A New Beginning
On November 3rd, the Lord spoke to me to pray concerning the election as Jesus prayed in the garden.
Matthew 26:39
And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying O my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
Jesus did not want to suffer the shame of the cross. It was a terrible way to die. However, to bring forth the plan of God, Jesus had to suffer the cross, give up his life, and then arise from the dead. There are times when we have to go through things to bring forth the plan of God.
As I was eating lunch on November 4th, tears came into my eyes. I cried out to the Lord and said, “Lord, I do not want to see the death of America.” God spoke to me and said, “What did I tell you on New Years?”
Going into the New Year, God had spoken to me that this would be the most amazing decade of my lifetime. That is all he told me, and I did not ask him to expound on it. After all, that has to mean sunshine, lollipops, peace on earth, and goodwill towards men. Right?
Then God said, “What did you think I was talking about?” I knew God was speaking about my ministry. Then He said, “Did you think it would come without sacrifice?” I answered, “No, my Lord.” He said, “No matter what happens, will you go where I tell you, do what I say, say the words I give you to say?” I said, “Yes, my Lord.” He said, “Will you preach the Kingdom of God is at hand? Will you teach my people how to reach out and touch it so that they might enter into my Kingdom?” I said, “Yes, my Lord.” Do you think that they will do it if there is no need for them to access my Kingdom’s power, anointing, and authority?” I said, “No, my Lord.”
Then God spoke to me and said, “You were born for this day. I have brought you forth for such a time as this.”
I spent most of my life ministering forth the good news of the gospel; however, I always felt as one born out of due season. Over the years, I have traveled all over the United States, into Canada and Mexico, ministered in hundreds of Christian organizations to thousands of people. Many people were touch by the power of God; prophecy flowed, and the glory of God poured forth to the people. Yet, I always felt like I was one born out of due season until now.
Now, I am inviting you to join me on my journey. If you want to be apart of God’s plan, please go to my website bythewatersministry.org and push the follow button so you can receive notifications every time the site is updated. There is also a comment section where you can leave a prayer request, ask questions, or any other kind of communication. The comments are private. I will receive an email with your comment.
God has not revealed to me which way the election will go; however, forward is the only way that I know to go. If you are on my website reading this, November 3rd was election day for the United States president. It is a critical election; all of our freedoms hang on it. I know that most of the people who visit my website live outside of the United States. We have many people from different parts of China, Brazil, and over eighty other countries.
Enter Into Thy Chamber
Isaiah 26:20
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chamber, and shut thy door about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast
The Lord was calling His people to come to a more excellent place with Him. Today the Lord once again desires His people to enter the chamber and spend private time with Him in His presence. He is calling His people to a closer walk with Him. The Lord desires that we come to a place where we can spend time with Him in His presence. It is always a beautiful thing when we all come together to pray and worship. Yet, there also needs to be time set aside that you can spend with the Lord. Real communion is to have fellowship with the Lord. During this time, we build our relationship with Him. This gives Him the chance to be able to speak to us and to deal with us on a personal level so that we may become more lively members of His body. We must always seek to enter into His presence to taste the sweetness of the Lord. As we spend time with Him, He is able to reveal Himself to us. Coming to Him in the private chamber accomplishes many things our lives. Entering into the presence of God will cause us to become humble. We could not come into His great presence without realizing how small we really are. He is high and mighty God. All power is in His hands. We are nothing without Him. For Him to love us, is indeed an amazing thing. It is a sign that a person has not been in the presence of the Lord when that person is high minded or exalts himself.
There are many misconceptions about the Lord because people do not see the need to spend time in His presence. I was at a prayer meeting one time, and a man said, “We need to find out what would make God want to spend time with us.” God created man for His own pleasure. The reason that we exist is that He desires to spend time with us. The real fact is that man has little or no time to spend with God. He is waiting for us to make time for Him. I had never called on His name when He answered and said, “Not now, I cannot be bothered.” Whenever I have called on Him, He has always been there for me.
The verse says, hide thyself. When we spend time with the Lord in His presence, we build a hedge of protection around us. The only place that we can find refuge is in the Lord. We are safe as we hide in Him, and that security stays with us. This means that the enemy may rage against us, but he cannot touch us. The enemy will not be able to get through the hedge of protection.
