Extract from Exodus II by Steve Lightle
The first chapters of Steve's book describe his steps of faith obedience to hearing Jesus speak.Firstly in and around his Dippy Duck Car Wash business. Then he is led to go to Holland in order to phone a couple of people. It turns out, they will both be on hand for him to meet with.Then comes this remarkable chapter of Steve's supernatural encounters.
The first chapters of Steve's book describe his steps of faith obedience to hearing Jesus speak.Firstly in and around his Dippy Duck Car Wash business. Then he is led to go to Holland in order to phone a couple of people. It turns out, they will both be on hand for him to meet with.Then comes this remarkable chapter of Steve's supernatural encounters.
CHAPTER 6
GOD SPEAKS THROUGH VISIONS!Henk Paulson left his apartment and his camper bus for me to use. Then he left on special business behind the Iron Curtain.
Before I had left Seattle I had called Phil Israelson. I told Phil that I was going to Holland, and he had said that he was going there too. It turned out that he was staying only fifteen kilometres from Henk's house. I went over and got Phil, and brought him back with me. We had a really significant time in prayer. Some things happened there spiritually that were another step of preparation in God's plan to answer the cry of my heart. Paul said in Galatians 2:20, 'I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live.' I really wanted to know, not only by faith in the Word of God, but by experience, what it meant to be crucified with Christ.
Phil and I drove over to Germany, and I dropped him off in Hanover to visit a friend. Then I continued on to Braunschweig, which is only another forty-five kilometres away. There I went to the Kaffeestube, the Teen Challenge type of house that helps drug addicts and alcoholics — where Judy and I had lived when we moved to Braunschweig in 1973. They have a little room for guests, like a prophet's chamber, up on the fourth floor of their building.
I arranged for the room. I told the people at Kaffeestube what I was going to be doing in the room.`Don't bother me,' I warned them. 'Don't even call me. I don't know how long I am going to be here but just leave me alone.' They knew me and knew that I meant what I said. So, they left me alone.
I went into the room and said, 'Lord, either I am going to die in this room, or You are going to change my life. I'm not coming out of here until one or the other happens.' I was very serious with God. I would fast, and pray, and read the Bible until God did something to change my heart. I knew that God was leading me this way. I knew there were things in me I couldn't deal with. There was no way in my own strength that I could deal with pride, jealousy, bitterness, hate, envy, and strife, and other things that should not be there. And the number one thing was really pride. I just couldn't get rid of it. So I asked the Lord to do something.
While I was sitting in a chair the power of God came into the room and I had to get out of the chair and lie on the floor. The power was so great I couldn't get up. And I stayed there six and a half days.
GOD SPEAKS THROUGH VISIONS!Henk Paulson left his apartment and his camper bus for me to use. Then he left on special business behind the Iron Curtain.
Before I had left Seattle I had called Phil Israelson. I told Phil that I was going to Holland, and he had said that he was going there too. It turned out that he was staying only fifteen kilometres from Henk's house. I went over and got Phil, and brought him back with me. We had a really significant time in prayer. Some things happened there spiritually that were another step of preparation in God's plan to answer the cry of my heart. Paul said in Galatians 2:20, 'I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live.' I really wanted to know, not only by faith in the Word of God, but by experience, what it meant to be crucified with Christ.
Phil and I drove over to Germany, and I dropped him off in Hanover to visit a friend. Then I continued on to Braunschweig, which is only another forty-five kilometres away. There I went to the Kaffeestube, the Teen Challenge type of house that helps drug addicts and alcoholics — where Judy and I had lived when we moved to Braunschweig in 1973. They have a little room for guests, like a prophet's chamber, up on the fourth floor of their building.
I arranged for the room. I told the people at Kaffeestube what I was going to be doing in the room.`Don't bother me,' I warned them. 'Don't even call me. I don't know how long I am going to be here but just leave me alone.' They knew me and knew that I meant what I said. So, they left me alone.
I went into the room and said, 'Lord, either I am going to die in this room, or You are going to change my life. I'm not coming out of here until one or the other happens.' I was very serious with God. I would fast, and pray, and read the Bible until God did something to change my heart. I knew that God was leading me this way. I knew there were things in me I couldn't deal with. There was no way in my own strength that I could deal with pride, jealousy, bitterness, hate, envy, and strife, and other things that should not be there. And the number one thing was really pride. I just couldn't get rid of it. So I asked the Lord to do something.
While I was sitting in a chair the power of God came into the room and I had to get out of the chair and lie on the floor. The power was so great I couldn't get up. And I stayed there six and a half days.
Things began to happen to me spiritually of such a deep nature that I wondered what was going on. For the first time_in my life I had such an intimate and _personal time with Jesus, that I could say with Paul, 'I ... heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.' (11 Corinthians 12:4)
'Lord, either I am going to die in this room,
or You are going to change my life.
I'm not coming out of here until one
or the other happens.'
I was very serious with God.
I would fast, and pray, and read the Bible
until God did something to change my heart.
I really wondered if I was still in my own right mind. But God in His mercy sent a man to see me. This man opened the door where I was and the power of God hit him. He fell on his face and said, 'I can't breathe in here.' And he crawled out and closed the door. He couldn't stay with me in God's power for more than a few minutes.
