I dreamed I was in Bergen, the large city on the west coast of Norway and the centre of much envangelism on my part in the early days of my ministry. It's an old Hanseatic town famous for its German Dockland. And like Rome, it has seven hills, some of which I climbed in my more energetic days.

In my dream I saw a narrow outdoor staircase ascending a hill. I went up it part of the way. At length it began to fill with faceless women all carrying plates containing the ingredients of one of Norway's favourite edibles, waffles. Somewhere above, the waffles were being cooked and prepared so that when the women came down the staircase the plates had freshly fried waffles dripping with honey on them. As they passed me I was removing one or two waffles from each plate without them seeing me. I did not eat them.

At first glance such a dream seems absurd, doesn't it? But as I keep telling my wife, every dream means something, even though it may not be (and isn't usually) prophetic - it may just be telling us about our state of mind, attitudes, or desires which may need some spiritual cleaning work done on them.

One of the things that greatly attracted me about Norway and Norwegians when I first arrived in the country in 1988 was their cheerfulness and lightness of character. Coming from a very stuffy, formalistic British environment riddled with class prejudices, it was a refreshing change. I readily adapted to many Norwegian ways. But nine years of preaching, church-building and close exposure to Norwegians and their culture soon popped any illusions I might have had about the superiority of the culture I had adopted. What you gain on the roundabouit you lose on the swing, which I am sure is true of every and any culture. And having lived in several cultures, I have absorbed some features of those I have been in, and have discarded the others. I guess that makes me a bit of a mixed internationalist bag and therefore confusing to Britons, Norwegians, Swedes, Malays, Chinese, Indians, Americans, Japanese, Iranians, Nigerians, and others all of whose lives I have shared at sundry times. What I am now I cannot possibly say - I am all of these and none of them. About the only thing I am 100% sure of is that I am a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven (Phil.3:20) and that I love the biblical culture of my spiritual forefathers...well, most of it.

Quite soon after I woke up I knew the meaning of my dream. It was a representation of Norwegian culture which appeared to be one thing but turned out to be another...like all secular cultures. The 'waffles' were a play on words with the verb, 'to waffle', which is to speak or write in a vague or wordy manner (something I have on occasion been accused of doing myself). The words had been 'cooked up' in the 'high place', representing government or authority. The honey, of course, represents sweetness - sugared words. So this is the vague, wordy, sugary speech of the ungodly rulers in high places in the land which the Norwegian people have been taught to think and interact by. It is the deliberate, systematic cultivation or brainwashing through the system of schools, media, and so on. This is literally state- or cultcraft, the training up of a people to be a certain way. This is the secular application of a biblical principle:

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it" (Prov.22:6, NKJV).

The Norwegian state is not alone in this psychological programming of the people. All governments are engaged in the application of behavioural programming to attain their ends, with varying degrees of success. It is the same here in Sweden with a system that I call 'fascism with a smile on its face'. Not that the used of 'honeyed words' to obtain a devious end is a new thing - it is a feature of the fleshy nature in action. Not that there is anything wrong with 'honeyed words' if the goal is righteousness:

"Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones" (Prov.16:24, NKJV).

"Oh, how I love Your Torah (Law)! It is my meditation all the day. You, through Your mitzvot (commandments), make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Your precepts. I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your word. I have not departed from Your judgments, for You Yourself have taught me. How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way" (Ps.119:97-104, NKJV).

"My son, pay attention to my wisdom; lend your ear to my understanding, that you may preserve discretion, and your lips may keep knowledge. For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil; but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, her steps lay hold of hell. Lest you ponder her path of life -- her ways are unstable; you do not know them" (Prov.5:1-6, NKJV).

Honeyed lips combined with ungodliness are a deadly mixture. The only authentic sweetness of Yahweh's Torah that is imparted to our inner beings is through the living Torah, Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ).

The revolt against authentic patriarchy was in part brought on by its abuse by men and the evil fruit was feminism. Today's Western man is more or less emasculated, feminised and enslaved. Isaiah's words, "Youths oppress my people, women rule over them" (Is.3:12, NIV) have literally been fulfilled (see Society's Malignant Twins).

Before Yahweh's Kingdom can be restored on the earth, so too must divine gender rôles. This feministic programming has deeply infected and infested the churches and messianic assemblies but true men are rebelling against it and seeking the "old paths" (Jer.6:16) once more. They have had enough and won't be enslaved any more. They wage war against very strongly entrenched demonic strongholds that are now both territorial and global in scope. When the antichrist arises and seizes control, the hidden satanic power behind both ultra-patriatrchy and feminism will reveal itself in an orgy of destruction against both genders as the enemy successfully brings his wicked system into full fruition. The only salvation for men and women alike will be to return to the biblical rôles and tavnith (pattern) and so end the demonically-inspired gender wars. There is no better time to start than now.

Repent, submit to divinely appointed toqef (authority) in all ahavah (love) and emet (truth) in authentic emunah (faith). Do not allow the world systems to indoctrine you or raise your children. Be informed, yes, but don't allow it to brainwash and destroy your souls any longer. Receive the Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) as your Master (Lord) and Deliverer (Saviour), obey His mitzvot (commandments) by submitting to, and falling in love with, both the Messiah and Yahweh's Torah (Law), just as David did (Ps.119:97-104). Then you will be able to declare as he did:

"How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth"!

Comments from Readers

"The stairs do make me think of something incremental, something happening or being introduced or patterned or even brainwashed incrementally... Or like the expression to climb a corporate (or educational or societal) ladder, where it's done so rung by rung?

"Something else that came up is where the batter may connect to an unformed food of the soul... where this false system 'cooks' it, shaping or setting its form? (Perhaps similar to how a person through a certain upbringing in a certain system may have the way the think and speak and act 'formed' or 'set' by that system?)" (DP, South Africa, 27 February 2011)