THE PROPHETIC VOICE’S BLOG
THE BROKEN CROSS AND THE TWO MISSING WINGS: HOW MY COMMUNITY BECAME A SPIRITUAL GHETTO! (Part One)

Introduction

In the book of Psalms, King David, referring to God, says that “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.”  (Psalms 139:6 NRSV). David statement may have prompted Mark R. Teasdale to ask a critical question  in his book, Evangelism for Non-Evangelists, as he asks that “If we believe God is beyond human comprehension, how can humans make legitimate claims to know anything about God, much less provide clear answers to the questions of who God is, what God does and how we respond?”[1] According to Teasdale, God has disclosed himself to humans through divine revelation, and the Bible is one of the sources of divine revelation. He acknowledges that God communicates to humans in more direct ways, “These include movements of the Holy Spirit through personal experiences, dreams, visions and other ways in which God is present to a person. These situations are often termed ‘mystical’ and are possible for anyone to experience. As people enter into the presence of God and are attentive to God’s voice, they can receive divine revelation.”[2] What does it mean to be attentive to God’s voice?

Being attentive to God’s voice means having a quiet time, reading, meditating, and reflecting on God’s self-disclosed primary divine source that is the Bible. Also, one must be healthy in his or her inner human being, as Jesus says that “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, those evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person “ (Mark 7:20-23 NRSV). Indeed, these evil things make it harder to listen to God’s voice.

Among those who enter the presence of God and receive deviation revelation, who can stand up before a congregation and deliver such revelation? I have been living in the USA and attending worship services since 2004, I have never seen someone coming forward with a divine revelation besides biblical interpretations. This makes me wonder if God is still communicating directly to people. If he does, it must be that people are hesitant to claim divine revelation. They must be keeping such revelations for themselves. If this is true, who has to blame them?

The Claim of Divine Revelations

A few years ago, before going to seminary and becoming a pastor, I had the opportunity to sit down with a senior pastor at a local congregation and share a divine revelation involving one of the congregation’s small groups. The pastor’s response to the divine revelation was that “I believe that God sends dreams, but also I believe that most dreams come from Satan.” He was attributing my dream, not to a divine source, but to Satan. One significant element in the dream was that an invisible hand turned off the light in the room this small group was meeting. Then, a white man holding a flashlight in his left hand stood up from the back of the room and, with his right hand, started searching the wall for a switch. Unfortunately, he could not find one.

The dream explains that, for a reason, God has turned off his light on this specific small group, and will not back off, unless someone took the stand before him on behalf of the group. Both the senior and the associate pastors that were supposed to do so did not believe in the divine revelation; they acted like Thomas, the apostle who became a doubter (John 20:24-25). As a result, I stopped attending both the small group and the church’s services. I left before the death of the small group. Later the senior pastor called me with a question: “I have noticed that since you left, the small group is no longer the same. What happened? What happened was that the small group died, and the associate pastor who was in charge of this small group was asked to resign.

During my last year at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, I have the opportunity to share my calling with a colleague of mine, a new graduate who was already serving at a local congregation. I was shocked when he called a delusion one of the significant elements of my calling involving a dream. Because of the reasons above, I am traveling the land of those who keep the divine revelation to themselves, even though standing before the congregation. Unless God prompts me to do the contrary, I will stand still and be quiet. The risk is that the divine voice inside me may die.

The Challenge

I have been challenged by one of my fiery critics to come forward with the report on the state of the community I am living in since becoming a pastor. If I were a politician, this means that I was challenged to do the state of the union, the state of our community that is the Congolese community of the state of Illinois USA. Most people in this community call themselves children of God, and among them are members of the Evangelical Church of Congo, a church where the divine’s prophetic voice is at work. I consider myself one of them because for years, before moving to the USA, I was nurtured by this church.

The challenge is real. But even though I may have something to say, do I have the willingness to do so at the request of a fiery critic’s voice that I consider satanic? Do I have to give a moral or spiritual account to my critics about our community since I do not consider myself the pastor of this community, even though my family and I live in it? The answer is that I have denied my critics the right to challenge me. To my surprise, God, through the divine prophetic voice inside me challenged me to give heed to such a challenge. Why does God want to give a voice to my critics? Is He standing by me or by my critics’ side? One may ask such questions.

To those who understand God well, God paying attention to my challenger may not be a surprise. In the book of Exodus, when “the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, ‘Would that we have died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (16:2-3 ESV), one may notice that before Moses was able to speak a word or give an answer, God jumped in to answer the challenge. God says to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not” (v. 4). Why does God have to jump in and answer the challenge before even letting Moses speak a word?

