*Note* I grew up in the Catholic Church and many people back then had dreams of a coming spiritual wave that would dwarf the charismatic movement* EJO
I believe God showed me He is sending a wave of His Spirit
to bring reformation.
More than 10 years ago, I had the most vivid dream I’ve ever
experienced. I told my wife about it the moment I woke up because it was so
profound. The scenes are still etched in my memory.
I dreamed I was standing inside the Vatican. Keep in mind
that I’ve never been a Catholic, and I’ve never visited Italy. But in my dream,
I was in an ornate hall decorated with marble columns and a fancy paved floor.
I walked over to a huge, arched window where I could see a panoramic view of
Vatican City.
Suddenly a huge wave appeared on the horizon. A tsunami was
coming. The wave got closer and closer, but I did not feel panic, even though I
could hear people running and yelling as they prepared for the impact. I stood
near a wall and braced myself.
When the wave hit, the palatial building began creaking and
tilting. Antique tables, chairs, candelabra and statues began sliding to one
side as the floor moved. Chandeliers were hanging at odd angles. Within minutes
the floor was perpendicular to the ground and more furniture came crashing
down. The movement continued until the floor became the ceiling. More religious
icons, statues and paintings fell and broke into pieces.
In my dream, I did not feel anxious about this catastrophe.
Nor did I ask the obvious questions: How could a tsunami reach that far inland
since the Vatican is almost 20 miles from the Mediterranean coast? How could a
tsunami turn a huge building upside down? And why was there no water anywhere?
I knew in my dream that what I had witnessed was a spiritual event.
At that point I heard a commotion at the other end of the
hall. When I got close enough, I discovered a group of Catholic nuns and
priests who were praying in the Holy Spirit. They had their hands raised and
they were worshiping God fervently, as if they had experienced another
Pentecost.
The atmosphere was spiritually charged. Yet, as these people
prayed, a man dressed in ornate religious garb began to shout angrily at them
in Italian. He was obviously not happy with the way these Catholics were
behaving. This upset me, and I began to rebuke him. I was speaking in my prayer
language, so I didn’t know what I was saying. But I knew God was rebuking the
leaders who were opposing His work.
At that point, I woke up. And I felt the Holy Spirit say to
me: “I am going to turn the Catholic Church upside down.”
I don’t believe all dreams are from God. Sometimes our
brains just think in Technicolor while we sleep. Other times a dream is simply
a crazy subconscious reaction to the pepperoni pizza we ate before bedtime. But
in this case, I have come to believe God was showing me something big that He
plans to do in my lifetime.
Pope John Paul II was still in office when I had this dream.
Pope Benedict has since come and gone, and this week, cardinals are electing a
new leader—at a time when the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics have been reeling
from reports of child abuse and sex scandals among clergy.
I believe a great shaking is coming to the Catholic system,
and it will have both positive and negative impact. God is not pleased with
man-made religious structures (in any denomination) that hinder people from
knowing Him, and He is serious when He asks us to tear down the idols we have
created to take His place. In the end, God always judges idolatry.
On the flip side, He also cares about the millions of people
in the Catholic Church who call upon the name of Jesus and who desire His
presence. For them, the coming wave of God’s power will unleash a new hunger
for the Holy Spirit and God’s unadulterated Word. As corruption is exposed and
structures are shaken, I expect to see Catholics around the world experience a
21st-century reformation movement. Traditionalists will fight it, of course,
but dead religion is powerless when faced with genuine spiritual awakening.
Young reformers from various nations will challenge the system and say, like
Moses said to Pharaoh, “Let My people go” (Ex. 5:1).
I know there are many of my evangelical brothers who have
written off Catholics as heretics, and they leave no room for redemption or
reformation. They’d rather see the whole system crash and burn. Perhaps they
forgot that we have our own idols, sex scandals and institutional corruption,
and that we need a spiritual tsunami to turn us upside down as well. I’m
bracing myself as I pray. Send the wave, Lord.
