Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el, Mishpachah Lev-Tsiyon and chaverim! I hope that Yahweh has blessed you all this last week and that you are ready to be challenged for what lies ahead. Don't let the summer (if you're in the northern hemisphere) lull you into lowering your spiritual guard. With so much to do outside for the next 10 or so weeks, it's easy to forget that affairs of the Kingdom take precedence. So stay very much awake and remain prepared.

I'll come right to the point this morning by sharing a vision I was given in the form of a prophetic parable five days ago. As some of you know one of our Yorkshire terrier dogs is called Fred, a common name in English but which also means PEACE in all the Scandinavian languages, SHALOM in Hebrew.

Just under three decades ago, when I first arrived in Norway, I visited a church in Oslo on whose logo included the motto 'Fred'. I thought that highly amusing at the time as I had no idea that it meant 'Peace'. So to me, the recipient of the vision, the word or name 'Fred' has a dual meaning. It isn't just an abbreviation of 'Frederick'

The vision, which came early in the morning, was very intense indeed. Although I was inside the house in the vision, I also had a bird's-eye view of what was happening outside. The scene was winter. There was snow everywhere and it was dark. The location was our home which frequently doubles up in prophetic visions to represent the Tabernacle in Israelite temple symbology, with the outside garden or yard area representing the Outer Court, which as you know, at this time, represents that part of the rebellious Body of Messiah which has been invaded (see The Striped Curtain: A Vision About the Outer Court). It's one of the reasons there is so much deception in the churches and messianic assemblies. So in the vision I am looking at the equivalent of the Outer Court, which is now demon-infested. It's one of the reasons why so many crazy things are going on.

So there I am, in the vision, inside the House (Tabernacle) but I am simultaneously able to 'see' what's going on outside. However, the outside (the Courtyard) is demonic terrain now, and when demons are involved in any scenario or set-up, things are rarely as they appear. It's winter, it's cold, it's night, it's dark...except for one bright light by our front door which illuminates a substantial area in front of the House both in real life and in the vision.

In the vision I see our dog Fred who is outside in the snow and making his way back to the house. The canine Fred is often outside with his companion, Prussia, an elongated black-and-white Shihtzu with a squashed face, but I don't see her in the vision, though I expect to see her and am scanning the lit part of the snow-decked garden looking for her.

Prussia is another important symbol, representing a nation (dissolved in 1947)which stands for order, discipline, cleanliness and honesty amongst many other qualities. Not for nothing was it's flag a plain Black-and-White horizontal bicolour, the same colours as our dog of the same name, and the reason we named her after the country.

Instead of Prussia (the female) accompanying Fred back home in the vision, there is another dog present with Fred, one I have never seen before. It is a miniature collie, a beautiful, long-nosed, long-legged, sleek animal, and of course famous as sheepdog. I have never owned a collie before in real life, and never conidwered getting one, for reasons I will explain in a minute.

So there, in the vision, is Fred coming to the house with this unexpected collie dog in tow. I am a little perplexed by this picture as the real Fred already has a mate, his Prussia. But I uncritically and unsuspectingly think to myself, 'OK, he's got a new mate' and don't give it a second thought, and I think to myself, 'I had better let them in out of the cold'. In real life I would not have thus reacted, I'm sure. I guess I am more concerned about getting them into the warmth.

Next thing I know in the vision I am inside at the front door. The collie has raced ahead of Fred and gets to the door before him so when I open the door, there is the collie. Only now it isn't a friendly collie but a very large anmgtry, roaring lion. It has thrust its snout and mouth inside the door with great force, and the mouth is wide open ready to devour me. I am taken completely by surprise but instinctively react by attacking the lion with all the power and fury I can muster. Then the vision closes.

Now you can imagine how much that vision shook me up. I was deceived for a moment and nearly allowed a demon into the Sanctuary! But by what was I momentarily deceived? And was this a wider message for this Mishpachah and for the Remnant?

Obviously this was not my literal 'Fred' as I was seeing a symbol of biblical Shalom. Because of the associations I have with this name, the whole cluster of ideas and realities that lie behind the Hebrew word Shalom or Peace are represented by the dog Fred in the visiion. This 'Fred' or Shalom represents both external welfare (the Tanakh or Old Testament sense) as well as heartpeace (the New Testament sense).

