Positioned for an Open Heaven

One of the most consistent ways that the Lord speaks to me is through "dreams."

Once again, by the grace and faithfulness of God, the Holy Spirit gave me a very vivid instructional dream. The dream was filled with color and emotions, but no words. I do feel that this dream has meaning for me in a personal manner and yet contains truths that are for the Body of Christ. So let me unfold it.

I was attempting to stand in a room where there was a low ceiling. It was an old room filled with religious senses all around it. It was a room representing the Church in its present condition and, in particular, the overall condition of the church where I live in Greater Nashville, Tennessee.

I was standing on the outer edge of the room and I kept trying to stand up. As I would do this, my head would butt against the ceiling, and I could actually feel the weight of the stone ceiling on my head in the dream. I kept trying to raise the roof off by standing up, but it was not working. Then something like a giant, heavenly can opener came down from above and cut a huge hole in the stone roof. The hole appeared in the center of the room. I then moved from the outer edge to the center of the room, and as I did - I looked up.

The sky was filled with the promises of God!

There was now a brilliant "Open Heaven" stationed right over my head. The sky was blue and there were beautiful clouds hovering. I could feel the warmth of the sun upon my body. The atmosphere was filled with faith, hope, love and life.

I then proceeded, in the dream, back to the edge of the room where the ceiling was still intact, and yes, still quite low. Again, I had to crouch down to get under the low ceiling. I attempted to "stand upright" only to feel the weight of the ceiling suppressing me once again. So I stepped back into the center of the room. What a contrast!

Oh, there was clean air to breathe. There was light and no darkness. There was a sense of purpose and destiny fulfilled. I was now positioned correctly under an open heaven, enabling me to achieve the purposes of God. I was centered and walking in the light.

Interpreting the Experience

As I woke up, I had several "knowings" as a result of this dream experience. Again, there were no audible words in this dream. But the feeling dimension was very alive! I did feel a word dropped inside of me, though, as I woke up - "Get Positioned for an Open Heaven."

God wants us each to be properly aligned in this hour with Him and His purposes. He wants to lift the lid off the can, but we must position ourselves properly as this occurs. We must move from the side issues to the central ones. We must be centered on Him.

Walking in Open Heavens deals more with His work versus ours. Our efforts to push through and even "stand uprightly" are acknowledged, but it is truly His work from above that creates a sustained place or Open Heavens for His presence. He has the ability to break through even the hardest of places, circumstances and low ceilings.

Again, in the dream, the Lord saw my efforts and acknowledged them, but then He did the work that I could not. I find it quite interesting that it is more about His work from above than our work from beneath. He does respond, however, to our efforts. But we do not create an Open Heaven - He does. He is the Creator - I am not. I am a responder to His great love and initiative. Yet, what goes up must come down!

Below you will find a short excerpt from my study guide Revival Breakthrough. In it I give some basic Biblical teaching on Open Heavens, so - "Get Positioned for an Open Heaven!" Get into Kingdom Alignment for such a time as this. Step out of the shadows of the side edges and move into the center of His word, will and ways. Be centered in Him - after all, being "centered in Christ" is the best place to be!

Blowing The Roof Off The House

A. Making Jesus At Home In Your House - Read Mark 2:1- 5 slowly as a parable. Ask the Holy Spirit to bring personal applications to your life.

1. Mark 2:1 - Is Jesus at "Home" in your house, family, congregation, city? What would you need to do to have Him be more than the "honored guest" who occasionally shows up?

2. Mark 2:2 - When Jesus is "in His temple," people will gather and revelation will rest on the word of God. May God's house be full to overflowing and may the crowds gather once again to hear the word of the Lord!

3. Mark 2:3 - Some became dissatisfied with the crowds as they were. Four men became desperate for a "breakthrough" on another level. Through the heat of the day they carried their paralytic friend on a stretcher to the house where Jesus was. They worked hard to carry this "dead weight," possibly at a distance. It cost them something to get him there, but they wanted more!

