SHAWN BOLZ: When
a Christian dies, do they stop looking
at the Earth? Are they involved
anymore in what happens? We've all had family members
and people close to us who've passed away,
but when they're in Heaven, what do they do? What does that
look like for them? And many times as
Christians, we don't even know how to interact with our
faith with someone who's died, do we mourn them? We know there's going to be
grief but, they're still alive. Are they caught up
in heavenly bliss, or are they actually
watching us, like we watch
reality television? You know, when it
says in Hebrews 12:1 that we're surrounded by a
great cloud of witnesses, what does that mean,
what are they doing? They're cheering us on, but how? When you think about those
who've gone on before us, what do you think about? Are they on pause? Does it feel like their life
is waiting until Jesus returns, or are they actually
doing something right now? Today on Dreams and
Mysteries, we're going to explore the mystery
of the cloud of witnesses, and we're going to talk about
these who've gone before us, and how we get to celebrate
the fact that not only are they alive, but they're in
fullness, and they're actually praying with Jesus
right now that you can walk in your fullness. Now Jesus is the
intercessor, but these ones are interacting
right now with Him, and this is going to
give you a lot of hope. [music playing] ANNOUNCER: This is
Dreams and Mysteries. SHAWN BOLZ: As we talk about
the cloud of witnesses, we have to start to
think about those who are in the cloud of witnesses. Who are they? We have everyone from Elijah
and Moses, who came in Mark 9 to the transfiguration of Jesus,
and they spent time with Him, they prepared Him to
even go to the cross. We know that Moses died,
but Elijah never died, but somehow both were
in a transfiguration moment with Jesus. How did that happen? They're in Heaven, but somehow
they come to the Earth. Some theologians believe it was
a heavenly overlap, where Jesus actually overlapped Heaven. Some people believe they
actually came in physical form to the Earth, because the
disciples that were with Jesus saw them. But regardless,
they were people who had been previously passed
away on earthly standards, but are alive in God
and came to the Earth. Now this is a
fascinating thought, because Moses and Elijah
both had promises from God that Jesus was fulfilling. This gives you a prototype,
that all of us who have somebody or something
left invested on the Earth, are thinking about it
when we're in Heaven. We're stewarding it
with Jesus, if Jesus is the constant intercessor,
how much more would we be intercessors in Heaven
with Him, when we love and see Him in fullness,
and we see what He wants. We see the desires
of His heart, and we start to see the humanity
that He cares for, and we start to see those in the
humanity we care for, and are going to live out promises
that may be unfulfilled that God gave us. We also see John in
the Book of Revelation, where he sees the cloud of
witnesses, he sees the elders. He sees all these people
who've gone on before us, and they're worshipping
Jesus, and they're looking at what
God needs and what He wants to get the fullness
of Jesus' reward activated. As a matter of fact, it
culminates in Revelation 19, where we see the
Bride of Christ, which is all the believers
throughout history, and all the believers maybe
currently on the Earth, who are crying out with
this great eldership, with all these heavenly
hosts, and they're crying out for Jesus. Now this is such
a picture because, not only is John
seeing those who've gone on, in a very physical
way, but we're also seeing that they're playing
a role still in Heaven. They're not
inactive, they're not not looking at what God's doing,
they're actually very focused on Jesus and His
reward, and who He is. As a matter of fact,
Revelations 19:10 says, "The spirit of prophecy is
the testimony of Jesus." Now, the testament of Jesus
is what He's crying out for, which is this Bride, which is
this counterpart humanity, that would be His true love. And so that's what Jesus'
spirit is crying out for, and that's what John saw
in the Book of Revelation. So he's seeing a
heavenly scenario that's both parabolic, but
very literal at the same time. For every one of
God's mysteries, there's always a counterfeit. Unfortunately for the
cloud of witnesses, the church is focused more
on the counterfeited times, than the actual reality
that we're surrounded by, a great cloud of those
who've gone before us. Because of some
of the imbalances of what happened in spiritism,
and some of the other religions that were embraced by different
parts of Christianity, there was an overemphasis
on the cultish behavior of these experiences. People began to seek
out those who've gone into Heaven instead of Jesus. People looked for mediators
that weren't Jesus Himself. They were trying to
