a visitation from jesus and a mission from the king

I recently had an experience with Jesus that dramatically altered my sense of His reality in my life. I have always believed in His existence even when I was not serving Him, but I was recently given a revelation of Him that I would not trade for anything in the world. This experience has increased my boldness and courage in sharing my testimony with the world no matter where I find myself. I have never been a timid person, but this experience has given me a new passion for sharing Jesus with others. It has burned into my mind a memory of Jesus that I cannot explain in words alone, but I will try. There is coming a time when we will all be able to experience Him in this way by simply asking, but for now, I will hold onto this memory and keep it close to my heart. Jeremiah 29:12-14 says, “Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will let Myself be found by you,’ declares the LORD.” The Lord let me find Him for the second time this year. The first time I found Him was in a dream, but this time the experience was so much more.

I went to sleep one night feeling a heaviness in my spirit because of someone I care about who is questioning the existence of a loving God. They want to know for sure that there is a heaven where we will rule and reign with God forever, but they are afraid that it might not exist. I fell asleep while praying and asking the Lord what I might say to them to encourage them in this moment of testing. I woke up quite a few times during that first hour of sleep still thinking about this person. I would pray a little bit more and fall back asleep. Asleep, awake, asleep, awake, asleep, awake, asleep. That is when Jesus showed up.

I do not remember exactly how it happened, but all of a sudden, Jesus was standing before me, and I was sitting in a chair holding Him above His waist with my face buried deep into His chest. This was not a dream. I dream every night, and I am blessed to have significant spiritual dreams on a regular basis. Sometimes my dreams are so vivid that memories of them last for weeks or even months. I can see and hear clearly in my dreams, but I do not have the other senses of taste, smell, or touch. I have a lot of military dreams where I am shot or stabbed, but there is no sense of feeling or pain. I eat in my dreams sometimes and do not smell or taste the food. This was not one of those times. This memory is real. I remember the experience like I would remember doing something with my wife yesterday.

I could feel the warmth of His body on my face. The scratchiness of His robe tickled my nose as I tried to bury my face even deeper into His chest. His robe was not made of fine linen, and it was not made of beautiful colors as I would have imagined it would be. It was made of a coarse burlap material and was a simple light brown color. I could feel the coarseness of the material in my hands as my arms were wrapped tightly around His body. My hands were grasping His robe tightly, and I could feel the fabric stretching between my fingers. I could feel His well-defined muscles through his garment as well. His back was rippled with muscles. His body was solid and hard but also somehow very inviting. The power in His arms was nuclear. He was not a large man. His stature was more similar to mine. I was sitting and He was standing, so His height is hard to ascertain. I would guess He was close to 5’9”, and He was probably about 170 pounds. His body was rock solid though, and I would not been surprised to find out He weighed more than I thought. His arms were holding me higher around my shoulders while I was holding Him lower and more level with His sternum. His body radiated power. I cannot over emphasize that enough. He did not have one ounce of fat on Him as far as I could tell, and because He was only wearing a thin burlap robe, I could feel the warmth of His body and the rippling of His muscles as He radiated strength straight into my very being. He had an earthy nature like smell about Him. I would think He would smell like some fine fragrance, but He did not smell like that to me.

As I sat holding Him, I began to desire more of Him. I know that sounds crazy. How could I want more of Him when I had all of Him in my arms? I would say the same thing if you said that to me. I simply wanted to be more intimate with Him. I wanted to see His face. This has been one of the cries of my heart this past year. I have spent many hours before the Lord asking to see His face. I understand how Moses felt when He prayed and requested that very same thing from God. I would say I have indeed been searching for Him with all of my heart this past year, and He has kept His promise to let me find Him. I ask to see Him and experience Him physically, so I might know Him better. I ask to see the Father and Holy Spirit as well for the same reason. The last time I saw Him in a dream and was able to speak with Him, He told me to be patient because the Father was planning these types of encounters for us in the future. This was one of those times. I am sure of it.

I tried to pull my face out of His chest, so I could get into a position to see Him better. Because of His strong hug on me and my lower position, it was not easy to maneuver myself to a place to see His face. After a few attempts, I was able to pull my head back far enough to catch a glimpse of Him. I was not expecting to see the face that appeared before me.

Jesus describes Himself as being full of joy in John 15:11. It is also one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, so I should not have been surprised by what I saw. Still, I was caught off guard. He had a smirk on His face, but that was not the surprise.

