Grace and Glory Conference - Session 4 - Angels!!

Wednesday 24th October 2007 - AM Session - Fini de Gersigny

Day 2 of the conference opened with Fini de Gersigny speaking and it was once again powerfully visited by God. So much so that he had to keep stopping and sensitively blessing what God was doing which he did very well. But before I give my slightly jumbled notes, I want to share a prophetic word that Ryan Rufus brought - and the resulting experience. He prophesied;

"Over these days we are going to have increasing encounters with angels. Some of your closest friends will become angelic cherubim of God. You will get to know their names! Heaven is open above us and angels of glory are coming down upon us - columns of angelic messangers and ministers are coming down bringing the glory Presence of God!".

I wondered about whether or not to share this because I don't want to appear arrogant - but in this context of God's lavish and wonderful grace you realise very quickly that nothing that happens in regards to God giving anything has ANYTHING to do with ANYTHING that is in me. It is all because of the empty Cross and the empty tomb! So when faced with the option of whether to keep silent about it for fear of misunderstanding and accusations of arrogance - or whether to share it in faith and hope that this will become an increasing experience of many millions of Christians around the globe - I've got no choice!

As Ryan finished prophesying I became acutely aware of a presence behind me and the only way I can describe that feeling was when my deputy Headmaster at my Christian school I went to would sneak up behind me and I knew he was there somehow before I saw him with my physical eyes. But whereas his approaches were always unpleasant and negative - (mostly. I think he said well done to me once!) - this impending presence was totally different. It was like my back was to the brightest dawning of the sun and I could see glows coming from behind me. And suddenly I knew that my angel was behind me and standing with his arms and hands on my shoulders. I sensed him as a beautiful, huge tall blond figure - powerfully masculine, yet so lovingly tender. He seemed to resemble me in some ways - I noted that he had my eyes which are blue and I knew he had my sense of humour. And as he just stood there, I knew that this wasn't a demonic spirit masquerading as an angel of light because he kept pointing me to the glory cloud that was above even though my temptation was to stare. All he would do is point me and direct me and focus me in worship to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who sat enthroned above receiving the praises and worship of His people.

So ... with that awesome heavenly experience in context, Fini came to speak. BTW - please do keep reading after the sermon notes have finished! I reflected a bit at this point half way through the conference.

"Blessed are the upright - not the uptight! If you have no joy then you have no strength because the joy of the Lord is your strength! When God gives you a vision He speaks about His purposes - the Church is the supernatural Bride of Christ and;

If you aren't living in the supernatural then you aren't living at all!

(Psalm 84:1) - His dwelling place is now among His people. Without the Presence of God we would die - our lives are nothing without His Presence! We were designed to know and to hear His voice! The reason why we get thirsty presupposes something to meet that need.

The reason why we long for revival and the manifest Presence of God pressupposes that is God's purpose and His pleasure to show up!

There is no division in heaven - only glory! Every time God's glory comes on the earth we are experiencing heaven on earth! We are heavenlings having an earthly experience. God loves your flesh and He wants you to experience His glory in your flesh. If you aren't comfortable with making mistakes then you will experience unfair pressure.

God intended us to know His Presence so we can experience it and lead others into it. You cannot lead others into something that you haven't first experienced!

How do you experience God's Presence? It isn't the point of HOW I experience Him - it is the fact that I DO experience Him. We must tune our bodies to experience Him! New Agers are easy to reach with the gospel of power!

The hardest people to reach are religious people who never experienced God's power and don't want to.

Why did Jesus turn water into wine? It was excessive and it displayed the glory of God! Why does it take people so long to work out whether a move of God is of God?

Let us never attribute a move of the Spirit to the dark side and become guilty of blasphemy.

To be holy is to be enraptured with Jesus Christ. Joy is the outworking of that! "Joy in the Holy Ghost!". If the Father is happy and the Spirit is manifesting the Father's love then we will get happy! If you have to say to your people "God's Presence is here" then He probably isn't because if He is here then the people will know it.

