On January
17, 2010 I was visiting with a minister friend after a service in his
church. Immediately we got into his house the Holy Spirit moved on me
and asked us to pray about a ministry in writing and publications.
While we prayed, ardently asking the lord to “give us the tongue of the
learned and the Pen of a ready writer” in releasing his oil to write
and publish, I felt impressed with the phrase “the hundred year old
Bohemian goose”.
I was being
reminded of the dream the ruler of Martin Luther’s country had the
very night before martin Luther pasted his famous 95 Theses on a Castle
church door at Wittenberg.
The lord
impressed on me that to have a true writing grace from him, we had to
found our hearts and writings on the foundations he has laid from
generations past through the writings of our forefathers in the spirit.
He released an understanding of the alignment of spiritual generations
and how we can have precision, power and prophetic authority to
fulfill former generation’s writings in our own lives and writings,
only by aligning our writings with the writings of our fore fathers in
the spirit, preserving the integrity of the voice of God through out
all generations.
This was
clearly a burden on His heart and a clear condition without which our
ministries in prophetic publications and media will not be fulfilled.
The Lord is opening the door of prophetic power to write.
Notice how
the lord spoke to John the apostle in the book of revelation: Rev 1: 11
– I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, what thou seest, write in a book…..”
Before
asking John to write, he firstly introduced Himself as the Alpha and
Omega, clearly announcing his presence through out all generations
before giving John the authority to write to the church.
The purpose
of genealogies in the scriptures was to show the origins of all things
and peoples and to trace their existence through time to their current
position. Jesus therefore as the alpha and omega opens this sphere to
John and then commands him to write, because in Jesus
Christ as the alpha and omega, the complete picture of God’s
revelations through out time is made accessible.
Rev
1:17-19“…fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth,
and was dead and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen;…write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter.
Jesus asked
John to ‘write’ connecting the past with the present and the future.
This is the posture for prophetic ministry and writing.
Prophets,
like Daniel, have been known to be ardent historians who chronicle the
origins and times of words from God, and seasons of the dealings of God
with people and nations in order to have a complete understanding of
what God demanded at a particular junction in time. “…I Daniel
understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the
lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy
years….” Dan. 9:2
Daniel’s
prayers, seeking of God, visions and resultant writings could only be
birthed when he yielded his heart to Jeremiah’s writing from a previous
generation.
We have no
foundation without our Fathers. The unstoppable power of the purposes
of Christ through out the generations is locked into the unyielding
commitment and passion of our fathers and spiritual forebears.
Back to the
subject of the ‘100 year old Bohemian goose’, I have attached below
the actual story of that dream on the very eve of the reformation,
after which I highlighted some striking points.
Please read:
John Huss, a Catholic priest and
professor at the university of Prague was burned at the stake for
preaching the Gospel of Christ.
Burning of John Huss on July 6, 1415.
John Huss was burned at
the stake for preaching the Gospel of Christ. Before he was burned he
said this to his executioners:"You are now going to burn a goose, (the
name of Huss signifying goose in the Bohemian language), but in a
century you will have a swan whom you can neither roast nor boil."
"Then I dreamed that all the princes of
the Empire, and we among them, hastened to Rome, and strove, one after
another, to break the pen; but the more we tried the stiffer it
became, sounding as if it had been made of iron. We at length desisted.
I then asked the monk (for I was sometimes at Rome, and sometimes at
Wittenberg) where he got this pen, and why it was so strong. ‘The pen,’
replied he, ‘belonged to an old goose of Bohemia, a hundred years
old. I got it from one of my old schoolmasters. As to its strength, it
is owing to the impossibility of depriving it of its pith or marrow;
and I am quite astonished at it myself.’ Suddenly I heard a loud noise —
a large number of other pens had sprung out of the long pen of the
monk. I awoke a third time:
The Elector Frederick the Wise' famous dream the night before Oct 31. 1517.
