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Dream Confirms Message to the Church
by Craig Pinley
SANTA ROSA, CA (September 26, 2003) - Editor's note: This is the second of a six-part series exploring
Redwood Covenant's experience in spiritual transformation. To read the
first part in the series, visit the link displayed at the end of this
story.
Although associate pastor Scott Peterson
says he wasn't enthused about senior pastor John Strong's request at a
staff leadership retreat, Peterson nonetheless fasted and prayed for two
consecutive days, though no particular message from God seemed to be
forthcoming.
Peterson went to bed the second night wondering if there was anything
special that God wanted to tell him. It didn't take long to find out.
"There was just this overwhelming sense that God was there and that God
wanted to say something," Peterson said. "I fought that sense because I
thought this was too weird and not something I was supposed to do. But
all of a sudden I felt God saying, 'Go to your Mac (computer) and start
typing.' I sat down and started typing some general stuff and nothing's
happening to me and I remember saying to myself, 'This is absolutely
goofy.' And then it was like a light bulb came on and a flush of words
came at me and I could not type fast enough . . . I got done typing and
I felt this sense of relief, although I was absolutely exhausted."
After typing, Peterson thought he was through for the night. He wasn't.
God told Peterson to rewrite the text in first person and then speak
that word to the staff in a special meeting. He was also told to deliver
the message from his knees after being anointed with oil by the staff.
"I'm thinking I'm done, but God says that I'm not done . . . and He
basically said that I was going to speak for Him and that I was going to
write in the first person. That was the biggest struggle because I
(originally) said there's no way I was going to write this in first
person. But submitting to God and saying I was going to do this, it
literally brought me to my knees and I sobbed harder than I ever have in
my life. I cried so hard my nose starting bleeding out of both sides and
I woke up my wife Sheri. I was a mess. There was blood all over me, all
over the bed, and I was screaming, 'No, I am absolutely not going to do
this.'"
Peterson told God he needed a sign to confirm that God was truly
blessing this reading. The confirmation came in the form of another
dream shortly thereafter.
"It opens on this beautiful grassy hill in front of this enormous
Victorian house," said Peterson. "Inside are all of these people that I
know and we're just walking around having a good old time, going from
room to room. We're eating wonderful desserts and everything's just
peachy keen. And more people keep coming into this house and there's not
room for everybody. I walk out of the back of this house and there's a
long awning that went downhill and this awning was redder than red and
it went down to this large white tent. I went down there and got into
this tent and the tent was actually glowing on the inside - very, very
brightly and harsh. There seemed to be something wrong with the way this
tent was glowing. It was hard to look at and you could tell something
wasn't right. We went in there and I was noticing that some people were
walking into the tent and going to the sides of the tent. And there were
these hideous looking hands coming out from the sides of the tent and
grabbing people. I remember the detail of the fingers and the wrinkles,
and the shape and form of the hands. And these hands were pulling people
into the fabric of the tent.
"Then I remember more and more people coming in and I was doing
something in the dream I've never done in my life - we were rebuking
these hands and we were watching people getting grabbed by these hands
and it was absolutely exhausting<" Peterson continued. "I remember going
to the entrance of this tent and shouting at people, 'Don't come in,
this isn't right.' I couldn't handle any more people coming into this
mess . . . I woke up in a cold sweat."
Peterson told executive pastor Joanna Quintrell and another parishioner
about what had happened and a staff meeting was called in haste. After
reading from Hebrews 11, Peterson presented the message he had been
given and then distributed copies of the message to his stunned co-workers.
A few days later, Peterson says that God told him a second message to
the church
was forthcoming. This time, Peterson didn't argue. He drove home from
church, sat down in front of his computer and started typing. "God told
me that the only people this one was going to was the elders . . . and
that I wasn't going to deliver it for two weeks," Peterson said.
Tomorrow: senior pastor receives his own message from God. To read
the first part of this series, visit the following link:
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