Sections:
1. Divine Visitations2. Lifting The Corner of the Veil
3. Testimonies of Some Encounters With God (Part 1)
4. Testimonies of Some Encounters With God (Part 2)
Divine Visitations
People seem to have a set of expectations of what a divine visitation (God appearing directly to you) is like. Often our expectations do not line up with God's reality. My goal in this lesson is to share a little bit about what a divine visitation may be like. This will not be a comprehensive coverage of the topic, it will simply wet your appetite.
First, it is important to understand that not all prophetic people receive divine visitations. Some denominations teach that a prophet will always have some type of commissioning vision like Jeremiah or Ezekiel did, where God comes and visits them personally to commissions them to the office of prophet. It is true that some prophets experience this, but not all of them do. For instance, Jesus called John the Baptist the greatest prophet that every lived .. yet we have not record of John having any sort of Divine visitation (though the Holy Spirit came on him while he was still in the womb). The truth is that person can have a mantle of prophet and be very powerfully used of God and still never have one of these experiences.
There are times when God sovereignly decides to manifest His presence to one of His children in a very tangible way. When this occurs, the person is not simply having a vision "in the spirit," they are having a direct encounter with Almighty God. God comes to where you are physically and He manifests Himself to you and interacts with you. We call this a "divine visitation." When the Lord visits us in this manner, we often see a greater aspect of His glory or His holiness. It is usually overwhelming. Even so, the Lord is still veiling His full glory and presence from us, as we simply would not be able to handle it. A divine visitation is can be a frightening experience. We are often overwhelmed by His holiness and keenly aware of our own lack thereof (by comparison). However, there are also times when God masks His presence and we do not realize it is Him appearing to us. Let's look at a few scriptural examples of visitations:
Being Unaware of a Divine Visitation
It may sound startling to think that Jesus Himself might appear to you and you might not realize it was Him. But this happened more than once in scripture. Let me share two examples. In John 21:4, the resurrected Jesus appeared Peter and some of the disciples while they were fishing and they did not know it was Jesus. The bible says, "Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus."
And in Luke 24:13-32, the resurrected Jesus appeared to two disciples as they were walking to Emmaus. Jesus walked with them, dialogued with them and expounded scripture with them. And they had no idea it was Jesus. Verse 16 says, "But they were kept from recognizing Him." In other words, God purposely kept His identity secret on this visitation. God finally revealed Jesus to them in verse 31, which says, "Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him, and He disappeared from their sight."
Scripture Examples of Divine Visitations
A divine visitation is when God Himself appears to a person or to a group of people. When I ask people to give me a scripture example of a divine visitation, most people cite God appearing to Moses in the burning bush. That was certainly a spectacular supernatural encounter, but that visitation was an angel and not God Himself. Steven expounded on this in Acts 7:30, where he said, "After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai."
However, Moses really did have a divine visitation from God. It occurred after He had been serving Him and had delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt. In Exodus 33, Moses asked God to show him His glory. God agreed to do so, but placed certain restrictions on it, saying that "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live." Instead, God put Moses in the cleft of the rock and covered him with His hand while He passed by and then He removed His hand and allowed Moses to see his back. (This story is told in Exodus 33:18-23). What an awesome experience that must have been for Moses!
There are many other stories of Divine visitations, where God Himself visited human beings and revealed Himself to them. God masks the full extent of His glory in most of them, and each visitation seems to mask His glory to a different degree. When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit manifest His presence in the form of a dove and the Father's voice spoke audibly to the crowds and said, "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased" (Luke 3:22). Peter, James and John were present when Jesus was transfigured before them and spoke to Moses and Elijah. Again God the Father was present (as a voice but not visible). He said, in Matt 17:5, "this is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!"
So far, all of our examples have been visitations of God to His people before Jesus ascended into heaven. You might ask, does God still visit His children after Jesus ascended and the Holy Spirit was released on the Church? Or you may wonder, does Jesus sometimes appear to one of His followers after His ascension? The answer to this is yes.
And we have a scriptural precedence to fall back on. Jesus ascended into Heaven long before Saul began to pursue and persecute believers. Saul was a real threat to the early Church and many believers were terrified of him (see Acts 9:1-2). Paul had a divine visitation from the Ascended Jesus in Acts 9:3-8.
Paul was not alone when Jesus appeared to him. Everyone present knew something had happened, but Paul's experience was different than the others. The others heard the sound of Jesus' voice, but they did not see anyone (verse 7). Saul did not see Jesus directly, but he did see a blinding light (verse 3). It is clear that Paul experienced the presence and majesty of the Lord for two reasons. First, God's presence knocked Paul to the ground. In other words, he was overcome with the power and presence of God. Second, we see that Paul recognized it was Someone important who appeared to him, since he addressed this person as "Lord" in verse 5. Finally, we know that it was Jesus Himself who appeared to Saul on that Damascus road because in verse 5, Jesus identified who He was.
