Before going to bed that night I had been in prayer requesting leadership of my Lord Jesus as to what He would have me preach the next morning. I heard His voice audibly saying: "Tell them how I see the church." Since it was a ladies' conference and I saw how oppressed these ladies already were, I could not believe that God would want me to preach on what He had been telling and showing me during the past few years, regarding the condition of the church. So I thought I had heard wrong and said "Lord you see these women, how weak and oppressed most of them are, surely that message is not for them. Please Lord Jesus, forgive me, but if this is You, please give me confirmation." The following vision was His answer, that same night, to my prayer. As well as the under- standing of it, as I received it by the Holy Spirit.

FIRST SCENE

A woman was standing in a room with a man, her husband. They were facing each other. She says to him "I don't want you any more, I have other lovers."

I understood that the woman was the church, those called out to walk with their saviour and husband Jesus. Also I understood that the man was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself (read Isaiah 54 : 5).

Hosea 2 : 4-13 "Also, I will have no compassion on her children, becaused they are children of harlotry. For their mother has played the harlot; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.' Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns and I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths. And she will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them; and she will seek them, but will not find them. Then she will say: 'I will go back to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now!' ..... I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers......"

Jeremiah 3 : 1 "God says, 'If a husband divorces his wife and she goes from him, and belongs to another man, will he still return to her? Will not that land be completely polluted? But you are a harlot with many lovers; yet you turn to me' declares the Lord."

Jeremiah 22 : 22 "The wind will sweep away all your shepherds, and your lovers will go into captivity. Then you will surely be ashamed and humiliated because of all your wickedness."

Ezekiel 16 : 41b ".....Then I shall stop you from playing the harlot, and you will also no longer pay your lovers."

The called out, the church, the believers. Loving our leaders, our own works, programs, denominations, doctrines and the pleasing of each other. Instead of loving much more, and seeking, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, the pleasing of God through obedience. By following Him according to the pattern that He has set for us to follow in Christ Jesus (read Ezek. 43: 10, 11; Heb. 8: 5 & John 5: 44).

SECOND SCENE

Now the woman is standing alone in what looked like the same room. The cealing starts to come down upon her head, as if it were the bottom of an elevator coming down and she was standing under it. She bends over in fear of being crushed and has a terrified expression on her face. In this bent-over position she looks and sees her husband standing out- side the door. She then, in a loud desperate voice, calls out to him to save her.

I understood that the cealing was representing destruction even unto death. In this time of trouble, then, she remembered Him (read Psalm 78: 34). In times of trouble we do call and cry out to Him. Then we remember Him and ask for His help. Otherwise, He is outside of the hearts which are filled with all the other "lovers". He is nonetheless standing before the door waiting to receive our love.

Jeremiah 2 : 27b, 28 ".....For they have turned their back to Me and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they will say 'Arise and save us'. But where are your Gods which you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble. For according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah."

Deuteronomy 28 : 20 "The Lord will send upon you curses, confusion and rebuke, in all you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me."

THIRD SCENE

A brother who had been an elder of a church known to my family and myself, a very fine, soft spoken person was sitting at a table speaking to my husband. His wife and I standing and looking at them and listening to what this elder was saying. He was speaking of the carnal deeds which churches and their members were doing, thinking that they were spiritual deeds, and says of them: "They are the sons of a bitch".

I heard exactly those words. The word "bitch" means a female dog and also a lewd woman. The lewd woman Babylon, whose name means confusion. A system of doctrines which are causing confusion instead of the unity of the Spirit and of the faith (read Eph. 4: 3,13; Deut. 23: 18; Psalm 22: 16 & Rev. 22: 15).

I understood that this elder was representative of the bible's new testament elders such as John, whose instructions, examples and deeds were no longer being obeyed or followed (read 1 Timothy 5: 19-20). 

Hosea 5 : 4 -7 "Their deeds will not allow them to return to their God. For a spirit of harlotry is within them and they do not know the Lord. .........They will go with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord, but they will not find Him. He has withdrawn from them. They have dealt treacherously against the Lord, for they have borne illegitimate ("strange", KJV) children. Now the new moon will devour them with their land." (To "know the Lord" is to be intimately united with Him. So children born outside of this intimate spiritual union are considered "illegitimate" or "strange" children.)

Hosea 2 : 4 "Also, I will have no compassion on her children, because they are children of harlotry." 

Jeremiah 2 : 21 "Yet I planted you a choice vine, a completely faithful seed. How then have you turned yourself before Me into the degenerate shoots of a foreign ("strange", KJV) vine?"

FOURTH SCENE 

I was sitting at the head of a large table with the bible open before me, on the table. There were other people in that room. But they were all standing and looking at a man that was standing at the end of this table, with his back to me, and praying with his head bowed. I observed this "brother" as he prayed and prayed and prayed. I said to myself: "What a wonderful brother, how long he can pray." When he had finished his lengthy prayer, he turned to walk towards me and I saw his face for the first time. It was the face of a dead person. As he got to where I was seated he looked disdainfully at my bible and said: "You don't really believe everything in there, do you? You can't take that book to be so exact." I was shocked to have heard how he put down the Word of God and made disencouraging statements towards it. I said: "O Lord, he's a false brother." 

