I had a fascinating night last night. I woke up repeatedly with the presence of the Lord all around me, and He was speaking to me. Each time I woke up to His voice, just as if He were there all along talking in an unbroken conversation and I kept entering the scene and then falling back to sleep. I would wake up to a sense of awe, relief that He was still there, joy and peace.

The unbroken conversation was all about having a perfect union between Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and me, not that I even remotely think I am anywhere near that point, but it was the heart of all the animated conversation I kept waking to. The excitement being expressed in the heavenlies was like a significant milestone of some sort had been achieved and was being recorded and celebrated. It was a graduation party where I was getting my “gold star” for having successfully completed a developmental stage I have been in, but had no idea I had even been in it.

But having received the Lords accolades and approval for this, the excitement was also over the fact that I was being invited to participate in the next challenge which has to do with a deeper union and perfect oneness with the operations of the Holy Spirit working in me. The excitement was about going forward to a new thing.

As I got up to pray this morning my spirit was buzzing. I had a sense that a new adventure with God was beginning and I was embracing it, wanting it and hungry for it. I started trying to count exactly how many times I had awakened in the night to the celebration of the Lord. I was pretty sure I had counted seven times, but no sooner had I concluded it must be seven times, the Holy Spirit said, “No. It was eight.” Once He said that, I remembered that the number eight in scripture signifies “a new beginning”.

It is easy to see in scripture and in nature that God works in cycles. There is evening and there is morning. There are cycles in the seasons. There are cycles in the stars and planets. The Lord made the earth in six days and rested on the seventh day. Every week is a cycle of seven days. The number seven is the number in scripture that signifies rest and the completion of a cycle. So when the eighth day comes around it’s a new beginning. And this is what was happening and what the Holy Spirit was confirming. Something new is afoot!

Here is something else that may not be of a lot of interest to you, but is very interesting to me. It was in December of 2005 that I was awakened in the middle of the night and for what must have been only a billionth of a second, Jesus pulled the curtain back and I saw into heaven. At that point, everything changed. I understood like never before the gospel and the work that Jesus completed for us in His life, His sufferings for us, in His death, His resurrection and His ascension into heaven where He is seated as the Lord of all, distributing the unlimited riches of heaven to whomever He chooses and however He chooses. But mostly to those who are hungry to know Him and see His wonderful works.

I had always regretted that I hadn’t written down that date somewhere. All I could remember was that it was in early December, somewhere before the 15th of the month. But now, I am almost certain it was December 9th. Why do I think that? Because the second thing that came to mind after I counted the times the Lord woke me up, was to count the months from December, 2005 to July, 2006. It adds up to seven months. July 10, 2006 is the beginning of a new cycle, the first day of the 8th month. So, if asked in the future when Jesus opened up the heavens to me for a billionth of a second, I think I can confidently say, "On December 9th, 2005".

Is that significant to you? Probably not on any kind of personal level because it doesn’t really involve your experience with Jesus, it involves mine. But I am amazed at the exacting detail God pre-plans into His incredible workings in each of our lives. Acts 15:18 says, “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.”

Now let me speak from a different platform. One of the many things I’ve been taught in the last seven months is to appreciate the full power of the gifts God has given to me and to others. Because of personal spiritual attacks and defeats in my own life, I spent far too many years leaving the gifts of God in me under lock and key, bound there by an idea that I believed was true but wasn’t. But God, at exactly the right time destroyed those chains. The last seven months have been about healing, recovery and bringing His gifts and message in me back to life. In a very real sense, the power of His endless life has brought me back from the dead.

What I say now is from the power of His gift in me. There is a voice of the Holy Spirit in the earth. Because of the way His gift works in me, I find quite often in what I am going through and hearing from Him is a message for the whole of God’s people as well. The last seven months were His reawakening of this.

Here is what I'm hearing. From among His people, God is calling out a people. It's not an unusual thing. It happens often, but what is happening now is on a global scale. What the calling of this people is about the world has had glimpses of over the course of history but it has not seen on a scale equal to the book of Acts since the days of the first apostles and prophets. In many ways the majesty of Christ in what is coming will exceed what has ever come before. God is calling to people right now to join Him in His innermost sanctuary where men and women talk to God face to face in the deepest intimacies of friendship and respect. This is not some high calling to a select few. This is simply the only calling that has ever been, and now there are those who hunger deeply and will dare to go the distance with the Spirit of God.

The words of a song came to me this morning. It’s a great song and it goes, “More love, More power, More of You (Jesus) in my life.” As I began to sing it over and over exalting the Lord the Holy Spirit checked me every time I came to “More of You in my life”. I paused and said, “What’s that about? Why am I uncomfortable?” and He said, “Just a change in perspective. When you sing this, change it to ‘More of ME in YOUR (Jesus) life.” Then I saw what He wanted me to see. It isn’t a matter of getting more of HIM in ME it’s a matter of getting more of ME in HIM! This is the paradigm shift.

Jesus was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. In His wounding, the blood of Jesus flowed externally to deliver us from the power of the deeds we’ve done that are outside of the Fathers purpose for our lives, we call this sin. Sin involves those things we've done that aren't on target. But going deeper we realize that in His bruising, the blood of Jesus flowed internally to deliver us from the dominance or power of anything inside of us that "isn't on target" and would keep us from surrendering completely to the power and leadership of the Holy Spirit life inside us.

