It is a day of blessing. Doth not the clouds of blessing hover over thee, O house of the Lord? Hath not the Lord heard the days of your prayers and your supplication before Him, and given witness to your spirit, that behold, the answer cometh? Thou shalt continue to persevere in prayer. Yea, thou shalt remember the words of the Lord, that thou would be made into a house of intercession and a place of prayer, and that the Lord would be entreated by your intercession and things would change before thy face as you go forward in the name of the Lord.
This is the day that you should continue to rejoice, for now you are closer to the answers that you have sought than when you first began. Now the heavens are opened unto thee, and the Lord has hearkened unto thy cry, and the blessings of the Lord flow down unto His people this day. Let there be strength in the house of the Lord. Let there be an encouragement within your spirit. Let there be a lifting up of your heart to the Lord to believe that the things God hath promised thee are surely thine. Contend earnestly and possess them in the name of the Lord.
Behold, how the people do honor the prophets, but not the prophets of their own generation. They build monuments to those who were prophets in generations before, but they hearken not; they perceive not what goes on even round about them, for they are dull of heart. They are slow to perceive the things that the Lord is really doing in their midst.
O house of God, rejoice! Art thou aware that thou hast been made the army of the Lord? Thou hast been brought forth with the sons and daughters that shall prophesy in the name of the Lord. Thou hast come into the restoration of ministries that God hath foretold should be in thy day. Yea, do not say, “Oh ho-hum, what another service it is,” but open your heart, for the days of destiny are being fulfilled in your very midst. You are hearing the voices of prophets that God hath raised up for this hour. Honor those who have gone before in the cloud of witnesses, and esteem them highly for their faithfulness, but also strengthen the hands of those that are running the race now, and enter into it in thine own heart, for this is the day of destiny and it is a day of blessing.
These things are not commonplace. There is nothing theatrical, nothing coming forth to entertain in the house of the Lord in this day. The Lord hath purged us of all the effects of Hollywood and of all the traditionalism and professionalism. He hath brought forth a people that come to worship the Lord, to hear the word of the Lord, to speak the word of the Lord with purity. He hath sought thee out and purged thee of thine iniquities. He hath made thee to walk in sincerity and truth in thy heart and to make thee honest before the Lord, a people given to repentance to seek for the name of the Lord with all of their heart and soul.
Behold what a day the Lord hath brought forth! Rejoice in it. These things that ye contend for, is there not authority resting upon the house of God to use the name of the Lord Jesus with all authority and power? Loose yourselves into the flow! Loose yourselves into your destiny, O house of God!
O house of the Lord, let your spirit be lifted up to be the mouthpiece of the Lord. What shall be the ambition of this generation? What shall they cry for? Shall they aspire to build bigger buildings, to create greater masterpieces? Or shall they aspire for the greatest of all things: to be the mouthpiece of God—to speak the words of the Lord, that they shall speak as the oracles of the Lord in this hour unto the world, and proclaim the testimony of God before the end of this age comes?
Let your heart be lifted up. Seek to sing the songs by the Spirit. Seek to speak the word by the Holy Spirit, to be the people of God, the people of destiny that He hath called you to be. For this has rested upon you, O house of the Lord, like the mantle of Elijah did fall upon Elisha, so the anointing of the Holy Spirit hath come that the ministry of Christ should be completed through you—you, the members of His body in this hour.
There is a vision that the Lord gave with such a startling clarity that it was astonishing. I saw an egg move and crack as the chicken struggled to come out of it. Then the word of the Lord came that the ministries, including the apostolic ministry, have not been thrust upon the earth clearly and freely, but they have been encased, as in a shell. It has been necessary for the people of God to have faith, for the ministries themselves to have faith, and for us to labor.
If a chicken did not have that shell, or if that shell were removed artificially at the proper time, the chicken would never live—it would die almost immediately. It is very necessary for that little chicken to exercise itself as it breaks forth into the new realm of life it is ordained to live in. So it is also in the ministry: God has brought sons to the birth. The Old Testament cried, “Many sons are come to the birth and there is not strength to deliver” (II Kings 19:3), but today there is a strength to deliver. The sons are come to birth.
We can look back and see the many years we’ve struggled and labored. All of this has caused the strength of the ministries to be such that as they encounter the nations, and all of the satanic hosts coming against the powers of God, they will already have been conditioned. They have been born and tempered in the fire. And so it is with all of you and with the ministries who have come forth with a great deal of opposition.
From the very beginning the Lord told me that in ministering to those who would come into ministries, they should have help and clear guidelines at the beginning and then a minimum of ministry from that time on. Why the minimum of ministry? Because that’s the only way they thrive. Every time we have given too much attention to people in this walk, we have lost them. It is very essential that you chickens break out and take hold of the burden of prayer and intercession.
