DIVINE VISITATION
Study Text : Luke 1: 26 - 38
Introduction:
- When God visits you, everything about you changes for better and past promises and prophecies are turned into reality.
- Every divine visitation always results in supernatural manifestation. When God steps into any difficult situation in your life, His mighty acts, signs and wonders are inevitable.
- 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 positive and glorious changes we need in our lives, family, church and nation will surely come when God visits us. Divine visitation is not meant to be a onetime experience but a continuous experience all through our lives.
- 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. Example is when He visited Paul and Silas in the prison Acts 16: 25 - 28.
- God can also visit a person indirectly. God visits indirectly by sending His servants to a person or by sending angels to the person. Example is the visitation of Peter in the prison Acts 12: 5 - 12.
- We shall discuss the topic under three sub headings:
1. The Pattern of Divine Visitation
2. The Preparation for Divine Visitation
3. The Products of Divine Visitation
1. The Pattern of Divine Visitation
- There are several accounts in the Bible where God did visit His people. These are pattern of Divine Visitation, and whatever has happened before, we can believe God for it to happen again.
- As we look at these accounts, allow the Spirit of God to ignite faith in your heart, that His Word will be fulfilled in your life in those areas where you need His visitation.
1. Removal of Barrenness in Relation to Fulfilled Promise
Gen 21:1.
- A visitation of God broke the long season of barrenness in Sarah’s life, resulting in fulfillment of His promise and the birth of Isaac.
- We can believe God for divine visitation that will end all forms of barrenness and unfruitfulness in our lives.
2. Removal of afflictions in response to the cry of His People Ex 4:31.
- A visitation of God broke the long season of Israel’s bondage in Egypt. They realized God had not left them alone in their suffering but was intimately concerned for them. So when they cried unto Him, He came down to deliver them by the workings of His power.
- No matter how great and how long the affliction we have suffered in the hands of the enemy, we can experience deliverance through the visitation of His power.
3. Removal of Famine and Scarcity and Provision in Abundance Ruth 1:6.
- A visitation of God broke a long season of famine in Bethlehem, Judah. The testimony of God’s goodness reached a grieving widow called Naomi, who was living in Moab. She moved to that place of visitation and her inheritance and family line was restored there.
- God can visit us as individuals, as families and as nations to remove all lacks and scarcities, and give us abundance. 2 Kings 7: 1 - 2
4. Restoration through His Power, Resulting in Healings and Miracles. Acts 3: 1 - 11.
- A visitation of God broke the long season of paralysis in the life of the man that comes daily to the Beautiful Gate, and launched him into a new life and relationship with God.
- Several miracles, signs and wonders are possible if we can call on God for divine visitation. Healings of all manner of sicknesses, deliverance from all manner of oppressions and restoration of all loses.
5. The Ultimate Divine Visitation in Executing the Salvation Plans. Luke 1:68, 78.
- In the New Testament, Zacharias understood that the ultimate visitation of God to His people was fulfilled in the birth of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
- Every time there is a genuine conversion of soul, there is divine visitation in action. Acts 9: 1 - 10
- We can believe God for divine visitation for the salvation of people in a city, just as it happened in Samaria Acts 8: 1 - 10, or of an individual, as it happened to the Ethiopian Eunuch, or of a family, as it happened to Cornelius Acts 11: 1 - 12.
6. The Outpourings of the Holy Spirit in Fulfilment of His Words Acts 3:19.
- From the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 and throughout church history, we understand visitations of the Holy Spirit to be times of outpouring, bringing refreshing and empowering to God’s people.
- Every child of God needs this visitation in form of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and in form of continual impartation for supernatural manifestations. Mark 16: 16 - 17.
2. The Preparation for Divine Visitation
- When God moves on our behalf, or in the lives of others around us, it is not because we deserve it, but it is on the basis of the blood Jesus shed for our redemption, and the Father’s favour and mercy we received as a result.
- We cannot earn His visitation, but we can position ourselves and prepare to enter into what the Father wants to do in our lives.
- There are many ways by which we can position ourselves and prepare for divine visitation, and these include:
1. Praising God Wholeheartedly Acts 16:25 – 26
- At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.
- One of the things that can bring down the hand of God for a speedy intervention is praise. When we give Him quality praise, we are set for His visitation and intervention in our situations.
- Do you need a speedy intervention of the Almighty in your own matter today, then you have to learn and cultivate the habit of praising God continually. Hebrews 13:15.
