way on Wednesday of that week,
couple weeks ago. So he goes and he, because we've
been together for 40 years, he's just come to the point of, you
know, Chris, I, I know you, I know I trust your dreams.
I'm going to just share the dream and we'll see what
happens. So he said, here's the dream
from my friend. It was 11 to 11.
It was sudden death. And we believe it has to do with
England. We believe Manchester has a, a
price to pay or, you know, right now, if you've hear a lot of
people are saying England is, doesn't have a chance, right?
They're just, they're, they've lost their culture to, to
invading cultures, culture war. And I'm not saying I'm not
pointing out to flesh and blood. I'm I'm saying spiritually there
there's, you know, you're hearing where there's teenage
girls getting raped in the middle of the day because
there's a culture that is controlled by these unseen
entities that that have no value for women, right.
And so it's like that's but it now they're in a different
country and it's turning the country upside down.
So anyways, they Lou shares this dream and the leaders are like,
OK, we really need to pray and pay the make sure we have paid
the price for our country. So it was a level of sobriety in
the dream that was on a Wednesday or Thursday.
And now on the next Wednesday, he's back and he he felt led to
go to Manchester, NH and on a Wednesday.
So that Wednesday there's actually a soccer match between
United, Manchester, Manchester United.
They're not playing United Arab Emirates, they're playing
Grimsby soccer club. It was a, a cup, a cup match,
meaning they had to win and to proceed and and Grimsby was
level 4. Not I don't, I don't pretend to
understand a whole lot about soccer.
I play a little bit for fun, but never on a team.
And Grimsby didn't have a chance.
They were level 4 United, Manchester United, top level,
top tier level. Well, on that Wednesday, they're
in this cup final. It's 11 to 11 and the first one
to 12 in sudden death wins. Grimsby ends up beating
Manchester United in this cup final a week after the dream.
And I'm asking the Lord. I said, Lord, you really were
clear with the dream, but not. So why did I miss the Why did I
miss the different teams? He said, this is what I felt,
Chris, you didn't miss the teams there.
What? There's a culture coming from a
certain, you know, spiritual realm, but there's a grim report
that is going to cost England their country if they side with
the 10 spies that have a bad report.
I feel like the feel like the and So what happens is when this
soccer match actually happened a week later on their own, this
group, this conference calls a 40 day fast to really fight for.
And I'm not telling you is the 40 day fast is the answer.
They would just said we need to pay the price, whatever it is
for our country. This and I want to I wanted to
share that because the spirit realm there has to nothing
happened. Very little happens in heaven.
I'm not going to say nothing, but God is always looking for
our agreement on the earth. There has to be an agreement
with him before there's a move on on the earth because he's
made us coin Co reigning with him right in Christ.
And so it's very sobering to me to to say I I want to make sure
that my the words out of my mouth says England doesn't have
a chance. You know the they're being taken
over. America does is to is too too
late for revival. It's trying to spit like loo
sorry. Anyway, let me do this.
Let me transition a little bit here.
Well, let me, let me encourage you because I last night, last
night and the night before, I want to put two dreams together,
2 partial dreams that what I've had and I believe, I believe for
you guys in the first night, part of the dream was there's
going to be a wealth transfer. But it wasn't talking about
money. It was talking about people, the
wealth, the treasure. We are the treasure.
There's we have, there's a clay pot with a treasure inside.
We are that treasure, right? There's a transfer of wealth
that's coming. And I saw it in my dream where
large churches would be emptied out and churches that had the
life of Christ would be filled with those treasured vessels.
There's a shifting that's taking place.
And then this last night I saw on the door, but it couldn't be
seen in the natural, but on the door there was the there were 12
Stones of the high priest governmental, the the 12.
And it was on the eastern door. And so when I got here this
morning, Dave brought me to the office and I'm like, yeah, this
is the eastern door because I could see the sun coming up.
It's the eastern door, the entrance that you use.
And the Lord started giving me revelation, the dream which will
happen sometimes where I started seeing Ezekiel 28.
