by Wade E Taylor
We are told in Scripture that young men have visions and old men have dreams. It seems that I should be having dreams, as Jesus entered my life in 1944 while in the Army. Instead, I have a vision of all that the Lord desires to accomplish through my life and ministry in these last days, and a present sense of urgency that there is more that I must yet apprehend, beyond all that I presently know and understand.
Therefore, I am asking the Lord to abide within my life, and to also visit me and impart a further understanding of our progression into the Millennial Kingdom.
Many are receiving indications that something is about to happen, beyond anything that we have experienced in the past. For those who have an ear to hear, there is a word about the preparation of a present day corporate John the Baptist, through whom the Lord will be able to speak that which is beyond our present level of understanding.
“Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.” Luke 3:2
There were none within the Church of that day who could hear the word that the Lord desired to speak. Instead, they were looking for a military leader, a Messiah who would drive out the Romans and make Israel the head rather than the tail.
Therefore, the Lord called John the Baptist apart and led him into the wilderness for a time of preparation, that he might be able to introduce Jesus as “The Lamb of God” at the appointed time.
We are past the end of the Gentile Age, and are entering the beginnings of the Millennial Kingdom Age. Because there is not enough time for us to be sent into a wilderness for years of preparation, the Lord is shortening the time by accelerating His work and dealings in our lives, “making ready” a corporate voice that will have become as “the sound of many waters.” All that Jesus did within a single body in His first coming, will again be done through a many membered corporate body. Today the world is laughing at the Church, but as we continue to progress into the Millennial Kingdom, the world will tremble before these overcomers who are about to be caught up to rule with a “rod of iron,” as Jesus becomes the “King of all kings.”
“And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up to God, and to His throne.” Revelation 12:5
Those who are coming apart from their involvement in religious activity, to seek the Lord for Himself, may feel that they are unnoticed by the Lord. But this is the very place where we will personally meet Him, if we will patiently wait for the appointed time. Because the Lord has a “present word” that He desires to speak, the wilderness has become very important, as it is the place in which there can be an intensification of the preparation process.
During the coming time of visitation, the Lord may move quite differently than He did in previous times. Therefore, it is possible that those who met the Lord during one of the past times of visitation will become critical, because the present moving of the Spirit will not be as it was when they received.
Therefore, we must be careful to intently listen and become willing to move beyond our present level of understanding, lest we be found among these and become critical of the manifestations that result from the intensity of His presence.
In 1958, I was blessed to be present during a major visitation in which there appeared visible manifestations of glory. I was caught up into one of these, and my life was forever transformed. Along with this, I literally swam in a fountain of “new wine” that deeply impacted my life. This time of visitation was later rejected by many, because it was beyond that which was openly available at that time.
During 1962, I attended a conference of the “manifest sons of God” with a man who came with pencil and paper, waiting to hear something that he could use against them – which they amply supplied. He left critical, receiving nothing; but I left with a deep, inner sense of what the Lord had intended. As a result, I was given a vision concerning true Sonship, which involves coming to the end of our self-life, and the giving of our bodies to become a present day expression of the life and ministry of Jesus.
These “sons” should have become invisible, so the life of Jesus could manifest through them. Instead, they came with the intention of governing the universe for God. This resulted in a lasting reproach on the term “sons of God.”
If we have received a true impartation of spiritual life and substance, others will come to see what it is. Thus, our personal experience with the Lord will make room for us. The past Sonship movement failed, because they sought a position instead of a relationship.
The development of a personal relationship with Jesus takes time and patience – spending much time in His presence. One time I said to the Lord, “I want to grow faster,” and I pushed the Lord to so move in my spiritual experience. Soon, I found myself at the point of actively rebelling, and I realized what I had done. I was forcing the Lord to take me faster than I was capable of assimilating. I then resubmitted myself to the rate of spiritual growth that the Lord knew I could handle, and prayed for patience and wisdom.
I have considered the lives and ministries of those who have been “spiritually” successful. In each, I found that there was a unique price that each had paid before there was any outward success. Each had spent time in the “wilderness of preparation,” in which they had a personal meeting with the Lord.
We are living in a very difficult day and time in which there are no true statesmen, natural or spiritual. Many of us feel a lack as to having a sense of clear direction and purpose. But there is an answer. We must turn away from the religious activity (which if allowed, will consume us), and turn aside into the quietness of His prepared place for us.
Especially at this present time, Jesus is speaking a present, life giving prophetic word that is being heard by those who are cultivating a “hearing ear.”
“The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakens morning by morning, He wakens my ear to hear as the learned.” Isaiah 50:4
This “wilderness” into which we are being called, is located in (or should be located in) a set apart place where we can meet with Jesus without disturbance. Then, “morning by morning” He will come and meet with us.
Here, we will be lifted above our natural hearing, into the place of hearing the “voice of one crying in the wilderness,” saying, “Prepare you the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3).
Now, we are ready to become a part of the corporate voice (the sound of many waters) that the Lord will soon speak through, in increasing authority and power, saying:
“And as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Mathew 10:7