A Shocking Dream: God is Reclaiming the Prophetic for His Glory
Though the modern-day prophetic movement appears to be struggling for breath, it is God’s mercy that has allowed this season of shaking and pruning in order to make way for something fresh. Where words have been produced from polluted wells, God’s Spirit is looking for those with pure hearts and clean hands through whom He can breathe fresh life into that which appears dead.
This was the message gleaned from a recent prophetic dream given to Stephen Powell on June 24 of this year. He sent it to me the following morning, asking for feedback. Because of the well-known prophet highlighted in the dream, I was taken aback. The shocking dream seemed to indicate a development that many would find disturbing. But that is when I quickly discerned the hidden message in this parabolic dream meant to bring encouragement to those in prophetic ministry.
This is what Stephen saw in his dream:
“I was walking around Los Angeles. A group of pastors were doing press conferences because they had decided to run for mayor. Suddenly I came across Shawn Bolz lying dead on the ground. No one was trying to revive him. People were just standing around staring at him, but I felt very much compelled to perform CPR on him and try to bring him back, so I tried. I remember feeling so awkward. I felt like I was doing everything wrong, but I was trying. I was doing endless chest compressions with my hands, and then I remembered, ‘I need to breathe into his mouth.’ So I started doing mouth to mouth. At this point his skin was starting to look blue, but I wouldn’t give up, even when people told me to. Suddenly, I saw smoke slowly coming out of his mouth, and he slowly began to wake up. He revived. Against all odds, he revived because I wouldn’t give up on him, even when everyone else had.”
As soon as I read the dream, I immediately recognized the prophetic symbolism. I wrote back to Stephen that I did not believe this was about Shawn Bolz, personally. Given Shawn’s well-documented and substantiated prophetic malpractice, sexual immorality, and subsequent disqualification from ministry, I did not believe the dream was suggesting anything about the man. Rather, it was what he has come to represent within the larger prophetic movement that provided the clue to its meaning.
Shawn’s fall from grace had a huge impact on the prophetic movement. For decades, this popular modern-day prophet impacted thousands through his off-the-charts words of knowledge. He represented a new breed of prophetic ministry that often used shock and awe to win over the masses. When his sins were proven true, the fallout was immediate. Many began to question the validity of prophecy itself, while others walked away from prophetic ministry altogether. Personal words and prophecies have increasingly been cast aside as frauds and counterfeits, leaving many disillusioned and angry.
And yet, there has also been a sober realization that the system that Shawn represents and much of what has marked the modern prophetic movement – has needed to die. Violations of scriptural protocols, the lack of integrity and godly character, and the absence of needed accountability have made much of our current prophetic ministry untenable. But though some want to discount prophetic ministry altogether, others recognize this painful season as a necessary pruning for something better.
Sometimes God allows the old to pass away so something new can emerge. What appears to be the end of prophetic ministry as we know it, may actually be God preparing the way for something far greater. This dream is not about resurrecting a broken system or restoring the personalities, platforms, and practices that brought us here. It points to God breathing fresh life into the prophetic gifts themselves – recovering what originated in Him through the power of His Spirit.
Several prophetic voices have sensed that we are in a time similar to the days of Eli, when “the word of the Lord was rare” (1 Samuel 3:1). This was a time of judgment due to rampant sin in God’s house, yet even then, while one era was ending, God was quietly preparing Samuel.
As Stephen and I processed this dream with several others, we had a collective witness concerning the hope being offered. Despite the overwhelming odds and repeated calls to abandon the cause, Stephen represents those who refuse to give up on what God Himself established. Given his own history of prophetic disillusionment and pain, Stephen’s actions are especially significant for those who have been deeply wounded by betrayals and broken trust within prophetic ministry. Where others stood at a distance and merely observed the death, Stephen stepped in and contended for life.
At first, he did what he knew to do. He exerted his own strength through repeated chest compressions, but his efforts produced no visible results. His desire and determination could not accomplish what was needed.
Then he remembered something. The body needed breath. And this may be the most important part of the entire revelation.
“Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 37:5-6).
