Manifesting Presence of the Holy Spirit

 

When rains fall, rivers run. When rivers run they shift. When rivers shift, the old dirt is carried away and new borders are formed. When new borders are formed, the old borders run dry. When old borders run dry, the trees that once drank from those fresh waters begin to wither and die.

 

The Lord says, “Behold I am doing a new thing! But you must turn in order to see it!”

Rev 1:12 I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands…

The voice of the Lord came from a direction he did not expect or anticipate. For, this man was facing in the wrong direction. Had he been looking in the right direction, he would have been facing towards the voice who spoke to him. Likewise there was no vision at all before this man until he turned to see.

The word of the Lord is to turn from the old so as to see the new thing that is coming. It is time to turn away from old ways of going. Old moves, old religion, past failures and past successes… even yesterdays thing.

God is forever doing a new thing. But we can not see the new thing unless we are supernaturally given supernatural eyes to see it.

Mark 8:23-25 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

In the natural, we are looking in the wrong direction. But in the spirit realm, and then only by the voice of God and then by His release of supernatural vision can we see what is important as to the Kingdom of God.

If we do not TURN, we are just as blind as this man was.

 

Trees in a Swampy Bog

 

I saw a vision of a field of oak trees. There were both young and old trees in this field. They were growing in what appeared to be stagnant old bog water. They were all dying.

The Lord showed me that all of these trees were once planted by a vibrant fresh flowing River. They were thriving on the fresh flowing waters of the River at their feet. However, at some point, the River shifted position, but they did not discern it. So they continued to drink of yesterday’s waters. They were living in the ways of their yesterdays.

When a river shifts position, from where the river once flowed remains an area of stagnant waters, or marshy bog land that remains for many years. Though there may be life in these waters, the fresh waters have moved away leaving only that which can be contained in a small microcosm. It is an exact picture of the small boxes man places God in when we have defined Him based upon past events and experiences; when religion sets in.

Religion can be defined with two words: “Our Past”

In this vision, the large older trees represent old time religious churches that were established in moves of God in generations past. They also represent individual people stuck and dying in that old time religion. The young trees represent churches established and running in moves of the Lord in the recent past such as the Jesus movement in the 70’s, or even say 1994, 2001 or even yesterday! As well, these young trees represent people locked and dying in the same “moves of yesterday.”

God will not be contained by our yesterdays, however good. In fact He will not be contained in any box. Some say that bad religion places God in a box. Really it is the people in that religion that are placed in such boxes, not God. God just doesn’t show up in such places. The result is spiritual death. God just will not be contained by any of man’s natural fleshly definitions.

This vision of trees in a bog is a picture of both religion and the reliance upon the mind of man. It is a vision of a reliance upon old ways. A people placed in boxes of man’s definitions of God. It is a picture of what happens when we have to figure God out, when we have to cranialize what God is doing.

When the mind of man is in the way, or when the fear of man is in the way, the theology can only be but flawed.

But the Lord is always doing a new thing and this new thing is made known by a coming out of a former glory into His new and fresh glory.

He is looking for a people who will stand on the edge of the old glory and look outward in expectation of the new glory to come. Problem is that when “a glory” manifests, we have to figure it out. That causes us to turn around in the wrong direction and look inside at the old thing rather than focusing outward in patient expectation of the new thing.

It is true that whenever God does a new thing, it is from there that most criticism comes, and from those still locked in whatever is the old thing. This is because when we have “figured Him out” we become closed minded to something new that might be around the corner. Because we have “the answer”, when a new answer comes we no longer have eyes to see or ears to hear.

Eyes to see! Oh for eyes to see! Only God can give us eyes to see the new things of the Lord. Revelation is absolutely mandatory! Revelation comes from the revealed word of God by way of the Manifesting Presence of the Holy Spirit. For He is the voice who speaks it! The Holy Spirit is the Councilor who leads us into all truth.

Look again to this Mark passage at how Jesus gave the blind man eyes to see. Jesus first gave the blind man spiritual vision. He then restored the man’s natural vision. Which, then, was the more important gift that Jesus gave this man?

