A Dream of the Night
A group of people with whom we have shared ministry partnership, past and present, walked into a building with similarities to a grocery store. The grocery sold nothing but cheese.
Past and present were meeting together to speak to the question, “What next?”
On display in the center aisle of the store were massive blocks of wax-covered cheese. As a centerpiece of this display, three blocks of aged, wine-veined cheese dominated the store. These aged cheeses were spotlighted.
The blocks of cheese were five feet tall, seven feet wide, and 12 feet long.
I heard God say, “Prophesy to your past.”
I knew we were supposed to purchase one of these massive blocks of wine-aged cheese at that point in the dream. A man from our past, a millionaire who I had come to realize, was an untrustworthy scoundrel, spoke up and said, “You don’t have the money to buy, and you wouldn’t know what to do with it if you did. I’ll buy it, and I’ll sell it for you.”
Because past and present were in the dream so we could prophesy to the future, I said, “No way! You would buy it cheap, sell it high, and take your cut instead of doing what you said you would do. You would also use the situation to dishonor the leaders and make yourself look more capable of leading. You are both a hypocrite and a fraud!”
I said, “I will buy it for $4,000.”
The man scoffed at that. His face was red from being found out as an adulterous fake. He exited the dream.
I said to our current leaders, “We need to slice this block of cheese into seven sections so we can show what the aging process has produced. Right now, all you can see is the wax. The wax was needed to seal it and preserve it for this time.”
In the dream, we used a very sharp, twelve-foot blade to section the block. I could see that the sections were not uniform, and the cuts were not straight, but I was not concerned with this. I knew that these sections would be cut into individual pieces anyway for distribution.
We laid one of the cut sections on top of the whole block to display the very center of the block. It was filled with beautiful wine-colored veins like marble. The rich yellow-gold color of the cheese realized a strong aroma into the room, and the building filled up with people from the streets outside who could smell the aging.
Immediately, my cell rang, and a voice said, “I will give you $56,000 for that center section, and my friends will purchase the other sections for the same amount. We will pick it, transport it out, and you will need to do nothing else.”
I immediately said, “Sold!”
I turned to all those present who are part of our ministry and said, “God just turned “$4,000 into $400,000! The harvest of our maturing process has arrived!”
(Those are round numbers, both the four and the 400. This intentional imperfection is not uncommon in dreams and revelatory metaphors. It would be obvious imperfect in selling commodities such as this cheese. The sections were not cut and measured uniformly, and nobody weighed them for exact amounts. So, avoid overthinking any metaphor and getting caught up in the exactness of the numbers since they are representative of something.)
A Brief Interpretation of the Dream
The outcome of the dream reveals a multiplied harvest from the previous investment. The blocks of cheese represent the most valued thing in the store. They are treasured because they are aged. The wine veins represent the same concept with emphasis upon maturing as a measurement of value.
We cannot escape the message that maturity-added value is part of the harvest in the time of reaping.
The wax covering tells us that the value is both preserved and hidden. Only by cutting the block open can we discern what’s inside, so the initial decision to “buy into harvest time” is risky.
“Should we leave the block of cheese alone because it isn’t ready? Should we assume the aging process produced a valuable product? Should we risk $4,000 to slice open the very heart of what we have worked twenty years to produce?”
The fraudulent millionaire is a fake expert; therefore, a false prophet of the past, present, and future. He scoffs at our expertise, prophesies inadequately about our present by mocking at our history. He values what he sees without examining what lies hidden under the preserving wax. He wants a quick profit from what he thinks is mediocre because he cannot prophesy into the past.
Slicing open the cheese block is a metaphoric way of revealing what is hidden to the present light and atmosphere.
“Celebrate no wine-aged cheese before its time.”
God prophesies into your past to reveal your present, hidden value, so He can harvest what the maturing process provides your future to fulfill His purposes.
An Application of the Dream
First, God revealed that we had matured enough to keep frauds from stealing the harvest, misappropriating the increase, and using the harvest for personal gain.
