Date: November 8, 2018 ()

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I love to teach the Bible. I love to help people see how God is so real in the practical everyday issues of life. There are a lot of people who are really deep Bible scholars. I am not one of them. I love to research. I love delve deeply into the Word of God, but I am not a person that has been called by God to come and teach the deeper things, the things that it takes a lot of spiritual maturity to understand. I will tell you that God has called me to teach practical Christianity. Mark Twain said, “It is not the parts of the Bible that I do not understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.” I believe that is the way it is. God wants to come and invade your everyday life. He wants to come and show you how real He is in your everyday life. That is why Jesus used all of those practical examples of yeast and bread and seed being sown. It is to show you that this amazingly wonderful, powerful, creative being in the universe wanted to come down on your level and say, “I love you, I believe in you and I want to help you.” That is what I am all about. I pray that these teachings are as beneficial to the most mature Christian watching as to the person that is just checking God out for the first time. I know a lot of you live around the world. I got an e-mail from a man in Spain saying that he watches the show. I know there are a lot of you watching in all of these different countries. Hello from America. America loves you and God loves you. We are interested in doing whatever we can to help you.

The lesson today is called “The Day of Visitation.” I have another question to ask you. Have you ever had a day of visitation? Do you even know what that means? It is really important, so I want you to listen carefully. The day of visitation is a time in your life that God is ready to move. He is ready to move you on. He is ready to move you up. He is ready to do something. He comes and says, “Today is the day.” For instance, the Bible says, “Today is the day of salvation. Do not harden your heart.” That is an example of the day of visitation. You know before you became a true believer that there were times you could feel God was moving in your life. He was talking to you. Maybe you can even remember things He said. Maybe you can remember where you were when it happened. You knew God is taking to me. He is wanting to do something. That is what I want to talk to you about today; that day of visitation when God is ready to do something.

Let me give you some verses to just think about. In Isaiah 10:3 it says, “And what will ye do in the day of visitation and in the desolation that will come from afar?” This is talking about a hard thing that is getting ready to happen to them. The key point I want you to remember in that verse is, “And what will you do in the day of visitation?” It is so important. There are just some things you need to be sure that you do. One of them is to listen carefully and another one is to have an open heart, 1 Peter 2:12 says, “Make sure your conversation is honest among the Gentiles because where they might speak about you as being an evil doer, they may by your good works which they behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.” God will use you as an instrument to go to people who are unbelievers, who even see you as a Christian as being an evil doer. When they see your good works and they behold God, they will glorify God in that day of visitation. That is the appointed are the anointed times that God is ready to implant something in you or do something with you.

What is the most important thing for you to remember? God is ready to move now, not later. You have to move when God is ready. I thought I would give you an example of two times in my life; one time when I did not move. Actually I waited a long time and it came back around again and I moved. One time I did not move and it never came back around. On the day of visitation God may give you another chance and He may not. The first time was when I was about 10 or 11 years old. I had been saved. For those of you that do not use that term, I just mean that I received Christ into my life and became a Christian. All of a sudden, I do not even know how many months after that, I was in church one night and I felt a powerful move of the Holy Spirit to go down and tell the pastor I want to give my life for special service. However You want to use me, whether it is in the ministry or whatever. I was so scared, but it was more than that. It was more than being scared. I was determined to get what I wanted, to do it the way I wanted. I did not want anything to happen to me that was not of my choosing, even as a 10 year old. I never told anybody about this. What happened is that I was in a church and the music was playing and I knew the Holy Spirit was calling. I could feel it. It was a tug on me that was so strong. It was so strong that I held on to the chair in front of me. I had sweat running down my face. I held on so tight because the tug was so hard. “Go down, go down, go down. Go down and do that. Go down and do that.” I was saying “No, I’m scared. No.” A little bit later, maybe a week or so, it happened again. I just did not want to do it. In my mind I thought, “If I go down there, I do not know what God is going to do with my life. He will probably want me to go to Africa and I do not want to go to Africa, so I am not going to go down there. All you can be in a church is a preacher or missionary and women cannot be preachers so I am not doing it.” These are all of the thoughts going on in my head. Nobody had any idea this day of visitation had come to me; nobody around me and I never told anybody. However, it was there and I knew it even as a child of 10 years old. I said no. I never had the Lord call me like that ever again until I was 26. That is a long time. I made a lot of mistakes. I would not even say it was all about making mistakes. I would say I had choices to make of things to do and I did not know how you really prayed. Of course, I prayed, I was a Christian but I did not know how to pray about specific things. I did not know how to tell God these are my hopes and my dreams. This is what I would like to do but I am going to do what You want me to do and then discover it was better than anything I could think of. I did not know about any of that. I did not have anyone in my life to tell me those kinds of things and God did not call me again. At 26, He came around again. The day of visitation came to me again in this matter. This time, I said yes. I was scared. I thought I am probably going to lose everything that is important to me if I put God first in my life and say, “Here is a blank piece of paper. You fill it out and I will do anything You want me to do.” Oh, that was so scary.

