“Bob Jones and the Candy Stripers”—It is time for the Body of Christ to heal.

Last night, my wife Rachelle had a dream that speaks into the new season the Lord wants to bring the Body of Christ into now.  She writes:

“I was in a large home with lots of people.  I noticed Bob Jones sitting in a chair in the corner of the room wearing a candy red shirt with slim white horizontal lines. I was so excited to see him and I started walking towards him.  As I walked towards him, Michael (my husband) was behind me and called out “Rachelle!  Honey!”  I heard him calling in the natural in my dream.  I didn’t answer because I wanted to talk to Bob.

When I got to Bob, I said, “Hi” but I knew I was speaking with my spirit instead of in the natural.  This is because it wasn’t a fleshly Bob—it was a “spiritual” Bob, who was there in spirit only.  Bob didn’t answer and I didn’t understand why because I was so excited and I had a lot to talk to him about.”

As Rachelle and I were discussing this dream, I felt strongly that the red and white striped shirt was the message.  I was reminded of candy canes, “candy stripers,” and the prophetic significance of stripes and the colors red and white. A few minutes after discussing these things, when I arrived at the Morningstar campus this morning, there were two boxes of candy canes on the front entry table, confirming that the Lord wanted to speak to us through these symbols.

Symbols of Redemption
Obviously, the color red directs our attention to the Blood of Christ and the color white directs our attention to the spotless Lamb of God and the righteous robes He wants to clothe us with.  The prevalence of stripes, both in the dream and in the candy canes, highlights the Biblical promise that, “By His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).  In other words, the Lord wanted to highlight the great redemption and healing that He purchased for us.

Candy Canes and New Breath
The recurring red and white stripes—and the surprising appearance of actual candy canes in my morning routine—direct our attention to the need for us to purify our words.  Of course, peppermint is the most popular flavor for gum and candy because it cleanses our breath—bringing us from halitosis (bad breath) to pleasant and refreshing breath.  This is a reminder from the Spirit that He wants to cleanse our speech and bring us from speaking words of death (which is like halitosis/bad breath) to speaking words of life (purified breath and redemptive words).

What we say or declare can bring death or it can bring life.  The most powerful declarations are those that apply Christ’s redemption to the areas of brokenness in our lives.  For example, whether we are confessing Christ for the first time or praying for the sick, salvation and healing are released through our declaration of Christ’s finished work—His atoning death for our sins and sicknesses.  Likewise, when we are crying out in intercession, the power is released through our declaration of the power of the cross.

Now, we find ourselves in a season where the Body of Christ has been ravaged by the enemy.  There is not just a handful of wounded people left from the fiasco of the last few months, but thousands.  However, the principle of redemption remains the same—the same redemptive power that we tap into when we are saved or healed can also be applied to heal the Bride of Christ of her wounds and divisions.  We can choose to return to the power of cross and apply it—both to the wounds we have received over the last few months and to the larger divisions that remain now in the Body of Christ as fallout from the dangerous way everything was paraded on social media.

Candy-Stripers
When Rachelle described the red of Bob’s shirt as “candy-colored,” I was immediately reminded of the candy-stripers of yesteryear.  In the 1950’s and 1960’s, candy-stripers were volunteer nurses who would minister to the hurting and broken without pay.  In the Charismatic movement, we often look to professional, paid ministry leaders to bring healing or a timely word to us.  We see ourselves as mere spectators and assume that those with big ministries will always be the ones who have the keys to heal the Body of Christ.  However, the “candy-stripers” are those who will come in the spirit of the Good Samaritan, to minister to the hurting and broken that the Priest and Levite have ignored and walked by to preserve their own religious reputation (see Luke 10:25-37).

I originally stepped in to walk alongside Todd Bentley because I could see that he was hurting.  However, I have also chosen to speak out repeatedly about the public spectacle of accusations—and the dangerous way they were handled—out of love and concern for the larger Body of Christ.  For those who want to go back and understand my perspective on this issue, you may listen to the final statement I gave on January 2 through my personal Facebook page.  I still stand by that position and the facts that I shared in other previous broadcasts.  Behind the scenes, I also believe that some of the healing we need will come as leaders identify some of the dangerous things that happened behind the scenes and bring accountability and repentance to those involved—I believe this accountability should be private and face to face and based on actual facts, just as it should have been with Todd.  However, in terms of the wider, public life in the Body of Christ, it is now time to move on.  It is time to heal.  It is time to guard our words.  And above all, it is time to set the storm aside and refocus on the only message that has the power to transform the nation and birth the next great move of God—the message of the Cross of Christ.

From a larger perspective, I believe that the swirling storm of the last few months was designed to sidetrack us from our purpose, at a time when we need the Body of Christ to be prepared for greater challenges and greater harvest in the nation.  For this reason, the need to heal the broken and "get things right" is an urgent task that simply cannot wait.

There is one last detail here in the dream that we need to address.  Bob was silent.  First, this indicates that, in many of the new challenges we face today, we will have to go to the Lord for ourselves to get a fresh word.  However, it also reveals that sometimes, silence will give us the healing we need.

Many blessings,
Michael Fickess