appeal to dead relatives, they were trying to have
an encounter with someone that they were grieving. This was never God's intention. As matter of fact, the
Bible is clear on not communicating with the dead. But what is it when we
communicate to Jesus, and He allows us a glimpse
to those who aren't dead, who are part of the
eternal scenario? We're not seeking it, but all
of a sudden something happens. It's like Paul, when he was
talking about 2 Corinthians 12:2. And he said, I know a man 14
years ago, who was caught up into the Third
Heavens, and he saw things that were so
wonderful, he couldn't even repeat these things. Now think about that. Paul, many people
believe, is the one who was caught up in
the Third Heavens, and saw all these things,
what would be so wonderful? One of the things that
we know is wonderful, is that those who go
on to be with Jesus are in their fullness. They have somehow
entered into the mystery of the fullness of Christ. Jesus prayed in John 17 that
we would be one with Him, as He's one with the Father. And he was praying that
in a very current way, that we as all the
believers would be one. John sees this in the
Book of Revelations, chapter 19, where
he sees the Bride, we referred to this earlier. He sees all of the believers as
one, just as Jesus prayed it. Now this is a wonderful
scenario where God is revealing
things about Heaven now, that we would
have never seen without His spirit
of revelation. And part of what we're going
to see, if we see Heaven, is those who've gone on, because
they're part of the scenario. It should be no mystery that we
would see those, as Christians. At times, if someone
would have an encounter, when they look up into Heaven
and that they would see Jesus, just like Stephen,
when he saw Jesus at the right hand of the Father. This shouldn't be considered
cultish, or weird. As a matter of
fact, we're supposed to have our hopes set in
the heavenly scenario, and being with Jesus
for all eternity. Think about it this way, those
who loved you really well, maybe it's a spouse, maybe
it's one of your children. Maybe it was your best
friend, or a grandparent, or a mother or father, who
are in Heaven right now. You know how much they loved
you and connected and fought for you on the Earth, how
much they represented you. That's the biggest
thing, is representation. How much more would
they represent you when they're in
Heaven, and they really know you, they
really see you, they see you in God's full value. They are called
to represent you, in the courtrooms of
Heaven and the love of God, and they haven't stopped
representing you. And I believe that
because they're there, and you're part of
their inheritance that they left undone, that
you're living out a calling now that affects their
inheritance in Heaven. It affects Jesus'
inheritance in Heaven. So there's an interaction going
on right now on your behalf, in Heaven, because
they're there. Not only are we not supposed
to grieve the same way as those who aren't saved,
but we're supposed to understand after
our grieving process, our natural, normal, human,
wonderful grieving process, starts to diminish, there
can't be a mourning. Because those who've
gone on before us, we're going to be
with them forever. Once we've taken them
off pause in our hearts, what is that going to look like? What is it going
to look like when we realize those who've
gone before us are still part of the scenario right now. [music playing] DREAMER: I dreamed I
heard a song playing. At first, I couldn't
figure out where the music was coming from. But then I realized,
it was coming from my husband's office. I went to his office to
see what was going on, and I saw him playing two
different musical keyboards simultaneously. One of them was directly
in front of him, but the other one
was to his right, and flipped around so it
was facing away from him. He had to reach over it to play. I remember being amazed,
because he had always told me he couldn't play
the piano very well. He was playing both
of the keyboards to create one song that
I had never heard before, and I knew the song
was from Heaven. Now let's interpret this dream. This dream is showing me that
God is going to give my husband supernatural ability to do
things he cannot do naturally. Because the dream took place
in my husband's office, this is most likely related
to the work he is doing. One of the keyboards was
facing the other direction, and required him to
stretch a bit to play it. So there will be
some aspects of what he does that will
stretch him, and may seem awkward at the time. But God is showing me it
will all work together, and it will release
Heaven's atmosphere. God has concealed messages
in the dreams we dream, and as we search them out,
we learn more about his ways. Decades of study, and thousands
of dream interpretations gave John Paul Jackson
a unique perspective on understanding dreams. With the Beginner's
