Dreamed: Sod Webworm Infestation – We've Entered a Season for Repentance
Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker? If He puts no trust in His servants, if He charges His angels with error, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before a moth? Job 4:17-19
I had a very short dream this morning. I was standing on the front lawn of my home. The grass had just been cut and edged. I was very green, but as I got a closer look I noticed the bottom layer of grass was dead or dying. I began to inspect the rest of lawn and found a few more dead spots lying beneath the top of the grass which was still green but beginning to wither underneath. As I was walking over areas of the grass searching for more dead spots, there were little white moths that flew out of the grass with each step that I took. Taking another close look at the grass closest to the soil, I noticed tiny little worms eating the base and roots of the grass. My suspicion was correct…sod webworm infestation! I knew my lawn would be totally destroyed if I didn’t take quick action to rid the lawn of them. I stood up to look around at the other lawns in my neighborhood. Some were completely covered with withered dead grass, but other lawns were lush and emerald green in color. There was not one brown patch of grass on the green lawns. End of dream
I live in Houston, Texas and it just happens to be the time of the year sod webworms begin to invade this area of the South, but I really didn’t sense the Lord was trying to tell me through a dream that I needed to treat my lawn to keep it from being infested. As I sought the Lord about this dream and what the sod webworms represented, He revealed the worms were symbolic of something that would be, but the name of the worm was a play on words. The Lord said, “Sod actually means the ‘Sod’ of the PaRDeS.” In other words, something hidden, something not revealed on the surface.
In case you’ve never heard of PaRDeS, let me explain. PaRDeS is a term used to describe four levels of scripture interpretation taught by rabbis. It’s an acronym made of the first letters of the four types of interpretations.
Peshet – the literal meaning
Remez – the allegorical meaning
Derash – the metaphoric meaning
Sod – the secret or hidden meaning
After seeking the Lord for the ‘sod’ of this dream, I believe the following word of encouragement and warning is what I am to release to whosoever will hear what the Spirit is saying to the ‘believers’ in the church.
For the time (a season) has come for judgment to begin at the house of God;
and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not
obey the gospel of God?
1 Peter 4:17
Sometimes we read scriptures like the one above and think the event described is a one-time end-time event, but we must remember that God moves in seasons, times and in patterns. So for the sake of this post, think of the above verse as a ‘season’ for judgment to begin at the house of God.
To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
This next verse in Genesis also reveals that God moves in times and seasons, but takes it one step further.
While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.
Genesis 8:22
In the above verse, the Lord clearly lays out for us that He not only moves in seasons and in patterns, but that they are absolutes. In other words, there is no question that the sun will come up tomorrow to bring us a new day. In that same thought, there should be no question that God moves in seasons, times and patterns because He says, “they shall not cease.” They are absolutes. The season of repentance will soon be upon us. The Lord wants us to know this too is an absolute.
So back to the dream…
In the dream, the lawns in the neighborhood were dead from the sod webworms consuming their roots while others were emerald green in color and very lush, alive and thriving. The whole neighborhood was checkered with lawns dead or alive next to each other. The worms knew which lawns to consume and which lawns to not consume because they were following a command from the Lord. Judgment is coming to the house of God, but before judgment comes mercy and a season to repent has been provided. This is what the Lord has shown me through this dream. The dream is simple and easy to understand. It applies individuals, but also to individuals in leadership positions in ministry and business.
The message is simply this: Judgment is coming to the house of God, but He has provided a season for repentance that whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That word ‘saved’ in Romans 10:13 is the Greek word ‘sozo’ and it means: to save, keep safe and sound, to rescue and preserve one from danger or destruction.
To The Individual
Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare;
before they spring forth I tell you of them.
Isaiah 42:9
The Lord has provided a season for repentance to all who are willing to turn from ways not pleasing to God. In His mercy and grace, He has been longsuffering with many who He has spoken to, but have not obeyed His commands to make the course corrections in life, business and ministry, as He has been instructing. Because the Lord has been merciful and patient for an extended time, some falsely believe He has overlooked their disobedience. Just as the grass in the dream was green on the surface, but its roots were being consumed beneath the surface by sod webworms, the Lord says, so will it be for those who have been disobedient to make the course corrections He has been commanding. We are entering a season of being consumed by trials, controversies and tribulations for the refining of our motives and agendas. The very foundation of our labors will be shaken to test if we have been building on the foundation which has already been laid, which is the revelation of Jesus Christ.
These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the
word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution
arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble.
Matthew 4:16-17
Some will be completely devoured, but others by grace and through acts of faith and repentance, will overcome spiritual pride, greed and self-righteousness, and they themselves will be saved. The Lord is extending His lovingkindness for a season to all who are willing to return to Him and His ways. We cannot presume to know our own hearts. We must sincerely seek the Lord for His judgment concerning the condition of the motives and agendas of the heart. Some of us may have even forgotten instruction He gave a time ago because we procrastinated and quenched His Spirit, so He withdrew from the matter.
