Introduction
The best thing that can happen to anyone is for the Almighty God to visit that person. Your life can never be the same after a divine visitation. The change we need in our lives, family, church and nation will surely come when God visits us.
DESIRE CONTINUOUS VISITATIONS FROM GOD
If a person visits you too frequently, the person can become a pain in the neck or a pest. This is why Proverbs 25:17 advises us not visit our neighbor too frequently. You can get weary of peoples visits, but you can never get weary or tired of God visiting you. In fact, the more God visits you, the better your life. This is why God wants to visit us not just once but frequently and continually throughout our lifetime.
Divine visitation is not a one-off thing. Divine visitation is not meant to be a onetime experience but a continuous experience all through our lives. Abraham is the best example of someone in the Bible who experienced continuous divine visitation. God didn’t just visit Abraham once, but several times in Abraham’s lifetime. From Genesis 12 to Genesis 22, there are at least 8 different instances when God visited Abraham. I pray that this year God will not just visit you once, He will visit you continuously; He will visit you all through the year. I pray also that God’s visitation will not end with this year. For the rest of your life, you will enjoy divine visitation. By the time this year is over, your testimony will be that God didn’t just visit you once or twice, but you had several life-changing visits from God this year.
HOW GOD VISITS
When God decides to visit a person, He can visit the person directly; that is God appearing directly to the person or God touching the person directly. God can also visit a person indirectly. God visits indirectly by sending His servants to a person or by sending angels to the person. Abraham was someone that was blessed to have God visit him in these different ways. God visited him directly; God appeared directly to Abraham at different stages in His life (Genesis 12:1-3, Genesis 12:6-7, Genesis 13:14, Genesis 15:1, Genesis 22:1-2). God also visited him indirectly. In Genesis 14:18-20, God sent Melchizedek the King of Salem, a priest of the Most High to Abraham. Melchizedek did two significant things that had a positive, life-changing effect on Abraham. Melchizedek gave bread and wine (a special communion) to Abraham. Melchizedek also released a special blessing into Abraham’s life. God also visited Abraham indirectly through angels. In Genesis 18:1-15, God sent three angels to visit Abraham. One may then ask, if you are in a tight corner or you desperately need to get out of a problem, which of these visitations is better? Which carries more weight? Which is more effective? Which would guarantee a faster result or change in your situation, to have God visit you directly or for God to visit you indirectly through His servants or through an angel? Indeed all three are powerful ways of God blessing a person. All three can result in significant changes in your life, can bring about great testimonies. Like it happened to Abraham, whether God chooses to visit you directly or He chooses to visit you indirectly using one of His servants or an angel, because it is God orchestrating that divine visitation, something substantial and exceptional will happen in your life after that visitation. I pray that all through this year, God will visit you directly, He will appear directly to you, He will touch you directly. He will also send His servants to release blessings into your life that will change your story. And He will cause you to experience angelic visitations that will result in your being supernaturally blessed.
BENEFITS OF DIVINE VISITATION/THE NEED FOR A DIVINE VISITATION
We can be praying about something or praying for something for years but we don’t even understand what we are praying about. I know that at different times you must have prayed to God to visit you. God wants us to have a better understanding of what happens when He visits a person, family or place so we can desire and pray more earnestly for a divine visitation for if there’s one prayer you need to pray for yourself this year, if there’s one prayer you should pray all through your lifetime, it is for God to visit you.
A divine visitation results in four very impactful things. When God visits you;
1. You will receive clear direction from God for your life
When God visited Abraham in Genesis 12:1, God gave Abraham specific instructions for his life. The instruction God gave Abraham for his life was so clear. God told him RELOCATE. That was the simple instruction God gave Abraham. God can be that precise, direct and specific when giving divine direction. God told him to leave his country and people. God told him to relocate to another country. This wasn’t a decision Abraham took in the flesh. A lot of people make decisions like this because it’s something everyone close to them or around them seems to be doing. Some others because they are tired of their country and the hardship there relocate. They didn’t receive any clear direction from God, they just went ahead and took such a decision and today even though they have relocated to what appears to be a better place, their life isn’t any better because it wasn’t God that directed them to take that decision.
By divine visitation, God revealed to Abraham the next step he needed to take in his life. This year we need such clear and specific direction from God. When God visited Abraham, he made Abraham understand that at that point in his life, he had no business being in Haran. You may be in a job, business, relationship or country that you have no business with. Divine visitation reveals where you ought to be, what you ought to be doing at specific times in your life. I pray that God will visit us and reveal to us the next step we need to take, the next major thing we need to do to experience a change in our lives and situation.
In Isaiah 48:17, God says He is the One who teaches us what is best for us and who directs us in the way we should go. The Lord will visit you this year and teach you what is best for your marriage, business, career, family and ministry. The Lord will visit you and direct you on the way you should go so you won’t fall into error, be confused, or make decisions you will regret.