Dream Kit, you'll be taught to recognize the 20
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With God dream journal, and two dream cards to help
you understand your dreams. For your gift of $60 or
more, we will send you these important tools
designed to start your journey towards a greater
understanding of the dreams you dream. Order your Beginner's
Dream Kit today. Visit dreamsandmysteries.com,
or call 1-800-538-5285. SHAWN BOLZ: Today, we
want to focus on the fact that there is an eternal
scenario going on right now. Above us in the
heavens, with Jesus, surrounding the throne
of grace, are all those who've gone on before us. Not only do they have something
to gain still on Earth, if we're still here and
we're connected to them, but they're praying and stirring
that with Jesus right now. Think about it, if you had
your greatest investment, which is your family, and you
were still alive in Christ, would you forget about them? Would you ignore them? Would you be curious about
them, would you be so caught up with everything else that you
wouldn't even think about them? No, because God
gives you stewardship over your family, your friends,
your destiny, your prophecies, why you're here, and
it's only amplified there because when you
come into Heaven, you're in a heavenly mindset. You understand His
heart and His mind because you're near to him. I was in a church service
one time, and I had a vision. I was caught up in an encounter
where I saw a little boy, and he was running, and
I knew when I saw him that he belonged to
somebody, their family, who was in the meeting I was in. As a matter of fact,
when he was running, I heard the Lord say there's
a little runner in Heaven. And I called out a
couple, and then I start to share with
them that I felt like there was a little boy
who was a runner in Heaven who had passed away recently. Not only that, I
told them I don't believe he could
run on the Earth, because he had a disease
that was debilitating, but now he's running
in Heaven, and he's running over the promises of
their family, the promises of God that they would have
a fulfillment to everything that God had promised them. And he was praying with Jesus,
he was holding hands with Jesus in Heaven. You know, God wants to really
touch a Michael and a Jen, does that make sense? From Missouri, I think? And He said that they
lost their little runner. Does that make sense? And I'm seeing, I'm
actually having a vision. When I saw her, I start
to have this vision, it's kind of like, it's
breaking but helping my heart at the same
time, because it was so tragic, that he
had some sort of disease, a degeneration. And he comes from
an athletic family, so your-- is this your
brother, or cousin, or? It's your cousin, and so this
is part of the Aiken family, God wants to show you
that because of the choice you've made, because of
even how you guys have taken a stand now, for where
you're at with God, it's going to affect
your whole family. And they lost their
little runner, but he's running
with Jesus in Heaven, and he's with Dave's wife. So Dave's wife, is
her name Beverly? So he's with Dave's wife, who's
Beverly, they're hand-in-hand, I can see them in a
vision with Jesus. It's his grandmother. This little scraper that's
left in their family, this little boy that's left in
their family, who's so awesome, who's also like a little
chase, chase, chase, Dash. What a weird name. I love that name. Are their brother's
name literally Runner? Oh my gosh, I just saw a
little runner in Heaven, because they're all
athletic, I didn't know his name was Runner, wow. Now, I wasn't seeing
a dead person, I was seeing a Christian
who is very alive in Christ. And I was seeing him in
his eternal scenario, I wasn't interacting
with Runner himself, but I was seeing Runner
interact with Jesus. And it was so beautiful,
because Runner cared so deeply about his family on the Earth,
and Jesus cared obviously even more deeply. But watching Runner,
at one point, Runner grabbed the
hand of a woman named Beverly, who is
his grandmother, who is also in Heaven. And Jesus gave me the message,
that Runner and his grandmother Beverly were praying with
Him over the whole family. The whole family was
interacting with God even more, and had a greater inheritance
because their family members in Heaven were
carefully watching them, were carefully praying
with Jesus for them. I don't know how
this prayer works, it's not like earthly prayer,
where it's like oh Father, please, because they
have enlightenment, they have understanding. When we read the end
of Hebrews chapter 11, we see this
principle, that those who've gone on before us who
are believers, that they have things that are undone that
only with future generations, could these things
be made complete. The interesting
thing about that, if you look at
that scripture, is that it's talked about
