Since childhood, my dream was to play professional baseball. Others around me recognized I had a gift and it led me to believe that one day I would play in the major leagues. 

But I began running with the wrong crowd, including high level gang members and drug dealers. Even though I had been raised in church, I had no clue what I was opening myself up to. 

Then, God threw me a curveball. One night when I was 22 years old, He opened the spiritual “blinds” and let me see what I had allowed into my life. I began to see demons all over the place. I thought I was going crazy. After several sleepless nights I cried out, “I’m not dealing with this anymore, God. Either kill me or deliver me!” He delivered me!

The very next day—on the baseball field—God used a prophetic word to call me into ministry. I left college and my baseball scholarship behind and began to pursue God.

On a daily basis, I now see visions, have visitations from Jesus or angels, or other encounters in the supernatural realm.

Call to the Mountain

My experience is not extraordinary, but there are secrets to having an extraordinary relationship with God. I am convinced that there are levels of dimensions in the spirit realm that can be a part of every believer’s walk with God—including you! 

But in order to experience an encounter with God, something beyond our normal prayer time, we need to make it happen. Going deeper into the spirit realm and experiencing something fresh takes effort. Going from the outer court to the inner court takes preparation, meditation and dedication.

One of the greatest experiences I ever had was when I went to the mountain of God. I remember, as if it were yesterday, when God spoke to me saying, “I’m calling you to the mountain.” When God calls us to the “holy hill,” He is waiting to meet us. However, in order for us to have an encounter with Him, we must realize it is our responsibility to climb the mountain.

Key: Press In

The first key I learned was to press in. God began to share with me how people miss their encounters. In most worship services, the people are looking for God to touch them. But in reality, He wants them to touch Him. Immediately, when I heard that in my spirit, I thought of the woman with the issue of blood. She pressed through the crowd to touch the Lord. She came with an expectation to receive something—all she needed to do was touch the hem of His garment. 

When the Lord realized that virtue (power) released from His body, He turned around and asked, “Who touched me?” Surely, He felt the people pushing and pulling but when this woman touched Him, it was different. She touched Him with expectation and faith. 

Maybe this is why so many who attend church are not getting anything. They are waiting on God. They justify their inaction by quoting, Be still, and know I am God, (Psalm 46:10, emphasis added). However, the Hebrew word for still does not mean to stop moving forward but rather to relax or “chill” in the midst of the journey. The woman with the issue of blood had a “be-still-and-know-I-am-God” encounter. It was her confidence, an expectation that created a new level of faith knowing her pursuit would bring her healing. But she received more! 

Jesus told her, Your faith has made you whole (Mark 5:34). When we enter worship, and we are waiting for Him to come to us to touch us, we may receive a miracle or a healing. But, when we pursue God, when we chase Him, we are made whole! 

God taught me that we have to be the one to initiate the action. We should never take a step back. We need to be the crazy lunatic in the realm of the spirit. The enemy trembles when he sees us, because he knows that the power of God is within us.

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In my journey up the mountain, I started pushing my way in worship.

I became a God chaser, pushing through the distractions, going into another realm of the spirit through prayer. With everything within me, I would seek (run after) the Lord.

Key: Purge Your Spirit

The second key is to purge our spirit from those things that so easily hold us back from an encounter. The Psalmist says, the one who may ascend the hill of the Lord… is He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He will receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation (Psalm 24:3-5 mev). God is saying the generation that seeks His face will be able to ascend to the mountain of God. We will be able to stand in His holy place, if we have clean hands and a pure heart. 

I began to pray accordingly: “Lord, cleanse my hands, purify my heart. Help me not to lift up my soul to vanity. Help me not to swear deceitfully.” I renounced anything that would hold me back. With a pure heart, I began to pray according to what Psalms 15 and 24 declared. No one can just ascend God’s holy hill and stand in a holy place without the prerequisites—expectation in the pursuit and faith in action. 

We must make ourselves available.

That is why Moses went up the mountain. God’s leader was a man of faith and he sought after God’s presence. He climbed the mountain to have an encounter with God that produced the Ten Commandments. No one else was allowed to go up the mountain (Exodus 19-20). 