And if you know the passage, it's where Satan is.
He's this covering cherub. He has a priestly role in
heaven. He's got it says he won't.
He walks among the 9 stones, which is very fascinating
because those every one of those 9 stones is on the breastplate
of the 12 Stones of the high priest, but he's missing 3.
And I felt this is what I was feeling from the Lord in the
dream. I was feeling like I, I knew
something that I didn't know before, but I knew that he
didn't have the three stones needed to steward the, the, the
priest, the priestly mediation of mankind.
He, he was missing those 3 stones.
And how did I know that? Because as I was thinking about
this, I started seeing Abraham looking up at the stars of the
sky. And I realized, oh, because
Ezekiel 28 says he is these, he, he would rise, his heart was to
rise above the stars. That's what he want.
That's what's part of his falling was he wanted to be
above the stars. He wanted to rule mankind, but
he was never given that authority to rule mankind.
Anyway. So I, I, I feel in the, I felt
in the dream. And what I saw was as I was
moving in the dream in the city, I could see some of the churches
having the 12 Stones, but some of the churches had 9 stones
that were artificial stones. And I knew, I knew in the dream
that those churches would be empty.
There'd be a season where the, the, the cost is too great for
them to continue to open. The, the, the Lord would take
away the lampstand in a sense, and there wouldn't be any reason
to go there. But part of that costly high
priestly anointing is that we would see Christ in every
person, every broken person. My my wife works with a broken
with a horse ministry with young people, teens and 20 year olds
that someday they'll come with a blue wristband and they'll
identify as a blue as a as a boy, they'll might wear a pink 1
though I being identified that day as a as a girl.
She loves she loves being in the midst of this generation of
broken men and women are identity issues they and she can
only talk to him about Jesus if they initiate part of the
structure of the of the work environment.
But she was telling me a couple weeks ago.
She said someone's this one person that she's been praying
for. She said she came to me and she
said if all Christians were like you, I'd become a Christian.
I'm like that's awesome. Keep loving those you know, they
don't have we're not pointing the finger.
We're saying they're broke and they need Jesus, you know,
right. We've got a generation and like
Dave is saying, we're not pointing the finger.
They're acting according to their nature, you know, but you
we all have received a new creation life in us.
We should be different. They haven't received that life.
They're going to be according to Adam, right the things in their
heart and so and I, I mentioned what.
Dan Moeller said, I, I, I like this, this comes to me every
once in a while. I don't, haven't listened to Dan
for a few years, but I really loved him.
I really love his heart. And he said something.
He said we should never as believers, we should never be
hurt by anybody. Because if somebody hurts us
with their words, he said, they're, they simply don't know
who they are and they don't know who we are.
So we should be hurt for them. So they should never hurt us.
But if they hurt us with if they attempt to hurt us with their
words, it should simply hurt us. They simply don't know who they
are. They're just coming against
this. Anyway.
I, I thought that that's so profound.
It's so simple and yet so profound the, the, the life of
Christ that goes after, after all the the lost, right.
Anyway, so I want to read a couple passages.
I think there's one in Malachi. The first chapter in Malachi.
It says, It says I have loved you, says the Lord.
Yet you say, In what way have you loved us?
Was not Esau Jacob's brother, says the Lord.
Yet Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.
I laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of
the wilderness. Even though Edom has said we
have been impoverished, but we will return and build the
desolate places. Thus says the Lord, They may
build, but I will throw it down. They may be called the territory
of wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord will have
indignation forever. When you read these Scriptures
and throughout the Old Testament, Edom is an increase
of Esau, just like Jacob, just like Israel's an increase of
Jacob, right? It's that when he's talking
about Esau, he's saying Esau. I hated because Esau despised
the seed of Christ, the birthright, his inheritance.
He he sold it for a bowl of soup.
He said I don't need the seed of Christ.
Basically what he's saying is I will have war forever with the
with Adam. There is no I hate Adam.
