A series of words and visions were revealed to me during a recent conference we attended. The meeting took place in a large tent in the middle of a vineyard. Gathered together with us were about 500 exceedingly hungry people who were seeking the Lord in prayer and worship. At times the presence of the Lord seemed to be a tangible substance that you could reach out and touch. Being a lush, I just dove in and soaked.

I’m not really sure where to even begin, so much happened. From the very start, the Lord was giving me words for people and tidbits of truth into His world. I spent the second night in deep travail, which continued for at least two hours after I attempted to go to bed. I just laid there, half doubled up, with wave after wave coming from somewhere above my stomach as my husband laid hands on me and prayed. About 2:30 in the morning (we had to be back at the conference at 10:00), I asked him to please stop praying - he did, but it didn’t help.

During the beginning of worship the next day, I asked the Lord if today heaven and earth could meet and His Glory could come in an even greater measure. Immediately I heard Him say, ‘They have already met, where does my spirit reside?” Having felt the waves of birth pains coming from the middle of my body the night before, I knew the answer. The Lord then said, “You are all here looking for something to come when it is already here. It is up to you to release it, from you shall flow rivers of living waters.” I wanted to stop everything and everyone and proclaim what I had just heard. Since that wasn’t appropriate, I released what was within me and figured it would have to do for everyone else. Immediately, in my spirit, I saw the heavens open. The tent seemed to disappear and I could see pretty little clouds in a beautiful blue sky. I saw the sun and felt it’s warm rays as they fell on me. It felt like it was approaching 90 degrees in the tent, yet under the sun I saw in my spirit it suddenly became pleasantly warm, it was no longer hot. I could feel a cool refreshing breeze every now and then (there was no cool breeze in the natural). I opened my eyes to see if I was staring through the tent at the sun or if there was some kind of light there. There were neither, in fact the sun was well behind me and the surface of the tent was rather dark. I closed my eyes again and immediately the sky, clouds, and the sun reappeared. As I continued to look around, I saw mountains surrounding me in the distance. I saw something different every way I looked, as there seemed to be a full panoramic view. I could even see behind myself. As I looked around, I wondered if I could go there. Suddenly, I seemed to be part of the sky and could feel the wind blowing directly on me as if I were soaring like a bird. After a while I felt like I was standing on firm land again. I just stood there with my arms outstretched looking around. I have never experienced anything like this before. There was NOTHING separating heaven and earth. I seemed to be a part of this peaceful, free, safe place. I have never known such freedom. My very soul smiled, I couldn’t wipe that smile off my face, even in the natural. I danced in the spirit with the other people I began to see around me in this place. As I danced in the spirit I also danced in the natural (dancing was new for me). I could see there was immense power in this dance. Strongholds toppled around us. I had entered a place of power I had never known - we LIVED in a place of freedom in our spirits. It was beautiful and it was very, very real.

Believe it or not, I am a very logical person. Having had numerous experiences with God, I was not shocked by what I was seeing, but my logical self spoke up and said, “open your eyes and make sure you’re not imagining this”, which I did. The tent was still extremely hot and the surface of the tent was still dark. I closed my eyes again and was immediately back in that beautiful place. I stayed there this time until worship was over. I asked the pastor of the church that was sponsoring the conference if he had ever felt his church was under an open heaven. He said that up to this point he had not. I shared just a little of what I had seen. Several people came up to my husband and I later that day and commented on the way we were worshipping. I was amazed they noticed that much difference.

We returned to the meeting that night. Worship began and I expected the same freedom I had felt that morning. NOTHING, in fact there was one of the strongest feelings of spiritual warfare around me that I have ever felt. I began asking God what we were battling. He was being quiet so I just starting praying in the Spirit. After about 20 minutes I heard the Lord say, “The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is within YOU, release it”. I have read this and heard men talk about these words before, but hearing the LORD say them “to” me said something I had never comprehended before. WOW!  I released His Spirit from within me. The Lord never did tell me what we were battling that night but I will NEVER forget His words to me!

RELEASE! Such a simple word. Passages of scripture flooded my mind. I felt that perhaps I could now begin to grow in the power I had been hearing of and praying about but had to this point not walked in. The Lord had been showing me through His Word these things but they seemed so very far off and unattainable. Such verses as,

• “Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, ‘The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or “See there!’ For indeed, the Kingdom of God is within you.” (as stated in Luke 17:20-2 1)

• “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38)

• “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11)

• “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18),

• and so many, many more...