That’s why the violence is necessary. God is not deaf; He has given you the promises. He has given you the inheritance, but you must rise up in that faith which appropriates, that faith which makes it happen. Violence of spirit will cause the devils and the principalities to tremble and the will of God to be brought forth in the earth.
Let not thy heart faint within thee, but humble thyself continually before the face of the Lord. For when thy ways shall please the Lord, He shall make even thine enemies to be at peace with thee. He shall cause thee to flourish and prosper in everything He hath set before thee to do when He perceiveth that they spirit is right before Him. When thou shalt walk with cleanness of hands, with openness of heart, and with humility of spirit before the Lord, shall He not bless thee? Shall He not bring to pass all of the good words that He has spoken over thee? Let thy striving be with deep humility. Let thy striving be with repentance.
A man should not say in his heart, “Behold, I know of no thing wrong in my heart.” He is not acquitted by this, but he should seek the Lord and cry unto Him and say, “Lord, try me and see if there be any wicked way in me, that I may be a faithful steward of those things that you would lay within my hand; that I shall not go about with vain ambition, or any greed even undetected by my own heart, but I shall work to the glory of the King and for the advancement of the kingdom with all my heart.” And so let it be with every man that hath to do with the ventures that come forth, let it be done unto the glory of God alone. Let every man be humbled before the Lord, for it is a day of emptying out.
The day of the end of all flesh has come, and the beginning of these days of walking wholly in the spirit are before thee, that thou should be a people without rebuke in the midst of a sinful and a wicked generation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, proclaiming the word of life.
Behold, thou hast not run in vain, O house of the Lord, for the Lord hath constantly dealt with thy heart to bring thee into readiness and into faith, to make thee a people given to great sacrifice, to make thee a people abounding in the labors of the Lord. Behold, the Lord hath wrought this within thee.
Let pride not enter into thy heart, but let the Lord complete the work that hath been begun within thee. Thou shalt be an example to those flocks that shall arise all over the world. Men shall rise up and bless thee because of thy faithfulness to the word that has been committed unto thee. Thou hast shared thy bread with the multitudes, and thou hast labored to bring forth thy light unto those that dwell in darkness, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon thee, if thou turn not to the right hand nor the left, but abound to do the will of the Lord with all of thy heart.
Is it now a day that ye stand on the threshold of things that ye have not witnessed before, and thy heart within thee doth leap by the voice of the Holy Spirit? Thou art come to that last lap, and thou art ordained to be conquerors and winners in this race. Therefore, if thou hast not done so, lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily entangle you. Run with patience, run with endurance, press in because thou hast come thus far in order that thou shalt possess wholly. Know ye not that many run, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that thou may receive the prize.
Let there be a humility in our hearts before the face of the Lord to do that which is right in His sight: to humble ourselves before the Lord, to have a tender conscience. Very rarely have things come to pass in the body in which you notice those who are covering up, trying to see how much they can get by with. They think they are sinning in secret. They think they have hid their ways from the face of the Lord, but his is not so, for the Lord hath made it so that thy brother’s and even thine own heart is transparent before one another. The days of pure love are returning, in which “thou knowest even as thou art also known of the Lord.” You cannot hide your way form the Lord, nor can you hide your way from the Lord who dwelleth with thy brother or thy sister. Surely the Lord within him shall see, the Lord within him shall discern, and he shall know thy need; not to judge it but to cry out to the Lord for mercy for thee. Then shall there be a house without bloody hands, without guilt, and without deceit, that shall walk before the Lord in sincerity and in truth.
O house of God, the Lord hath brought thee forth and thou art under His gaze continually. Thou art in His sight that He should search thee out and know what is in thee, to know even thy thoughts afar off, and to order all of His dealings before thee. Thou shalt experience them so that thy way may be made perfect before the Lord, that ye may not stumble and become a casualty in the days of darkness and judgment which lie before the whole world.
The wicked one hath desired thee and he hath assaulted thee continually by day and by night, yet the hand of the Lord hath been strong upon thee, O house of the Lord, to bring thee forth and to make thee more than conquerors through Him that loved thee. Thou has prevailed over principalities and powers. Thou has prevailed over witchcraft, over all of the things of Satan that have come against thee.
Thou art standing today a naive, simple people walking in purity before the Lord. Forsake everything that is an abomination in the sight of the Lord. Cleave unto Him with all of thy heart. Pray without ceasing; intercede with groanings which cannot be uttered but by the Spirit. Come forth before the face of the Lord to be His people, and the Lord shall bless you. He shall establish you, and the memory of God’s people in this hour shall abound to the generations and centuries of the kingdom to come. They shall look back and bless the people who were faithful in all their ways before the Lord, who did abound in the things of the Lord, who were not enemies of the cross, but cheerfully did they deny themselves and take up their cross to follow the Lord.