Scripture tells us that Paul had a divine visitation from Jesus that occurred some time after Jesus had already ascended into Heaven. We also know that the result of that visitation was life-changing. Saul's life was so revolutionized by his encounter with Jesus that he changed his whole lifestyle and began promoting the gospel instead of trying to squelch it. In fact, he even changed his name from Saul to Paul.
Let's look at one more divine visitation. John was in exile on the island of Patmos. On the Lord's day, he pulled away by himself to worship God, and he had a divine visitation from Jesus. (Rev 1:10-18). John saw Jesus in His unveiled glory. He reported it this way in verse 17: "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: 'Do not be afraid...'."
I have my own theory on the falling down "as though dead" that we see John do here and Daniel also experienced. I go back to Ex 33:20, where God said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see Me and live." John fell down at Jesus feet "as though dead." I cannot guarantee this is the way it happened, but I think that maybe John really was struck dead by looking on the presence and glory of God, and then (verse 17) Jesus laid His hand on John and raised him from the dead. Again this is just my own musings. But there is one part that we definitely know from scripture. John was a godly man, an apostle, and yet he was terrified when he had a divine visitation from Jesus. God's presence can be a frightening and overwhelming thing.
Divine Visitations Today
I know people who claim they have had a visitation from Jesus. The details of their stories vary some what, but there are some common elements. In all cases, there was an overwhelming sense of one of the attributes of God.. e.g., His holiness, His love, His power, etc. Also, the visitation from the Lord resulted in a drastic change in each of the person's life. Most of them were commissioned to some form of serving the Lord and often some sort of anointing or gifting was imparted.
Let me share a little from my own experiences. These are very personal and very deep experiences to me, so I will will only share some portions of them. I have had two times where I was physically in the Lord's presence.
The first time, I was a relatively new believer. I was saved in the Jesus Movement and we knew Jesus as the God of love and destiny (e.g. He had a purpose for our lives) and we also saw Him do some physical healings. We did not talk about holiness much in the Jesus movement, at least not in the part I was exposed to in the early 1970s. The emphasis was on God's love and His ability to give purpose to our lives. While we knew that Jesus saved us from our sins, we really had no teaching on holiness. We never spoke of the holiness of God, we did not even understand what the concept meant.
I had been in fervent prayer about something. At the time I had studied the prophecies in Revelation a great deal, and was considered somewhat of a local expert on them. I had some pressing questions for the Lord relating to my concept of the "last days" and had been praying and seeking Him for revelation on this. I got much more than I bargained for. Jesus Himself appeared to me.
I could see the form of a man, only He radiated light, and was so bright it was difficult to look at because it hurt my eyes. I could make out many details, but I could not see His face.. it was like looking at the sun.. just a brilliance of light radiating from where His face was. But the most noticeable thing was this intense awareness of the Holiness of God. His Holiness was a concept that I knew nothing about at that time. But it radiated from Him. I also became painfully aware of my own sin and inadequacies before Him. I literally became like a blubbering idiot. I forget everything I had wanted to ask Him.. it went clean out of my mind. I was so totally overwhelmed with His holiness that I found myself praying over and over for Him to cover me with the blood of Jesus and forgive my sins. Then the Lord began to speak to me about His call and destiny on my life, and I was forever changed. Also, that experience led me to begin studying what the bible had to say about the Holiness of God.
Many years later, I had backslidden and spent about 3 years or so away from God. My lifestyle was not particularly "sinful" but there was no room for God in it. Then I began to have a hunger for God and I desired to come back to Him. I knew I had to approach God on His terms this time. I had once told the Lord that I did not care what He wanted, I was going to do my own thing. I told him that if I were allowed to repent later, maybe I would; if not, oh well... Needless to say, I was horrified at that behavior when I began to approach God again. I wondered if He would ever forgive me for having said that to Him.
I struggled with this for several weeks, then I had a divine visitation from the Lord. It was different than the first visitation. He still emulated holiness, but in this visitation He did not radiate bright light. I could look into His face and see His features. (I am sure that Jesus was still in a form that veiled His full extent of His glory, but what He did allow me to see was pretty overwhelming.) I was afraid to look at His face, and a "Fear of the Lord" was over me. I felt terrified and wanted to run away, but I did not dare do so.
Jesus addressed my earlier rebellion and He asked me to hold out my hands. In my mind's eye, I pictured a naughty school child standing before her teacher, about to rapped on the knuckles with a ruler. I held my hands out in that manner, palms down expecting to get smacked. Jesus was holding a stick at that time, and I fully expected Him to use it on me. And I knew I deserved it. I was unable to look at His face because I felt such guilt and shame. So I stood there with my hands outstretched, looking down at my own feet. I waited for the blow to land, but it never came. Instead I felt a gentle brushing on the back of one of my hands. I was so startled that I looked up. Jesus had bent down and kissed my hand! I was shocked. I deserved punishment, but He had mercy and grace.