Iniquity is an internal condition of the heart and is often interpreted as “lawlessness”. But by taking a closer look we see that iniquity (lawlessness) is self-will or areas of life not yet surrendered in trust to the love of God. These are like our own walled cities and giants within that must be taken down if we are to walk in the fullness of Gods beauty for us. Iniquity consists of those things (affections) within us that yet cling to our own way instead of the life of the Holy Spirit. As Isaiah cried out, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned EVERY ONE TO HIS OWN WAY; and the LORD has laid on Him the INIQUITY of us all”, Isaiah 53:6. But the fantastic news is that in Jesus bruising, He has provided the means for our full surrender of all things to the power of His Spirit within us.

This is the life of Christianity. This IS the calling to all who come, to live a life under the incredible and continual guidance of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “Nevertheless I will tell you the truth; it is absolutely necessary for you that I go away: for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you…” John 16:7 and also in John 14:15-20, “And I will pray the Father and He will give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever. Even the Spirit of truth…but you know Him; for He lives with you, and will be inside of you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you…At that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.” Paul in Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no curse (nothing negative can be attached) to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after their own flawed human reasoning, but after the Spirit.”

The people of the world have had their fill of empty clouds. They have looked to the people of God to reveal the God of love, power and salvation to them and often were fed only a bitter pill from us. The apostle Peter in his second epistle opens with beautiful language regarding our relationship with the Holy Spirit and how we are made literally partakers of the “divine power” by which everything in life is made available to us and we are partakers of the very “divine nature” through the Spirit, but as the letter progresses he discusses those who are “wells without water” and Jude says there are some who are, “spots in your feasts (celebrations) of love, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without awe: clouds without water…but you beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying IN THE HOLY GHOST, keep yourselves in the love of God…” In 2nd Timothy 3:2-5 the apostle Paul discusses those who are, “lovers of their own selves…having a form of godliness, but disassociated from the power of it…” Paul tells us, "That's not the crowd to hang with."

A new thing is in the earth and there is a call for people to come into the full rest, surrender and faith in the life of the Holy Spirit within them. This is the true meaning of keeping the “Sabbath” as spoken of in scripture and God will have a people who will fulfill the Sabbath principle.

Hebrews 4:1-11 tells us this, “Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into HIS REST (Sabbath), any of you should seem to come short of it…for we which have believed (come to rely upon a thing), do enter into rest (Sabbath), as He said, ‘As I have sworn in my wrath, if they will enter into MY rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.’ For He spoke in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, ‘And God did rest the seventh day FROM ALL HIS WORKS.’ And in this place again, ‘If THEY will enter into MY rest’…Again, He limited a certain day, saying in David, ‘Today, after so long a time; as it is said, TODAY if you will HEAR HIS VOICE, harden not hearts (i.e. – don’t let iniquity [self-will] keep you from following)’…There remains therefore a rest (Sabbath) to the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest (Sabbath), he also HAS CEASED FROM HIS OWN WORKS, as God did from His. Let us labor therefore to enter into THAT REST, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief (un-reliance upon God).”

There are continual works of the Holy Spirit that were prepared for each of us to perform before the very foundation of the earth was laid. The work of the Holy Spirit in us is to lead us and empower us to do the works we were each made to do. Ephesians 1:4-14 tells us, “According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world…having made know to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He has purposed in Himself…In Whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will…in Whom after you believed, you were SEALED WITH THAT HOLY SPIRIT of promise, which is the very first delivery of all we have inherited…” and then in chapter 2 verse 10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, WHICH GOD HAS BEFORE ORDAINED, that we should walk in them.”

What the Holy Spirit is saying is that God has guaranteed your successful mission in life as you open your soul up to the constant and intimate influence of the Spirit. It is not a one or two or three shot deal. It is a life of continual communication and exchange between the Spirit of God and the believer. Listen again to Hebrews 4:3, “For we which have believed (come under the influence of, been persuaded by) do enter into rest, as He said, ‘As I have sworn in My wrath, if they will enter into My rest: ALTHOUGH THE WORKS WERE FINISHED FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD’.” The works of God to be performed by you and through you have already been completed successfully, and it is by learning to walk in the influence of the Holy Spirit that these completed works of God become manifest into lives. The Holy Spirit IS THE ACTIVE VOICE OF GOD speaking and leading and revealing to us the present thoughts of Jesus in relation to all things, in every day, in all of life.

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Romans 8:14

This is the call of Christ the Head, to the people in all His churches at this moment in time. A new thing is happening that will result in the most powerful demonstrations of Gods awesome power the world has ever witnessed. If you listen carefully you will hear His call. It is a call to surrender, integration with Him and adventure beyond imagination.

Let me close with this verse from Isaiah describing life under the influence of the Holy Spirit, "And the LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your thirsty soul, and make fat your bones (a symbol of health): and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. And they that be from you will build up the old waste places: you will raise up the foundations of many generations; and you will be called, 'The repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to live in.' If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, FROM DOING YOUR PLEASURE on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable: and shall honor Him, NOT DOING YOUR OWN WAYS, NOT FINDING YOUR OWN PLEASURE, OR SPEAKING YOUR OWN WORDS: then will you DELIGHT YOURSELF IN THE LORD; and I will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.