Only the presence and breath of Holy Spirit can produce life where death has taken hold. Human effort, passion, charisma, and strategy cannot do it. The corpse had already turned blue, indicating the absence of life-giving oxygen. Perhaps this is precisely what has caused so much of modern prophetic ministry to appear dead: the lack of truly Spirit-breathed words flowing from pure wells. What man manufactures cannot produce the life of God.
In His mercy, the Lord may be allowing everything sustained by human effort to exhaust itself so that what emerges next can only be attributed to Him. He is not interested in resuscitating the machinery of a movement. He wants to breathe again upon His people.
Stephen’s mouth-to-mouth resuscitation points not only to the breath of the Spirit, but to intimate communion with the Lord. In Numbers 12:8, God says that He speaks with Moses “mouth to mouth.” It speaks of a closeness with God that cannot be manufactured from a platform or reproduced through marketing. The prophetic ministry of the future cannot simply be a cleaner version of what we have already known. It must come from a deeper and purer place, where words spoken publicly have first been prayed privately in fellowship with the Spirit.
The results of Stephen’s intervention were not immediate. His CPR was an act of intercession – a standing in the gap and contending for life when every outward appearance suggested hope was gone. Just as Ezekiel prophesied to the dry bones, Stephen’s actions picture prayer and prophetic proclamation working together under the direction of the Spirit.
And this is the invitation. The Spirit of God desires to breathe fresh life into prophetic ministry, but He is looking for those willing to contend in prayer. Not for platforms, personalities, or movements, but for the purposes of God. Those who will be used in what comes next may not be the ones with the greatest visibility. They will be those who know the place of His presence, who have pure hearts and clean hands, and who still believe His gifts are alive and active.
But the dream not only foreshadows a Spirit-breathed resurrection of the prophetic gifts, but a fire of God through the mouths of those who speak from the place of His presence.
“I am making My words in your mouth a fire” (Jeremiah 5:14).
This is the promise of the Lord for those who have the faith to contend for that which He is birthing. God is not simply preparing to restore prophetic ministry to what it once was. He desires to bring forth something purer, weightier, and more powerful than what we have previously known: words born in His presence and carrying His power. Words that do more than impress people with supernatural knowledge, but burn within hearts, expose fleshly pursuits, and bear witness to the rule and reign of God. Where celebrity platforms have drawn attention to men, the presence of God will draw attention back to Jesus. Where polluted wells have produced mixture, God is preparing vessels through whom living water can flow again.
There are other details in the dream that sharpen this message. The setting in Los Angeles confirms the home of Shawn’s ministry and network associations. The pastors preoccupied with political affairs and photo ops may apply to some real-time parallels, but their presence also suggests that this brand of leader is not qualified to lead this renewal. Whether distracted by personal ambition, financial gain, or simple refusal to engage, such leaders will not be the ones God will use. But neither will they be able to stop what God intends to do. God does not need hirelings with positions and titles. He needs servant leaders who sincerely love and care for His body.
But there is something else we must lay down to make room for what God desires to bring forth: the pain, anger, resentment, broken promises, and mistrust of the previous season. This does not mean excusing sin or abandoning needed accountability, but refusing to let the failures of men define our future. Those who have experienced prophetic disillusionment must ultimately choose to surrender their pain and their will to God’s, believing He can bring forth something better. If we remain consumed with either defending those we once admired or resenting those who disappointed us, we are still giving men a place that belongs to Christ alone. This is not about protecting the reputation of any hero of the faith, but guarding the honor of Christ. The glory of man must give way to the glory of God, and even the wounds of the past must be laid down so our hearts are free to receive whatever He desires to breathe next.
This is the invitation. It is time to contend – not for the resurrection of a movement, but for the resurrection power of the Spirit to breathe upon His people once again. It is time for those with a heart after God to get on their knees and become conduits of His presence. It is time to pray for the wells to be cleansed, for compromised systems to remain in the grave, and for a new generation of prophetic voices to emerge from the secret place.
God is reclaiming the prophetic for His glory, breathing resurrection life into what has always belonged to Him – so that what emerges will no longer draw attention to the glory of man, but bear witness to the glory of God.