If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14
Better to play it safe and ask, than to not play it safe and not ask. Humble yourself before your Creator, pray and seek His face to request one thing of Him, “Lord, would You please show me my wicked ways?” Wicked in this verse can mean: bad, evil, wicked (ethically); in general, of persons, of thoughts, deeds and actions. Ask with sincerity of heart, consciously desiring to make whatever course corrections necessary. Be still and know that He is God. He only wants to bless you. If someone tells you it is okay to live with compromise in your life because you are now under grace and Jesus understands you are weak and human…run, and do not look back. That mindset is what keeps many Christians walking around the same old mountain in life. Many destinies are aborted around that mountain called Compromise and offered as sacrifices to its god Mammon. Again, I say… RUN, AND DO NOT LOOK BACK!
For the last few weeks I have been seeing the number 222 everywhere you can imagine. I have heard from a few others that they have also been seeing the number. I woke up at 2:22 AM the day before I left to Haiti. I saw the time 2:22 PM yesterday afternoon in the kitchen on the microwave as I was walking in the backdoor of my home. I even stopped to fill my tank with gas yesterday before I drove home from running errands. My gas bill was $42.22!
Job says, God speaks to man one way and then He speaks to man in another way, but man does not perceive it. Because almost every person who told me they have been seeing this number is a believer, I believe this has been one way the Spirit has been speaking us ‘believers’ about repenting and making course corrections. Repent simply means to change the way of thinking.
He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness,
and light dwells with Him.
Daniel 2:22
For He knows the secrets of the heart.
Psalm 44:21
Have you been experiencing chaos? Thought you heard God say to do one thing, but it turned out not to be God? Confusion? Opposition? How about setbacks, or cycles of loss? Not just loss of finances, but loss in other areas where you may not have recognized loss being at work? If so, it may be time to set aside a time to fast, pray and seek the Lord about it. You may be off course. He has provided this season just for you. You may have not been seeing 222 for the last few weeks, but I guarantee He has been speaking to you. You just may not have been perceiving it. If that is the case, then it is a secret that you do not know of, but He is willing to reveal it to you. I believe He speaks through numbers. If we add 222, we get 6, which is the number of man. So again, I believe He has been speaking to man about things not obvious that may be causing loss on one level or another. It may be the Lord is shaking the foundations of your heart. He said in Jeremiah 33 that He would answer and show us great and hidden things we know not of, if we cried out to Him.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.
Isaiah 9:2
The Lord does not want us to suffer loss when His intention is to bless His people. He is so determined to satisfy His passion and burning desire to bless His people that He will even warn and admonish us beforehand to seek Him through repentance that He would not have to hold back His blessing from any. He is calling us back to our first love; to that time and place our hearts cried out, “I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine.” His intention is to grant us a more intimate access to Himself, to experience a deeper relationship with Him, but it will require overcoming the mountain of Mammon, and going on to perfection which can only be found in our High Priest who has provide the one and only way.
And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You. Deliver me from all
my transgressions; do not make me the reproach of the foolish. I was mute,
I did not open my mouth, because it was You who did it. Remove Your
plague from me; I am consumed by the blow of Your hand. When with
rebukes You correct man for iniquity, You make his beauty melt away like
a moth; surely every man is vapor. Selah
Psalm 39:7-11
You might be one who has already suffered the wiles of the devourer because you missed your time of visitation in the last season. Even more this word applies to you because a new season is upon you! Be encouraged and humble yourself under the hand of your Father in heaven. He stands at the door and knocks. Answer the Door. Do it His way. Repent, and you will be saved, delivered and restored. Only in Him will you overcome. Then you will forget your misery, and remember it as waters that have passed away. If you will humble yourself and do it God’s way and not your own, He will clothe you again with His righteousness. He will put new sandals on your feet, which means, He will change your walk and ways to be influenced more by His heavenly nature, rather than your human nature. He will put a new coat on you, which means He will clothe you with a fresh anointing…Holy Spirit’s heavenly garments. He will put a new ring on your finger, which means He will restore to you His birthright authority that the enemy usurped from you through deceptive practices, trickery and the deceitfulness of riches. He has called you to carry on the family Name, but it must with honor.
Return to Me; and if you will put away your abominations out of My sight, then
you shall not be moved. Jeremiah 4:1
An abomination, simply put, is anything we put above God in our lives, which is idolatry. It is anything He utterly abhors and considers detestable, filthy or unclean. Yeshua made it possible to be restored to right standing with God because of His shed blood on the cross. Isaiah 44:22 says, I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, and like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.
Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold,
I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will
even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
Isaiah 43:18-19
The season of repentance has begun and all whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord shall be forgiven and declared holy, blameless and above reproach. You will walk in His Shalom, and not condemnation as the head of the year begins. The Lord will begin to reorder your footsteps and show you favor in the direction He would have you to go in, that you would be prepared and positioned for the appointed time to receive the portion He has set apart for you. Your name has already been written. You have been chosen and designated to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ask or think, according to the His power that works in you, but it must be according to His will and not yours, according to His foundational truths and not your reasoning and logic. He will question us as He questioned Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me…if you have understanding.” Now is the time, forget those things that lie behind and press forward onto the excellence God has ordained for you in the new season that is quickly dawning upon His people, and He will be the Rock of your foundation.
To The Pastors and Leaders
The lawns in the dream are symbolic of pastures, or in other words, congregations and businesses, and their current spiritual conditions. The dream applies the same way to the leaders in ministry and/or business, as it did to the individuals in the first part of this message. It foretells that a season of repentance has been appointed to leaders to turn from their wicked ways and to make the course corrections the Lord has been telling them to make. Assuredly, the foundations of all we have built are about to be shaken.
For the land is full of adulterers; for because of a curse the land mourns. The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up. Their course of life is evil, and their might is not right. For both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in My house I have found their wickedness, says the LORD. Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery ways; in the darkness they shall be driven on and fall in them; for I will bring disaster on them, the year of their punishment, says the LORD.
Jeremiah 23:10-12
The Lord is longsuffering, but it is time to turn from gaining the whole world by fleecing the flocks of the Lord, and by making the Father’s house a house of merchandise. Some leaders on the surface look like they are growing and being used by God, but beneath the surface and down to the very foundation, where no man can see with the eyes, God sees the heart and what is being done in secret behind closed doors. He has made an example of some who walked in the highest positions and among some of the highest levels in ministry and business known in the natural to man. Some were christened publicly and declared as personally chosen by God’s own right-hand to be the new thing being released in the earth, but it was not so. The Lord says that even though many leaders in ministry and business have been publicly exposed, and some even prosecuted, still others grow more treacherous and deceitful. They neither fear God, nor do they understand the severity of His goodness towards them, which He will turn towards them if they fail to turn from their sin and iniquity. The Lords says, The condition of America is a reflection of the condition of the Church in America and business leaders who profess to be Christians but do My Father’s business like the world. This should not be so.
If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14
The Lord has been visiting many leaders in dreams and visions, sending His true prophets to encourage, edify and exhort them to make course corrections. The Lord holds no-thing against any who humble themselves under His mighty hand. If you are one who the Lord has laid His hand upon, do not harden your heart in the day of your visitation. Do not allow the deceitfulness of riches and the praises of men rob you of your opportunity to be positioned to rule with Him from heaven. Overcome, and a coronation will be your reward. This window is for but a moment. Only the Lord knows when the day and hour this opportunity will be presented to you and your congregation or business again.
Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to
them, thus says the Lord GOD to the shepherds: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat
the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but
you do not feed the flock.
Ezekiel 34:2-3
After this season of repentance passed, I saw the Lord command the sod webworms to go consume and devour the fields and pastures belonging to those who did not repent and make the course corrections He desired. Foundations were shaken and some destroyed. Some suffered loss to a degree, but then became wise and made the course corrections God commanded them to make, but others still hardened their hearts the more. Those who repented came out from among the unrepented, and they began to build up the old waste places and the power of the Holy One came upon them and they began to restore the foundations of many generations. The Lord called them the Repairers of the Breaches and the Restorers of Streets to Dwell in and its foundation is Righteousness and Justice. But of the unrepented I heard the Lord say to the spirits, “Take what they have and give it to another!”
Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!
Says the LORD.
Jeremiah 23:1
Listen to the wailing of the shepherds, for their rich pastures are destroyed.
Zechariah 11:3
Some because the Lord has been slack to discipline or correct have learned to know no fear of the Lord, but now serve Mammon. This is a deception the Lord will correct swiftly, but know and understand that He takes no pleasure in striking His shepherds and their scattering the flocks. The Lord will no longer allow these to defile His temple which was not made by man’s hand. There is a return to God that produces fruit worthy of repentance. It must start with the leaders, first, then they will lead their flocks in the same way…to come out from among them who are in the church, which in the world, which the Lord referred to as the MSM – Main Stream Ministry. Then the Lord revealed to me this is why in the dream the lawns that were green were emerald green and lush. They were the leaders who were doing the will of God and teaching those in authority under them to do the same. In the dream, the lawns being emerald green, lush and thriving is symbolic of several things. Here are a few: emerald – healing, recovery of sight to the spiritually blind, royal priesthood, emerald rainbow around the throne; grass lush and thriving – prosperity, joy (the fruit of the Spirit), new growth and increase; promotion, distinction; notoriety (in the kingdom); expansion. This is the result of the other side of God’s judgment coming to His house. His judgment to the good and faithful in His house will be: Good and faithful servant. Enter into the reward I have prepared for you. You have been faithful in little so now you will be made ruler over much. Hallelujah.