2. Divine visitation brings about divine prosperity
Genesis 12:2-3, Genesis 13:14-17, Genesis 15:18-21
When God visits you, it will surely affect your finances. Every time God visited Abraham, there was a significant improvement in his finances. In Genesis 12:4-5, Abraham left Haran with his wife, his nephew Lot, his servants or helpers and all his possessions. Abraham wasn’t a poor man. You could say he was okay financially. But after God visited him in Genesis 12, he became very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold (Genesis 13:1-2). Even if you are okay financially, God can still improve your finances, He can still take you higher financially. Abraham continued to increase financially with each visitation from God. By Genesis 24 after several visitations from God, his servant in Genesis 24:34-35 said “The Lord has blessed my master abundantly, and he has become wealthy…” This is why we need to enjoy a continuous season of divine visitation all through our lifetime. So that our finances can move from one level to a higher level of God’s glory. So God can bless us abundantly and we enjoy fully the abundant life that is ours in Christ Jesus.
Even if you are not okay financially, you are not like Abraham; who one can’t describe as a poor person or someone that was struggling financially. In your own case, you are struggling financially. To even eat is a big problem for you and your family. However bad your finances may be, God can visit you and totally transform your finances. In Isaiah 51:1-3, God uses what He did in Abraham’s finances, to encourage anyone who needs a financial upliftment, anyone who is going through a very dry financial season, a season characterized by debt, lack, financial reproach. If that is your story, the Lord will visit you and make your financial desert like Eden. What God is simply saying in Isaiah 51:1-3 is that I am the same yesterday, today and forever more. What I did for Abraham, I can do for you. I can bless you abundantly. The Lord will visit you and you shall enjoy divine prosperity in Jesus mighty name, amen.
3. Divine visitation encourages you and lifts up your spirit
Are you sad, tired, weary, discouraged or depressed? You need a divine visitation. At different instances in Abraham’s life, God visited Abraham and Abraham was strengthened and encouraged.
- In Genesis 15:1-6, when Abraham was beginning to get discouraged because he didn’t have a child, God visited him and gave him a word to lift up his spirit. I pray that whenever you are feeling down and low and feel like giving up, the Lord will visit you and give you an encouraging word that will lift up your spirit and strengthen you to keep pressing on.
- At another time, God visited Abraham and encouraged him by changing his name (Genesis 17:5-6). Formerly, he was Abram which meant exalted or high father. But God visited him and changed his name to Abraham; father of many nations. God will visit you and encourage you by changing every negative name people are calling you, every negative name associated with you. He will change your name from failure to success, from barren to fruitful, from sickly to healthy. In Isaiah 62:4, God says for everyone who is being called deserted or desolate, He will change your name. If it is in the area of marriage that you are being called deserted or desolate, the Lord will visit you today and change your name. If it is your business or ministry that people are calling deserted and desolate, the Lord will visit you and change the status of your ministry and business.
- God also encouraged Abraham by visiting him to fulfill His promise to Abraham. When God chooses to visit a person, it is because He wants to fulfill a promise He has given the person. In Genesis 12:2-3 and Genesis 12:7, God visited Abraham and gave him a promise. In Genesis 17:1-8, God visited him again to reaffirm the promise He had given him earlier. In Genesis 18:1, 10, God visited Abraham and gave him yet another assurance that he would fulfill his promise to him. Abraham had received several visits from God and each time all God was doing was confirming his promise to Abraham. Abraham had received several confirmations, Abraham hadn’t yet seen any manifestation. This could be your story. God could have been visiting you and each time all He does is to assure you that He would do what He has promised you. He has visited you directly and told you He will do a certain thing in your life. He has sent His servants to you to confirm His promise to you. He could have even sent angels to confirm His promise to you. Yet you haven’t seen the manifestation of that promise and you are getting discouraged. It was a long, difficult journey for Abraham from Genesis 12 to Genesis 21 when he was eventually blessed with the child God promised him. We see from Abraham’s life that the promise may tarry, but it will surely come to pass. If it is God that gave you that promise, you can be assured that it will surely manifest. Is there a promise from God that you have been holding on to? This year the Lord will comfort and encourage you by visiting you and fulfilling that promise you have been holding on to.
- The Lord encouraged Abraham by visiting him and putting an end to the longstanding problem in his life. Barrenness was a longstanding problem in Abraham’s life and marriage. Abraham and his wife Sarah had battled with barrenness for so many years. But God’s visitation terminated barrenness from their home and marriage. The Lord will visit you and put an end to every longstanding problem in your life. That singleness will end this year. Barrenness will end this year. Repeated failure will end this year. Every cycle of rising and falling will end this year. Every stronghold of stagnation will break and give way this year. The reproach you have battled with for years will end this year. That health challenge that is eating you up will end this year.