Now I see the vision of the oak trees in the bog again! I see them uprooting! I see them walking! I hear the call of the Spirit voicing the desire of King Jesus to these dying trees, beckoning the oak trees to “come”! Just over the ridge is where the new River is, from where Jesus calls. The trees are uprooting and walking over to the new edge of the new River! I see people, they look like trees walking around! They are coming out of the old thing into the new thing. They are re-rooting at the edge of the new River! Change change change!!! It’s just what Jesus was showing this blind man.

Ezek 47:6-12 He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?” Then he led me back to the bank of the river. When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Sea. When it empties into the Sea, the water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds– like the fish of the Great Sea. But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.”

Well that just about says it all for me! I give up! Just Plant me by the River of the Spirit of God for the rest of my days so that I can partake of the intimacy and adoration of my glorious King and Father God! Plant me there so that I might be a fisher of men! Plant me there so that I might bring healing to the wounded, joy to the sorrowful, peace to the downhearted, encouragement to the discouraged, truth to those who are dying!

Oh for the days of Heaven when we will all drink deep of these waters for eternity. But I tell you this, there is a portion of this River available for us right now. It is for the effectiveness and fullness of our individual call and of the call of this End Time Church. Only those with eyes to see and ears to hear will see and hear. They will be the ones who will do great exploits. They will be the ones who will reap the harvest of the end times.

 

Cart Before the Horse

 

In order to do these exploits, it is time to understand and flow in this ever-revealing wisdom of “change, change, change.”

Father is moving his emerging End Time Church on out to the very edge. He is then taking the church on the edge from one way of understanding out to a new way of going that we do not, cannot understand. He is taking us off the map that we are familiar with into places uncharted.

Father says that we need to stop trying to figure Him out and we need to stop trying to place the heavy yoke of cranial worldly definitions on His moves based upon what we think. He is saying that now is the time to step out into a new realm that will say, “I don’t have to have all the answers. I will trust Him and His leadership in all that we do.”

The way to do this is to let the Spirit have control of our meetings. Problem is that we, for so long, have been putting the cart before the horse. We have had to have control of our meetings. But the fact is that we cannot maintain effective control unless He first is in control. Then we can be in right control!

It’s like the soul being in control of my spirit and body. My cart is before my horse! My spirit must control my soul and body. That is right order. So it will be in the church. The Spirit will be in control of our meetings. Then the leadership will easily be able to exercise right leadership within a meeting. The Spirit reveals all things.

Fear breeds control. But the word says, “Perfect love casts out fear.” People lead religious church meetings as the “coverage” over the church out of fear. But when the Spirit is in control, there is no roof over the church. The leadership takes their place as part of the foundation of the church, right next to the Chief Cornerstone of that foundation, Jesus Christ! They hold the church up on their backs and say, “Here are your people Lord! YOU LEAD!”

All fear has left the building, man is no longer in control and now God can come with His still small voice and show His church His wonders! We have just turned to hear…

 

My Beloved Toronto

 

Many Spirit filled churches are beginning to move in this way. This has been the modus operandi for Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship since the Spirit fell in 1994. I can tell you, the Spirit has not been grieved in that place because John and Carol Arnott, my two very wonderful heroes in the Kingdom of God, they understand what it is to give full control to the Spirit. The Spirit has been coming and coming for years in that wonderful house of the Lord. Why? Because they will not touch His glory. They will not get in the way of the Lord. They had, and remain to have ears to hear and a heart for change. This understanding will be critical in the days ahead and critical for the church that is on the edge of a new glory.

If you want to study what it is to have and maintain revival that leads to reformation, take a trip to the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship.

I am certain that John and Carol would be the first to tell you, it was not perfect. I’m sure they would speak of the many times things did not go as expected. Or the many failings they had run into. But they knew this one very great key… They would never get in the way of God. They would always give Him their meetings. God is not looking for perfection in these things. He just wants us to let Him lead. This is why revival remains at TACF even today.

 

Left and Right

 

There is a new day coming now in which the Lord is dividing up the church between the left and the right (see Ecc 10:1-3 NIV). The church on the left will be the church without His Presence, the trees in the swampy stagnant salty waters that are dying. The church on the right will be the Spirit filled places of His radical Presence in which love will so manifest. It will be the places of the harvest. It will be the places of healing, deliverance and the raising of the dead and even more radical things than these. This church on the right will look like trees lining the banks of the River whose branches produce fruit for the nations.

