~ As It Is Written~
I first accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior when I was 13. Then when I was 25, I rededicated my life to Christ. This is when I experienced a great move of God in my life.
One day shortly after this rededication of my life, while studying the life of Paul the veil was torn when the Most High introduced Himself to me with these words as I heard with my ears, "I am the God of Paul". God, at that moment, became a living being to me destroying the yoke of every religious idea I had ever had about Him. In that moment, my life was changed forever. That night as I lay down to sleep I immediately went into a trance vision where I was filled with the Holy Ghost and received a commissioning from the Lord.
[trance vision]
I was walking in from the field behind our home and as I looked around I could see animals of all kinds coming out from the field as well. All walking towards me. I started walking faster to the house and as I did a mighty wind started blowing out of the North. By the time I reached out to touch the door knob the mighty wind pulled me back and I could hardly stand as it was engulfing me, filling my lungs and every once of my being. Then suddenly there was a quietness within the wind (even though the mighty wind was still blowing...still gusting) A calmness, a stillness and I heard a voice saying, "Do not silence your speaking". I opened my mouth to try and talk. I found I could hardly form words. I continued to try and each time I did my voice got stronger and stronger. My voice got louder and louder until suddenly I was shouting “IN JESUS NAME”. and as fast as the mighty wind came the wind was gone.
[end trance]
Since then, I have experienced such incredible times with the Holy Spirit. I have also experienced some great heart aches…learning the sacrifices of walking with my Father. For he is worth it all.
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This journal is the product of a new season in my life. My fruit of obedience. Let me explain. In January 2011, I was coming out of a very long, very sifted season. I was truly stretched beyond anything I had known up until that point. Weary and broken, I bowed on my knees worshiping the Lord and I heard Him say, "I will open heaven and feed you with manna." While that completely got my attention I was not to thrilled about this word "Manna" as I understood it then. I had already felt like I had wondered forty years in the wilderness. I continued to pray and I then heard Him say, "I will make a way, I will direct your path." again my mind went to the wilderness (Insert sigh here!). But, then soon after hearing this the Lord directed me to Deuteronomy 8:3.
“So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.” (Deuteronomy 8:3)
By the later fourth of this two year long lesson after being chastened so many times by the Lord. Finally, I got it...weary and broken the Lord would speak and I would obey. That seems so easily said. But, trust me there is never anything easy about learning obedience. Whew, it is hard work. For these words the Lord would speak would not be pleasant ear tingling words. No, they were harsh lessons about forgiveness and blessings. Forgiving and then blessing at particular times when I didn't want to do either. Thus the word “harsh”.
What I didn't realize at that point was that I had just completed "Boot Camp" and I was starving. Every Cell in my being was starving for more and more of the Lord. It was at this point that the Lord said, " I will open heaven and feed you with manna."
I had finally come to the realization that my LIFE did not come from financial prosperity but from every word that comes from the Lord." I suddenly became very interested in this “Manna” that the Lord promised to feed me with.
“Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.” (John 6:30-32)
From these two verse we understand that manna was bread that came from heaven and it tasted like honey. Jesus said in John 6:51 that He was the living bread and whoever eats of this bread will live forever. Jesus is the true bread from heaven given to us by our Father.
“I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” (John 6:51) \
Ezekiel tasted honey when he ate the scroll given to him by God after which he was able to speak the words of God.
At this point, I had received dreams and visions for years, but I was never able to communicate then Never even able to understood them. It was like I had been handed scrolls but wasn't allowed to unroll them. I wasn't even able to run with them to someone who could. But, God was about to change that as soon after I received this promise from the Lord He quickened a bible study to me that I had taken many years ago. Laying highlighted and starred, in my own hand writing, were these verses from Habakkuk.
“1 I will stand my watch
And set myself on the rampart,
And watch to see what He will say to me,
And what I will answer when I am corrected.
2 Then the LORD answered me and said:
“ Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry. “(Habakkuk 2:1-3)
Immediately, I felt a kinship. As I sat pondering how I had written them so many years ago, yet they are speaking volumes to me at this moment I heard, "Write down all that I show you." So, out of obedience I started journaling. Each day as I would stand my watch and set my self on the rampart to see what the Lord would say to me. What “Manna” would I receive on this day? What began to happen was that through journaling an intense hunger developed as I began to see and understand how the Lord wanted to communicate with me. It became very evident that my time spent in prayer and then journaling the manna handed down to me I was truly dwelling with the Holy Spirit.