There's nothing good in Adam. When when when man sinned and
and and the life of Christ left, it says the whole world was full
of wickedness and violence. None there was none that were
seek that there was nothing. Everybody's heart was intense of
their heart were evil continually.
Genesis 6 and if if you weren't in a position to say I need the
seed, if you despise the seed, God is saying, I hate that.
I hate that everyone from the lineage of Esau, from the
lineage of Edom. He's not saying he's not saying
he's looking at a person hating the person.
He's hating the life that they're agreeing to because he
died to save them from that Adam life.
He actually buried all of us into Adam.
Isn't that amazing? All of Christ in Romans and
Corinthians, all of all of all of Adam died in Christ and was
buried. We talked about this yesterday a
little bit. The the crucifixion and the
burial of Adam is universal, but the resurrection is by faith
alone. All of Adam has has died, but
the resurrection is by faith. There's there's got to be a
faith in this seed. And I want to, I want to talk
about this because this is a hard saying, but there the only
thing Christ is looking for is an increase of of himself.
The only thing the Father's looking for is an increase of
the life of Christ in us. All of our good ideas are are
Esau. It's our own imagination.
It's our own good. He hates that.
He hates that those things, they, they have nothing to do
with him. They're of a different
everything that's not coming flowing from him is something
that he doesn't he doesn't long for, he doesn't want, he hates.
It is a hard saying, isn't it? It's like we're talking about
this everything when when God made Adam, it says he's a
picture. Adam is a picture of Christ.
Eve is a picture of the church, Ephesians and Romans.
When God made Adam and he wanted to, it was good that it was not
good that she should be alone. So he made Eve.
What did he do? He took life from Adam and he
made Eve with that life. Christ took his life.
He made a bride and then he gave that bride back to Christ to see
see what he's doing. The very life that he gives us,
he receives back from us. That's what he's looking for.
He's always looking for an increase of his own life.
And so we were talking kind of go quickly through a couple of
passages, but all of the Old Testament is a shadow of Christ
in some way or another, good or bad.
We talked about leprosy. We talked about Leviticus like
14 or 15. It says if I spit on somebody,
that person becomes unclean. That's kind of weird.
They they got to go through a cleansing ritual, go outside the
camp. Why?
Because everything that comes from the flesh is defiling.
It's just a picture of the body. It's a picture of Christ's body,
the church. And he's saying there's boundary
line. So every every law that was
given in Scripture is simply a boundary line of the life of and
nature of Christ. What are the wars?
The wars are simply the victories of Christ.
The the sacrifices are fragrance and, and the death of Christ.
They're all pointing in a weak way.
They're pointing to the substance which is Christ.
And so in the Old Testament, the first three times Israel is
used. It's very significant when Jacob
goes with his staff to go find a bride, he he goes into a hostile
territory. He leaves the House of God.
The Bethel goes into a hostile territory.
He claims a wife. He he laborers there for 20
years and guess what? When he leaves, guess what is
with him? There's a bride, there's flocks
and there's sons. It's a picture of Christ coming
and having an increase. See see this the scripture.
There's a couple really clear points in scripture that God,
his love comes down. His love is defined in John, but
he's giving all things I because I love you, I'm giving you all
understanding, all knowledge, because I love you, I'm giving
you all things. Well, that's what love is.
It's giving fully of himself and glory is the increase of that,
the nature, it's the increase of what he's looking for.
He's he's looking for an increase of what he's given.
He's not looking for more than Christ in us.
He's looking for Christ in us. And so when Jacob is wrestling
with God, he's wrestling with Laban, with man, but then he
wrestles with God and you know, he touches his hips and
dislocates it. But he's God says because you've
prevailed, I'm changing your name to Israel.
He's changing his name because that's he's he's he's shadowing
the body of Christ, the church. It's it's a one new man.
It's it's Exodus 422. Go tell Pharaoh that Israel is
my son, not my sons and my daughters, my son, my first
born. It's a picture of Christ.
It's a picture of increase. So in Scripture, when a Jacob is
coming out with this increase, it's Speaking of the church.
The church is the resurrected body of Christ.
