Dear People Who Keep Company with God,
Several years ago a prophetic friend of mine came into our sanctuary and had a vision. He said, “I see the Lord has placed a white banner in your midst, but there is nothing on it. He is asking you to write the one thing you desire for Riverlife on this banner and He will bring it to pass.” Immediately I remembered in the scripture when the Lord came to Solomon in a similar way. “In that night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask what I shall give you.” 2 Chronicles 1:7. I briefly and carefully thought about my response, but deep in my heart I already knew the answer. I responded to my friend, “I desire above all things the manifest presence of the Lord to rest in this church.”
“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” John 14:21
According to Strong’s Dictionary the word disclose in this verse means to appear, declare (plainly), inform, (will) manifest, show and signify. Early this past Sunday morning I was sitting alone with the Lord and the atmosphere suddenly changed in the room. I was taken back to an earlier time in my life. It was 1981 and I was sitting alone with the Lord that morning also and He visited me with a taste of His manifest presence. He spoke to me that morning about my callings, destiny and purpose. It was the first time in my life that the Lord spoke to me directly and personally concerning these things. From that day on I knew the Lord had called me to full time vocational ministry. The whole direction of my life changed because of that one encounter with the manifest presence of the Lord.
My response to the Lord that day was, “I will do anything if you will allow me to have Your manifest presence in my life.” In my heart I felt the Lord promise me that His manifest presence was to be my inheritance. From that time on I went through a lot of brokenness in my life. For the most part it was everything but the manifest presence of the Lord. Looking back I am not so sure I had to go through all of it, but some of it was very necessary. The encounter I had this past Sunday morning was the Lord reminding me of His promises to me. We may forget His promises, but the Lord never forgets His word as He watches over it to perform it in the right season (Jer.1:12).
I believe we are living in a time where the dreams and promises of God that have lain dormant in the souls of many of His saints are going to spring up again and be fulfilled. God is calling upon His people to begin to reopen or dig the wells of His promises and God given dreams for He will surely cause these waters to spring up. The Lord gives us a great picture of this very thing in the life of Isaac. He had gone through some trying times but was at last being reconnected with the promises and dreams of God for his life through a fresh encounter with the Lord.
Then he went up from there to Beersheba. 24 The LORD appeared to him the same night and said, ” I am the God of your father Abraham; Do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you, and multiply your descendants, For the sake of My servant Abraham.” 25 So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well. Genesis 26:23-25
Beersheba actually means well of the oath or well of seven. At Beersheba a number of important encounters took place between God and man. Here God appeared to Hagar (Genesis 21:17), Isaac (Genesis 26:23-33), and Jacob (Genesis 46:1-5). I believe we have come to a spiritual Beersheba and we should expect some important encounters with the Lord in this season. Now it is time to begin digging the wells of promises and dreams so these waters of heaven can be released and fulfilled in our lives.
Many Blessings, BW