The church on the right will be most criticized… not so much from the world, but from the church on the left. This will happen much in the same way as it was in the days of Jesus as He confronted the religious leaders of His day, the Pharisees and Sadducees. Today’s Pharisees and Sadducees are religious church leaders who cling to religious thinking. They will cling to their own conclusions over the radical revelations of the Lord by the Spirit. They will come against places of the Spirit on the right because they will not have ears to hear nor eyes to see. Even today there are some rising to prominence to speak out against the Spirit filled church, such as John MacArthur. John openly mocks such places, and it’s leaders of the Spirit as being heretical.

Then the Lord showed me a literal fall vision of a tree in the fall season. A tree goes dormant every year, which is a type of dying. It has to experience this “death” in order for the new thing to spring forth in the spring. All it’s leaves had dropped. But it was clinging on to the nuts, the fruit it had produced in the last season. Such are dead and lifeless religious structures that will not allow for the new thing to manifest. One must die to self before the new fruit can bear forth.

The Lord showed me that this tree was clinging on to “yesterdays fruit”.  And like this tree, most of today’s church is clinging on to yesterday’s successes based upon the teachings of man. This is the basis for religious ways.

 

Past Cannot Contain the Future

 

God is bursting out of the boxes of our yesterdays. They are too small for Him. Any box is too small for God. And most churches have their own box. It’s just that some are bigger than others; more room to move around in, but the same boxes of limitations. Like a tree that must die every year to bring forth next years fruit, so it is with the church. We must be ready to die to self again and again so as to remain pliable in the hands of the Lord for the new thing.

But God is ever rising, ever doing a new thing. And in this season it is marked both by acceleration and increase. He is about to restore what it truly means to go from glory to glory and from faith to faith. He is establishing His End Time Church to be one that recognizes a mystery as a mystery that cannot be explained. He is turning His End Time church away from intellectualism that has to find a man made answer to everything God does. He is taking servant leaders and in love making them subject to the headship of Christ as the ultimate leader of the church and all of His meetings.

He is taking the End Time Church into a radical place. He will bring them to the edge of what we understand then will thrust us forth into that which we do not understand. He is moving us from the edge of the old glory and thrusting us into the new glory. He is telling us to not look inward but outward when the new things happen. He is saying don’t try to explain the miraculous new things, you can’t explain it. Do not cranialize it. Just move in it and then look outward for the next new glory. He is telling us, we must turn in order to see.

This is not sensationalism; it should be the norm for the Spirit filled, Spirit lead Kingdom thinking church!

The River is always shifting. Do we have eyes to discern it? Do we have ears to hear of it? Are we willing to give up control, to turn and to hear the voice speaking from behind us?

 

Reigning Over the Reins

 

The Lord Jesus is going to reign as King of Kings over the church by way of the power of the cross, the very manifestation of the Holy Spirit right in our meetings. He wants to bring radical release so that we will see signs miracles and wonders that we have never seen before. If we try to explain it, we will miss it. If we try to explain a mystery, it is no longer a mystery.

The King of Kings is going to reign over His End Time Church in power. He is going to reign and He is going to hold our reigns! He will have it no other way. We must throw all our reigns of control up into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ and give Him reign of our meetings by His Holy Spirit. In so doing, Jesus will be in control, not us.

Church leadership has been in fear of the enemy and the flesh long enough. The Lord says, “Who is God in my church? If I am God in your church, then what of the enemy or the flesh do you need to fear? In fact my perfect love will so permeate your church by My Spirit that no fear will be able to stand in your church! Even so you will easily know and defeat the works of the enemy in such places of My Presence that He will flee from you without you striving for a thing. I will show you where to disciple, who to disciple and how to disciple.”

The Lord is calling upon all leaders to take their reigns and throw them up to the Lord so that He will be in control of our meetings.

What was able to contain yesterdays blessing will be unable to contain the blessing to come. There are two reasons for this. First, this is a principle of Kingdom business. But more importantly for the season we are entering, it is a radical increase, even a “move” of God that is for the express purpose of the release of God’s end time plan. It starts with the reformation of the church! But reformation must start with His revival Presence! Things will go so fast, we can only but trust that He is in control. We won‘t have time to question when hundreds, even thousands get saved in one day.