We step a moment out of the domain
of history, to narrate a dream which the Elector Frederick of Saxony
had on the night preceding the memorable day on which Luther affixed
his "Theses" to the door of the castle-church.
The elector told
it the next morning to his brother, Duke John, who was then residing
with him at his palace of Schweinitz, six leagues from Wittenberg. The
dream is recorded by all the chroniclers of the time. Of its truth
there is no doubt, however we may interpret it. We cite it here as a
compendious and dramatic epitome of the affair of the "Theses," and the
movement which grew out of them.
On the morning of the 31st October, 1517, the elector said to Duke John,
"Brother, I must tell you a dream which I had last night, and the
meaning of which I should like much to know. It is so deeply impressed
on my mind, that I will never forget it, were I to live a thousand
years. For I dreamed it thrice, and each time with new circumstances."
Duke John: "Is it a good or a bad dream?"
The Elector: "I know not; God knows."
Duke John: "Don’t be uneasy at it; but be so good as tell it to me."
The Elector:
"Having gone to bed last night, fatigued and out of spirits, I fell
asleep shortly after my prayer, and slept calmly for about two hours and
a half; I then awoke, and continued awake to midnight, all sorts of
thoughts passing through my mind. Among other things, I thought how I
was to observe the Feast of All Saints. I prayed for the poor souls in
purgatory; and supplicated God to guide me, my counsels, and my people
according to truth. I again fell asleep, and then dreamed that Almighty
God sent me a monk, who was a true son of the Apostle Paul. All the
saints accompanied him by order of God, in order to bear testimony
before me, and to declare that he did not come to contrive any plot,
but that all that he did was according to the will of God. They asked
me to have the goodness graciously to permit him to write something on
the door of the church of the Castle of Wittenberg. This I granted
through my chancellor. Thereupon the monk went to the church, and began
to write in such large characters that I could read the writing at
Schweinitz. The pen which he used was so large that its end reached as
far as Rome, where it pierced the ears of a lion that was crouching
there, and caused the triple crown upon the head of the Pope to shake.
All the cardinals and princes, running hastily up, tried to prevent it
from falling. You and I, brother, wished also to assist, and I
stretched out my arm; — but at this moment I awoke, with my arm in the
air, quite amazed, and very much enraged at the monk for not managing
his pen better. I recollected myself a little; it was only a dream.
"I was still half asleep, and once
more closed my eyes. The dream returned. The lion, still annoyed by the
pen, began to roar with all his might, so much so that the whole city
of Rome, and all the States of the Holy Empire, ran to see what the
matter was. The Pope requested them to oppose this monk, and applied
particularly to me, on account of his being in my country. I again
awoke, repeated the Lord’s prayer, entreated God to preserve his
Holiness, and once more fell asleep."
"Then I dreamed that all the princes
of the Empire, and we among them, hastened to Rome, and strove, one
after another, to break the pen; but the more we tried the stiffer it
became, sounding as if it had been made of iron. We at length desisted.
I then asked the monk (for I was sometimes at Rome, and sometimes at
Wittenberg) where he got this pen, and why it was so strong. ‘The pen,’
replied he, ‘belonged to an old goose of Bohemia, a hundred years
old. I got it from one of my old schoolmasters. As to its strength, it
is owing to the impossibility of depriving it of its pith or marrow;
and I am quite astonished at it myself.’ Suddenly I heard a loud noise —
a large number of other pens had sprung out of the long pen of the
monk. I awoke a third time: it was daylight."
Duke John: "Chancellor, what is your opinion? Would we had a Joseph, or a Daniel, enlightened by God!"
Chancellor: "Your
highness knows the common proverb, that the dreams of young girls,
learned men, and great lords have usually some hidden meaning. The
meaning of this dream, however, we shall not be able to know for some
time — not till the things to which it relates have taken place.
Wherefore, leave the accomplishment to God, and place it fully in his
hand."
Duke John: "I am
of your opinion, Chancellor; ‘tis not fit for us to annoy ourselves in
attempting to discover the meaning. God will overrule all for his
glory."