When the day of visitation has come, it is not like you are just relaxed and you just kind of take it like it comes. It is a big thing. I can just remember thinking, “Do I really want to do this.” I am going to be real honest with you about something because I would like to know where you stand. While I was sitting there thinking where is God really in my life. I mean really. Nobody knows I am thinking it. He is supposed to be first but where is He really in my life. I added it up. My husband was number one or probably I was number one if we get truthful. We will say my husband was and my son. I did not have my daughter at that time; I had a son so he was number two. Number three was maybe my friends. Four was where I lived. Five was how much money I had, what kind of clothes and trips and all of that kind of stuff. God was number six when I added it all up. Where is He in your life honestly? Is He the most important thing? Does everything revolve around Him? I sat there and I thought this is going to take a big decision and my life could change dramatically. I do not know how it is going to change. By that time I was more mature. I watched people who had already done it ahead of me and they were so happy. I thought that I am doing it. I said, “Dear Jesus, I really believe You are the Son of God. I am going to put You first in my life, ahead of my husband and my son. I do not know how You do it, but if You will show me how, I will do it.” An amazing thing happened. God never called me again after that. I made the right decision in that day of visitation and my life changed. It is wonderful. I got interested in the Bible where before it was boring. I wanted to talk to people about Jesus all of the time and that was great. I wanted to be around Christians who really loved God, not just Christians that were worldly. I wanted to be around the real deal, wherever that was I wanted to be around it. My life changed because I said yes to that day of visitation.

Another time, this is a lot smaller but important and it taught me a lot and I learned from it. I was head of Women’s Ministry of a really large church, about 6000 people. I had prayed “God give me creative ideas on how You want this ministry done. Just tell me how You want it done and I will do it.” I got this idea and I am not going to tell you what it is, but it was an idea that was a really good idea. It was a little bit controversial but I really felt it was God. I went to my pastor and said, “I have this idea, what do you think?” He said, “I think it is a great idea. I will help you. I will back you. We will have to go to the elders but I will back you.” I said, “I am not quite ready, just give me a little bit more time and then we will do this. I am not quite ready.” Do you know it never happened? Because God was ready to move then and I thought I am not ready. Many times when God is ready to move you will not feel like you are ready, but you will still know it is God. A lot of times it is not at the most convenient time for you.

Do you remember when Paul was preaching to Festus in Acts? He was saying, “Jesus is real.” They said, “Paul, you have lost your mind saying that a man rose from the dead. It does not happen.” Paul said, “Oh yes it does. It definitely does, because I have seen Him. I have encountered Him on the road to Damascus. Yes, it happened.” They said, “You are out of your mind.” He said, “No I am not.” He could not be persuaded. He kept talking and talking and talking. King Agrippa said to Paul, “You have almost persuaded me to become a Christian, but come back when it is a more convenient time.” It never happened. There never was a convenient time. God was moving then. God knew what was ahead. God can see your future and you cannot. That is why you have to develop an absolute trust in God. People really struggle with that. They will say, “I just do not know if I can trust Him or not.” You know what computers are like. You know who designed the first computer. Do you not think the person who designed the computer knows more about the computer than anybody else, what makes it do the best and run the best? That is the way God is. He knows what is the best for you. It has to be on His time schedule. He has a plan for your life. Can you make mistakes and miss things? Absolutely. We can all tell our stories. I have just told you two in my life. We want to try to be on His time schedule. It is always better. He is never early and He is never late; He is always right on time. I do have to add one thing. In my mind and in my life, it feels like 11:59:59 before He finally moves. It is probably not like that but it feels like that.

What you have to remember is that in the day of visitation He has a purpose. There is a point to it. In order to get you to respond, He stirs you up on the inside. As I was saying, everybody around you may not know that you are having a dramatic encounter with God. They may not have a clue. You do not look any different on the outside, but on the inside you are just jumping, jumping, jumping, because you know that God is talking to you. It is a choice you have to make. You get to choose. God is not going to come and say, “I am God and you have to do it whether you want to or not.” He is not going to do that. That is why we all have free will. We have the freedom to choose and you can choose that day whether to obey. Does it mean He will not come around again? No, but you will have wasted precious time. I look back at my life and when I said no to God when I was 10 or 11 the time period between 10-11 up until your 20s, you make some of the most important decisions you will make in your whole life and they affect the rest of your life forever. How much better it would have been if I could have said, “Jesus, you are the boss. You tell me what to do and I will do it.” I wasted time and I know I did.

On this time schedule of events you have to realize that even in important situations in the Bible, there was a specific day of visitation. One of them was with Mary. Mary had a specific day in all time when the angel came to her. She could have said, “No, I am not going to do it. I do not want to be embarrassed. I do not want everybody to look at me. I am scared.” You can say to the Lord, I will do it. I am kind of scared, but I will do it.