About a day and a half later another man came to visit me. He opened the door and the power of the Lord hit him and he fell down. He crawled into the room and he stayed with me about twenty minutes. And that was all he could take. He couldn't stand any more. It was impossible to even stand up in this room. The glory and the power and the weight that come with the manifested glory of God that was in that room just pushed people down. No one could stand up. And, finally, he crawled out and closed the door.God sent those two people to me to show me that what was happening was actually something very real and s and that I wasn't losing my mind.
During these days the Lord was taking me mainly through the book of Isaiah. This was where I was reading almost constantly for the six and a half days. The Lord would make everything so real to me. It was a continuing process of revelation.
After the second person had left something began to happen that was so supernatural that it may be hard for some to believe. But all of a sudden, just like that night that I had experienced an angel's presence in that house back in Holland, I knew there was an angelic being standing in the room with me. In fact I knew that there were two standing in the room with me, and I knew I was going to see them.
I turned to look where the first one was, and it was the most awe-inspiring thing I had ever seen in my life! He was very, very large. The room had a high ceiling —probably a good twenty feet — and the belt buckle of this creature was about twenty-five feet high. He was a creature of God and he stood higher than the roof of the house.
I don't even know how to put this into words, but he was not limited by the physical dimensions of the house or this world. And I looked over to the other spot where I knew there was another one, and sure enough, there he was! Two of them — of these angelic creatures — were standing there.I can't even adequately describe them to you. All I can say is that after I read Revelation 4:6-9 and the tenth chapter of Ezekiel, and Genesis 3:24 and saw how the writers tried to describe what they were seeing, I understood how it's just about impossible.
They never spoke to me. They never said a word. I didn't talk to them. But I knew that God had put them there for my protection.
They each had three pairs of wings. They stood absolutely motionless and yet they knew everything and could see everything that was going on all around — in every direction, up, down, around, everywhere - just like it says in the Bible.
Then the Lord sent one more person to me, my dear friend, Phil Israelson. He came on over from Hanover, where I had dropped him off. When he opened the door, the power of God hit him. He fell on the floor and as he did he said, 'Steve, what's going on here And all of a sudden he looked over towards this one place in the room and by the look on his face, I knew he had seen one of the angelic creatures.
`Oh, Lord, thank you' I said gratefully under my breath. 'You've sent somebody to see them too so that I'll know I'm not having a hallucination or something.'
`Phil,' I said, 'do you see anything else And he looked exactly at the place where the other one was and I said, 'Phil, I want you to describe to me what you see. I've got to know whether you are seeing — that we are seeing, the same thing.' And he began to describe them, and I said, 'That's it!' And he described to me exactly what I had seen, to the smallest details.
We continued to read in the book of Isaiah the whole time that Phil was there with me. He would read aloud and I would say, 'Phil, do you know what that means?' And the Lord would give me the revelation, the illumination of that word. Oh, what a time we had! Phil stayed with me for two and a half days and then he had to leave.
After he left I was there still on the floor with my eyes closed and my head down. Suddenly, Jesus was right there with me. He spoke to me. Was it an audible voice? Did I hear it inside myself? I really can't say for sure. All I know is that it was so plain and so clear.
`I want you to trust Me,' He said.
`Lord, I trust You,' I said.
`I want you to trust Me,' He said again.
`Lord, I trust you,' I said.
`You have to trust Me!' He said a third time, emphatically.
`Lord, I trust You,' I cried out. From the depths of my being I was telling Jesus that I trusted Him.
I opened my eyes, and Jesus was standing right in front of me. He was just standing there, and the only thing I can say is that it was as though He had an axe in His hand. And then I saw something that was the most horrible, ugly thing I've ever seen in my life. And I screamed because it was so terrible. I'd never seen anything like it. And I screamed out, 'Lord, what is that?
And Jesus said, 'That's your heart.'
`God, I can't stand it!' I said.
I can't stand it either,' Jesus said. And He took an axe and He laid it to my heart and He said, 'This is your pride!' He laid that axe right to the root of that pride that was in me. And my old self literally died in that room. I knew experientially the meaning of Matthew 3:10: 'And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.'Now, I already knew Jesus as my Messiah. I already knew that His blood had cleansed me of my sin. I knew Him as my baptizer in the Holy Spirit. I knew Him as my healer. I knew Him as Lord. I knew Jesus in all these things. But I didn't know Him in His crucifixion in a way that I had to know, so that I could really be raised from the dead in the power of His resurrection and live with Him.
When this happened I screamed, and if anyone had been anywhere near there I know they would have thought I was being murdered. But they were down in the basement, five floors down, eating their afternoon meal. Then Jesus began to go through the other things that were in my heart: jealousy, envy, strife, hatred, and bitterness — just roots! They weren't things manifesting themselves in my life but the roots of those things were there, and needed to be taken away. And each time He did it I experienced spiritual pain with physical effects —I can't adequately explain it — except that I believe that I physically died in that room and was resurrected. Jesus resurrected me! When it was over I can say that I have never ever felt so clean and pure as at that time.
During these days the Lord was taking me mainly through the book of Isaiah. This was where I was reading almost constantly for the six and a half days. The Lord would make everything so real to me. It was a continuing process of revelation.
After the second person had left something began to happen that was so supernatural that it may be hard for some to believe. But all of a sudden, just like that night that I had experienced an angel's presence in that house back in Holland, I knew there was an angelic being standing in the room with me. In fact I knew that there were two standing in the room with me, and I knew I was going to see them.