Then His gaze met mine and I looked into His eyes. They were filled with love and compassion. For the first time I understood what the forgiveness of Jesus was all about. Right in that instant my rebelliousness melted out of me and I became fully committed to obeying Him. (The Lord did more in that visitation, but I am not going to share it with you just now.) That visitation was about 10 years ago. From the day of that visitation until now, I have been deeply and fully committed to obeying Him because I love Him. I saw Jesus and it changed my attitudes and my behaviors.
When Jesus shows up in a divine visitation, it will have a profound impact on us. It will change our lives. I don't believe it is possible for a child of God to come into His very presence and then to go away unchanged.
Divine Visitations:
Lifting The Corner Of The Veil
God masks His presence and His glory from us because He doesn't want to terrify us. I had brief encounter I had with God where He showed me a bit of His holiness, and I became so terrified that I ran out of the room. After I calmed down, I was really frustrated at myself for running away from God's presence.
But I remained hungry for God and kept pleading with Him to show Me His glory again. I also asked Him to send and angel this time to hold me and keep me from running away when He came. I prayed that prayer on a daily basis for several months, and then God answered my prayer.
I experienced such terror in the presence of His manifest holiness that I literally turned into a non-functional blubbering idiot. I would have collapsed to a heap on the floor if the angel had not been holding me up. I had wanted to talk to God and interact with Him and tell Him how much I loved Him, but I couldn't. All I could do was to keep pleading the blood of Jesus to cover me, and I was pretty sure that I was not going to survive this experience.
My heart was beating faster than I'd ever experienced before and I having so much trouble breathing that my lungs felt like they were going to explode. I was aware that my body might be dying, but the thing that scared me was my awareness of my own sin and shortcomings. I did not want to face a God in that state because I was painfully aware of just how holy He was and of how much I'd let Him down. To say it was scary would be a huge understatement.
God was gracious to me and did not keep me in that state for very long. God remained with me and the angel kept holding me, but it was like He "dialed down" His holiness and turned up His goodness. He flooded me with a sense of His love and acceptance. I am pretty sure that He told me not to be afraid, like Jesus did to John in the book of Revelation. But I can't be 100 percent positive of that because that experience was so overwhelming, and not all of the details are clear in my memory.
I was so relieved that He "dialed down" the level of His manifest holiness and I began thanking Him for doing that. Then He told me that what I'd experienced was just the very tiniest measure of His holiness, substantially less than what Moses experienced in his encounters with God. Then He said, "If you think that was scary, then try to imagine how terrifying it would have been for you if I really did show you My face like you asked Me to."
God went on to explain that He was not hiding Himself from me because He did not what me to know Him better. He said that it was because in my sinful carnal body, I just could not take seeing and knowing Him for Who He truly was. That was why He masked the vast majority of His glory from Me when He interacted with me. Then He explained that this wasn't just for me personally, but that He masked His glory for all of His children. However, the more we cooperate with the Holy Spirit to be conformed into His image and to have our natures transformed, then He can reveal a bit more of Himself to us.
Shortly after that, He gave me this word. For years, I treasured it as a private word to me and I never dreamed I'd share it with anyone. But the Lord is instructing me to share it in this lesson, because this word will also apply to many of you who are hungry to see more of His glory. And for those of you who haven't acquired that hunger yet, perhaps this will help you know what to expect when you do grow into it...
I am about to draw you into a greater depth of intimacy than you have ever walked in before, where you will come to better know Me as I really am.This will be a frightening time for you, for it is a fearsome thing to come before the very presence of almighty God. Child, know that your sins are forgiven. When you stand before Me and taste of My holiness, you will be overwhelmed with your own sin. Know that each and every sin is under the blood of the lamb and is forgiven and cleansed.
You are going to find that My presence, which you have so desired, is not at all like you expect it to be. It will truly be terrifying for you...but at the same time it will be a time of awe for you. Child, you will go back and revisit these encounters in your mind and you will want to kick yourself for having what you consider inappropriate responses. Do not feel ashamed when this occurs, for I say unto you that it is not possible to come before the presence of the living God and not be totally overwhelmed.
The very fact that I will allow you into My presence in your earthly body is a great honor child, one reserved for those whose hearts are pure before Me. And yet, when you stand before Me, you will be aware of every imperfection and every impurity. And child, you will be horrified with how you will see yourself.