I also withheld rain from you, when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain (blessing) on one city (lawn – remember the dream), I withheld rain (blessing) from another city (from another lawn). One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain the part withered. ... I blasted you with blight and mildew. When your gardens increased, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees, the locust devoured them; yet you have not returned to Me," Says the LORD. Amos 4:7, 9
If the Lord has been revealing compromise, disobedience or rebellion to you who are called leaders, or if it seems as He has withdrawn His blessing from your ministry or business, you may have gotten off course and not realized it. If you seek Him, you will find Him and He will reveal the truth to you. He will liberally pour His divine influence and nature into your heart, which is His all sufficient grace. He will cause you to once again walk in the fullness of the truth of His Word and the power of His Spirit. Do not fear being rejected by the political elite enthroned in government and in the church today. If they rejected the Lord, they will reject you, but better to be received by God than to be received by man.
And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’ Those who handle the law did not know me; the shepherds transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit.
Jeremiah 2:7-8
The Lord says many political rulers in government, business and in the church today believe in Him, but are ashamed of Him before many of their peers who do not believe in God, so they remain silent for fear of being put out of their positons of power and praise. They love the praise of men more than the praise of God. They would rather have the appearance of godliness, but deny its power. They compromise My truth and replace it with their ideology, which misleads and misinforms My people. This should not be so. If they will not turn from their ways and repent, avoid such people and preserve yourself, ministry and business from defilement. Do not say, a conspiracy, concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. The Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow; Let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread, and come out from among them, and practice their ways and false doctrines no longer, and I will receive you, says the Lord.
Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before. The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame.
Joel 2:23-26
Receive and enter into the season of repentance the Lord has graciously and lovingly portioned for you. He desires that you and all that you have been entrusted with would suffer no loss. Rather, His intention of heart is to see you overcome the very thing He gave you over to for the destruction of the nature of the carnal man in you. In other words, God has been using the last season of trials, testing and refining to work out of you a root of unrighteousness and the fruit thereof. If you will now make the course corrections the Lord has instructed you to make, He will rebuild the foundations of all He commanded to be consumed and taken from you.
I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be
ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have
itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work
of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry!
2 Timothy 4:1-5
The Kingdom of God still calls upon you brother and sister. Whoever you are, the Lord still has need of you and will not relent. The Lord is calling His true sons into the maturity of His priesthood. He is calling His sons to mature into the position of the Firstborn. He is calling you into His order of priesthood, the everlasting priesthood that Jesus is now officiating as High Priest from heaven. God has proclaimed and has ordained with an oath, Jesus is High Priest according the order of Melchizedek forever. And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, but God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You are the chosen generation. You are the royal priesthood. You are called by God according to the order of Melchizedek.
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world.
John 18:36
The Lord’s kingdom is not of this world, meaning His system of government is not of this world nor does it operate as this world’s system of government operates. His priesthood is also not of this world. Then neither is the work of the ministry that He has appointed us to not of this world. Let this same mind be in us also as we move forward in obedience to all that the Father commands. Matthew 7:24-29, Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.
If you really fulfill the Royal Law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well…
James 2:8
The law in the Kingdom of Heaven is love. James refers to it as the ‘royal law’. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus also points to ‘love’ for God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, which is the first commandment of all, but then He states that loving your neighbor as yourself is the second commandment and that it is like the first commandment.
Mark 12:28-34, Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?" Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.’ And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. "And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." So the scribe said to Him, "Well [said], Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. "And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."
Jesus is our Melchizedek High Priest. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords over all the earth. He is officiating from heaven as High Priest over a royal priesthood. The royal law in His kingdom is love. The ministry of His priests is love. Love is the law of the kingdom and love is the engine that powers the vehicle of His royal priesthood. It is love that compelled Him to the cross to die for our sins, and it is love that will compels Him to return again to tabernacle with us forever and ever.
The season to return to love is now. Return to loving God with all the heart, with all the mind, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and also to return to loving your neighbor as yourself is the simplicity this message. If we do this, then we are considered by God to be wise, doing well and properly positioned for the head of the year.
Heavenly Father,
We know Your judgment is according to truth. By Your Spirit, open our understanding to comprehend the riches of Your goodness, forbearance and longsuffering. By Your goodness, lead us through the season of repentance You have so graciously and lovingly provided us so that our foundation is laid on You and in Your righteousness and justice we shall not be moved.
In the name of Yeshua, Amen
Please feel free to share.
Samuel
Smashing Pillars….raising sons…
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