If he now you got to understand this because otherwise it sounds
weird. It's like, what are you saying?
We're God? No, not at all.
The church. See, we do.
If you know, most of the time, if I would say who is the
church, we would define it. You can't define it because he
defines it. He defines it by his life.
So the measure of Christ's life in this room is the measure of
the church in this room, right? We can say we're the body of
Christ, but we're only the body of Christ as the life of the Son
lives through us. There's part of us that is not
the life of Christ. And that's the that's the part
of us that we continually surrender to.
It's the mind that hasn't been renewed.
It's the thoughts that aren't his thoughts.
It's not the body of Christ. He when he resurrected from the
dead, isn't it interesting? Nobody that knew him now
recognized him. The road to Emmaus, They didn't
recognize him. Mary thought, this is the
gardener. Peter and James didn't recognize
him until they said, cast it over and catch the 153, whatever
the fish or whatever. Nobody recognized him because he
came in a different form, Same life, different form.
He says to Mary, Don't cling to me.
I don't want to be known like I was known for the last three
years. I want to be known differently.
And so he's, he's appearing and disappearing and he's coming and
going. He doesn't want anyone clinging
to him because he wants people to find him in the body.
He's the head now. Guess what?
We're the body of Christ. He wanted people to see.
Look, the the life is the same, but the form is different.
It's an increase. What is the greater works?
It's not a greater life, it's just a greater number.
It's a greater increase of the very life of Christ.
So when Christ heals through us, he's the one healing.
It's not my power to heal. I'm just the like we always say,
unless we were misunderstood, the vine, the branch doesn't
become the vine. We don't become God.
The vine simply gets a clean vessel, a conduit to go through
his life, to go through, to flow through.
Isn't it amazing? In Isaiah 60, it says that
there's a time coming when all the nations will come and bow
down at our feet. That is, that's crazy.
What does that mean? That means God is purified, A
remnant that no longer that it's just they just see Christ.
They don't even see us. It's like they don't see us.
They see him and they come down to worship him in US and God's
not, not, not only not offended. This is where his heart
rejoices. Finally, the my body is my body
and he he has no problem casting Thrones down because it's his
life, right, You know what I'm saying?
I mean, giving us Thrones and we casting them back, however, over
you know, it's kind of silly to think I'm wearing anybody going
to be comfortable wearing a crown?
I'm it's not, it's not a physical crown.
I'm like, I'm not wearing this for all of eternity.
This is stupid anyway it it's just AI think it's just a
recognition in the spirit realm that this person laid his life
down. This person yielded to the very
life of Christ. There was an increase.
I love the story and we've told it several times this weekend.
But when Joseph before Joseph has a prophetic word that his
people are going to go into Egypt into exile and he says to
them, just remember this, don't leave my bones in Egypt.
Interesting. Don't make sure they they come
out of Egypt. So what happens 400 years later,
Moses is called to deliver the Israelites from Egypt and in the
front of in the front of the procession, they've got the
they're carrying the bones of of Joseph.
What's the picture? The picture is Joseph, a type of
Christ now has an increase of Christ, right?
It's that's a picture. It's a shadow, not perfect at
all. It's just a shadow, but
everything in Scripture is a shadow.
Jesus is the door. Jesus is the cloud that led him
out of the promised land. Jesus is the promised land.
Jesus is the manna from heaven. He's the bread that he.
You know, it's like you can't you go to Joseph And isn't it
interesting when I, when the Lord started revealing the, the
communion revival, I started seeing communion all over us.
I was like, wow, the Baker, the Baker dies, but the, the wine,
the one that serves wine to the king lives forever.
I'm like, come on, That's an awesome, that's an awesome
picture. The, the blood anyway, And
Gideon, what's Gideon doing? He's baking bread in a wine
press. And then the big, big barley
loaf rolls down and and demolishes the Midianite.
Was it Midianites and anyway, just the the the whole of
scripture, if we understand the whole of scripture is pointing
for his original design, which was to have a a priestly bride,
right. We were talking to praying for
Roger and his wife earlier. There's a word in the in
Genesis. It says tendon keep the garden
and then take dominion on the earth.
