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Greetings
History-Shakers!
With
my own recent move to California, this teaching has weighed
heavy on my heart. May it bless and encourage you to press
in for visitations that radically change your cities and nations!
So
many Christians in America…yet so few cities that have
been truly transformed for Jesus Christ. Why does this paradox
pervade our society? We passionately cry out for nations to
be saved in a day, yet our local spheres of influence remain
largely unchanged year after year. |
From Visitation
to City Transformation
How One Encounter with God Can Change the Course of History
How can we press in to see our cities transformed? To become a history
shaker, each of us personally needs a radical visitation with the
King of Glory. He will ruin you and awaken your birthright. The
Bible essentially is an anthology of a covenantal loving God continually
pursuing His Bride. These life-changing and powerful testimonies
reveal how one person’s visitation with God can change the
course of human history.
Pressing in for Another Great Awakening
Beloved, close your eyes and imagine what your God is capable of
doing. Envision the God of the universe creating cities. Can’t
He transform them as well?
Let’s examine the historical seeds of past revivals: Legend
reads that Jonathan Edwards, before the birthing of The Great Awakening
in 1743, made a covenant with God. Walking down to a river bank,
he stood before God crying out for revival to hit his land. Drawing
a circle in the sand, he pledged that before God could take this
city – this region – this nation, he must start here
… as he pointed to the circle.
Then Jonathan Edwards stepped into the circle. For a nation to be
gripped with revival, a man must first be fully gripped by God.
Personal visitations are the catalyst for revival.
Revival
Starts with You
To shake the nations for God, you must first let God shake you.
If we simply study the scriptures and treat the Bible as the Word
of God, there is a common thread woven throughout all the history
makers of the Bible: visitations precede city transformation.
When we hear about radical visitations, we may think, “That’s
awesome for Moses (See Show Me Your Glory), the Apostle Paul or
Benny Hinn, but that would never happen to little old me.”
But beloved, perhaps the reverse is true! What if it was their personal
visitations that caused these heroes of faith to walk out their
incredible destinies?
Maybe you have never dared to believe that God wants to meet with
you. Throughout history, God uses weak, broken vessels whose very
fragility is the perfect conduit for His glory and power. God does
not wait until we have “arrived” in our destiny to encounter
us - visitations are a key part of commissioning. (For 6 awesome
teachings, including Changing History Through Radical Prayer and
Do You Want A Visitation? get the Pearl Collection Volume 4: Prayer
& Intercession.)
The Bible: Guidebook or
History Book?
Seventy percent of the Bible consists of radical visitations, trances,
dreams, visions, signs and wonders, angelic encounters, and other
supernatural accounts! We need to go back to the Bible. If God is
not a respecter of persons, could it be that God might want to radically
meet with you? In order to build your faith for your own personal
visitation, we will first expose many modern day myths and then
visit many of our forefather’s encounters. This will lay a
biblical foundation for you to press in and contend for your own
visitation. (For an excellent teaching on this topic, purchase the
Intercession and Divine Encounters.)
Unbelief of the Western Mindset
The Western church is barren because of logic and intellectualism.
We know the Word of God but lack the experience of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, church is little more than a routine social club without
mass salvations, deliverances and suffering humanity being touched
by God. We claim to believe that the Word of God is true, yet somehow
we ignore the fact that God has commissioned us to walk in greater
works than He did. Miracles are not an option, but rather a trademark
of basic Christianity 101. But why is there such a resistance and
fear of the supernatural?
One of
the lies he feeds us is that if you move in the supernatural realm,
you will slip into deception. However, what this is really implying
is that God isn’t able to protect us through the Holy Spirit.
We are more afraid of satan deceiving us than we are desperate to
experience God! If God was able to keep us before we even knew Him,
how much more is your Father in Heaven able to lead you into all
truth with His Word as the glorious boundary line? (I tackle the
topic of fear in the teaching, Hearing the Voice of God.)
Fear of Deception
Satan is unable to create anything new, so he simply counterfeits
the authentic. His first line of defense is to make us afraid of
the supernatural. When we believe this, he has won!For example,
let’s see if fear haunts your heart. When you think of someone
being transported, is your first thought of New Age astral projection?
Or do you remember Phillip’s translation when he shared the
Gospel with the Ethiopian eunuch or Elijah’s transportation
by the Spirit of God (Acts 8:29, I Kings 18:12-15; II Kings 2:1-18)?
Two Kingdoms Clashing
Because Christians have not walked in their inheritance, satan has
been able to offer a counterfeit – The New Age Movement. For
example, the rainbow is God’s original symbol of His covenant.
Satan has perverted this supernatural symbol as the trademark of
the New Age Movement.