In Psalms 91:1-2 it says, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust.” David found this very precious place with the Lord. He knew how to enter into the presence of God. The time that he spent praying and magnifying the Lord caused him to be able to dwell in the secret place. This was the only place that David knew he could find refuge. He knew that if he put his trust in the Lord, the Lord would deliver him. Psalms 18:17 tells us, “He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.” Through the testimony of David’s life, we know that God did hear his cry and did preserve his life. Even when the enemy was too strong for David, the Lord kept him. This is the place that God desires for us to be in, a place where we are so in touch with His presence that we trust in Him to be our refuge and our fortress. If we find this secret place in Jesus, we will be able to believe in Him to deliver us from our enemy, even if the enemy is too strong for us. It does not matter what form the enemy takes to come against us. When God’s people have trouble trusting in the Lord, it is because they have not entered into the chamber to spend time in His presence. Therefore, they cannot believe in the Lord to take care of them, and so they trust in man. The more time spent in the presence of the Lord, the surer you become in knowing that the Lord will hear and answer you.
Psalm 18:6 says, “In my distress, I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry came before Him, even into His ears” We can know that He will hear us. The more time spent in His presence, the closer we are to Him. Then we are able to come quickly into His presence in the time of need. In Psalm 64:1 it says, “Hear my voice, O’God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy.” If we fear the enemy. It means that we do not trust that God is able to keep us. Fear causes the people of God to not be able to trust Him; therefore, they are not able to enter into the victory. We must find the secret place in His presence. As we come to Him, the enemy will not be able to hide from us what he is doing. The Lord will show us what needs to be done and strength will come to us. Only in His presence will we find peace. The fear will leave, and the victory will come.
Psalm 27:4-6 says, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion: in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me up upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore, will I offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord.” David’s only desire was to dwell in the House of the Lord, to be in God’s presence to behold His beauty, and to inquire of Him. If this could be our only desire, what glory we would see. Many want to dwell with the Lord someday when this life is over. The Psalmist desired to live in the house of the Lord all of his life. I do not want to wait until I leave the body or until some unknown date in the future. I desire to dwell with Him in His house. I wish to stay in His incredible presence today and every day from now throughout eternity. David knew that the Lord would hide him from those that wanted to destroy him. The sixth verse says that his head was lifted up above his enemies that were around about him. This means that we can see all that the enemy is doing. They may be all around, but nothing can be hidden from us. We are high above the battle so that nothing will be able to touch us. David offered sacrifices of joy and sang songs of praise to the Lord. This is one of the most critical parts of our relationship with the Lord. No matter what we are going through, we must continue to sing praises unto the Lord. We have to let the joy of the Lord come forth and cause strength to come to us.
The presence of God will reveal to us the things He is not pleased with in our lives. In the second chapter of the book of Revelations, the Lord speaks of the seven churches. He tells the good things about each church. Then He says, “But, I have a few things against thee.” He tells them the things that He is not pleased with. He gives them warning to repent and turn from their wicked ways. Now, these were the churches that had done wonderful works for the Lord. Many of them had suffered persecution for the gospel. Yet, there were some things that they were doing that the Lord was not pleased with. He desired that they change so that they would not be lost.
Today we need to ask the Lord if He has a few things against us. We might be doing outstanding work in His name. Yet, maybe there is something within us that He is not pleased with. It is time to ask the Lord to let us know what He has against us so that we can get those things out of the way. We need to spend time in the presence of the Lord and let Him take those things out of our lives.
Why must we allow God to make the change of nature in our lives? Because these things that are in us are harmful to us, the Kingdom of God, and the kind of witness that we are to those around us. In the Old Testament God instructed the children of Israel to kill out the giants that were in the land. They did not do what God had told them to do. Instead, they left a remnant of the giants. Later, we see the children of giants rise up against Israel. In I Samuel 17, Goliath rose up against Israel and would have destroyed them if God had not raised up David and put the victory in His hands. In 2 Samuel 21:16, the giant Ishbibenob rose up and almost killed David. In 2 Samuel 21: 18-19, Saph and the brother of Goliath rose up against Israel. Then another giant rose up against Israel. In 2 Samuel 21:22 we are told, “These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.” If Israel had destroyed the Giants in the beginning as God had instructed them to do, there would have been no giants to rise up against Israel.
When there are things in our lives that are not pleasing to the Lord, we must let Him take them out of the way. God wants to give us the victory over those things in our lives that would destroy us. If we do not allow this to take place in our lives, later those things will rise up and try to destroy us just like the giants. These things can seem like giants. They can appear so big and so strong that there is no way you can overcome them. These giants will try to destroy what God has done in your life. It is better to get the Giants out of the way as soon as the Lord reveals the problem. The only way we are going to win the victory is by entering into our closet and spending time in the presence of the Lord. Grab hold of the Lord and do not let go until the victory comes. Do not fight against what God desires to do. Instead, wrestle with Him to win the victory. The victory will come. Do not let anyone make you believe that you cannot overcome. Jesus overcame death, hell and the grave. He rose from the dead so that we may have life. At that time, He won the battle for us. When we accept Jesus and the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues, we receive the power to overcome. We need to believe and walk in the victory that He has won for us.
