WHAT THE LORD SAID TO ME TODAY
PROPHECY: Revival And The Wildfire Of Intimacy
August 19, 2002

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Dear Readers:

INTIMACY
Intimacy is a difficult thing to measure. How intimate are you with your spouse? How is that measured?

Certainly, we can move from intimacy to intimacy, as we grow in the mystery of becoming one flesh that God has ordained marriage to accomplish.

How about intimacy with God? I wonder if, perhaps, there are an infinite number of levels of intimacy with the Father that one may have.



MY EXPERIENCE IN INTIMACY WITH GOD, AND THE WITHDRAWAL THEREOF
One of the most painful things that a saint of God may experience is to have enjoyed a level of intimacy with the Father, and then to have that degree of intimacy diminished by God. Such a thing happened to me.

During my early years of ministry, I met regularly and often with the Lord, and He never failed to bring me into His presence as I sought him in worship and prayer. Then, I would minister publicly in prisons, jails, ghetto's and church, and feel His presence there as well. Miracles and open visions followed my ministry. Demons were frequently encountered and cast out. Those were good times.

Then came 1994. My pastor fell into adultery, and our church split to the wind. I followed our associate pastor to form another church from the wreckage. Then, later in 1994, my own marriage troubles began.

During this time, I developed a resentment toward the Lord, and I stopped going before the Lord in the morning, as I had in the past. Later, when I sought to come into his presence, he would not come to me in private. This began in 1995. Yes, the Lord would still come with his presence to anoint me whenever I preached, or led in worship, or prayed with others at a prayer meeting, or prophesied. But he was not coming to me anymore when we were alone. I fasted, pleaded and begged, but he would not come. To be honest, I did not beg desperately. This lasted for seven years.

I never told a soul.



RESTORATION OF INTIMACY WITH THE LORD
Last year, in late July, 2001, I attended a meeting taught by Dr. Zacharias Fomun of Cameroon. The meeting lasted for three days, and in one of those meetings where Zach taught on prayer, he stopped and looked heavenward.

After about ten seconds, he spoke and said: "There is a separation between you and the Lord your God. You have tried to mend it, but you have not. You have forsaken your idols, but it is still there. You may have to beg the Lord your God to take you back..all the way back. You may have to get desperate with God. We have had a case in Cameroon where we had to travail with one of our elders for three days, without sleep, begging God to take him all the way back. And the Lord took him back."

I heard this word, and received it for myself, but still, I told no one but God. I went away to a solitary place to fast and pray for three days. But still, the Lord was not coming to me in the morning, and I was growing in discouragement. Would the Lord ever take me back into that place of intimacy?

Last month, I was in a church meeting, and the young lady was preaching about being a lover of God. She obviously had that level of intimacy that I used to share privately with the Lord, because I recognized it instantly. You do not see it often on a human being, but she had it. That church was planning a retreat called "En Fuego", and I decided that I had to go on that retreat, with those believers, to seek the Lord.

And so, last week, on August 9, 10 and 11, 100 of us went to Naples, FL, checked into a gulf shore resort, and sought the Lord for three days.

On Saturday morning, August 10, we were in corporate worship, and the Lord spoke to me, and instructed me to separate myself from these people, go to the back of the room, and worship him all alone, so that no one could hear me sing. I complied. When I began to worship from that place, with my face to the wall, the presence of the Lord came, and I broke in weeping of joy, for I knew that the Lord had taken me back.

Since that time, I have sought the Lord every single day, and every time, He has brought me into His presence, for you see, it is time for Isaiah 55. It is now a time when you can seek the Lord and find him.



REVIVIAL AND THE WILDFIRE OF INTIMACY
I caught something at that church called the fire of God. Thanks be to God that it was contagious. The intimacy that I now have with the Lord exceeds what I had prior to 1995. It is awesome and incredible. Yesterday, the Lord revealed to me that I had been ignited by a wildfire of intimacy.

The natural things in America this summer have spoken of wildfire..uncontrollable wildfire, jumping from tree to tree, jumping across gorges, rivers and ravines, from tree top to tree top. America's forests have been burning like never before.

Now, I went to this little church, and I became aflame with God. Yesterday, I carried the flame back to my church, and preached to my people. I very frankly and honestly gave them this message that I am giving you right now. The whole church gathered at the conclusion of the message in front. We held hands together, and we placed our children in the middle, and WE BEGGED GOD TO TAKE US BACK. WE BEGGED HIM NOT TO PASS US BY.

John 11:25 tells us that "he who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live". There are many different kinds of deadness. Perhaps, there is a deadness in your intimacy with God. YOU SHALL LIVE! IT IS NOW TIME!

More than ten years ago, a servant of God from Tavernier, Florida prophesied to me that the great end time revival that would sweep America would begin in South Florida.

Now, brothers and sisters, I am seeing it. God has told me about it, but I am seeing it, and I am in it. It is a WILDFIRE. It is spreading here in South Florida, from believer to believer, and from church to church. It is awesome and incredible, and it will bring a rebirth to your deadness and a restoral to your passion for God and your intimacy with God.

Brothers and sisters: can we have revival any time? Can we have revival when we want it? NO! We can have true revival when God brings it, and He is bringing it. It is here! It has begun!

Don't let it pass you by saints of God. Beg God right now. Get desperate for Him. Cry out to him with real tears of repentance. Beg God for yourselves and for your congregations: DO NOT PASS US BY, OH LORD!



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Stephen L. Bening





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