Know in advance that I am not horrified with you. Child, your heart is after Me and it pleases Me. You have been seeing Me through a very thick cloud, through a veil. I am about to lift the corner of that veil and give you a glimpse of My glory. You will not be able to handle it; no human being can. You will be so frightened that you will want to run away from Me. But fear not, I am going to prevent you from doing that; for if you did, you would "kick yourself" over that behavior for a very long time. You will be so terrified and overwhelmed with My glory and My holiness that you will not be able to think clearly.
You have experienced this Fear of The Lord before. You have told yourself that it would be different next time, because the Holy Spirit has so transformed your nature. Well, child of Mine, I am about to manifest Myself to you at a higher level, with greater clarity and greater intensity, and you will find it just as overwhelming as the previous time. Do not be frightened of making inappropriate responses...child, it will not be possible for you to respond to Me in a manner that you consider appropriate, for you will not be in control at all. I will be in control.
You will find that I am good and I am loving and I am full of mercy and grace. At the same time, child, you will find that I am truthful and I am realistic. I am going to examine some areas of your life where you will not measure up. But fear not, I am not coming to condemn you, but to reveal and then to transform. Child, you will feel very small in My manifest presence But know this, I am with you and I am for you and I will cause you to be changed and transformed.
You have told Me that you want to be My friend, to see Me face- to-face. Your heart has longed for this and you have cried out to Me for it. Child, I am granting it to you in a small measure, but you will find that face-to-face I am a very formidable God. You will not be able to stand before Me. Fear not, for I will hold you in the palm of My hand and I will cover you with My wings. Child, the terror that will come upon you will not be to separate you from Me, but to draw you closer.
I am telling this to you now, so that when you have stood before Me and felt the intensity of My holiness and the fire of My presence, you will know that I am pleased with you and that I am going to take you farther in Me than you have ever gone before. I love you child, and you are a cause of great delight to Me.
Sinful humans cannot stand in My presence And yet, as I allow you before Me, you will be transformed by My glory until you become the person who I have destined you to be. I am going to work a true humility in you, a humility that will not resist My call and My destiny on your life. I am going to give you eyes to see and ears to hear at a level that you have never moved at before. I am going to break the fetters of unbelief off of you and I am going to give you a gift of faith that will move mountains I am going to allow you to come to an intimacy with Me that you have never experienced before.
See, child of Mine, My plans for you are good and I am pleased with you. Do not allow fear to overcome you, remind yourself of My character and of My nature and of My faithfulness. I am faithful to fulfill the promises that I have made to you, every one of them.
Divine Visitations:
Testimonies of Some Encounters With God
(Part 1)
I mentioned in lesson 12 that one of the things that can help us move into direct encounters with God is by drawing inspiration from other's experiences and testimonies. When you read people's testimonies, I strongly encourage you to approach them as "invitations" from the Lord, so of a "you can have this too."
In that light, I am going to close this series by sharing some of my own personal testimonies of direct encounters with the Lord. My goal in sharing them is not to try and impress you by my experiences; but to stretch your imagination and expectations towards having similar encounters with Him of your own.
Let me start by sharing a testimony that was a very special encounter with God, but not a supernatural one. He met me through natural things, by manipulating circumstances and speaking to me in His "still small voice." I want to share this one first to emphasize that we can have amazing encounters with God that are not overtly supernatural in nature.
The second testimony I will share is a combination of God working through circumstances and also through a direct supernatural encounter. I include this so you can see how He often meets us through a combination of both the natural and the divine.
I will share a third testimony in the next lesson of this series that is an example of encountering God while receiving ministry. I hope you will be blessed and inspird by all three tstimonies.
A Non-Supernatural Encounter With God (June 13, 2008)
The Lord has sent me to Florida on a "personal retreat." He paid my way (airfare, hotel, car rental, food, etc) by supplying the money to pray for these things as unsolicited contributions that came to exactly the cost of the trip. His signature was all over the trip, and He did many amazing thing for me on it. I had several angelic visits and the Lord Himself showed up personally in My hotel room a few times. But the portion of my experience that I want to share here is ways that God met me without a direct supernatural element.
The Lord gave me the most restful sleep and I woke up feeling incredibly refreshed. I began meditating on the vision He'd given me the day before, about being "engaged" to the Lord. Then God spoke to me in that still small voice He often uses, and told me that today was going to be a special time with Jesus. That sounded like really good news to me. I thanked the Holy Spirit for the awesome day that I had yesterday, then I asked Jesus what He would like to do today.
He said, "Teresa, I know you'd love a cup of coffee, so get dressed and go downstairs to the dining room and get one." I loved His suggestion, and I took Him up on it. I had brought portable ipod speakers with me so I could listen to worship music without wearing earphones. The ipod was playing when I left the room and I decided not to turn it off, since I would only be gone for a short while.
As I got back to the room and was unlocking my door, the Lord spoke to me. He said, "Teresa, I want you to pay special attention to the music as you come in, it is a message from Me."
