A little over a week ago I left St John's Anglican Church, Launceston. Why? Because God told me I was becoming too Anglican! So now what? Well, God seems to be giving me house church dreams.

A few weeks back, I dreamt of a lounge room full of people, chatting away. Someone wanted to say something to the whole group, so I called for quiet. Then I heard a voice say, "Freedom of speech." I think this was a reference to 1 Cor. 14:26, "When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church."

On 21st September I posted a blog entry, "The Stairs and the River", by Susan Cummings, here on ChristianBlog.com It says we should immerse fully in the river that flows from the Throne of God, and take our feet off the riverbed. Then the Holy Spirit can take us where He wants.

22nd Sep: I hear, "You are promoting the Holy Spirit baptism. This will probably get you thrown out because of the position of the baby princess." [The 'baby princess', I guess, is the young generation at St John's. In an earlier dream it was called, 'young Sarah', born out of old Sarah, the woman who gave birth in her old age. As for my understanding of Holy Spirit baptism, the classic Pentecostal theology is wrong, due to Charles Parham's failure to recognise the impact of Paul's letters on the issue. More on this further down!]

23rd Sep: I see a disused food dispenser, and I think we can restore it. Later, I hear, "We need to persuade people to take up the power of the Holy Spirit." I saw a stream with reflections that blocked the view in. The reflections disappeared, and I could see a fish in the water.

I'm with some people at a service station, and a girl there is trying to run away from us. A woman says to her, "You may just have no sense of direction."

24th Sep: a northern Englishman's voice, "Do you want to know? You're off your rockers!"

25th Sep: the lights have gone out in our hotel.

People are gathering at a house, and various ones have brought food.

I see a Venezuelan flag flying! A while ago I had a dream in which a guy recommended "the Venezuelan system". So I checked the internet: 'Venezuela' means 'Little Venice', a place where you get around using the water channels!

26th Sep: I'm carrying a ladder thru a barren area. I encounter two guys who seem threatening, so I turn off and head towards a town. Once there, frequent little showers fall on my head. I hear singing, "Deep blue sea..."

Now I'm in a Japanese place, still carrying the ladder, and the water is ankle deep here! I encounter a couple of aunties, and I hear, "He arrived, finally."

Someone asked, "Do you believe in Holy Spirit baptism?" I said, "I prefer the word 'immersion'." Then I saw a giant hand. It moved sideways, and Christmas cards were set up in two rows, one above the other.

I see two girls, one of them is Asian. I say to them, "I hope you enjoy it." [Recently, I have begun to realise that the Asian references in my dreams probably refer to groups of believers who exist outside of denominational boundaries.]

People go up one by one to a Christmas tree, reach down and pick up a present. I only remember one: a woman picked up a jar of honey.

As you can see from these dreams, the immersion in the Holy Spirit will result in the handing out of gifts, just like on Christmas Day. And we don't all receive the same gift! Charles Parham was wrong to assert that Holy Spirit baptism would always be accompanied by the gift of tongues. If he had thought carefully about the fact that he himself didn't speak in tongues for years, despite much prayer, he might have realised that the Holy Spirit was trying to make this very point! Some people fall over and can't move, a fact which clashes with the idea, expressed by some, that the Holy Spirit will never take complete control of a person. Some receive visions, or are taken on a trip to heaven or hell. Some simply start singing with complete lack of embarrassment!

Modern Christian prophecy (Rick Joyner in 'The Harvest', for instance) has predicted that a time will come when everyone in a meeting will be immersed at the same time, even whole stadiums full of people! God has shown this to me as a tsunami which takes the people at a crowded beach by surprise, but no-one gets hurt. And someone in the dream said to me that a boy who wasn't able to make the trip 'likes it here'! This implies that immersion in the Holy Spirit can happen to you again and again. This is why I think that using the word 'baptism' for it is a bit misleading, so I prefer the term 'immersion'.

^{Creative Commons: Public Domain}