I turned to look where the first one was, and it was the most awe-inspiring thing I had ever seen in my life! He was very, very large. The room had a high ceiling —probably a good twenty feet — and the belt buckle of this creature was about twenty-five feet high. He was a creature of God and he stood higher than the roof of the house.
I don't even know how to put this into words, but he was not limited by the physical dimensions of the house or this world. And I looked over to the other spot where I knew there was another one, and sure enough, there he was! Two of them — of these angelic creatures — were standing there.I can't even adequately describe them to you. All I can say is that after I read Revelation 4:6-9 and the tenth chapter of Ezekiel, and Genesis 3:24 and saw how the writers tried to describe what they were seeing, I understood how it's just about impossible.
They never spoke to me. They never said a word. I didn't talk to them. But I knew that God had put them there for my protection.
They each had three pairs of wings. They stood absolutely motionless and yet they knew everything and could see everything that was going on all around — in every direction, up, down, around, everywhere - just like it says in the Bible.
Then the Lord sent one more person to me, my dear friend, Phil Israelson. He came on over from Hanover, where I had dropped him off. When he opened the door, the power of God hit him. He fell on the floor and as he did he said, 'Steve, what's going on here And all of a sudden he looked over towards this one place in the room and by the look on his face, I knew he had seen one of the angelic creatures.
`Oh, Lord, thank you' I said gratefully under my breath. 'You've sent somebody to see them too so that I'll know I'm not having a hallucination or something.'
`Phil,' I said, 'do you see anything else And he looked exactly at the place where the other one was and I said, 'Phil, I want you to describe to me what you see. I've got to know whether you are seeing — that we are seeing, the same thing.' And he began to describe them, and I said, 'That's it!' And he described to me exactly what I had seen, to the smallest details.
We continued to read in the book of Isaiah the whole time that Phil was there with me. He would read aloud and I would say, 'Phil, do you know what that means?' And the Lord would give me the revelation, the illumination of that word. Oh, what a time we had! Phil stayed with me for two and a half days and then he had to leave.
After he left I was there still on the floor with my eyes closed and my head down. Suddenly, Jesus was right there with me. He spoke to me. Was it an audible voice? Did I hear it inside myself? I really can't say for sure. All I know is that it was so plain and so clear.
`I want you to trust Me,' He said.
`Lord, I trust You,' I said.
`I want you to trust Me,' He said again.
`Lord, I trust you,' I said.
`You have to trust Me!' He said a third time, emphatically.
`Lord, I trust You,' I cried out. From the depths of my being I was telling Jesus that I trusted Him.
I opened my eyes, and Jesus was standing right in front of me. He was just standing there, and the only thing I can say is that it was as though He had an axe in His hand. And then I saw something that was the most horrible, ugly thing I've ever seen in my life. And I screamed because it was so terrible. I'd never seen anything like it. And I screamed out, 'Lord, what is that?
And Jesus said, 'That's your heart.'
`God, I can't stand it!' I said.
I can't stand it either,' Jesus said. And He took an axe and He laid it to my heart and He said, 'This is your pride!' He laid that axe right to the root of that pride that was in me. And my old self literally died in that room. I knew experientially the meaning of Matthew 3:10: 'And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.'Now, I already knew Jesus as my Messiah. I already knew that His blood had cleansed me of my sin. I knew Him as my baptizer in the Holy Spirit. I knew Him as my healer. I knew Him as Lord. I knew Jesus in all these things. But I didn't know Him in His crucifixion in a way that I had to know, so that I could really be raised from the dead in the power of His resurrection and live with Him.
When this happened I screamed, and if anyone had been anywhere near there I know they would have thought I was being murdered. But they were down in the basement, five floors down, eating their afternoon meal. Then Jesus began to go through the other things that were in my heart: jealousy, envy, strife, hatred, and bitterness — just roots! They weren't things manifesting themselves in my life but the roots of those things were there, and needed to be taken away. And each time He did it I experienced spiritual pain with physical effects —I can't adequately explain it — except that I believe that I physically died in that room and was resurrected. Jesus resurrected me! When it was over I can say that I have never ever felt so clean and pure as at that time.
Now,NUMBER ONE I already knew Jesus as my Messiah. I already knew that His blood had cleansed me of my sin.NUMBER TWO I knew Him as my baptizer in the Holy Spirit. I knew Him as my healer. I knew Him as Lord. I knew Jesus in all these things. But I didn't know Him NUMBER THREE in His crucifixion in a way that I had to know, so that I could really be raised from the dead in the power of His resurrection and live with Him. (numbers added ACW)
And then Jesus said, 'Don't let a seed of any of these things enter back into your heart lest they turn into a root and become a tree and bear forth branches and bring forth evil fruit.' The warning was scriptural. (Hebrews 12:15: 'See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled.') It was something that I will never forget.
During this time Jesus also led me in a vision into a hospital room in which a girl with a white nightgown was lying. Jesus walked over to her and with a certain gesture laid His hands on her. Then He told me, 'When you see this scene again, then do exactly the same as you have seen Me do!'And then I was able to get up. I sat in a large overstuffed chair, just quietly worshiping the Lord from the depth of my heart — a depth that I had never known before of worship and praise. And that's when I had the vision. It was as though it was projected on a large screen. I saw a lot of people and I recognized that they were Jewish faces. And there were so many! Then from a particular viewpoint I could see that there was a multitude of Jewish people — hundreds and hundreds of thousands of them.