We begin by giving it all to kingdom purpose without any desire, demand, or division of the harvest for personal gain.
Do we agree?
Of course, we will immediately receive our personal share from the King. Having given the entire harvest to the Father, the supply to the branches will be all that we need. It will be much more than we need. God will oversupply us!
Second, no matter how long or short the period, the King rewards each person in storehouse shareholder covenant with this ministry equally, according to a personal measure of assignment, destiny, and faithfulness.
We disallow any judgment, negotiation, or envy of this equal distribution from the King, accepting His discretion, decision, and disposition without hesitation or murmur.
Do we agree?
Remember, nothing another receives diminishes what comes to you, and you are not in charge of determining when and how others are blessed or favored.
Third, the ministry will not be empty of the harvest because we bought and sold the wine-aged cheese. There is more in the works that will come of age. This harvest is the firstfruits of a previous season of maturity.
We have already shared many harvest times, but we have reinvested most of it back into the ministry for the next season. We will do the same now. We will have an individual wealth of kingdom supply added to our personal lives. We will also have a more generous supply for sowing that we will immediately reinvest in the kingdom ministry assignments.
Do not mistake the entire harvest for your share of wealth and consume or barn the increased seed for sowing. Our giving will increase as our wealth expands. This ministry will receive more from new sources, but much more from the same shareholders!
Do we agree?
Fourth, the exponential increase of a secured harvest reveals a pattern and process. Four becomes four hundred.
Investing four to purchase what is already yours seems ridiculous if you think it is yours. Notice that the wine-aged cheese covered in preserving wax is our harvest from investment. Notice that to bring it to an exponential yield, we need to invest $4,000.
In the dream, I didn’t question this. In the interpretation, I did not ponder this. In the application, I thought about the implications of spending $4,000 of my own money to buy the cheese block.
I realized I did so to keep it out of the hands of fraudulent prophets.
We pay a greater price to preserve the ripened fruit than we did to produce it.
- We are still responsible for maintaining our abiding in the Authentic Vine right up to Father takes the matured fruit.
- What we need to preserve what is already preserved has been provided by the same Source.
- The process that produces this expensive product makes us more valuable, not just the fruit we produce. Branches seek no greater honor than to produce a valuable vintage for the Father.
- We have become a sought after harvest.
Cheer up! The cost of producing will now be higher! The price for the cheese block at the next turn will more than $4,000. And the exponential return on investment will be more than $400,000!
Serve no wine-aged cheese before its time.
An Implementation of the Dream
Time is a maturity factor but what is occurring in the hidden places means more than time. This anthem is a more significant lesson from the dream.
I’m thrilled about the implication of exponential increase. It will not alter my lifestyle. I will improve my lifestyle in essential ways, but it will not change my lifestyle at all. I won’t be wearing ruffled shirts even if I can afford them. I won’t be putting whipped cream on my onions. I won’t gold-plate what functions well as brass.
I won’t produce beautiful leaves that Father will need to prune so I can do what I’ve been doing to build this vintage. I won’t purchase beautification for what must remain plain.
God doesn’t need Ken and Barbie producing bubblegum and gummy bears. God isn’t running a candy store.
Bubblegum does not mature with time.
If anything, we will increase the pressure-filled plainness of the sweat, tears, and suffering that sweetens the outcome, knowing that the sweetness enters the fruit without beautifying the branch.
We will make this process easier so more people can feel comfortable about joining us. The pressure increases now. More will participate because they recognize the vintage than remember us. The product draws them, not the attractiveness of the branches.
Many people will criticize and say, “I love what the Authentic Vine can do for the branches, but you invest it all in the finished product. You are unfair to the branches.”
Let them criticize and join up with the ornamentals. God has planted a vineyard here that with a particular vintage sign in front of the vines. Grafting into this Authentic Vine branches now will cause the vintage to expand in quality, texture, taste, and variety while enhancing what brings the Father more of what He wants.
Conclusion
God will prophesy into your past to locate your present as a context for setting priorities for your future.
