Face to Face With Jesus

When You said, "Seek My face,"

My heart said to You, 

"Your face, Lord, I will seek."

Ps 27:8

In the middle of the night coming into the new year of 2013 the Lord woke me up, and as I lay in bed I began to drink of the river of the Spirit. My heart and desire was to be with Him so much more this year, to know Him and to be filled with His presence, and I was at a place of desperation and a passionate pursuit of this very thing. I was hungry and I was thirsting for more of Him. So as I awoke in the middle of the night I began to drink and drink and drink of the river. I was drawing from the river of His presence and pressing in to go higher and higher to reach Him and to be with Him. I felt like a fish swimming upstream, like a salmon that presses and perseveres against the current of the river as he swims upstream to reach his destination so he can lay his eggs and reproduce. I kept drinking and drinking, and pressing and pressing, and reaching and reaching in the Spirit to reach my seat beside the Lord. This drinking and drawing went on for some time, and then finally I reached it!  I reached my seat, and I sat down with a sign of relief and took in a deep breath of His presence. Then I saw the Lord sitting beside me, and He just turned in His seat and faced me, and then leaned towards me to say something important to me that was on His heart. I could feel in His heart that He was glad I had finally made it there to my seat beside Him. And leaning towards me, and with a seriousness in His voice He looked deep into my eyes and said, “I’m sending you on a debt destroying mission…….He paused….then He said, “I want My bride free from debt.... and glorifying Me in her giving and generosity.” I had heard these words before, but this time it was different. This time I was sitting right beside Him, looking into His eyes and hearing these words come right out of His mouth. The time when I had heard these words before they were sent by His messenger, the Holy Spirit, into my car on my way to work years ago. But this time it was very personal and very pointed.

Then reaching out His right hand to me with His palm up, the Lord said, “Take this inheritance, and with your giving destroy debt and release finances in My body and bride.” Looking down at His hand there was nothing in it that the naked eye could see, but by the Spirit and in my heart I knew it was the Anointing, and it was His hand of blessing that He knew I would need for this assignment. Then with His left hand He reached out to me and He handed me a long staff.  It was the staff of His authority, the authority that He also knew that I would need.

Then looking deep into my eyes He said, “Give………………………”

That word just penetrated my very being as His eyes seemed to pierce into mine and penetrate my heart. He was letting that word hang and linger and sink deep into me as He waited for about 6 or 7 or 8 seconds before He finished His sentence. He was letting me catch in the Spirit what His heart was trying to communicate, and that was to GIVE IT ALL just as He had done, to not hold anything back, for it was in His giving it ALL that had allowed me to be sitting there face to face with Him right then, engaging in this personal communication and assignment. And with this pausing and silence the Lord wanted me to catch the real motivation of His command TO GIVE and how it would open the door and the opportunity for others to have this same ability for a personal relationship and encounter with Him themselves.

Then after those long seconds of silence He finished by saying, “………….and it will be given to you, pressed down shaken together and running over, men will give into your bosom.” He wanted me to know that the last part of this statement was just icing on the cake. It was the natural reward for my giving, but it wasn’t the motivation of it.

Then after that deep engaging of our eyes and the communication of His heart, He said, “Bring the people to the table of My blessing and abundance, and enlighten them to what is there for them even in the presence of their enemies. Share with them what is theirs as joint heirs in My name, and tell them that they will rule and reign with Me as they partake of My blessings even in the midst and presence of their enemies.”

I felt the weight of this personal encounter and experience, and I had to get up out of bed and go into the living room to sit in the chair that I often go to in prayer to be with the Lord. I continued to soak and relive this face to face experience that I had just had in bed and this re-verbalizing of this assignment. These were words that the Holy Spirit had given me over 7 years ago, the first time was when He came into my car on the way to work, and then again months later as He met me in the middle of the night when I was at my chair during a time of prayer through a difficult time that I was passing through. But this time as I heard these words it was a personal, face to face encounter and communication with the Lord Jesus. I was seeing His face, looking into His eyes, and feeling His heart. It’s hard to explain because it was such a supernatural experience, but it was a deep personal confirmation of words that He had sent me many years earlier, however this time He wanted to speak to me face to face.  And as I am at a new place in the Spirit in Him these words are taking on a new meaning to me.

I know He wants us “debt-free” financially, but I am feeling the indebtedness to Him in a new way and to my pastors that have taught me, believed in me, prayed for me, and encouraged me to go further in Him and to reach for the anointing rather than stop short of it, and I’m feeling the indebtedness to the worship team and my church family that have also pressed in through prayer and worship to make a way in the Spirit for me, for us, to go higher in Him, and I am feeling this indebtedness to the world and those outside of my church and house of worship to let them know that there IS MORE, that there IS an anointing and power of His presence that they have yet to experience. It is time to give ALL that we may experience and know Jesus in a new and personal way. It's time to turn our back on the things of this world and go up higher into His presence and deeper into our relationship with Him. He is drawing us. He is reaching for our hearts. He has much to say and wants to fill us with Himself. There IS MORE but we have to be hungry and reach for it. There is an Anointing that is a personal deposit and portion for each of us. It's ours for the pursuing. It's ours for the receiving. The things of this world do not compare as Paul said in Philippians 3:7,8.  "But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ, more than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ." Oh that I may know Him, that I may touch His heart, that I may see Him face to face.

Lord, there IS MORE, there is more of You that we can have and receive. Help us, Lord, to see and value our relationship and the Anointing that is in You more than the things of this world. Help us, Lord, to pursue this, to be hungry for more of You and to make it our passion to know You and seek You with all of our heart. O Lord, take us into heights in You and revelations in You that fill and satisfy, that complete us and empower us. Make us strong witnesses of the living God that is on the inside of us. Cause our light to shine bright in the darkness. When others see us let them see the face of Jesus. Amen.

When You said, "Seek My face,"

My heart said to You, 

"Your face, Lord, I will seek."

Ps 27:8