My Journey Out (Part 8)

An Updated Rerun Series

Click on following links for earlier articles: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 and Part 7.

Have you ever had a prophetic word spoken to you which made you grit your teeth and hope it was wrong? As in…really wrong?

“You’ve been searching for a home, and the one you’ve found, is not it,” said Jim Goll to us at a meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina.

If Honey and I could have chosen any prophetic word not to hear, this would have been the one. At the time, we had moved  eleven times to seven cities in six different states in less than two years of marriage. We were feeling like the lost tribe of Israel, looking for the path to the Promised Land.

Our response to  Goll’s words: “He could be wrong, right?”

But he wasn’t!

Since that prophetic word in 1997, Honey and I have moved at least eighteen more times to nine different cities in three more states.

Now, in each city, we have attended some awesome churches. Metro Christian (Kansas City, MO). All Nations Church (Charlotte, NC). Vineyard Churches. Four-Square. Baptist. Friends. Non-denominational and countless others. We’ve met and fellowshipped with numerous believers. All of whom we would have enjoyed to stay around forever and ever.

Yet, while I drove my pickup truck on West Broad Street in Richmond, Virginia, I had a quick vision. In it, I saw a white iron lung. It resembled the machines which were used in the 1950′s to help polio victims support their breathing, during acute polio infections.

There was not an individual lying in the iron lung, but instead, the American traditional church system was on life support. It was barely breathing. I looked toward the back of the iron lung, and what I saw there shocked me. The unit was not plugged into a normal electrical outlet, but rather, it was plugged into bags and bags of money.

As I looked on, a voice spoke to me: “Pull the plug!”

Then, the vision ended.

Later that day, Honey and I prayed about the vision. We felt that we were supposed to leave the traditional church system, and we did.

Now to be honest, Honey and I thought (like Elijah) that we were the only ones who were asked by the Holy Spirit to leave the American church system. But thanks to the internet, we soon learned about millions of others who had similar experiences.

Hey, what about the separation of clergy and laity? Is it scriptural?

(Continued in Part 9)