Probably the biggest and most prominent message that I have to share is how we need to live as habitations of God’s Spirit and Presence. Holy Spirit life is foundational to be fruitful and flourishing, abiding in God’s Presence. This is Christ in us the hope of glory. (Col. 1:17)
And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
John 14:16-18
There is no replacement for this everlasting well of intimacy with God. We need to drink from that well and keep drinking because this is our life source. (Isaiah 12:3)
Visitations, on the other hand, are different being distinct although interconnected with living our lives as habitations. The term visitation has been used in reference to revivals in the context of a revival “coming and going”. If someone were to say we need a “revival” visitation, I would respond, “more than that” you need to be a “habitation”. For living as a habitation we are continually plugged into the source of life. Now I want to use the word “visitation” in the context of both personal and corporate experience. (Eph. 2:22, 5:18) On a personal level, we will never need a visitation of the Holy Spirit. He is here and is not going anywhere. All we need to do is access the well within us. God has deposited His Presence, in the Person of the Spirit, inside our hearts.
However, on top of this Holy Spirit life, God gives us visitations both individually and corporately. God gives us visitations in the person of the Lord Jesus, angels, taking us ingot he heavens and in various manifestations of His glory. The other night I was just relaxing, kicking back on my couch in a devotional time enjoying the Presence of the Spirit. God began to work inside me just a greater desire for an increase in visitations at another level. I’ve had some wonderful visitations from the Lord, but you always want more. It is a healthy thing to desire the Lord, to desire to see Him, to want to know Him better, desiring to spend more time with Him experientially. We want to continue to pursue God with a raw hunger for more.
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;
Psalm 34:8
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him.
Hunger comes from tasting and seeing that the Lord is good. God wants our spiritual hunger barometer to be red hot! He does not want it in the “lukewarm” range.
So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
Revelation 3:16
The kind of hunger God wants to see in us cannot be satisfied intellectually. Only through powerful encounters with God as habitations, with visitations, will our hunger be satisfied only to make us hungry for more. Just think of your favorite food. Pizza is one that I tend to enjoy. It seems that I could just keep eating it because it tastes so good. That is the idea with God as well. He tastes better than anything else. Does God taste good to you? So much so that you are crying out for more? He wants to get us to a place where we hunger and thirst for Him more than anything else in this world.
The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying:
Revelation 4:8
‘Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God Almighty,
Who was and is and is to come.’
Do you think that the visitations that John had of the Book of Revelation had an impact on his life? I can remember a visitation I had in a dream not too long ago where God’s cloud of purple glory entered into a room, then there was the most beautiful heavenly fragrance the accompanied it along with golden glory raining down from heaven – angels were in the place. It was an off the chart visitation from heaven! These kinds of visitations make you hungry for more. God knows what you need. He looks for the hunger. When He sees it, like a magnet, He is drawn to come in His glory to make Himself known to you in more powerful ways.
And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
Acts 2:17
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions
Your old men shall dream dreams.
And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.
God wants to make an impression on you. He desires heaven to be more real to you than anything on earth. In visitations God is depositing vision in your heart to see things from His perspective. Do you want to know what is on God’s mind? It might surprise you that His perspective on things is completely different from yours. It is a good and wise prayer to ask the Lord to show you what He thinks you need, what is on His heart to see where He takes you in visitation.