To Heaven and Back Again: Seeing God Face to Face

Seeing God Face to Face - 1st Step

God supernaturally implanted the “Roadmap to Heaven” inside my spirit. Little did I know that the key which brought this revelation held the key to opening the path to the Secret Place...

The Holy Spirit urged my heart to attend a conference where two of the speakers who had been on the TV show about the supernatural things of God, were going to give messages. The Lord provided the finances and even sent dreams to tell me to go. Once I arrived, I heard the Holy Spirit very clearly state, “No one will pray over you to receive gifts or an anointing.”

I was bringing a friend to the conference for prayer, so this revelation didn’t bother me. A few days into the conference, the Holy Spirit had another surprise for me. As the morning speaker James (name changed), prophesied over the host’s mother, the Holy Spirit said, “This is for you…”

In response, I thought, “It does sound exactly like what you have been telling me, and it even answers one of the questions I had, but couldn’t two people be called to do basically the same thing? Is this really for me, Holy Spirit?” I continued, “I don’t want to hijack someone else’s prophecy.”

James moved on to the next person and began prophesying. Then suddenly he asked the couple he was speaking over: “Do you have a hernia issue?” Neither had any such ailment but another gentleman in the room did. James explained, “Sometimes God gives me multiple messages. When I am prophesying over a person, sometimes He dumps in information for another…”

I mentally chuckled to my Friend, “Thank you, Holy Spirit for confirming that the prophecy was for me.”

This is how the prophecy unfolded:

James began by saying that Mrs. Nelson, another conference participant, was worshipping the Lord in her car. He said that God was “giving her a new sound” (she presumably would write a song to bring about a financial breakthrough for her and her family.) Like most of the audience, I had no sure way of knowing if Mrs. Nelson was a musician or what James’ words meant to her, but I do know, that was where the Holy Spirit’s prophecy over her ended.

Then the speaker said:

“The prayer of God: God bless you and keep you… You will begin to see the prayer of the Lord bring you a breakthrough in this season; declare it over yourself for 21 days. There will be 21 days of breakthrough for you. Even in the secret place there has been a sincere drawing in your heart to the secret place of God. He is going to teach you how to occupy the secret place of His presence. He is going to give you steps to help others enter into the secret place; you are going to be able to identify these steps to the secret place and help a generation enter into the secret place…”

There was more, but the rest of what he said didn’t pertain to the topic, it was about my personal journey with God. During the middle of the prophecy James stopped to pray for God’s anointing to come upon Mrs. Nelson and then later for a seer and watcher anointing to come upon her. This was exactly what the Holy Spirit was saying about why I was hidden from all the speakers at this meeting; when they see something they pray for an impartation of that gift for the person before them. The Lord has told me that my anointing comes directly from Him.

To my great embarrassment and in the interest of full disclosure, I didn’t pay strict attention to the speaker’s words. Much of what he was saying God had already told me when I spoke with Him during prayer time, and I figured God was just confirming what already had been said to me. It was almost a week before I began looking into the prayer James had spoken of.

The Lord bless you and keep you… (Numbers 6:24 ESV)

This is the first line of a blessing the Lord presented to Moses, instructing him to tell Aaron and his sons to bless the people of Israel by saying these words. The Bible tells us that Gentiles, those who aren’t Hebrews by birth, are “grafted in” to His family (Romans 11:11-31). Grafting is the process of bringing a plant into the stem of another so that they are fed from the same roots and become one plant. For this reason, when He is instructing His priests to say this blessing over His people, He is also instructing us to say this blessing over ourselves because every Christian is a priest. (1 Peter 2:9, Revelation 5:10)

In order to understand the fullness of what God wants to give us, we need to research the section of the Bible where the blessing is spoken about. Times have changed so much since Moses and Aaron walked the earth that we need to go back to the original Hebrew language and apply what we read to the era in which they lived. This will reveal the meaning behind the words.

“Bless” is the Hebrew word barak, which means to kneel and place gifts with respect to that person. Shamar is derived from the words typically translated as “to guard and protect” and here as “to keep.” To understand the full meaning of this passage, we need to understand the root of it. This word is derived from the Hebrew word shamiyr, which means “thorn.” In ancient times, shepherds would place a corral of thorns around their sheep to protect them. This verse should read:

Lord grant me gifts and place your thorny hedge of protection around me to keep me right where I should be.

The next verse will speak of the Secret Place, but before we get there, we must be doing what this verse says. Where do these gifts come from? What are they? When we begin learning more about God and start working for His kingdom, the Lord brings us gifts. Some of these are the gifts of the Spirit spoken of in 1 Corinthians 12 and shows us why they are brought to us:

“Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good...” (1 Corinthians 12:7 NIV)

This is why the Holy Spirit brings gifts to us, to do the work of God for the common good of His church. Our Lord instructed His disciples in Matthew 10:5-8 “Freely you have received, freely give.” When we use these gifts, it should be done without charge.

The first gift brought to us is the Holy Spirit. Before Jesus came, the Holy Spirit would be “upon” people to do God’s work. Jesus told us that the Holy Spirit would be in us, joining with us, to make us a new creation: we are born again in our spirit. This is the part of us that is perfect and like God. It is the first gift given to us and that from which all other gifts flow.

After we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, we must learn to respond to His leading and guidance which will “keep” us where we should be. It is through Him that the thorny hedge is revealed. Before we can enter the Secret Place, we must learn to heed the gentle pricks and prods of the Holy Spirit.

At first it will be a soft nudge, an uneasy feeling that we may need to walk away from something that is sin or towards God in a certain area. If we don’t listen to that gentle nudge, it will become a sharper prick as things go wrong and difficulties arise because we are walking outside of God’s protection. This is pushing through the thorns as we are determined to do what we think is best or what we want. Outside that thorny area, the enemy is prowling around like a hungry lion, waiting to attack our lives.

In order to enter and reside in the Secret Place we must learn to be led by the Spirit:

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

In spiritual things, there is no black or white, no slave or free, no male or female: we are all equal. We are all children of the Most High God. It is His children that God brings to the Secret Place. Are you willing to heed the pricks and prods of the Holy Spirit? To be led by Him? This is what will open the door the the Secret Place.

Join us on Facebook for morning prayers where I often say this blessing over you. You can accept it anew each time, reaffirming your desire to let God lead and guide you through His Spirit.

The other articles on the Aaronic Blessing are:

2nd Step - Aaronic Blessing

3rd Step - Aaronic Blessing

After our meeting discussing these things (video at the top of the page) we had a question and answer session where those present told about what they saw in the meeting... their first visit in the Secret Place.