I opened the door and walked in, and as I walked in, a song by Brian and Jenn Johnson was playing. This is what I heard:
I will draw you and Me together forever
in loving kindness, in faithfulness and grace
no longer your master, but your husband I will be.
You have ravished My heart with one glance of your eyes
How fair is your love, My promised, My bride.
That was God's message to me, and it touched me deeply. I just about melted when I heard that. God seemed to be romancing me so much, and it was incredible to be on the receiving end of this. I told the Lord that I felt like this trip was a honeymoon trip with Him.
He replied, "Don't be so quick to skip the wedding part, because that will be incredibly special. Think of this as an engagement trip instead of as a honeymoon."
[Before anyone gets offended, let me clarify that the Lord was not being exclusive with Me. This intimate relationship with God is for everyone in the body of Christ, I was not singled out as anyone special. God was just showing me what that intimacy (that He wants with each of us) looks like.]
I had a time of worship and intimacy with God. Then I went back downstairs for another cup of coffee, and I watched a little bit of the news that was playing on the dining room television.
As I was leaving the dining room, I noticed a florist delivering a lovely vase of flowers to the front desk. I thought to myself "Those are for me." I knew they really weren't for me, but I would have liked to get something like that. In fact, I had almost bought flowers for myself when I went grocery shopping at Publix the day before, because I love cut flowers. But I decided not to. My husband thinks they are a waste of money because they die so quickly, so I seldom get them, except on Valentine's day or occasionally on my birthday. I knew my husband would not send me flowers, so I knew those were not for me. But a thought ran through my mind: "Wouldn't it be neat if God sent me some flowers?"
[The Lord had done that once before, years ago, when I still worked as a programmer in San Francisco's financial district. I was busily working when He told me to leave my desk "right now" to go outside of the building. I obeyed Him, and as soon as I got outside of the door, some lady walked up to me and gave me this amazingly beautiful bouquet of flowers. (If you want all the details of that story, you can read them on the GodSpeak web page at www.godspeak.net/walk/walk_6.html).] I had come to think of those flowers as "flowers from Jesus." And now, as I walked through the hotel lobby and saw the florist, I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be neat if Jesus gave me flowers again?"
I did not really expect Him to do that, but I thought it would be neat if He did.
Shortly after I got back to my room, the telephone rang. It was the front desk. They were calling to tell me that there were flowers for me in the lobby. They wanted to know if it would be ok to bring them up to my room.
I could not believe it--those flowers really were for me! Jesus had sent me flowers again. I felt so blessed.
When the flowers arrived, they were more gorgeous than they'd looked from the quick glance I saw in the lobby. They were a very large arrangement in a glass vase. There were several orchids and exotic flowers; they looked lovely and smelled wonderful. I put them on the stand next to the computer desk and I got a great deal of pleasure from them for the rest of my stay there.
The flowers came with a card, so I read it. They were from my friend Becky, explaining that an emergency came up and they would not be able to come to Florida to join me. It was sweet of her to send me flowers-- something I would not have expected. But then the Lord spoke to me and said, "I used Becky as the vehicle through which I worked, but those flowers are from Me. I knew you would love them, so I gave them to you."
Encountering God In The Natural And In The Supernatural (Jun 13, 2004)
I went to church on the Sunday morning just before I was to leave for a five-week ministry trip to Africa. It is our custom at church to have the congregation lay hands on me and pray for me just before I leave for a missions trip. So at the start of the service they prayed for me.
Rodney, our pastor announced when I would leave and where I would be going. Then he asked me to come up front so they could pray for me. Rodney invited those who would like to lay hands on me to come to the front and do so. Everyone began praying more or less at the same time. It was hard to listen to all the prayers at the same time, so I just went into receive mode and invited the Lord to be in control. I could hear parts of various prayers as the Lord called my attention to them and just about all my major concerns were covered. I was blessed.
About half way through the prayer time, the worship team began to play one of my favorite songs. I told the Lord that I was a bit disappointed that it came on when I could not fully enjoy it and worship along with it because I was busy receiving prayer. The Lord told me to think of it differently--He arranged to have one of my favorite songs played while they prayed for me because He wanted to bless me. Wow, what a different perspective! God is so neat!
The prayer and the song ended about the same time. I went back to my seat and joined in the corporate worship. I was really enjoying myself during this worship as they seemed to be doing a lot of songs that really resonated with my spirit. Somewhere around the third or fourth song, this idea hit me and I prayed in response to it, "Lord Jesus, I had all those people pray for me and it was wonderful. But would You consider coming to personally pray for me as well?"
