I have a burning word for the hour on my heart that I want to unravel by sharing a few of the encounters and visions that birthed it. I feel the Glory even now as I write this and I know that if you and I catch what God is saying through words like this and other words of awakening we will see what we have only dreamt of for the body of Christ become a manifested reality. I pray that more than just reading a word, that this would receive the impartation for the greater hunger this word carries and the revival fire you were created to live with every day.
THERE HAS TO BE MORE!
I want to be honest. I haven’t been satisfied for a long while now, and I could pretty much say I have been like this my whole life. Always peering around the corner curiously wanting to see what was to come and living in the tension of the two, but the LONGING for more that myself and many others are experiencing right now has been very different. One morning in early December I became so overcome with the presence of God that out of me came this cry of “I want more Jesus, I want more!”. It was not saying that He was not enough or that I was ungrateful but It was something He was doing in me to reveal the untapped vastness of His person, His glory, that I was not yet experiencing or seeing others experience.
It was a dissatisfaction that ran so deep that it seemed like all other appetites evaporated or waned instantly in light of the hunger that was erupting from my spirit. God began to show me that in this season he is rolling back the curtain and the veil so we can see what is available. He is calling the church out of stagnancy and “church as usual” to develop the appetite we were designed to have. For the unlimited riches of his glory!
“The fading ministry came with a portion of glory, but now we embrace the unfading ministry of a permanent impartation of glory” – 2 Corinthians 3:11
WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, WAIT
This radical hunger sent me into a season of deep abandon to the secret place but I would find that I couldn’t seem to leave. If I did get up too early I would hear “wait, wait, wait, wait, wait” and I knew exactly what He was asking of me. In 2006, I was so hungry for the Lord that I decided I would lay down in my living room every night listening to worship until God showed up. I wasn’t sure my plan would work but I had nothing to lose. After a few weeks and I had finally removed all frustration, doubts, and ME out of the way, I began encountering Him in a way I never thought was possible. He became real and His FIRE consumed me. Night after night He would come as I waited in his presence and just loved on me. It was less about what I brought and more about just making room in my life for Him to come, and that season marked me for the fruit I am seeing now.
I feel like we are in a season of God pouring out something fresh but if we get busy and distracted we may miss what He is wanting to give us. He is speaking to you today to come and wait at his feet, hearing His words cascade over you like Mary of Bethany. Jeremiah 33:3 says
“Call unto me and I’ll show you great and unsearchable things you do not know”.
The very things you have desired from God come in the waiting. In the REST. Are you willing to wait?
“Jesus instructed them, “Don’t leave Jerusalem, but wait here until you receive the gift I told you about, the gift the Father has promised. For John baptized you in water, but in a few days from now you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit!” Acts 1:4 TPT
The Greek word here for “wait” means to “Stay focussed, fixed, and linger”. What God wants to ADD to you in this season of acceleration and harvest as you stay FIXED on Him!
JOIN ME IN THE TENT OF MEETING
During a recent night of spending time with the Lord I heard Him say “Join me in the tent of meeting!” which sounded strange to me because that is exactly what I was doing in that moment. But what I discovered uncovered a glorious revelation.
The tent of meeting was the meeting tent where Moses would meet and commune with God. This tent was constructed outside of the camp and when Moses would visit, the Glory cloud would seal the front of the tent. The tent of the congregation was another tent that the children of Israel had that was inside the camp and was the public house of God but was more to do with ritual and duty than it was for the intimate conversation of the tent of meeting.
This revelation rocked me because the tent of meeting was OUTSIDE of the camp! It required going beyond ritual and duty and paying the price to venture beyond the norm to pursue His face!
Eric Gilmour once said in reference to encountering God in corporate worship “The public touch must lead to the private kiss” and God is longing for us to come and be kissed by the KING!
