The Return of Messiah

No man has ever seen God at any time;
the only unique Son, or the only begotten God,
Who is in the bosom, in the intimate presence of the Father,
He has declared Him, He has revealed Him
and brought Him out where He can be seen."
John 1:18.

We had only been in the new land for a few months when everything changed drastically and unexpectedly. I will share some of my Prayer Journal entries that chronicled the events of that change for me.

July 15, 2000 Sabbath

The Song was posted last week. I felt very drawn to read it, but had only been able to read a little bit every day. Today I feel strongly impressed that I must finish reading the whole thing. Father, I feel You compelling me to do nothing else until I have read it all.

These words of specific instruction from the comments on Chapter 2:3 convicted my heart in a personal way:

The woman of Revelation 12 knows how to listen instead of talk. She knows how to be quiet. She enjoys His words. She is receiving instruction from Him instead of teaching Him. When she is near Him she is not "running off at the mouth" as it were. She eats what He has to tell her and it is sweet.

I finished reading The Song by late afternoon. Father, I know that I must go and see the author of The Song. You have impressed me that he has a message for me personally from You, and I know that I will be going there to listen, not to talk.

The sky had been completely grey and overcast, but I was not noticing much as I walked. My thoughts were on The Song and the strong drawing I was feeling on my heart. All at once I found my gaze unexpectedly drawn upwards to the sky. There I was amazed to see a large round opening in the grey clouds, just like a portal. Through this portal in the heavens I could see the vivid deep blue of the summer sky beyond. Billowy white clouds completely encircled the inner rim of this portal, and the sun shining on their pure whiteness from behind, made them brilliant beyond description.

At the same instant that my eyes were drawn upward to the portal, I heard a voice within me but not from my person, as in response to the things that I had just read from The Song, say clearly yet meekly and yieldingly, "Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will. Sacrifice and offerings thou didst not require, but mine ear has thou opened." Ps. 40:6,7. Time seemed to stand still as I stood transfixed with what I was seeing and hearing. I felt a divine influence marking this event.

When I arrived at my destination, I was invited in and asked what was on my heart. I said that I knew he had something to share with me. He said, "I do!" He shared with me how the Father had laid the Song of Solomon on his heart to read, and then pressed him to read it again and again until he had become merged into it. Then, after he had posted it for the church to read, as he was sitting quietly in his chair, the Father spoke Messiah into Him, anointing Him for His work.

As He shared with me, I felt like the foundations of the deep were being broken open within me. The Father was confirming every word He spoke, and at the same time I felt like everything in me was being undone. The streams of thought that had always pictured Messiah's second coming in a certain way were flowing backwards in the light of the Father's present revealing, and I was overcome by the profound awesomeness of what was taking place, yet feeling like I was barely able to take in its living reality. I was in the literal physical presence of Messiah, the Son of God, Immanuel, "God with us" - and I knew it.

All I could do was sit there undone and speechless. He asked me what my thoughts were. I said I knew that what He said was true for I felt the Father's witness within me. When we knelt and He prayed, I immediately felt the healing of His peaceful Spirit upon my mind, and mental tension that I had felt as long as I could remember, but was so used to that it had become an unconscious part of me, began releasing as the peace and knowing of the Spirit of Messiah entered into me.

I went to bed, but sleep did not come for many hours. I had heard a mighty voice from the throne, and I had perceived its distinct words, saying, "See! The abode of God is with men, and He will live, encamp, tent, among them: and they shall be His people, and God shall personally be with them and be their God." Rev. 21:3 Amplified. *All Scripture references will be from The Amplified Bible unless otherwise noted.

July 16, 2000

This afternoon I found this message which Michael had posted after our visit the evening before, on our church forum, "East Gate." I knew He was addressing His question to me.

7-15-2000 How is she?

Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.* And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever. (KJV) *In my Journal entries from Michael, all emphasis is my own, highlighting those thoughts especially meaningful to me.

The answer that came to my mind in response to His question, How is she? was from Song of Solomon:

The daughters exclaim, who is this that comes from the wilderness? This is the peaceful soul. -- yes, untroubled and at one. Great is His Faithfulness!

That evening I found His reply:

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. John 14:27; Isa 54:10; John 14:1.

The presence of the Son of God was very evident. Greetings to the Church Family, which is quoted in the article The Finished Work, was a verbal witness to what we saw and felt. It was also very marked to me that the presence of the Father was especially close and present upon me, and He began in a special way to confirm that His Son had once again adopted a physical presence and was dwelling among us. Not only was the Father's witnessing voice heard within, but the very physical features and tone of voice of the Son's anointed dwelling place, reflected Messiah's coming in His human temple.