some of the greatest people in the history of faith. As a principle and a paradigm,
that we have family members, we have pastors, we
have ministry people, we have pioneers
in different genres who are Christians, who got
there, because God gave them the grace to do it. He gave them a gift to
break something through. But they didn't carry
it all the way through, future generations are
carrying ideas and principles all the way through,
and there's those who've gone on before us
who are inheriting from it. Don't you think that if you
had a natural inheritance on the Earth that you
were about to give, that you would
caretake that so well, because you care about those
who the inheritance goes to? Well in Heaven, those
who've gone on before us are helping Jesus, and
praying with Jesus, as he is looking at
all the scenarios. They are helping Jesus to keep
you in front of his heart. ANNOUNCER: Prayer is essential
to our relationship with God. We know this, but
many don't know how to pray more effectively. Join John Paul Jackson as he
explores secrets to prayer he learned through scripture
study and decades of practice. For your gift of
$65 or more, you can begin exploring
important aspects of prayer with The Prayer Series. You will receive Keys to
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the power of God's names. To request your Prayer
Series for $65 or more, or your Prayer Experience
Series for $85 or more, call 1-800-538-5285, or visit
dreamsandmysteries.com today. MELISSA LYNN PARRICK: Hi,
I'm Melissa Lynn Parrick, and I'm excited to tell you
about this brand new book I co-wrote with John Paul called
Eber the Bear: A New Adventure. It's a book and an audio CD. Buy your copy today on
streamsministries.com, just in time for Christmas. SHAWN BOLZ: Now, I had
an encounter recently, when I was at a church
called Bethel in California. And the pastor there
is Pastor Bill Johnson, and I was caught up into
a visionary experience, and I was seeing a
man who'd gone on to be in Heaven just
a few years ago named Bob Jones, who was a prophet. And he was talking
to another man, and the other man's
name was Melvin. And I was seeing them talking
about a street address, and Bob was giving a
prophetic kind of perspective. He was kind of showing
about how this street address, that this man had
lived at in his natural life, was a prophetic
parallel to his family's inheritance in the future. This man ended up being
Bill Johnson's father, and the prophetic word, as
you'll see in just a moment, was outside the box
of almost all of us. But if I'm a Christian,
I only believe in Jesus, I don't believe in any other
source, or any other God. I'm not trying to
do spiritism, I'm not trying to do necromancy,
voodoo, any of these religions. I only believe in
the word of God, but I'm seeing part
of what's happening in the heavenly scenario. Is this possible? Is this legal, especially when
I'm not pursuing seeing this? I'm just seeing a vision
of what's already happening in Heaven around Jesus. Watch this with me. I was in two spaces
at once, and I'm seeing Bob Jones, in
Heaven, I'm not sure if it's like a literal thing,
or if it's just like a way that God wants to tell me
a parable or something. But I was seeing Bob
Jones talking to somebody, and I hope this makes
sense, he was talking to, this isn't necromancy or
anything, I'm not like, calling on the dead. I just saw, in Heaven,
what's happening in the heavenly scenario. And I was seeing Bob
Jones talk to somebody, it was kind of weirding
me out, but in a good way. And I was looking at the person,
I don't know who the person is, I've never met him, the
person he was talking to, but I started seeing
a map, and I'm driving, like I'm on Olive
Street, and you turn right, and there's Gold Street,
and then you turn right and there's Oakridge Street. Does this make
sense to somebody? Your mom lives on,
like, Oakridge Street? Gold, Olive. Olive, they turn right, and you
turn right onto Gold Street, you turn right it's
Oakridge Street? That's exactly right. So God's talking to
somebody, but I don't think, your dad's name is Earl,
but this man's name is like Alvin or
Melvin or something. Wow. His dad is Melvin Earl Johnson. So Bob Jones and Melvin Earl
are talking to each other, and they're talking about, it
was a Bob Jones kind of a word, because he was
saying, first, you gotta go down
Olive Street, which is about the anointing
oil, the anointing to press the olives into wine,
and he was talking about wine. And then you have to
go down Gold Street, and I saw your dad, now I know
it's your dad, it's like I saw, he lives on Gold Street now. And the natural oh
great, that makes sense. But you have to go down Gold
Street, you need the resources, so the anointing
is going to produce the resources in this next
season to get to the Oakridge, and the Oakridge would be the
deeply planted new wineskin of a move, of these long
term generational oaks. And I saw the Lord saying that
