The Church Bus
Hi Everyone,
I am sharing a vision today about the church and the direction it is going.
The Vision
The Church Bus
In this vision I saw a church bus making a left turn. In my visions, a left hand turn is not something good. It’s about going in the wrong direction. When I see something turning right, it means going towards God. A left hand turn means to turn away from God.
The church is the body of Christ, and Jesus is our head. The church bus represents the church at large. Since it was making a left hand turn, it was going away from God. The departure can be intended and completely rebellious against God. But it can also be unintended and a slow drift away from God and towards the world and its ideologies.
No matter how it is accomplished, when we go our own way and do our own thing we are no longer following God. We are no longer true disciples, for if we do not hold to the truth of the Word of God as it was written and intended to mean, then we have abandoned the true faith.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
How can we tell if we are drifting away from God if we do not know the word of God for ourselves? There are many teachers presenting many different ideas about God, but are they teaching truth according to the Word of God? It behooves us to read and study the Word so that we are not misled by deceitful spirits, or by false prophets and teachers. Jesus warned his disciples to beware of those who would come to them pretending to be like them, but coming with an intention to cause harm.
Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, by their fruit you will recognize them. Matthew 7:15-20
Paul also warned the church to beware of false prophets and teachers. Notice, he used the Lord’s metaphor of sheep and wolves.
I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number, men will rise up and distort the truth to draw away disciples after them. Acts 20:29-30
Just a few years ago, at a church I attended, a couple taught a Sunday school class and invited people to come to their small group in their home on Friday evenings. They were teaching the idea that as believers, we were supposed to follow the Old Testament law. They were false teachers doing exactly what Paul had warned the church about. They used a verse of scripture to “distort the truth and draw away disciples after them,” This was the scripture that they used:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For I tell you truly, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single jot, not a stroke of a pen, will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Matthew 5:17-18
They were able to mislead these believers because they, like most church goers, do not know the Bible and are not able to distinguish truth from lies. Many in the church today have been taught to believe that the earth, moon and stars will fall from the sky and that Jesus will come back to rapture the church, even though he himself prayed to the Father that they would not be taken out of the world but sent into the world:
I am not asking that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world. John 17:15-18
People today are being told that they will be whisked away in a rapture, never to experience a time of tribulation, and that the destruction of the entire world is in their future. To the modern day believer who reads “Heaven, and earth shall pass away,” and does not understand the world from the Old Testament perspective, believes that it is the actual heaven and earth. This is a gross misunderstanding of scripture. Heaven and earth represent the Old Covenant and Israel.
What Jesus said was that not one jot or tittle would disappear from the Law until everything was accomplished, and that not a stroke of the pen would disappear from the Law until heaven and earth passed away. Everything, every prophecy was to be fulfilled by Jesus’ death on the cross, and by the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and by the Parousia (the coming). Jesus came in AD 70 to close one age and begin another.
Jesus said to them, “These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. Luke 24:44-45
Jesus came within his generation to fulfill scripture and all prophecy. He came to terminate the Old Covenant age by destroying his enemies, the temple and the sacrificial system, and consummating the New Covenant, bringing in the everlasting kingdom. Those whose trust was in the Lord were raised to life, the wicked were judged and all things became new. We no longer go to Sheol as those who died in Christ before his coming.
If Christ did not come in AD 70 to consummate the New Covenant then the resurrection of the dead would not have happened and we would still go to Sheol (paradise) as the thief on the cross did, to wait for the resurrection of the dead. But we know that the Parousia did happen. Christ came to destroy death (spiritual death which is separation from God) so that now when we die physically we continue to live spiritually and enter into our eternal home with the Lord in heaven.
Truly, truly, I tell you, the hour is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so also He has granted the Son to have life in Himself. And He has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.
Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out—those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. John 5:25-29
Notice the time statement. Jesus was declaring the resurrection to be so soon that he said is has come.
“The hour is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”
It is recorded in the gospel of Matthew that when Jesus died, the temple curtain was split in two and the earth shook and the graves were opened.
“The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.” Matthew 27:52-53
This was not the general resurrection spoken of by Daniel or by Jesus recorded in the book of Revelation. This was an effect that glorified the power of Jesus’s death on the cross. It was at the moment of his death that the earth quaked and the rocks split and the graves were opened. However the dead were not raised from their graves in this local event until Jesus rose on the third day. He was the first fruits of those who would be raised in this local event as well as the general resurrection at his coming in AD 70.
and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. Matthew 27:52-53
This resurrection was to bring glory to God to show forth the power of God just as the centurion who witnessed Jesus’ death, saw the darkness come over the land. He saw the earthquake and said:
And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” Mark 15:39
This event was to demonstrate the power of God and the significance of what he had done. Jesus had defeated death, but it would not be until the consummation that those in Sheol or Hades would be raised in what is called the first resurrection.
