VISIONS AND DREAMS
G. W. Brown
I think it is a time particularly for prophecy, but also for young men who see visions, and for elders who dream dreams in the spiritual sense and meaning. As would be evident, the apostle, quoting Joel, is applying it to the time, as indeed it referred to the time, of the incoming of the blessed Spirit. He quotes it in explanation of what was happening. He was testifying, and his testimony was effective, as the latter part of the chapter shows; and it went on being effective. Day by day the Lord added. In the fulness of what he quotes, it waits for a coming day. But it has its bearing upon the present day. We are acquainted with the matter of prophecy. We thank God for it, and that we come together to make way for it. Every week it comes into our assembly calendar—we can thank God for that.
It may be very testing for some brethren where there are so very few, perhaps two only—you would need two, according to Paul. To continue week after week is very testing. We find it so with three or four, so it must be very testing for two. But, testing as it is, we find it a blessed experience that the Lord and the Spirit come in. How the sisters feel about it I do not know altogether—I know about some. It is more testing, perhaps, for the sisters than it is for the brothers. I think it is a very particular feature that we should all be together in it, brothers and sisters. We should be marked by faith as to the meeting. 1 Corinthians 14 shows that it is the Lord’s commandment that it should come into the assembly calendar. It is not just like an address; it is something different. Everybody needs to be in definite exercise about it; in faith about it. Then there would be removed any fear of criticism, or any impression conveyed of boredom—I do not suppose that it happens in these parts, but it might, on the part of the sisters, especially if there are only two brothers.
The thing to have in mind is that it is prophecy, that is, that God’s mind for the moment for the locality is to come out, and that involves that everybody is exercised as to conditions in the locality. A brother cannot get God’s mind unless he is exercised about conditions in his own locality. What is effected by it, only God knows. How little is effected by it may be our feeling, and that calls for much more exercise because it is a means that the Lord has for conveying what His mind is as to what is needed in the locality. And then there must be vessels available to convey His mind. Of course, He is sovereign and can use an ass, as He has done; but I think He would rather use a sensitive vessel, if there is one available. Again, the prophetic word is intended to edify and to encourage and console. Nothing new in all this, you say, but I think the Lord would encourage the brethren to continue, if possible, every week.
But then this scripture is not speaking about the meeting for prophetic ministry. It is speaking about “all flesh”, God pouring of His Spirit upon all flesh. It is speaking about sons and daughters prophesying. Sons do sometimes, perhaps, in the meeting, but this scripture does not refer to the meeting specifically—it would include the meeting, no doubt, but it is wider.
It is a good thing to hear a son, or a daughter, prophesying. It suggests the younger ones; it does not suggest the older ones, I think. And I would desire power to encourage the younger brothers and sisters as to this matter, not to remove it from them and say, Well, this certainly does not apply to us; we are young; it is not expected of us. Perhaps it is not expected of young people—the more is the pity! If it were expected, if it were prayed for (I am not asking any brother to pray publicly about it), but if it were expected, and prayed for, maybe it would come.
Young people—and some older ones—have plenty of conversation about things that are passing; but have they any conversation about the things of God? It is a great challenge for most of us as to the extent to which we speak of “the great things of God” (Acts 2: 11). That is what persons heard in Jerusalem; they heard in their own dialect these men speaking the great things of God. And they knew that there were certain persons there of whom they could ask questions, that is, about the great things of God. Asking questions about other things, of course, we are very familiar with; but there are not too many questions asked about the great things of God; there could be a good many more. In some meetings it would be a good thing if there were more questions asked, and a few less observations, perhaps; questions that would come from a need, and a desire, from an appetite, a hungering and thirsting after righteousness, which the Lord spoke of these would be very profitable questions. Questions can be unprofitable; but it might well be that there could be more questions.
In this chapter persons knew to whom to direct their questions. Perhaps you feel that there is nobody in the locality to whom to direct the questions; but you can still ask questions—even if you think that you are the brother who knows the most, you could ask the brother whom you think does not know nearly as much! Ask him a few questions—you would be surprised what can come out.