there's a release, like I said, just like a Bob Jones word, it
was exactly how he would give a word, so this is literal. And there's a release of
a great provision that's coming out of the
anointing, to plant the oaks, to plant the oaks
of righteousness, which is one of Bob Jones'
favorite words, is the oaks of righteousness,
he talked about it all the time. It's parabolic, so I can't
explain it for you, Bill, you're going to get it. But there's the
anointing to produce the gold, to produce the oaks
of righteousness, is coming. And Bob and your dad are talking
about this, reasoning over us as a leadership room,
talking about it over Bethel, talking about it over Redding,
that the next installment of what God's promise
is about to just land, superimpose over us, just
superimpose over the land. And your dad is like the
biggest intercessor here, and Bob's interceding,
and they're like in intercession
in Heaven right now, to bring the next purpose. You know, as a Christian, I was
never expecting to see this. As a matter of fact,
I was just trying to communicate the heart
of God over His people. I never thought I'd be
caught up into a vision and see something like this,
that was so fascinating. And Bill loved his father
so much, he's, I believe, he's a seventh
generation pastor, and he inherited his
whole calling and destiny from his father's
calling and destiny. And to have something happen
after your family member is dead, and to be able to see
him in a scenario this way, where part of your
inheritance is tied to that generational
inheritance of pastors in your family. I know for Bill, this
was an amazing moment of connection, not just
natural connection, but eternal connection. I believe that God is
making more and more of those connections, because
Christianity didn't begin and end with our
generation, but there are so many generations
that went before us to create the foundation that
we're walking in right now. To honor these generations, it's
so important to the foundation of our faith. Those who started all the way
from the early church to now, have paid such a big
price, and they didn't get to see what was promised. But through our generation,
and future generations, partnering with
them, there's going to be an incredible
reward for Jesus given. Now as a cloud of witnesses, I
might be part of them one day, standing in fullness, looking
at my granddaughters' or grandsons' lives,
or the churches, or the ministries that
I'm involved with now, they may be in their third
or fourth generation. You better believe
that I'm going to care about those when I'm
in Heaven, because they're part of what I planted now. You better believe
that everything that God's promised me,
if it wasn't fulfilled, that I'm going to care about it,
that I'm going to be standing with Jesus and however it works,
I'm going to be saying Jesus, look at this too, this
is part of Your reward, this is part of how
You're going to inherit, this is so precious
to me, because it's so precious to You. This is how we have to think
about the cloud of witnesses, that we have advocates,
that we have those who are almost like
spiritual lawyers looking at what's on
the Earth and saying, look at this one too, I want
a soccer mom for my team when I'm in Heaven. I know we're all on the same
team, but I want to look at it and say, these
ones are mine too, and I believe that's what's
happening right now for you. As that people that
you loved, are actually looking at your
life, because you're part of their
inheritance, and you're what makes their
inheritance full in Heaven, so they can give Jesus the
biggest reward possible. ANNOUNCER: Shawn Bolz is
an internationally known prophetic voice,
who has ministered to thousands, from royalty
to those on the streets. Shawn aims for the higher goal
of loving people relationally, not just pursuing the
gift or information, and he activates
you to do the same. In the Hearing God
Package, you will receive Shawn's book, Translating God. You'll be inspired
to learn how to hear God for yourself and others, and
grow in intimacy with the Lord. You will also receive Shawn's
teaching set, Developing Your Prophetic Process,
an audio teaching series on six CDs that will
give you practical instruction. And with Keys to Heaven's
Economy, a book by Shawn Bolz, you'll learn of God's desire
to release finances for kingdom purposes in this hour. For your gift of $70 or more,
you can receive all three of these powerful resources,
to help you hear God better, and communicate his love
to a world that needs it. Visit us at
dreamsandmysteries.com, or call 1-800-538-5285. SHAWN BOLZ: We're going
to go back into Hebrews, in Hebrews 11:39-40, it says,
those who've gone on before us weren't made complete
in their promises, because they were going to
partner with future generations for those things to
be made complete. Now this is part of the mystery
