David Berg
—A Strange Dream!
—Are you afraid of life? Our truths are stranger than their fiction.
—MO July 23, 1975 GP—NO.360
1. I AND THE KIDS WERE WANDERING THROUGH A DESERT LOOKING FOR WATER when suddenly down this hill began to trickle a tiny little stream. I rushed over and tasted it and it was good, delicious, fresh, cold water and I was so happy about it because there were a lot of others wandering around out in the desert thirsty too.
2. SO I CALLED THEM TO COME THAT I'D FOUND WATER and they all ran over to the stream just thrilled! It was growing bigger all the time, more and more water‚ until it was becoming a real big stream of water, a whole river, a small river but with plenty of water for all!
3. EVERYBODY WAS SO HAPPY, so I said, "Let's follow the stream to the Source!" So we all began the journey upstream, up the hill. When we got to the top of the hill we found this huge spring, big enough for everybody to swim in this delicious crystal clear pure water!
4. IT WAS FLOWING ABUNDANTLY! Everybody was so happy they were taking off their old clothes and diving in and swimming, washing and rejoicing like we used to do in our old ponds in Texas, only this was not muddy stagnant water but fresh flowing living clean pure crystal clear water—it was just beautiful! You could see the bottom, all kinds of precious stones on the bottom!
5. THE KIDS WERE DIVING IN THE WATER FOR THESE BEAUTIFUL PRECIOUS GEMS and coming up with them‚ each one finding some new kind of gem and so happy, coming up to the surface holding their prize and yelling, "Look what we found!" They were like little kids finding new shells or rocks, only these were actual precious stones like rubies and diamonds and crystals and thing like that!
6. AS YOU WENT UP THE HILL up the road that followed stream, the stream and the spring were on the right side of the road. But on the left side was a big dark wall that ran around some private piece of property that obscured the view.
7. AT THE TOP OF THE HILL the road took a sharp left turn around the corner of this estate that was on the corner of this estate that was on the left and ran on down the hill in a new direction toward the left. Wow‚ isn't that something! I wasn't going to take the time to describe the exact locations of these things, but when I start to describe them they begin to take on real significance!
8. THE STREAM ORIGINATED AT THE BIG HUGE CRYSTAL FOUNTAIN at the top of the hill flowing down the right side of the road. But at the top of the hill where the road took a sharp turn to the left around the corner of this property‚ this big dark estate, we discovered to our surprise that the spring had another stream flowing from it down the other side of the hill in the other direction following the road that led to the left and flowing down its right side leading down the other side of the hill in a new direction and toward the left.
9. WE WERE ALL SO HAPPY TO FIND OUT THERE WAS SO MUCH WATER that was flowing down directions to the right and to the left. The kids all begin to play in the water having such a good time drinking it and swimming in it and washing in the big Spring and the streams.
10. WE ALSO FOUND THIS BIG OLD HOUSE on the left of the Spring on the right of the road just at this sharp turn in the road where the other stream flowed leftward along the road going down the hill in the new direction. We were so happy about it and we said,
11. "NOW WE CAN STAY HERE AND ENJOY THE SPRING like one great big happy Family!" There were a lot of us too. But I said, "You kids have got to be careful about playing in that road because this is a blind corner here at this sharp turn." It was around the corner of the wall of this big old dark piece of property on the left that seemed very unfriendly and sort of foreboding, and because of it's high wall it made this sharp turn in the road a blind turn so you couldn't see around the corner if any cars were coming or anything.
12. IT'S A FUNNY THING: WE ALL SEEMED TO BE WALKING along the road, coming up the road moving rather, slowly except that we seemed to have a few animals—horses and wagons like the covered wagons of the pioneers. But we were all kind of loping along at a very easy pace like we were not in any huge hurry to get anywhere in particular except that we were enjoying this wonderful stream.
13. WHEN WE ARRIVED AT THE TOP of the hill at this Spring and natural thing to do to sort of settle down and enjoy the place there. But I kept warning the kids to stay out of the road because the Systemites' cars were driving along the road every now and then speeding at breakneck speeds and they didn't seem to care who was in their way.
14. THE SYSTEMITES WERE ALL TRAVELLING AT SUCH A SUCH A SPEED‚ travelling like mad, and when they'd come to this sharp turn where they couldn't even see around the corner it didn't seem to matter to them, they would screech around the turn cutting the corner still speeding like crazy even through they couldn't see if there was another car coming in the other direction from the other side!
15. THESE SPEEDING CARS KEPT NARROWLY MISSING EACH OTHER and I was afraid they were going to have some terrible crash right out there in front of our house! But I was most of all afraid that the kids would be playing in the road and one of these cars would swerve around the curve real fast and our kids might get hurt.
