Great Judgment is Coming on the Church in America

On May 14 2016, I dreamed I was in a small room filled with people, young and old, from all races. They were all standing because there was no place to sit and waiting on a word and a touch from the Lord.

There was excitement in the air because everyone was eager to experience the goodness of the Lord. I laid my hands on a young boy who I felt had a demon. As I touched him my hand tingled.

Immediately I was transported to the front of a medium-sized church, which was also filled with people. They were all complaining about the sermons the pastor was preaching. Some didn’t like the content. Some didn’t like his style. Some didn’t like the length.

I began explaining to them the difficulties of putting a sermon together, especially for a pastor of a smaller church. I was about to begin to give a detailed explanation as to why smaller church pastors, with their limited staff, had less time to prepare their messages, but I could tell they were not interested in hearing it.

There seemed to be a buzz in the air that it was noon and it was time to go. I told them to leave if they wished, expecting only one or two to get up and most would stay to hear what God had to say, but to my horror the entire congregation grabbed their belongings and walked out.

Then I was immediately transported again, this time to a town square where people were leaving their church and going in all four directions from the square, walking down sidewalks and streets to the north, south, east and west. I yelled at the top of my lungs, “Before you walk away, remember this! If you will study God’s Word the way you are supposed to study God’s Word, the Sunday Sermon won’t be that important!”

I then immediately awoke and was alert.

Interpretation:

I pondered the dream and its implications. As I prayed for an interpretation, I was left with the following impressions:

1. There are those who are hungry for God’s Word, for an encounter with Him. They’re eager for God to move in their midst. They long for the days of the New Testament church, but for the most part, they are not found in the modern church structure.

2. There are too many churches filled with people who want smooth words, a well-crafted sermon that suits their needs and a pastor that lets them out on time.

3. A vast majority of modern day Christians are “punching the church clock.” They are checking their “I went to church” box and the concept of community in Christ is foreign to them. They couldn’t really care less if God shows up or not.

4. The only Word from God most believers get is on Sunday morning because they refuse to feed themselves Monday – Saturday, nor do they know how. Babies can’t feed themselves. They always need someone to help them and if the food is not to their liking, or their timing, they pitch a fit.

5. Most people in the American church attend church on Sunday, but walk away unfulfilled, unsatisfied and untouched. They scatter in all four directions after they leave, never seen again until the following Sunday.

It is important to remember that I wrote these impressions down FIRST. As I finished writing, the Lord spoke to me in that still, small voice I’ve come to recognize and love, saying, “Church, return to me the Living God. Learn to cry out to Me. The days are coming…yes…days of great judgment. Seek Me now when I can be found. I love you. I want to spend time with you [and nurture you] like a mother nurtures her child. Return to me and I will bring you the peace you seek.”

I asked the Father: “Lord…when do I release this?”

Unlike the dream I received on May 8 2015, in which God was silent for nine months on the release, He said “immediately.” I said, “Yes, but I have another question: Why now Lord? Why did you send this dream and Word to me now?”

There was no answer. So, I thanked Him for this Word and prayed for its release and reception. I began to read Isaiah 30, which was up next as I had been working my way through Isaiah and I had stopped at chapter 29 the previous day. I had determined to read through Isaiah 30, but God stopped me at 29. I didn’t read ahead. When I began to read Isaiah 30, I was given the answer as to why He gave me the dream and the Word at the time He did. Here is what I read in Isaiah 30:

8 And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever.
9 For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord;
10 who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things,
prophesy illusions,
11 leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness
and rely on them,
13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;
14 and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found
with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”
15 For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling,
16 and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore you shall flee away; and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”; therefore your pursuers shall be swift.
17 A thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill.
18 Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.
(Isaiah 30:8-18)

This is EXACTLY what the Lord was saying in the dream and in His Word to me. This was God’s IMMEDIATE answer as to why I received the dream when I did, because He knew I would read Isaiah 30 the very next morning and that His Word to me would be confirmed IMMEDIATELY by His Word in Isaiah. He knew the release could be immediate because the confirmation would be immediate. Here is what God is saying:

The church in America today does not want to hear from God. They want SMOOTH words (given to me in my interpretation, then confirmed using the exact same words in Isaiah 30:10).

They are a rebellious people,  children who do not want to hear the instruction of God or instruction from the prophets of God (Isaiah 30:9). And for that, GREAT JUDGMENT is coming. Great judgment is coming on the church in America. It will be scattered  like the people I saw going in all four directions, which was confirmed by Isaiah 30:16-17. The church will be scattered by that which is no threat because of their weakness, and burned with fire (See the dream of May 8th, 2015). The scattering and the fire of God’s judgment will come because of economic problems and outside persecution. Many churches will close their doors for good and those that don’t will see their impact on their communities become even more negligible than it already is.

BUT! God is merciful and kind! “The LORD waits to be gracious to us, and therefore he exalts Himself to show mercy to us” – (Isaiah 30:18). He wants to nurture us like a tender mother nurtures her child. Return to Him. Seek Him. Love HIM with everything you have (Matthew 22:37; Deuteronomy 6:5). It is not too late for the church in America, BUT it must WAKE UP! It must turn to the Lord in prayer and fasting. The leaders, the pastors, the elders, the deacons must follow the advice of the Lord found in Joel:

“Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.” (Joel 1:13)

“Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, “Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?'” – Joel 2:17

When, and only when, the church in American learns to weep, to pass the night in travailing prayer, to wail, then God will spare the people of this Great Nation. When, and only when, God’s appointed leaders learn to lead the people in travailing prayer will God stay His hand. When God’s people decide that praying about a crisis, rather than complaining about a crisis, is the answer, then God will hear from Heaven, forgive our sin, and heal our land (2 Chronicles 7:14).

What we really think about prayer is proven by the amount of time we spend doing it. God awaits our response.

Author: Nelson Lee

Nelson W. Lee is an author, evangelist, pastor and teacher. He is the founding pastor of Agape Home Fellowship, a network of house churches linked together through common leadership and technology. His ministry focuses on the areas of Church Revitalization and Revival. He has a heart for seeing men and women of faith “Be the Church” and feels this can be best accomplished through the close community of New Testament style house-churches. For over 20 years, he has focused on revitalizing the church and trying to restore it to its New Testament roots and foundations. He is an avid student of Church History and Systematic Theology and has written numerous discipleship courses, church history articles and guides.

He is married with three children and is a member of the United States Air Force. He has served his country for over 29 years and is currently a meteorologist and flight superintendent. When he is not in uniform, ministering or studying, he can be found spending time with his family or working in his garden.

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