I don't think I really expected Him to answer that prayer. But half way through the song, I was taken into a brief vision where Jesus came and stood in front of me and stretched His hand towards me as if He were about to pray for me. I was not sure what to expect Him to pray for me. Maybe He would ask for ministry opportunities for me and for unsaved people to hear and respond to the Gospel. Or maybe He would ask for protection for me, or for the financial and material needs of the trip to be met, traveling mercies, protection over my family while I was away, etc. But He did not pray any of those things.
This is the prayer He prayed:
"Father, let her do My will."
Wow! I felt the power of that prayer even as He spoke the words. There was a sudden realization in My spirit of what that prayer meant. It was almost as if God explained it to me in a fraction of a second. In order for me to do His will, I had to understand His will clearly, moment by moment and situation by situation. So He was praying that I have a complete understanding of His will for the trip and that I hear His voice clearly all throughout the trip, no matter how tired I am and no matter what situation I find myself in. Also, to do His will, I needed a heart after His heart and a will to obey Him...things I personally pray for on a daily basis. And finally, to do His will, I needed the authority and power and anointing for whatever He wants to do at any instant. He was praying that I be fully equipped for whatever He wants to do, that I have any anointing I need and the empowerment to do whatever He wants to do. That vision was short, but it had been amazing!
"Thank you, Lord," I whispered silently. "That is such a neat prayer!"
"Teresa," He responded, "Do you think My prayers get answered?"
I had to laugh as joy flooded through me. Of course His prayers get answered! The Father would never say no to Jesus. I realized that He was not just praying for me, He was promising to answer that prayer. He was making it possible for me to do His will on this trip. No demon or force of Hell or opposition of man can prevent His will from being done on this trip if only I am willing to obey Him and do what He is doing. Any anointing I need will be supplied. Any supernatural empowerment I need to do this trip will be provided when I need it. Any wisdom or discernment I needed to do His will would be supplied when I need it. He was promising me that I would be fully equipped to do His will on this trip. Wow!
It was not long before His sweetness and His presence enveloped me and I was lost in His goodness. I wanted to stay there all day but the worship time ended and it came time for the sermon. We had a special guest speaker who I had been looking forward to hearing: Rodney's father. Service was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed what he had to share. At the end of the service, Rodney's father prayed an impartation prayer over us as a congregation. One of the things he mentioned was that God had given him the nations. Something inside of me clicked when he said that and I just knew I had to go to him for individual prayer after service was over.
I went up to him the first chance I had. I shared how God has also promised me the nations and asked him to pray into that. His prayer was wonderful and blessed me tremendously. I won't share the whole prayer with you, but I want to share how he started the prayer, since it fit in so closely with what Jesus had done in the vision only an hour before. He started the prayer with "Lord, let her do Your will as she goes overseas to serve You..."
I believe that prayer is going to become the main prayer of my life and cry of My heart: "Lord Jesus, let me do Your will!" Amen.
Divine Visitations:
Testimonies of Some Encounters With God
(Part 2)
December 28, 1995
I was at a church service at Harvest Rock church in Pasadena. At the end of the service they asked everyone who was hungry for more of God to come up to the front, and their prayer teams would be happy to pray for them.
I had just been prayed for and could really feel the Lord's presence all over me. I felt so passionately in love with Jesus and so grateful for all the wonderful things He has been doing in my life. I found myself wanting to somehow bless Jesus back. I wanted to give Him a present to say "thank you" for all that He has been doing for me. It was a puzzling question for me. What could I possibly bring to Jesus that He did not already own? He owns all of my possessions. How about my obedience? No, I've already pledged that to Him, so He already owns it. What about my worship? Well, He is SO worthy of all worship, so I would only be giving Him His due.
So what do you bring the One who already literally "has everything"?
As I lay there, my mind drifted back to something that I believe the Lord had recently shown me during a time of prayer and meditation. He had shown me how the members of the Trinity bless each other and are in fellowship with each other. I am sure that the words I choose to describe what He showed me are inadequate, but it was something to the effect of "Sometimes Jesus and the Holy Spirit conspire together to bless the Father. Sometimes the Father and Jesus team up together to bless the Holy Spirit and sometimes the Father and the Holy Spirit plot together to bless Jesus. They never do it behind the Other's back, for each member of the Trinity is all-knowing, but they do team up to bless each other. And they do succeed in blessing each other.
(I know that some of you will not agree with this "theology", and that is OK.) But while I was laying there I was strongly reminded of what I believe the Lord had shown to me. I found myself asking the Holy Spirit if I were allowed to conspire together with Him to bless Jesus. I told Him that I would like very much to bring Jesus a gift that really pleased Him. I asked the Holy Spirit to please help me find a gift suitable to bring to Jesus just then.