16. SO I KEPT WARNING THE KIDS TO STAY OFF THE ROAD and not play in the road. It wasn't any big super highway‚ it wasn't even paved, it was more like our old country road in Texas, but in some ways that made it all the more dangerous because people weren't expecting much traffic and everybody that drove along the road seemed to think they had the whole road to themselves and weren't paying much attention to whether anybody else was using it.
17. SO I WAS VERY CONCERNED about these occasional cars that came speeding around that sharp turn that the kids might not see them or the cars might not see the kids around the corner and somebody might get hurt. It's bad enough for these Systemites to be endangering each other with a possible head on collision, but I certainly didn't want our kids to get hurt.
18. SO I WARNED THEM ALL TO STAY OFF THE ROAD and not play in the road but play in the streams and the spring and on the other side of the water from the road. So most of them seemed to be obeying me and I was keeping a sharp look out to make sure nobody strayed into the road‚ trying to keep them all out of the way of these Systemite cars.
19. ABOUT THAT TIME ALONG CAME THIS GREAT BIG BUSLOAD of about 100 kids that stopped at our house‚ and here was Ho bringing all these kids from back on the desert where we'd been to stop over at our house and enjoy our spring. It was like the time he want to Atlanta and brought the whole House of Judah to the ranch in Texas.
20. IT SEEMED LIKE THEY WERE ALL BRAND NEW CONVERTS or kids that were interested in our happy new place and way of life and all our water, and they had lots of interesting thrilling personal testimonies about how they found us and our water.
21. BUT I SAID, "HO THAT'S ALL VERY NICE, but these testimonies aren't going to do the people who really need them any good, the people who need to hear them, unless you advertise them in the paper."
22. SO HO AND I BEGAN WORKING ON THIS AD to put in the paper to invite people to come and hear the kids' testimonies‚ and we began having quite a crowd. We were putting on skits and having music and shows and testimonies and a real big time and everybody seemed to be enjoying it. Lots of people were coming and listening and watching and enjoying it all with us, lots of friends and outsiders.
23. ALL OF A SUDDEN SOME OF THE KIDS CAME YELLING EXCITEDLY from the streams and the spring and said, "There are all kinds of funny little creatures in the water!" They said, "Look! Look at all these funny little things in the water!" And they showed me a cup of water and there were two tiny cute little seahorses in it, and another one showed me his cup and there was a cute tiny miniature octopus in it, and another showed me his cup of water and there were a couple of pretty little miniature shellfish in it!
24. THERE WAS A WHOLE VARIETY OF INTERESTING LITTLE NEW CREATURES IN THE WATER that we had never seen there before! Some of the kids were all excited about it and though they were interesting and funny and really fascinating! But some of the kids seemed to be a little bit worried about them‚ thinking maybe they were contaminating our water.
25. SOME OF THE VISITORS GOT REAL UPSET AND BEGAN TO LEAVE saying that the water was foul and wasn't good anymore because it was full of these little animals. They sort of turned against us because of the change in the water. The water itself hadn't really changed though—it was still crystal clear and pure and delicious, but it just had all these funny little strange things in it now that were new.
26. SO I GOT A LITTLE CONCERNED ABOUT IT myself and I said, "Where are they coming from?" And the kids said, "Well, we don't know, they just seem to be everywhere, in the streams and in the spring." But I said,
27. "WHERE ARE THEY COMING FROM?—They've got to be coming from somewhere! Are they getting into the water from the outside or are they actually coming up in the Spring from within the Spring itself?—I'm going to swim out into the Spring and see!"
28. SO I DOVE IN and swam out to the middle of the Spring where the water was bubbling up from deep down below, the Source of the water where it was actually gushing out of the Rock, and here were all these little living things tumbling right out with the water, right out of the Source, coming from the same place where the water was coming from!
29. I THOUGH, "WELL THIS SPRING MUST COME FROM SOME SORT OF UNDERGROUND SEA, some great Sea in which these little creatures live, and they're just coming up with the water from the sea—they're coming right from the same Sources as the water itself!" For some reason that seemed to satisfy me that they were all right‚ that they were clean creatures because they came from the same Sources as our water. So I remember thinking,
30. "WELL, OUR WATER IS FROM GOD‚ HE GAVE US THIS WATER, SO THE LITTLE CREATURES MUST BE FROM GOD TOO AND GOOD FOR US!" So I swam back and told the kids, "It's all right they're all coming from the same Source from which we get our water, so they must be all right. They must be clean and good for us, so don't worry about them, they won't hurt you."