The Lord was impressing upon me that it was His intention for His people to live in victory. The people I was seeing in this vision lived in that victory yet I was there along side of them, partaking of it with them. I have been seeking this for some time and have been continually subjecting myself to God’s cleansing of “self’. God is in the process of doing just what His word says He will do. He is transforming His church into the image of His son Jesus. He is preparing His end time church. “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16).  God intends to fill His temple with His glory as He did the tabernacles of old. “WE” are the temple He is preparing - “WE” will be filled with His glory. “WE” are called to be “the bride without spot or wrinkle” (Eph. 5:25-27).

He impressed upon me that when we are able to grab hold of this message as a corporate body, we will begin to live in a place of power and freedom we have to this point never comprehended. He was showing me that this was something we can grab hold of now - not something we have to wait for death to find. When Jesus died on the cross He made this possible. This is not a new thought, read the Bible - it talks about this everywhere you look. “It is finished” (John 19:30) and “by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). He was showing me in the two experiences, that He came to set us free and had equipped up with the means to accomplish it. WOW! “When we received the Holy Spirit, we received POWER” (Acts 1:8). Today most of God’s church is vividly living out what we were distinctly told not to do, “Having a form of godliness but denying its power...” (2 Tim. 2:5). Right before Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead He said, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40).

We returned the next morning and as I began to worship, I immediately found myself standing under that glorious open heaven, feeling the wind of the spirit blowing over me. Tears flooded my eyes as I experienced the love and victory the Lord has waiting for us.  I was dancing with the Lord; it was glorious. Between the worship and the message, the Lord told me to tell the pastor more about what I had experienced. The pastor received it well as this kind of experience was not unusual in his church and stated that “It was a good word”. I was not surprised when the guest speaker gave the same message the Lord had revealed in these visions. He used the words “The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is within you” at least 5 times. These words had not yet been mentioned during the conference by any of the speakers. He also talked about our responsibility to enter into those things that Jesus had given us when He died. What are the chances. My God is a miracle working God. 

There is a saying ‘The proof is in the pudding”. This is very true and in our case came within two more days. The night we returned from our trip, my stepson was suddenly unable to breath. This had never happened before and my husband called to me to come help him. As I responded, the Lord told me it was asthma and to come against it in His name. I stepped up to the boy and with a new found strength proclaimed, “In Jesus name, spirit of asthma leave him now, breathe.” He was instantly healed and could breath again. WOW! 

I began and finished writing this account two days after we returned from our conference, but today is the third day and I must add to it already.  Right before Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave He said to the people present, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:20).  I have seen His glory displayed in my life once again. It happened in a way that one would neither expect or believe for on a normal day. Yet nothing seems to be “normal” in my life or my relationship with God anymore - so I just “believed”. 

In the beginning of the summer God had told us to plant a garden which we did. It thrived despite a marked lack of sun this summer. It is late July as I write this and when we left for the conference last Tuesday the first tomatoes were just beginning to turn red. God had asked us to give these “first fruits” away. We consider this God’s garden and were anxious to do so. When we arrived home we ran up the hill to check on God’s garden and to our horror found that several of the tomato plant’s stems had turned black and many had bent in half, the leaves were wilted and lifeless, and one plant’s fruit had literally rotted on the vine. But this was God’s garden, we were to give these to His people. I could not accept it. I started praying for His tomato plants. I knew what was wrong with the plants as my father had planted tomatoes in a different part of our land years ago and the same thing had happen to them. It is called verticillium wilt and it is a fungus present in some soils. There is no remedy for a plant attacked with it - in essence it is a death sentence. But God had asked us to plant the plants exactly where we had done it - it was His garden - His garden could not die. The next day I rushed up the hill again and found them unchanged. My husband asked me how they were doing. I told him that I was still having faith that they would be healed. The next morning they were still unchanged - in fact they looked worse if that could be possible. As I prayed for them again I heard the Lord say, quit praying “for” them and release My Spirit “upon” them. How very quickly we forget. Remember, I had just seen our son healed instantly. I repented and started speaking life to the plants. I laid hands on them and told them they would live and would produce much fruit. They just sat there, wilted. I did this a few times throughout the day. The same afternoon I went up to see how the tomato plants were doing and found that stems (still black in places) had regained their strength and that the leaves were again receiving water and were no longer wilting. The tomatoes still on the vine were now all turning red and looked beautiful and perfectly healthy.

"Did I not say to you

that if you would believe

                 you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:20 nkj)

Believe!

Believe!

Believe!

God is doing a work all around us,

it is up to “us” to BELIEVE!

NOTHING is impossible for our God. Some things may seem impossible for us to believe, but for God, there is absolutely NOTHING He can not do. There is NO DISEASE He cannot heal. There is NO PERSON He cannot bring into His kingdom. There is NO SITUATION in our lives He cannot change.

Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:23,24).

We too must come to the Lord with this kind of heart. NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING is impossible for God. I’m not saying it is automatic, I’m not saying it is easy for us, but I am saying that it is POSSIBLE.