by Eric Wheeler
eric@sharingtheway.com
About eight years ago, I had a dream. Actually, it was more like a vision or a daydream because I was awake when I was given it. I saw thousands of rats living in a dark cave, and I was one of them. We rats had formed a functioning “rat society” and created a prosperous civilization inside of this cave. And although we didn’t realize or comprehend that we were living inside of a cave, we nonetheless enjoyed our working environment and growing population. There were policemen, governmental agencies, city officials, laws, schools, politicians, churches, clergymen, stores and prisons. Although there were many well-respected and influential rats living within our society, I was just an average ordinary citizen with no particular outstanding talents or abilities. I was happy and content though living in the cave with my family – that is, with my parents and my sisters (I wasn’t married in my dream), and I enjoyed my own circle of friends who apparently liked me and respected me.
One strange night however, while I was sleeping in my rat bed, I was suddenly “lifted up” by this great big Mysterious Hand that somehow miraculously carried me outside of the cave by the back of my rat neck. It was then that I first came to realize that I had been living in a cave! In comparison to this newly discovered “outside world”, the cave that I and the other rats had been living in was very dark and colorless indeed! Never before had I seen such brilliance and beauty! The colors in the outside world were way beyond description, and the radiance of the sun shone so brightly there. There was a tranquil peace and harmony that permeated everything in the outside world. It was well beyond my rat imagination and limited rat speech to describe.
Immediately, I heard a Voice speak to me. (I didn’t see any person or figure, only the Great Hand that had carried me outside by the back of my rat neck.) The Voice said, “Now go back into the cave, and tell everyone living there what you have seen. Let them know that they are indeed living inside of a cave, and that their world is fictitious, and is not reality. Go and tell them what you have seen!” With those words, the Great Hand supernaturally carried me back into the cave and put me back into my bed. When morning came, I knew what I had to do. It was time to begin professing the Truth as it had been revealed to me.
Up to that point, although I was ordinary, I had enjoyed a solid reputation for being honest and truthful. All of my family, friends, and associates considered me to be “a stand-up guy”, I mean, a “stand-up rat”. But all of that was about to change. I first began to share my very unusual experience with my closest friends at school. At first they were all amazed, and were very excited by my “tall-tale” and “ghost story”, especially how I could deliver it so believingly and convincingly without so much as even cracking a grin or a smile. As I insisted that it was all indeed true, they playfully and unbelievingly waved their hands at me, saying, “Good one, Eric. You almost had me going there for a second! How long did it take for you to come up with that one?!”
As I persisted in regards to the truth of my message, my friends eventually began losing interest and respect for me. They began to shy away from me, and exclude me from their fellowship and from “hanging-out” with them. I also tried to share the message with my mom and dad, but they wouldn’t listen, dismissing me as just being “an immature boy who had a big imagination and a strong sense of wanting to be somebody important and special”. My sisters too began to avoid me because of all of the ridicule and teasing that they had to endure at school on my account. The more I persisted, the more I wasn’t welcome in my familiar rat circles. Some of the rats even called me “crazy” and “delusional”. I tried to share the message with my church pastor and with some of the church leaders, and with other rat adults that I looked up to. But each one of them in one way or another simply patted me on the head, and reassured me that everything was going to be alright. “You just had a bad dream,” they told me, “It has no real meaning or validity.”
Not wanting to be disobedient to the Voice’s commandment, I became more determined and bolder with my presentation. I tried with all of my might to convince those around me that they were indeed living in darkness and in a cave. Sadly, my message fell on deaf ears. The rats began attributing false motives to me in order to justify their unbelief. They would say things such as, “Who do you think you are?”, “Are you saying that you are more enlightened than we are?”, “Do you think you’re something special?”. Others would scoff at me and say, “There goes Wheeler again, trying to get a following for himself!”
