Dutch Sheets
A Man With a Burden
to Pray
Dutch Sheets has been one of the
foremost leaders of the prayer movement in the Body of Christ in recent US
history. Until recently he has been the
Executive Director of Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas, Texas. Once in a great while a message from God
comes along significant enough that it must be passed along. This is the type of message I heard from the
lips of Dutch Sheets. Dutch was one of
the speakers at the CBN Week of Prayer 2014.
He delivered a message he called “An Appeal To Heaven”, which I feel is
a word for the Body of Christ in this nation.
I believe that if you take the time to read this blog, you will agree
with my assessment. I have received
permission from his ministry to give to you the essence of his message in my
blog.
The Synergy Of The
Ages
As I mentioned, Dutch was the
Executive Director of Christ for the Nations, which was founded by Gordon
Lindsay. God spoke to Dutch that he was
to agree with the prayers of Gordon Lindsay.
Dutch thought to himself, I can’t.
he’s dead. God said to Dutch, “his
prayers aren’t, and until this generation comes into agreement with his
prayers, I can’t fulfill them.” Then God
gave Dutch a concept, “the synergy of the ages.” Synergy can be defined as the interaction or
cooperation of two agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of
the separate parts. God was speaking to
Dutch that he wanted this present generation
to agree with the
prayers of previous generations, which will not just add to their
prayers but multiply them. He knew that he could agree with people
sitting next to him, but he never realized he could agree with the prayers of
past generations.
This
motivated Dutch to start studying among other things, Hebrews 11, which we
refer to as the hall of fame of faith. He noticed in v. 39b-40, yet none of then received all that God had
promised. For God had far better things
in mind for us that would also benefit them, for they can’t receive the prize
at the end of the race until we finish the race (NLT). God began to reveal to him that there is an
inter-connectedness of God purposes where we need them (past generations) and
they need us. God will promise us
something knowing that he will fulfill it through our children or our
grandchildren. When God saw Abraham he
perceived the twelve sons of Jacob.
Put Yourself In The
Storyline
God started to reveal some
miraculous things through visions by night that would speak to Dutch. A lady he knew had a dream where there were
seven ambulances lined up with their lights flashing. She looked into the first ambulance and saw
an angel trying to revive a body. The
angel looked at her and said, “we can’t find a heartbeat.” She peered in the other six ambulances and
the same thing was happening. One of the
angels told her these are the intercessors.
Then an angel in one of the ambulances screamed, “I have a heartbeat but
it is very faint.” One of the other
angels asked, “how did you get this to happen?”
The angel responded, I began to tell them of revivals past and as I told
the old stories the heart started to revive.
The angel said, “tell the old stories,” and commenced to mention the
First Great Awakening and the Second Great Awaking, people like the Finneys and
the Wesleys. Then the angel said
something very interesting to the women in the dream, “put yourself in the
storyline. Those revivals are your
revivals; they are just another act in the same play.” Dutch realized that God was saying to him to
get in the storyline. There is a great cloud of witnesses cheering
us on and saying that if we don’t get with it, they (generations past) don’t
get finished what they started.
Everlast And
Evergreen
A man had dream that added
another part of what God was speaking to Dutch. In this dream Dutch was a boxer. He boxed five giants and knocked out all
five. He alternated hands. The first round he knocked out a giant using
the right hand. The second round he
knocked out the giant with the left hand.
For five rounds he did the same using alternate hands. He (Dutch in the dream) says, “if you are
going take out the giants you are going to have wear these two gloves.” On one glove was written Everlast and on the other the inscription, Evergreen. And that was the
end of the dream.
Dutch
thought he understood what Everlast is all about. He has been studying about the everlasting
God. In Genesis 21:33 in Hebrew you have
Olam El, “the Eternal God”. It’s the God
of infinity in both directions, past and future. In this portion of scripture, Abraham was
calling on the everlasting God.
Abraham had
made some pretty major blunders in his life.
He had been deceitful and lied about Sarah being his sister to insure
his safety. He had compromised his faith
by allowing Sarah to convince him to father a child through her slave Hagar. In calling on Olam El, the everlasting God,
he was saying that God’s purposes were eternal.
In spite of Abraham’s flaws, and the weaknesses of the patriarchs (their
story in part reads like a soap opera) he believed that God (Olam EL)was bigger
than their weaknesses. If we think God is going to answer our prayers because of
our goodness, we are on the wrong track.
The Tamarisk Tree: An
Everlasting Covenant
So Dutch has a handle on
Everlast, but what is Evergreen all about?
As his role as the Executive Director of Christ for the Nations he had
to choose the speaker for the graduation ceremony. This particular year he made an unusual
choice. Instead of a preacher or teacher
he picked a military man. At the end of
his speech, the military man took out a flag that some of the founding fathers
of this nation had flown before we had our present flag. He brought it to give to Dutch. He unfolded the flag and it had the phrase on
it, “An Appeal To Heaven” plus an evergreen tree. Dutch said to himself, “I am going to get the
other glove.”
