A Word for the Year: Three-Strand Cords
I had a dream while coming out of sleep and praying early in the morning of January 4. I saw a blue sky with an enormous white fluffy cloud, and I saw two 3-strand braided cords (ropes) descending out of the cloud. Then I saw a huge black iron weight that seemed to be two tons or more connected to the end of each cord. The cords were just hanging from the cloud in the sunshine.
But then it started to rain, and a small wind began slightly blowing the cords. As the rain and the wind increased, the cords began shaking violently. In the midst of that, the cord on the left began to lengthen and kept slowly getting longer, longer, and longer. All of a sudden there was a great lightning bolt with a thunderous sound and the cord that was getting longer – it literally tore in half! Half was still hanging and shaking from the cloud, the other half was falling into darkness.
Building Bridges with Triple-Strand Cables
Then I began to pray and seek what the Holy Spirit was telling me. He reminded me of when I was 19 years old and working on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge that spans New York harbor. My dad was the assistant superintendent then for constructing the world’s largest suspension bridge. I was an ironworker who, along with three others, had to hang in bosun’s chairs to work on the suspension cables that hang from the main cable that hold up the roadway’s iron structure. (Photo by Gay Talese of Verrazano Narrows Bridge construction).
We had two shifts with two men working in the morning and two in the afternoon. But before we began the process of going down in the bosun chairs, I remember an old iron worker, called a boomer, say “it will be a day or two until you go down boys because we have to weave a 3-strand cable first.” They took three very long steel cables that were already a 3-strand wire cord about the size of my index finger and wove the three cables into one larger cable, securing them with burning torches, heavy hammers, and welding equipment. As they pulled the smaller 3-strand cords from large wooden spools and began to weave them together into a larger cord, one of them said to me, “the most important thing in this weaving is getting the three separate cords woven together as tightly as possible because the tighter they are together, the stronger they become as one cord.”
The Importance of Oneness
With that memory, I realized that the cord on the left hanging from the cloud was getting longer and longer and eventually broke - because it was never tight enough to begin with.
My second thought concerning the 3-strand cord was what we refer to as the God-head: the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost. They are all God in oneness, yet each is distinct with a specific design for a particular purpose. The scripture tells us a 3-strand cord cannot be easily broken, “Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken” (Ecc. 4:12).
This reminds me of when Jesus prayed, “that they may be one just as We are one” (John 17:22). Why? Because Jesus knew that the more we are in oneness with him and the more we are in oneness as the body of Christ - the more we will be in oneness advancing the Kingdom of God. Even though there are forces, pressures, and attacks upon the Church, the Church in oneness may be shaken, but never broken.
We must realize we are the Church, the Body of Christ, and even though we are in the world – we are not of the world. My prophetic dream really has to do with some church leaders and believers who are in the world and have and are becoming progressively of the world. Meaning they have believed the lie and temptation of liberalism and leftism.
Left – Right Positioning
The positioning of the cords coming out of the cloud also has meaning. The one on the left – broke, but not the one on the right. This is definitely symbolic of today’s political views. It also has to do with wrong vs. right. Godly vs. ungodly. Loose vs. tight. Sinful vs. sinless.
Three Temptations
The dream symbolism relates to 1 John 2:16, “For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.” They are the same three temptations that Satan used to tempt Jesus. And these are three temptations that cause church leaders and believers to become Woke!
Woke is a slang word that Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary recently added meaning: aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice). On the surface, ‘woke’ may seem okay, until other resources explain more such as Wikipedia, “Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as sexism,and has also been used as shorthand for left-wing ideas involving identity politics and social justice, such as the notion of white privilege and slavery reparations for African Americans.” This is not okay!
Three Ways to Overcome Temptation
How did Jesus defend himself against satan? He quoted the word of God: “It is said.” Like our Lord Jesus who overcame the three temptations by the Word
We must be committed to believing the infallibility and inerrancy of scripture - See Biblical Worldview Documents
We must have a strong relationship through prayer with Christ our Lord and Savior.
We must be committed to accountable relationships with Christ’s living stones on the wall that are over us, under, and next to us; “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5).
Whatever is born of God overcomes the world!
This is a year where the wind, rain, and thunder will not be decreasing - but increasing. We must increase our warfare in the heavenly realm by intercessory warfare prayers opposing demonic powers and principalities, the spirits over cities, nations, cultures, and individuals.
Evil is a real force in the world today and always has been. But remember, so is righteousness. And righteousness has the power to overcome evil. “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4).
We also must realize the responsibility of church leaders and believers to do earthly warfare dealing with the mindsets of atheists, agnostics, liberals, leftists, socialists, fascists, communists, and totalitarian leaders. We must counter the lies and deceptions with God’s truth no matter what sphere of the Seven Mountains they have invaded. The world’s hierarchies are powers and principalities led by those who are God-haters and people who are acting more from their emotional feelings than from factual truth and reasoning.
The more church leaders and believers give in to the temptations of this world, the more they become progressively less Christian.
Culture of the Kingdom of Light
We must remember that we are to be the counterculture. The culture of the Kingdom of Light is opposed to the kingdom of darkness. I repeat - we are in the world but not of the world. We are called to throw the dark world we are in upside down by a spiritual revolution of -
Revival through evangelism.
Restoration of the Church to its biblical foundation structure and purpose.
Reformation: what we can do to affect the Seven Mountains of society.
Back to my dream where the 3-strand cord on the left was broken is because it was too loose to begin with! Whereas the one on the right was tight enough to stand against all storms.
Remember, everything the Church has historically been through - the many storms of persecution did not eliminate it. The remnant is still standing strong!
This year while some within the Church will become weaker and break away, most Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and Charismatics will get stronger throughout the world!
Remember, Light eliminates darkness. Righteousness overcomes unrighteousness.
The justice of King Jesus shall prevail this coming year.
Remember - Never give up! I never saw a bridge built in a day - it takes consistent hard work!
So “let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Gal. 6:9)!
Building together with Him and you,
John P. Kelly