Suddenly, I was remembering when I was a little girl. It was mother's day and I did not have any presents to give my mother, because I did not have any money to purchase anything. So I went into the yard and picked some flowers for her. Now technically, I was not giving her anything that she did not already own. But I remembered her vivid delight when I gave them to her. Suddenly flowers seemed a fitting present to bring to my King. Yes, I would like to bring Him a lovely bouquet of flowers. But where does one find flowers when one is laying flat on one's back on a hardwood gym floor?
Then the Holy Spirit spoke to me in that still-small voice. He said, "I will pick some weeds from the garden of your heart and turn them into flowers. Then you may do with them as you please."
Could that really have been the Lord's voice? No, it was probably my imagination. After all, picking weeds from one's heart sounds like inner healing and the Lord was not doing an inner healing type of thing with me just then. He was doing more of a love an intimacy type of thing.
I lay there for a while, lost in His goodness. I could feel His sweet presence around me, it seemed to saturate every part of my being. I was so passionately in love with Him and so grateful to be His. I mentioned to the Lord what I thought I heard and told Him that if that really was His voice and His plan, that was fine with me, but I kinda concluded that I'd heard wrong.
Well, eventually the sense of the Lord's presence diminished and I was able to get up. I could still sense His presence lightly on me. (I was staying with some friends and wanted to check in with them in case they needed to go home). Doug came over the instant I sat up and helped me up. He said that they were not in a hurry and that it would be fine to get some more prayer if I wanted to. (Of course, I wanted to!)
I stood there and closed my eyes and just worshiped In the back of my mind I kinda hoped someone from the ministry team would come and pray for me. But the Lord's presence on me increased so drastically that I began to think that He was by-passing prayer and simply falling on me as though I'd already been prayed for. I became really lost in His presence and was having trouble standing up. I could feel myself swaying and it occurred to me that I might fall. I realized that a hardwood gym floor is probably not a good thing to land on. But then I was reminded of His goodness. If He did choose to take me down without a catcher, He would assure that I was not injured. I stopped thinking about the possibility of falling and concentrated on Him instead.
His nearness was so wonderful. I found myself wishing that I could be in His manifest presence 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Then I started to get a mental image of it being normative for all Christians, not just me, to walk in this type of intimacy with Him day in and day out, as we went about doing the Father's business. I saw myself walking and standing and functioning very effectively, but still bathed with an all prevailing sense of His presence on me. 'Yes, Lord,' I prayed, 'please make it become normal for all of us to walk in the level of intimacy with You that You desire for us!'
Suddenly I heard a woman's voice praying softly in tongues and felt a light touch on my back. I cracked open my eyes to see an oriental gal, probably in her twenties, standing in front of me. I caught sight of a pink ministry team tag on her chest and then closed my eyes again. I had a strong sense that the Lord had hand-picked this team to come and pray for me. At first her prayers were the general sort that we all pray when the Lord is not showing us anything else, like "fill her Lord" and "come minister to Your daughter".
Then the catcher started praying. At first I was surprised then I realized that the catcher was also am ministry team member. But the catcher's prayers were sharp and specific and matched exactly the recent cries of my heart to the Lord. She would pray things like "Lord, she wants to discern Your voice and be assured that it is really You she is hearing. Lord she wants to move in Your power and Your authority and to be used by You to do Your kingdom business..." I found myself praying "Yes, Lord! Yes, Lord!" as she echoed the prayers of my heart. For quite a while both women repeated back my recent prayer closet prayers to the Lord.
There were several short prophesies interspersed with these prayers, all of which were recent words the Lord had spoken over me and in the correct order. By now the Lord really had my attention and I knew that He was orchestrating this ministry time. His presence came on me so strongly that I started shaking and I think my arms were making chopping motions. I was aware of these manifestations, but they were not very important to me at all. What was important was the Lord's presence and how He was prophetically repeating back to me the prayers I had been praying before Him.
"See, Teresa," the Lord spoke to me, "I do hear your prayers. And I am demonstrating this to you right now."
A few moments later, one of the ministry team women launched into a short prophesy that started "Know that I hear your prayers. I am pleased with You..."
Yes, I knew He heard my prayers. I found myself breaking into silent prayer during the prophesy. As He said "I am pleased with you", I found myself praying along "Yes, Lord, I want to please You with all of my being!" I realized that I was praying future tense, like it was something that had not occurred yet. But the Lord was speaking present tense, indicating that He was already pleased. Somehow this jarred my being. How could sinful imperfect me possibly be pleasing to God?
The prophesy went on and the Lord was addressing my inability to receive what He was saying to me. He was not angry with me about it, but He was correctly pointed out that I have trouble believing that I could possibly be pleasing to Him.
The Holy Spirit really bore witness to my spirit about this prophesy. He would speak something quietly to me and then the a few seconds later use the ministry team person to prophesy the same thing to me. He would keep speaking to my heart the same thing that she prophesied but just ahead of when she would say it. I was so overwhelmed by His goodness to me and awed at His love for me. It really began to sink into my spirit that He really was pleased with me.