The speaker
explained the significance to the evergreen tree. The tree was put on the flag because of the
influence of the Iroquois Nation. They
had an Iroquois Confederation, where they joined with other Native American
tribes in a covenant relationship. They
took weapons and buried them at the foot of an evergreen tree. They were saying that we will fight with you
and never against you. This is where we
got the expression “bury the hatchet”.
They chose the evergreen tree because to them it was a symbol of
eternity (never losing its leaves or ever changing). The flag expressed that our founding fathers
would “Make An Appeal To Heaven” based on an eternal covenant.
In Genesis
21:33, before Abraham called on the name of Olam EL, the Everlasting God, he
planted an evergreen tree. Then Abraham
planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba(v 33).
A tamarisk tree is an evergreen tree.
It is a very slow growing tree.
It has been said that no one plants a tamarisk tree for himself, but for
future generations. . One lexicon has said that in planting this
tree, Abraham was saying to future generations that you will sit under the
shade of my covenant with God. At this
point, Dutch asked this question, “Is
this not what we are doing today?
Sitting under the shade of the efforts and covenants of previous
generations. We must commit ourselves to
God’s eternal purposes. Not ours, but
His.”
Reaping The Harvest
Of The Ages
You are not going to believe
this, the story continues on through yet another dream. One month after Dutch is given the flag a
friend of his has a dream. The man who
had the dream waits three months to pray it through to make sure it is from the
Lord before he tells Dutch.
In this
dream the man finds himself in an old camp meeting style building. An old gentleman comes up to him and says “let
me show you around.” He takes him up to the platform and puts him on a stool. The gentleman points to the window and they see
ships coming to shoreline. They were the
Puritans and Pietists. Several thousand
make a procession into the room and start worshiping the Lord. He looks out the window again and he sees
pioneers. Sure enough covered wagons appear. Then they make their processional into the
building while the previous generation cheers, “well done, thanks for keeping the
dream alive.” Then a third generation comes in and the old man says, “They are
the planters.” They built the railroads, the towns and the cities. They march in to the cheers of the previous
generation. Six generations came and the
old man points to automobiles and airplanes. Then our generation comes
in and there are seven generations in the room worshiping the Lord. Dutch then asks a rhetorical question “Is
this the synergy of the ages?”
Then the old
gentleman looks at a double door and a Pilgrim comes through it and goes up on
a metal bridge that was over the platform.
He begins to prophesy about the destiny of this nation. Five more generations do the same. Then it’s our turn, our generation, and the
old man says to him, “Are you ready to take your place “in the synergy of the
ages?” The man like Dutch had never heard
this expression. The man answers, “yes I
am.” The double door opens and a delegation from our generation, the 7th,
enters and Dutch is the last person in the delegation. Dutch gets up to the top of the bridge and
the man in the dream notices he has something in his hands. None of the other speakers carried
anything. Dutch unfolds a white flag. Quickly Dutch says to his friend who had the
dream, “was there and expression on it?
Did it say, “An Appeal To Heaven?” The man replies, “yes, how did you
know?” This man doesn’t know anything about
the flag that Dutch was given. With a
look of rising expectation on his face, Dutch says, “did it have a evergreen
tree on it?” The man says, “yes.” Dutch is speechless as the answer resonates in
his spirit. He has goose bumps on top of
goose bumps. In the dream for about ten
minutes he doesn’t say anything, he stands on the bridge and waves the flag in
a figure 8 (the symbol of eternity. Then
he starts to prophesy and the last thing he says is “America is returning to
the ancient path to reap the harvest of the ages.”
My Reaction
Like many Christians in this
nation, I have been very concerned about what seems to be the downward spiral
of this country. At certain turn of
events I have been downright disgusted and angry. But after hearing this message there was a
flicker of hope in my heart again. I
thought to myself, maybe it is not too late to pray for this land.
God has blessed the American
people but in many ways I think we have become proud of the blessing. We have started to believe that God has prospered
us because of our goodness or
greatness. We have started to worship
the provision rather than the provider, God.
The Jewish people were not chosen because they were special. They were special because they were chosen. It’s not about America but God purposes. But
saying all this, Americas have been called to be a missionary sending people, a
light to the nations. Pray with me that
we will return to the ancient path, and be blessed to be a blessing.
Please pass
this along to anyone who you might be interested in agreeing with the prayers
of pass generations to see God purposes accomplished on this earth. Give it to those who want to make “An Appeal To Heaven” to reap the
harvest of the ages.
I would be very interested in your comments. and the
spirits of the prophets are
subject to the prophets; (I Corinthians 14:32 NASB)
subject to the prophets; (I Corinthians 14:32 NASB)
Ken Barnes, the author of “The
Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”
YWAM Publishing
Email: kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/
Email: kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/
