1998 dream, as related in a sermon entitled "Be Ye Ready Is No Joking Matter":
Matthew 24:42-44: "Watch ye therefore for you do not know what hour
your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had
known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not
allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for
the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."
(Praying) Lord you spoke so clearly to me this past week in a dream.
You told me to preach this this afternoon, and I obey you...
I don't get many dreams, and I don't preach on my dreams because I'm a
bible preacher, and anything that does not conform to the word of God
is to be rejected outright. I'm just telling you how God awakened my
soul, how I should preach this more often...I want you to know this is
not doctrine, it's not some new revelation, it's simply the Holy Spirit
prompting me, and speaking to me about His coming, I don't know want to
build any doctrine about it, remember that. I don't have much
confidence in dreams, any dream vision or revelation has to absolutely
be framed in scripture.
Now having said that, let me share with you without trying to talk to
you about doctrine or anything else, just the Holy Ghost talking to me.
In my dream I was suddenly awakened by the knowledge that I had been
snatched, I had been caught up, and I was in some kind of conveyance, I
don't know if it was a chariot, I didn't see the conveyance, but I knew
that there were others in it and that there was an angel of the Lord...
there was a sense of just racing swiftly thru streets and into houses,
this conveyance knew no barriers and I had a sense that I was on my way
home, I'm saved, the Lord has come.
I am being gathered by the angel of the Lord, the chariots of the Lord,
there are thousands upon thousands, the coming of the Lord is as
lightening is from the east to the west...there was a sense of
swiftness, but it was almost as I was seeing it in slow motion, this
lightning coming, I was seeing it in slow motion, I didn't see a
driver, I didn't see an angel, I didn't see the conveyance, I just had
a sense, I knew I was being carried and taken and it was moving
swiftly, and people were being snatched from homes and from the streets.
And I remember specifically going into a particular home and there were
3 people that I recognized, 2 were friends and 1 was a family member,
and we went right by, and there was as sense, a sudden sense, oh God,
they were being left behind, and the Lord allowed me to, for a few
fleeting moments, to sense the terror of what it would be like to be
left behind when the angels of the Lord come and gather His elect from
the 4 winds.
I was made to know at that time that even those who call themselves
Christians, and were not really Christians, who despised the grace of
God went out and sinned and said I can easily confess, never did
forsaking their sin, there was a sense that even though they were
sleeping they were aware, there was an awareness that the Lord is
coming and there is a sudden moment because I saw hands being raised,
people reaching out and waving.
In fact as we kept moving on there were people that were moving and
trying to get the attention of this driver, this conveyance, and I was
screaming and yelling get out in the open, as if I thought if they were
out in the open they could be seen and get caught up but it went
swiftly on, but there was a sense that I have never experienced in my
life, even though all my life my father taught on the coming of the
Lord, my grandfather taught on the coming of the lord, taught about it.
The bible says we shall all be changed, in the twinkling of an eye,
suddenly we're going to be changed, the bible says, this corrupt body
shall put on an incorrupt body just like His. And the bible says that
we are to be prepared and ready, expecting, the bible says He is coming
for those who look for His appearing. And those who are expecting, even
though sleep they are going to be caught, if it's in the middle of the
night.
Now I'm not going to be get into the doctrine of the rapture, when this
happens, before the tribulation, middle of the tribulation or after the
tribulation, I am just telling you I had a sense of the horror it's
going to be for those who knew the gospel, who had one appeal after
another, who knew the grace and the mercy of God and they were not
ready. They were not taken, they were not gathered in this, and I
remember the swiftness of moving, and seeing the people left behind,
the conveyance just passing by, and this terrible sense. Lord I know
I'm saved, I know I'm redeemed, I'm going home, but those 2 friends and
that member of my family... and there was a terror. Two shall be
sleeping in a bed, one shall be taken the other left...watch therefore
He's coming as a thief in the night. He's coming folks.
There was no sense of speed , there was no sense of traveling, but
suddenly I was stepping with everyone around me, we were stepping as
out of a cloud, out of a fog, out of time, into eternity, suddenly.
There was no sense of being carried out into a cosmos or anywhere else,
suddenly we were...Home. We were in eternity and I remember this sense
of absolute serenity, as we stepped out into eternity thru this cloud,
there was a sense of peace, and all I could see around me people were
feeling their bodies, they were feeling their hands, they were
caressing their faces, there was no shouting. I didn't see Jesus
anywhere, it was just a sense, it happened so quickly, it seemed to be
a gathering place, the bible say He's going to gather His elect from
the 4 winds, and suddenly I looked and there were my 2 friends, and my
loved one coming through the cloud and into eternity.
Nobody was looking at each other, nobody, there was no embracing, there
was just a peace, an incredible peace, and I experienced it for a
moment, I am home, that earth that I was on is gone, I am beyond the
reach of satan, there is no sin, there is no possibility of ever being
lost, I am eternally His, He did what He said He would do, He said He
would come with His angels, He came with His angels, he did everything
I preached, everything I said, It's true! He's all sufficient, He's
everything that we need!
There was a peace and a serenity beyond anything I could imagine... and
people were just awed, in silence, there was an awe, there was a peace
that was absolutely indescribable, and the sense... it was a sense,
it's all over, it's all over, it was all... it was all true. That sense
of reality and truth - that was not the real world, this is the real
world, this is eternity, that's all passed away, it was just a dream,
it was just grass, that's what the bible says, the flesh is just grass,
it comes up, it withers and it's gone. Time is just a little piece,
eternity is a great big realm, God cut a little piece and He gave it to
man, with His grace and mercy, saying, here is My grace, My mercy, My
glory. He gives you space and time to repent and trust in Him...
But God wait a minute, all of these who didn't come, all of those who
were left behind, who thought they were prepared and thought they were
ready, they are not here, what about them Lord... they're lost, there
was a sense in me, now folks that will not be there but I believe God
was letting me feel the sense of this lostness of those who were gone,
and suddenly as I was thinking about all those who had not been
gathered, I woke up, I sat right up, and these words were like silent
thunder in my head- "David, be ye ready is no joking matter." And I lay
back in my pillow and God said, "My people are not taking it seriously,
they talk about it but they are not taking it seriously, and many, many
are going to be left behind- they are not ready... the age of grace is
about to end."