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Dr. Mahesh Chavda: "100-Year Snow: Times of Refreshing"

From the desk of Steve Shultz:

Through time and eternity, through the four seasonal changes, God’s faithfulness remains constant and firm.

Like the Word of God, HIS Faithfulness is an ongoing reminder that it’s not "what" but "WHO" we put our trust in.

By the way, besides this word, Mahesh has developed an awesome resource in this book on Prayer and Fasting:

 

"40 Days of Prayer and Fasting" by Mahesh Chavda $14.99 Book (click here)

And the Wisdom of Bill Johnson, Mahesh Chavda and Julia Loren is contained in this book, "Shifting Shadows of Supernatural Power."

"Shifting Shadows of Supernatural Power" by Julia Loren, Bill Johnson and Mahesh Chavda $14.99 Book (click here)

 

Blessings,

 

Steve Shultz

 

Steve Shultz, Founder and Publisher
The ElijahList & ElijahRain magazine
http://www.elijahlist.com

In January, the citizens of Baghdad awoke to a sight they had not seen in 100 years: snow! Like the 100 Year Bloom in Death Valley a few years ago, when something significant happens in nature, we realize that God is re-emphasizing something for us in this hour as He speaks His word through our natural world. I believe God is inviting us to step into His peace and His strategy as we hear what He is saying to His Church through this prophetic sign.

"Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." Acts 3:19

Pray for His Glory to Invade in 2008

Snow has several different connotations in Scripture. One is of refreshing. Proverbs 25:13 says, "Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who send him, for he refreshes the soul of his master." We find that in Scripture, refreshing comes from the Presence of the Lord. We began this year with a corporate fast, and foremost on our agenda was humbling ourselves in fasting and repentance in order for God's presence to visit us in 2008. It was near the end of this fast that the snow began to fall in Baghdad, and I believe that in the language of the Holy Spirit, God is speaking to us, "I am refreshing, and I will refresh you." This refreshing is for us individually and corporately. It is for our families, and it is for our nation.

We are praying for and anticipating the glory of His presence to invade in 2008. May we continue to earnestly press in for the presence and refreshing of the Lord to build up and restore us. "The earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein…Lift up your heads, O you gates! Be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in" Psalm 24:1,7.

In the New Testament, snow is always representative of the glory of Jesus Christ. Mark 9:3 describes Jesus' appearance at the Transfiguration: "His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them." In Revelation 1:14, John writes, "His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire."

Jesus is the King of Glory. As we prepare our hearts and welcome the glory of the Lord in this year, the Holy Spirit is preparing the earth for the King of Glory to return. Like in the days of Ezekiel, God is revealing His glory afresh in the ancient land of Babylon and pointing to His soon return. "Moreover the word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Jeremiah, what do you see?' And I said, ‘I see the branch of an almond tree.' Then the Lord said to me, ‘You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word.'" Jeremiah 1:11-12

Your Breakthrough is Here

A third aspect that snow represents in Scripture is answered prayer. When you are in a dry place and praying for breakthrough, far away in the mountains, God's snow is falling. When spring comes, that stored up snow is going to melt and pour down off the mountains, filling rivers to overflowing and touching your life with blessing, deliverance, healing, provision and power. Snow indicates that the answer to your prayers is already upon the ground. Isaiah 55:10-11 says, "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from Heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud…so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth..."

When God sends His snow from Heaven, droughts are broken, seeds dead in the ground are revived and pools of refreshing are filled. What have you been praying for? What promises seem to lay latent and dead? Rejoice! Your breakthrough is here.

God is speaking to His Church in this hour--He has already sent His snow from Heaven, and it will not return without bringing forth fruit. "For all the promises of God in Him are 'Yes,' and in Him 'Amen,' to the glory of God through us" 2 Corinthians 1:20. Snow, as we see in Isaiah 55:11, also refers to the word of God.

God is Sending Us His Word

When our son Ben was just a few months old, he was dying of kidney failure. His doctors had given him up for dead, and he was in extreme pain from the many surgeries and procedures that had been done to try to keep him alive. In the natural, neither Ben's doctors nor Bonnie and I could do anything more to help him, but we did not simply sit idly by. We took every Scripture about healing, and we confessed over him the promises of God: "I Am the Lord that healeth thee; God sent His word and healed them; By His stripes we were healed." These Scriptures are our inheritance and our possession as believers.