Tendon keep is only used one other time together in numbers.
I think it's chapter 3 and it's in regard to the priesthood.
Jesus. God's original intention with
man was to have a priest king in the garden and to rule.
It was a temple. It was facing east.
Eden was facing east. It was the IT was had cherubims
in there. What's the temple facing east,
the cherubim in the holy of holies.
It was just this is the Garden of Eden.
It's a it's a temple on the earth and you are the
gatekeepers. That word in tendon keep the
word keep means to guard. I don't know if this is exactly,
I think it's true, but you know, Eve was deceived, but Adam was
told to guard, guard the garden. Why did he let the snake talk to
his his wife? You know, there's, there's I
think, I think the judgement came on him because he was to
guard and keep he was to make sure there was nothing happening
in that garden that wasn't supposed to happen.
And we're and we're, we're priests and kings.
And this is this is what we do. We guard, we, we guard our
hearts. You know, I had a dream a couple
years ago. In the dream it was I was
reading about Solomon who was having a dream in, in kings.
And it says, you know, in the dream the Lord asked him for
any, asked me for anything. And in the dream Solomon
responds and says, I want wisdom.
But what the Lord highlighted to me in the dream was not wisdom,
but govern. He said, I want wisdom to
govern. I'm like, OK, you're he asked
for something more than wisdom. He wanted to be at that ecclesia
that that priest, that king priest, right.
He he's like there was something that moved God's heart said you
have asked a good thing. You've asked something that I
wanted Adam and Eve to walk in and you want to restore that
governing wisdom. The problem with Solomon is he
could govern the people, but never governed his own heart,
right? He was a failure.
But in in in that sense. But isn't it, isn't it powerful
that God, God showed him something in a dream?
And sometimes we just dismiss dreams.
The Midianites with Gideon, they get a dream about this.
Barley. Was it?
Yeah. Barley loaf rolling down and and
destroying them. They said this is none other
than the sword of Gideon. And they were afraid.
Gideon hears it outside their tent.
And that was all he needed to hear.
To gird his loins up and go to battle was like, what a culture.
What a culture where Joseph's brothers hear a dream and want
to kill him. They could have said, that's
just a pizza, a barley dream pizza dream.
But they're like, no, we're going to kill you because we
believe in dreams. The Midianites said, gosh,
Gideon's going to destroy us. I had a dream.
They weren't even believers. But but culturally, we we just
got to be careful not to dismiss the and I'm not saying just
dreams. There's still small voice the,
the, the obviously the written word, like when God lays a hold
of that written word and you just know that, you know, this
is, this is the message for right now.
It just burns in your heart, right.
And I think, I think covenantally, I can say this
beyond a shadow of a doubt. If I wouldn't have covenanted
with Lou, I would have missed 40 years of dreaming.
I, I wouldn't have taken him seriously like this.
It was a cool dream. Maybe I should have bet some
money on that. I just saw this fight and
Muhammad Ali. Those are one of the first
dreams I had. Muhammad Ali loses at the end.
And I told my people in my college, I said, hey, I saw the
fight in my dream last night. I should have bet on it, right?
No, God was just saying, Chris, I want you to know you can hear
my voice. You can hear my voice and I'll
speak to you if you're willing to hear and not just say it's
just a pizza dream or whatever. And, and our, our dreams do get
cleaned up. Sometimes it's just a piece of a
dream that's like right from heaven.
And then some of it's mixture that you know what, what,
whatever reason that we're mixture in our hearts.
And as we, as we are saying, yes, yes to more surrender, we
hear clearly, just like we hear the understand the word too.
So the the surrender to this increase of Christ and.
It's all it's all about Jesus, right?
Everything is about Jesus living his life through US, Christ in
us, the hope of glory. We have nothing apart from his
life. But if we have his life, we have
everything. There needs to be a confidence
in US. You know, I don't have the word.
I don't necessarily know what to do, but he's in me and he can
speak freely through me if we allow him to right?