It is time for everyone to let go of whatever it is that they are clinging to! If you don’t want to miss what is just around the corner, time to die to every way of being that limits God. That is, to die to the flesh in as full a measure as we know how.

Mt 9:16-17 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Come let us all die so that we may truly live. Time to discard ALL our old wineskins and take on the new so that we may drink of Jesus like never before. Such is the only way that rivers of living water we will be able to flow from us.

Many have been touched by current and past revivals by the manifest Presence of the Holy Spirit. However it is true that revivals have failed. The Spirit departed, because the new wine was being poured into old wineskins that were unable to either contain or preserve the blessing over the long term. Man got in the way.

The new wineskin represents the man dead to self. In such a state, he does not grieve the Spirit by the manifestations of the flesh. He discerns and remains out of the way of the Lord. He lets go of the old and receives the new.

But behold, God IS doing a new thing.

 

How Do We Press In?

 

In order to see it, we must turn. We must turn out of the natural and into the spiritual. We must turn from the old into the new thing. We must release unto Him everything and die to such things as time schedules, agendas, plans, fear of loss of control, man made strategies, or whatever turns us away from the task of intimate face seeking, or the entering into the atmosphere of His Glory. In Revelations, John turned from what, in his mind, seemed the right way to point his attention around to an unexpected Voice that spoke from behind him. He turned from the natural way of thinking in order to see the spiritual vision of Jesus Christ dressed in a white rob and golden sash. When he passed the test of turning, he saw.

God is forever in the business of testing His leaders to see who is in control.

Now the ground has been shaken so as to see everything that has yet to die to die. Because, He is restoring the manifest Presence to the church that lasts.

The manifest Presence of the Holy Spirit is the key that will unlock and unleash the move of God that is coming. He is the only way. Christ is on His throne. He is no longer here. But He said that He would not leave us as orphans. He said that He would give us another Councilor, the Holy Spirit who would lead us into all truth. Read carefully John 14-17!

And God is doing away with “come and go” revival. Revivals die because of unbroken flesh, not because the Lord arbitrarily comes and goes. God never meant for the manifest Presence of the Spirit to leave the church. He is going past the mind and rising up the heart. He is replacing come and go revival mentality with a renewal (day by day ongoing) heart.

The Spirit of the Lord is coming like a freight train, and with much grace, but only to places who have eyes to see and ears to hear. And He is coming to houses that are full of love and full of brokenness from the top down. Because as goes the leader, so goes the church. But this release of the Spirit is preparatory for the move that is about to come.

The manifestation of the works of the Spirit is not the move, the move is bigger! The Spirit flowing in the church will be the “norm” which is prerequisite to this move. Signs miracles and wonders are coming.

Here’s are the keys: Worship and Intercession

Start with “ongoing corporate sacrificial ascending praise” that leads to …intimate worship. (But don’t stop when the Spirit begins to manifest in that intimacy!) Be soakers in His Presence. Waite for Him patiently, and do not stop in the waiting and soaking until He comes.

Intercede with revealed intercession. Leave your lists at the door and then pray! And don’t stop until He comes.

We suddenly find ourselves prostrate at the feet of Jesus. Then in the atmosphere of love and not satisfied at His feet, He lifts us up to His Holy face and then into His eyes… It is there that the Spirit manifests and the glory falls. Rivers burst forth in a dry and weary land and we gain spiritual food that satisfies!

Praise leads to worship, leads to intimacy, leads to the Presence manifesting, leads to Glory, leads to unimaginable effectiveness! Therefore love intimacy is the key!

Out of this manifestation will come releases of anointing of all kinds! And I saw a vision of a woman so busy in the laying on of hands that two people were needed to hold up her arms to lay hands on yet another recipient. She was like a Ruth Hefflin, like a mother in the Church. And it is the anointing that breaks the heavy yoke.

 

The Contextual Progression of Mark Chapter 8

 

Before we see or move in the Spirit, we need to first have eyes to see and ears to hear by faith. And the Lord is saying much to us out of Mark 8:1-25 that is key.

