Many Houses Shall Become Desolate

In my ears the Lord of hosts has sworn, “Surely, many houses shall become desolate,

Even great and fine ones, without occupants.

Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,

And strangers will eat in the waste places of the wealthy. Isaiah 5:9, 17

Truth: I am extremely uncomfortable writing this blog post. But I’ve been silent here for longer than I anticipated, mostly unintentionally.

With COVID-19 taking over every aspect of life, it took over every aspect of ministry work and family life, too. My work time increased dramatically in March and April, and in the past couple of weeks has increased again, in response to the civil unrest after the death of George Floyd.

My kids have both been home from college since late March. I’ve hardly gone anywhere, which for an introvert has been fine, but I really miss the sense of freedom that came with driving wherever I wanted to go, with no masks or significant concerns about the health of those I would encounter.

One thing that hasn’t changed at all is my dream life. If you’ve read my posts, I’ve shared that I have prophetic gifts. One of the main ways these have manifested in my life have been through dreams.

Photo credit: Nick Romanov on Unsplash.com

Around twenty years ago, I started dreaming about houses: beautiful houses, searching for a specific house or neighborhood or street, or being in an amazing house. These dreams have shifted over time, but some incredible revelations and confirmations have come from these dreams.

When I was in high school, I wrote an essay about an idea for a place that today I identify as a physical place of ministry, where people who were hurting and struggling with life would be able to go get help. My hazy vision for the location was for a pale white or yellow house, a home, or a structure that resembled a house but was really an office building.

Fast forward a couple of decades, and I start having dreams about houses and bathrooms with large dark mauve bathtubs. I never remember seeing such a bathtub, but I had that same dream at least four times.

So when I started working for a ministry that helped women struggling with eating disorders, and the property was a large pale yellow house that looked kind of like an office building, I saw that as confirmation of my high school vision. But what was even more amazing to me was that prior to the renovations that took place, before I was connected to the ministry, one of the bathrooms had an enormous dark mauve bathtub.

I tell you this, because I believe that the other dreams I’ve had about houses are equally accurate, but I have hesitated to share them. Too many of these dreams have been hard to share.

At least fifteen years ago, I started dreaming about large empty homes, beautiful houses that were vacated. Often I would be standing on the street, looking at a house with no inhabitants. In some of these homes, the lights were on, but no one was home – and that’s not even a joke! Over time my sense has come to be that people fled the home quickly and forgot to shut off the light.

Other homes have been beautiful, some have been decrepit. Some have been partially constructed, often with the front facade in place but the back completely sheared off.

Houses have several different meanings in dreams; I’ve looked into dream interpretation pretty extensively. But in recent years, and certainly this year, I’ve come to believe that these are vision of what is coming. I hope I’m wrong, I really do, but there are reasons why these homes are vacated. And I don’t believe it’s all because people got COVID and died. I think many of them are empty because the owners fled, as refugees.

I don’t want to believe this. And yes, these dreams are about American homes. But our world turned upside down almost overnight when COVID-19 began to spread. The physical, economic, spiritual and mental health impacts from COVID-19 have been awful – and it hasn’t even been three months since everything got going.

I wish I had wisdom to offer about preparations, but other than being as self-sustaining as possible, and invested in helping others, I don’t have any incredible suggestions. I’ve been spending a lot of thinking time just praying and asking God for guidance. It’s hard to know what else to do.

FYI, I have some other kinds of dreams that are in the same vein. Please get right with God, today, and work for His kingdom until He comes.