My angle of vision changed again. This time I saw it from a height that enabled me to see the nation they were in. It was the Soviet Union, and these were Jewish people that were being gathered from different parts of that nation. On many small streets they were gathering from various regions of Russia. They were coming together and began to walk upon a great highway that God had built that was bound westward. Somehow I knew that this was a highway that only certain people could walk on. Only those that God permitted could get on it. And as they walked they began to come forth out of the USSR.
At the same time in my vision there were ministries that God raised up, that were as great as or even greater than that of Moses in Egypt. And they began to proclaim to the Soviet authorities, 'Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, let My people go!' And the Soviets refused. Then God, through these ministries, brought great judgment upon the Soviet Union. The catastrophies were so severe that the whole nation was brought to its knees. Then it was as though the Soviet Union coughed up the Jewish people and they began to walk on this specially-built highway.
As I watched, I saw that the highway continued on through Poland, through Warsaw. It continued on through East Germany, through the city of Berlin. From Berlin it crossed over the border into West Germany at Helmstadt into the city of Braunschweig. This highway that had been built by God continued on to the city of Hanover and then into Holland, and it came up into the northern parts of Holland where the Jewish people got on ships and went to Israel.
All along the way I saw people laying hands upon the Jews who were sick and they were healed. The people offered the food they had, which was not enough to feed all the Jewish refugees. But when the people offered it to the Lord it was expanded to feed the multitude –just like when Jesus fed the five thousand. It was awesome!
I was completely overwhelmed with the things I had seen. What should I do with it? If I was supposed to share this with others I needed confirmation from the Lord, to know for sure that it was not my own imagination.
`Jesus,' I said, 'this is wonderful, but what do You want me to do with it?
`Share it next Monday night at the prayer meeting,' He said.
`Jesus,' I prayed, 'I need to have confirmation out of the Word of God and through a miracle. Otherwise I cannot share this vision. I must know that this is from You before I can talk about it.'
The Lord showed me the verses in the prophetic books of the Bible where He says that He will lead His people out of the country of the north. The biblical witness of the coming of the Jews out of Russia is unmistakably clear and rooted in the prophecies of the Old Testament. It really lifted the burden from me to know that this, which I had seen, has already been the message of the Old Testament.
And as I was still sitting there pondering these things I was interrupted by a knock on the door. Jutta, the wife of one of the leaders at the house, asked me to go with her to a hospital to pray for a girl in the psychiatric ward. The mother of the girl had called and explained that her daughter had tried to commit suicide, so it had been necessary to commit her. She was heavily sedated on drugs.
Her mother felt the doctors weren't really helping her, for she just wasn't getting any better. The mother had remembered that once in a while her daughter had come to the meetings at the Kaffeestube and was always so peaceful after being at these meetings. So she called and asked if some of us could go and see her.
My time alone with Jesus had come to an end, I felt, so I was willing to go.
At first the doctors resisted letting us in, but finally gave us permission to go in for just ten minutes.
Jutta entered first and I followed. I could not believe my eyes. This was the same scene I had seen in the vision, the exact hospital room with one bed and a girl in a white nightgown! Had not Jesus told me, 'When you see that scene again, do exactly as you have seen Me do!' Suddenly, the verse out of John 5:19 came into my mind, `Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.'
There was not the slightest doubt in my mind. I walked over to the girl, who was lying lifelessly on her bed under heavy sedation. As I had seen in the vision, I laid my hands on her and prayed. I was only a servant of the Lord, but I knew that I was speaking His words, and Jesus touched her. Immediately, she sat upright on her bed and was out of the fog the medication had caused. I looked at her and said, 'I will see you again in thirty days.'
I did not know why I had said this, but one month later a young lady came to the front with her parents during a meeting in Braunschweig. All three gave their lives to Jesus. At first I had not noticed who they were until the girl said, 'Don't you know me? Thirty days ago you prayed for me. Only a few hours later the doctors released me, completely healed.'
After I prayed for the girl, Jesus told me, 'My son, this is your miracle!' Now I had the witness of the Holy Scripture that the vision was rooted in the Bible, and I had this personal miracle as a sign of my Lord that I was on the right road.
The following Monday night I shared the vision at a prayer meeting of about 180 people in Braunschweig. At first I could not tell if they had received it. They were looking at me as if to say, 'Could all this really be possible?' And I didn't know how to deal with the situation or to interpret their lack of reaction so I just closed my eyes. I wanted to feel like an ostrich. I wanted to stick my head in the sand so everything would disappear. There was no way to get out of the room. I was standing there with my eyes closed when that still inner voice of the Lord said to Me, 'I want you to go down on your knees and get on your face before Me.'
And I thought, 'Here I am with 180 Germans looking at me — and I'm to get down on my face before God?' But I had learned how important it is to obey God, no matter what the circumstances. 'All right, God,' I said, 'I'll obey You!' And I got down on my knees.
Then I heard the noise of many people moving and chairs rustling. I didn't know if they were coming to get me, or if they were running out the door. I opened my eyes a little bit to see what was going on. And then I realized that every single person in the room had received the same message from the Lord. No audible word was spoken but every single person was down on their knees and on their faces before the Lord. Everyone, without exception.