Jesus was playing a practical joke on me. The last time I saw Him in a dream, He appeared to look a bit like the actor in the series The Chosen, except for His forehead was bigger and His nose was also a little bit larger. When I saw His face this time, He looked exactly like the actor from The Chosen. I was stunned. I looked at Him for the longest time, and finally I said, “You mean you came all the way down here to earth just to act in a movie about yourself? You are actually Jesus?!” He looked back at me with that smirk on His face for a just a moment longer, and then suddenly, as if His body was exploding from the inside out, He broke out in laughter. This was not laughter like He heard a funny joke. This was laughter like He was erupting with joy like a volcano. He was rolling around on the ground like a child who is unable to control their laughter. I realized He was playing a practical joke on me, and all of a sudden, I also erupted into laughter. I could not stop. When He laughed harder, I laughed harder. When I laughed harder, He laughed harder. It was contagious! For some reason I looked away for a second, and when I turned back towards Him, He was gone.

I cried out, “No! Don’t go! Where are you?!” Immediately, I heard the Holy Spirit gently tell me, “Next time you have ahold of Him, don’t let Him go.” I remembered making a promise to Jesus over a year ago while praying in my office prostrate on the ground with before Him. I promised Him that no matter what happened in my life, I would never let go of Him again. The Holy Spirit was not correcting me because I was not letting go of Jesus to get away from Him this time. I was letting go of Him to get a better look at Him. It was not the same thing, but it did remind me of what I had told Him none-the-less. I realized the Holy Spirit was telling me to be careful when I received intimate revelation from Him to not let go of it in order to go deeper into Him, but to make sure that I held onto what He was giving me when I dove deeper into the experience. He wanted me to go deeper, but to make sure I held onto Him when I did it. Over the next few days, He showed me what He meant.

I have recently started going back to the gym to try to get my body in shape for what is coming to the earth. The body I had as a Navy SEAL has suffered a bit due to time and overuse. God has shown me that we will need to make sure our vessels are able to withstand the trials and tribulations we are going to have to experience for His namesake and for His kingdom. Being filled with the power of God definitely is important, but lately the Father has been impressing on me to get my warrior body back into shape. Anyways, that is for another time.

While I was working out in the gym the other day, the Holy Spirit came upon me, and I started to worship God right in the middle of the gym with hands lifted high and eyes closed. I wear earbuds when I am working out and I listen to worship and praise music, so I am usually worshipping the Lord when I work out anyways. When I say I was worshipping God, I mean as if I was in church. He spoke to me and asked me why I was not worshipping Him externally. I did not have a good response because there wasn’t one.

I closed my eyes as I was lifting the weights and began to worship Him in my spirit. When I was done with the set, I closed my eyes and raised my hands to heaven. I sang out loud but softly. I spoke in tongues but not so others might hear me. I was not trying to be as the pharisees who prayed out loud in the temple to gain recognition from others. I was worshipping and praising God as David did before the ark of the covenant. Well, maybe not as passionately as he did, but I was working up to it. I was worshipping God because He asked me to worship Him. For what other reason was I created? Jesus told the pharisees in Luke 19:40 that if His disciples were to stop praising Him, the very rocks would cry out His praise instead. I am not going to give the rocks the privilege of standing in my place of worshipping my King.

I thought back to the experience I had when I was holding Jesus and I thought, “I am going to hold on tight to Him and dive deeper into this experience.” I went to the treadmill, and as I was running, I raised my hands in worship. I could feel people watching me, but I did not care. I knew the angels around me were worshipping God with me, and if there were any other believers in the gym, I hoped that they would be emboldened to do the same thing. Why do we only worship the Lord when we are in church? Why are our prayer meeting always in our church buildings? I know many people worship and pray to God in their spirit continuously as it says to in the scripture, but I mean externally.

Do we hold hands or kiss the ones we love in public? I know some people do not appreciate being a part of public displays of affection, but I believe that is the enemy trying to silence us from showing love to each other while being an example of the love of Jesus to the unbelievers in the world. Jesus said we would be known as His disciples by our love for one another. People need to see it to believe it. Worshipping the Lord in a public manner shows others of our love for Him. We should not be ashamed of that love. We should want to show our love for our King by worshipping Him in the midst of our enemies.

I am waiting for the day when someone comes up to me in the gym and asks me what new kind of new exercise I am doing. I will tell them I am exercising my spirit by worshipping Jesus! Every time I go to the gym now, I hold onto Jesus tightly as I immerse myself into His presence in worship, and He takes me to a place in Him that I can only experience when I am in complete obedience to Him while worshipping my King. I have recently had some of the most amazing worship services, and they have been by myself in the middle of my gym while I am worshipping the Father and Son in the presence of the Holy Spirit!