Two Governments Chasing After the Souls of Men
Unfortunately, because the church has not fulfilled its basic job
assignment for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in
heaven, the world looks for the supernatural in other places. Like
starving souls in the desert, people are so thirsty for the supernatural
that they will hunt for it wherever they can. When they cannot find
it in the church, they will find it in the world. Instead of finding
the refreshing living waters of the supernatural, they have had
to settle on merely drinking the sand of the New Age ideas. (For
your reading enjoyment, pick up my series Master Potter and Master
Potter & The Mountain of Fire, which provides a refreshing dose
of the true supernatural things of God in a literary allegory).
Let’s
look at some biblical examples of revolutionists who did great exploits
for God and their supernatural visitations.
The Father of our Faith – Abraham
God first appeared to Abram while he was worshipping pagan gods.
This divine call was based on God’s grace, not Abram’s
faithfulness. Visitations are not dependent on our track records.
The sovereignty of God suddenly interrupted Abram’s life as
the Lord promised that He would make him a mighty nation. Appearing
as a burning oven and fiery torch, this visitation changed Abram's
name to Abraham, increased His faith to believe for the impossible
that his barren wife would become pregnant even in their old age
and helped establish Abram as the father of the nations. Meeting
with his Maker, caused Abram to know that it is The Creator of the
stars – not his own abilities – which would eventually
fulfill this prophecy.
Contending
for a Blessing
Jacob’s second visitation occurred in Genesis 32:27 where
he wrestled with an angel contending, "I will not let You go
unless You bless me!" How could Jacob have the confidence to
make this demand? Divine encounters gave him the ability to press
into his prophetic promises and demand God’s blessing, even
if he had to wrestle through the night! It is through these private
encounters with the Lord that we become transformed ones –
subdued by the power of God. Two heavenly visions and Jacob was
eternally changed from a wanderer to a worshipper.
Jacob
Let’s look at Abraham’s grandson, Jacob the deceiver,
as he fled for his life. We assume that one as manipulative as Jacob
would not deserve a visitation. Again, our righteousness is not
what qualifies us for visitations – it is our hunger that
God cannot resist. In Genesis 28:10, Jacob suddenly sees a ladder
with angels ascending and descending. The Lord reestablishes The
Abrahamic Covenant, promising Jacob that his descendants would be
as numerous as the dust of the earth. Beloved, you cannot let your
past disqualify you from pressing in for an encounter. Encounters
produce faith; faith is then what propels us to fulfill the impossible
tasks that God is asking of us. (For more encouragement from the
story of Jacob, get my teaching, The Beauty of Brokenness).
Isaiah:
Commissioned by Fiery Coals
Would you like to have seraphim fire brand you with a coal to be
commissioned as a prophet to the nations? Isaiah experienced this!
Why not you? Visitations are more than radical joyrides in the Spirit:
Encounters will alter your DNA, download you with fresh blueprint
plans, and ruin you for anything less.
A modern day Isaiah 6 happened to a pastor I know who had a radical
visitation. She saw an altar with a Man standing behind it with
a knife in His hand. He told her to get on the altar.
Modern Day Visitations
Christianity is not a spectator sport! Visitations are essential.
Comb through the scriptures and try finding one hero of faith whose
life was not interrupted by the supernatural. You can’t!
Visitations: More Than Our Inheritance…It’s Our Prophetic
Destiny!
I have been a cheerleader of the Manifest Presence of the Holy Spirit
for decades. In 1987, I had a 21-day visitation where I met with
the Lord from 3 in the afternoon until 7 in the morning. (Detailed
in my teaching, Desperation, Visitation, and Anointing). Through
intense times of intercession and hearing His heart for nations,
God met with me throughout each night. During these open heaven
experiences, He taught me many mysteries of how to move with the
Holy Spirit, the different kinds of fires and anointings, and how
to open up the heavens. These visitations transformed my ministry
from just praying for individuals to a corporate anointing where
pools of glory and radical encounters with Jesus pervade my meetings.
What you touch in heaven, you can bring down to earth.
She started
screaming, “No! No! No!” Finally, when she said “yes”
and willingly climbed on the altar, wings closed around her, and
a hot coal of fire was put on her mouth. Suddenly, she was traveling
in the Spirit, flying to the nations where the Lord revealed cities
and individuals she would meet in the future.
He said,
"I have called you to be a prophetess, an oracle and a voice!”
This visitation was an ordination of the prophetic for her, as the
Lord did a divine download. (For more examples of visitations, listen
to the Visitations Volume I CD-Set or the Visitations Series)
The
Challenge: Contending for Your Own Visitation
We have to be desperate for God to the point of devastation to have
more of Him. What lengths do we go to have more of God? Why not
contend for your own personal visitation? Here is the key: as much
as you want to meet with God, He passionately desires to encounter
you. Why not you? Wherever your feet hit the ground, God wants you
to invade your sphere of influence. From schools to the grocery
store to your neighborhoods, God wants to ruin your cities –
one life at a time.
Press in!
Jill
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