AWAKENING: THE DEEP SLEEP
Copyright © 2014
All Rights Reserved.
Published by Kingdom House Press
ISBN 978-0-990608-00-4
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968, 1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked NKJV have been taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Victoria Boyson Ministries
www.victoriaboyson.com
[email protected]
Introduction
1 The Deep Sleep
2 My Rock
3 Fields of Grace
4 The Wedding Feast
5 Meeting Time
6 The Host
7 The River of Shame
8 The River’s End
9 The Season of the Kingdom
10 The Wolves Are Coming
11 The Sword of the Lord
12 Angelic Restoration
13 Heaven’s Invasion
14 Awaken, My Love
In Closing
FOR DANIEL
And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
—Romans 13:11-12 NIV
Dear Friends,
THE LORD IS as creative in communicating His truths to us as He is in designing His creation. I believe the visions and dreams He gives us are a lot like the parables He gave in the Bible, in which He teaches us His truths through stories. Many people, including myself, learn His truth best from parables and visions that help clarify the Word.
This book is a series of visions the Lord has given me over several years. As He would call me to a visionary encounter with Him, it felt very much like being called to a visionary journey. I’ve tried to make it as descriptive as I saw it, so you would feel as though you were right there with Beloved, our heroine.
I wanted to be faithful to the words He gave and the imagery He showed me so I could, without reservation, assure you it was from Him to you.
Over thirty years ago, my mother went to her true home in heaven’s realm. Since that time, my awareness of that realm has been more than awakened, and sometimes I feel more a part of it than of earth.
One of my favorite Scriptures is Colossians 3:1-3, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above [in heaven], where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (ESV, emphasis mine).
In this life, I’ve found true reality only as I’ve experienced this life “hidden with Christ,” living not for a temporal purpose but for the eternal goals of God’s heavenly kingdom. His kingdom is as real as the world we live in and as we seek to know Him better, we will learn of His kingdom, becoming stewards of the kingdom of heaven on earth.
For years, at times I’ve felt my mother’s strength with me, but in recent days I’ve felt much more than that. When I think of her now, it is not a memory or recollection of what she was like in her life on earth, but it is as I have seen her only in my dreams – a woman filled with great power and with the purpose of the kingdom she belongs to.
In these moments with her it’s as though she, and with her the entire heavenly kingdom, is urging me to remain wide awake – faithful to my focused earthly-purpose and keeping watchful for the tricks that can dull the senses in this world.
This is something new and different than I have ever felt before. I feel shaken by the true reality of her realm. It’s as though the Lord has allowed her just one moment to speak to me of something of such eternal importance, and her urgency is alarming.
Dear saints, you truly are the bride of Christ and the celebration of heaven. The world has yet to see your true inner beauty and to feel the waves of piercing glory that will burst forth from your love for Jesus.
The glory of God is made tangible to the world by the light of His love emanating through you. That love WILL spread to the farthest corners of the earth, canvassing it in His beauty.
The Lord says to you, “Awaken, my love, it is time to awaken.”
—Victoria
Time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
—Romans 13:11 NLT
IT WAS DUSK when Beloved awoke and, standing in the middle of a vast sea of wildflowers, she saw purple and pink blossoms as far as her eyes could reach. Her mind was filled with confusion, making her unsure of where she was or why she was there.
Before her lay rolling fields of beautiful flowers, yet there was an ominous weightiness in the atmosphere that disturbed her. The remains of slumber tried its best to cloud her vision and pull her back to sleep, to overwhelm her with its lethargy. Beloved struggled to shrug off the drag of numbness she felt in her mind as she fought to comprehend the truth of her situation.
As the reality of her condition set in, she realized she had been asleep. She didn’t remember having fallen asleep but did recall a faint dream she’d had that had awoken her. It had been about a world in desperate need for her help – she knew she was needed, but by whom and for what purpose?
Beloved noticed the flowers she stood in and was immediately made quite aware of the sinister scene all around her. Studying more closely, she discovered people lying fast asleep in the flowers. She stared in amazement at thousands of men and women, even some children, sleeping amongst the captivating field of blossoms.
The landscape was so stunningly beautiful it took her breath away. Yet in it lay a whole world of people sleeping as though they’d been caught in the middle of their lives.
Her shock compelled her to wonderment. As if being drawn into their lives, Beloved felt the urge to discover who or what had caused this plague of slumber.
She sensed that many of those asleep had, at one time in their lives, clarity of destiny, yet had lost their way. Stopping too long, they were caught by the lull and beauty of the flowers until they could no longer remember their purpose and fell captive to an unshakeable sleep.
