Posted July 20th, 2013 at 3:56 pmNo Comments Yet
THE GLORY CLOUD OF REVELATION & PROPHETIC MANTLES – PART 1
This is a two-part teaching entitled, The Glory Cloud of Revelation and Prophetic Mantles by Revivalist and Founder of Fresh Fire Ministries, Todd Bentley.
Is your life astonishing, filled with prophetic visions and encounters with the Lord? Are you a sign and a wonder? In a vision, Todd saw the Glory Cloud of Revelation–the cloud of Isaiah 11:1, 2 and Revelation 4:5 come upon the church body. Also in the same vision, the Lord showed him an old Punjabi saint by the name of Sundar Singh, who lived in India and evangelized throughout the world over a hundred years ago. The Holy Spirit spoke to Todd about a new release of prophetic revelation coming. In the first part of this prophetic teaching article, Todd teaches about the river of revelation available to every believer and the need for a life wholly dedicated, consecrated, and devoted to the Lord. Part 2 will examine the significance of Sundar Singh in Todd’s vision, as an example of the extraordinary relationship God wants us to have with Him, a life of devotion, humility, daily discipline, contemplative prayer, and daily soaking in, and seeking of God’s manifest presence. This style of Christian living will see us through the most violent shaking or trying times.
THE GLORY CLOUD OF REVELATION & PROPHETIC MANTLES
BY TODD BENTLEY
PART ONE
RIVERS OF REVELATION
There’s a new release of prophetic revelation coming! It’s the Glory Cloud of Revelation and it’s about to come upon those who remain in the tent of His glory, those who are totally devoted to the Lord in holiness and consecration, and to those dedicated to a life of commitment, and prayer. In a vision, I saw the glory cloud of Isaiah 11:1, 2, God’s manifest presence, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, come upon the Church:
There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding [revelation], the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
Although the Glory Cloud of Revelation I saw was a vision, this is a promise of what is literally to come–we will experience the presence of His cloud and God will release rivers of revelation where believers won’t just receive a Word of the Lord, but a flowing river of prophecy:
Then Saul sent messengers to take David. And when they saw the group of prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as leader over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied. And when Saul was told, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise. Then Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also. Then he also went to Ramah, and came to the great well that is at Sechu. So he asked, and said, “Where are Samuel and David?” And someone said, “Indeed they are at Naioth in Ramah.” So he went there to Naioth in Ramah. Then the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he went on and prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah. And he also stripped off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” (1 Sam. 19:20-24).
When the Spirit of God came upon King Saul and his messengers, they received a continuous flow of prophecy. The Holy Spirit came upon Saul as a canopy of revelation so that he didn’t just receive one prophetic word, but an ever-increasing prophetic flow. This ever-increasing abundant supply of revelation is available to us as believers. God wants us to flow in the Spirit of wisdom and knowledge, not just operate in a word of wisdom or a word of knowledge or prophecy. We can hear from the Lord constantly. “He awakens me morning-by-morning, He awakens my ear to hear” (Is. 50:4b). Even as we sleep, the Lord teaches us: “I will bless the LORD who has given me counsel. My heart also instructs me in the night seasons” (Ps. 16:7).
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). When the Holy Spirit rests upon us, so does the anointing to know the deep unto deep things of God and mysteries of the Kingdom:
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, and the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:10-16).
God wants to reveal the deep things by His Spirit. No one knows the deep things of God but His Spirit, which is in Him. And friends, we have received this Spirit! Thus, we have the ability to continually be in the mind of Christ. This is the realm of revelation and ministry God wants to open to us today. While the gifts of the Spirit are wonderful, the flowing river of the Lord’s abiding presence is even more so, and that’s what we should desire and seek with all of our hearts. Why settle for one word, one revelation, one pearl of wisdom when God offers us an endless ocean of them? This anointing will come upon individuals and even companies of people for days and even weeks at a time.
DRAW NEAR THE GATE
In Genesis 28:11-17, Jacob receives an open heaven revelation. He describes it as the “house of God,” the gateway of heaven. In this experience, the ladder did not come from heaven to earth, but from the earth to heaven.
So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the LORD stood above it and said: “I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”
Again, we see this “gate” or door, as in John’s experience in Revelation 4:1, 2:
After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice, which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.” Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.
There are those who will receive days and days of open heaven revelation. The key here is to draw near to the gate of heaven. The door standing open in heaven has never closed.
GREAT DEMONSTRATIONS OF GOD’S POWER
A perfect example of living and ministering out of the Glory Cloud, the open heaven of revelation, was Jesus. He tapped into the mind of God and operated in the seven Spirits of Isaiah 11:1, 2 and Revelation 4:5. He flowed in wisdom and knowledge. In the book of John, we read the story of Jesus and Nathanael under the fig tree:
The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote–Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”
Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man” (John. 1:43-51).
Jesus’ word of knowledge astounded Nathanael, and his faith leapt forward. Jesus Himself was an open heaven, a gate of heaven with wisdom and revelation, the open heaven that we just reviewed in Genesis 28:11-17. Jesus said, “You will see greater things than these.” In other words, Jesus operated in something greater than the ability to bring a word, and He told Nathanael that he would see greater demonstrations of His power. Glory!
