Ministering Under An Open Heaven - Part I Series

Ministering Under an Open Heaven - Part I

by Todd Bentley : Jan 22, 2003 : http://www.freshfire.ca

**Holy Visitations**

Isa 64:1-3 “Oh that you would rend the heavens! That you would come down! That the mountains may shake at your Presence.”

When heaven tears open then God comes down in holy visitation that not only affects you but also the nation.

“As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence! When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.”

God is about to rend the heavens and make His self known to whole cities and also nations. My prayer is that God will open the heavens and come down in an extended visitation of presence in your life.

I want to start this teaching with my testimony of a holy visitation and how an open heaven was the beginning of our ministry. Everything that we have need of in our families, ministries, life, new levels of power and provision comes out of the presence of God. I have been traveling now for several years and everything that has been done in this ministry, all the favor, souls, miracles and healing was birthed out of His presence. Several years ago, many of you already have heard my testimony as shared in our 3 tape series “The Secret Place” a must for those who you hungering for what I am about to share in these first two paragraphs of how I had a holy visitation from the Holy Spirit. As a result, at different times during the span of about three months. I would be laid out (slain in the spirit) or as I would rather put it, soaking. I was so overwhelmed with God’s manifest presence like a thick honey cloud. I could do nothing most days but “Be Still” or “Wait on the Lord.” I was blessed from heaven with such an awareness of His divine presence I was forced to the floor and would simply lie in His glory. I call it forced by the weight of His glory into a place of contemplation, times of solitude or just sitting at His feet like Mary. For four to twelve hours a day, I would simply gaze at the Lord’s beauty or as Paul describes in Heb 12:2, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith,” the word “looking” is translated to gaze or stargazer.

Gaze: to turn the eyes away from other things and fix them on something; properly, to stare at,

1) to see with the eyes

2) to see with the mind, to perceive to know

3) to see, i.e. become acquainted with by experience, to experience

4) to see, to look to or study intently

During these extended times of soaking I would receive at times, numerous kinds of visions, dreams, prophetic experiences and visitations of angels sometimes. I often refer to that time in my life as my “soaking season.” God taught me how to dwell and abide in the secret place of His presence (Ps 91:1) I came to understand the power of stillness, quietness, basking, bathing and drinking in His love. I was in a place of surrender and meditation in His presence. I understood here some of the secrets of Brother Lawrence’s life and practicing the presence of God. This is better known today as the silent prayer of the heart or meditation and contemplation.

It was after that soaking season that God called me out into full-time ministry. I received a divine visitation of the Lord. It was as if a person walked in to the room and stood behind me. I could feel His presence over me and heard distinctly, the audible voice of the Lord. I was told exactly how I would be called out and prophesied over in a meeting that evening, deeming that time as my commissioning for ministry and shown in open vision numerous events in the meeting that night as a sign. You could say it happened overnight. In fact that night, that the intensity of the soaking season and times of almost daily revelation ended, though I still continue to live a lifestyle of soaking. This was when God spoke to me. This same evening it happened just like God said that it would. In a public meeting over four years ago a dear woman I had almost no relationship with at that time, and now friend and one of many prophetic voices to our ministry. She received publicly a word from the Lord as I already saw and heard in the morning visitation of the Lord. I was to quit my job and immediately go into the ministry. Here we are some years later, over 20 nations, numerous staff, offices in the USA and Canada and even our missions base for all Africa in Uganda, a multi-million dollar mandate, ministry and vision, crusades of hundreds to hundreds of thousands and numerous blessings and favor of the Lord. I believe we can all experience in diverse ways of course more of God’s blessing, presence and favor. What is the secret to all of us living a prosperous, abundant life, ministry and business? The answer is “The Open heavens” living and ministering under a heaven that’s open above and beneath our feet and lives.