Since I heard through the grapevine that a friend's church was taking a few days of fasting, (and since all of the Hand of Help staff go to this church, and I knew there would be very little risk of them calling and asking if I wanted to go to lunch if they were all fasting), I decided I would join in, and fast along with everyone else.
Maybe it's just me, but I always feel odd trying to explain the fact that I'm fasting to someone who calls and invites me to lunch or dinner. On the one hand, I feel like I'm bragging about something we ought not to publicly declare we are doing, and on the other hand I feel like I'm making the individual feel bad about not fasting themselves.
I have always found fasting to be a great bringer of clarity, and given the times and the seasons that are upon us, who among us couldn't use a little more clarity?
The first day of the fast, I had picked my brother Sergiu up from the airport in Chicago, brought him home, and gone to bed, when I had a dream.
I dreamt I was walking down a street, but to the left and the right of me everything was utterly destroyed. If not for the foundations sticking out of the earth, one would not have known anything had once stood there.
I have seen the aftermath of earthquakes while living in California in the eighties, I have likewise seen the aftermath of tornadoes live and in person, and this looked like neither of the two. The best way I can describe it, is that the entire street seemed to have been razed. From trees, to homes, to fences, everything had been flattened and annihilated.
The street curved to the left, and as I followed it turning the corner, I was surprised to see a house standing a couple hundred yards ahead of me on the right. There was nothing special about the house. A single story home, with a porch and a porch swing, once painted white by what I could gather, but having taken on a charred look.
I quickened my pace, as even in my dream this seemed odd and surreal, and as I approached the house I heard what could only have been prayer coming from inside.
This was no typical prayer. It was passionate, and fervent, and the only time I remember having heard prayer like this, is when we would have prayer nights in our home in Romania during the Communist occupation.
This was anything but a restrained prayer gathering, and the voices coming from inside the house were praising God, and giving glory to Him.
I stood just short of the front step, and listened to the prayers coming from within the house, until in my dream, I woke up.
As I awoke from my dream within a dream, the man I have grown accustomed to seeing was standing at the foot of my mattress.
'Do you understand what you've just seen?' he asked without prelude.
'I believe I do' I answered somewhat confidently. The man gave me a look one might give to a slowwitted individual and said, 'perhaps in part', then reached out and touched my shoulder.
Suddenly I was back on the same street, and I realized this only because of the house with the porch swing, now a pristine white. It was the only thing that was the same as in my previous dream, because now there were trees, and homes, up and down the block. It looked and sounded like a typical neighborhood, but above the din of chirping birds and barking dogs, I could hear prayer coming from inside the home with the porch swing. It was the same kind of fervent, passionate prayer I had heard on the previous occasion. I strained to hear what they were praying for, but I could only hear snippets from time to time. As I made to climb the first of three steps, I was back in my bed, with the man standing patiently by my mattress.
'Now you understand', he said, 'tell them not to fear, but to draw close to the Father in whom is shelter from the storm, and protection from destruction.' I then woke up, disoriented, wondering for a while if this was yet another dream within a dream. Realizing that it was not, I knelt beside my mattress and started to pray.
I have not released a dream or a vision in two years, and if not for the specific instruction 'tell them' I would have been hesitant in releasing this dream as well. As I explained in a recent radio interview, the reason why I have not released any visions or dreams is because many within the household of faith have become, for lack of a better term, prophecy junkies. At every gathering, at every meetings, there is always the inevitable 'what's the Lord been showing you lately', as though He hasn't shown us enough, or as though His word is not clear enough.
I specifically asked permission of God to withhold what He was showing me for a season, and have single-mindedly focused on preaching Christ, and Him crucified wherever I was asked to preach, because our safety, our shelter, and our protection is in Christ Jesus our Lord, Savior and King.
Our refuge, our shelter, our place of safety is not a geographical location; it is in the arms of Jesus, in the will of God, in fellowship and intimacy with Him. If we are walking in the will of the Father, then we have nothing to fear. If we are being obedient to His word, His guidance, and His leading, then wherever He will guide us will be a safe place, and wherever He will lead us will be a place of shelter. Our safety is found in obedience. If God has told you to go to a certain place, then do as He has commanded. If however God has not spoken, then be at peace where you are, for God is able to protect you in the midst of the storm.
It is time to draw closer to God than ever before, to come before Him in prayer, and fasting, in righteousness, and purity of heart. The day draws near when we will behold the miracle working power of our God firsthand, when we will see what our God can do, and glory in His omnipotence.
Psalm 18:25-30, "With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; with a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless; with the pure You will show Yourself pure; and with the devious You will show yourself shrewd. For You will save the humble people, but will bring down haughty looks. For You will light my lamp; the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. For by You I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him."
Psalm 25:4-5, "Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day."
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.