31. I SAID, "THE NEW CREATURES ARE ALL RIGHT: Like the waters quench our thirst, the new creatures are for our nourishment and food, so don't worry about them—they're good for us!"
32. BUT BY THIS TIME MOST OF THE VISITORS HAD LEFT, the crowd of Systemites, and only a few friends stayed. The Systemites seemed to think our water wasn't any good and somehow that made us no good too‚ so they didn't want to have anything more to do with us and they left.
33. SO I WENT BACK TO WORKING ON THE NEWSPAPER WITH HO. But as I stood in front of the house and I looked down the new stream that led to the left down the other side of the hill in a new direction along the road that wound down the hill along side of it toward the left along that big wall of that sort of Dark Kingdom that was beyond the wall, I said to some to some of the kids,
34. "SOME OF US OUGHT TO FOLLOW THIS NEW STREAM AND SEE WHERE IT GOES." So some of them began packing their things and started out down the hill along the new stream to see where it led and to find out if there were other people down there too that were finding these new fresh waters. It was like I had the impression our kids were going to help other find the water—And that was the last I can remember.
35. WELL, IN SOME WAYS THE MEANING IS ALMOST OBVIOUS: We were all wandering around, lost sinners out in the Desert of Sin thirsty and hungry and lost. Most of us seemed to be alone‚ although there were a few little groups here and there together, but nobody seemed to have it very much together until we found this water flowing down from the top of the hill, which of course symbolises the Water of the Word, the Words of God, the Truth that satisfies our spiritual thirst.
36. SO WE FOLLOWED THE STREAM, in other words we followed the Words and God's message and obeyed it, to the top of His hill or mountain, which symbolises His Kingdom. There we got it together in ever increasing numbers in His Kingdom, reveling in the waters of His Word and enjoying each other's fellowship and inviting others to join us and advertising the good news that we had found water, good news that we had found water, good life–giving satisfying water‚ not only to drink but even enough to swim in and bathe in, waters to swim in and play in and enjoy as well as satisfying our needs.
37. OF COURSE PLAY AND PLEASURE ARE SOME OF OUR NEEDS, so we were all having a good time living beside it and enjoying the stream of water and the crystal spring of God's Word with of its fresh new waters daily!
38. BUT WE WERE STILL LIVING DANGEROUSLY CLOSE TO THE SYSTEM HIGHWAY with its system vehicles and their dangerous speeding, particularly at this sharp turn in the road, at the corner of the wall of the Dark Estate on the other side of the road.
39. TO ME THE ROAD WHERE THE MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE WERE SPEEDING ALONG SYMBOLISES THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE SYSTEMITES who are rushing along the road of life not paying much attention to what's on the sides of the road, neither us nor the Dark Estate either one.
40. THEY'RE JUST DOING THEIR OWN THING and not interested in our happy bright Kingdom of God on the right nor the Dark Kingdom of Satan on the left!
41. THEY JUST CRUISE ALONG INDIFFERENT TO EITHER AND FIGHTING WITH EACH OTHER for road space, narrowly missing each other at the dangerous turns and surely headed for some crash that is bound to come, considering the speed at which they travel and how carelessly they drive and how selfishly they seem to pay no attention to the other drivers or pedestrians unless they get in their way.
42. THEN GET FURIOUS AT ANYBODY THAT IS IN THEIR WAY! They were endangering not only each other but us as well if we didn't stay out of their way, which is certainly true of the System! As long as we leave them alone and stay out of their way they pretty much leave us alone and stay out of our way. But woe be unto you if you get in their way!
43. THEY WON'T HESITATE TO RUN YOU DOWN and are constantly crashing into each other in their selfish hasty driving! They drive like nothing matters but themselves and what they want to do‚ each of them and they don't care about anybody else‚ much less the silly little pedestrian Children of God!
44. THEY'RE IN TOO BIG A HURRY TO EVEN NOTICE HOW HAPPY WE ARE and how much fun we're having or to give it any more than a passing glance they whiz by! They're entirely in too much of a hurry to stop and drink of the waters of the fresh streams of God's Word. Although they're hot and tired and thirsty from all their furious travelling, they still haven't got time to stop and satisfy their thirst.—In fact they don't even think it's important.
45. ALL THEY THINK THAT'S IMPORTANT IS TO GET WHERE THEY WANT TO GO REAL FAST, and from all we can see, they're headed real fast for nothing but destruction! Whereas the young people had apparently climbed out of their cars and were wandering around afoot and thirsty, which is a sign of their dropping out of the system and wandering off the road into the desert, signifying their slowing down and thinking and trying to analyse the situation and find the solution as youth have done these past few years in the hippie movement and so on, as well as various revolutions‚ trying to find the answers. Whereas the Systemites are too busy driving their cars to even know there's any problem!