I understood that this man, who made such a long beautiful prayer, was not a brother in Christ. He had strayed from the truth. He was once alive and was now a gentile in his spirit. Spiritually dead, but still thought himself to be a born-again believer. The persons present, myself included, thought he was a brother. The bible on the table was representing the Word of God, that is, the table of The Lord (read Psalm 23: 5; 1 Cor. 5: 11 & 2 Cor. 11: 13, 26).

This described spiritually dead people. They can say long, religious prayers with their mouths. But their attitude towards God's Word shows that their hearts are far from Him. 

Luke 20 : 47 The scribes "who devour widow's houses and for appearance's sake offer long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation" (read Ezek. 22: 25).

Matthew 6 : 7b "..... the gentiles..... they suppose that they will be heard for their many words." 

Malachi 1 : 12, 13 My Name "..... you are profaning it in that you say, 'the table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is to be despised! You also say, 'My, how tiresome it is!' And you disdainfully sniff at it. Says the Lord of hosts......"

FIFTH SCENE

I saw in a room, women swaying and singing. They were singing and waving their hands in the air and were trying to look happy while they praised the Lord. As I looked to them, suddenly like with a zoom camera, I saw a close-up of some of their faces. These were faces of dead persons, there was no life in them. They were doing dead works (read Heb. 6:1b).

I understood that the women were the church. Many were not following the teachings of Jesus and were, as a consequence, spiritually dead. They did not bring forth the radiance of the presence of the Lord, no light, only death. Jesus told us to let the dead bury their own dead, but that we should follow HIM (read Matt. 8: 22).

When we don't walk in the Spirit and seek His presence and fellowship in our lives, we are separated from His Life. We substitute it by acting as if we have it (read Eph. 5: 19; Col. 3: 16 & Rev. 3: 1b).

Proverbs 21 : 16 "A man who wanders from the way of understanding will rest in the assembly of the dead."

Amos 5 : 23 & 8 : 3 "Take away from Me the noise of your songs. I will not even listen to the sound of your harps." "The songs of the palace will turn to wailing in that day, declares the Lord God. Many will be the corpses in every place, they will cast them forth in silence."

SIXTH SCENE 

This took place outdoors, there were roads and sidewalks. I did not see any buildings. I was standing on the sidewalk, and suddenly, from the left, there came what looked like a house trailer. It stood in front of and blocked the view of, a long narrow road. The front part of that vehicle was pointing away from and not toward that long narrow road. The door opened and a man stepped out. He stood by the open door and there suddenly were people passing by it, which he was inviting to come into this house. But that house trailer was not going to take the people into the long narrow road, but instead it was parked and pointed in the direction of the wide road before it. Scattering those who entered, in another direction.

The interpretation was clear. I understood, that the house trailer was "the church". Its leader was drawing people to himself or to his own group, and misleading the people who came into it.

Matthew 23 : 15 "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel about on sea and land to make one proselyte (a convert from among the gentiles) and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves."

Isaiah 3 : 12 "O My people! Their oppressors are children (not knowledgeable) and women rule over them (weak rulers). O My people! Those who guide you lead you astray, and confuse the direction of your paths" (The meaning of Babylon is "confusion").

Jeremiah 23 : 1 - 4 " 'Woe to the Shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture', declares the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning the shepherds who are tending My people: 'You have scattered My flock and driven them away and have not attended to them. Behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds', declares the Lord. 'Then I Myself shall gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and shall bring them back to their pasture and they will be fruitful and multiply. I shall also raise up shepherds over them and they will tend them and they will not be afraid any longer nor be terrified, nor will any be missing', declares the Lord."

Matthew 12 : 30 & Luke 11 : 23 "He who is not with Me is against Me and he who does not gather with Me scatters."

John 10 : 12 "He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, beholds the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf snatches them and scatters them" (read Ezekiel 22 : 23 - 31, in particular verse 27, & Matthew 7 : 13 -16, in particular verse 15).

SEVENTH SCENE 

This was the only time that I was actively involved in this vision. I was standing at the same spot, out on a sidewalk, as in the previous scene. I had a large sum of money in my hand, Swiss Francs. I wanted to go to the bank to change the notes into the currency of the country in which I had received the vision. In this scene, there was a bank located on the other side of the wide road. I did not cross over that road, but started to walk along the sidewalk, and crossed the smaller side road from which this house trailer had come in the previous scene. I continued along the sidewalk and passed by that house trailer and the man who had been standing at the door of it. After having passed, I had the impression that I was being followed. As I arrived at the front of the bank, I turned around to see who it was that followed me. It was that same man. He very quickly grabbed the money out of my closed hand. At this point I awoke with a shock, feeling as if I had really experienced it.

