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- Don Swanger
http://wmprayer.net
Many of us have been experiencing “wilderness” over the last year or more.
Things have been heating up since December of last year.
Frustration has been high and we have found ourselves wondering just
what God is up to. Incredible prophetic words have been
spoken, but we almost don’t want to hear them anymore because when we do,
the warfare just seems to intensify and the fulfillment seems further off.
It has been a time of waiting, and that is the “word” we have been
hearing for the day to day…wait. Wait.
Is God late?
Has He moved His favor to another?
There are some key things we need to understand about this present “season”.
Wilderness is not bondage. When the people had been
delivered from bondage, they began their season in the wilderness.
It was the only path to the promised land…to their inheritance.
They had to go through.
For some, like Joshua and Caleb, their extended time in the wilderness was
not due to their own failure, or God’s disfavor personally.
They spent forty years in the wilderness because a people, an entire
community, failed to recognize their day of visitation and deliverance and
turned away in fear. The forty years was for preparation
of a PEOPLE, and Joshua and Caleb were prepared during that long wait to be
fathers and generals for the next generation.
The Presence of God was close, and Joshua in particular was addicted to time
in that Presence. Forty years of preparation in intimacy
with God.
Battles were fought and amazing things experienced in the wilderness. By the
time they reached
Jericho, word of God’s favor and power had
preceded them, and set their enemies trembling, preparing the way before
them for their entry into the Land and the Promise.
For Caleb, forty years of waiting only honed his warrior anointing.
When given the opportunity to pick his inheritance, he said “I’m only
85 years old. Remember what we saw when we first looked
into the land? That’s what I want.
The people were afraid back then, but I still want it.
Give me the giants! When they’re defeated, I’ll take
that land! Give me the giants!”
John the Baptist was called to the wilderness.
It was the place, the setting of his ministry as
forerunner. A voice crying IN THE WILDERNESS prepare the
way of the Lord. He wasn’t waiting to get out before
beginning His ministry. That is where his ministry took
place.
And according to Mark's account, immediately after
Father spoke so certainly and tenderly, "This is my Son, my beloved, and I
am delighted in Him", the Spirit then seized and drove Jesus into the
wilderness for 40 days.
A season of testing. And warfare. And angelic ministry.
The wilderness is not obscurity. It is just outside the
city. It is just outside the land.
The call to enter in may come at any moment, and the waiting will be over in
an instant.
It is in the wilderness that the Kingdom is proclaimed.
It is in the wilderness that the declarations are made.
Let the mountains be made low.
Let the valleys be raised up.
Let the paths be made straight for the Lord.
The
Kingdom of
God is at hand.
Word # 1
Your days in the wilderness are fulfilled. But your War
has just begun. I am even now giving you new focus.
New clarity. I have been training you to respond
in instant obedience for when My Word comes to move, there will not be time
to hesitate.
Word # 2
The prophecies you have received are not dead. War for
them. Fight for your inheritance. I
am causing you to rise up from your frustration with new energy, faith, and
hope. This winter will not be like the last.
You will be renewed in intimacy and passion with me, and in the early
spring will move into the next phase of your ministry and destiny.
The new season’s beginning will be the new season’s beginning.
~ Don http://wmprayer.net
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Obsessed with His Presence
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When
?
- Don Swanger
http://wmprayer.net/
Some time ago, I was with a couple of brothers from our
local prayer ministry. We has been worshipping and interceding for the
city, the church, and for the pouring out of God’s power and presence. When
we were wrapping up the evening, we spent some time just sitting in silence,
listening and soaking. After a while, one of the brothers looked over at me
and asked, “When?”
“When, what?”
“When will it finally happen?”
“What?”
“The revival. The outpouring. The harvest. The shift.
Whatever you want to call it. We talk about it and pray about it, but
something seems to be holding it back. When will it happen? You’re
supposed to be some kind of prophetic leader. What are you hearing? When?”
Coming from anyone else, I might not have heard this
question in the same way. But this particular brother has a deep passion
for the things of God, and for being in His presence. There was no
harshness here. Only genuine longing. Honest hunger.
“I don’t know how to answer that right now, G.” And even
as I spoke, I looked over at one of the grease boards we use to post prayer
requests. On it was written the word J’lawin. It had been put
there earlier in the week by a friend from Liberia. It means “Inquire of
the Lord”. When you want to know, inquire of the Lord! So we did. It
became our closing prayer and our commitment, to inquire of the Lord,
“When?”
I really didn’t think about it much until a couple of
days later. I had just finished eating lunch in my car in a shopping center
parking lot, and leaned my seat back for what I hoped was a little time with
the Lord and a quick power nap. As I became quiet in my spirit, the
question came back and almost without thinking, I spoke it. One word.
“When?”
The Spirit of God washed over me in waves. I could feel
His presence pulse through my body.
__
“OK, I’m listening.”
__
“When there is unity…of spirit, vision, desire, passion.”
“When you STOP travailing and striving and trying to find
the next step or the missing elusive ingredient.”
“When you STOP praying for revival. LISTEN TO THIS!
LISTEN. GET IT! Revival is the resurrection of something that was alive
and is now dead. There is a resurrection power being realized and released
as a fact of what I am doing in this season. But my plan and desire and
your destiny is for something much different. Much more. More power.
Transformation. A NEW THING. My Manifested Presence and My Manifested Sons
and Daughters. This has never been seen on the earth before. Never. This
is the shift. Fields of Harvest. Fields of Power. Stepping through the
veil into the places where I AM.”
“Step away from strife.
Step away from territoriality.
Step away from striving.
Step away from performance.
Step away from your business and busy-ness.”
“Live and have your every movement and being in My
Presence. In gratitude and immediacy. HILARITOS. Instantaneous
hilarious joy.”
“Listen. Be still. Receive.”
“See the fullness of the heavens. Bulging.
Embrace the baptism of fire. Gather the forerunners.
The sheep without shepherds.”
“Allow the walls to come down. The walls that hold you
in. Walls of friendship, family, ministry, business. Everything that you
put before me. I am calling you to my family and my community.”
In a moment I saw fire unlike any natural fire. I saw
the place to jump without reservation into the roaring fire of HIS
PRESENCE. And I know that we will know it when we see it. We will
recognize those kairos moments when our only right response will be
to jump.
I saw the Dance. The Tabernacle of David. The worship
in the streets and the worship round the throne.
I saw and heard and felt waves. I heard and felt their
rhythms. I saw their ebb and flow ongoing, leaving Zen garden patterns in
the sand on the bottom.
And I knew by the Spirit that we continue to watch and
embrace the passing things rather than the permanent. The Kingdom.
And the Spirit asked, “What does transformation look
like?”
Before I could begin to form a response, I heard, “Gather
the prophets. Gather the forerunners.”
And again, “What does it sound like?”
“What does it feel like?”
“What does it taste like?”
“What does it smell like?”
“These are the right questions.”
“Feed the revolution.”
Love and Let
the Wind Blow,
~ Don
http://wmprayer.net
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Obsessed with His Presence
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