A Vision of the Church
James Capers, October 1999, Beaverton, Oregon, USA: Our family was praying together one night and our Lord gave me a vision of the church. I described the vision to my family as it unfolded before my eyes. It continued for one and one-half hours. The next evening, a large portion of the vision repeated and lasted for forty-five minutes. Below is a condensed version of what I saw and heard our Lord say to me.
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The Holy Spirit of our God showed me a formerly white church on what seemed a corner lot. I say the church was formerly white because the building was now weathered, decaying, discolored, and overgrown with layers of ivy-like vines and other foliage. Under layers of living vines were layers of dead vines.
With so many layers of vines and so much overgrowth covering the doors, no one could get inside. The door on the front left corner was closed but a door on the opposite, right side, behind the corner, was open. I was taken closer to the open door.
As I peered between the vines and foliage, I could see inside the rear of the church’s sanctuary. No people or furniture were visible. What I could see were huge mounds of silt-like dust.
Everything inside the church building was hidden beneath those mounds of dust. In addition, the interior was decayed and cluttered everywhere with debris. Scattered about were dead plants, and thin vines laced over everything.
Gradually, I realized that under the vines was the thick accumulation of dust and under the dust was a thicker blanket of dirt covering some kind of lumpy mounds. Then, supernatural understanding entered my mind with the knowledge that under the layers of thick dust and thicker dirt, hidden within those mounds, were people. Worse, all of those people were dead.
From there, the Holy Spirit quickly took me far away from the church to a countryside of life and growth. I saw a beautiful countryside of lush green rolling hills, fields of tall green grasses, and green crops surrounded by fences. There were people living at the edges of the fields throughout the countryside along the way.
The Holy Spirit took me off the highways and main roads and deep into the countryside. He took me over hills and valleys, fields and crops, down roads, into lanes, and onto paths along hedgerows beside farmers’ fields. Most fields had fences, but not all.
Of those fields that had fences, some had locked gates, some had gates that were closed but not locked, and others had open gates leading into fields and hedgerows. The Holy Spirit took me along paths overgrown with tall grasses. However, where tires and wheels might run the grasses were a bit shorter.
The Holy Spirit showed me people living in trailers, huts, shacks, and small houses. Many were mobile so they could quickly leave and go into hiding somewhere else. They wore stained, torn, and tattered clothing and their little children were inquisitive but shy and afraid.
Most of all, these people were hungry and their needs were not being met. They were hungry for food but they also were very hungry to know and worship God, and hungry for fellowship. However, their hurt and fear had caused them to seek isolation.
The Holy Spirit said these “castoff” people were His people who had been hurt and rejected by the religious organizations of men. A number of them had actually been driven into hiding. He said many people have been hurt or rejected by the denominations and “churches” of men’s organizations. As a result, His people were now hiding and dwelling throughout the countryside, away from the religious organizations.
Then our Lord said to me, “Do not go to the churches; the churches are dead. They are full of death and decay. I want you to go into the highways, the byways, and the hedges and compel them to come in” (Yehoshua, The Holy Bible, Gospel of Luke, 14:15-24). (Capers, 1999)
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