Published on June 26th, 2010 | Articles, Guest Posts

This guest post comes to us from Paul Keith Davis at White Dove Ministries.

The Cloud Is Moving

By Paul Keith Davis

I love it when God confirms His word! Around September 11, 2009 I was given an extraordinarily vivid dream that has since provided a source of great encouragement. In the dream I saw a hand being extended holding an open Bible. I was told to turn to a certain chapter of the Bible and begin to read. After reading several verses in this passage I came upon a “Scripture” that simply said, “increase, increase, increase, increase, increase.”

Obviously, there is no passage of Scripture that says this precisely, but it was a symbolic representation of God’s desire to release escalating measures of increase for the coming days. The passage that I was reading was from Numbers 10. Admittedly, Numbers was not a book that has been on my radar in recent days. I have focused much of my attention on Revelations, Daniel, Zechariah and the Gospel of John. Therefore it was a seemingly random and obscure passage for me to read at the time, yet I knew the dream was from the Lord.

As a result, I determined not to tell anyone the specific passage that I was given so when the confirmation came I could have complete confidence that it was from the Lord. The following week I participated in a conference in Knoxville, Tennessee that included Bob Jones. I thought perhaps the Lord would activate Bob’s revelatory gifting and speak to me from Numbers 10. However, by the time I left the conference no mention was made of this passage.

I then flew directly from Knoxville to Dallas, Texas to participate in a Rosh Hashanah conference with Chuck Pierce and Glory of Zion ministries. I was quite excited to be a part of this gathering and felt a certain sense of appreciation to the Holy Spirit for His quick fulfillment of a prophetic word the Lord directed me to give Chuck the year before. It was a revelatory experience involving a huge white tent and the release of the healing anointing comparable to that demonstrated during the tent revivals of the 50s.

This was the first tent meeting they had conducted on property they purchased outside of Denton, Texas. When I arrived the tent was exactly as I had seen in the experience the year before. I still carried in my heart a desire to understand the implications of Numbers 10 but admittedly was not focused on it when the service began that evening.

To my amazement, following worship Chuck brought forward two individuals with silver trumpets to inaugurate the Feast of Trumpets and the beginning of Rosh Hashanah. This of course is taken from Numbers 10:1-2 and the declaration given to Israel for the purpose of calling a holy assembly and alerting the people for times of movement.

Make yourself two trumpets of silver, of hammered work you shall make them; and you shall use them for summoning the congregation and for having the camps set out. When both are blown, all the congregation shall gather themselves to you at the doorway of the tent of meeting.

I was even more amazed when Chuck declared that he was going to do a brief teaching from Numbers 10 as a prophetic announcement for the services and the coming season in God. There was my confirmation!

Moving With God

Numbers 10 is a chapter devoted to the preparation of God’s people to move with the cloud of His Presence into a place of promise. Very specific and meticulous instruction was given to Moses when the time came for the cloud to move to another location. Clearly, from this prophetic insight, the body of Christ is being called to a holy assembly and preparing to follow the movement of His Presence. The cloud is moving!

The specific verse that I was reading in my dream that was translated “increase, increase, increase, increase, increase” was actually Numbers 10:28 saying, “This was the order of march of the sons of Israel by their armies as they set out.”

My interpretation of this passage as it relates to the coming increase is derived from our necessity to follow God’s meticulous order outlined by His Spirit. The Lord has a prescribed way that He desires for us to align ourselves with Him in order for His blessings of favor and grace to accompany us, resulting in progressive measures of increase. Much of that order can be found in Isaiah 66:1-2 saying:

Thus says the LORD, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.

Three things will help align us with God for the coming days:
1. The Spirit of Humility
2. A Broken and Contrite Heart
3. Trembling in Reverence and Awe at God’s Word (Rhema & Logos)

Praise, Times & Seasons, Habitation

The Lord clearly instructed Moses to have three tribes precede the Tabernacle as they began to march-Judah, Issachar and Zebulun. (Numbers 10:14-16)

The standard representing Judah was that of a lion. Clearly, the Lord is presenting Himself as the Lion from the tribe of Judah. He came once in a manger and offered Himself as a suffering lamb. However, now He comes roaring in resurrection power to appropriate His overcoming victory through a body of people identified as the Bride of Christ. Praise must go before us along with a clear understanding of times and seasons as depicted in the blessings of Issachar.

We are now entering an “appointed time” for advancement and especially the recovery of lost heritage. While in South Africa following Rosh Hashanah very clear revelatory insights were given concerning Zebulun and the blessing of Moses found in Deuteronomy 33:18-19 saying:

Of Zebulun he said, “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going forth, and, Issachar, in your tents. They will call peoples to the mountain; there they will offer righteous sacrifices; for they will draw out the abundance of the seas, and the hidden treasures of the sand.”