The immensity of what seemed to her to be an unparalleled epidemic of afflicted narcosis sent her mind whirling.
“Were they held captive by the pull of the world?” she wondered as questions flooded her heart.
Beloved stood bewildered, watching and questioning. While she was preoccupied with the mystery of what she was experiencing, she suddenly realized she was being watched.
Startled, she swung around and discovered, standing quite near her, a large, beaming, angelic being full of light and wonder. Watching her, his warm eyes waited expectantly, as if wanting her to notice him.
He was radiant with an intensely brilliant yet tranquil light and something about him made her feel completely comfortable in spite of his astonishing appearance. Something in Beloved
gave her the feeling she had always known him … he seemed quite familiar.
Stunned by his magnificence, she stepped back to adjust to the alarming affect he had on her. Looking at him with large, wondering eyes, she instinctively felt he seemed to be waiting for something.
As if in response to her unspoken questions, he motioned out over the endless scene and asked, “Will you help us?”
“Us?” Beloved questioned.
He seemed surprised at her question. “Yes, us,” he answered as he bent down and tenderly held the hand of one sleeping woman. “We are the angelic who serve those sleeping here.”
Suddenly, Beloved’s eyes were opened to the extraordinary assembly of angelic beings all around her, waiting as he had been. Now in sight were thousands of beautifully bright elysian beings towering over her, radiating confident peace in spite of their concern for those asleep.
Some of the angelic knelt down to speak to those sleeping. Lovingly, yet earnestly, they tried to awaken those held captive by the deep sleep. The great care they expressed for those sleeping stirred a compassion in Beloved for them as well – she wanted to help if she could.
Looking again to the being who had addressed her, Beloved asked, “How can I help you?”
He rose and stood again beside her and said, “We’ve been unable to wake them because we cannot enter their world of dreams.”
As she approached each precious person, her spirit felt the impressions of what their lives were like. Beloved thought for a while, then realized she had been given grace to decipher the hearts of man, yet seeing only what the Father wanted to show her. She could see glimpses into their past, present and future, and sensed the pain they’d experienced in the world they lived in.
Sitting down in the flowers near the woman whose hand the angel had clasped, Beloved was drawn to help this very sweet and gentle woman. She brushed the woman’s hair from her face and felt a wave of peace as her hand grazed her face.
Beloved was then gripped by a rapid succession of pictures that flew through her mind. The woman had been an avid follower of Jesus as a child but had fallen in love very young, and an abortion in her teens had aged her and injured her heart. She still wanted God, but grew cynical and mistrustful of Him.
Though the woman grew up and eventually married, Beloved saw that she never regained the passion for her First Love. Instead, she kept up with what she felt was expected of her as a Christian woman and hid her true yearnings. Subsequently, she was led astray – finding her worth not in her heavenly Father but in a temporal world of power and importance.
Beloved could feel the longing in the woman’s heart for something more – something real that had eluded her in her pursuits. But she had been unable to shake the sleep of the world she believed was her reality.
As Beloved knelt by the woman, she dropped her head in her hands and cried. Turning to the awaiting angelic and shaking her head, she exclaimed, “She was so close.”
“Close to what?” he asked her.
“True reality,” Beloved cried.
She then turned and touched the hand of a man asleep near her on her other side. She saw a large building filled with people who admired him, yet he felt empty. He was so busy running and working continually, trying desperately to attain a satisfactory measure of peace that seemed to elude him. It appeared no level of success would ever be enough to ease the force in his life that was recklessly driving him from one project to the next.
From one need to another, this man gave himself to his work. Only occasionally in his downtime would he question himself as to what was driving him. He wondered, “Why am I still so empty?”
Beloved went from person to person, and each individual had a history of trials and successes, driven by unseen forces within them. Yet all had the internal question in their heart they had not given themselves time to dwell on: “What is this life really about?”
As they worked and lived in their perceived realities, questions drifted in and out of their thoughts only occasionally in their busyness. The questions seemed to come as the heavenly creatures tried to awaken them.
Unfortunately, as soon as they would attempt to struggle with their slumber, they were captivated again by the poisonous fragrance of the wildflowers of the world and, again, busied themselves in what they believed to be of true importance.
Overwhelmed by the seemingly beguiled condition of those caught in the deep sleep, Beloved wept. She wanted to run away but was surrounded by a crowd of the angelic who were anticipating her help.
Her face sank into her hands once again as she suddenly realized, “This is the Lord’s last-days army!”