We entered into the word, we stood in the gap for the life of our son, and the God of glory healed our son. So when we see God emphasizing His word with signs like the snow in Baghdad, we don't go, "That's nice. It's snowing." We rejoice and step into the word God is speaking. We take hold of it with renewed faith. God is saying to His believing Church: "I am sending My word. My word is alive, active, full of power, and it's going to accomplish a mighty work. It will not return void. It will do something in your life. It will prosper you; it will heal you; it will make you successful; it will make you victorious."

God is sending His word to us. He is sending His word to our children. He is sending His word to our homes. He is sending His word to our finances. He is sending His word to our cities. He is sending His word to our nation. It will not return void. It will prosper. It has a purpose, and He will fulfill it. When Bonnie and I could do nothing in the natural to help our son, it was the word of God that kept us. We didn't give up, but we prevailed in prayer and believed God's word until God came down and supernaturally gave our son new kidneys. God is sending His word even now to resurrect the places in our lives, in our families and in our nation that lay dead or dying.

Begin to confess the word of God over yourself, your family and your nation. Matthew 19:26 says, "With God all things are possible." In 2008, all things are possible. You may not feel like it. Your circumstance might not seem like it, but that is okay. This is the word of God; believe it and go toward it. Luke 18:27 says, "Things that are impossible with men are possible with God." Mark 9:37 says, "All things are possible to him that believes." So we are going to believe for ourselves; we are going to believe for each other; we are going to believe for our families; we are going to believe for our children. We need to begin to confess and prophesy the word of God over our children. They have an awesome destiny in God.

We need to confess and prophesy the word of God over our nation. All things are possible to those who believe. Begin to get congruent with what He says and not with the circumstances around you. Take hold of His word and begin to go on the offensive for His promises in 2008. "Study to be diligent to show yourself approved. Rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15

One of the favorite Scriptures of my spiritual father and mentor Derek Prince is Isaiah 40:6, "All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field…The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.'" The word of God stands forever. So, as we begin the year and snow falls in Baghdad, it is like God is taking a big yellow highlighter and saying, "I want you to become one with My word as never before. My word is your inheritance, and you can stand on My word because My word stands forever."

God is Answering Our Prayers!

God is weaning us from temporal things. He wants our primary satisfaction to be from eternal things. You can count and totally rely on the word of God. He wants to meet us in His word. He wants us to breathe in His very essence through His word. When we begin to live and breathe and become one with His word, all of our temporal existence is transformed because it is now defined and framed by the word of the Author of all creation. God has given us His living word in His Bible. It is our foundation, but it is not just for sound doctrine, it is essential to every aspect of our being. It is true, everlasting, and the only source by which we can rightly discern and frame our world. It is the breath of God. It is perfect. So as we enter this season, not only is God highlighting for us the power of His word, but He is emphasizing that we need a revival of the word. Begin to make a conscious effort to give yourself more time in the word. There is no other word--there is no other book--that is as great and essential as the Bible.

"And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?" Luke 18:7

We are living in a strategic hour where the last day Church is being called and challenged to arise in faith and prayer. I believe the Lord is restoring to us in our day, apostolic prayer like we see in the book of Acts. Prayer is God's awesome secret weapon. Corporate, apostolic intercession, earnest and continual, is the kind of prayer that will prevail and make the word of God prevail over a nation. It is the kind of prayer that will obtain what it seeks. This snow in Baghdad was not a freak accident of nature, nor the harbinger of climate change; it is a prophetic sign of the Lord through which the Holy Spirit is speaking to His Church. Our prayers are being answered. The snow is on the ground. Though we do not see it, wait, because the snows that fall in answer to the corporate prayers of the Church collect together, and when they melt, a river of refreshing comes. Without the snow, however, the rivers will run dry. God is emphasizing to us in this hour, "Keep praying. Though you don't see the breakthrough, the snows are falling in the high places. Watch and keep praying."

How long do we pray? Until we get the breakthrough. Until we see revival. We pray until we prevail.

Mahesh Chavda
Mahesh Chavda Ministries
Email: info@maheshchavda.com