INVITATION TO THE UPPER ROOM
A few short weeks after I had an encounter in worship where I was walking up a spiraling staircase that seemed endless until I reached a small room like an attic. I then watched as other hungry people began filling the room and kneeling, lying down and worshipping God. Suddenly what I imagined what Pentecost of Acts 2 looked like started to take place. There was a mighty roar of wind that swept through the room and joy broke out. People were laughing, crying, dancing, and celebrating Gods goodness. I said to the Lord “What is this?” and He says “The Upper Room Company” as I continued to watch the people singing, prophesying, and declaring the kingdom. I was so deeply moved and felt like I was experiencing a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit and FIRE!
I began to hear a word well up in my spirit “Consecration” which means “to make holy or to dedicate to a higher purpose”. The spiral staircase seemed long but was a small price to pray for what would meet me as I got to the place He was pouring out His Spirit afresh! I believe the “upper room company” represents a people that are driven beyond convenience to live for a higher purpose and just as the children of Israel were instructed to keep the fire burning in the temple, God is saying the same thing to us. “Encounter and be filled with my Spirit, and never let the fire go out!” It’s a consecration to live dedicated to being a habitation, a “tabernacle” for God that is always ablaze in our love for Him!
“The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out” Leviticus 6:13
Just as in the In the old covenant the cloud and fire would be with the children of Israel as a sign of God’s abiding presence, in the new covenant we become FILLED with the Holy Spirit and FIRE, baptized, immersed, and saturated in His abiding presence and power. But will we go venture beyond the bounds of the norm to really experience the Spirit without measure in this season?
IT’S A CONSECRATION FOR THE NATIONS!
I believe this consecration isn’t just a calling to live deeper lives dedicated to the Lord but it’s a fresh mantling for the nations! Jesus spoke this powerful verse below;
“But I promise you this—the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you will be filled with power and you will be my messengers to Jerusalem, throughout Judea, the distant provinces —even to the remotest places on earth! Acts 1:7
You can’t be IMMERSED in Him without also receiving a call to the nations. It’s a mandate that operates out of the box and confines of just localized thinking and activates your destiny and purpose from the standpoint of eternity! I see these mantles being placed upon those who choose to put their world on hold for the sake of the Kingdom. Those who lay down their agendas, plans, and decide to be ALL-IN for God.
LOSE YOUR SAND-BAGS
Just recently as I was worshipping the Lord I had a vision of a hot air balloon that is being fired up to take off but it was being held down by sand-bag weights all around it, and Lord says “You have to lose your sand-bags to ascend”, and then I began to see many obstacles in the Spirit that many of us experience when God is inviting us to ascend. To my surprise, they were not just fears, worries, and concerns, but more to do with holding onto old patterns and ways of thinking, not wanting to shift from the way God was moving to the new way He was flowing and taking us. These sandbags were also the mindsets of wanting to stay behind the wheel and control the direction of our lives, the process, and orchestrate the outcomes. But not yielding to the Holy Spirit stops fruit. Its an interesting thought that you can look like you are full of fire and ready to go but without letting go of the old and surrendering to the shift, you stay grounded.
I felt a deep conviction that God was showing me that ministry was also a major sandbag and weight holding many leaders back who were more loyal to building their own than surrendering to the direction of the Spirit. LET GO, and watch Him build and increase you beyond your own means.
There is a SECOND YES in this season that God is inviting us to. It is the laying down of anything that stands in the way of what God is moving us into and picking up the mandate to be burning hot fiery lovers of God that are not moved by the desires and things of the world but are moved by the desires, appetites, and longings of heaven!
IMPARTATION OF HUNGER AND FIRE
More than ever before God is fulfilling Joel 2:28-29;
“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women I will pour out my Spirit in those days”
The Spirit of God is falling mightily upon a generation that are seeking His face and He is activating them for the HARVEST.
If you read this and you felt the deep stirring of the Holy Spirit I pray that right now you would receive this fresh baptism of Holy Spirit and fire upon your life. I pray that you would have a renewed hunger for Him and that every roadblock and obstacle that has been standing in your way to distract you would fall away in Jesus name! He is BRANDING His people afresh in this hour, calling us beyond the norms and shores of spiritual mediocrity and complacency into the depths of the victorious life In Jesus, filled with His Spirit, and powerfully awoken in our destiny! Upper Room Company this is your commissioning!!
Nate Johnston
Nate & Christy Blogg