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At Christmas time we hear about angelic encounters, divine visitations, and glorious miracles and we are filled with awe at the miracle of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us! Then we look at the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and we aren’t surprised that she had a visitation from the angel Gabriel because she was a virgin. Yet Jacob was a liar, a manipulator, and a deceiver but he had a visitation that changed his life forever!
In your place of brokenness and shattered dreams, do you feel disqualified from experiencing the fullness of God’s glory? Despite the circumstances of your past, the Lord desires to bring you into your calling and destiny. Radical visitations are for anyone who is desperate and craving deeper intimacy with Jesus!!
1. Hope for Those Who Feel Disqualified
2. Other Bible Characters’ Visitations
3. How to Position Yourself for a Visitation
4. Ask for Keys to Receiving Visitations
5. What does a Visitation Look Like
6. A Pastor’s Wife’s Visitation
7. The Challenge
Hope for Those Who Feel Disqualified
Genesis 28:10:Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran.
So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep.
Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: "I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants."
"Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
"Behold I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you."
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it."
And he was afraid and said,"How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven!"
Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it.
And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously.
Jacob’s Visitation: A Ladder to Heaven
Jacob was a deceiver. He was born a twin and when he was in his mother’s womb, there was a prophetic word that Jacob would receive the covenant blessing from his father, even though he would not be the firstborn.
But through his mother, she and Jacob deceived Esau. We know the story. Where we are meeting Jacob in this portion of Scripture, Jacob is running for his life. Jacob had left his father and mother, his home - everything - and is out on a journey.
There is suddenly a break in from heaven, but it’s not because of Jacob’s goodness right now. He had just deceived his brother! He didn’t let God work out His plan, but Jacob worked it out in his own way. He is now on a journey for a Bride, which is very prophetic.
The Lord suddenly breaks in and there is the trafficking of angels who are ascending and descending from heaven! God speaks the covenant blessing of Abraham to Jacob that his seed will be blessed.
Here you have a man who gets a prophetic visitation of the angelic with the heavens opening! He called the place Bethel, a gateway to the heavens! Positionally, however, Jacob’s life was not in order! Yet God had a sovereign plan for his life!
Mary’s Visitation: Impregnated by the Holy Spirit
We can also look at Mary, the mother of Jesus, and see her purity. She also had a radical break in with the sovereignty of God where she was suddenly impregnated by Holy Spirit and birthed Jesus, the Son of God!
Moses’ Visitation: the Burning Bush
We can look at Moses who, after forty years in the wilderness, had a radical burning bush experience. When we look at these people, may it create a holy jealousy in you, "But Lord, how can you radically touch me?"
Saul’s Visitation: the Damascus Encounter
Then we see Saul on the Damascus road. He was a murderer, an enemy of the Cross, who also had a radical break in by God. Is there a faith level in you that can declare this, "God, no matter where my life is now, no matter how I have blown it, no matter what the circumstances, I want a radical break in from You!"
Ask the Lord to come and take the scales off your eyes like He did with Laban. God had to dunk Laban to rid him of his leprosy. God also removed the scales from Saul’s eyes so he could become a Paul! These are real time encounters with the living God!
How Do I Position Myself for a Visitation?
The Lord wants to deal with those places of need in each one of us. "But Lord, how do I position myself to receive a visitation? How do I position my heart for You to come and touch me?"
He says it isn’t how many times you attend church. It isn’t how many times you attend a conference. He says that the way you position yourself is in that place of nakedness and that place of need! Out of your need, your desperation, and your suffering, a door of intimacy opens up for Him!
Praying Dangerous Prayers
It is only in this place of total surrender and abandonment that you go before Him weeping and praying, "Lord, I need a God encounter from You. I need You to come in and break through all the religious trappings of how I normally think I will work it out. I need a God invasion that touches me in the very core of my loneliness. Come to that place where no one can make it happen but You!"
There has to be a desperation in you for a radical gripping! Cry out for a break-in like Jacob had! This happened to Jacob before his name was changed and before that second visitation he had later in his life!
The Cup of Suffering Creates Desperation
When God takes us to these deeper realms of His glory, it is because He has taken us through His cup of suffering. Many of you are thinking, "Well, Lord, I can see how You could give Jill a visitation. But me? Why would you come and encounter me?"