of the cloud of witnesses. As a matter of
fact, Hebrews 12:1, where it talks about
the cloud of witnesses, the word witness is very much
like a witness in a trial. It's somebody who bears
testimony and brings testimony before God. This means that there
is an interaction that's happening right now. They are bearing the
testimony of everything that belongs to them, that
God has given them to do, before God. If they have
something undone left on the Earth, that means
that they have a story to tell Heaven,
they have something to testify before Heaven for. You might be what's left
undone on the Earth for them, it might be your life,
your calling, your destiny. I know one woman at one
of them meetings I was at, I called her out, and
her name was Edma. And her husband had passed away,
I didn't know that, of course. And I said, I see in
Heaven, standing next to Jesus, this man, and I
said the name of her husband. And she fell down
crying, because she had been told by
another religious person that there is no way her husband
went to Heaven, because he hadn't been to
church for a while. But he loved Jesus, he
was just in business, and he hadn't been to
church in a long time, hadn't been loyal to a church. But he was still loving
Jesus, and so she had been told her husband
was going to go to Hell. Part of the reason that
this was so impactful to her is because I kept continuing
the word and said, he is testifying
before Jesus right now, that everything that you
guys believe for together is important to his heart,
he is praying with Jesus, over your life. You have so much
more to live for, because it didn't end
with his life, it's still going to happen, and your
life, and the life of your two children. So I prophesied about two
children, and about her life. Now she was so undone by
this, because just the night before she had been
in bed contemplating, do I have anything
left to live for? It feels like
everything died when he died several
years before, and I feel like I have nothing left. Then God gives her
word the very next day, she has so much to live for, as
a matter of fact, not only her, but her children have
so much to live for, and her husband is in Heaven,
and their promises are still going to happen. Think about that. That's a night and
day difference. When you start to
understand, you don't need a prophetic
word for this, the Bible tells
us about this, we understand that those who
have gone on before you are testifying right now,
not only on your behalf, but on the behalf of Jesus
getting His full reward. This is one of the mysteries
we need to understand, because God is
saying, right now, that your relatives are
part of the eternal scenario of His heart. He said it biblically,
and now you're hearing stories that
back it up and prove it. This is so beautiful,
because instead of worrying about
necromancy and spiritism, we're worried about those
who are alive in Christ Jesus right now, that are more
alive and more aware than even we are. They're more connected
than even we are. So instead of being
afraid of that, we can actually now be empowered
to understand the testifiers who've gone before us. I hope that this helps
comfort your heart, that those who have gone on
to be with Jesus, that they're still very much alive. They still very
much care for you, they still very much interact
with Jesus about you. And I want to pray
for you, because some of you, the mourning that
you may have experienced is going to lift. Some of the confusion
as a Christian that we can have about the
supernatural realm of Heaven might be lifting off
of you right now. And I want to encourage
you to think about death so differently today
than you ever have when it comes to a believer. Because we are not
only alive forever, but we are also invested
into God's eternal scenario, and even the natural
scenario on the Earth. What if your relatives
really are watching you, like we watch reality
television as a culture? What would that look like today? I pray, Jesus, that You would
touch everyone viewing this, that You would take
any confusion off of death off of our lives. Especially in regards to
other believers who've died. I pray that today, we would have
a special experience of kinship with all believers,
whether they are alive, or they've moved on to be
with You, that we would have this connection, as
the Bride of Christ, that we get to glorify
You again together, that we get to connect
again together, to be with You,
where you are, just like You prayed in John 17. And I pray that anything
that has blocked us, or put a fear in us, because
of the occult supernatural against the real supernatural,
would lift off of us. That conspiracy and superstition
would lift off of us right now, so that we can
have a genuine Holy Spirit supernatural God-given
experience with you. In Jesus' name. Thanks for watching
another episode of Dreams and Mysteries, I'm Shawn Bolz.