Scripture and our own revelations, warn us to be aware of false peace-makers:

"Ye have heard it said that when the chiefs and captains of men declare peace that ye should prepare for war. Verily, verily, thus saith Yahweh, the words of peace are on the lips of many, and many desire peace wherein they may work their own wickedness, leading the children of men into greater carnality and spiritual death. The Despoiler waiteth, yea, even with a very great army, to pour forth his wrath in his last hour that he may lead captive even the choicest spirits of Yahweh, even those who have been reserved for this day" (NC&C 38:4-6).

'Peace' approached my Home in the vision, and indeed has approached, or is about to approach, or is now approaching, the whole Remnant, but with a mighty deception ahead of it. And the reason I was deceived was because Fred's counterpart, or Prussia, representing that cluster of principles I have just mentioned, was absent.

Let me tell you something about our dog Prussia, the dog who wasn't in the vision but should have been alongside Fred. This vision is packed with symbols and meanings that are peculiar to me and my family. Prussia is a larger dog, much bigger than Fred, which Fred sometimes finds overwhelming when he tries to be in charge. The two have a curious relationship but it 'works', as so many of our own relationships 'work' even though they may appear 'unusual' on the surface.

Oswald Spengler once wrote that the Prussian, both individually and collectively, was a person "immensely strong and free, which no one who does not belong can understand", a reason one side of me has always been powerfully drawn to Prussianism, and which without a doubt has shaped a large part of my personality. Beccause the élites that rule this world hate personal and national independence, and especially individuals and nations that are strong and free, they have always sought to exterminate them. That is why the wiped Prussia off the map inn 1947, because strength and freedom are an enormous threat to totalitarianism. First the nazis suppressed Prussia and then the Allies wiped it out.

If one part of me is Prussian, then the other part of me is very English and you might thing that the two - English and Prussian - are total opposites, but they're not really. The quinessential Englishman is, by comparison, very laid back but scrupulously fair. He's a gentleman. Where Englishman and Prussian meet is in their shared love and gift of organisation and decency. Which should come as no surprise as a third of an Englishman's genes are from Saxon stock or German stock, and most of the Prussians were German.

It's important I develop this for you so that you can get a handle on the meaning of this vision. It's why I stress the need to dig deep to properly understand what Yahweh is doing in all things. Superficial digging will yield superficial results and understanding. You see, in recent weeks and months I had lost a grip on this 'Prussian' side, no doubt because I have been very discouraged by my chronic illness which has actually, ironically, brought out another side of my ancestry, the French! But I'll not go into that other than to note how the French viewed the Prussians as a people prepared to "work hard for little material reward". The Prussians knew the secret of being satisfied or content with what they had, advice John the Baptist once gave.

The Southern Germans (Bavarians, Austrians) have always scorned the Prussians as being "culturally backward, tightly disciplined, even joyless, but efficient and incorruptible nonetheless". In our own world of corruption, laziness, toadeyism, selfishness, decadence and indiscipline, Prussianism is just what the the Remnant needs now - not in isolation, not by itself, but in conjunction with the other virtues that make for a rounded believer in the Master Yah'shua the Messiah.

Now here's the key - this cluster of virtues was absent in the vision and because it was absent it left open a door to deception in the form of the collie. So what is the collie like that makes it a plausible substitute for all that 'Prussia' represents? And why are these characteristics potentially dangerous in the particular mix which is those characteristics needed for the Remnant to be strong and focussed during tribulation?

Even if you have never owned a collie you will no doubt have encountered them in TV and movie dramas, and perhaps you have had friends who owned one which you got to know. Our neighbour in England owned collies for as long as I can remember. On the positive side the collie is famous for its loyalty, intelligence and fearlessness. I am sure the Hollywood character 'Lassie' springs to most of your minds. Collies are commonly used as service dogs, guard dogs and search and rescue dogs.

Our neighbour's dog was called Bob and one thing I remember well about him was that he could be unpredicable. As one breeder notes:

"Collies are intelligent and need mental stimulation as well as physical stimulation. Without proper activity levels, this breed will become anxious and develop destructive behaviors" [1].