As I persisted in the validity of my message, threatenings and warnings began to increase. At first, they were subtle. Little things like, “Oh Eric, you better cut out this ridiculous fantasy, or else you are not going to have any friends or people who will want to associate with you.” As I remained steadfast in my position, knowing that what I was saying was indeed the truth, I was officially disfellowshipped from the church for preaching “heresy”; my after-school job was threatened; I was black-balled by my friends and neighbors; and I felt a great sense of shame and abandonment from my family members. It seemed that nobody understood or believed me. Everyone only believed what their eyes and their experiences told them. They weren’t open to anything else!
As time went on, I became more and more discouraged, which ultimately caused me to become withdrawn, reclusive, and silent. During one particular lonely night in my dream, as I lay on my rat bed disheartened and greatly discouraged, the Voice came back to me and reminded me of my responsibility. The Voice reminded me that I had been chosen to tell the others what I had seen and been given. The Voice reminded me of the verse in the Bible that said, “For God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the insignificant things of the world and the things which are despised, God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence” (I Cor. 1:27-29). The Voice also said, “And remember that it is also written, ‘To him whom much is given, from him much will be required” (Luke 12:48). With these words, I was both admonished and encouraged by the Voice to get back up and to try again to convince my fellow rats that we were not living in reality, but rather, we were living in a cave and blind to it because of the darkness.
As the threats increased, so did my boldness and conviction. Most of the rats simply didn’t believe me. But curiously, it seemed like every rat that had “something to lose” by believing, whether it was their job, their political clout or social standing, their money, their acceptance within the community, or their position within the church, were the very ones that gave me the most persecution and resistance. They simply didn’t want anything or “anyone” to come between them and their comfortable world. Encouragingly though, a few rats did believe me. It was almost like they didn’t have anything to lose by believing, because they were poor and contrite, and I was giving them hope through my message. These rats were humble and teachable. They would smile when I spoke, and began to show a gleam in their eye as they tried to envision the beauty and the brilliance of the “outside world” and its life-giving reality as I described it to them. Though they were few in number, these believing rats were an inspiration and an encouragement to me when all of the other rats rejected me personally and my message.
After some time in my dream, the secular authorities came to me at the request of the religious leaders who had continually lobbied them for my arrest. It appeared that I had “stepped on the religious leader’s toes” by not submitting to them, and for preaching “a different gospel” that had not been approved nor condoned by them. Because many of the civil authorities were politically “in bed” with the religious leaders, and endorsed by them, I was publicly deemed a “threat to society” and “socially-disruptive”, and labeled a “corrupter of the rat people” by the civil authorities. Because I refused to recant or to be silenced, I was charged with “contempt of court”, “disturbing the peace”, “disobeying a court order”, and “causing a public riot”. Whereby, I was put in prison, beaten and abused by the guards, mocked by the other prisoners, and totally discredited by the religious and secular authorities. My name became synonymous with being “a deceiver, a liar, and a hoax” among my own rat people. After a little while, as I watched in my dream, my enemies prevailed over me by having me executed (murdered) by the state… I then woke up.
When I was first given this dream eight years ago, I didn’t fully realize then what it entirely meant or its spiritual implications for my life. Two years earlier, I had been given a series of powerful visions and profound revelations that I had no idea were going to cause me so much future personal grief and turmoil. Let me explain.
First, let me give you a little personal history: I was raised in a Christian denomination that strongly believed in the validity of the Bible. However, like most churches, it too had many doctrines and teachings that upon closer examination were found to be unbiblical – that is they were really teachings and commandments of men, passed on by tradition, ritual, and a misunderstanding of Scripture. In light of realizing this, the church denomination that I had faithfully attended for over twenty-five years began to change some of its key doctrines causing many of its members a great deal of anguish and crisis’s of belief. Needless to say, many of us in the local congregations were troubled as our faith was seemingly being tried and tested. As the Lord was “shaking” things up spiritually for us to see what our faith was “built upon” – whether it was built upon His Word or upon man’s traditions and beliefs – like so many in the church, I too, was left with feeling a deep sense of “spiritual emptiness”, and I found myself “spiritually lacking”. For the first time in my life, I began to recognize my own spiritual poverty, and began to realize that I didn’t have “all of the answers” anymore. In fact, I wasn’t quite sure what I believed. I became “poor in spirit” as Jesus termed it (Matt. 5:3). Instead of feeling spiritually strong, I became spiritually weak. I became insignificant, broken, ashamed, and humbled. I no longer felt spiritually superior to anyone. In my deep despair and brokenness, I began to cry out to God. I hungered to know if He was indeed real. I wanted to know the truth! I didn’t want to be deceived or misled any longer. I didn’t want any man or any church to mislead me with false doctrines and wrong teachings anymore. I was spiritually hungry (Matt. 5:6). I wanted to know the difference between what was real and what was false. I had become so completely spiritually broken and empty, that I wanted to find the Truth of God – no matter what the cost!