I understood that He was describing the "money grabbers". Those who are always after you to get money. Never satisfied, always wanting more. Using the Word of God as a net to draw from the sheep whatever they desire from them. Persons in ministry, not because they love the Lord or His sheep, but for the honour they receive, as well as the wages and money they take in (read Ezekiel 34: 1-10).

Ezekiel 22 : 27 "Her princes (meaning "rulers and priests") within her are like wolves tearing the prey by shedding blood and destroying lives in order to get dishonest gain."

Acts 20 : 29, 30 "I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves men will arise speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them."

Matthew 21 : 13 ".....It is written, 'My House shall be called a House of Prayer, but you are making it a robbers den!"

Jeremiah 22 : 17 "But your eyes and your heart are only upon your own dishonest gain and on shedding innocent blood and on practicing oppression and extortion."

2 Peter 2 : 1 - 3 "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies even denying the Master (by making themselves masters over God's people) who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. And many will follow their sensuality and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned (spoken evil of) and in greed they will exploit you with false words. Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep" (read Luke 22: 25, 26). 

This was the vision I received, and the scriptures which the Lord brought to my heart and mind as I considered what I had seen and heard.

When awakened, I quickly wrote down the vision when daylight came. I then asked the Lord: "How shall I end or close this vision." He gave the following answer.

Revelation 3 : 19 "Those whom I love I reprove and discipline, be zealous therefore and repent."

After this, in the morning, I called the wife of the president of that organisation and told her that I had received a vision that night and that I believed it was also to be delivered to the men who were on the grounds where we were having the meeting. Men, some of whom were husbands, had come to do the necessary work so that their wives and other female family members could attend that ladies meeting undisturbed. 

I had no idea that those men were leaders of this denomination, in the north-west part of that country. This I found out after I had returned, with my translator, back to her house, in another city. I delivered the Word that God the Lord had given for them. Afterwards, the Lord worked with me confirming His Word with signs and wonders following. After that, the president of that organisation said to me "That was powerful." Nonetheless, it happened as the Lord had told me it would: "They will not receive your words, because they do not receive Mine, and they will not ask you to come back again." I told the Lord that I did not care if they invited me back again or not. My only interest was to be obedient to Him. When back in Switzerland I also told the vision to one of the leaders responsible for that denomination. He did not receive it either. The Holy Spirit opened other doors to me in that country, and even some ministers of that denomination have asked me to minister in their churches. 

Personally, I do not care who receives this and who doesn't. I have nothing to gain or to lose except the Lord's reward or just punishment, if I do not obey Him. What I have seen, I have received from the Lord, and what I have heard, I have heard from the Lord. I let the consequences for my life, resulting from this, rest with Him. 

The very dear sister that was my translator was given a dream by the Lord, the same night I received the vision. Her dream showed how leaders were inside the gates of death and not within the gates of the daughter of Zion (read Psalm 9:13b,14 & 107:18). I cannot say more because the dream was not given to me. She also told her dream to the same group that morning, before I told them the vision.

Since that time, I have repeated this vision to other leaders and other congregations. One may ask "Why is she coming out with this now, almost five and a half years later?" On February 19, 1998, I became convinced that the Lord wanted me to put the vision into writing, for the purpose of distribution. I asked the Lord to please confirm it to me if this was from Him. The Word that came to me was from Isaiah 48 : 20 "Go forth from Babylon! Flee (read John 10:5) from the Chaldeans! (The assembly of astrologers and magicians, the demon's fields. The Hebrew word Kesed or Cnesed is used here which is "Kenesset" meaning "assembly" - Strongs Concordance 3778, 7 & 9 - read also Galatians 3 : 1 - 5). Declare with the sound of joyful shouting, proclaim this, send it out to the end of the earth; say, the Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob" (read Rev. 18: 4). 

Jacob is Israel. We the New Testament believers have been grafted unto the tree of Israel (readRomans 11: 17). The Lord has redeemed us, we have been bought with a price. Therefore, let us glorify God in our body and not men. Do not become slaves of men (read l Corinthians 6 : 20 & 7 : 23). May God grant us ears to hear what He is saying to us in these last days through His messengers (read Malachi 2: 7).

I will be obedient to the above Word, and declare and proclaim this by sending it out to the end of the earth. 

The second confirmation came on February 24, 1998. A sister in the Lord, living in America, whom I had not seen nor heard from for years, telephoned to deliver to me a prophecy from the Lord. She knew nothing of this vision and that I was praying for a second confirmation. The Lord told me many things through her. But what spoke to me in this connection was: "The word that is in you is from the Lord. It must go out". 

BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD MOST HIGH GOD.

All bible quotes are from the New American Standard Bible, unless otherwise indicated. Additions or explanations to the quotes are in brackets ( ), heavy type and underline are added for emphasis.

Available also in German, Spanish and French.

March 2, 1998

Nora Ladner

E-Mail: nora@ladner.ch