One thing I remember well about Bob was that if he got nervous he could be very snappy. In consequence of that, I tended to keep away from him, particularly as he got older and more irritable. The same was true of his replacement after he died, who would sometimes go for our Springer Spaniel, Emma, who was as harmless as a dove. I remember how destructive Bob could be if left alone, chewing the neighbour's house up. They spoiled him rotten, mind you, feeding him with human food!

I am not, incidentally, passing judgment on any breed of dog! I hope you realise that. This message actually has nothing whatsoever to do with dogs. Yahweh has simply used this lovable pet to get across some important truths for this time especially. It's not even about own own literal dogs or anyone else living in my family or anyone we might know. This is about mixes of principles and characteristics.

Let me distill this for you. The collie here is a false shepherd that gives the appearance of being loyal to the flock but is in reality a murderous predator.He's really a false Messiah, a false Christ, bearing a lying message of 'peace' by linking himself to the true thing for the purpose of deception and infiltration. He is extremely intelligent, as indeed satan is, and pretends to be fearless when in fact, if resisted, will soon run off, as it is written:

"Submit yourselves, then, to Elohim (God). Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7, NIV).

Collies are beautiful animals. Their long noses and long legs make them look elegant. The enemy loves to hind behind elegance and beauty because we so often enamoured by these things. So we must be careful. Satan is extrenmely intelligent and knows far more about the universe than we do. He is intellectually brilliant but a fool when it comes to spiritual matters. He posesses much knowledge but little wisdom.

So beware of those who are intellectually brilliant but who lack wisdom because intellect has been the downfall of so many believers. One of the great temptations of intelligent people is that they tend to overrate themselves and get careless. They also like to be admired and praised. Pride is a great weakness of intellectuals. Intellect alone will not see you through the current crisis. Collies are esteemed for their intelligence, a reason they are so useful.

I have been following the life of a former brother who was, and is, intellectually brilliant. He came close to joining us at one time. He's so 'clever', in fact, that he has rejected the Bible and Yahweh and has now started his own religion, a new brand of shamanism, with a small band of followers awed by his mind. His descent into darkness has been the object of much sadness on my part. And he's not the only one. I have known many former believers who are intellectuals seduced by pride.

The Kingdom needs intellectuals - absolutely. We need our theologians like Paul, one of the most brilliant men of his day. But unbalanced by the simple and unrefined they tend to go astray, carried off by pride in their own brilliance. As an intellectual myself, blessed to have been educated at Oxford University, I have had to watch my step very carefully. I was at the same College as Bill Clinton, one-time US President, philanderwer and crook extraordinaire like his wicked wife. I am so glad never to have had the temptations that go with power like that man.

Yahweh has sent some brilliant intellectuals to this ministry over the years. One of the earliest, a young American woman called Bridget, held great promise initially. She was an amazing apologist with a razor-sharp mind. I think one of her articles survives somewhere on the main website. There have been several others, both men and women. Most have been seduced by pride in one form or another and not walked long with us. It's not easy being an intellectual and not be puffed up with pride and self-sufficiency. The same is true for beautiful women and handsome men.

The trouble is that foolish people look idolatrously up to intellectuals and envious people to the beautiful and handsome. Intellect and beauty aren't things we earned or created - they're gifts from the Creator to be used wisely and humbly. Our gifts are on loan to us and when we die they must be returned. If we are humble and have dedicated our gifts to Yahweh's service, then they will be retained and magnified because we have used them to bring glory to Yahweh and not to bring us fame or power.

Years ago Yahweh taught me an important lesson about beauty. In vision he showed me an ugly woman and inside, because she was dedicated to Him, she was absolutely and stunningly beautiful. Another woman, who would be adjudged as gorgeous by the world's standards, was grotesquely ugly inside. He then told me that in the resurrection they would become outwardly what they were inwardly.

The same is true of brainiacs. The Dawkins' and Hawkings of this world, who serve themselves, will become fools in the resurrection; and those who were regarded as being stupid or of low IQ by the world who were faithful to Yahweh in mortality will amaze even the malakim (angels) in the resurrection.

Do you want evidence? Read the accounts of the apostle Peter in the Gospels. He was a country bumpkin with so many character defects that you could bend iron with them. Compare that Peter with the Peter who years down the line wrote the two epistles bearing his name and you are at once confronted with a man transformed. Liberal scholars, because they have no concept of the miraculous and are blinded by their own intellectual pride, refuse to believe they are one and the same person. Peter the hotheaded simpleton became Peter the brilliant and wise. That's what the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) does to faithful souls.