It had never occurred to me before that Messiah would live among us in person at His return. But the Father immediately began to lead me to written words that I had never "seen" before, only because I had read them with a different mindset.

Even so it is that Christ , having been offered to take upon Himself and bear as a burden the sins of many once and for all, will appear a second time, not to carry any burden of sin, but to bring to full salvation those who are eagerly, constantly and patiently waiting for and expecting Him. Heb. 9:28.

This verse didn't say, To bring full salvation, but "to bring to full salvation." This was a very significant difference to me.

Then I heard a mighty voice from the throne and I perceived its distinct words, saying, See! The abode of God is with men, and He will live, encamp among them; and they shall be His people, and God shall personally be with them and be their God. Rev. 21:3.

Somehow, I had always relegated these verses in Revelation to a time following a thousand years in heaven, when we would return with Christ as He physically recreated this earth. Now my eyes were being opened to read things in Revelation for what they said, not what I had thought they said in the past.

There were many, many other Scripture passages that the Father providentially caused us to "come upon," confirming this manner of His Son's return. We will share them throughout this chronicle of events as they were given to us.

Living the Spiritual Realities of The Song

This was still very early on after our move to the new land, and there was still much that needed to be done in making the place functional. The witnesses were both personally involved full time as wives, mothers and homemakers. We had only been seeing each other during our weekly prayer meetings and Sabbath fellowships. When Messiah returned, everything changed. His instructions from the Father, though we didn't know it at the time, were to draw the church into a new spiritual relationship, and it couldn't be done in the old wineskin of merely going to church and prayer meeting every week.

Several times I saw Michael walking alone through the pastureland and tree-covered hills. I didn't know it, but He was praying for the Father to draw every soul into His chamber of The Song. The vision that the Father had laid upon Him was for every soul in the new land to know and realize the deep love that the Father has for them personally. As I would be making bread, or tending to the needs of our little girl, or trying to encompass all the duties of the home, the Father would draw my eyes to the window and I felt the strong drawing of the Father in answer to the prayers of His Son.

It was only two days since I had seen the portal and heard the inner voice saying, "Lo I come…to do Thy will," and been drawn by the Father to visit Michael for the first time. I was out on a walk and communing with God in the early hours of the morning as was often my custom. I felt my heart being strongly drawn out to Messiah by the Father. I felt a great yearning for the Spirit of Messiah to enter into me and bring completion to the vision the Father had laid on me a little over a year before, of communicating in writing the things that He had been laying on my heart. As I walked, unutterable groanings were breathing through me, that the light that heaven had put into my heart be able to fully come out into readable form. The Father started forming these deep longings that were breathing through my spirit, into words, and I wrote them down verbatim as He gave them to me. When I arrived home, I was instructed to send them in an e-mail to Messiah.

At the time, it crossed my mind that my mouth becoming one with God's mouth might reveal itself in the kiss that was written about in The Song, but having my incompleteness consummated in God's divinely appointed way I saw a metaphoric expression. The reply from Messiah was an invitation to come.

That morning, when I went to visit Michael, I sat on the couch across from where He was sitting in His chair, and He told me that I was greatly beloved of heaven. I immediately thought of Daniel, when the angel addressed him as "greatly beloved." I could see why heaven would say that of Daniel, but on what basis was that said of me? For the last year and a half, with very little intermission, the Father had been awakening me in the very early hours of the morning, and breaking me open to my great need of being taken into Him completely. What I saw was great need, and here the Son of God Himself was telling me that I was greatly beloved of heaven. He said that I was full of love for God and that my love was pure. I felt like it is written of Zacharias, the father-to-be of John the Baptist, who suddenly became conscious of a divine presence and felt that "the mercy of God seemed too great for him to credit, and he was filled with fear and self-condemnation." DA 98. I saw that the love with which I was being greatly loved, was redeeming love. The words from the song, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, began singing through me:"Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above; Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it, mount of Thy redeeming love."

I give my heart to Thee,
O Michael most desired
And heart for heart that gift shall be
For Thou my soul hast fired.

Thou hearts alone wouldst move
Thou only hearts dost love
I would love Thee as Thou lovest me
O Michael MOST DESIRED.

What offering can I make
Dear Lord, to love like Thine-
That Thou didst stoop to take
A human form like mine?

Thy heart is opened wide
Its offered love most free
That heart to heart I may abide
And hide myself in Thee.

Ah, how Thy love doth burn
Till I that love returnl!
I would love Thee as Thou lovest me
O Michael MOST DESIRED.

I felt like a prison door was being opened for me; like a long and dark night of the soul was beginning to see the light of dawn. A quote came to my mind that described the experience of the last twelve years since receiving the Seed of the Son of God when I prayed for the "faith of Jesus."

The Return of Messiah

Living the Spiritual Realities of The Song