The answer is obvious. Through Moses and Aaron speaking, the reader learns the reason God took preeminence over Moses regarding the people’s challenge. indeed, Moses and Aaron said to the people of Israel that “the Lord is giving you bread because he has heard your grumbling and that your grumbling is against him—What are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord,” (vv. 6-8). These people were grumbling against God, so he has to come to the challenge first. In the same way, my fierce critic has not challenged me—because who am I? His grumbling is not against me but against the Lord. He has summoned the Lord to come with an account of the state of our union, the Congolese diaspora in the state of Illinois. To my fierce critic, God has come forward to answer your challenge with sept (7) words: “My community has become a spiritual ghetto!” However, my advice to you is that get ready because the Lord will be assessing you whether you will walk in his law or not—be ready.

The Big House and the Ghetto

There was a dream in the middle of the night. In the dream, I find myself living in a strong, massive, beautiful, imposing, well-decorated, and illuminated building. I cannot say the number of floors it has, but standing in the west wing of the main lobby, and facing west, I suddenly became aware that I have been living in this building for years. Facing East, I also became aware that since living in this house, I have never put feet, walked, visited, or sit down on the lobby’s east wing that is elevated one step in contrast to the west wing. Both wings are separated by a ribbon, a do-not cross-like ribbon. So, I decided to step up on the east wing by removing the ribbon.

Walking the east wing that is short in its length—in contrast to the west wing, I see through the imposing high and large mural glass windows on my left side, the beautiful outside garden that surrounds the building. Still facing east, and looking on my right side, I discover an amazing thing that I was not aware of before: two to three steps below, was a hugely large and long extension heading south that may be the size of four American blocs in its width and length. on each side of this huge extension, there is a huge, long, large, well-dressed, decorated, and clothed table—with chairs, white tablecloths. Both tables command respect. The ceiling is full of lights. On each table, I see white plates, server wares, napkins, and flowers. Besides that I am aware of a few people living with me in the building, the main lobby with its hugely south extension was empty. The dining room—the lobby’s south extension—was set, but no one is in.

As I consider carefully the main lobby, I notice that it has a big ‘t’ shape (T) toward the north, but with a short left-wing, in comparison to the west one. then, I became aware that it is a cross toward the north with a short east wing, and a missing head—the north wing. Then, I step out of the house by the east wing to consider the surrounding garden. The garden was beautiful and well-trimmed. Then, walking beyond the surrounding garden on the east side of the building, I find myself trapped by an ugly and unspeakable ghetto going east to north. The ghetto is in ruins with ugly houses connected, not by streets, but by muddy and dirty pedestrian paths without outlets at the end most of them. Open shitholes, or in ruins, with flies and maggots around them are part of the ghetto. The smell is nauseated and sickening and making it difficult to breathe.

The Way Out From the Ghetto

I change my speed to avoid the smell by walking faster and looking for an outlet because I must get out of this ghetto and its foul smell. I  start acting like someone searching the ghetto, going back and forth, east to north, looking for an outlet to get out and go back to the imposing building where I belong. For hours, I could not find one.

I am desperate and agitate at the idea of being trapped forever by the ghetto. At a moment, going north to east, I notice at a distance a car traveling at a high speed on a road that crosses the path I am walking in. Now I know where is the way out from this ghetto. So, now I am walking quickly toward the intersection and exiting the ghetto. I am at the intersection. Behind me is the ghetto and before I, is a big road. On the other side stand an empty land with a natural and beautiful garden. Few beautiful houses surround the land. The air is fresh and breathable. Now, from here I can go back to where I belong. I pick up my cellphone from my pant’s right pocket, and start entering data in the GPS App to go home. . .—End of the dream.

The Significance of the Ghetto

Living in this imposing house, God, not only wanted me to be aware of the ghetto around, but also made me tour it. Later, discerning the dream with a brother in the Lord, he pointed out to the community we live in, and we asked ourselves a few questions. What makes a community become a spiritual ghetto, or what makes people live in such ghetto, and why? What are the forces behind the spiritual ghetto? How life in a spiritual ghetto looks like in the physical life of those living in it? And what needs to be done to reverse the situation?

Please stay connected, as we discuss those questions in parts two and three of our topic.

Grace and peace.

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[1] Marl R. Teasdale, Evangelism for Non-Evangelists, Sharing the Gospel Authentically (IVP Academic, An imprint of InterVarsity Press Downers Grove, Illinois, 2016), 52.

[2] Ibid, 54.