Life and death decisions

Andrew Bale's prophecy that the future survival of the Salvation Army being decided in the next ten years resonates with me and as others have commented God has been saying similar things to them as well I would like to add what I believe God revealed to me along similar lines.

In February 2005 my husband, Alan and I were at a conference and after a day of teaching and interaction with other people seeking reach our communities with the gospel in the 21st Century I went back to our billet and was praying and reflecting upon all that had gone on that day. All day I had had a sense of urgency and conviction that these days are not days when we can afford to avoid issues concerning the situation the Salvation Army is in, not just for our own survival but for the sake of the lost.

As I prayed back in our room in our billet, the presence of the Holy Spirit seemed to come over me like a wave that almost took my breath away. And I don’t know how to really describe what happened next, except to say that if I hadn’t been so aware of being in someone else’s house the most natural thing for me to do would have been to cry out in the way someone would if they heard the shocking news that a loved was in a critical condition.

I was left questioning the Lord about what all this meant so I continued to pray and a picture came into my mind of conjoined twins, both alive but at a point where if either were to survive there must be a critical decision of separation. And the cry came to my mind, “Don’t let my baby die.”

It seemed to me to be a picture of the struggle between two forms of salvationism. Initially I thought that this picture was about the stuggle between the new and the old ways of doing mission in the 21st century and that one had to give way to the other or both would die. But on reflection I believe the picture is not about methods or structures. Instead it is about there being two kinds of salvationism, the carnal and the holy.

Later I learned more about conjoined twins and discovered that often the larger twin appears to be the healthiest and struggles less. However this can be because it is lazy and rather than fight for life itself, saps the life out of the smaller twin. The smaller twin has to have a passion for life to keep going. Worldly salvationism appears at the moment to be the most dominant.

If there is no separation then both babies will perish. To separate means that a choice has to be made that one of the twins will die. However the one with the greatest chance is the one who has already learned to fight for life in the womb.

All I know from all this is that the cry that came from within me, "Don't let my baby die," felt like it was the cry of the Spirit within me. I believe the Holy Spirit wants the Salvation Army child to live. But it can't live as conjoined twins, one being worldly and one living in the spirit of holiness. Unless the crucial choice is made life, expectancy is short. To submit to surgery is
risky and requires great faith, The choice is as difficult, as crucial and as painful as parents of conjoined twins having to decide to separate them. Knowing that to do nothing might destroy both and to act is to quite literally decide which shall live and which shall die.

Worldliness actually shouldn't live so why is it painful to separate from it? It is because we are often fooled because outwardly it looks attractive, strong, more successful than holiness and we don't want to really believe that we have to choose. We want both the world and holiness but that is impossible. One must die so the other might live.

God bless

Carol