The dead from the Old Covenant and even before, and the dead in Christ were not raised until this general resurrection. And now since the consummation, when we die physically, we go directly into the presence of God in heaven, having been made alive spiritually at the moment we are born again and filled with the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah!
The kingdom of God is an everlasting kingdom, we enter into the kingdom of God when we are born again. This is when we are changed and given the promise of eternal life.
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” Luke 17:20-21
Because we are in Christ and the Holy Spirit dwells within us, we have become the dwelling place of God. We the church are both the Bride of Christ and the New Jerusalem.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying:
“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. Revelation 21:1-3
Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls full of the seven final plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, shining with the glory of God. Revelation 21:9-10
The bride, the wife of the Lamb and the New Jerusalem are all symbols or metaphors for the church.
The book of Revelation is not a book that refers to the entire world. It was written to the seven churches in Asia Minor in the first century, to warn them of what was to “soon take place.” It was written by John following the prophetic language and symbols that were used throughout the Old Testament. The first century believers were familiar with the symbolism and metaphors used to prophesy regarding the various judgments, and catastrophes falling on different people groups. These judgments against the nations were spoken of as “the Day of the Lord,” when the Lord would come on the clouds bringing wrath and his divine vengeance. They understood the vignettes and the images and what they all meant.
When 21st century believers hear and read the words that Jesus spoke in the Olivet Discourse like: “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken,” they think, “We have never seen this before, so it must be in our future!
But these and similar images were used time and time again to describe various nations and cities that were coming under God’s judgment.
Joel prophesied about “the Day of the Lord” concerning the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.
The earth quakes before them the heavens tremble. The sun and moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful. For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome; who can endure it? Joel 2:10-11
Isaiah spoke of another “Day of the Lord,” the destruction of Babylon. Notice the similarity of language:
Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.” Isaiah 13:9-13
God brought another judgment against Ephraim and Judah for seeking help from Egypt against the Assyrians. King Hezekiah rebelled against God by making an alliance with Egypt. Look at the prophetic language and see the same intensity of wrath by which the Lord is said to come:
”Behold, the Lord has one who is strong and mighty. Like a hailstorm or destructive tempest, like a driving rain or flooding downpour, he will smash that crown to the ground.” Isaiah 28:2
“The Lord Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.” Isaiah 29:6
“And the Lord will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of a devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones.” Isaiah 30:30
“And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falls off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.” Isaiah 34:4
And another example of God’s judgment against Jerusalem which resulted in Babylonian captivity.
“Behold, he comes up like clouds; his chariots like the whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles– woe unto us, for we are ruined!” Jeremiah 4:13
Notice the Lord comes on chariots in the clouds. This is the Lord coming in the spirit while an army is on the ground doing his bidding. This same thing happens again and again. When we see Jesus coming in the clouds we know he is bringing judgment and vengeance upon those who have rebelled against Him. Jesus’ coming in AD 70 was with great wrath and is yet another “the Day of the Lord.”
Jesus is the rider on the white horse in Revelation Chapter 19. He is called “Faithful and True,”
Then I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse. And its rider is called Faithful and True. With righteousness He judges and wages war. He has eyes like blazing fire, and many royal crowns on His head. He has a name written on Him that only He Himself knows. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is The Word of God.
The armies of heaven, dressed in fine linen, white and pure, follow Him on white horses. And from His mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. And He has a name written on His robe and on His thigh:
KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. Revelation 19:11-16
Note the armies of heaven are not people, for as yet there has not been the resurrection of the dead in Christ. The martyrs were in the grave until after the New Covenant was consummated. Just like the thief on the cross died and went to paradise (a portion of Sheol) waiting for the resurrection.
On the “Day of the Lord,” God brings wrath and judgment, coming in the clouds to fight the battle in the heavenlies, while on earth, the battle is taking place in the natural with physical armies. The tribulation of Revelation has already taken place. By reading the Old Testament and studying its language, with the help of the Holy Spirit we will understand more clearly and more fully the meaning of the New Testament and the Lord’s and apostles teachings.
We are to be students of the word of God. Please study for yourself, do not rely on what comes from the pulpit, for often leaders just give their opinions or what they learned from someone else. Know it for yourself.
Thanks for reading. Please share, and may God reward you for your diligence. Be blessed!
