propheticmoments

According to Exodus 37, when the visible cloud descended at the tent of meeting, the people came out of their tents to see and sense the Presence of God.

PROPHETIC WORD, Part I: When the cloud of the Lord’s Presence descends, those who love Him come to the doors of their tents and bow down in order to be present for the manifestation.

The cloud of His Presence, has appeared in our midst in recent years in places and gatherings where God has been welcome and free to be Himself. When this happens, whatever was going on inside your tent, your home, your family or your life, you must put behind you. That presence is more important than any trouble or problem residing within your tent. The New Testament knows this as “seek first the kingdom of God” and all these other things will be taken care of (Matthew 6:33).

Exodus 13:21-22 reads, "The Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people." Notice the quality of motion inherent in the Presence and glory of God. That they might travel. This held true throughout forty years of wandering in the wilderness until they entered the Promised Land. God in His goodness takes us to a destination but you won’t arrive at that Promised Land if you fail to move when the cloud moves.

PROPHETIC WORD, Part II: The cloud has moved. I’ve been around charismatic renewal fifty-one years since I was seven years old and have seen all the movements and their emphases come and go. For more than forty years the emphasis in renewal circles has fallen primarily on personal blessing, personal healing and being filled with the Spirit. Now the cloud of glory has moved from renewal, from physical healing, from inner healing and a focus on self NOT into revival, but into something much more than that.

It’s not that God will stop doing all these things to help and heal the individual, but the cloud has now moved and has shifted the emphasis into the kingdom of God - the will of God done on earth in signs and wonders to win lost souls - where we live beyond ourselves for a purpose greater than ourselves in order to affect and change the world around us by ministering the powers of heaven come to earth. We’ve been about receiving, being healed and being blessed. These things will continue but the order of the day is now the kingdom of God.

We may want to camp out on some past experience, but it’s time to move, to pack up our things and our households and put all the issues of life - blessings, problems, loves, hates, fears, joys, hurts - behind us so that we can make the move. The emphasis has shifted. We'd like to remain where once the cloud rested, but the season has ended. As a result some of us cry out, “Take me back to Egypt. I was comfortable there,” or we wonder what happened to the last move of God that so blew us away. The cloud has moved.

The cloud takes us to unfamiliar places that we’re not prepared to face unless we’ve determined to come out to the door of our tents with our backs to the problems to focus on the glory and then pack everything up to move with Him. We must either trust Him in this or go back to slavery.

Motion and change meant that the glory cloud led Israel out of Egypt where they understood a way of life, where every meal was certain and where they knew where they would sleep at night. It was a familiar but comfortable misery. God therefore led them out of slavery directly into a place of exposure, danger and risk where they could only survive and win if they trusted God. Unless the Lord provided, they couldn’t even feed themselves.

God therefore moved Israel from a comfortable slavery in Egypt into an uncomfortable freedom. Similarly, today God constantly moves us out of the comfort zone and out of spiritual slumber in order to keep us awake and alive to do us good. If we don’t grow, we die. There’s a destiny for us to step into that will overwhelm all other issues in life.

Revival ends when God moves and His people don’t follow because they’ve camped out on what God used to be doing or because they’ve surrendered it and they don’t see or accept what He is doing now. As a result they resist the shift and miss the glory.

We have entered upon a strategic time when we must move beyond the focus on personal healing and restoration – which has been the emphasis for most of my life - into the kingdom of God. The cloud of glory has moved into the age of the kingdom of God where we must cross boundaries and minister the power of the kingdom of God to a world that doesn’t know Him. If you don’t pack up everything and move with it, you stink up your house and die. Destiny is at our doorstep.

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by Pastor R. Loren Sandford
foreword by James Goll

Refreshingly candid and down to earth, longtime renewal leader R. Loren Sandford provides a life preserver for anyone struggling with burnout. Far from a formulaic approach, Loren discusses the successive stages of woundedness and burnout and plumbs the depths of what is often referred to as "the dark night of the soul." This book flows from Loren's own experiences with burnout and his struggles to deal with them--even as a member of the first family in inner healing.

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