by Nancy Taylor Tate
“Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit…” Zechariah 4:6b.
There is a present-day intercession for God to intervene, that His presence might be established in the midst of His people in a more manifest way. This intercession is being released through a people who are sold out to the Lord and desire His best at any cost.
“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us … He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” Romans 8:26-27 NASB.
“He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” John 14:21b.
The intervention of God is very real and brings transition when it occurs. Back in the mid-seventies, I experienced the intervention of God in my own circumstances in a very real and life-changing way. At that time, I had little understanding of intercession; I am not sure I had ever personally experienced it.
Yet, I woke in the middle of the night crying over and over, “Lord, please intervene at any cost.” When it lifted, I wondered what that was all about, then went back to sleep.
What followed the next day was beyond anything I had ever experienced: I was heading south; instead, I was turned and went north. The whole course of my life was changed, and I was set on the path to where God has me today.
Any major transition in my life has come through the intervention of God or at His initiative. At times, there was a sense of change coming, or even a drawing to intercession.
But when transition finally occurred, it was not through my own orchestration, but God’s. I simply recognized what God was doing and said yes, as I yielded to the Lord and His movements.
How we need the intervention of God today! Not just personally or in our nation, but in the church. As God’s people, we have never been at a more desperate point. We need something beyond what we are presently experiencing, yet there has never been less we can do to make it happen!
Although I cannot cause the intervention of God to happen, I can desire it and position myself, so when it does happen, I won’t miss it. This requires that I come into a sensitivity of spirit and yieldedness to the Lord.
As I yield to the Lord, I come into a place of rest found only in Christ Jesus. I come to know who God is and learn to trust in His sovereignty. I recognize that God has a plan and understand that He is not yet finished, but His desire will surely come forth as I wait for Him.
I recognize my helplessness, my utter dependence on the Lord. As I wait on Him, I am confident His plan and the unfolding of His purposes will certainly come. But I understand it will not come through human striving.
I watch and wait in an attitude of worship. Then in His perfect timing and way, His divine activity is released. A working of the Lord takes place, that which only He can do.
“Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.
For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD” Proverbs 8:34-35.
The life-changing intervention of God that I experienced in the mid-seventies was not through any self-effort. At the time, I had no idea that I even needed a change in my circumstances. But God in His sovereignty knew.
The Lord recently brought not only that particular incident back to mind, but caused me to remember time after time, when He has intervened that there might come a transitioning into the new. These often were to places beyond what I even knew to hope or pray for, until the Lord revealed that next step in His plan.
Seele Kinne talks about not just an incident, but a state of intervention, a “high state of divine control,” into which the Lord desires to bring those who are willing.
“…in intervention, the hand of God’s power is present to carry one beyond ordinary human attainment and miraculously sets one onward into the things of God. Those whom God has led in this way into spiritual states and things, if they pay heed to His moving, He will miraculously carry into the apostolic ministry.
This is a spiritual state, in which control of the motions of being, pass out of the natural into the spiritual; this is, from the initiative of the natural man, into the initiative of the Holy Spirit — a state of being moved by the divine will. Thereby there comes a full and free entrance into the supernatural realm, or the kingdom of heaven.”
The Lord is working in individual lives and establishing places today, where yielded vessels are learning to enter into this spiritual state, as they recognize and participate with the Lord in that which He is doing.
This level of relationship with the Lord is available to any who would desire to submit their lives to Him and allow His deep inner working; making themselves available to Him for the fulfillment of His purposes today; learning to live not just in the natural realm, but in the realm of His Spirit; allowing the Lord to govern their actions and even provide for their needs.
“For the LORD hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation.
This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.
I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation: and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.
There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. His enemies will I clothe with shame: but upon himself shall his crown flourish” Psalm 132:13-18.
As we transition into the day before us, surely God will move and is beginning to move in the dimension so desperately needed today.
Provision will come for all that is required to fulfill His call. That provision flows from His throne as we abide in His rest, trusting in His purposes, learning to live in union and communion with Him, following His initiative.
Because we are now in a “fullness of time” (see Ephesians 1:10), we in the body of Christ can expect greater times of intervention. This is nothing we can manipulate or orchestrate; this comes through the initiative of God. Our part simply is to position ourselves, so when it does happen, we recognize it and move with it.
How can we do this? Our times of worship, waiting on the Lord, and learning to meditate on God’s Word are key to maintaining an open and sensitive spirit before the Lord.
As we prioritize, making quality time available to be apart, alone with the Lord, while also learning to practice His presence in our daily lives, living every moment of every day in fellowship with Him, we become more sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, learning to obey His promptings. As we do, we are being brought into a greater alignment with the Lord and that which He is doing.
There is a rest, His rest, that the Lord would have us enter up into. The world is trying to plant fear and insecurity. But the Lord is saying, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
And this is My rest … I have chosen Zion! I have desired Zion, a place of worship, for My habitation. It is here, as you abide in Me and worship Me, that you will see My provision, for it is here that My throne is established; this is where I am. It is here that you will find Me and all that you need.
As I come into this place of His rest, the mark of His presence will surely be on my life.
“I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me” John 17:23.
From this poise of spirit, we can expect a noticeable increase of the Lord’s intervention in lives and circumstances. Individual lives, as well as corporate gatherings seeking this, will be marked by prayer, worship, and the Lord’s presence like never before.
In this increase of the Lord’s presence will be the releasing of healing, deliverance, miracles — beyond what was available in the church age through gifts and ministries alone.
We are living in a transitional time, between the church age and the day of His Kingdom. There is coming a corporate function of the body of Christ, a releasing of anointing, as a people who are waiting, worshipping, and praying together also learn to move together in the Spirit.
Spirit-given relationships have never been more important. This becoming joined together in spirit is key to the coming move of God.
There also is a further releasing of provision, supernatural provision, coming. I am expecting our coal to last a little longer, the fuel in my car to go a little further, our food to feed a few more mouths, as our provision is lifted from this world’s economy into God’s economy, because in God’s economy, there always is enough.
There has come a reduction in my life, where I’m coming to rest solely in the greatness of God. Some years ago, there was a song I played over and over again, How Great Is Our God, sung by Chris Tomlin. I played it in English. I played it in Spanish. Over and over again, I played this song that now resonates deep inside me. As I worshipped along with the words, deeper and deeper sunk this truth: How Great Is Our God!
This is the rest the Lord is calling us up into — a deep, Spirit-given understanding of His greatness and a willingness to be totally dependent on Him.
My dad used to say, “The next time the Lord lets me down, it will be the first!” I can say the same thing. How great is our God! How awesome is our God! How much He loves those who have set their love on Him!
May we enter into His rest, as He transitions us into all that is yet ahead.