He can live through us. So there, you know, one of the I
know I need to end, but in 1997 I was just leaving this my wife
and I were just leaving the Korean church that we were
pastoring. And the Lord said, he said,
Chris, you have a a life threatening disease in my dream
and I'm like, gosh, am I going to die of cancer?
What's going on? And in the dream, the Lord goes,
it's comparison and it's going to kill you.
And Paul said, don't compare yourselves among yourselves.
You're not wise. We either land on one side or
the other. I'll tell you where I landed.
I always said that guy's a better teacher.
That guy's a better prophet. That guy's a better everything.
What am I doing? What am I doing?
The Koreans talk about intercession, man.
We had intercession meeting. I didn't even know if I was
saved anymore. And you know, it's just like,
these guys are awesome. And then the next dream I have,
I don't know, maybe a month later, because I was struggling
with this, like, OK, I, I compare myself to others and
I'm, I'm not measuring up. Lord.
And the next dream there was all those people that I had just
labeled that were, why would I do this?
Because they're so good at it. Just let them do it.
They, they were in a dream with me.
We're in the mountains of Colorado in this dream.
And Billy Graham was going to come and be the guest, the guest
at the mountain retreat. Well, he gets there and we're
just about to sit down for dinner and he comes up to me and
he says, Chris, I want to sit by you tonight.
And I said, no, I'm an introvert.
I don't talk that much. Go, go sit by so.
And so he can talk all night, right?
You know, and I know, you know, I want to sit by you.
I said, OK. I said be boring, but OK.
And then he said at night, he said, I want to sleep in your
cabin. I'm like, no, again, really.
You don't want to sleep in my cabin anyway.
Just. And, and I realized, oh, I'm
talking to the Lord. In my dream, Billy Graham was a
representation of the Lord. That's all it was.
It was just like the Lord was saying, no, Chris, I made you
the way you are. I love your personality.
He loves it would be boring if we were all the same, if even
two of us were the same, right? We're all so very different.
It's like we're we get to have a personality while we express the
life of Christ. That's a beautiful thing.
We don't have to lose our sense of humor.
I mean, I think one of my colleagues is to make Lou laugh
once a month, right? And I, I send them, you know,
these, these memes that are right on the edge of not not
being good to send. You know, he's like Chris.
You have, he goes, Chris, you have a serious conscience.
But I can't stop laughing. So I think for Lou and for
heaven, that's my ministry. OK, He's trying hard, but he's
anyway just saying, let me just let me just say this.
I'll just share something and then I'll be done in in Matthew
15. You, you guys know the story
when the woman comes to Jesus, that's a gentile and he says to
her, he ignores her. I should read it, but Matthew
15/20/21 in there, he ignores her, didn't say anything to her.
So he's ignoring this woman And you're, I remember reading this
thinking she's just not, he's not a Jesus having a bad day.
He's just ignoring some woman that's trying to get healed, her
daughter healed or whatever. And then the next verse she, she
presses in and says, you know, Jesus and the disciples are
saying somebody send her away. Somebody get rid of this lady.
And she's pressing in and, and Jesus says even the dogs will
get, you know, the dogs will get the crumbs or something like
that. Right now he ignores her.
Now he calls her a dog and I'm thinking what?
She's having a terrible day and I'm just joking.
But it goes a little further. And then she lays hold of of him
and she is healed and he says something great.
I've not seen a great faith like this or some however that goes.
You know what, I was meditating on this.
I felt like the Lord said to me, he says, Chris, I knew from the
first start of this she had great faith and she was going to
persevere and I was going to ignore her.
And I was going to say this, you know, the, the bread is for the
dogs, the Gentiles. And she was going to press in
and I was going to show the disciples what real faith was.
That's when I felt like he said, this is what real faith looks
like. It doesn't matter what it looks
like. It doesn't matter if you're
being, you feel like you're being ignored, but you're
pressing and you're saying, no, I'm going to lay hold of this
man, Jesus. Thanks for listening to our
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