God also has portions that He gives. Have you ever heard of a double portion? If God is ready to give you the double portion and you wait, you could be stuck in a dry church or a dry place for years. I remember Catherine Kuhlman came to my town, Amarillo, Texas, in the 1970s. I was in a denominational church that did not believe in healing. I believe in it totally now. I have seen too much of it. I wanted to go, but I was scared. What will everybody say if I do this? People will get mad. That was lack of courage on my part. I missed seeing her, a mighty, mighty woman of God. I could have seen miracles. Who knows what God would have done? That was a day of visitation. God was bringing a very Godly woman to our town and I missed it.

Another thing you need to think about is that sometimes God has to take you through one door to get you to another door. You cannot get in the second door any other way but by going through the first door. When God comes to you and you know it is God and He says, “I want you to go this way.” You think, Lord, that is kind of like going north and I am trying to go south. You do not know what God is going to do or how He is going to engineer your circumstances to make it happen.

There are also times when the Lord is ready to give you a greater infilling of His Spirit, a greater awareness, a greater depth of Him. If He comes to you on this day of visitation and says step out, step out and you do not, you can feel like you are in a desert. “God, where are You?” He says, “I came but you would not go.” Another thing is that if you refuse God, He will go on without you. You do not make up the Kingdom. You are part of the Kingdom but He has a plan and He has a purpose and He is looking for people who will say “Yes, Lord, I will go. I do not care what it costs, I will go.” When you here Catherine Kuhlman’s story, she says, I believe there was a man selected to do my job and the man said no. God came to me and I said yes, so I got to do it. That is why it is so important to keep the Word of the Lord. God is always waiting but He is not going to wait forever. He gives you time to question, to deal with your doubts and deal with your fears. There is a place that he will not.

I heard an evangelist tell a story that really shook me. He was called to be an evangelist at very small tiny churches in tiny towns because most people do not want to do that, but that was his call from God. He went to this town and the pastor said, “I want you to go to the hospital with me and visit this man. He is lost. I have witnessed to him many, many, many, many times. He will not accept the Lord and he is about to die.” The evangelist agreed to go. As they were walking into the hospital room, he said to the pastor that was taking him there, “Let’s go.” The pastor said, “We have not talked to him yet.” He said, “No, let’s go.” They walked away. The pastor asked the evangelist why they left without talking to the man. He said, “The Lord told me I am not going to strive with him forever. He has said no and he means it, and that is it. Leave him alone.”

What will God do to you to let you know about this day of visitation? He will speak. He will exhort. He will encourage. He will see others. He will stir you up. When there is no response from you, then the anointing passes over and goes on without you. Does that mean you are unloved and tossed aside and that God does not like you anymore or He is mad at you? Not at all. God said, “I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I love you with an everlasting love. I paid a very high price to get you.” It is not about that. It is about what God is wanting to do with you, what He has for you. That is what is sad is when you miss it.

What do you do if you miss it and you know you did? Maybe you missed it five years ago or 20 years ago, but now you are hearing this teaching and you are thinking, “That is me. I did that.” What you do is repent. I love to repent. I love to repent. It is the most wonderful thing in the world. Why do I love to repent? Because it takes it off of you. It is over. You do not have to deal with it anymore. You can just say, “Lord, I am so sorry. I missed You that time and I really am sorry. I do repent. If You give me another chance I will do it. One thing I am going to tell You, Lord, is I am going to be determined every time I sense Your Spirit dealing with me, I am not going to say no, no matter how scared I am, how busy I am, how inconvenient the time is, I am going to do it.” What will happen if you heed God in the day of visitation? Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. God will change your life. There will be some big change. The day of visitation does not happen very often in a person’s life, so when it comes it is because you are destined for some kind of a big change. It will produce that change when say this to God. He will move mightily in your life. He will cover you. You will move forward. The best thing of all though is you will know God better.

Do you not want to know God better than you know Him now? There is always more of God, always. Never be in a church or a situation where it stays the same all of the time. Boring, boring, boring, same, same, same. Do not be there. That is not where God is moving. He is not free to move. You want to be where God is free to move because He has more. He has the life and the Spirit and He wants to give it to you. He wants you to experience Him. God’s life is the Zoë Life which is life with power behind it. If your life does not have that, I do not care how old you are, what country you live in or what is going on in your life. God is not a respecter of persons. You can have anything you see in the Bible. You can have it. You may say you are not educated or did not understand this day of visitation. You might even say, “I do not think I know Jesus.” Pray right now. Close your eyes and say, “Jesus, you are real. I know you are real. I am a sinner. I need You to come into my life right now and change me. Make me a different person.”

QUIET TIME QUESTIONS

1. What is meant by the term “day of visitation?”
2. How should you respond when you have a day of visitation?
3. What is the purpose of the day of visitation?
4. What should you do if you realize you did not respond on your day of visitation?
5. How will you benefit by being faithful to God on your day of visitation?

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