The prophesy ended, but the Lord kept speaking to me. He told me that He was not some ogre, impossible to please. Rather, He has given us guidelines in His word of how to please Him and then He really is pleased when we follow His guidelines. I was so overcome by this revelation that I tuned out what they were praying for me. Imagine that--God really is pleased with us when we really do concentrate ourselves to loving Him with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our spirit. "Yes," He seemed to be saying, "When My children give Me the Lordship in their lives, I start changing them so that even the desires of their hearts are pleasing to Me. I will work this good work in all who seriously ask Me to and I have worked this good work in you."
About then I became aware of the oriental lady praying, "Lord, make this real to her. Allow her to believe in her heart what You are speaking to her right now."
I was overwhelmed with a sense of awe at who He was and of how He was capable of orchestrating this type of ministry to me. Then I became even more overwhelmed at His great love for me that He would desire to orchestrate this type of ministry to me. Suddenly the box that I kept God in got a little bigger and He became a big enough God to be pleasable--that it was possible for His children, sinful nature and all, to literally cause Him pleasure as we endeavored to follow the guidelines He laid down in His word. Of course, it is not possible to keep everything He laid down in His word because of our sinful nature. But as we endeavor to make Him Lord of all and to enter into intimacy with Him, He is pleased. We can literally please God. I can literally please God! Wow!
Then I became aware of the people praying for me again. They started praying that God would heal any rejection that was left in me and pull out and heal the darts of condemnation that others had thrown into me. They asked Him to heal those wounds so that it would not hinder me in the ministry He has called me to. Immediately I started thinking, "Oh, this does not apply to me. God has already healed me of rejection and condemnation from others is not an issue..."
"Teresa," the Lord said, "Are you not willing to receive from My hand what I have for you? Don't let your pride get in the way of the good thing I want to do in you."
Ouch. I felt reproved. God was right. Clearly He was orchestrating this ministry time. He had already confirmed to me that He had to be involved in this. Who was I to pick and choose what I would or would not receive from Him? I told Him that I was sorry that that I would receive from Him whatever He had for me.
Instantly, I felt God smile and I felt His warmth and His healing penetrating every part of my being. He started showing me how the condemnation of others was frequently their disapproval to me when I did not live up to their expectations and offered me freedom from their expectations. He offered to replace the expectations of others with His own expectations instead. He started showing me how this effected my ministry--such as a timidness to do deliverance because of fear that one of my pastors (who is not fond of deliverance) would disapprove. He brought back to my memory some times when I'd been misunderstood and wrongly condemned that were very painful memories for me. He showed me how some of those experiences effect my behavior today. But He poured so much of His love and His presence into each memory that it stopped being so painful.
"Teresa," He said, "I am pulling weeds from your heart right now."
I was startled.
"Remember," He continued, "that earlier this evening I told you that I was going to do this. Now I am doing it."
Suddenly I was in vision. I was still on the gym floor receiving prayer and shaking under His power. But I was also standing with Him in the garden of my heart. An invisible hand was plucking up some weeds from the garden floor by the roots. It handed those weeds to me.
I stood there with my hand outstretched, holding the weeds. They were limp and ugly and the roots hung down. The top part of the weeds slouched over my hand and hung limply near the roots. There was absolutely nothing desirable or attractive about them. Then Jesus came and stood in front of me. He stretched out His hand over the weeds. Suddenly they were transformed into a lovely bouquet of flowers, suitable to give to a king.
I remembered my passionate desire from earlier that evening to give Jesus a gift. I remembered laying on the gym floor wondering where I would be able to find flowers to give to Jesus. I remembered the Holy Spirit whispering to me that He was going to pull some weeds from the garden of my heart and turn them into beautiful flowers. I could smell the sweet fragrance of the bouquet and knew it would be acceptable to the Lord. I remembered the Lord telling me that after He'd transformed the weeds into flowers, they'd be mine to do with whatever I wanted. So now I had my flowers to give to Jesus and there was Jesus right before me, ready to receive them from my hand....
You'll never guess what I did next.
As I handed the flowers to Him, I was again lost in a sense of His love and goodness. Much later I became aware that the oriental lady was sitting on the floor next to me, still praying for me. I was surprised and delighted that she had stayed with me so long.
The Lord spoke to me once more and said, "Teresa, just as you brought a present to me, I had a present for you this evening. She " (indicating the ministry team lady) "is my present to you." Suddenly, I was overcome with an intense desire to be His present to others as I ministered back at my own church. I was strongly reminded of Romans 12:10 "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves." I began to see how this is possible if we are first rooted securely in His love for us. Then I just lay back and enjoyed His presence some more...