The Hanging Scroll
I had often heard people speak of having visions from God but never imagined that I myself would one day be a partaker of the same. I recall vividly the day I had my first scriptural revelation. This happened one random afternoon as I enjoyed a little siesta (shout out to team siesta, nothing better than a good 10 minute power-nap!) I had just given my life to Jesus a few weeks ago at that point, having decided that this world and the things in it held nothing for me and thinking I had better look and see what Jesus had in store for me. In what I can only describe as my fervent salvation prayer, not only had I brazenly challenged God to ‘show me what He can do’ (could you imagine it!), I had asked Him to use me in any way He wished to. Honestly my journey into salvation was one where I saw the hand of God hover over me and protect me so mightily, I was in no doubt that I had to become a born again Christian. I say this to explain that I gave my life to God wholeheartedly, totally and completely, surrendering myself and yielding to Him to take control.
On the afternoon of the 23rd of August 2020 - I recall because I jotted down the date when I woke up - I was enjoying a little mid-afternoon snooze, as you do. As I slept, I had a ‘dream’- which was really more like a vision- in which I saw one of my favourite preachers Reverend Funke Felix Adejumo sharing a message on a podium. Suddenly the dream panned out and I found myself looking at a landscape from which was hanging what appeared to be a massive scroll or PowerPoint projector. Scripture was flashing past from the bottom to top of the scroll, then it slowed down and in bold letters Zephaniah 2 : 7 was highlighted. In my dream, I then panned back to the preacher on the podium for a few seconds and suddenly I woke up.
Now, please spare a thought for the confused state in which I found myself. I had heard that God speaks to people in dreams, and I myself had by this point had one or two dreams in the past in which I believed that to be the case. However I had never experienced anything like this before. And so as I sat up in my bed, I questioned myself asking what had just happened, asking whether there is in actual fact a book titled Zephaniah in the Bible and if so, whether chapter 2 verse 7 is real. In fact I recall saying quite adamantly, “I’m pretty sure there’s no such Book as Zephaniah in the Bible!” I reached out for my Pink Bible and flipped through just to be sure. And what do you know it, there it was before my very eyes:
Zephaniah 2 : 7
The seacoast shall become the possession of the remnant of the house of Judah, on which they shall graze, and in the houses of Ashkelon they shall lie down at evening. For the Lord their God will be mindful of them and restore their fortunes.
I read the scripture over and over, wondering what God was saying to me. Now it may be clear to some that God was speaking restoration, however to me, whilst I understood this on some level, I couldn’t really relay it to my circumstances. I therefore found myself digging deeper. I typed Zephaniah in Google and discovered that in Hebrew, the name means ‘The Lord has hidden, the Lord has protected, treasured by God.’
They say the word of God is like gold, seven times refined. Every scripture is laden with meaning, layered and multi-layered and so whilst He speaks one thing we hear many things. Truly that power belongs to God alone. Now, many things unfolded as a result of this scripture over the coming months, one of which was the birth and implementation of my first assignment, totally unrelated to the prophetic by the way.
I sat with the message, meditating and reflecting upon it from time to time. Scrolling through YouTube one day, I came across a video by Chuck Pierce, one of the strongest prophetic voices from the USA (for lack of a better way to put it really!) At the time I didn’t know who he was, and as he spoke, I found myself in the blurb section of the video. I have included an excerpt below from his prophetic word I am about to clear up your vision.
We are entering into a season of watching. You are going to have to see what God is seeing, and you are going to have to be able to see past a screen that is trying to stop you from seeing what is going on. The Lord asked Jeremiah, “What do you see?” (Jeremiah 1:11) I want to help the Body of Christ to know the meaning of what God is showing them. We are in a season of coming face to face which will allow us to get a clear perspective. There is a new watchman anointing coming for the Body of Christ. We need to meditate on the revelation in order to get the clarity to understand its meaning. In this season we are watching for the glory shift. The watchman is one of the six types of prophets. It includes intercession, the spirit of revelation, prophecy, and decree. You are watching after the word so that you see the word manifest in front of you. We need to be watching for a glory shift in our lives, watching for when breakthroughs start coming. We need to be anointing our shield so we have faith to see. We are watching for new alignments that are being produced out of new relationships. “Peh” means that our mouths will decree a thing, so we are declaring new openings to occur and new roads for us to walk on. We are entering into an accelerated time of restoration – the enemy is fighting hard to stop it. Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus that a spirit of revelation would rest upon them (Ephesians 1:17). Revelation entails uncovering what could not be seen. This is a supernatural power of Holy Spirit working through you to activate revelation. When I seek the Lord, I hear and I prosper. Joshua 1:8 “You shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” God has revealed His name to us. You are stamped with that name, in the world, but not of the world. We have been grafted into the Hebraic covenant of Abraham. He gave Abraham’s people Torah from heaven. The living word of God came down. You seek relationship with God as you seek Him through His Word. It is not just historical wisdom – it is life, living, destiny. Holy Spirit activates and illuminates God’s Word to us. The Word answers the most important question: “What is God demanding of me?” You need to see clearly so you choose correctly. He is uncovering who you are and who is to cause you to become one. That is why our carnal mind resists revelation. Last night I had a dream about revival in Kent Mattox’ church. In the dream, I went to his church. The ceiling was off his church and there were fires in all four corners of the church. Kent’s brother took me in a room to minister. I started ministering and I could watch on the screen the reaction of the people. I wondered why they had put me in a separate room to minister and to watch. It was because things did not appear as they looked on the surface. As I was ministering, people would transform into their new identity for the future. There was a Korean girl who fell on the floor. She became a bat and started flying around. Because the ceiling had been removed she could fly out. Then I woke up. The Lord is removing certain ceilings that we have had that have kept us from seeing into dimensions that reveal what He has for us. It also means He is redefining our boundaries and wants fire to come into the new boundary that he has for us.
As I read the summary of his message, my jaw dropped and I felt what I can only describe as divine understanding and great conviction in my spirit. Every word I read provided clarity and resonated strongly within me. Collecting my senses from my state of shock, I immediately took screenshots and sent them to my sisters, asking “surely, is this not the season we are standing in?” Their response was … interesting to say the least. It must be that I was standing in the season, they helpfully suggested, which is why I understood what he was saying.
At that point I dropped the conversation, but I was sure there was much more to it than met the eye. As the weeks went by, I kept asking myself “Why did God entrust this message with me? If the message of restoration was that which He was passing on to His prophets in that season, why was I included in that cohort? Why?” And so from the vision of the hanging scroll began the great unfolding of my walk in the prophetic.