Many of you cry out, "Lord, I can see how you can give pastors and other leaders a visitation. But I’m just not qualified for a radical visitation from You. I didn’t know my prophetic journey would turn out like it has."
Some of you are divorced and it was the farthest thing from your mind and heart, but suddenly, you found yourself divorced. Others of you have been in abusive situations, had daughters who have had abortions, or a son who is involved with drugs, causing you to feel disqualified.
The Sufferings of Paul
That is why Paul could say, "Even in my greatest sufferings, I beheld Jesus! I delight in my weakness, I delight in insults, I delight in persecutions because in the midst of them, it opened a door of intimacy where my God met me!"
In the midst of the pain, the neediness, and the vulnerability, the Lord comes in and touches your life so you are ruined for the ordinary! Yet, there is a part of us that despises neediness. There is a part of us that despises having to be vulnerable.
We want to be able to make it in God all by ourself! We want to be able to somehow "make it happen". I am not talking about co-dependency where there is that needy soul realm that is perverted. That is different from the neediness where you open up your heart to the Spirit of the living God because you know there is a void inside of you that only He can fill!!!!
God Wept for a City
When I was ministering at a West Coast city, I was weeping because I could feel that God had served that city a cup of suffering. I saw this cup of suffering being given to them. I saw loved ones dying. Worship leaders dying. Prayers not being answered as they wanted them to be answered. It was a cup of suffering. But the Lord said that out of that suffering He would bring resurrection life.
I kept seeing these people wanting to have authority in the Spirit. Some of them had told the Lord that if they could go to a conference, they would catch the fire. And that is true. But, let me ask you, how do you hold the fire?
Ask for the Keys
How many of you want to hold the presence of God? The government of God increases as we hold and carry it. Ask the Lord for the keys!
We come to a revival meeting or a renewal meeting and ask, "Is it just to shake and bake or is it something more? Is there an impartation? How do you hold that presence?"
Listen to me. This is a key that will change your life if you can catch it!
The Judgment Seat
There are two seats in the Holy of Holies. There is the Mercy Seat and there is the Judgment Seat. Out of your heavy persecutions and not being understood with people speaking against you, it gives you scars.
You are wounded. You take on the identity of Jesus. You are scourged. Your family doesn’t understand you. Maybe your friends don’t understand your radical heart either. If you go to the judgment seat and accuse people and get bitter, those wounds will get infected and you will be disqualified (and the enemy will be thrilled that you won’t forgive those who have hurt you!)
The Mercy Seat
But, if you are willing to go to the mercy seat and forgive those who have wounded you, then those scars will begin to radiate with the resurrection anointing! When your scars are radiating with the resurrection anointing, then you can walk into a city and the demons and principalities and powers will see you radiating like Jesus!
Your scars radiate and you can genuinely say, "Hold not the sin against them!" Then you can declare, "Open up the gates!!! Open up the Gates for the King of Glory! Open up the Gates! Open up the Gates! Open up the Gates for the King of Glory!"
You can command this because you are radiating Him!!! Every leader usually goes through at least three heavy crushings to move in government. You start to move in the anointing, you start to get put in place, and then you go through a heavy crushing.
You Have a Choice to Make
You now have a choice to go to the Mercy Seat or the Judgment Seat. It is a test of your heart. Are you going to pass the test? It requires your reputation, your name and every part of who you are.
You can’t defend yourself. You will get slandered and no one will understand you. It is a testing and a crushing. If you pass the test with your heart, it gives you ranking and authority in the Spirit!!!
Progress in the Spirit
In the world, we go through school (kindergarten through high school and maybe college). It is a natural and fairly easy progression. But progression in the Spirit is God is very different – He takes you up a little bit and then allows you to be crushed and killed to see what you are made of.
It’s confusing because it is opposite from the world view. He brings you up a little higher and then you get killed by your friends. You get killed by the church you are serving. You didn’t understand that when you came into the church, that He gave you four nails with your name on them so that you, too, could die!
Are You Passing the Test?
It’s good to laugh before you die! Some of you are still stuck at the Judgment Seat accusing, being angry at everyone, and refusing to let go of hurts and grudges. I am here to tell you that you are not passing the test!