Mk 8:1-3 During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.”

And the Lord says, “I have compassion for My Church Body who has had little spiritual food to eat, who have gone hungry for generations due to religious error. I am coming to you with food that satisfies. And many of you have been waiting a long time. I say to you, you will see it, whoever has eyes to see let them see!”

Vs 4  His disciples answered, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?”

And the Lord says, “Stop thinking in the natural and start craving the spiritual. In so doing you will see even greater things than ever before.”

Vs 5-10  “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied. He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people, and they did so. They had a few small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. About four thousand men were present. And having sent them away, he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the region of Dalmanutha.

And the Lord says, “Did I not say to trust me? Therefore be it known, what is of eternal value comes only from the hand of the Father, and which is supernatural. Learn therefore that I am in control, not any man. Of yourself, you cannot, but of Me you can, and in far greater measure than you can imagine!”

Vs 11-12 The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it.”

And the Lord says, “You will be tested in this to see if you have faith for the things of the Lord. What seems out of control is My test of you. Many will manifest radically, will you be offended? Will you step in My way? Or will you give me your meetings? Will you trust Me? Am I not infinitely more powerful that any of My enemies? Then will you give me your meetings? Will you trust me?”

“And the world will seek signs, but it is the lovers I seek, and it is to them I will show Myself.”

Vs 13-15 Then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side. The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. “Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.”

And the Lord says again, “I am always doing a new thing. Therefore do not go back to yesterdays successes. And walk away from places of dryness and religious ignorance!

And you will be tempted by money, fame, power, and a spirit of worldly excellence. Satan hates the fires of renewal more that anything, and He will make every effort to put these fires out. But have I not said that these fires, no man nor any work of the enemy will be able to put out? Therefore, be confident, I go before you and with much grace will you go. Therefore, in authority, and like a mighty flowing river, move around your obstacles, and take no heed of them.”

Vs 16-21 They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.” Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” “Twelve,” they replied. “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” They answered, “Seven.” He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

And the Lord says to the church in this hour, “Do you still not understand? Therefore TURN! Turn your eyes away from that which is of this earth and towards that which is eternal and supernatural. Only in this will you succeed in the move that is to come.”

“I am taking you out of the first gear of the Lord into the second gear of the Lord. And the church has yet to see the third and fourth gear of the Lord. But the second gear of the Lord requires the manifest Presence of the Holy Spirit in order to come to pass. Only churches with eyes to see and ears to hear will see it. I am coming to key strategic churches in key strategic cities in this key strategic hour!”

The Lord says we are at a crossroad. We can go down the highway of ineffectiveness to the left, or we can go down the narrow winding road of the End Time Church that turns to the right. But the Lord says that to pass down this road we must seek His face like never before, and we must die so that we might truly live.

And here is they key:

Vs 22-25 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

And the Lord says, “What is far more important is that you first be restored to your spiritual vision, before you see in the natural. He says, “receive your spiritual vision so that you will be able to see the move that is about to come to pass”. And again, who has eyes to see and ears to hear?”

 

What Is Coming?

 

And so, what is the move of God that is coming? I believe it can be found in this scripture:

2Co 3:16-18 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

This is the move of God, “ever-increasing Glory, in a constantly shifting River.”

We will see things we have never seen before for the purpose of the restoration of the fullness of the local church, and to prepare the local church for the end time harvest. Much grace comes with this, because we will stumble along the way as in Nahum Ch 2. And the Lord says its O.K. to stumble from time to time.

Because the Lord says, “Behold, in my house I have prepared for you a banqueting table full of things you have never had before! I am drawing you in to eat. But I will not have but a spotless bride in this room.”

Time to let faith well up and be willing to die, even desperate to “see”. For if we know we can see and then believe, we will see in the Spirit realm in the short years ahead.

Jn 11:40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

Soon is the day that we shall truly and very literally begin to see the glory of the Lord! For as revival comes to stay, so then will come a true reformation of Fathers End Time Church. It’s the very desire of Fathers heart to see His Church move in great power to reap this great harvest.

Blessings in Christ by the infilling of the Holy Spirit!

 

T Scott Morton