There was an awesome silence. We stayed there for over twenty minutes. It was a sealing work of the Holy Spirit. He sealed the vision within our hearts. Everyone was aware of the deep, deep work of the Spirit of God within our lives.
We all got up. We didn't speak to each other. We just filed out and everyone went home. We all knew God had been there. God's power had been manifested and the deep work of the Holy Spirit was accomplished without any words being said. God does not need visible displays or words in order for His glory to accomplish His work within our lives.
Interestingly, the Lord put it on my heart not to talk on a large scale about the vision of the exodus of the Russian Jews. That evening in Braunschweig was the only time I shared the vision publicly for a period of six years. Events had to come into maturity in the redemptive plan of God, and in my life, before the message could be shared in public.
I knew that God wanted to lead His people out of Russia, and I sensed the tremendous responsibility the Lord had given me with this knowledge. Therefore, in 1974, a new ministry began in that part of the world. During the next few years I visited all East European countries with the exception of Albania and Bulgaria. I have been in Russia four times. On one trip I travelled for 17,500 miles back and forth throughout the Soviet Union and as far as Siberia.
This was just in preparation, to get to understand the people and to find out the different routes to travel. The first two and a half years I worked primarily among persecuted Christians behind the Iron Curtain, holding pastors' conferences, leading youth camps, teaching, and ministering. But at the same time I tried to find out the situation of the Jews in the Eastern block countries and make contacts.
For the next six years I was the European Director of the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship. I knew almost every major city in both eastern and western Europe like the back of my hand. I wondered why God was having me travel so extensively. But the vision always remained in my heart. I hardly talked about it. I just did not have the green light from the Lord to share it except on a limited basis.
In October of 1980 1 flew to Finland for a series of meetings. It was six years after I had the vision in Braunschweig. Within eleven days I spoke twenty-nine times. At the end I felt squeezed like a lemon. On the last day of this trip, I sat completely exhausted in the office of Rauno Kokkola, a friend of mine in the central
part of Finland. If it had been possible, I would have flown home immediately. I just did not want to speak any more. What was I supposed to say after all these days? I groaned, 'Jesus, I am at the end of myself. Give me words for tonight.'
Next to me on the wall was a big map of Finland. Suddenly I saw a fire break out exactly on the border of Russia and Finland. A real fire with flames and smoke. I was wide awake. I looked around me. Where could I get water to quench the fire? But the map did not burn up. Fascinated, I watched the action. 'Jesus, what is happening?' I asked.
Again that quiet well-known voice spoke into my heart, 'Do you remember the vision in 1974?How could I have forgotten all that!
Then I saw the same vision in front of my eyes again. But this time my attention was drawn to more details. I realized, in particular, that the Jews of the northwestern part of Russia did not move towards the great highway via Poland to Western Europe. 'Lord, why don't they get on that highway?'
His answer was, 'These Jews will come to freedom through Finland. In My grace I will give them the chance to be a blessing to my beloved people.'
`Jesus, what shall I do with this new vision?' I asked, deeply moved.
`Haven't you asked Me for a word for tonight's meeting? Here it is. Go and tell this message to the Finnish people!'
Well, I worked up the courage. On this last evening in Finland I gave the message concerning the exodus of the Jews out of Russia, and spoke to them about the responsibility Finland would have.
After the meeting there was a cold silence over the crowd. I was under the impression that they had rejected this message. I wished I could have slipped out of a back door and jumped into the next departing plane. But the reason for the silence was that the message had so impacted them that they just did not know how to react.
Can you imagine the situation I was in? There I stood and wondered what the people were thinking. Had they received the message? Then, five people walked out of the crowd and came to my interpreter. First, an elderly lady. She let me know through the interpreter, 'More than forty years ago the Lord spoke to me and said that He will lead the Jews out of Russia via Finland. But He ordered me not to tell anyone about it, until a foreigner comes to our country and publicly speaks about it. Then, Jesus said to me, 'Go immediately to him and confirm it for he will need that!"' And how I needed that!My interpreter became more excited when the man who stood behind that lady began to tell him that just six months ago he had the impression he should buy five warehouses in his city. The Lord had told him that he would host a large number of people. 'Presently some of these houses are being used to exhibit cars,' he explained, 'and another is being used for tennis courts. But all of them have bathrooms and kitchens. All I have to do is put beds inside. Tonight I know that Jesus really talked to me and that these houses are supposed to be for His people on their journey through.'
My heart leapt with gladness. 'Thank you, Jesus!' I rejoiced.
The next person described how he was living close to the border of Russia, and that some months before the Lord had told him to buy buses and to start a company, for he would have to transport people who need to get through the country. Now he knew that it had not been his imagination, but that God had really talked to him.
The man behind him reported, 'God has called me into the ministry of Joseph. Every year I am to store up ten percent of my harvest, for some day there will be people travelling through my country that are in need of food. I have been obedient to the Lord and have already brought in my fourth harvest.'
The last person coming up was again an elderly lady who loved the Jews with all her heart. She said,-'You know, the Lord ordered me to learn the Russian language. Why should I learn Russian while I would much rather learn Hebrew in order to converse with God's people?'
`Only a few Jews in Russia know Hebrew, but all of them speak Russian,' was my answer.