A few days after this experience, the Lord shared with me the reason for this mission He had given me. He told me that He was using me to do battle in the temples of the enemies of God. He was giving me humility to go into these places where people worship false gods and declare the authority and majesty of the One true God. Not everyone who goes to a gym is worshipping a false god, but you would be wrong to assume that idolatry does not exist within those places. I do not need to validate the false gods who dwell in those establishments by naming them. One can think back to the time of the Romans, and with a little research you will find that many of the false gods they worshipped are being worshipped today in our time as well under different names. There are T.V.s placed high above the heads of the patrons all over the gym, and mirrors line every wall in the place for people who want to admire themselves. Some of the clothing people wear is quite revealing and when used by the enemy it can be alluring and seductive. Music that feeds the flesh can be heard blaring through the speakers, and more often than not, if you look around you will see people lustfully looking upon each other, sometimes even openly.

By worshipping Jesus in that environment, we can be like Elijah and the prophets of Baal. We can call down the fire of the Holy Spirit to come into that place, and His presence can change the very atmosphere and chase out the false gods bringing deliverance to those who need it. God is not targeting the people. This is spiritual warfare. He is asking us to worship Him, so He might move by His Spirit and chase out the false gods that have embedded themselves there. It is time to tear down the high places again as they did in the Old Testament, and this is one way the Lord is doing that. This is one of the spiritual warfare missions He is calling us to be a part of. Worship God everywhere and all of the time, and do not be timid when you are doing it, and you will start to see the power of God manifested in the earth.

About a week after the Holy Spirit sent me on my spiritual warfare mission to the gym, He sent me on another mission into a temple of government with the same intention of bringing glory to the Father. He wanted to chase out more false gods from the high places of worship that belongs to our God. I had to appear in county court as a character witness for someone I knew. While I was on the stand answering questions that were meant to bring division and hatred into the hearings, the Holy Spirit came and moved on me. The same boldness that came upon me in the gym came upon me again. I grabbed hold of Jesus and dove into Him deeper.

I began to share my testimony of how Jesus saved me with the court and jurors. I told them how Jesus had saved my life and changed me from being an evil, hateful, unforgiving person into a person who loves everyone as Jesus loves me. I didn’t get to spend a lot of time in there because the lawyer who was asking me these questions became very nervous and quickly tried to usher me out of the place, but not before I had an opportunity to share the gospel of Christ in the Montgomery County Courthouse in Conroe, Texas. The testimony of how Jesus delivered me is now a part of that court case. It was documented and placed into the public records for our county. There is power in the spoken word of Jesus, and I believe my testimony is reverberating through the hallways and rooms of that courthouse and will be for as long as it is standing.

Seeds were planted that day, and more importantly, the power and authority of Jesus was declared out loud in a public courtroom. I could almost see the false gods fleeing that room as the power of the Holy Spirit entered into it. It was noticeable on the faces of everyone in attendance as well. Some showed positive signs of having the Spirit of Christ in them as well and some showed an uneasiness or fear fall upon them as they could not leave the room but did not want to be there either. Sharing your testimony is another way of worshipping the Lord. We can declare His goodness and love to those who are being tormented by the enemy.

The Father blessed me with a visitation of Jesus because I had sought Him with my whole heart, but as the Father often does, He also used that moment to teach me a valuable lesson. Jesus allowed me to touch Him, so I might experience the power and strength that flows through His body. He wanted me to understand the importance of holding onto Him when He sets me in places that require me to go deeper in Him while in the presence of my enemies. One way to hold onto Him is to worship Him unceasingly and unabashedly. Humility is key when going into combat. We must understand and believe that the power we stand in comes from the Spirit of Jesus who abides within us. He is wanting to send us, His disciples, on more missions like the ones I described above, but we must learn the importance of holding onto Him regardless of cost. He is our strength, power, and authority. Jesus wants to send us out as He did the twelve to preach the gospel, cast out demons, and heal the sick in His name. We must hold on tight, bury our face into His chest, and let Him cover us with His presence as we worship Him in love. This worship will usher in the Holy Spirit no matter where we are. Remember when Paul and Silas worshipped in prison? They did not do that in spirit only, and because of their witness, they were able to lead the jailer and his whole family to Jesus Christ. They ushered in the Holy Spirit with their worship, and He brought the transforming power with Him. If we start praying and worshipping God everywhere we go, the Holy Spirit will be ushered in and manifest His power and authority. The high palaces in this world will begin to crumble and fall once again. The false gods will be cast out, and those who are held captive will be freed and brought into the kingdom of God. In the name of our Lord and King Jesus! Amen.

You can read more about this and other truths by obtaining a copy of “Prodigal to Prince” by Beau Walsh at BarnesandNoble.com or Amazon.com.