Keys to a Deeper Walk with the Lord

by Nancy Taylor Tate

“O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker” Psalm 95:6.

The Lord is releasing an end time anointing for those who are willing to take the time to receive it. As we spend time in His presence, learning to become quiet and to open our hearts before the Lord, our spirit will become more receptive, allowing the Lord to release His presence, and anointing within us. This impartation will take place to the degree we have prepared our hearts to receive and carry the Lord’s presence in our lives.

There are many marvelous benefits to setting apart quality time to spend in the Lord’s presence. Our times of “waiting upon the Lord” help to prepare our hearts to receive from Him. The receptivity of our spirit is enlarged, and our spirit becomes more sensitive to His spirit, as we spend time quietly before Him. The sensitivity of our spirit relates directly to our being able to receive, as well as being able to “walk in the Spirit.” Yet, how much time do we spend each day, waiting in His presence?

“But one thing is needful” Luke 10:42a.

A number of years ago, I looked at the lives of some who I felt carried an evident spiritual quality and anointing, to see how they received it. I found that each had one thing in common; they spent much time waiting upon the Lord.

Waiting upon the Lord is a time of worshipful quietness before the Lord in which we become receptive to the Spirit of God. It is not a time to make our requests known or to become passive; it is a time of expectation, in which we actively wait to be filled with His presence and fellowship with Him.

“One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple” Psalm 27:4.

In our corporate gatherings, we are experiencing “touches” of visitation as we worship the Lord. As this Holy Spirit “rain” begins to fall, His presence descends, enveloping us, filling us with His Spirit. The degree to which we receive depends on the preparedness of our hearts. Quality times we have set apart to wait upon the Lord help to prepare our hearts for this fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit.

“I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures” Proverbs 8:17, 21.

We should not wait upon the Lord in order to have a glorious experience in that moment. Rather, we are to become quiet and sensitive to His presence so we can begin to hear His voice. Once we begin to hear, He will lead us according to His purpose and accomplish His will in and through us; then we may receive our glorious experience.

“It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body” 1 Corinthians 15:44a.

As we continue to wait, there will be a progressive dying of our flesh to all the voices of our natural mind, and a subsequent birthing of the mind of Christ with His thoughts and His purpose. We should cultivate this practice of waiting upon Him in our daily life experience, until we are no longer governed or controlled by the demands of the natural realm. As we do this, we will become more sensitive, and our ear will become more and more tuned to the voice of the Lord.

“You have given me the capacity to hear and obey…” Psalm 40:6b (AMPC).

Scripture tells us that our natural minds cannot even imagine the things that God has prepared for those who love Him and wait for Him. (1 Corinthians 2:9; Isaiah 64:4) As we devote ourselves to quietly spending time in His presence, we will renew our strength and ascend into what He has prepared for us.

“Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles” Isaiah 40:30-31a.

In His presence, we will begin to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom. There will be a realignment of our lives. Our priorities will change from the natural to the spiritual. Our spiritual senses will be energized by His presence and restored to respond to His purposes.

“Now we have received…the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” 1 Corinthians 2:12.

We are being changed from one level of glory to a higher level of glory. As the presence of the Lord is increasingly made more manifest, it will create within us a hunger for more.

A mirror can reflect light into another mirror, which can be reflected into yet another mirror—a reflection of reflected light. In the same way, we may be birthed from a certain ministry and even flow in the same anointing and echo the same teachings, but unless we personally have cultivated the presence of God by spending time waiting on the Lord, we simply will be reflecting reflected light, a dimmed reflection of the glory of the Lord.

We are to reflect the glory of the Lord in all of His brilliance. When Moses spent time in the presence of the Lord, the glory became so glorious that he was asked to cover his face. This intensity of glory resulted from his being in the presence of God for a prolonged time.

Anointed teaching can help bring us into this place…if we do not settle for the lesser and become satisfied with just hearing and repeating good teaching, without entering into the relationship from which spiritual understanding comes and is worked into our lives. Ministry should be a springboard that lifts us up into this “place by Him” where something more is being deposited into our being.

“When the day of Pentecost was fully come…” Acts 2:1.

We are experiencing touches of visitation, both individually and corporately; but when the day of visitation has fully come, suddenly, there will come a sound from heaven “as of a rushing mighty wind,” and He will fill all the house. This should be our expectancy as we continue to spend time in the presence of the Lord.

The receptivity of our spirit will greatly determine our ability to continue to receive as visitation continues to come and the manifest presence of God continues to increase in our midst. To the degree we have prepared our hearts to receive and carry the Lord’s presence in our lives we will receive, and also be available for the Lord’s purposes in the days ahead.

The Lord is releasing an end time anointing, if we will but take the time to receive it.