Elector: "May our
faithful God do so; yet I shall never forget, this dream. I have,
indeed, thought of an interpretation, but I keep it to myself. Time,
perhaps, will show if I have been a good diviner."5
So passed the
morning of the 31st October, 1517, in the royal castle of Schweinitz.
The events of the evening at Wittenberg we have already detailed. The
elector has hardly made an end of telling his dream when the monk comes
with his hammer to interpret it…
Editor's Note
John Huss,
the Bohemian Reformer was the goose. Huss was burned at the stake,
but he predicted that within a hundred years a swan would arise that
they would not be able to burn. Luther loved to portray himself as that
swan.
Excerpted from
History of Protestantism, Vol. I. by Dr. J.A. Wylie
Highlights
It’s clear from the records that John Huss’ prophecy
came to pass in the person of Martin Luther, who also was the subject
of the Elector’s vision. And a major part of his work was accomplished
through writing. However the power of his writings had its source in
generations before he came.
It is
note worthy that in the Vision, God Almighty introduced ‘the monk’ i.e.
martin Luther as “atrue son of the Apostle Paul”. Here a spiritual
genealogy is revealed: Luther is shown to be a spiritual heir to
apostle Paul; this was key, as the tracing of Luther’s spiritual
genealogy from Paul to Huss shows us God still has a spiritual
genealogy of people who’s foundations he approves, which we do well to
build upon.
Martin
Luther had to go as far as to dis-align himself with fathers of his day
in order to align with the spiritual fore-fathers to find God’s
approval and discover God’s ancient foundations to build up from.
In the
vision when the Elector asked him the source of the Pen’s strength, the
reply indicated that the pen was not his, but belonged to a Bohemian
goose i.e. John Huss. And the strength of his pen which was unbreakable
owed to the pith and marrow (i.e. core substance of soul and spirit)
of John Huss. This revealed the strength and impact of Luther’s
writings not to be of Luther himself but to be of John Huss! The
substance of Huss’ soul was so strong that he laid down his very life
for what he preached and wrote. ("Lord Jesus, it is for thee that I patiently endure this cruel death. I pray thee to have mercy on my enemies." – John Huss said as he was burned at the stake.)
But his commitment even to the blood of his life became the fuel for Luther’s writings.
“Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set” Prov. 22:28
Of striking note is this statement: ‘‘The pen,’ replied he, ‘belonged to an old goose of Bohemia, a hundred years old”.
The
goose is not said to be dead, but was said to be 100 years old. Meaning
the goose i.e. Huss was still alive! In fact the vision showed that
all the other saints in heaven accompanied Luther on God’s order to
witness to his words.
The
point is clear, these men, Huss, Paul and others in God’s lineage are
alive and their witness still speaks in the earth. They with their
message are immortal.
“I am the God of
Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob…God is not the God
of the dead, but of the God of the living”. Matth. 22:32.
Martin Luther is
recorded to have produced an astonishing number of Bibles, books etc in
a day when the typesetting, printing and binding was done by hand!
Luther’s writing literarily changed the face of Christianity in line
with God’s truth as well as altered the landscape of Europe. His pen
literarily pierced the ear of the lion in Rome which of course, was
the demonic prince ruling from there. Such was the impact of his words
and writings that it literarily marked the shift into a new day in the
known world.
But his authority came
by his spiritual connection with the heart of the forefathers which
brought him into prophetic alignment and spiritual timing to fulfill
prophecy.
This is the key into
prophetic authority in writing the lord wants us to have in these
times, when many prophetic words are set to be fulfilled.
In the end, the pen in
the vision exploded into many little pens. This clearly indicates the
many prophetic ‘writing mantles’ still waiting to be picked up by true
sons and heirs who will follow in the spiritual lineage and genealogies
of God in the earth.
The power and spiritual heritage our forefathers laid down their lives to release are still waiting to be picked up.
Martin Luther (1483-1546).