Listen to the broadcast program. radio001en.ram (15 minutes)
Part of the program's talk is transcribed below.
This story is based on a short article.
This story originated from a dream. A young pastor, a friend of ours, saw in a dream a large figure in a huge black cloak lurking above a church steeple. He recognized the figure as a thief because this black form was lifting out of the church some very precious items which the pastor later recognized as important church gifts. He saw the thief putting his loot into a large bag to take with him, but for each item stolen, he replaced it with something of his own. No one in the church seemed aware of the robbery because they were all so busy with their own lives and church activities.
In his dream, the pastor saw love, joy and peace lifted out, the thief leaving in their place a critical, fault-finding spirit.
The page in John 3 where Jesus explains the greatest miracle of all - spiritual birth - the thief tore out in rage as he hates that miracle more than any other. In fact, he left a doubting spirit about all miracles as they do not make sense to the rational mind.
He ripped out the 10 Commandments, replacing them with a "human-rights" code to cause a belief that everyone should think of his own rights before the rights of others.
The thief stole the bench where church people formerly knelt to repent. Without it, sin was scarcely mentioned and people began to feel no need to repent, even when the bread and wine of communion were served.
He tore from the hymn books all mention about the blood of Jesus, leaving hymns which no longer had power to get rid of evil.
He stole some offering plates, leaving people with a desire to hang on to their money instead of giving it to God.
Then he snuffed out the flame on the altar candles, and left a dark, cold church without any light to shine outward into the darkness with the good news of the gospel.
But after awhile some people began to notice some things were missing, and they craved for the supernatural manifestations of the Christian faith of times gone by. Some of them even left the church, and began to look elsewhere for supernatural manifestations of power. And know what? They found it!
But where did they find it?
They found it in the revived powers of witchcraft in all its various forms. Only later did they discover this new power they had found which appeared wonderful at first was the source of all sorts of problems in their lives and the lives of their families.
It was then, and only then, that they discovered that their new-found powers could easily be destroyed by Christians from old-fashioned churches with their songs about the blood of Jesus and their use of His Name. Many began to flock to these churches because the Christians there had apprehended and captured this elusive thief. They commanded him to leave their churches in His Name - and he had to go!
So ends the pastor's dream. But its message lives on.
In Romans 8:28 we read that God makes all things work together for good for those who love Him. So today God used this robbery to show people that His power is greater than that of any other power. This knowledge has sparked the present fires of a great end-time revival.
Who was the thief? The thief was the devil, or Satan.
What did he steal? He stole the good gifts God had given the church.
Who found him? Those who began to look for the missing gifts.
What is God doing about it? He is once again reviving His church and restoring what has been stolen.
Did He not say that the very gates of hell could not prevail against His church? He is her great Warrior fighting her battles.
Jesus Christ defeated the church robber the day He rose from the grave. It is now up to us to give up our human fleshly ideas about how church should be run, and allow God to do it His way. When we cease to oppose Him, we will enter a day of the greatest revival the world has ever known!
© 2002, Doreen Palmer