and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
Exodus 3:8
Although He is present everywhere, and His Glory covers the earth,[1] God descends from the heavens and visits the earth from time to time, and does so to establish judgment and order in the regions where man has allowed a government of darkness to be established.
This activity of God is not new; it was part of His intention to maintain communion with man since he was placed in Eden.[2] From there, His visit to the regions is to destroy the order of darkness that man has built as an ally of the demons. Because of this we find references of when God descended to hinder the construction of the tower of Babel;[3] when He descended because of the sin of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah;[4] when He descended to “expel” Judah and send them in captivity to Babylon because of idolatry;[5] and, the case that occupies our attention on this occasion, the time when He descended to take the children of Israel out of slavery and free them from Egypt.
God’s visitation brings judgment and awakening; judgment for those who operate according to the principles of darkness;[6] awakening for those who operate according to the Righteousness of the Kingdom.[7] The two processes occur at the same time; in the religious media these processes are presented independently of each other; references in both the Old and New Testaments make it clear that they are two processes within the same event.
3 And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer’s inkhorn by his side; 4 and the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. 5 And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:
Ezekiel 9:3-5
5 which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: 6 seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; 7 and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
2nd. Thessalonians 1:5-7
How do we know the times of God’s visitation?
Based on the teaching of the story of the liberation of the children of Israel from slavery at the hands of the Egyptians, the visitation of God has the following characteristics:
GOD CHOOSES A MAN OR A WOMAN TO BRING BY HIS/HER HAND JUDGMENT AND DELIVERANCE
Judgment and deliverance do not come alone; they come through the one God has chosen for that purpose. It is God’s way of operating. In the book of Exodus we read that God chose Moses and commissioned him to be the one who would establish judgment on Egypt and open the way for the deliverance of the people of Israel.
Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.
Exodus 3:10
There is always a person in the middle, it is the person chosen by God, it is characteristic of the operation of the Spirit of God. In several texts where they are referred to they are also defined as ‘anointed’. The apostle Peter was sent as the chosen one to establish God’s visitation to the house of Cornelius, in Caesarea;[8] the apostle Paul was sent as the chosen one to establish God’s visitation to the Gentiles, from Jerusalem to Illyricum.[9]
The person chosen by God is invested with a supernatural spiritual capacity to carry out his work, in the gospel of Matthew we read that the person that God uses as a chosen one to establish of the visitation of God is a person that possesses the ‘keys’ of the Kingdom, to open and to close the doors of the spiritual, and to subject by the spiritual warfare to the forces of darkness.[10] Although we are all called to enter into spiritual warfare, the one who is chosen to establish by God judgment and deliverance possesses a special and higher authority than natural believers normally possess, and demons are subject to it.
God’s “visitation” establishes among those who live under the Lordship of Christ a Spirit of Revelation, as the Apostle Paul himself points out: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give unto you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Him:
Ephesians 1:17
The person chosen by God is usually a minister of the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not necessarily the rule; God chooses who He thinks is suitable, we have biblical testimonies that in many cases the visitation of God was established through people who had no ministry. The Gadarene who was delivered from the legion of demons that tormented him for many years was chosen to introduce God’s visitation into his land.[11] Cyrus, a Persian king, pagan according to the idolatry of his time, was chosen by God to introduce visitation in Jerusalem, and whom even God called, ‘my servant’.[12]
God’s visitation is introduced into the regions by the hand of a person chosen for that purpose; God chooses whom He wants, in most cases, whether they are ministers of the Gospel or not, they are not the favorites or the most appreciated by the public to whom they are sent.
27 but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28 and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 29 that no flesh should glory in his presence.
1st. Corinthians 1:27-29
Many world rulers have been chosen by God to introduce judgment and liberation, and to inaugurate a time of God’s visitation over regions of the earth, only the wise can transcend the political, and see them as such.
