Rebuilding the Ancient Ruins

You said, "While I agree that the problems you mention here do exist in the modern church, I would like to point out that God still has many faithful churches and church leaders who do not 'hold the people underwater.'"

That wasn't the scope of the vision. Part of the scope of the vision was that generally speaking, pastors keep the body of Christ in bondage, knowingly or not. And for those who realize that there are different types of 'bondage' and that 'bondage' manifests in different ways, it's true. 

Furthermore, God often speaks in generalities in order to communicate important or/and 'majority truth' as well as to cut to the chase (and allow the Holy Spirit to explain further for those who need it). Jesus included all the Pharisees when He rebuked them. Yet, He knew about Pharisees like Nicodemus (and Joseph of Arimathea) and other Pharisees who welcomed Him into their hearts and homes, but Jesus never specifically distinguished the godly Pharisees from the ungodly ones. This was because there's a time to generalize and a time to be specific, and when Jesus was talking to crowds of commonfolk or groups of Pharisees, generalizing was proper. When He talked to Pharisees individually, then being specific would be fitting. The apostles also accused Jews who weren't present at Jesus's death for His death because in that context, though Stephen later lost his life because of the same principle, it was proper to state that all Jews (just like all men) killed Jesus. 

I think when God makes a generalization we should just let Him do so. If we need an explanation we should ask Him for clarification rather than saying, "Not so, Lord." 

1. The vision was a word of wisdom about the Church in general as well as the churches in Bellingham. The paralegal (who had a pastor's heart) was praying and would often pray for God to bless the city which God already wanted to do. The vision was telling him not to pray for God to bless but to pray for God to release the 'carriers of the blessings' as His vessels to bless the city. The prophetic and apostolic ministries in the vision were imprisoned (the prophets- Matthew 14) and condemned to death (the apostles- 1Cor. 4:9) which reveals that the enemy is holding back and oppressing these ministries as he always has since the OT and NT. 

2. "As the head goes, so goes the rest of the body." This is practically always true across realms (eg. physical, soul, and spirit), across kingdoms (eg. God's and satan's kingdoms), and across even truths and principles (eg. the Law of First Mention). In late 2003, I was praying in tongues when the Holy Spirit began to travail through me (never a nice experience). He was weeping and praying about the global and America's churches' leaders and their culture of sin, compromise, and lack of power (He gave me the interpretation), and so I was weeping as well though at the time I hadn't really experienced the leadership problem much. But between then and now, I've seen enough to know why He was weeping and groaning and travailing over not the church but its leaders. 

In Bellingham, I met the false prophet that the enemy placed as a leader among the churches. This false prophet started rumors about me and the principalities over the city and the satanists (satanists secretly own the city) got behind him to drive me out. But I met the genuine prophet who God set it in the city to bring revival. Unlike the false prophet, the genuine prophet was suffering tremendously unlike I had ever seen. God put me with him for a type of mentoring, but unfortunately, this prophet became offended at me after I had the above 3-part vision and he cut ties with me because he became envious. I'm currently in a place of needing to hear from God about my next step as I'm basically 'in the wind' right now. 

You wrote, "You said that your vision led you to believe that the church is in ruins." Fascinating how our five physical senses can interpret even plain things so wrongly. When I read "You said that your vision led you to believe that the church is in ruins" I nearly wept several times. The churches are in ruins. They're in shambles. We're just accustomed to shambles, confusion, scraps, and trickle blessings and think what we're used to is the actual truth, the correct pattern, the Heavenly blueprint, and Jesus's standard. 

If you can't see the ruins of the churches, then please pray for spiritual sight like Elisha prayed for his servant. It's plain if you look with spiritual eyes. I didn't need the vision to tell me that. (In the OT we see God's city and temple in ruins many times, needing to be rebuilt.) The vision wasn't talking about the state of the churches but the state of most pastors, the state of the leaders God appointed to build and establish the churches, and mostly the primary need for the Church and God's foremost method to bless or manifest God's blessings in a city or region which are the apostolic and prophetic ministries (as the Bible bears witness to). 

You wrote, "Despite her unfaithfulness, Christ's Bride is still able to articulate the core truth of the Gospel, namely, that Jesus is God Incarnate and that He died for our sins." How can a broken vessel work correctly? The churches can't articulate the truth clearly while they're broken, otherwise the churches wouldn't need to be restored. The light of Christ is and can be suppressed by darkness. The entire Bible makes this clear. One of the reasons God refines His people is to purify them so they will be clean channels-- or transparent rather than opaque or translucent channels-- of Jesus's light, love, and Life. 

I'm not encouraged about anything regarding the churches-- past, present, or future. I'm only encouraged that sooner or later, God has promised to be glorified through His Church. Jesus is the only head of the Church, but He set ministries in the Church whose function will never cease to be legitimate and relevant until the very end of time as the Bible says. These are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. And as the Bible plainly states, Jesus set apostles and prophets as the foundation of the Church with Jesus Himself being the cornerstone. If we're too hard-hearted to adhere to the foundational things and the things that are plainly written in the Pages, then any wisdom, courage, or strength we think we have is obsolete and will do us no good. There's no piety or righteousness in editing God's Word because our intentions are good or because some people have misused and defiled certain truths in His Word. 

Todd, you wrote:

 But that reform can only come about when we first recognize that we have only one true Head of the Church. We need to leave all the other nonsense behind and focus just on Him. And there is nothing that I know of, besides our own sin, that prevents us from pursuing that goal right now. May God give us the wisdom and courage and strength to pursue His kingdom reign and righteousness.

Years ago I began hearing an emphasis on the apostolic and prophetic ministries and some who imagined the 5-fold ministries in Ephesians 4:11 as "headship" over the body of Christ.

While I believe that God still gives these gifts to the church to build us up, I see a great danger in exalting them up in this way.

On the other hand, like you, I look for reasons to be encouraged and try to encourage others. Many in our circles look for opportunities to serve rather than to be served. They know that pastors and teachers have their part, but also that everyone of us has a purpose in the Lord's kingdom.