4. Mark 2:4 - They could not get near to Jesus due to the crowds. They could have given up, but instead - they moved from the natural into the supernatural to find their solution. Then hope came. We will tear the roof off the house. So they proceeded upon the roof to tear it open with their hands. Through great effort - they dug a big hole in the roof (Opened Heavens) and lowered their friend into the presence of the living Messiah.

5. Mark 2:5 - Jesus saw "their faith." Whose faith? All their faith together! Then he spoke to the paralytic: "Your sins are forgiven." This results in healing the body. May these words echo through our lives today and the sick Body of Christ be raised up to "wholeness."

B. Opened Heavens

1. Like in Genesis 28:16-17, we need the gates of Heaven opened over our cities, churches and families.

2. Like in Mark 2:1-5, we need to "Blow the Roof Off" our thinking and concepts and believe the Lord for extraordinary works of grace. Desperate times take desperate measures. We need desperate laborers to arise, who are not content with life as it is, to tear the roof off in order to lower another into the presence of Jesus!

THREE KEYS NEEDED

A. Prayer Opens The Way!


1. Testimony of the Hebrides Island Revival in 1952: Two desperate women - Peggy and Christina Smith, 84 and 82 years old - were desperate for a revival on their island off of Scotland. They began praying from Isaiah 44:3, "For I will pour out water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring and My blessing on your descendants."

They reminded God of His word. Then they began to claim Isaiah 64:1: "O that Thou wouldest rend the heavens, that Thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might quake at Thy presence..."

The oldest sister was blind, but she received a vision and proclaimed, "He's coming! He's coming! He's already here!" The Spirit of God fell in a barn that night where seven young men were praying from Isaiah 62:6,7, where it tells us, "On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth."

Sure enough, God came. This began the great Hebrides Revival under the preaching of Duncan Campbell. A spiritual radiation zone was created and many souls were saved!

2. Testimony of Evan Roberts and the Welsh Revival of 1904: At the age of 13, young Evan began to seek the Lord. At the age of 26, revival came to his hometown. He taught the people to pray two simple prayers. The first, "Send the Spirit now, for Jesus Christ's sake." The second prayer was similar: "Send the Spirit now more powerfully, for Jesus Christ's sake." Indeed, God's Spirit came down and 100,000 souls were swept up into God's Kingdom.

Today, a cry is arising: "More, Lord!" Yes, there must be a youth revolution come as it was with Evan Roberts. We must have a "trans-generational anointing" as it was with Peggy and Christina Smith. It is time for prayer to arise and to blow the roof off the house!

WHEN WE CARE FOR HIS PRESENCE

I want to tell you a dream that has recently again gripped my soul. In January 1999, while I was having some forced rest due to a hernia surgery, the Lord visited me with a piercing dream that is helping to set my course of direction right now, and I believe is a clear word to His people in this hour.

In this dream, I was holding long loaves of bread each wrapped in their own individual napkin. I was holding these loaves of bread close to my chest, right over my heart. Then I got our youngest child's (Rachel's) blanket she has had since birth. I now wrapped these loaves of bread in her dear baby blanket. I held the bread close to my heart and just kind of rocked the bread as you would a newborn child.

Then I heard the words, "When My people will care for, cherish, nurture and love the 'Bread of My Presence' like a parent does its newborn child - then revival will come." I then found myself awakened out of the dream only to find my arms were held out as though holding and rocking something. I then heard myself prophesying out loud in the bedroom the same words I had just heard in the dream as the sweet presence of the Holy Spirit was lingering over my body. The Lord was emphasizing these words by having them repeated twice!

This I know - He wants us to cherish and care for His Presence. Pray for His presence. Love His presence. Nurture His presence; after all, isn't this what you have longed for all your life? Isn't this what you were made and created for - to be a carrier of the most brilliant Presence?! Isn't this the answer to the Church's cry for more?

When will revival come? You got it! When we get up in the middle of the night - do the night feedings, hold the child close to our bosom, and wash the child of new beginnings with love and compassion - then revival will come!