I realized then that I truly needed to find God for myself. I needed to go directly to Him for the answers. I didn’t want to go to man anymore for the answers. I didn’t want any organization or church to mislead me again. ‘If God was indeed real, and He truly cared about me’, I thought to myself, ‘then He is certainly capable to answer me for Himself!’ However, I realized from the Scriptures that I had to do my part. I had to pursue Him! I had to seek after Him with my whole heart. I had to diligently search for the Truth! (see Jer. 29:11-14; Luke 11:9-10; John 7:37-39). I saw in the Bible that we didn’t need any other mediators (earthly men) between us and God other than Jesus Christ who is our only Mediator (I Tim. 2:5), and that we could go directly to God ourselves now that the veil that had separated us from God had been torn in two by Jesus’ death (Mark.15:38). I also saw in the Bible that Jesus had prophetically stated to the religious leaders of His day, “Have you never read in the Scriptures that ‘The Stone which the [temple/church] builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone’…. Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whosoever falls on this Stone will be broken [humbled]; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” (Matt. 21:42-45). In my brokenness, I found God and the truth. But it would come with a heavy price. For Jesus had said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23).
Little did I realize then what knowing the Lord was going to cost me. I certainly don’t lament that cost. By no means! Because knowing the Lord and the Truth is worth more than all that this world has to offer, and then some! My only purpose in sharing this is to relay the facts as I have experienced them and to wholeheartedly testify and witness to the truthfulness and validity of God’s Word, especially when He said:
“A man’s foes will be those of his own household!” (Matt. 10:36).
“He came to His own and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11).
“A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house” (Mark. 6:4)
“Men [will] hate you, and [will] exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil for the Son of Man’s sake.” (Luke 6:22)
“They will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues [churches]…and you will be hated by all for My name’s sake.” (Matt. 10:17-22).
After a time of desperate searching for the Lord and deep repentance as I began to recognize my own weak spiritual condition and poverty, the Lord began to “talk” to me. I began having powerful visions and revelations. In each one, the Lord would “narrate” the scenes and images that I saw by quoting Scriptures that I had long heard and studied, but had never comprehended in that way before. He would quote Scripture and reveal them to me in a whole new light that I had never realized or been taught before, even though I had received a Bachelor’s degree in Theology from a Christian college. As far as I knew, no church or seminary had ever interpreted the Scriptures in this way that I was being shown before, and so needless to say, I was speechless because they were being given to me by divine revelation. I was astonished at what the Lord was showing me. For the most part, I kept the information to myself. I realized that these revelations would cause quite a stir in the Christian community, especially within my own immediate church and social circle, and I didn’t want to cause any trouble or waves.
As time went on though, as a result of these revelations, the Bible was becoming more and more “alive” to me and full of astonishing hidden truths. God began to show me things that caused me to realize that we Christians don’t know anything! We think that we are so “rich and increased with spiritual knowledge, and that we have need of nothing, and don’t realize that we are actually spiritually poor, blind, naked, and miserable” (Rev. 3:17). We are blind to our own spiritual condition and poverty, and yet most every church, every ministry, and every Christian (especially in America), thinks that we are spiritually okay. But we are not! God clearly showed me that. He showed me that we are blind. That we are walking around in the darkness. That we are living in a cave, and that His people don’t really know Him, and yet, we strongly believe that we do! He is more real than we know. He is truer than we believe. He loves us more than we realize. And He is right there above each one of us at all times. And yet, by the way in which we live our daily lives, we demonstrate that we don’t believe that God is truly right here in our midst and that His infinite power is always at our disposal. If we truly did, then the Bible says that we would be doing the same works that Jesus did, and greater (John 14:12; Matt. 17:19-21).
