As I was pondering and praying over the Body of Messiah here in the West and around the world, I heard the Holy Spirit say to me, “My Body needs strengthening and vision. They need to see Me as I truly am not as they think I am. They need the meat of the theophanies so they can FIX THEIR EYES and HEARTS on Me.”

God is our refuge and strength,

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an ever-present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way

and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

though its waters roar and foam

and the mountains quake with their surging.

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth.”

The Lord Almighty is with us;

the God of Jacob is our fortress.

(Ps 46:1-2;10-11)

A week ago, Gloria Robles wrote an encouraging word to IFA intercessors – Get Your Hopes Up! Hope, biblical hope, is not anchored in wishing or in praying hard enough. Biblical hope is rooted and grounded in the person of Jesus, in the character of our God as revealed in His word. Digging in to the theophanies is a way to fill up and fuel your hope tank.

Who is praying on the wall?

The word theophany derives its meaning from two Greek words – theos, meaning ‘God’, and phany, meaning ‘to appear or show’- hence ‘God appearances’. Many places in the scriptures record the fathers of our faith – Adam, Abraham, Moses, – and prophets like Daniel, Ezekiel and the apostles Peter and John – seeing God or the glorified Christ.  Both Old and New Testaments hold these treasures of revelation where our God revealed Himself in very specific and concrete ways. These instances, writes Wesley Campbell in his book, Praying the Bible – The Book of Prayers, “show us glimpses of where God lives, who is around Him, and what both they and He are doing. In each case, these ones who ‘looked up and saw’ were impacted by the Divine One and then prayed to God as He revealed Himself. And in each case, they worshiped.”

We are living in a day where anxiety and fear have been unleashed against the Body of Christ to a degree I have never experienced in my 30 years of walking with the Lord. Anxiety — a mixture of fear, worry and doubt — is ultimately unbelief and a lack of faith in who God is and what He is going to do. We are told to ‘be anxious for nothing’ and to obey this command we must build up our faith and exercise our faith muscle to strengthen it. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom 10:17). In the glory and majesty of the theophanies, these God appearances in scripture – in reading them aloud and meditating on their content and revelation – our faith cannot help but increase and send its roots down into a firm foundation. God has revealed Himself. When we pray the theophanies, God, who may seem far away, becomes up close and personal, and we can experience the sights, sounds, and activities of heaven. We, who are seated with Him in heavenly places (Eph 2:6) need to know what its like up there! These theophanies reveal the unseen world – the third heaven – and show us how that world interacts with ours.

In these days of governmental unrest, wars, and rumors of wars, the unveiling of the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man in Daniel chapter 7 provides context for our belief that ‘of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end” (Is.9:7). Daniel, like all of us at IFA, was an intercessor. He prayed at appointed times each day for the return of his people to their land, searching the scriptures for God’s promises through writers like Jeremiah. He had been brought to Babylon as a young man, excelled in learning culture and language, became a trusted official in the Babylonian court, and showed himself to be an interpreter of dreams. In Chapter 7, we find an aged Daniel, one who has read and believed that the 70 years of the Babylonian exile are up. He has been thrown into a lion’s den for refusing to stop praying to the God of the Hebrews (Dan 6), and experienced God’s miraculous deliverance much to the delight of King Darius. Chapter 7 opens with Daniel having a night vision/dream in which he is shown ‘four huge beasts coming up out of the sea’ (v.3). He describes the fourth beast as being particularly ‘frightening and dreadful’ (v.7) and then relates the unsettling details of horns emerging from the head of the fourth beast, including one which ‘speaks arrogantly’. As Daniel tries to make sense of this disturbing vision, the scene changes and Daniel is looking at what appears to be a heavenly courtroom.

I (Daniel) watched till thrones were put in place,

And the Ancient of Days was seated;

His garment was white as snow,

And the hair of His head was like pure wool.

His throne was a fiery flame,

Its wheels a burning fire;

A fiery stream issued

And came forth from before Him.

A thousand thousands ministered to Him;

Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.

The court was seated,

And the books were opened.

It appears that Daniel is having a sort of split screen experience – on the one hand he sees the beasts and the horns and can hear their words and see them. On the other, he can see into the heavenly courtroom where the Father – called the Ancient of Days – is seated on His fiery throne amid ‘ten thousands times ten thousands’ who serve Him. This is the only book in the Bible in which this majestic title is used (Dan 7:6, 13, 22) and it reveals to us to a God who is the ‘first and the last’ (Is 44:6), existing before time began, and is ‘from everlasting to everlasting’ (Ps 90:2). After a second interlude with the beasts (v.11-12), Daniel sees One ‘like a Son of Man’ coming before the fiery throne to be presented to the Ancient of Days:

I was watching in the night visions,

And behold, One like the Son of Man,

Coming with the clouds of heaven!

