July 5, 2021 Revival Mantle Dream
I dreamed I was with a group of eleven people, who had been given the opportunity to visit a place that had great significance in revival history. We arrived at an old church that was built of a grayish/white stone. We stepped inside the church, and we noticed the wooden floors. You could hear our footsteps as we moved into the sanctuary. We looked around us. The ceilings were high, there was a balcony surrounding the sanctuary, and there was a high platform with a very large pulpit situated in the center of it. We were just walking around slowly, taking everything in and whispering among ourselves about how honored we all were that we had been given this amazing opportunity to be in this place, to step on these floors, and to be in this atmosphere that was part of revival history.
We had initially thought we were alone in this sanctuary, but we began to hear a man’s voice ringing out from behind the pulpit. Though as the people in this dream we could not see the man, as the dreamer of this dream, I could see that he was on his knees with his right hand lifted toward heaven, and he was in deep, travailing prayer. His prayer was so intense and full of passion and sincerity! As he prayed, it was so intense it was as if he was being emptied out with every word. As he would speak, he would just rock back and forth on his knees, with his hand lifted the whole time. His face was red because of the extreme intensity of his prayer. Probably four or five times, he repeated this same prayer:
“Alas, this cross that I must bear ’tis not a task for me. Its weight is light, for my delight is to do all that You ask of me! I’m turning now . . . to see Your face; ’tis all that matters to me! I lift mine eyes; LORD, hear my cry. SHOW ME YOUR GLORY!”
As he prayed, it was as if an electrical current could be tangibly felt, and we were all brought to tears as the weightiness of the presence of God completely filled that room. Our group reverently walked to our left and sat down on a pew, not wanting to disturb the man who was praying. This is when I looked to my right and noticed that some of those within our group were Paul and Kim Owens (I do not know them personally, but I recognized them and knew them in the dream.) and Larry Sparks. There were seven other people with us whom I knew in the dream, but I do not remember who they were.
I don’t have words to really explain this, but the whole atmosphere just filled with the pleasure of God. I wish I were able to articulate that! We could feel that God was so pleased with this man and with this prayer. The feeling of God’s pleasure was real and almost tangible. Again, I don’t know how to adequately describe that.
As he continued to pray, I was sobbing, overcome by the presence of the Lord. The rest of the group did the same, and the man heard us. He got up off his knees and walked toward the pulpit. I noticed that he was a tall man. He was young, and he had on clothing that was from the early 1900s. The pulpit was very large, and there was a step behind it, and the man stepped up onto it. He then leaned over the pulpit and saw us there. With his elbows on the pulpit and his face resting in his hands, the man was gazing at us and said with deep emotion, almost in a whisper, “You came! You’re here!”
He then stood up straight, and we saw that he was cloaked with what appeared to be some type of robe, but it wasn’t natural clothing. Again, I find it hard to adequately articulate what we saw. The robe was very thick, bulky, and long, touching the floor. You could tell it was old and extremely heavy. He then said to us, “I have been waiting for you!” He put his hand on that robe, and he said, “I wore this for my time, and it was all that I desired! It was all that I desired!”
I was almost afraid to speak, but reverently I asked, “What is it?”
He answered with such respect for it, “It’s the mantle of revival!”
I then asked, “Who are you?”
He said, “That is not important. What is important is that you came to get this mantle. You have been sent here for this purpose.”
We had thought we were there just to see that building, but we now understood that we had been deliberately, even supernaturally, brought there by God to receive that mantle. That realization was very overwhelming to each one of us.
The young man then began to tell us stories about that mantle—the story of how he had received it and stories of the experiences he had while carrying it in his time. We then realized this mantle was the “cross” he was so intently speaking about in his prayer. Though heavy, it was not a burden for him; it was the greatest joy of his life!
As he spoke to us, we noticed that the mantle, which was still on him, was growing. It was extending with every word he spoke. It was filling up the stage. He said, “In my time, I cried out to God and asked for at least 100,000 souls to be touch and changed by the power of God, but in your time, it must be much greater.” The mantle continued to grow, and he continued to speak. He was giving us instruction and revelation about this mantle because it was being passed to us so that we would carry it for our time.
As we listened in awe to all he was telling us, the realization hit us that we were going to carry that mantle, and we all just looked at each other with a look that said, “We can’t carry that! It’s too heavy! It’s too big!” We were amazed that he was still able to stand under the weight of it as he spoke to us. I was so overcome by the magnitude of what was happening, and I was sobbing. I got up off the pew and stepped out into an aisle and just fell on my knees. Everyone else in the group did the same. Knowing that we had for certain been sent by God to receive this mantle, I asked the question that I, along with everyone else, was thinking: “How can we carry it? It’s SO big!” In the natural, it seemed impossible!
The man then said, “You cannot wear this mantle and look forward or around you. If you do, it will be torn and misused, and it will become cumbersome and even wearisome for you. You must ever look upward and be completely enthralled by the Lord. Focus on Him! Pursue Him! Long for Him, and soon the weight of the mantle will be absorbed by the passion in your heart for more of Him.”
He then said with profound joy, “Now . . . it’s your time to carry the mantle!”
In unison, still weeping, we said, “We receive it! We don’t completely know how, but we receive it!” Then, out of the depths of our beings, we began to pray that same prayer the man had prayed at the beginning. That prayer became the cry of each of our hearts. We prayed . . .
“Alas, this cross that I must bear ’tis not a task for me. Its weight is light, for my delight, is to do all that You ask of me! I’m turning now to see Your face, ’tis all that matters to me! I lift mine eyes. Lord, hear my cry, SHOW ME YOUR GLORY!”
The man stepped down from the pulpit, back onto the stage, and then he was just gone. (I do not know who the man was, but I have a feeling it may have been Evan Roberts, a young man who was instrumental in the great Welsh revival that took place in the early 1900s, and I feel that Moriah Chapel may have been the church in which we stood.)
Still on our knees, releasing this intense prayer that had now become our prayer, that mantle was lifted from that stage and placed on us. It covered us, and was now big enough to fill that entire church. As the mantle covered us, it then lifted us up and became like a hang glider of sorts and began to carry us. I could see water beneath us as we were being carried by the mantle over the ocean. Then we could see land, then mountains, and then we landed, facing west. With the mantle still covering us, we all knew we were in the mountains of North Carolina at the place where the Holy Spirit came upon that small group of men in the late 1800s and early 1900s that later launched the Church of God and Church of God of Prophecy denominations. Out in front of us, in the span of about twenty feet in width, we saw white stones making up letters that were each about four feet tall, which spelled the words: “TO BE CONTINUED.”
That was the end of the dream.