So this is how God encourages His people. He gives a word of encouragement to lift up your spirit, He changes your name, He fulfills His good promise to you, He puts an end to every longstanding problem in your life. All these, the Lord will do for you this year in Jesus mighty name. AMEN!
4. Divine visitation deepens or strengthens your relationship with God
Genesis 12:6-7, Genesis 13:14-18, Genesis 18:1-2, 16-17
When God visits you, a lot of things will change in your spiritual life or in your relationship with God. A divine visitation is simply a personal encounter with God. Someone that has truly experienced a divine visitation or had a personal encounter with God doesn’t play church, isn’t caught up in religion, doesn’t have one leg in church the other in the world. You don’t have to beg and cajole the person to praise, worship and serve God. The person is deeply rooted in God. The person has a personal and very intimate relationship with God. This is one of the greatest and most important benefits of a divine visitation. It strengthens you spiritually. It moves you from the level of being a regular, ordinary Christian to being a friend of God. That was how God described His relationship with Abraham. Abraham was called a friend of God (James 2:23).
There are several instances in Abraham’s life that show how divine visitation strengthened him spiritually and drew him closer and closer to God. In Genesis 12:7, after God visited Abraham, Abraham built an altar to the Lord. An altar is a place to commune with God and receive from God. After God visited Abraham, he started communing with God, spending more time with God. Building altars to the Lord became a continuous pattern in Abraham’s life (Genesis 12:8, Genesis 13:18).
There are 3 things in Abraham’s life that are evidence of how divine visitation enriched him spiritually and made him enjoy a very close relationship with God.
- Abraham enjoyed a two way communication with God: Abraham had a personal two way communication channel with God. Abraham would speak to God, God would speak back to Him. And when God spoke, He heard God (Genesis 15:1-6, Genesis 18:22-33, Genesis 22:1-18). This is the key to being truly blessed. To be able to hear God when He speaks, when He instructs, directs and encourages. It is one thing for God to speak, it is yet another thing for you to hear Him. God is always speaking, not everyone hears him when he speaks. Several times in Revelation when Jesus was writing to the seven churches, He said “he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says…” The biggest problem of the present day church is that we can’t hear God. We just do the first thing that comes to mind, the things that appear reasonable and logical, the things that everyone else is doing. Few people can confidently say that this step I’m taking, this thing I’m doing, God clearly told me to do it. In Revelations 3:20, Jesus tells us that He is standing at the door of our life. Because now is the day of salvation, the time of visitation, Jesus is already at our door ready to visit us. That’s how close our miracle, healing, deliverance and breakthrough are to us. The change we need is right at our door. But it is only those that can hear God’s voice that enjoy and experience divine visitation. Jesus could have come many times to visit you last year but because you couldn’t hear Him when was speaking to you, you missed His visitation. I pray we all begin to have a closer relationship with God so that when He speaks, we hear. When He comes visiting, we don’t miss His visitation.
- Abraham was empowered for battle and was victorious in battle – Divine visitation filled Abraham with spiritual power and authority. We see this in Genesis 14:14-16. His nephew was taken captive and Abraham was able to release his nephew Lot from captivity (Genesis 14:14). When you have a close relationship with God, it will affect those close to you, those connected to you. Because of your relationship with God, those close to you will find themselves being released from all forms of bondage and captivity; evil yokes will start breaking off from their lives. But today, because we are all so busy and don’t really have time to be close to God, our nephews, spouses, children, friends, brethren are in all kinds of captivity and we can’t do anything about it, we haven’t done anything about it. I pray we truly begin to grow spiritually and be filled with spiritual power and authority as we build altars to God, as we draw closer to God, so that everyone around us in captivity can be set free. So that any area of our lives in captivity will be released. Abraham was also able to recover ALL that his nephew Lot had lost (Genesis 14:15-16). Make up your mind to draw closer and closer to God with each passing day so the Lord will train your hands for war and fingers for battle (Psalm 144:1), so you can recover ALL that the enemy has taken away from you and your family.
- Abraham received divine secrets – After God visited Abraham in Genesis 18:1-2, God shared a divine secret with Abraham. God told Abraham what was going to happen to Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:16-17). God is still doing this. God is still revealing to some people divine secrets about an individual, family, country and even the world at large. How about you and I? What secret had God shared with us about our personal lives, family, church, nation or the world at large? Those who have divine secrets are those who have chosen to go the extra mile to have a very close relationship with God so they can hear God’s heart beat.
Do you need a divine visitation today, this month, this year? Are you hungry for a personal encounter with God so you receive clear direction for your life and enjoy divine prosperity? Do you want God to visit you and fulfill His promise to you and terminate every longstanding problem in your life? In Revelation 3:20, Jesus says He’s already at the door of your life ready to visit you. He wants to come in and bless you. If the door of your heart and life is not open to Jesus you will miss your seasons of divine visitation. Open wide the door of your heart to Jesus, so He can visit you today with His salvation, deliverance, healing, restoration and full redemption package.