Walk ye before Him, O ye children of the Lord. Seek not thine own way, but seek the way of Him that hath called you. He that hath possessed you, a peculiar treasure in the earth. He hath caused you to come forth as His kings and priests in the earth. Rejoice in it, and enter into it with all thy heart.
Count no price too great to be paid, even to the laying down of thy life, that thou shalt be found in this company that shall not break ranks nor thrust one another through: a company before whom all of the hosts of darkness shall flee and every mountain shall be brought low and every valley shall be filled. The Lord shall make perfect thy way. He shall lead thee forth into victory, for He hath ordained that thou shall walk as more than conquerors. In the day of judgments shall not the people of the Lord know His victories and His mercy? Even those who have walked half-hearted, with the Laodicean heart, shall be rebuked when they see that the Lord hath spared those from the judgments who hath cleaved wholly unto the Lord and sought after Him with all their heart.
Habakkuk witnessed what God was going to do. He had witnessed the woes which were pronounced upon the Chaldeans, but also that God was going to destroy His own people first. He had come to the place where he didn’t know what to do. He said, I heard and my inward parts trembled; at the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, and in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, for the people to arise who will invade us. Habakkuk 3:16. It is hard to understand what Habakkuk had to prophecy. He prophesied things that were very, very difficult for him to prophesy, and all he could do was pray.
His third chapter is a prayer. O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy. Habakkuk 3:2. And God did. The greatest judgment swept through that generation very shortly. Those things came to pass in the days of Habakkuk, yet he ends knowing that there is no hope for his people by saying that he is going to still rejoice in the Lord, while he sits with his bones decaying within him for fear, waiting for the invader to come, knowing God’s word would be true and that within a very few short years it would all be over.
We are not faced with that situation today. We are facing a time in which God is speaking of a remnant that will come forth to proclaim His gospel and bring His victory to the ends of the earth. We are not facing the day of the Lord as in the Old Testament when it was a day of clouds with no ray of hope. We are facing the day of the Lord which sees an end to all of man’s kingdom and the coming of Christ’s kingdom. We are looking forward to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. The symbolism of Revelation is that He will come leading all those hosts on horses which follow Him. We want to be among that number.
We are waiting for judgments in a sense, because we know that this condition in the world must end. It has to be brought down, it must come to an end and God will judge it, When you see it fall, don’t say: “Oh my, what a loss, what a loss!” When the kingdom is established upon the earth, you’ll see that none of the old could remain. It won’t be very many years until all the achievements that man has made in the years of human history will have been taken away, and we’ll find none of them left.
The only thing man has ever done, and done in the will of God which will remain is that when the King stands before us, He will have the marks in His hands and He will still bear the scars of His suffering. “Whence did you receive these?” Zechariah asked. “These I received in the house of My friends” (Zechariah 13:6). That’s the only thing that will stand.
We look up and say, “Lord, let it all pass; bring forth Your will in my life. I only live to do Your will, O Lord.” Say it in your heart; give yourself wholly to Him once more. Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes me walk on my high places. Habakkuk 3:18, 19. That is a beautiful note for such a sad book. It ends with a ray of hope.
If you are discouraged or depressed, turn away from that discouragement, and look to the Lord. If you are downcast and heavy in your heart, repent, and look up unto Him that hath called you because He is faithful, having begun this good work in you, He is able to perform it unto the day of the Lord. Look up to that Author and Finisher of your faith. Turn away from everything within you of heaviness, everything that has been conditioned to defeat. Be strengthened by His life that He gives you. His life that He gives is the life of the world.
By His flesh and by His blood be strengthened, O thou creation of God! Be ye brought forth again, ye mighty creation of the Almighty God that hath been born and begotten and created by His hand; for thou art His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto the good works which God hath before ordained that ye should walk in.
Let the bread of Communion that is blessed, be to us the body of Jesus Christ, given and broken for us to nourish the inner man and enlighten our eyes to see the hope of His calling. Let the wine that is blessed be like the blood of Jesus Christ, fresh and alive, as though the earth were receiving it from the cross this very hour, so let it be fresh and real to us, mighty in its working and power to draw us nigh unto Him by a righteousness not our own, but clothed through this precious blood to stand before Thee, O Father, in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We take this cleansing, we take this anointing as we consecrate this wine of Communion to be the blood of Jesus Christ to us.
Stevens, John Robert: This Week, Volume IV (1973). North Hollywood, CA. : Living Word Publications, 1982, S. 358