`Ohhhh . . .'she rejoiced, 'then I have a ministry when the Jews come out of Russia! Now I know why I have to learn Russian. Would you join with me in prayer that God would speak to the hearts of other people to also learn the Russian language' We stopped and parayed right then.
These five independent testimonies given after this meeting on my last day in Finland were wonderful confirmations concerning the things the Lord had revealed to me. Once again I had the assurance that I was on the right track. I would need that for the future. END OF CHAPTER.
The Melchizedek Order, some more notes by Chris Welch.If you are joining this current series at this post and you don't have time to wade through the former in the series, you may like to get a summary of how the Melchizedek Order operates in and through the Church here :
My angle of vision changed again. This time I saw it from a height that enabled me to see the nation they were in. It was the Soviet Union, and these were Jewish people that were being gathered from different parts of that nation. On many small streets they were gathering from various regions of Russia. They were coming together and began to walk upon a great highway that God had built that was bound westward. Somehow I knew that this was a highway that only certain people could walk on. Only those that God permitted could get on it. And as they walked they began to come forth out of the USSR.
At the same time in my vision there were ministries that God raised up, that were as great as or even greater than that of Moses in Egypt. And they began to proclaim to the Soviet authorities, 'Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, let My people go!' And the Soviets refused. Then God, through these ministries, brought great judgment upon the Soviet Union. The catastrophies were so severe that the whole nation was brought to its knees. Then it was as though the Soviet Union coughed up the Jewish people and they began to walk on this specially-built highway.
As I watched, I saw that the highway continued on through Poland, through Warsaw. It continued on through East Germany, through the city of Berlin. From Berlin it crossed over the border into West Germany at Helmstadt into the city of Braunschweig. This highway that had been built by God continued on to the city of Hanover and then into Holland, and it came up into the northern parts of Holland where the Jewish people got on ships and went to Israel.
All along the way I saw people laying hands upon the Jews who were sick and they were healed. The people offered the food they had, which was not enough to feed all the Jewish refugees. But when the people offered it to the Lord it was expanded to feed the multitude –just like when Jesus fed the five thousand. It was awesome!
I was completely overwhelmed with the things I had seen. What should I do with it? If I was supposed to share this with others I needed confirmation from the Lord, to know for sure that it was not my own imagination.
`Jesus,' I said, 'this is wonderful, but what do You want me to do with it?
`Share it next Monday night at the prayer meeting,' He said.
`Jesus,' I prayed, 'I need to have confirmation out of the Word of God and through a miracle. Otherwise I cannot share this vision. I must know that this is from You before I can talk about it.'
The Lord showed me the verses in the prophetic books of the Bible where He says that He will lead His people out of the country of the north. The biblical witness of the coming of the Jews out of Russia is unmistakably clear and rooted in the prophecies of the Old Testament. It really lifted the burden from me to know that this, which I had seen, has already been the message of the Old Testament.
And as I was still sitting there pondering these things I was interrupted by a knock on the door. Jutta, the wife of one of the leaders at the house, asked me to go with her to a hospital to pray for a girl in the psychiatric ward. The mother of the girl had called and explained that her daughter had tried to commit suicide, so it had been necessary to commit her. She was heavily sedated on drugs.
Her mother felt the doctors weren't really helping her, for she just wasn't getting any better. The mother had remembered that once in a while her daughter had come to the meetings at the Kaffeestube and was always so peaceful after being at these meetings. So she called and asked if some of us could go and see her.
My time alone with Jesus had come to an end, I felt, so I was willing to go.
At first the doctors resisted letting us in, but finally gave us permission to go in for just ten minutes.
Jutta entered first and I followed. I could not believe my eyes. This was the same scene I had seen in the vision, the exact hospital room with one bed and a girl in a white nightgown! Had not Jesus told me, 'When you see that scene again, do exactly as you have seen Me do!' Suddenly, the verse out of John 5:19 came into my mind, `Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.'
There was not the slightest doubt in my mind. I walked over to the girl, who was lying lifelessly on her bed under heavy sedation. As I had seen in the vision, I laid my hands on her and prayed. I was only a servant of the Lord, but I knew that I was speaking His words, and Jesus touched her. Immediately, she sat upright on her bed and was out of the fog the medication had caused. I looked at her and said, 'I will see you again in thirty days.'
I did not know why I had said this, but one month later a young lady came to the front with her parents during a meeting in Braunschweig. All three gave their lives to Jesus. At first I had not noticed who they were until the girl said, 'Don't you know me? Thirty days ago you prayed for me. Only a few hours later the doctors released me, completely healed.'
After I prayed for the girl, Jesus told me, 'My son, this is your miracle!' Now I had the witness of the Holy Scripture that the vision was rooted in the Bible, and I had this personal miracle as a sign of my Lord that I was on the right road.
The following Monday night I shared the vision at a prayer meeting of about 180 people in Braunschweig. At first I could not tell if they had received it. They were looking at me as if to say, 'Could all this really be possible?' And I didn't know how to deal with the situation or to interpret their lack of reaction so I just closed my eyes. I wanted to feel like an ostrich. I wanted to stick my head in the sand so everything would disappear. There was no way to get out of the room. I was standing there with my eyes closed when that still inner voice of the Lord said to Me, 'I want you to go down on your knees and get on your face before Me.'