What I am thinking of particularly is not only prophecy, which is so important, but the young men seeing visions—and the older men are not left out. I suppose the suggestion is that the older men would not be so active; but I think that the dreams that they would have would be very profitable ones. And what they have learned in their dreams would come out. All depends upon the presence of God in the Spirit, the Spirit of God. This was the occasion of the descending of the Spirit, and His abiding on these believers on Jesus. Generally, we greatly lack faith in the power of the Spirit of God, and what He can bring about. And yet we get every encouragement. These small gatherings, where the ministry meeting has been maintained, get great encouragement from the Lord, and from the Spirit, and the power that He has. There are not many young men, perhaps, here—I do not know where to put the age limit between the young and the otherwise—but I do trust that such as there are here will listen to see if the Lord has not a word for them this morning as to this very matter, “Your young men shall see visions, and your elders shall dream with dreams”.
So none of us are left out of it, even if we are not so active as the young men. It is a promise, a very ancient promise I may say; I think it is thought that the prophet Joel would be one of the earliest, and the prophecy in its fulness has not come about yet; but what he spoke of has come about so far as to apply to the assembly, to apply to us—and not only to the time when we may be convened for the prophetic meeting; it is possible for it to be characteristic of young men that they see visions. We do not want to be sentimental about it, for everything would be controlled by the Spirit.
You will not see visions unless you are in a state to receive them. And that state would be a state that would be controlled by respect for the Lord Jesus and for the power of the Holy Spirit, so that what you see, and what you put out, would also be governed by the Scriptures, by the word of God. For that you must give yourself to the teaching. I am sure our brother did not mean to belittle the ministry in his remark earlier; no one can afford to belittle the accredited ministries. We need to take in what other men have received and been formed in, and what God has allowed to be recorded and preserved for us.
The same would apply to the elders and their dreams. We do not want mere human imagination, fiction, or phantasies; what we want is the truth, what comes by the Spirit. That is what Peter is saying. The coming of the Spirit affords all this; it affords the word of prophecy. It did so on this outstandingly important day, the day of the coming of the Spirit.
What important times there have been: There was the time of the incoming of the Lord Jesus.
There was the time of His dying. There was the time of His burial. There was the time of His resurrection. There was the time of His ascension, as one says of Him, “He ... has also ascended up above all the heavens” (Ephesians 4: 10), and there is the time of the coming of the Spirit. How great these things are!
Now we are in an important time. In one sense it is midnight, I suppose. It is a most solemn thing to think of the condition of the so-called christian world at the present day. It is almost unbelievable the state of things we have reached in this world. That evil things went on in earlier times, before the flood, there is no doubt. It might be—no one knows—that they were as bad as they are today. They were so bad that God destroyed the whole world
in judgment by the flood. But they are this much worse today—the present state of things is apostasy from Christ. It is certain that God will come in in judgment in various ways before very long; but we are not looking forward to judgment, but to the coming of the Lord for the church, for us as of it—a very great matter; not only the event, but the Person Himself.
Therefore the hour is important; on the one hand the darkness so great—almost unbelievable. Only two days ago I saw an advertisement on a hoarding which was almost unbelievable in a so-called Christian country. On the other hand, the Lord is going to take His own—all of them—out of it very soon. What an important moment we are at and we need to be sustained in view of it; we need to be served to be ready for the Lord as He comes. And the Spirit has the power to endue young men, and old men, and sons and daughters, and bondmen and bondwoman, with the prophetic word, or with whatever is needed at the present time.
My plea, dear brethren, is that we may be exercised to lay ourselves open to receive from the Spirit what is needed in our own localities, and, for some, perhaps a little farther elsewhere besides, if that can be put upon them. The Lord can put upon you something more than your own locality; but you need to serve your own locality first and last—and in between as well. It is not to be at the expense of our own localities, even if some of us go a little farther sometimes.
Well, may the Lord help us! What Peter brought out was the blessed Person of Christ, and all that is in His hand for men—and it was received that very day … as the word came, so the blessing was received—and the next day; and the day after. The last verse of the chapter says, “The Lord added daily”. Day after day it went on. Perhaps it is going on at the present day. The thing is that there should be some increase with each one of us; increase in devotion; increase in love for Christ; increased deliverance from self, so that we consider for one another, and not for self, and, above all, for God. May He help us into it, for His name’s sake.
Redbridge
7th April 1973
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