Oh, dear reader… there is SOMETHING in the air.
Can you feel it?
Can you sense it?
I believe with all of my heart… down to the very core of my being… that we are in a holy moment.
I’ve had this impression for the last few years that there would be those of us who would experience a greater level of surrender, a deeper consecration unto the Lord.
In fact, just the other day while I was praying, the Lord directed me to the scene where God tells Moses to consecrate the people for two days and to have them wash their garments and let them be ready… (see Exodus 19:10-11).
And it was that very phrase that rocked me to the core.
It produced a trembling within me.
It was those very words, “…let them be ready…,” that resulted in the fear of the Lord coming upon me.
Let them be ready for what?
The Lord was going to come on the third day.
Consecration always precedes visitation and the Lord is wanting us to be ready for this next outpouring of His Spirit.
Now that I think of it, this is as good a place as any to ask you this question: If you knew that this next outpouring was coming in three days, what would you do?
How would you prepare?
What would it look like for you to be ready?
Moses led the nation of Israel out of their Egyptian bondage for one ultimate purpose: to meet with the Lord.
God wanted to bring them to Himself (see Exodus 19:4).
He wanted them to hear His voice and to obey His covenant.
If they did this, they would be His treasured possession.
But before the Lord would step down on and speak to them from Mt. Sinai in the form of thunder, flashes of lightning, and a thick cloud, He wanted them to be ready.
There was something they had to do.
To consecrate yourself means that you relinquish your right to your own life.
It means you were at one point in time set apart to one thing, but now you are setting yourself apart, in this case, to someone else.
To do this for two days would mean that their heart and mind would have been involved and would have been made ready.
They would have considered what it all meant.
To wash your garments is symbolic of cleansing from your life whatever you need to get rid of knowing full well that you are about to encounter the Holy One.
And I believe with all of my heart that the Lord is asking us to do the same.
He is wanting us to cleanse our hands and to purify our hearts.
It’s important to note that all that is happening within this story is shadows, symbols, and types of specific things.
Through Moses, God delivered Israel out of Egypt through many signs and wonders to bring them to Himself.
Through Jesus, we are delivered from sin to be brought to the upper room.
God came down on Mt. Sinai in the sight of Israel 50 days after their deliverance, after what is commonly referred to as ‘Passover.’
This was Israel’s ‘pentecost.’ The word ‘pentecost’ literally means 50.
It was 50 days after Jesus was raised from the dead that the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the 120 disciples gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem.
This was their pentecost.
Prior to this, Jesus commanded them to remain in Jerusalem until they received the promise of the Father, the baptism in the Holy Spirit (see Acts 1:4-5).
Because Jesus appeared to them for 40 days after His resurrection through many convincing proofs and teaching them about the kingdom of God (see Acts 1:3), the disciples would have waited 10 days for what they didn’t fully understand.
That’s some dedication.
That’s consecration.
I believe their obedience proved that their lives were laid down and that they were ready to receive the power of the Holy Spirit.
Dear reader, I believe God is asking us to do the same.
It’s time to get ready.
It’s time to rid ourselves of the practice of sin if it exists in our lives and to unite our hearts if they are divided. I plan to say more about this if the Lord permits in my next blog.
But I truly believe that if you took the time to read this, you will sense and know that what I am saying to be true.
I believe even now you will experience the trembling of the Lord within you as a sign that the Lord is wanting us to get ready and as a means of confirmation.
I believe His presence can be felt on what it is you just read.
If that is indeed true, ask Him what it means for you specifically to get ready for this next outpouring.
- Brian Connolly, Faith Like Birds Ministries
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