UNBLOCKING THE WELL OF THE LIVING WORD

At a relaxing afternoon on the Isle of Harris, we took this glorious picture of clouds parting and blue heavens over a sandy beach. In a worship meeting on Thursday evening, the “Firestarters” sang the worship song “The Lion and the Lamb”. The lyrics begin with “He is coming on the clouds, Kings and kingdoms will bow down, and every chain will break as broken hearts declare his praise for who can stop the Lord Almighty.. (and continues with..) So, open up the gates , make way for the King of Kings.”    Listen to the song posted  below.

The words from another worship song we have been singing are,” I have got a river of living water a fountain that never will run dry, It is an OPEN HEAVEN you’re releasing, And we will never be denied. 

As we continue to have extended times of worship and praise here on the Isle of Lewis I am reminded again of Numbers 21:17,  “Spring up, O well, sing about it, about the well the princes dug, that the nobles sank, the nobles with sceptres and staffs.” Let’s  contend for an open heaven and through worship and prayer, pray that gates would be opened and a way made for the King of Kings!” 

Mary Peckham in her book “Sounds from heaven” (1)  reminds the reader of Isaiah 64:1,  “..when the prophet said ,” Oh ..that thou wouldst come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence”.. She says that the outstanding characteristic of the revivals in Lewis and particularly  that of the 1949 revival was the consciousness of the presence of the Lord. She recounts a number of testimonies to  confirm this. “Norman Campbell says the outstanding feature of the 1949 revival was the presence of God. This was also the case in the 1939 revival. You could sense and feel the presence of God everywhere. Even the children sensed something. It was the power of God let loose! People went on their knees anywhere. Annie McKinnon (Kintyre) says ‘I felt as if the Spirit of the Lord was in the very air one was breathing – and it was just wonderful! The atmosphere was not just in the church but everywhere’. William McLeod says ‘I shall never forget the intensity and blessing of those days. They made a mark upon me that has never been  erased and for which I shall thank God for.’ Agnes Morrison says, ‘whatever we were doing and wherever we were we were conscience of the presence of God we had no desire to go to sleep even though we had so little sleep we were not tired.’ When young Donald McPhail rose to speak to pray and said ‘Father’ it was enough for a congregation to burst into tears. God was in the homes, God was speaking to people at their daily work. The consciousness of the divine was everywhere.”

Lou Engle says(2) “We need to beseech God in prayer for such an open heaven where He.. ‘would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains with tremble before (Him) Isaiah 64:1. Such an atmosphere will not come by trying to build a brick tower of Babel to reach the heavens by the effort of man. The Bible gives us instead an incredible example of having open access to the heavenlies. In Genesis 28 Jacob had a dream of a… stairway to heaven ..and said ‘how awesome is this place this is none other than the house of God this is the gate of heaven.’ Genesis 28:12, 16-17 …most people consider the open door in Revelation 3:7b-8  promised to the Philadelphia church to be an open door for preaching. Yet I believe  the book of Revelation offers another interpretation. ‘After this I looked and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to be like a trumpet said “Come up here…” , ‘This  speaks of unhindered access into the heavens. … Ezekiel,  Stephen and Peter all saw an open Heaven. Jesus saw an open heaven at the time of his baptism.”

He says that  at Jesus’ baptism, when the heavens were rent open the same word for “rending open’ is used of the temple curtain at Jesus death. Mark 15:38. He says, ‘we need to contend in prayer and faith for an open heaven over our cities and an atmosphere where demonic  spirits and principalities are banished before the manifest glory and presence of God and angels are free  to ascend and descend .We have not because we ask not! Matthew 7:7-8’

He says “surely this promise of a door being opened applies to the door of heaven.. It is time to claim the very promise that Jesus  himself spoke to Nathaniel, ‘’ you shall see greater things than that. I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. John 1:50b-51.” 

LORD REND THE HEAVENS AND COME DOWN!

References

(1) Peckham, M.Sounds from heaven,  Christian Focus, p90, 91.

(2) Engle, L. Digging the wells of revival, Revival Press, p77-80