3 STAGES OF ENTERING INTO THE SPIRIT WHILE AWAKE 5/12/14

I once saw the veil and it is a membrane that looks like an opaque balloon that gets clearer and more stretched as we push out, or heaven pushes in.  Heaven is just a thin membrane away now.  One day that membrane is going to POP.

Isaiah 64:1 Oh that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might flow down at your presence.

I hear the Lord and receive visions almost every night - and have for decades.  However learning to enter into this place during the day takes more effort.  As we learn to press into fellowship with the Lord through His Spirit, He is there wanting to breakthrough to us too.  I experience 3 stages of entering into His Spirit while I am awake and want to share them here.

STAGE ONE – TONGUES AND WORSHIP WHEN ACTIVE

When I am up and involved in activities, one way I enter into the flow of the Lord’s Spirit, is by praying in tongues, which is praying in the Spirit.  It is our spirit that prays, not our minds or flesh.  We can be involved in daily activities and our spirit can be praying His will.

John 4:23-24 But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

1 Corinthians 14:14-15 For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. 15 What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.

When I pray more in tongues, I find He is closer, more intimate and interactive in what I am doing … I hear His comments, jokes, and receive revelations where He brings scriptures and past rhema into memory and I see how they connect with something I am pondering.  I enjoy this simple fellowship very much.

Another way I enter into His Spirit is through thanksgiving and praise.  Scripture tells us to enter into His doors by thanking Him and praising (celebrating) Him.

Psalms 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

I love to thank Him for His goodness and remind Him of the good gifts I enjoy from Him.  I love to thank Him for Who He is to me!  I love His Names, the meaning of His Names.  I love His attributes and how He manifests them in my personal life.  I love His abundance of Words and How liberal He is with pouring them out.

I enter into the Spirit through worshipping Him with worship music on, and inviting His Presence to touch me in a tangible way.  I enjoy music through earphones more than speakers. 

Celebration songs are faster paced and happy songs about the Lord.  We rejoice and celebrate Who He is! 

When I am ready to enter in to deeper levels, I choose songs that are sung TO HIM, more than songs that are about Him.  Singing songs to Him are more adoration and loving Him directly.  These are more worshipful slower songs than faster praise songs.  Often I experience His loving tangible Presence during these worshipful times.  It is a reciprocation of my love for Him and His love for Me.

STAGE TWO:  SITTING WITH FOCUS ON HIM

In pursuit of a deeper level of fellowship, I have “practice” sessions with the Lord where my whole purpose is to sit with Him and enter in to His Spirit during the day.  Stage two is the transition of subduing the body, mind and soul to enter into His Spirit.  It is in the realm of the spirit where we experience His secret place of intimacy in visions and hearing His voice more clearly. 

I enter into a room that is away from distractions of computer, phone, tv and all noise.  I even turn off the subtle buzz of my speakers.  I want it absolutely quiet. To me, shutting the door also represents closing doors to demonic portholes.  I don’t want demonic portholes opened in my life because they interfere in hearing and seeing and bring mixture when entering into the realm of the spirit. 

Matthew 6:6 But you, when you pray, enter into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret shall reward you openly.
 

• A comfortable chair that supports me.

• A place that is quiet and silent.

• I give all my emotions, the part that is associated with cares - to the Lord.

• I bring my mind into a resting place, I often pray for the mind of Christ and also a sound mind.  (Gk = disciplined)

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

1 Corinthians 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Much of overcoming the soul and the mind starts with focus… Learning to focus on the Lord with the eyes of my heart. 

Ephesians 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.

There is a real key here in this following scripture about the veil being taken away when we TURN to the Lord.  It is all about focus.

2 Corinthians 3:16-18 Nevertheless when one shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. 17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Often I enter in by recalling into memory the times I have seen Jesus’ face and it draws me near. I might say the name of Jesus over and over again. 

Distraction is a huge force against our entering in.  I was given an experience once about that, where every time I tried to focus, my mind ended up somewhere else.  I finally heard the Lord say they were demonic spirits called distracting spirits and He told me to rebuke them.  So often I will do that.  Saying Jesus’ name over and over again really makes the demonic spirits flee.  Smile. Many times I have prayed and rebuked distracting spirits.  I have referred to this many times from an old Gk Word study that reveals the cares of the world are a divided mind.  A divided mind is not focused and takes our attention off one thing. 

Dove eyes only see one thing at a time and they have to turn their head in order to see something.  Birds are different, they can see from many different angles.

Luke 10:41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:

Luke 8:14 And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of [this] life, and bring no fruit to perfection.

CONFIRMATION:  DOVE

The coolest thing happened today on the way home from Costco.  I was thinking about this message about focus.  And so I prayed, “Lord help us learn how to keep our focus on You. Grant us sound, disciplined minds.  May You give us dove eyes for You Lord.”  I was going under an overpass and suddenly something swooped down from the sky into my peripheral view.  I turned my head and was amazed that it was a dove that had swooped down from the bridge and did a swirling circle and then went back to the bridge.  It was a sky aerial just for me. God’s ways are so magnificent and precious.

STAGE THREE:  ENTERING HIS SECRET PLACE THROUGH DEEP REST IN THE SPIRIT

After focusing on the Lord and all distractions are at bay, this waiting place is being totally still in body, soul, mind.  It is going to a place where the door of distraction is totally closed.  I am entering into His secret place of His Spirit.

I place myself in a receiving mode where I welcome His Presence and expect to feel the tangible Presence of the Holy Spirit bubble forth upon me and within me.  His Presence refreshes me and also put me into deep rest as I focus on His Presence and being still.  I can do this in stage 2, but with distraction still there I often continue to invite His Presence for more of Him.

When I enter into the realm of the spirit, I see visions.  My earnest desire is to enter into visions while sitting in my chair in the same ease and degree that I do in bed.  The secret, quiet place of hearing the Lord’s voice and seeing visions comes through the spirit, it does not come through the soul or the flesh.  The soul and flesh must be in subjection and quiet before Him, in a waiting place.

To me, the secret place is a place we enter in to be with the Lord in quiet solitude, where when we pray it is in our heart (not our mouth) - and when we hear and see, it is through our spirit. To me the secret place is deep communion of where the body and soul, (mind, will and emotions) have come to complete stillness. 

Sometimes my body becomes so still, I feel the great heavy weight of His Presence.  Sometimes it is so heavy I feel like I am going to fall out of my chair.  I don’t feel this in bed, because I am supported.  But sitting up I can feel it when I am in total, complete stillness of body, mind and soul. 

When I am in that place, and I start hearing the Lord’s voice and seeing visions, I do use the same mini digital recorder I use at night.  But I try to keep my voice low and body movements very still so I can stay in that deep rest. 

Spending time with Him is very, very precious.  He promises that He will reward those who diligently seek Him.

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.