The name Zebulon means “a habitation” but the land of Zebulun was once ostracized for its darkness and apostasy. However, one visitation from the Lord Jesus and it became known as a land of illumination and a source of great Light. (Matthew 4:15-16.) This blessing provides a prophetic picture of many places being positioned for divine visitation. I believe this will be especially true along certain coastal areas that have received prophetic promises through the blessings of Zebulun. Naturally, that is not to say this will be limited to coastal areas but this word is identifying those places with this promise.

A New Season

I believe this past fall festival season has been one of the most important in recent memory. Very clear and precise revelations have been granted concerning God’s desire to release not only demonstrations of His Spirit but also a more pronounced measure of His Presence. We are called and commissioned in this season to bring in a wave of harvest that will consist of future harvesters; the Cloud is moving in that direction. Along with our emphasis on evangelism there must also be a corresponding emphasis on equipping, mentoring and preparation.

Published on June 2nd, 2010 | Articles, Guest Posts, Worship

This guest post comes to us from Graham Cooke at Graham Cooke Ministries.

Living Your Destiny

Graham Cooke

All of the tests you presently face are there to develop you into the person you need to be to live your destiny. Everything you are going through has been aligned by God to forge you into the person He has called you to be. Your destiny is unfolding before your very eyes. You have a battle to win, and He must prepare you for it.

When we embrace the idea that God has a plan for us, no issue should be able to stop us. The statement, “This situation will be the death of me,” is completely incorrect. The truth is that this situation will make you into who you are destined to be.

God partners with our present situation to prepare us for the future He has designed. He uses every test, every challenge, every hurdle, every issue to sharpen us for what is to come.

We can use the prophecies over our life to navigate our way through our present circumstance. God wants to establish intimacy as a way of life. He wants to cover us in His favor. This process starts by God establishing the fact that He is our source. Quietly and deliberately, God will strip away every crutch we have been relying on and obliterate anything that detracts from His ability to provide for us.

He wants to take away the false sense of security most of us have been clinging to. God is not in the business of playing second fiddle to anything—and certainly not to the many ways we try and take care of ourselves.

Lesson one is to go into the future and bring back the traits and intimacy we will need to fulfill our destiny. We must understand what that intimacy will look like. How must our relationship with God evolve and grow in order for us to become the person He has destined us to be?

When I was 31 years old, I had a dream about the kind of relationship with God I would have when I was 45. It was so alluring, so magnificent, so amazing, that I did not want to wait 14 years to get there. I was so hungry when I woke up that I immediately began to pray for that kind of intimacy to happen right away. I discovered something in the process of fighting for that word—I didn’t have to wait until I was 45 for it to come to pass. I had been looking prophetically at a 45-year-old who had lived in that intimacy for ten years!

Our timeline is not always God’s timeline. He often wants to bring breakthrough far sooner than we dare hope. I wanted that intimacy at age 31, thanks to God creating a deep hunger in me for it. I thought about it, meditated on it, prayed for it, and began to come into powerful times of worship. An hour worshipping God would turn into two and then three and sometimes six. I desperately wanted to know God, and God always answers an extreme desire for intimacy.

Prophetic words come to pass as our intimacy and reliance on God develops. Intimacy is a part of our destiny. Look at the prophetic words over your life and ask yourself about the intimacy you will need to live in that kind of wonder. Become hungry for that relationship, and your destiny will come into focus.

In Genesis 18:9, God says a remarkably simple thing about Abraham, His dear friend: “I have known him,” (NKJV). God wants that same intimacy with us, and has guaranteed that it can occur through the love and motivation of Jesus. Intimacy draws us and keeps us in the presence of God. Jesus taught on the importance of this relationship in John 15:4-5—

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

Intimacy is a reciprocal act; there is exchange and dialogue. It is not a one-way street. There is interaction between us and the Lord Jesus, and that interaction results in us staying, dwelling, and remaining where God has put us in Christ.

The enemy wants to knock us out of that place of intimacy. He knows how key that relationship is to everything the Lord wants to accomplish, so he tries to poison it from the start. Without water, a seed won’t grow; the enemy wants to kill the seed of our destiny before we grow even a single inch. But our job is to be so established in an intimate relationship with God that nothing can come between us and Him.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting,” David sang in Psalm 139:23-24. That is the very crux of intimacy—allowing God to look deep into us and remove any blockage between Him and us. Everything in our lives, every situation we go through, is about growing our intimacy with God.