And I thought, 'Here I am with 180 Germans looking at me — and I'm to get down on my face before God?' But I had learned how important it is to obey God, no matter what the circumstances. 'All right, God,' I said, 'I'll obey You!' And I got down on my knees.
Then I heard the noise of many people moving and chairs rustling. I didn't know if they were coming to get me, or if they were running out the door. I opened my eyes a little bit to see what was going on. And then I realized that every single person in the room had received the same message from the Lord. No audible word was spoken but every single person was down on their knees and on their faces before the Lord. Everyone, without exception.
There was an awesome silence. We stayed there for over twenty minutes. It was a sealing work of the Holy Spirit. He sealed the vision within our hearts. Everyone was aware of the deep, deep work of the Spirit of God within our lives.
We all got up. We didn't speak to each other. We just filed out and everyone went home. We all knew God had been there. God's power had been manifested and the deep work of the Holy Spirit was accomplished without any words being said. God does not need visible displays or words in order for His glory to accomplish His work within our lives.
Interestingly, the Lord put it on my heart not to talk on a large scale about the vision of the exodus of the Russian Jews. That evening in Braunschweig was the only time I shared the vision publicly for a period of six years. Events had to come into maturity in the redemptive plan of God, and in my life, before the message could be shared in public.
I knew that God wanted to lead His people out of Russia, and I sensed the tremendous responsibility the Lord had given me with this knowledge. Therefore, in 1974, a new ministry began in that part of the world. During the next few years I visited all East European countries with the exception of Albania and Bulgaria. I have been in Russia four times. On one trip I travelled for 17,500 miles back and forth throughout the Soviet Union and as far as Siberia.
This was just in preparation, to get to understand the people and to find out the different routes to travel. The first two and a half years I worked primarily among persecuted Christians behind the Iron Curtain, holding pastors' conferences, leading youth camps, teaching, and ministering. But at the same time I tried to find out the situation of the Jews in the Eastern block countries and make contacts.
For the next six years I was the European Director of the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship. I knew almost every major city in both eastern and western Europe like the back of my hand. I wondered why God was having me travel so extensively. But the vision always remained in my heart. I hardly talked about it. I just did not have the green light from the Lord to share it except on a limited basis.
In October of 1980 1 flew to Finland for a series of meetings. It was six years after I had the vision in Braunschweig. Within eleven days I spoke twenty-nine times. At the end I felt squeezed like a lemon. On the last day of this trip, I sat completely exhausted in the office of Rauno Kokkola, a friend of mine in the central
part of Finland. If it had been possible, I would have flown home immediately. I just did not want to speak any more. What was I supposed to say after all these days? I groaned, 'Jesus, I am at the end of myself. Give me words for tonight.'
Next to me on the wall was a big map of Finland. Suddenly I saw a fire break out exactly on the border of Russia and Finland. A real fire with flames and smoke. I was wide awake. I looked around me. Where could I get water to quench the fire? But the map did not burn up. Fascinated, I watched the action. 'Jesus, what is happening?' I asked.
Again that quiet well-known voice spoke into my heart, 'Do you remember the vision in 1974?How could I have forgotten all that!
Then I saw the same vision in front of my eyes again. But this time my attention was drawn to more details. I realized, in particular, that the Jews of the northwestern part of Russia did not move towards the great highway via Poland to Western Europe. 'Lord, why don't they get on that highway?'
His answer was, 'These Jews will come to freedom through Finland. In My grace I will give them the chance to be a blessing to my beloved people.'
`Jesus, what shall I do with this new vision?' I asked, deeply moved.
`Haven't you asked Me for a word for tonight's meeting? Here it is. Go and tell this message to the Finnish people!'
Well, I worked up the courage. On this last evening in Finland I gave the message concerning the exodus of the Jews out of Russia, and spoke to them about the responsibility Finland would have.
After the meeting there was a cold silence over the crowd. I was under the impression that they had rejected this message. I wished I could have slipped out of a back door and jumped into the next departing plane. But the reason for the silence was that the message had so impacted them that they just did not know how to react.
Can you imagine the situation I was in? There I stood and wondered what the people were thinking. Had they received the message? Then, five people walked out of the crowd and came to my interpreter. First, an elderly lady. She let me know through the interpreter, 'More than forty years ago the Lord spoke to me and said that He will lead the Jews out of Russia via Finland. But He ordered me not to tell anyone about it, until a foreigner comes to our country and publicly speaks about it. Then, Jesus said to me, 'Go immediately to him and confirm it for he will need that!"' And how I needed that!My interpreter became more excited when the man who stood behind that lady began to tell him that just six months ago he had the impression he should buy five warehouses in his city. The Lord had told him that he would host a large number of people. 'Presently some of these houses are being used to exhibit cars,' he explained, 'and another is being used for tennis courts. But all of them have bathrooms and kitchens. All I have to do is put beds inside. Tonight I know that Jesus really talked to me and that these houses are supposed to be for His people on their journey through.'
My heart leapt with gladness. 'Thank you, Jesus!' I rejoiced.
The next person described how he was living close to the border of Russia, and that some months before the Lord had told him to buy buses and to start a company, for he would have to transport people who need to get through the country. Now he knew that it had not been his imagination, but that God had really talked to him.
The man behind him reported, 'God has called me into the ministry of Joseph. Every year I am to store up ten percent of my harvest, for some day there will be people travelling through my country that are in need of food. I have been obedient to the Lord and have already brought in my fourth harvest.'