2. Fervent Prayer and Fasting - James 4: 14 - 17
- Whenever we come to His presence with fervent prayer and fasting, He will visit to give a miracle. The church gathered to pray for the deliverance of Peter, and God visited him. Acts 12: 5 - 12.
- Even when it seems that nothing is happening, praying time are not wasting time, but seeding time awaiting a great harvest. If we need His visitation in any area of our lives, we must be ready for earnest prayers individually and Congregationally. Acts 4: 21 - 31.
3. Walking in Righteousness and Obedience to His Words Psalms 1: 1 - 3, Hebrews 12:14, Matthew 5:8.
- God can only be seen when our hearts are pure and our hands are clean (Psalms 24: 3 – 4). Holiness is the attribute of God, therefore to be Holy means to live Godly. For that reason, to prepare for divine visitation, we must live Holy and walk in obedience to His words.
4. Exercise a Standing Faith - 1 King 18:41
- One of the ways to bring down the hands of God for a divine intervention is through a standing and unwavering faith in God, His words and His power.
- A man of faith sees beyond the ordinary; he sees with the eye of the supernatural; he sees possibilities in the midst of impossibility. Exodus 14: 13 - 14
- Faith makes us to be confident that what God promises, He is able to fulfil. Faith is one of the important keys to unlocking the supernatural realities. If we must access the supernatural realities, there must be an exercise of unwavering faith. James 1: 5 - 8.
- Divine visitation should not be considered an exception; instead, it can be your expectation as you trust God to increase your faith in Him.
5. Be Faithful and Committed to Kingdom Business Acts 8: 1 - 10.
- One of the reasons God saved us is to glorify His name and profit His Kingdom. God will always stand by people who are faithful to Him in this wise, and they will always enjoy His visitation in their lives.
- The tremendous manifestation of the power of God that Philip experienced in Samaria was mainly due to his faithfulness in expanding the Kingdom of God.
- Every believer and every congregation that can be committed exceptionally to the expansion of His kingdom shall experience His visitation exceptionally.
3. The Products of Divine visitation:
- There are certain things that are seen or experienced that will make us to identify divine visitation unambiguously. They include the following:
1. Supernatural Manifestations
- Divine visitation, always bring supernatural manifestation. When God steps into any difficult situation which human beings thought are impossible, miracles, signs and wonders must surely follow. Gen 3:8, Isaiah 64:1.
2. Divine Restoration
- When there is restoration of what was stolen, lost or destroyed beyond human compression, we are sure that the Lord has visited. 2 Kings 6: 1 - 7
- The lost axe head was restored back supernaturally by the power of the Holy Spirit. Everything lost physically and spiritually can be restored through divine visitation. John 10:10.
3. Conviction and Conversion of Souls
- Divine visitation can be evident in the conviction of sins by those who heard the word of God, and their conversion to God. Acts 2: 37 - 40.
- The massive conversion of souls after the preaching of Peter on the day of Pentecost was an evidence of divine visitation.
4. Manifestation of the Glory of God Matthew 17:1-8.
- Whenever the glory of God is revealed or manifested in a place, it is a sure evidence of divine visitation. This is what happened at the transfiguration of Jesus.
- We can experience such manifestation of the glory of God in our meetings, accompanied by divine revelations and manifestation of gifts of the Holy Spirit.
5. Judgment on the Wicked
- Divine visitation of God can also release judgment on the wicked as seen in the following situations: Korah, Dathan and Abiram, (Num. 16:27-30); Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 18:20-21); Herod (Acts 12:21-23); Cain (Gen 4:9-16); Egyptians and Pharaoh (Exodus 14:23-31).
- We can pray for divine visitation of God upon all unrepentant wicked people and stubborn pursuers.
6. Divine Guidance and Direction from God.
- One of the ways God can visit you is to guide you and give you clear direction on what to do at a particular time or in a particular situation.
- When God visited Abraham in Genesis 12:1, God gave Abraham specific instructions for his life. God told him to leave his country and people. God told him to relocate to another country. This was not a decision Abraham took in the flesh.
- A lot of people make decisions like this because it is 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, will relocate without receiving any clear direction from God. They appeared to be in a better place, but their life isn’t any better because it wasn’t God that directed them to take that decision.
- Divine visitation reveals where you ought to be, what you ought to be doing at specific times in your life Isaiah 48:17.
7. 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.
- The person so visited by God is deeply rooted in Him. The person will experience a better 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.
Conclusion:
- God is always willing to visit His people, but we must be desirous and expectant of His visitation.
- We must understand all that we need to do to position ourselves and prepare for His visitation in every area of our lives.
