Day 20 of "40 Days for 40 Years" 20 Days to Go
We are told in Scripture that young men have visions, and old men have dreams. I am not quite sure where I fit, as Jesus came into my life during 1950. Looking back over these past years, I have been evaluating the word that I received when I was actively called to serve the Lord, and the progress I have made in the fulfillment of this calling.
I am not sure what grade I would receive on a report card, but I still have an active vision of all that the Lord desires to accomplish through my life and ministry in these last days. I have a present sense of urgency that there is more, beyond all that I presently know and understand, that I must yet apprehend.
Many are receiving indications that something is about to happen--beyond anything we have experienced in the past. For those who have an ear to hear, there is a word about a present day, corporate John the Baptist being prepared, through whom the Lord can speak a word that is beyond our present understanding.
"Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness." Luke 3:2
There were none within the Church of that day who could "hear" the word that the Lord desired to speak. Therefore, He called John the Baptist apart, and led him into the wilderness for years of special preparation, that he might be able to introduce Jesus as the Messiah, at the appointed time.
We are close to the end of the Church age, and there is not time for us to be sent into a wilderness for years of preparation. Rather, the Lord is seeking to do a quick work in "making ready" a voice. Some of us, who have come apart to seek the Lord for Himself--away from the places of religious activity, may feel that we are being unnoticed by the Lord, or that we are missing something. But this is the very place where we will personally meet Jesus--if we will patiently wait for the appointed time.
Because the Lord has a "present word" that He desires to speak, the wilderness has become a very important place, in which there is an intensification of the preparation process.
In each time of visitation, the Lord may move quite differently than He did during the previous time when there was a stirring of the Spirit. Therefore, it is possible that those who met the Lord during one of these past times of visitation will become critical, because the present moving of the Spirit is not as it was when they received. We must be careful to intently listen and move beyond our present level of understanding, lest we be found among these.
In 1958, I was blessed to be present during a major visitation, where there appeared visible manifest glory--into which I was caught up, and my life was transformed. Along with this, I literally swam in a fountain of "new wine" that deeply impacted my life. Because this was beyond that which was openly available at that time, this time of visitation was rejected by many.
During 1962, I attended a conference of the "manifest sons of God," with a man who came with pencil and paper, waiting to hear something he could use against them--which they amply supplied. He left critical, receiving nothing, but I left with a deep, inner sense of what the Lord had intended, and as a result, I was given a vision concerning true Sonship, which involves our coming to the end of our self-life, and the giving of our bodies to become a present day expression of the life and ministry of Jesus. These "sons" should have become invisible, so the life of Jesus could become manifest through them. Instead, they came with an agenda to govern the universe for God.
If we have received a true impartation of spiritual life and substance, others will come to see what it is. Thus, our personal experience with the Lord will make room for us. This past Sonship movement failed because they sought a position instead of a relationship, and a reproach was left on the word "Sonship."
The development of a personal relationship with Jesus, takes time and patience, in His presence. At one point of time, I said to the Lord, "I want to grow faster," and I pushed the Lord to so move in my spiritual experience. Soon, I found myself at the point of actively rebelling against the Lord, and I realized what I had done. I was forcing the Lord to take me faster than I was able to assimilate. I then submitted to the rate of spiritual growth the Lord knew I could handle, and prayed for wisdom and patience.
I have considered the lives and ministries of those who are presently successful. In each, I found that there was a unique price that they paid, before there was any outward success. Each had spent time in "the wilderness of preparation," in which they had a personal meeting with the Lord.
We are living in a very difficult day and time in which there are no true statesmen, natural or spiritual. Many of us feel a lack as to our having a sense of clear direction and purpose. But, there is an answer. We must turn aside from all of the religious activity that, if allowed, will consume us--into the quietness of His prepared place (for us) in the wilderness.
Especially at this present time, Jesus is speaking a quickened (life giving), prophetic word that is being heard by those who are cultivating a "hearing ear."
"The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakens morning by morning, He wakens my ear to hear as the learned." Isaiah 50:4
This "wilderness" into which we are being called, has an area that is located (or, that we should locate) within our home--a set apart place where we can meet with Jesus without disturbance. Then, "Morning by Morning" He will come and meet with us.
Here, we will be lifted above our natural hearing, into hearing the "voice of one crying in the wilderness," saying, "Prepare you the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God" (Isaiah 40:3).
Wade E. Taylor
Wade Taylor Ministries
Email: wetbanner@aol.com
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