The last person coming up was again an elderly lady who loved the Jews with all her heart. She said,-'You know, the Lord ordered me to learn the Russian language. Why should I learn Russian while I would much rather learn Hebrew in order to converse with God's people?'
`Only a few Jews in Russia know Hebrew, but all of them speak Russian,' was my answer.
`Ohhhh . . .'she rejoiced, 'then I have a ministry when the Jews come out of Russia! Now I know why I have to learn Russian. Would you join with me in prayer that God would speak to the hearts of other people to also learn the Russian language' We stopped and parayed right then.
These five independent testimonies given after this meeting on my last day in Finland were wonderful confirmations concerning the things the Lord had revealed to me. Once again I had the assurance that I was on the right track. I would need that for the future. END OF CHAPTER.
The Melchizedek Order, some more notes by Chris Welch.If you are joining this current series at this post and you don't have time to wade through the former in the series, you may like to get a summary of how the Melchizedek Order operates in and through the Church here :
I'd like to highlight these things :
Point 1. Although there are many verses which say "He who calls upon the Name of the Lord will be saved", you will notice the details in Steve's testimony. Our part is to connect our heart to the Lord.
Jesus described this pictorially as : Matthew 6:6-8 NIV
"But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen(in secret). Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. "
When you connect in your heart with God, you will know within yourself that you have been heard. It is not a question of reading out leftbrain recitations to the Lord, thinking that by the number of words and prayers read out God will answer you. You may in fact, in your desperation only manage a dull groan. You may find yourself flat on the floor writhing with a deep unutterable pain very similar to childbirth. Your spirit and God's Spirit connect with God the Father, even if your speech centres haven't a clue how to articulate what is going on. At such times , speaking in tongues to God is a great, practical gift, because it bypasses our mind altogether, and our spirit utters mysteries to God. The Truth is, as fallen humans, and now humans wanting to learn how to pray, WE DO NOT KNOW how to pray as we ought.
Romans 8
26So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance.
27And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God's will. AMP
Point 2. Although you respond to God's call by seeking to connect, you then must trust God that He does in fact know how to order our lives. It is God who sets things up. It is God decides how and in what way we meet Him. He communicates this to us. We hear and respond by faith, even. and probably most likely when, His directive looks humanly foolish. The birthplace of Jesus did not look good humanly either.
Point 3. Just acknowledge certain patterns in this story, and store them in your spirit....for you cannot organise them. These things are set up by God. People who are conditioned to the external forms of church find the Melchizedek order disconcerting. You cannot see it. You have to make space for it. It looks humanly fuzzy and nebulous. As though it doesn't exist. But it is more real than any human Bible Institution. It is Spirit and Life. And more connected to what Jesus is doing now in the Earth, than the "most popular, switched on" ministry of the day.
Patterns like:
- "prophet's chambers".....places on this earth where God is sought
- connections with evangelism....which is on God's heart....."Teen Challenge"
- Life or death, either You meet me....or I die. I'm not going anywhere unless You meet me.
- The very real tangible Presence of the Lord. With manifestations of the supernatural.
- Galations 2:20. Connecting with the 3 Levels/ the 3 stages of maturity. Steve describes them above 1.Salvation 2. Spirit filled Christianity and the gifts. 3. Identification with Romans 6-8 and the entry into 3rd level living.
- An overarching vision of the Church coupled with personal faith steps of obedience within the vision
- Connecting with others who are moving in the Melchizedek order.
- Human church programmes have no Divine Sword cutting through them. In the Bible it says the cherubim guard the way to the Tree of Life.
- Jesus pointed to the harvest in a field and said look how the grain is white unto harvest. Seeing the disciples eagerness to get stuck in......He effectively brings down the sword at this point on human endeavour by adding:
- "Pray then to the Lord of the harvest that He sends out workers into the harvest." Any attempt at humans being organised to fill the need has this great Third Party sequence cutting right through it. The Father raises up such that will be Divinely commissioned to move into the harvest according to the Melchizedek order.
4. Laying the axe to the root. Not only is this the title of Fred Pruitt's book, concerning how the work of the Cross has dealt thoroughly with what went wrong in Genesis 3, but Melchizedek Order operations cause so much disruption because they lay the axe to the root of Satan's workings. They truly deal with the Strong man over human territories....that ordinarily paralyse the work of the Kingdom. Most churches, like those addressed in Revelation, have inferior candlesticks. They run very limited operations because the hindering key issues over churches are never addressed. Paul describes to the Corinthians that they should be the ones exercising rule over their locality, but instead they are bound up in minister worship, taking each other to court, and gross immorality.
Conclusion
My purpose in highlighting Steve's story is not so much to get bogged down in the outworking of the vision. Many Russian Jews have now been able to leave Russia since this book was printed. Whether this is the full outworking or only a first part. This has also been true of many prophecies given in old testament times. The people of God could have had no idea what sort of timescales are involved.....here we are still climbing into many of the prophecies as fresh today, as when they were first given.
No the purpose is to further show how real this Order of Melchizedek is. The fact that so many testify to similar principles and events with no collaberation between those giving testimony.
1 comment:
This is a remarkable experience in Galatians 2:20. God sent the throne chariot with the creatures, and Jesus sure did a work. Brian
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