Interactions with God #31
In the post Interactions with God #19, I wrote down a dream that was given to me just after I met Ray. It was the first part of a two part message that God had for me. This first part was not supposed to makes sense until I got the second part. The second part was also a dream and it came in early 1987.
In this dream, I found myself in the kitchen of a rather large home. I was standing, facing a window over a sink, looking outside. The house was on a mountain top and looked down over the entire world which was a vast flat land with cities, towns and farms. As I stood there assessing where I was, I heard a strange noise. Curious, I went to an adjacent room and exited the house through a sliding glass door. I stepped out of the house onto a small patio. Over to my right, about 25 yards away, was a large tree with great branches. The tree was on a raised hill above the ground level of the house. It was barren, there were no leaves on it at all. Above the tree was a huge black cloud that was blasting this tree with lightning. That was the noise that I had heard. Beneath the tree was a small group of people. They were jumping up and grabbing hold of the branches and then falling off after they got shocked by the lightning. After they fell off they would jump up again and again. They were all laughing. Watching the scene I had an unsettling feeling. I then said to myself “I need to get out of here”. That is when I woke up.
In the first dream, two years earlier, I saw a solid white cobra with a black diamond on its forehead. It was poised to strike from under the water of a lake. After I approached it, the snake flew out of the water and bit me on the neck. As I said in Interactions with God #19, I had gotten the message of the dream wrong. I thought it was a warning to not get overly enthusiastic regarding my new understanding of demons. Clearly, it was not.
After I received the second dream, the meaning of both dreams became clear. In the first dream, Ray was the snake. He appeared to be a “holy” man, thus the color white. The black mark represented his bad character traits, particularly his foul language. The water represented a large group of people. Simply put, out of the people I knew the snake would appear. The fact that I did get bit or “poisoned” was now my history. I had been poisoned by his lies and deception.
In the second dream, the house represented the ministry itself, the House of Israel Church. The house was on a huge mountain above everything else, because that was the way we viewed this ministry. Ray was the tree, which was slightly raised, even above the house. The dark cloud was an evil presence or demon giving Ray a certain level of power and ability to deceive. The group of people laughing were the other members of the ministry who were still deceived by the arrogant notion that we were all going to be “super soldiers” for God… of course, through Ray. Once I woke up, I knew what God was saying, it was time for me to leave. However, just to confirm the message, I went to Ray and told him the dream. Once I told him, I asked him what he thought. He got angry and said “What do you think it means?” He then got up and walked out of the room. Yes, I knew then it was definitely time to go. But a problem remained…how do I do it the right way?
Why not just leave? I couldn’t. I was second in charge next to Ray at this point. If I just left, Ray would have simply told everyone that I walked away from God. This would prevent any good thing that I did from helping others to see the light. No, I couldn’t just leave. After a week or so, and still not sure what to do, I went to the pastor of the Church we were attending on Sundays… Charles Taylor.
When I went to meet with Pastor Taylor, he said he was expecting me. He said that he noticed that I seemed rather bothered about things, and he guessed that there was something wrong with Ray’s ministry. I told him everything. From the idea that the ministry was to be some great end time group to the special week long test assigned only to Ray and his team. He gave me some good advice at the time. At least now I had someone to talk to about the situation.
My new plan was to see if I could make changes from within while Pastor Taylor worked directly with Ray. At the house, I began to oppose Ray. Not directly, no. All I did really was start to walk with stronger conviction. My language cleaned up again. I refused to lie for any reason. I would not be a party to any deception, ridicule or any other bad treatment of others. These were all little things, but they began to make a big difference. Several of the young men who were part of the house took notice and began to confide in me. Ray also took notice, but he was not happy about it.
Ray did begin to meet with Taylor and while with him, spoke of changing his ways. However while at the house, he began to hunt for the one who had betrayed him. I figure he suspected me, but would not openly confront me. I was not sure why. I would not have lied to him. In fact, I had hoped he would and really find change. That didn’t happen…
Tension began to increase day after day, then week after week. After about a month of this, Ray had a meeting where he said to everyone, “Sometimes God has people leave this ministry to go do other ministry else ware. These people will not be cursed by God for doing so.” This of course went against all he taught about the ministry over the two years that I was part of it.
After the meeting, Ray took me aside and said he believed that I was such a person. He felt God was calling me to something else. He wanted me gone, and with it, God gave me an out. I took it.
After getting an apartment in the same complex that Pastor Taylor and his wife lived it, I moved out. I still attended the same church on Sunday and met with Pastor Taylor regularly. Ray of course, after I left, told everyone I was now cursed by God for leaving. No, I was not surprised, saddened, but not surprised. His tactic however backfired considerably. Three others left within a few weeks.