Makor: The Keeper of the Springs

Like a neon light, one single word, Makor, stood out in the dream that woke me up. In the dream a group was reading and studying Revelation. Spontaneously, everyone got excited and started pointing at a verse, thumping their Bibles, and exclaiming, “Makor, Makor.” The context of the dream wasn’t important, but the word was, I knew for sure. So, I goggled it. Turned out it was not Arabic, Slavic, or Tagalog, it was Hebrew. I never studied Hebrew in seminary, so I began researching the etymology and meaning of the word. I discovered that Makor is the Hebrew word for source, usually applied to a fountain, a spring, a well, a source of fresh, living water. But that didn’t answer the question, “What was God trying to tell me with this word of knowledge. I’m just not getting it.”

A week later I got my answer. My wife Carol got up early one morning and interrupted my study and told me that she just had a dream. As she described it to me, I quickly realized that it was an incredible word picture of Makor.

She was driving along a highway and crossed over a beautiful, inviting stream. She stopped her car, got out, and walked down to the stream. Others were there, too, and they said that the stream was a natural spring-fed stream, and very refreshing. She knelt down and scooped up several handfuls of water to drink. As she started back to the car, her curiosity beckoned her to want to go up to see the spring. But there was no road, only a trail. So, she set out on a hike. Alone.

When she got to the headwaters, she found a large cave with a pool of water inside. The stream flowed from the cave. She walked into the large cave. Inside she noticed an old red pickup truck parked beside the pool. Behind the truck was an opening into a smaller cave, from which a spring flowed into the large cave. A man walked out from the smaller cave and began to talk with her. He said that it was his job to keep watch over the spring. He enjoyed having a visitor and had lots to say about the spring water. He enjoyed explaining and sharing his knowledge. He said that he wished others would come up to learn about the spring, the source of the stream.

When Carol finished telling me her dream I said to her, “It’s hardly fair that I study for hours and hours to know what God is trying to tell me, and you get a beautiful word-picture dream in ten minutes.” Then I asked her, “How do you suppose that man in the dream got a truck up there in the cave if there was no road?” She said to me, “Well, I guess if you’re the Holy Spirit you don’t need a road, you can just plop your pickup down wherever you want.”

Fifteen years have transpired since the Makor dreams. I can understand more clearly now what God was telling me in preparation to fulfill His calling to “write about it”. First of all, go to the source as you re-examine prophecy, don’t rely on the ubiquitous teachings of prophecy gurus or mimic the style of all the prophecy updaters.  As Carol hiked up the trail, in the dream, she passed some pastures full of cows and horses, and a few dump yards full of vehicles and old engines. She realized just how contaminated the stream must be down at the bridge. Second, I knew that I must trust the Holy Spirit to enlighten and guide me into truth. I have several mementos of old red pickup trucks, reminding me to sit on the tailgate of the truck and talk with the keeper of the springs. All the inductive study I can muster won’t uncover the truth apart from the Holy Spirit’s help.

I discovered that the only way to re-examine prophecy is to hike up the little trail to the spring, away from the highway and the group watering hole. I had to rethink all the end-times scenarios I had been taught by countless pastors, authors, and even seminary professors. I boxed up my entire library of books on prophecy. I had to let go of the cherished cornerstones of American eschatology -- the seven-year Tribulation, the two-part installment of the second coming of Christ (i.e., pre-trib rapture), and the one-world ruler, Antichrist. None of it is true. It is precisely the false teaching that Jesus warned about, which will cause many to fall away in the final days.

Are you one who thinks that fellowshipping with the man in the cave by the red pickup is far too mystical? The Holy Spirit is our God-given Helper. He guides us into truth and enlightens to our minds the understanding of Scriptures. Yes, the Word of God is living and powerful, but so is the Holy Spirit. Jesus said so, Himself.

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive” (John 7:38). You are not full until you are overflowing. First you must thirst, then you must be filled, then the fountain of living water will flow out of you.