46. BUT THE KIDS HAVE DROPPED OUT AND ARE WANDERING AROUND IN NEW DESERTS knowing that there is something wrong‚ that they are thirsty and they need something and are looking and searching for it and finding it in the streams of God's Word—salvation and the water of the Word—which satisfies their thirsty hearts and minds.
47. THEY HAVE FOLLOWED THE STREAM IN OBEDIENCE TO ITS SOURCE AND FOUND GOD HIMSELF, the source of all life and living water and truth and love and joy and happiness and have come together in fellowship in Colonies around the world!
48. WHEN THE NEWSPAPERS AND MEDIA BEGAN TO ADVERTISE WHAT WAS HAPPENING to the kids, some of the Systemites came out to watch out of curiosity: "Behold what manner of men are these?" Some seemed to rejoice with us as our friends, others were just curious.
49. BUT A LOT OF THEM BEGAN TO LEAVE US WHEN THEY BEGAN TO SEE STRANGE NEW THINGS in the water, strange new truths God had put there for our added nourishment but which they couldn't understand and didn't like because they were contrary to their ideas of what the water ought to be like, so they left us.
50. BUT WE WENT ON ENJOYING EVEN MORE NOURISHMENT, new and interesting truths we'd never even had before that strengthened our souls with new life! We even began to follow the new streams that led from the Central Spring in a new direction into new lands of the left, although they bordered right along the Dark Kingdom of Satan himself and seemed to be dangerously close to his territory.
51. WE WERE STILL CONFIDENT THAT OUR INVINCIBLE STREAM COULD CONQUER ANYTHING in its path no matter where it led and flowed nor in what new lands, be they left or right.
52. THERE WOULD ALWAYS BE HUNGRY SOULS THIRSTY FOR OUR WATER, hungry for our nourishment, eager for our love and help and ready to plunge in and satisfy their hungry hearts and thirsty spirits and join us in the ever moving onward stream of God in the blessed fellowship of the faithful ones who follow Him and His everliving waters, ever fresh and new, full of interesting new and living creatures, new truths for our good to strengthen and enlighten us and brighten our eyes with new power, the invincible all-conquering forces of God!
53. THESE ARE HIS STREAMS OF LIVING WATER, ever fresh and new provided for our thirst and strength, the Words of God‚ the truths of His spirit and His spirit and world!
54. HAVE YOU FOUND THEM TO YOUR LIKING? DO THEY SATISFY YOUR SOUL, quench your thirst, satisfy your hunger and give you strength to carry on and enjoy the happy fellowship of others like you who have found the Truth and a happy new life in Jesus and the living waters of His Word and the fellowship of His children on the bright sunny mountaintop of the Kingdom of God‚ bathed in the crystal flow of His sparking waters?
55. OR DO YOU HAVE THE HARD, FAST-DRIVING SPIRIT OF THIS WORLD which hasn't got time to even slow down long enough to take a look, much less time to stop and take a drink or visit our fellowship and watch our happy Colonies and see our satisfied souls!
56. OR PERHAPS YOU'RE ALREADY BEHIND THE DARK WALL A PRISONER of the horrible forbidden Kingdom of Satan, a dammed soul who cannot get out because you've already made your choice and have joined the Kingdom of the doomed and the dammed!
57. FOR GOD'S SAKE, GET OFF THE HIGHWAY OF LIFE WHILE YOU STILL HAVE A CHANCE! Drop out of that driving spirit of the system while there is still time and you're still free to make a choice and join our happy bands of roving cavaliers and troubadours following the Bright Streams of God's life and truth and love in fellowship together!
58. COME NOW WHILE YOU CAN BEFORE YOU MEET SOME HEAD-ON CRASH at some unexpected sharp turn of your life and your fate is sealed for ever! While there's life there's hope! Come today and see for yourself, or write us now for more of these crystal waters of God's Truth to help find your way to us and God!
59. DO IT NOW, DON'T DELAY!—TOMORROW MAY BE TOO LATE! We're on our way to that Happy Land! Come join us now in our Holy Band! We're gonna shake the Holy Man's hand and rest in peace in Forever Land, even if some things we can't understand, because this is what God has planned, and our House isn't built on sand!—Come join our Gypsy Caravan!
60. AND WRITE US TODAY FOR THE EXCITING SEQUEL: "THE DARK KINGDOM!—Another Green Door?"—in which I visit the Dark Estate across the road and meet Mr. Coosa again! It's a bomb!