REMAIN IN THE TENT OF HIS GLORY
I asked the Lord, “Who will this cloud come on?” Then I remembered the story of Joshua and Moses and how when they would enter the tent of a meeting, the cloud would come down. It was in the glory cloud that Moses spoke to God face-to-face as a friend speaks to friend.
So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses. All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door. So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle (Ex. 33:8-11).
The Bible says that Moses heard God in plain speech: “I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark sayings; and he sees the form of the Lord” (Num. 12:8).
God is going to release, on the friends of God, the kind of revelation Moses received. It is time to hear plainly and not in dark sayings, and then we will see the form of the Lord. The key to receiving this kind of revelation is to remain in the tent, seek, soak, and spend time in His presence.
A CALL TO REPENTANCE, HOLINESS, SANCTIFICATION
God’s Presence is waiting to fill us! But there’s a need for repentance, a weeping and mourning at the altar (Joel 2:17), a return to holiness, an examination of our hearts and motives. Revelation demands character, intimacy, humility, brokenness, and death to self. God cannot enter the temple if we have unclean, uncircumcised hearts:
Also He brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple; so I looked, and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD; and I fell on my face. And the LORD said to me, “Son of man, mark well, see with your eyes and hear with your ears, all that I say to you concerning all the ordinances of the house of the LORD and all its laws. Mark well who may enter the house and all who go out from the sanctuary.
“Now say to the rebellious, to the house of Israel, “Thus says the Lord GOD: “O house of Israel, let Us have no more of all your abominations. When you brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to defile it–My house–and when you offered My food, the fat and the blood, then they broke My covenant because of all your abominations. And you have not kept charge of My holy things, but you have set others to keep charge of My sanctuary for you.” Thus says the Lord GOD: “No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart or uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter My sanctuary, including any foreigner who is among the children of Israel” (Ezek. 44:4-9).
Those who have been faithful will be honored and established:
“Nevertheless I will make them keep charge of the temple, for all its work, and for all that has to be done in it. But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer to Me the fat and the blood,” says the Lord GOD. “They shall enter My sanctuary, and they shall come near My table to minister to Me, and they shall keep My charge” (Ezek. 44:15, 16).
God will put marks of honor upon those who prove their faithfulness and steadfastness to Him in shaking, trying times, and will employ in His service those who haven’t drawn back. If we keep close to God, He will keep us close to Him.
AT THE MASTER’S FEET
In this same vision, where I saw the Glory Cloud of Revelation cover believers, I also saw an old saint by the name of Sundar Singh who lived in the latter part of the 1800’s and early 1900’s in India. Then, the Holy Spirit spoke to me about this new release of prophetic revelation coming upon the church, similar to the anointing that was upon this man. It stirred my curiosity, and so I studied the life of Sundar Singh, and discovered that this early Punjabi evangelist experienced profound prophetic visions and encounters.
The Lord Himself regularly visited Sundar Singh. During these visitations, he would ask questions of the Lord and receive direct answers. At the Master’s Feet is a record of these question and answer times with the Lord. Sundar spoke to the Lord as Moses did face-to-face with God, as a friend speaks to a friend. In his writings, Singh describes his visions and experiences, but we also learn that he was humble, faithful, repentant, and spent much time in the presence of the Lord. This has come to be known as the Christian Contemplative Tradition.
In the second part of this teaching, we’ll examine the significance of Sundar Singh in my vision as an example of the extraordinary relationship God wants us to have with Him; a life of devotion, humility, daily discipline, and daily soaking in and seeking of God’s manifest presence. Our lives can be just as astonishing, and just as filled with prophetic visions and encounters with the Lord, even through intense shaking and trying times. We are as significant to God as any other saint who has lived before us. But God wants us to choose His presence over everything, a life wholly and devoted to the Lord. He wants us to live in the Glory Cloud of Revelation, which is Himself.
Don’t miss the conclusion to this power-soaked teaching. If this email was forwarded to you, please subscribe here
http://FreshFireMinistries.InJesus.com . Fresh Fire’s teachings of the week are sent to your mailbox every Monday.
FFM PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENT – TODD BENTLEY – SOAKING IN THE SECRET PLACE
Soaking In The Secret Place
– By Todd Bentley
Listen to “The Glory Cloud” on Todd’s “Soaking in the Secret Place” CD. Join Todd on a journey into the Presence of God using prayers from the Bible and prayers that draw from a well of deep passion and longing for Jesus. This is a contemplative 12-track CD with accompaniment of piano-style music and the musical sounds of rain, flute, trumpet, shofar, and more for a deep, contemplative, prayer experience. Listen to Honey Presence, and Soaking in the Rain, and The Secret Place and Come Holy Spirit, and usher in the glory cloud of God’s magnificent and awesome presence.
(Disclaimer: Though I like Todd’s teachings, I do not agree with the theology of Sundar Singh – Cyndi Cloud)
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.