In Genesis 32:24-30, Jacob wrestled with the Lord until morning. Jacob had not received what he desired. He held onto the Lord and did not let Him go until the Lord blessed him. Jacob needed a special blessing from the Lord. In the twenty-eighth verse, we see that the Lord changes his name from Jacob to Israel. Anytime the Lord makes a change in the names of people throughout the Bible, it shows a change of nature. Jacobs nature had been changed; therefore, his name was changed to Israel.
Many times, people enter into prayer because they are in need of something. Jacob went to the Lord for one thing, but what he received is what he really needed. He needed a change in his nature and the blessing of the Lord. When people enter into prayer, they often pray for a short time. When they do not receive what they prayed about, they go away accepting that this is God’s will for them. Sometimes we have to grab hold onto the Lord and not let go until the change in our nature comes. We must stay in His presence and allow Him to bring forth what is pleasing in His sight. The Bible says that Jacob wrestled with the Lord, not against the Lord. This shows us that when we come into the presence of the Lord, we should not fight against what He desires to bring forth in us. The Lord wants to bring change in our lives. We must allow those changes to take place. During the time that we are in His presence, we must wrestle with Him, not against Him. As we wrestle with Him, we join Him in the fight against those things in our lives that are not pleasing to Him. The more time that we spend in His presence, the more remarkable victory we have over the old nature, and the change takes place.
-Rebekah Rankin
“Whereas I was Blind, Now I See”
“Let every hidden thing come to light, and every lie revealed.” As God begins answering this prayer, we must also pray that God gives those who have believed the lies the ability to see and understand the truth. Many people are deceived, and it is essential for us to pray that God open their eyes to see. Only until God brings understanding to the hearts will they be able to walk in the light no longer being deceived.
In John 9:1-7 it says, “And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered Neither hath this man sinned, or his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and anointed the eyes of the blind man with clay, and said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way, therefore, and washed, and came seeing.”
This man had been born blind so that the works of God should be made manifest in him. Jesus came and spat on the ground anointed the eyes of the blind man and sent him to wash in the pool of Siloam. In his blindness, he went to the pool and cleaned the clay from his eyes when he was done he was made whole and now can see in the natural. The most beautiful miracle here is that not only was his physical sight opened but was able to see all things with understanding. He was no longer blinded by the things that he had been taught or told to believe. We see this later in the chapter.
John 9:26-33 says, “Then said they to him again, What did he to thee? How opened he thine eyes? He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear It again? Will ye also be his disciples? Then they reviled him and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses disciples. We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not whence he is. The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvelous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him, he heareth. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.”
He had an excellent understanding of the kingdom of God even above the religious leaders. That they might have eyes to see and understand is a powerful prayer. It is better than all the words of trying to convince someone to believe the truth. If the understanding comes from the spirit washing away the clay out of their eyes, no one will ever be able to take it away from those who have the spiritual sight to see.
We must pray that every lie is revealed, every hidden thing comes to light and that we all might have eyes to see and not be deceived.
-Rebekah Rankin
Letter from the Desk of Rebekah Rae
I hope those of you who have read the articles on prayer have been able to put the principles to work in your own lives. If you have not yet read the articles, I hope you too find them insightful and an encouragement to continue in powerful prayer life.
In the last inspirational message posted, I spoke of prayer, “Let every lie be revealed, and every hidden thing come to light.” This prayer is essential in this day and time. It is more important than ever before that we do not let the lies blind us. Lies can be very deceitful and misleading. People who are blinded by the lies will fall into the trap. We as the people of God do not want to fall into the traps set by those wanting to destroy. We must have eyes to see not only the traps of the enemy but also the works that God is doing. As we move forward, we must not be deceived by the lies of man because we can see the truth, if we are willing to open our eyes and let the Holy Spirit reveal his plan to us. We must let go of many of the things man has taught us and allow God to reveal himself to us. Be not deceived by those who twist the Word of God into a lie.
In the Garden, the serpent twisted the words spoken to Eve. Adam had told her if she ate of the Tree of Good and Evil she would surely die. The serpent said, “thou shall not surely die.” He changed a truth into a lie by adding one word. She believed the lie and did eat. Then she offered to her husband, and he did eat. Adam was not deceived he just went along with Eve. The truth had been given to Adam by God, and to Eve by Adam, they chose to believe the lie and fall into sin and death.
When the Devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, the Devil used the scriptures to try and trap Jesus into doing something against the truth of God’s Word. Jesus knowing the scriptures was able to combat the lies with the truth. Jesus prepared himself for this temptation. He had spent forty days in prayer and fasting. It is so important to have a life grounded in the Word of God and prayer; however, fasting is a significant part of a life of victory. It is vital to our survival and living a victorious life here on this Earth.
-Rebekah Rankin
By the Waters Ministry 