Recently, I had a dream in which I was an inmate in an insane asylum. The dream began with me standing in an incredibly long hallway lined with cell doors and random furniture. I had somehow acquired a security guard’s pistol. The pistol had three settings: stun, unconscious, and kill. I didn’t want to kill anyone, but I definitely didn’t want them get back up for a while, so I set the gun to knock people unconscious. Suddenly a door opened to my right and a security guard stepped out. We both aimed our pistols at each other. She asked, “Do you even know how to use that thing?” I answered, “I’m pretty sure I do.” Then she shrugged, lowered her weapon and said, “Good luck.” Then stepped back into the room and shut the door.

I noticed that the floor all along the hallway was crisscrossed with tripwires. As I carefully made my way down the hall, the tripwires increased. A woman stepped into the hall. I immediately recognized her as one of the staff psychologists. She didn’t seem terribly interested in me. I pleaded with her to allow me to follow her to the exit, and she (like the previous worker) shrugged her shoulders and turned to work her way down the hall. She didn’t walk on the floor but climbed up onto the furniture and then lept from one piece of furniture to the next. I followed her lead. As we continued down the hallway, the tripwires started to also appear on the furniture. Avoiding the spiderweb of tripwires became more and more challenging, but eventually we made it near the exit at the end of hallway.

We reached the exit only to find workers and inmates all entangled in the tripwires. Everyone was trapped in the asylum. The psychologist pulled off her wig and her clothes to reveal that she too had the shaved head and gown of a patient, and then she joined the others in their entanglement. I suddenly felt a wave of hopelessness. Was there any escape? Even the people in charge and the experts were trapped. Then I looked down the remaining hallway, and I saw a woman approaching me. She was dressed like a nun but her short white hair was uncovered. She had a confident, carefree smile on her face as she walked toward me. She casually walked on top of the tripwires. They didn’t bend or move. It was as if she was weightless, like Jesus walking on water. I thought, “How in the world is she doing that?”

A chorus appeared, hovering above the entire scene. In Greek theater, the chorus often appears to give a narrator and a higher perspective to what is happening in the play. In this case, a member of the chorus stepped forward and announced, “If you want to escape the insanity, you have to get above the offense.” Then I woke up.

“If you want to escape the insanity, you have to get above the offense.”

On Sunday, I’m going to unpack this dream a little more and then we’re going to talk about what it means for us today and what the Spirit is telling us as we look to the end of 2021. How do we get above the offense and escape the insanity of our present culture? The Lord told us before 2021 began that this would be a year of celebrating the harvest. Many of us lost sight of both the celebration and the harvest as we were entangled and trapped in the insanity. We need to get free, get back on track, and get back to celebrating.

The remaining weeks of this year, our focus will be finishing 2021 well. You won’t want to miss a single Sunday as we intentionally celebrate and build our faith together. Each week you will hear a very present living word from the Spirit of God, accompanied by ministry and empowerment. So far our schedule for the remainder of this year is:

• Nov 21 – Matt Neese
• Nov 28 – Ben Nothrop
• Nov 29 – More on Monday (women’s meeting)
• Dec 5 – Matt Neese
• Dec 12 – Jill Nothrop
• Dec 19 – Christmas Party on the Lot
• Dec 26 – No Meeting (The last Sunday of each year, Wellspring doesn’t have a Sunday service. We instead encourage all of our members to be intentional about resting, connecting, and celebrating with friends and family members.)
• Jan 2-9 – ANNUAL FAST: Kingdom Agents

Get ready to finish stronger than we started!

Let’s grow together!
Matt

Matt Neese
Wellspring.Live

DAILY WORD FOR NOVEMBER 17, 2021

All of our heroes of faith, though they were identified as children of God through their faith, did not receive the full promise. Why? Because “apart from us they should not be made perfect.” If a person received all that is promised, they would be perfected, completely complete, whole and mature. Yet God does not want any of us individually perfected apart from the whole family. Only together as one will all believers come into the full promise. This includes all generations, past, present, and future.

Hebrews 12:1-2a says, ““Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.” Every person of faith plays their part in looking to and pursuing Jesus, and then they pass the baton and join the cloud of heavenly watchers who cheer for those running the next leg of the race towards completion of the Kingdom plan. Through faith we become part of a cross-generational team continually advancing together. When we come to the culmination (the perfection and completion of God’s promise), we will actually all be resurrected and brought together, and as one we will step across the finish line. Together we will be perfected.

We must think beyond our present generation. We are part of something that began thousands of years before us, and we’re building upon multiple layers set by our predecessors. Now is your time to intentionally build something for the next generation to increase upon. If God told you, “I’m giving you half a century to prepare My Bride,” what would you do? Some of us won’t be here in fifty years, but how will we live in the time we have in order to prepare, increase, and mature the generations who will be? How will you participate in your section of the relay race?

• 11/17 Proverbs 5, Isaiah 21, Ezekiel 15, Hebrews 11:20-40
• 11/18 Proverbs 6, Isaiah 22, Ezekiel 16, Hebrews 12
• 11/19 Proverbs 7, Isaiah 23, Ezekiel 17, Hebrews 13
• 11/20 Proverbs 8, Isaiah 24, Ezekiel 18, James 1
• 11/21 Proverbs 9, Isaiah 25, Ezekiel 19, James 2
• 11/22 Proverbs 10, Isaiah 26, Ezekiel 20, James 3
• 11/23 Proverbs 11, Isaiah 27, Ezekiel 21, James 4
• 11/24 Proverbs 12, Isaiah 28, Ezekiel 22, James 5

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