A Call to Mentor

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Vision given to Richard Barnes 5/11/01

In a vision, I was shown a line of baby bassinettes. I started going down the line and was looking at each baby. Each one was really cute and they were all naked. All of a sudden the vision changed and a baby was in a cage. The baby was on its hands & knees and began to chew on the cage that was surrounding it. It was teething and the only thing it had to chew on was the cage that had been put around it. I noticed that the cage was plastic coated. This seemed to have been done thinking that in this way the child wouldn't hurt itself. As I looked at the child I realized that it needed to be let out. When I looked at the cage door I realized that it was open and unlocked. I began to coach the baby to come out of the cage. I reached out my hands to receive it as it crawled to me. When it reached me, I picked up the child and began to talk to it and comfort it. 

Dream given to Tina Barnes late in 2000

The dream begins with my husband and I meeting with an older man in the middle of a large field.  As we interacted,  the man seemed to be passing on what he had learned in his obviously full life to us.  When you looked at him, you knew he was a person of maturity, knowledge & wisdom. There was just something about  him that made you feel protected as he assumed his nurturing role, teaching you all he knew.  There was nothing he held back.  Together we built what looked like a stage in the middle of the field.  He spoke of those who would be coming soon.  As the platform was being built he was passing to us all the knowledge he had learned in his lifetime.  There seem to be both calm progress and urgency in our activity going on at the same time.  We had no sooner finished building the platform than the people came.  They came from every direction.  The man, my husband and I began to minister to the people.  Somehow I knew that without the help of this man, we would have been unable to help the people that came.  I also knew the man would have been unable to help all that came without our help.  The dream ended as I removed my breast and began to feed the people, both young and old, pretty and scroungy.  (This part of this dream only sounds good when viewed in it's spiritual sense, but has tremendous meaning.)

Word given to Tina Barnes December 25, 1999 

We were having a birthday party for the Lord on Christmas, 1999.  No one came except my husband and I (and the Lord).   We were worshiping the Lord and praying when He gave me this word.  I didn't write it down so I will do my best to explain it's message to you.

The Lord told me that His children are in "puberty".  He showed me that they were going through changes they didn't understand and that everything they knew before just wasn't the same any more.  He showed us that as He started to pour out His Spirit, more and more were beginning to hear His voice talk to them, and that they were having dreams and visions they didn't understand.  He showed me that they were asking for help in understanding all this, but that it wasn't always there for them.  He showed me the similarity between puberty in our own teenagers and with His children.  He continued to show me that when we do not accept them at this fragile time of their lives and help them understand what is happening to them and if we would not provide support, mentoring, and disciple them, that they would go outside of our established boundaries and find someone who would.  He showed me that the end product of this was what we called rebellion.

Word given to Tina Barnes 5/10/01 

"Multiple Births !"   The Lord sometimes says one or two words and puts a paragraph of understanding within me.  He showed me that we are coming into a time when He is raising up people with a great measure of His Spirit residing in them.  He showed me they would be both young and old, and many of them would be "unchurched".  He showed me that a large part of them would not come to us in ways we have been expecting and "preparing for".  They will come flowing in gifts we have sought after for a lifetime or are just stating to scratch the surface of in our understanding.   

 Interpretations & Personal Input

With the vision of the baby bassinettes, the Lord gave us a sense of interpretation even though I believe it has even larger meanings.   The word naked just seemed to jump off the page as I typed the vision for my husband.  It spoke to me of the innocent, unprotected nature of babies.  I see a purity and truth in this naked state that I felt we as "established Godly people" may have lost.  (This is not meant as a word of rebuke, but as a word of freedom.)  When we come before God with "nothing on", He is so much able to minister to us.  I saw that the cages were tenderly covered with plastic so the "baby Christians" kept inside wouldn't hurt themselves and had been made by people who honestly believed they were acting in their "best interests".  It is easy for us to see the babies are in need of attention as they begin to teeth and begin to gnaw on the only thing provided - the very cage they find themselves in.  They may even know the door is open, but they have no understanding where to go for help or comfort.  The Lord showed me that this was how we were treating the many babies He is sending to us in this hour.  The Spirit we see spoken of in Joel is being poured out all over the world.  We are being called to open the cages we have put around God's people, take them in our arms, and to comfort them.  It is from here that we begin to teach each other.  The Lord is calling His people to a place of mentorship.

I write this as someone who has seen both sides of the coin.  I was the child in the cage, but I have become the person holding the child.  I can't say there isn't a bit of pain somewhere inside of me, but it's worth any amount of pain I may have felt if I can help the Body of Christ learn.  God has entrusted us with a precious thing, His children.  This is a place of great honor and responsibility that we must not ignore.

The platform:

After I was healed, God chose to pour Himself out on me by the bucket full.  I didn't know what to do with it at first (and still have my moments).  No one else seemed to know what to do with me, either.  They did their best to embrace me while I did my best to learn how to "control" myself.  It wasn't working out very well on either side.  I finally started crying out to God, "I need a platform, You are giving me all these things You want me to tell Your people and they don't want to listen.  I don't have anyone to teach me.  Can you send me someone to help me.  Lord, I need a platform."

It was at this point that I had the dream.  I know now that the Lord had been building this platform for us for almost a year before I had the dream.  A lot of what is written in our site tells of the platform the Lord is still in the process of building as I write this.  The connections He has made for us to "established" prophetic people who are willing to take us under their wings is nothing less than miraculous.

I'm happy we have gotten help, but I know we are not the only ones who have been crying out for teachers, mentors, and those to just understand us.  The Lord is, even now, establishing a network of mentors in the most miraculous ways.  Some reach half way around the world.  Many who have stood in front of masses of hungry people will begin to pass their knowledge and positions on to those they have mentored.  The Lord is bringing upon us a "changing of the guards".  He is showing me that we are moving in a new direction.  There was a time when a few highly anointed people carried His Spirit in measure.  Sometimes this can cause a certain amount of tendency for people to make an attachment to the word they give and themselves.  The Lord is impressing upon me that the people coming up will be coming so quickly and in such numbers, with such an anointing that the word they will speak will point to the Lord only.  

Acts 4:13 & 14 - Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled.  And they realized that they had been with Jesus.  And seeing the man that had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. (nkj)

The Lord has been impressing upon me that He is calling those prophets He has raised up to stoop down and help those below them.  He is showing me that their time of individuality is beginning to change to one of impartation.  They have been anointed and have walked where few of us would have chosen to go if we truly knew those things they had to go through along the way.   They have paved the road for us and we should always hold them in our highest regard.