You keep thinking that you’ll be fine if you can just get your name in lights or you are put on a platform so you are being promoted. But beloved, that is just a set up so you are more of a bullseye to get killed!
You hear your friends and fellow commrades saying, "I could do it better, you know!" People get jealous, they start fighting, they envy your position, they talk behind your back, they criticize you, they break relationship with you, etc.
This is the Key
The way you go up is to go down. The way you go up is to humble out! Keep forgiving – THAT is the key!
Then when you are brought forward, your prayer becomes, "Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God HELP!" because you know that you could go down the next day! There are no guarantees.
Jesus Knew You in Your Mother’s Womb
Even if you don’t feel worthy, you must know that God has a destiny for each one of you that started in your mother’s womb. He knew you in your mother’s womb and called you by name. Our names are written on His hand. Our innermost parts are known by Him! He knew us as our frames were being formed. He knows us and loves us radically.
There is sovereign destiny that God has for each one of your lives in this generation to move with His purposes! He’s listening for that cry in you for God to bring in His realms of visitation and intimacy so you really know Him. When there is a visitation, it is a place of radical intimacy!
Hunger, Desperation and Holy Dissatisfaction are Keys to a Visitation
There needs to be a cry in you that says, "Lord, I want more of You! I am so hungry for more of Your presence that I hardly know what to do with myself anymore! Lord, put a desperation inside of me. Put a hunger inside of me where I want more! I want to be a radical carrier of Your fire!"
God wants you to be blazing ones; to be fiery ones. He wants to bring the blazing, fiery Throne of God to you - that river of fire that comes out of the Throne of God - to ignite you with a fresh baptism of His fire! He longs for you to be men and women of fire that invade and take territories and bring the kingdom of God wherever you go, moving with the fire of God and a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit to bring the atmosphere of heaven down to earth!
Do you have that cry of holy dissatisfaction, holy desperation, and holy hunger that wants more of Him, no matter what the cost? Does your heart so ache for Him that you are almost at a loss for words? There is SO much more He has for you!
Wilderness Experiences Create Desperation
God is looking for voices, not echoes! Many of you have been in very heavy wilderness experiences, but in those places of that wilderness, He has given you a voice! He has given you a sound! He has given you a life message! He has given you a cry of desperation for Jesus that you will love Him no matter what your circumstances!
You have come to love Him no matter what happens! You have that radical, intimate passion for Jesus Christ, and out of that deep intimacy and cry for Him, He starts to release more of Himself and more of the realm of hunger and impartation to you!
Many of you have been crying out for fresh fire and impartation with a realm of His presence and glory. I tell you that when that realm of glory invades your life, miracles come! Healing comes! Deliverance comes! Bondage’s and strongholds on our minds are broken off!
Jacob’s Wilderness
Be aware that the radical visitation Jacob had took him into twenty years of wilderness. He came out of the wilderness, however, with two wives and twelve sons who were the twelve tribes of Israel. What will it take for you to press in and say, "Lord, I want a radical touch from You. I need you more than I even realize!"
A Visitation to Circumcise Hearts
I have a friend who is a Pastor’s wife. People were getting radically touched by God, but she wasn’t. As she watched others being touched so deeply, a hunger was stirred up inside of her that said, "Lord, it’s wonderful that these people are getting touched, but I want my own touch. I want my own encounter. I need a gripping of God myself!"
There was something awakened inside of her that said it wasn’t enough to just watch them. She wanted her own encounter with God! There must be a wrestling and hunger inside each of us for Jesus, no matter what the cost.
One night the fire of the Lord fell on her and she went through a gripping where she was on the floor shaking and being encountered by God. Hours later, we asked her what had happened because it was very dramatic how God was moving on her.
She said that she saw an altar with a man standing behind the altar and He had a knife in His hand. He told her to get on the altar but she was screaming, "No, no, no, no!" during the visitation because she didn’t want to get on the altar.
A Coal of Fire for the Prophet
Finally, she said she stepped forward to get on the altar and said it was as if the wings around the altar closed in around her. He then put a hot coal of fire on her mouth and took her to several cities and nations … right during the meeting!
He told her that she was called as a prophet and He began to show her people she would meet in various cities and nations wherever she and her husband would go. This pastor’s wife was radically changed! I am not saying that is what your visitation will look like, but is there a contending in you for a radical gripping of God?
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