He came to the Ancient of Days,

And they brought Him near before Him.

Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,

That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion,

Which shall not pass away,

And His kingdom the one

Which shall not be destroyed.

I’m not sure what reading that does in your spirit but mine is jumping and leaping! This is our God. He chose us and this is who He is. Our God – Judge and Lawgiver, One who is pre-existent, is sitting on His throne in the heavenly court and in comes the Son – on the clouds of heaven – incidentally the same way He ascended after His resurrection – to be given DOMINION and GLORY and a KINGDOM which is everlasting and cannot be destroyed. While the vile beasts representing world powers are devouring, crushing, jostling for power and spewing blasphemous propaganda — and ultimately being destroyed — our God is undaunted, His plan for reigning on the earth through the Son proceeding according to plan. Nothing is going to stop this scene from unfolding! The government of the whole earth is firmly under the AUTHORITY of our God and His Christ. Jesus refers to this theophany in Mark 14:62 during His trial before the high priest and the council, a clear profession of His divinity. Interestingly, this title is in Aramaic not Hebrew – Bar Anasha – and is the same one that Stephen uses and results in his stoning, recorded in Acts 7.

This Ancient of Days is revealed as Judge. In Revelation, God the Son is depicted with the same power of judgment over His church as the Ancient of Days is described as having in judging Israel. And the books – the books are opened. The books of our lives. The books wherein the names are recorded of those who know and follow the Lamb and those who reject Him. Beloved, our God does not miss anything. Every evil deed, every injustice will be righted. As we long for justice on this earth and in our time, this theophany assures us that all will be settled and that no wicked deeds will be left unpunished. This assurance should fill us with great joy and hope! We are even told later, in verse 17, that ‘The holy ones of the Most High will receive the kingdom and possess it forevermore.’ Who are these holy ones? We are, beloved! Luke 12:32says, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Not only will the kingdom of our God and His Son be everlasting, but it will be given to us! This gives me such hope and fills my heart with worship!

Now let’s travel to the Isle of Patmos and join John, the Apostle whom Jesus loved.  I regularly visit the theophanies in Revelation when I need to join the worship in the heavenlies or get a deeper understanding of God’s holiness. In Revelation 1, John, being exiled on Patmos because of ‘the word of God and testimony of Jesus’ (v. 9), was in the Spirit. I assume that means he was praying in the Spirit, communing with the Jesus he loved and missed, and the heavens were opened to him.

I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,” …Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire. His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters. He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.” (Rev 1:9-10;12-18)

Imagine John’s joy and terror as he saw the Messiah as He is now, glorified and filled with fire and brilliance and power! He fell down as dead – a healthy and normal response, I think! There was much more to John’s encounter and his vision, which is beyond the scope of the article. But even this short portion gives us, the ones who may be feeling exiled – perhaps shunned by family, friends or co-workers because of our faith and hope in the Risen King – so much hope and an anchor for our souls. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. But that means He also knows the beginning from the end, and we can trust Him with both, and with our present realities as well. He is the Son of Man from Daniel to whom was given a kingdom and dominion. This New Testament Jesus is the same one Daniel, Ezekiel, and others saw! His description is much like that of the Ancient of Days – white hair and head – while the rest of Him glows like brass and fire. Out of His mouth is a double-edged sword. He is one who rules through His word. The whole earth will be judged based on His words and ours. And this segment ends with the admonition not to fear, something Jesus said often to His disciples when He walked with them on earth. There is the assurance that as He had been dead and is now alive, so shall we who follow Him defeat death because He HOLDS the keys of Hades and death. Hallelujah! To live is Christ and to die can be gain because He is alive and we will be made alive eternally with Him. He is the Risen King and we will be those who rule and reign with Him when he again returns to the earth.

When we pray the theophanies — and again I quote Wesley Campbell — ‘We begin to touch His power, hear the loud voice like many waters, and tremble in the presence of angels, seraphim and cherubim, and join the living creatures in their cry of ‘Holy, Holy, Holy!’ (Rev 4) Any incorrect ideas that we may have had about who God is and what He can and will do are exposed and replaced with the truth of who He has revealed Himself to be. The theophanies demonstrate God’s self-revelation to man. So today, choose a theophany and visit Him Who is alive, whose name is Faithful and True. And be deeply encouraged.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Rev 1:8)

List of theophanies (not exclusive): Exodus 19, 20 and 33; Daniel 7, 10 and 12; Ezekiel 1 and 10; Isaiah 6; Revelation 1, 4 and 19.

Pray through a theophany and share what the Lord shows you in the comments!

Author Lori Meed is an IFA intercessor who shares her wisdom and intercessory insight on Pray with Others LIVE. Join us Tuesdays at 12:15 pm ET for a time of praying together for God’s purposes in our nation, covering the top issues and prayer needs from Headline Prayer. Photo Credit: Canva.