He is a self-manifestation. If He is present then we will know it! We were designed to hear God's voice! He speaks to us because He wants to display His splendour! Why did He make giraffes!? Because He can! We need to learn to delight in the delights of God!

"I was chatting to my Dad this morning and He is crazy about me!!".

That is the gospel! "For God so LOVED the world!". Jealously guard the Presence of God! Treasure and honour the Presence of God! It is God interupting His own meetings!

We took the 1990 move of God in South Africa for granted and went back to our fields and grew up and condemned ourselves to 10 years of barren dryness!

God is doing much more than we are ever aware of! We had Toronto 4 years before it hit Toronto! But we grew up ... don't just go through the "mist tunnel" and think we have to move back into the desert!

Only TODAYS manna will do!

God will move how He wants to move and when He wants to move! Remember the sound of wine in the trees! He has never changed! He never meant it to stop! The river will determine the course of the banks! Father is the initiator - people start to worship when they hear a demon coming out because they don't want it coming into them!!".

A Pause for Thought - Where are We Going?

Fini then moved into worship and simply blessing what God was supernaturally initiating around the room. That is something that is new to me and wonderful to me. We were always warned against the Toronto Blessing in our church that the men in charge were manipulating it and were pushing people over or confusing them with psychic phenomena. I didn't experience the Toronto Blessing first hand so I can't comment on that but I doubt it - I've spoken to far more people who have experienced it and seen lasting fruits in their lives. However this move of God - this move of the Spirit that is surely beginning here doesn't have ANYTHING to do with the guys that are running the meetings. Fini and Isi and Rob generally are still speaking when manifestations start breaking out all over the meeting and they simply bless what God is doing.

When Fini commented on the "10 years of barrenness" that profoundly moved me. My dear friend Pete and I have evaluated the monumental series that Ern Baxter brought at the Dales Bible Week in 1976 - "Where Are We Going?". It was a key point for the Charismatic Movement in the UK because all the charismatic leaders of various groups and movements were there together as one in unity. Ern closed the conference with a solemn message and it was called "The Kadesh Crisis". They had a choice! The people could either go into the land and see the entire earth covered with the glory of God or they could turn around and go back into the wilderness back to their local churches and keep the blessing local. To be sure the blessing would continue and God would continue to baptise in His Spirit. But the world wouldn't be affected.

And my local home church made a choice. I overheard one of the elders of my church talking to a friend of mine when we had become functional cessationist. My friend was bravely asking him why the elders had decided to take the church out of the things of the Holy Spirit and the elder replied; "We had to grow up - we can't keep being woken up at six or five in the morning to go cast out a demon. It can't always be like that". I found that devastingly heart-breaking. I know my dad would agree that as a result of that their generation died (or will die) in the wilderness.

I sense that our generation is approaching Kadesh Barnea again and something different is in the air this time! Our Bible teachers and apostles and prophets are dealing seriously with legalism and religion in professing "grace" churches or movements. Our Bible teachers and apostles and prophets are proclaiming the grace message! Our Bible teachers and apostles and prophets are believing the Word of God when it says that these signs will follow them that believe! Our Bible teachers and apostles and prophets aren't satifisfied with running "safe" little local churches and maybe meeting once a year for some academic cerebral teaching from "specialists" if we are lucky! Our Bible teachers and apostles and prophets have got their sights set on the nations!

The prophetic cry I have heard going up again and again from this conference is this:

"China is Mine! Africa is Mine! Europe is Mine! The United States is Mine! The United Kingdom is Mine! Australia is Mine! The nations are MINE!!".

I don't know how this conference is going to end up - but what we have experienced and heard so far is that the winds of change are in the air! Oh how I pray that our generation - my generation - won't fluff it up and God must with heavy heart bury us too in the desert and look to our children and our childrens children to finish the task to which He has called us and for which He has poured out His Spirit!