We are going to be hugely surprised at the resurrected when we see how the humble, submitted nobodies become incredible beings of light and ahavah (love). There are no fools in the Kingdom of our Elohim (God) because Yah'shua (Jesus) re-images all those who come to Him and lay their lives down for Him. So "do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment" (John 7:24, NKJV). What you see with your physical eyes will pass away but what is currently unseen is eternal.

The Remnant is not about solitary individuals raised on platforms for self-glory but is a team. In the Kingdom, like is attracted to unlike, not like to like, as arms are attracted to legs, because we need each other. The common denominator and attracting factor is Messiah inside people.

I have always valued and been blessed above all else by the simple, honest, loyal hard workers who more often than not see the things of the Kingdom a lot clearer than most of the brainiacs. Ignore these people - the 'Prussias' of the Kingdom - and you do so to your great detriment. And there are loads of nutty intellectuals out there, the collies of the Remnant, whose theology may be brilliant but whose discernment of spiritual matters highly immature and undevelopped. Alone they are eyesores - grafted in they beautify and are beautified. The glory of the Bride is in her oneness with the whole, not her private domains. She is not a million-and-one private denominations. The Bride of Messiah is polygamous, not monogamous, even though she may be respresented symbolically as monogamous. It's a family, folks, not a one-man or one-woman show.

Like I said, I am not pointing fingers. Part of the vision was to warn me not to forget that the balanced Messianic Evangelical and Remnanteer has to be many things because of the deceptions out there, what with the Courtyard invaded. And since there are few, if any, who can be all of these things as Yah'shua (Jesus) is, it should be obvious how important the Fellowship is where there are diverse souls of different makeups and experiences serving alongside one another. This is not a good time for trying to go it alone. It is disasterous, in fact. The Remnant is a Body, a Living Family Entity, built for cooperative ministry and fellowship, not a collection of isolated monks and nuns building castles in the sky. Those stubborn and unwise eclectics who try it alone will be picked off by modern-day Amalekites as those early Israelites were.

For many years I have been warning you that a great many ministries are going to collapse, led ,as most of them are, by singular, unbalanced charismatic or intellectual figures, often unaccountable to anyone but themselves. Many are on the brink right now. Yahweh will do Nebuchadnezzars on them, as I said recently. No one escapes purging, and we teachers are the first to be threshed.

We have always been at our strongest when we have worked closely together. The moment the Body starts fragmenting and the people start becoming eclectic and isolated doing their own thing and making excuses, stagnation and rot sets in. That is how the demonic lion gets into the very Tabernacle of the soul. So don't look down on anybody whom Yahweh has called who are willing to be honest, hard-working and loyal talmidim (disciples). Selfists will fall like flies in the weeks and months ahead. You are going to be surprised and appalled by what you see. People you once thought strong in the emunah (faith) are going to bolt like rabbits right into the lion's mouth and be metaphorically 'eaten alive'. Once larger than life, suddenly they will be no more.

So whatever your solo 'thing' is, now is absolutely the time to repent. Yahweh really can't cut us much more slack than He already has. It's no fun to be a Robinson Cruisoe. I love that story, it tells many a truth about human nature and the deepest eneds of the soul. So get rid of the desert island mentality - that's for cowards and those with a death wish.

I want to thank the loyalists, the dogged 'Prussians' out there who, like their namesake, built a nation with nothing thanks to shere hard work and discipline. None of you are mediocre because all of you are His images, reflecting His glory according to His will and predetermination. Be the salt you were made to be. Yahweh loves salitiness for "salt is good" (Mk.9:50a, NASB). For we would none of us fare well without salt, would we? The fancy desserts are a nice extra but they're not essential.

"Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to Yahweh; asuredly, he will not be unpunished" (Prov.16:5, NASB)

"Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation" (Rom.12:16, NASB).

'Collies' are beautiful animals but they are not the ordained companions of shalom (peace). The companion of shalom (peace) is hard work and faithfulness and the two shall not be divided. Amen

Endnotes

[1] Collie - Temperament & Personality