As God was showing me these things and revealing Himself to me, I was still attending the church denomination that I had belonged to. I tried to quietly share with them the things that God was showing me but they wouldn’t listen. Even as they denominationally were changing their “incorrect doctrines” to be more in-line with “accepted Christianity”, I told them that God was performing a “transition within a transition” but that they weren’t aware of it. I tried to tell them that God was doing a “work in the midst of them” that they weren’t seeing even as they were changing corporately. I warned them that God was going to soon deal with every church, with every denomination, with every pastor and leader, and with every Christian regardless of their denomination, church affiliation, and doctrinal creed. He was going to begin to deal with each of us in a way that we weren’t expecting. For God had told me as much. He said to me, “Behold, I will work a work in your days which you will not believe, even though a man will tell you these things” (Hab. 1:5; Acts 13:40-41). After God gave me these startling revelations and visions, I asked Him why He was telling me and showing me these things. He specifically said to me: “Go, and tell My people which are called by My name [meaning, “Christians”] that I Am more real than they know and that I Am more alive than they believe. Tell them to believe in Me more than they do; for I Am standing up in My Throne, and am about to make a move across the face of the earth the likes of which they have never known or seen”. He then said to me: “Tell them that I love them and that I Am with them more than they know.” The Lord said all of this to me ten years ago.
Now let me tell you what has happened since. My wife and I have been permanently “disfellowshipped” from the church denomination that we grew up in for preaching and teaching “heresy”. All of our church friends have turned their backs on us with few exceptions. One set of our parents believe that I consort with demons; while the other set suspects that I may have gone “a little crazy” and jeopardized my family’s income. Some people accuse me of being “bi-polar” and “delusional”; while others believe that I am “demonic” and “deceived”. Some believe that I am “only trying to create my own church and my own following”. I have been accused of every false motive under the sun; very few people will associate with us; and we have been betrayed, ridiculed, gossiped, slandered, and cruelly maligned. I have personally been kicked out of a number of churches and Bible studies, stripped of my deaconship, youth pastoralship, and teaching credentials. My family is continually excluded from golf-outings, re-unions, and church socials. My wife and I have endured all of this simply because the Lord visited me and gave me the above message to tell His people – that He loved them and that He is more real than they know or believe.
It has been like this for us for seven years. God first gave me the visions and revelations ten years ago in the spring of 1995. I was quiet for the first three years and kept it all to myself. Then I was given the dream about the rats living in a cave. Shortly after that, I began sharing a little bit of what the Lord had told me with others. That is when all of the trouble and persecution began especially from the Christian community. Don’t get me wrong. I love God and His people. I am not sad. I am not afraid. I have no regrets. I would gladly do it all over again. It is written that Jesus “came unto His own people but His own received Him not” (John 1:11). And Jesus said that “The servant is not greater than His Master. If they have persecuted Me, they will persecute you also” (John 15:20). This is the way that it was meant to be. But God still loves His people, and He is willing to bear long with each of us. For it is written, “All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people” (Rom. 10:21). And again He says, “How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Matt. 23:37).
I love God’s people – my people, Christians. I would do anything to be able to rejoice with them again, to sing songs of praise to God in unison again, and to hear His name magnified throughout His holy congregation. To collectively worship God in Spirit and in Truth! For our God is a Holy God! And Scripture says that “those that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth” (John 4:23-24). Oh, how I long to see those days. Each night I dream of those days. Each day I hope for those days. I long for His people to worship Him both in Spirit and in Truth. My heart yearns for that time to come. It cries out for that time. I live for that time. But for now, I must quietly wait. I must patiently endure, even as I eagerly dream. For this is God’s will and His doing. He gave me this vision. He gave me this dream. And I must patiently wait for Him (Luke 21:12-19). For this is my burden, and this is my cross.
Eric
eric@sharingtheway.com
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