Join me as we call forth an Open Heaven and Portals of Revelation to be opened across the face of the earth! May the Church around the world drink deeply from the wells of revival!

Let His Presence comes forth!

+++ URGENT PRAYER FOR MICHAL ANN GOLL +++

Health Update: The Goll's Cry for Mercy!


Many of you know, that Michal Ann was taken back into the hospital on Friday, August 15 and just came home again on Friday, August 22. Her cancers markers in a ten-day period of time more than doubled. They have reached a level of over 50,000 - this of course, is dangerously high. The amount of active cancer in Michal Ann's body is higher now than it was back in February when she only had three weeks to live.

The doctor privately told me that he did not think she would make it home from the hospital this time. I was advised to take all necessary practical steps required. With many tears I followed the counsel given to me and put some things in order.

As Don Finto in Nashville told me some weeks ago, "Pray and believe that she will be healed, yet make the necessary plans as though she will not." That might not sound appropriate to some of you - but it is the realistic tension we are walking in and when it fell on my ears, I believed it to be a "word of wisdom."

Michal Ann is like the cat with nine lives and she just keeps bouncing back – somehow. Probably, because of her tenacious ability to fight, your willingness to pray and God's willingness to respond.

Greater Clarity on Michal Ann's Condition

It seems that she started to have some pneumonia spring up on her upper left lung and some fluid again on her lower right lung. They put her on antibiotics that we think took care of the pneumonia and they also did a procedure, using a needle, to withdraw the fluid off of her lungs.

This has helped her to breathe better and be in less discomfort so she is able to rest. She is back on oxygen again and is very mentally disoriented much of the time. She has come a long way again though, but she has truly slipped significantly. The doctor is going to wait another week before having her do the next chemotherapy treatment, which will not occur until the Tuesday after Labor Day.

Medically (in the natural), we are in a time war. She needs more time for the chemo to break up the tumors in her lungs and other locations. But she also has to be strong enough to bear the brunt of these brutal treatments.

Some say to just stop all the treatments. But Michal Ann says she still wants to fight. And as long as that is her desire - we will fight with every means available.

Our sensitive doctor is being very careful that old patterns do not repeat - so every precaution is being put in place. We are very grateful to the Lord for this.

The Veil is So Thin

Right now, the veil between the eternal and the temporal seems very thin for Michal Ann. In the hospital this past week, she had two different experiences in which she seemed to be interacting with something in the spiritual realm, so I am watching to see what she might see or experience next.

We thank the Lord that Michal Ann came back to our home on Friday, August 22. She had to be carried into the house by Paul Ehm, who lives with us, as she is not strong enough to walk on her own. She is very weak and disoriented most of the time.

But we stand waiting...waiting for the stirring of the waters...waiting for the tumors to disappear...waiting for strength to reappear...waiting for the more...knowing He is enough!

Having Michal Ann back home is challenging and in some ways it is quite hard. But we want what she wants and the doctor gave her a choice of a rehab unit or coming home. She became very alert and responded, "I want to go home!" So home she is with Smokey our cat lying right next to her in her hospital bed.

How Am I?

Physically, I still have two small tumors behind my stomach area. One is one inch by one and a half inches and the other is one inch by one inch. They both still have active cancer in them, but it is contained. I will return in about four more months for another round of scans to see where my health is at that time. I will let you know more as I know more.

Right now, I am very torn and at times emotionally spent. It is not easy living in the tension of faith and the reality of where things are in the natural. I still cry for mercy for Michal Ann to be fully healed! And yet, the journey has been so long - there are times I just want her released from this pain and suffering in this mortal body to go on to her eternal reward.

So I am lifting a cry for mercy. Will you lift a cry for mercy with me?

So there you have it! Another transparent update from a modern-day weeping Jeremiah. But always rest assured, we believe that God is good all the time and His mercies endure forever!

WITH A CRY FOR MERCY!

James W. Goll and the Entire Goll Family!
Encounters Network