The ship is going down.

A couple of weeks ago I was praying for the church (the church generally) and I felt that my prayers were so ineffectual... like a tiny rudder trying to turn around a huge ship. As I thought this, immediately a vision began to play out in my mind. I could see a massive ship (it instantly reminded me of the Titanic) in the middle of an ocean, and I could see a huge angel, waist deep in the sea, pushing against it. 

My first thought was ‘Oh the angel is turning the ship’.

I could see that lifeboats were being launched from this vessel into the surrounding dark and turbulent seas and that great numbers were evacuating the ship and climbing into the lifeboats, and I realised that the angel was applying force, not to turn the ship around, but to slow its progress as it headed towards inevitable destruction, that as many as possible might escape.

As I continued to watch I could also see that many seemed oblivious to the fact that the ship was headed for destruction; they were not aware of the urgency of the hour and were not interested in leaving at all. 

As I have studied and read around the sinking of the Titanic, I have realised that this is a fair representation of the historic account. Many lifeboats were half full, in particular those launched early on because those on deck failed to grasp the severity of the situation… the lights were still on, the band was still playing; everything appeared well and there was a belief that the ‘unsinkable’ ship would sail on.

I knew that the Titanic ship I had seen was representative of the modern day church, where she has joined herself to the spirit of the world and that there is a cry going out from heaven saying ‘Come out of her my people’. Revelation 18:4

As ever when I receive something from the Lord I want to know the scriptural basis for what He is showing me. As I sought Him and asked for direction He led me to Ezekial 27.

This chapter has been entitled ‘a lament over Tyre’ and depicts the city-kingdom of Tyre as a beautiful well run magnificent ship destined for shipwreck. This ship is crafted to perfection, made from the most exquisite and expensive woods, with blue and purple awnings and a sail made from fine embroidered linen from Egypt. Ezekiel 27:1-24 describes at length the luxurious attributes of this vessel and her many trades and customers. Ezekiel 27:25-36 describes the horror and finality of her shipwreck.

As they wail and mourn over you, they will take up a lament concerning you: “Who was ever silenced like Tyre, surrounded by the sea?” When your merchandise went out on the seas, you satisfied many nations; with your great wealth and your wares you enriched the kings of the earth. Now you are shattered by the sea in the depths of the waters; your wares and all your company have gone down with you. Ezekial 27:32-34

Now I understand that Tyre is not a metaphor for Israel or the church, but rather this passage describes God’s judgement on a nation who had determined to celebrate the ruination of Israel and to prosper from her downfall, so I asked the Lord how this related to the modern church and He prompted me to look up the meaning of Tyre. It means rock (tsur). This immediately reminded me of Deuteronomy 32:31

For their rock is not like our Rock. Deuteronomy 32:31

The full chapter is the prophetic song of Moses to Israel. 

Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; filled with food, they became heavy and sleek. They abandoned the God who made them and rejected the Rock their Savior. They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols. They sacrificed to false gods, which are not God— gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your ancestors did not fear. You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth. Deut 32:15-18

Jeshurun is a poetic name for Israel and here Moses is lamenting that Israel has grown fat and sleek and that she has abandoned and forgotten the God who made her. She has rejected and deserted her Father and her Saviour the Rock. The Rock is the One God, the true God.. the Rock of ages, the revelation of Jesus upon which the church is built and upon which we are exhorted to likewise build. Matthew 7:24

In her richness and fatness Jeshurun (Israel) has turned to the false prosperity and fertility gods of Baal and Ashtoreth with their detestable practices… she is building and depending on the economic and religious systems of the world, she is building on a false rock. 

Tyre was built upon a rocky promontory; seemingly immovable; sitting at the gateway to the sea and renowned for its connections as a sea-faring merchant of peoples on many coasts, and for its great beauty and great wealth. Tyre, the rock, appeared to be immovable, just as the Titanic appeared to be indestructible… “Even God Himself couldn’t sink this ship”. Both were a monument to the wealth of the world, beautiful, exemplifying the best of the best; the very finest the world had to offer.

In the natural this rock may appear to be a sure and solid foundation ‘unsinkable’ but it will be revealed as shifting sands. Matthew 7:26-27

God in His mercy is calling His people to come out from alliances with the spirit of the age and of the world, where we have harboured pride in our hearts and become sleek and fat in our own estimation, where we have declared ourselves to be wealthy and beautiful, where we have become like the Laodicean church who thought they were rich and needing nothing.

So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. Revelation 3:16-17

Laodicea means ‘people of righteousness’. They thought themselves righteous in their own eyes and they were most likely esteemed in the eyes of their neighbours and others, but God knew their heart; that their righteousness was their own… they were SELF-righteous..

We err when we believe that the lukewarmness of the Laodicean church means that she was apathetic or indecisive; her lukewarmness was rooted in her own riches, in her acquisition of wealth and in her self-dependency. She was complacent; equating earthly riches with spiritual riches; believing the latter was a sign of God’s blessing upon her. She was building on a false rock.

The dictionary defines titan (in the modern sense) as: a person of great strength or size, someone who is god-like, or powerful and influential, one that stands out for greatness or achievement.

As stated earlier, I knew that the Titanic ship I had seen represented the modern day church , where she has joined herself to the spirit of the world, which is rooted in the pride of man; it was a metaphor for man's natural ability, the efforts and accomplishments of man without God, the misplaced honouring of kudos and wealth and acclaim.

And I knew that the lifeboats were a metaphor for dependence on the Lord. There is no kudos in being in a lifeboat and there is an understanding that it is a temporary vessel, a rescue vessel, designed not for show but to save the ones within and to stay upright in stormy seas and rescue others in trouble. The lifeboats I had seen were inflatable, filled with and kept afloat with air. The simplicity of this struck me. There is an urgency in this hour to return to this place of simple faith in Jesus; trusting and clinging to nothing more than His presence, His words and His commands, where we know that it is the Spirit of God who has made us and the breath of the Almighty who gives us life Job 33:4

Please hear me, The Lord is not anti-wealth, anti-comfort, anti-beauty. The opposite in fact, but we have forgotten that we are sojourners in this earth and that our eyes should be fixed on Jesus and on the things of the Kingdom and His righteousness first.

This is a heart issue. As people we must not judge where we see wealth or luxury, it is very possible to be both humble and rich, and it is possible to be both poor and proud!! but it is imperative that each one of us examines our heart and our motives in this hour; that we ask ourselves and the Holy Spirit 'on which rock am I building?'

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33

Oh God have mercy on your church.. Have mercy on each one of us for where we have become blind to our true spiritual condition and traded with the world, believing that we are rich when we are poor. Oh God show us the true condition of our hearts, reveal to us our false gods and our idols.  Show us where we have trusted in ourselves and not in You. You are counselling us to trade with you and not with the world.. To buy from you gold, and white garments and eye salve, so that we can become truly rich and clean with the righteousness of Jesus  and so that we can see with spiritual eyes and not with natural eyes. 

Lord, this day, you are standing at the door of our hearts and knocking; give us ears to hear your voice, that we may open the door and dine with you. Amen