But maybe prayers are really what are needed...
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INDEED! FOR SURE. And probably for the following, too:
excerpts from Jocko's thread at:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1651112/posts?page=5
CERTAINLY THESE ARE TIMES FOR PRAYING EARNESTLY for a long list of issues. We shall see about the following within 30 hours.
By Lloyd Day. I had a dream recently, I heard a knock on my door and when I went to answer it, there were two men standing there. I had never seen them before. There was something different about them, though I couldn't put my finger on what it was. One interesting thing, however, is that whenever anyone comes up on our porch and knocks, our dog starts barking very loudly, but this time she didn't.
They told me that I had to gather my emergency things and get out of town as soon as possible. I stood there stunned for a moment. They said that God was going to bring judgment on this area. My mind shifted to the two angelic beings that warned Lot to get out of Sodom. I asked them if we had time to warn our family and friends, and they said to go ahead.
I had my wife start calling while I went out and started packing emergency things into my pickup. These two men came out and started helping me, they were very fast and efficient packers. Some of the things I was packing they grabbed and threw to one side. I could tell by the urgency in their actions that this was no time to argue with them.
As we concluded the packing of the pickup, one of the men left and came back leading my wife and dog and they both literally pushed us into the pickup. We had previously arranged with our family and members of our congregation for a meeting place in case there was ever an emergency and we had to evacuate. These men told us to head out for our pre-arranged meeting place and to not stop for anything. I always keep my gas tanks as close to full as possible so we didn't have any excuse for stopping.
It took us about and hour and fifteen minutes to get to the meeting place. We weren't sure of what to do next so we started setting up camp. After about twenty minutes, someone from our congregation came in and joined us. Over the next two hours, more people in our congregation and family members arrived. After a little while, we felt a small trembling in the ground. We all looked at each other, and we turned on a small radio to see if we could find out anything.
We heard a report that a major earthquake had hit Portland with major damage. The report also said that Bonneville Dam had collapsed because of the quake and that a wall of water was rushing down the Columbia toward Portland.
My point of view now shifted to where I was above all of this watching it all take place.
There was a big Gay Pride Parade going on in downtown Portland when the earthquake hit and buildings came tumbling down on all of those there. Portland was in total devastation. I'm not sure just how big the earthquake was but the number of 9.2 seems significant.
There was also a major earthquake off the west coast that started a tsunami. Not long after the quake in Portland, a wall of water from the collapse of the Bonneville Dam came rushing through Portland. A little while later another wall of water from the tsunami came up the Columbia River and it also came rushing through Portland.
Salem was also totally leveled by the earthquake. The loss of life in the whole Willamette Valley was enormous. As I looked around Salem, I saw a group of men, I think there were about twenty of them. They all had large automatic weapons, and I had the feeling that they were some kind of terrorists or outlaws. There were a few survivors wandering around, dazed from their injuries from the earthquake. Whenever this group of men came upon anyone wandering around, they would kill them; they seemed to be looking for anyone they could kill. There was no one to come against them.
Finally, after a long while, some National Guard troops came on the scene, but this gang had killed a lot of people. When they saw the troops, they just faded into the rubble and escaped.
Later, as I thought through this, I tried to identify something that would give an idea of the date it was going to take place, and the only thing I could identify was there was a large gay pride parade in downtown Portland when the earthquake hit. So I set about to try and find out when the next big gay pride parade was scheduled in Portland. The answer to that came back as June 18th, which is Father's Day.
We set about to plan a congregation picnic that day at a campground about 60 miles East of Salem. Prior to my dream, we had already had a planning meeting about the place out there, we learned that the place we planned to meet was now blocked off so we selected another site nearby. We wanted to stay in that area because the two men that came to my house in the dream said that we were to go to the area we had already arranged for.
As the days ticked off, we went about our normal activities and did some planning for the big June 18th day. One day someone called who heard about my dream and said that it would not be a good place and we should select somewhere else. As I carefully thought about this, I realized that God had already given us His stamp of approval through the two men who came to my door as they had told us to flee to our predetermined location.
Just a few days ago, someone said they had done some checking on the gay pride activities and that there were major activities as well as parades scheduled for both the 17th (Saturday) and the 18th (Sunday). They suggested that we increase our campground reservations from one day to two, which would not be that easy to accomplish.
I began asking my Heavenly Father what to do. This now sets the stage for my latest dream.
A Dream of Confirmation - May 11, 2006
One thing I've learned about a dream from God, you are so actively involved in the dream that there is no way to forget it when it is over.
In this dream, there was a very strange shape being assembled. It was like a cylinder that had a very irregular shape. There were a lot of pieces on the table next to it. They reminded me of jigsaw puzzle pieces and yet they were nothing like puzzle pieces. There were no tabs or offsetting cutouts. There were no patterns or changing colors so that you could match them up with where they went. There was no way to identify any markings so that you could figure out where they went. You just had to take each piece and try it and keep trying it until you found a place it would fit.
I was getting very frustrated because of the difficulty of this. Finally, in complete desperation, I cried out, "Father, what am I suppose to be doing?" No answer. Then again, "Father, what am I doing here?" After several attempts with no answer, I heard a voice say, "Shmoneh Esrei."
"Shmoneh Esrei!!!!" What am I suppose to do with that? I knew that the Shmoneh Esrei was a list of prayers that have been a part of the Jewish Synagogue service for the past 1800 years. But what am I suppose to do with it. How does it fit in with what I am involved in with assembling this cylinder?
Have you ever been involved in a research project of some kind where the material was very difficult to understand. At some point in your studies you all of a sudden "get it." You start rejoicing and dancing around. This is kind of what happened next for me. I suddenly realized that "Shmoneh Esrei" is also the Hebrew word for the number eighteen. I had been asking the Father to show me the date for this Father's Day outing. I needed to know whether it was just the 18th or both the 17th and the 18th. He just showed me that it was the 18th only.
I entered into rejoicing and praising His Holy Name when all of a sudden my bubble popped. Why did He do that? I was already on a course of obedience for the 18th. If He had done nothing, I would have continued on my course of preparing for the 18th. He must have had some specific reason for showing me. I prayed on this for some time and then it came to me. When God repeats something it is because it is determined by Him. He wanted me to tell people about this.
WHAT???????
I was trying to maintain a low-key profile on this. I said that I wasn't a prophet and I didn't want to give the impression that I was trying to set myself up as one. Now, all of a sudden, I realize He wants me to warn the people of the Willamette Valley with what He has shown me. My first response was, "You've got to be kidding!"
Then Ezekiel 3:17-21 came to mind.
"Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, warn them from Me. 18 "When I say to the wicked, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 19 "Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself. 20 "Again, when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I place an obstacle before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. 21 "However, if you have warned the righteous man that the righteous should not sin and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; and you have delivered yourself."
(See also Ezekiel 33:8 & 9).
Talk about being in the hot seat; I am literally trembling in my shoes. If I speak up and nothing happens then I emerge as a false prophet. If I don't speak up and something does happen, then the curse I just quoted in Ezekiel falls on me. I guess I'll just trust in my Heavenly Father and freely share with you what He has shown me.
Now, lest I be accused of taking passages out of context, let's take a careful look at the passages in Ezekiel and ask the question, "What are these people being warned of?" Are they being warned to flee from the coming judgment?
No. They are being warned to flee from their wicked ways or they will not escape the coming judgment. Therefore, we are to warn the people of the Willamette Valley to flee from their wicked ways or they will be caught up in the judgment of June 18th.