These poor, cleverly deluded people were those He was counting on to fulfill His great mandate. These noble warriors of immense importance to God were presently living in a dream reality – a distraction from their true life and purpose. Increasing her anxiety, she knew these essential warriors did not even realize they were at war.
She could see it was a clever lie for, effectively, they had forgotten who they were. They had lost sight of heaven and the reality of its realm and were, indeed, held captive in a temporal world apart from their eternal Source.
Heaven and earth are indeed one, separated only by an expanse of sky. Yet so much of the earthly world is believing its own reasonings and has rationalized its own “truth,” that it belongs only to itself, existing independently from the realm of its Creator.
Unfortunately, many of this world’s inhabitants found out too late they had believed a deceptive version of reality, as if living in a dream world. They lived their lives serving an illusion that this earthly life was all that mattered, without really considering its origin, and thus were driven by a tricky delusion keeping them isolated from the truth of its blessed union with heaven.
Beloved considered all she was discovering, yet it only deepened her sadness and seemed to increase the terrible difficulty she was faced with. She needed help; she could not fight this battle on her own. It was too much for her.
Sensing her burden, the angelic host drew near and comforted her with their support.
“You are not alone,” they informed her.
“I’m not?”
“No, Beloved. There are other seekers just like yourself who’ve discovered true reality is not found in this earthly realm; they are like you and they know of you.”
“Why, if they know me, do they not show themselves?” She felt frustrated and befuddled, almost angry at hearing what he had told her.
He placed his hand gently on her shoulder and she could now see a vision of what had previously been hidden from her. “A prophetic host!” she exclaimed with whispered excitement.
She could see in the spirit realm a relatively small but intensely powerful army of the King’s seekers who were hidden in plain sight. They were concealed for their protection as well as for the significance of the battle they were to fight. Many of them were even unaware of the destiny that lay before them; they had no idea of their importance.
The angel answered her thoughts, “Yes, Beloved. They are hidden. The Father has hidden them for the next great battle … the battle to awaken His Son’s precious bride.”
Now, seeing them through the eyes of the Spirit, she no longer felt alone. For the first time since awakening, she felt hope rise in her heart.
You are my rock and my fortress. For the honor of your name, lead me out of this danger.
—Psalm 31:3 NLT
AS THE VISION faded, she dropped to her knees. She began to pray for the prophetic and the army of the Lord, but especially for herself. For she knew great difficulty lay ahead of her and she would need God’s strength.
Beloved prayed with all her soul, venting her worry through the deep travail that poured from her heart. She lay emotionally exhausted on the ground, interceding throughout the night until at last she felt the peace of God fill her, and she finally rested in the place she’d fallen.
When she rose from her rest, determined c
ompassion surged inside. It was of the utmost importance she try and find the hidden host she’d seen in her vision. Beloved didn’t know exactly where to begin, but had a mysterious sense she would be guided. She was compelled to find them and, however long it may take her to get to them, she had determined to succeed.
Saying goodbye to the angelic she’d met guarding the sleeping army, she ventured on toward fields of golden wheat just outside the region of the toxic flowers. Though she felt deeply for the sleeping souls, she knew help for them would not come from her alone and was grateful to be finally leaving to find that help.
As she entered the fields, she suddenly felt such indefinable freedom, filling her with the desire to run. Away from the oppression of the sleeping army she ran with hurried strain. Wanting to run away from her worry, she wasn’t sure where she was going, but was compelled to run – to put distance between herself and the upsetting burden she felt for the sleeping army.
The fields were beautifully golden and glimmered as the warm sun hit them. It lifted her spirit to be released to follow the leading of her heart, to be following the purpose she knew God had given her. Running through the tall stalks of wheat, it seemed to brush away her sorrow from the night before. She wanted to feel the joy the wheat seemed to possess, but was still caught up in the determination she felt in her assignment.
In her heart, she knew she would experience many trials in her journey, and there was a great distance to be traveled before she would encounter any sign of the host. Still, it felt good for her to begin.
As she ran through the fields, a song began to fill her heart. It was a song she remembered the angels singing over her while she rested with them, and it encouraged her. “Come to the table … the Savior wants you to join in the feast...” (Michael Card lyrics) – over and over in her mind and spirit the special tune resonated.
Running through the fields, she was captivated by the scene surrounding her. She was completely caught off guard when it seemed something had suddenly reached up and grabbed her foot.
Awakening: The Deep Sleep (The Deep Sleep Trilogy Book 1) Page 1
