The Cookie Jar
I have a prayer partner who lives in another town. We seldom see each other, but we connect via telephone several times a month, as the Holy Spirit leads. Through the years, God has done some amazing things, including giving us dreams and visions and the interpretation of such. This is not an unusual impartation to those who are called to various ministries, such as intercessory prayer.
During a recent conversation, my friend shared a dream she had, and as we waited, the Lord gave the meaning. (The Bible is full of dreams and visions).
In the dream, she was standing in a room and noticed an old cookie jar on a shelf. She reached for it, took it down, and placed it on a mantle over a fireplace, which was lit. She noticed that the earthen jar was very old, dull and faded looking, and she really couldn’t tell what the original color had been; yet it was not cracked or chipped.
She removed the lid with her right hand, looked down into it, and to her horror, she saw the jar was teeming with hideous looking bugs, worms, spiders, and gnats, all squirming and darting about. Suddenly, they came out of the jar and fled into a hole in the wall behind the jar, where a chunk of cracked plaster was missing.
In the same instant, the lid had disappeared from her hand and in its place was a cloth of various blue colors. She quickly stuffed the cloth in the hole, as some of the critters were trying to come back out.
She looked again at the old jar sitting quietly, now, on the mantle. In an instant, another jar appeared beside it. This jar, however, looked nothing like the first. Oh, it was the same shape, size, and made of the same material, but it was brand new! The colors were a breathtaking array of purples and gold.
We were both quiet at that point, as the Lord was revealing His mysteries.
When I was in Bible school, the godly, old gentleman, who founded the Church-school, had the gift of interpreting dreams. People would go to his home and tell him of their dreams. He would immediately know if it was a “vision in the night” (Gen. 46:2, Job 4:13, Dan. 7:7,13) or eating at bedtime! The Bible is filled with spiritual manifestations, and since I’ve always had dreams myself, I asked the Lord to give me the gift of interpretation, too.
I have learned a bit about how this gift operates, and it is firstly, Bible based. The Scripture interprets itself…it is the Word of God and Jesus IS the Word (John 1:1). Most Bible students have noticed that numbers, colors, and many other things have certain meanings. They have a consistent interpretation running through the Old and New Testaments. You'll see a pattern in the Scripture, if you are astute enough to notice.
Examples: olive trees refer to Israel; leaven refers to sin, with one exception (Matt. 13:33), which is made clear to the reader. The number one is unity, three stands for the Trinity, five means grace, seven is the perfect number, as well as too many other examples to list here.
As we waited before the Lord, I thought of the perfect timing of God. I had been conducting a Sunday night Bible Study at our church. We were studying the Revelation, and discussing the Seven Churches. We noticed that these churches also typified the seven churches ages. Many believe the last church, Laodicea, represents the last days before the return of Christ. My friend’s dream seemed to blend in with our study.
This is the interpretation of the dream, as the Lord gave it:
The old jar represents the church…collectively or individually…in these end times. It was sitting idly on a shelf, serving no purpose. It had lost its’ luster and passion for service. The Holy Spirit no longer filled the jar…it was filled with the world, the flesh, and the devil. The critters inside were the type that are drawn to dead things. Death and decay cannot abide with life. The vessel still belonged to God, even though it seemed dead inside and out; but it was still intact…no cracks or chips in the jar.
In The Revelation 1-3, Jesus told the churches He loved them, but some were reprimanded for leaving their first love, and allowing sin into their church. This is what happened to the jar.
When the jar was moved close to the fire (Holy Spirit) and the contents were revealed, the sin had to flee. The right hand of God (my friend represented God in the dream) took the lid off the old jar, which exposed the sin. The flame of Spirit was too hot for the evil presences, and they ran into the dry place (Luke 11:24-26). In place of the lid, the cloth appeared in God’s Hand which is the Holy Spirit, (often, the color blue represents the Holy Spirit) and the evil was sealed off, as some tried to come back into the jar.
When she (God) looked at the jar again, there were two jars sitting on the mantle. The second represented the church or individual when returned to their original glory…their first love. Once we are cleansed of sin, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, we become beautiful on the outside as well as on the inside. You can SEE holiness on a person’s face. When we are first saved, we glow with the radiance of the Holy Spirit abiding inside us.
That doesn’t mean we are instantly sinless…sin will always be a part of humanity; however, after we have walked with God a long time, we can be tempted to get sloppy, and lazy, and give in to sin. Should that happen, we lose our glow.
BUT, if we repent and come back to the Lord and renew our commitment, we get that clean and shinny look and feeling again.
The cookie jar on the mantle returned to its’ gleaming purple colors, and shining gold. Those are the Bible colors of royalty. We are called a royal priesthood (1Pet. 2:9), and a joint-heir with Christ (Rom. 8:17), who is the King of kings! We are part of the Royal Family!
The “jar” returned to its’ first love, after sin departed. It (we the church) must co-operate with God and allow Him to lift the lid to expose the sin.
It reminded me of an illustration: going into a dark room, turning on a light and seeing the cockroaches run…they are afraid because they have been exposed by the light.
When God shines the light of His Word upon sin, it becomes uncomfortable and has to flee.
Jesus is coming very soon, friends, and we have to be “Rapture Ready”. He is coming for those who are watching and waiting for His coming (Luke 12:37, 1Cor. 1:7). He told us to “occupy” until He comes (Luke 19:13).
To watch and occupy means to continue our course and finish our part of the great commission Christ left to us to do; “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel...” (Mark 16:15).
Before we can do that, we have to have the passion to do so. If we are filled with sin, like the last church in Revelation, we won’t have that driving compassion to introduce lost souls to Christ. We will be so lukewarm, which Jesus hates (Rev. 3:16), that WE won’t go with Him when he comes, let alone take anyone with us.
The next time you feel a prick in your heart about you condition or complacency, especially during an altar call at your church, please go forward and ask God’s forgiveness. Repent of your sins, those things that nobody sees, and your sloppy Christian walk... pray for a deliverance and a cleansing. Ask the Lord for another chance...He does give "do-overs"! Make a fresh commitment to whatever ministry Christ has for you. Then pray for God's help to bring in YOUR part of this last Harvest...Amen
God Bless You All,
Pastor Moser
August, 2007
W. O. W.
"Good deeds can never replace an unclean heart"...Pastor Moser
The Home Place Mission had a former site and the time came where we had to switch web site hosts. Our email had to be changed as well. In transferring the articles over, every effort was made to correct any inferences to the old email address (the new one is on the home page). Also, all articles containing hyper links were needing updated too. Please forgive us if some things may have been overlooked. Because this page is in a blog format, the date we transferred each article over is what shows under the title when opened. The correct date each article was written is beside the title under the category column. We apologize for the blog format, as it is not as "user-friendly" as our old site but we do hope you find the articles encouraging and are blessed by the insights shared! Thank you for reading!