THE VISITATION OF GOD COMES BEFORE A TIME OF ANGUISH IN THE PEOPLE OF FAITH
Unlike what religious philosophy states, in the sense that God’s visitation is synonymous with ‘revival,’ understood as a time of Pentecostal gifts, God’s visitation actually means a time of distress, pain, scarcity, even persecution, in those who are born according to the faith of Jesus and persevere in it; the apostle Peter clearly reveals by the Spirit of Truth that God’s visitation begins ‘first’ in and through the house of God:
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
1st. Peter 4:17
The time of anguish is the ‘characteristic’ of God’s visitation to a place, the learned can discover by it the sign that God is preparing his chosen ones to manifest themselves and establish liberation and joy;[13] in the account of the teaching of the liberation of the people of Israel by the hands of the Egyptians we see it in the way that God reveals to Moses the state of His people in Egypt, we read: And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows:[14]
The Revelation that Moses receives from God is that slavery is only the visible part of a greater spiritual power that is hidden; God declares to Moses: I have surely seen the affliction of my people, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows. Affliction, cry and sorrows produced, according to the same Revelation of God reveals to Moses, by the dominion of demons in the area; God declares to Moses that the plagues have the purpose of judging the gods of Egypt.[15]
The apostle Paul also states in his doctrine, according to the Revelation of the Spirit of Truth, that tribulation is the means by which in many cases, the majority, the visitation of the Kingdom of God is established.[16]
Affliction, cry, and sorrow is a time of suffering through which the people of faith must pass in order to make it clear, in principle, that God is no respecter of persons, that at the hour of His visitation all are weighed in the same way,[17] but that each one shall receive according to the works and righteousness of their hands.[18] The multiple stories contained in the book of Judges illustrate this characteristic of God’s visitation to the regions of the earth.[19]
GOD’S VISITATION ESTABLISHES CALL FOR SPIRITUAL WARFARE
Religious philosophy claims to see in God’s visitation a time of awakening gifts in the style of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; however, this is not what the Bible points to as indicative of it. The visitation of God is accompanied by spiritual warfare.
The argument that Pharaoh used to subject the children of Israel to slavery was the fear of experiencing a demographic explosion on the part of the Hebrews, and that they would join their enemies in coming war on Egypt;[20] what Pharaoh feared was what came over him: war, but spiritual war that desolated Egypt.[21] In the account of when the people of Israel came out of Egypt, we read: And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.[22] How can they be described as an ‘hosts’ having just come out of slavery? The use in the story of a ‘military’ term to refer to the people is not simply to embellish the story, it is the spiritual description of what really happened in Egypt during the time of the plagues: spiritual warfare.
Spiritual warfare is not an auxiliary knowledge of life in Christ Jesus, spiritual warfare is the evidence that the person is living within the Kingdom of Light by faith in Jesus; darkness raises daily and continuous opposition to lead him to desist from his decision to follow the teaching of Jesus.
In the book of the prophet Joel we also read of the emergence of an army that is to manifest itself in future time, this army has the characteristic of emerging to put into effect His Word, precisely in a time of visitation.[23]
In conclusion, I believe that we are living a time prior to the visitation of God, the conditions that meet these times we are living indicate that we are at the gates of a time of visitation of God very great, but lack that we can enjoy it as appropriate, in the Spirit of Truth and not under the approaches of religious philosophy that promotes local church activities. If we are not clear about what the visitation of God means, we can distort it, and instead of knowing how to establish the Kingdom, we could open doors for a time of apostasy. May the Lord open our spirits to understand.
All biblical quotations are taken from the King James Version.
Pastor Pedro Montoya
Twitter: @pastormontoya
[1] Psalm 104:1-3: 1 Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty. 2 Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain: 3 who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind:
Isaiah 2:19-21: 19 And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth… 21 to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
[2] Genesis 3:8: 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
[3] Genesis 11:5: And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
[4] Genesis 18:21: I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.
[5] Isaiah 31:4: For thus hath the Lord spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof.
[6] Isaiah 10:3: And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?
Hosea 9:7:The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.
Zephaniah 1:9:In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.
[7] Malachi 4:2:But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
[8] Acts 10:5-20: 5 And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: 6 he lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do.… 19 While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee. 20 Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them.
[9] Romans 15:19: through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.
[10] Matthew 16:17-19: 17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
[11] Luke 8:38-39: 38 Now the man out of whom the devils were departed besought him that he might be with him: but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 Return to thine own house, and shew how great things God hath done unto thee. And he went his way, and published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him.
[12] Isaiah 44:28:that saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.
[13] Psalm 30:11: Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;
[14] Exodus 3:7
[15] Exodus 12:12: For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord.
[16] Acts 14:22: confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
[17] 2 Kings 21:13:And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.
[18] 2 Samuel 22:21:The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness:
according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.
Galatians 6:8: For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
[19] Judges 2:16-18: Nevertheless the Lord raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them. 17 And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the Lord; but they did not so. 18 And when the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the Lord because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them.
[20] Exodus 1:8-10:Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. 9 And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: 10 come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.
[21] Exodus 10:7: And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?
Exodus 12:36:and the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.
[22] Exodus 12:41
[23] Joel 2:11:and the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?
Treasure in Earthen Vessels 