But unlike the children of Israel, we all have access to the mountain, which was made available through the New Covenant. Once on the mountain, we will engage with God. There we learn His voice. As we develop our relationship, we learn to follow the instruction of the Holy Spirit becoming sensitive to what grieves Him and what pleases Him.

Key: Obedience

The third key is obedience. Obedience unlocks the doors to the spirit realm. The Bible says, obedience is better than sacrifice, (1 Samuel 15:22). If the Lord is telling us not to do something—don’t do it. Do not grieve the Spirit. If God tells us to do something, we must do it without hesitation. Obedience strengthens our spirit, whereas disobedience fuels our flesh.

To ascend the mountain, we must be prepared for the journey.

Our level of obedience determines how successful we are in our climb. We must follow the pattern of Jesus when He said He only spoke what He heard the Father say; and He only did what He did after He saw what the Father showed Him. 

So get ready to climb your mountain—press in, purify and obey His voice! You can have your own encounters with God!

Joshua T. Giles, founder of Firebrand Global, is an apostolic and prophetic visionary, author, entrepreneur and a business consultant.

Dear Mishpochah (Family) By Sid Roth

What is the Glory of God? It is the Presence or Goodness of God that comes UPON a believer for a specific purpose.

How is it different from the anointing? The anointing usually comes from the Holy Spirit WITHIN us. In other words, it’s an “inside job.” There is a cooperation between a believer and God. This is why many people are healed by the anointing when we lay on our hands and the anointing flows from WITHIN us to heal them.

But the Glory comes from above. It is ALL God!

In the past, a few men and women have had the Glory manifest when they minister. Great miracles happened when the Glory would invade the atmosphere of their meetings. But the Glory would lift after the meeting was over. 

The new Glory that is coming will be on hundreds of thousands of believers worldwide 24/7. It will NEVER leave. It will be a laymen’s movement, not Christian superstars. All of our physical senses will be aware of this Glory—believers and nonbelievers alike! We will see, hear, feel, smell, and even taste it! It will be like the pillar of fire and the cloud that led Israel for 40 years in the wilderness. Moses lived in this Glory and as a result, at age 120, his eyesight was perfect and he had the strength of a 30-year-old. There is no record in the Bible of him ever being physically sick!

When this Glory comes upon me at our Jewish evangelistic outreaches, large numbers of unsaved Jews are instantly healed and the majority stand and say a prayer to make Jesus their Savior and Lord! I am amazed every time this happens. God’s Glory heals them and opens their hearts to believe! In the last few years at my outreaches, 13,500 Jewish people have made public professions of faith!

The Glory on me now is like the water in a thimble compared to the ocean of Glory that is coming and has started this year!

The Golden Global Glory will bring repentance, holiness and the Lordship of Jesus to prepare a bride for the Groom. Without a word being spoken, many nonbelievers will fall down in repentance and cry out to God for mercy! Healings will be so extraordinary they will be reported on the secular news! Get ready for the greatest harvest of souls in history. Get ready for your engraved invitation to the BEST JEWISH WEDDING EVER!

Glory Fires are breaking out all over now. They may be small, but they will soon be gigantic, raging fires that no one can quench! This year there will be large fires in hotspots. Many of the fires will connect and cover entire cities. Then they will spread worldwide!

We are about to see what Isaiah saw in Isaiah 60:1-3 (MEV):

Arise, shine, for your LIGHT has come, and the GLORY of the Lord has risen UPON YOU. For the DARKNESS shall cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the Lord shall rise upon you, and His GLORY shall be SEEN UPON YOU. The nations shall come to your LIGHT and kings to the BRIGHTNESS of your rising.

When will we see this? When deep darkness covers the earth!

Why have I been like John the Baptist announcing the coming GLORY for the past five years? Because NOTHING comes from heaven to earth until there is a strategic partnership between believers and God. First, a believer must hear a word from God and BELIEVE it

Then, they must speak it. This is why I have been speaking about the Golden Global Glory on my media platforms nonstop. But now, praise God, it has started! Watch what happens when millions of believers start moving in the full measure of Glory in their schools, at their jobs and at social events.

My friend Joshua Giles is another forerunner of this Glory. When he prayed for me on the phone, I felt the Glory on me for over an hour. The same thing happens when he prays for nonbelievers and they are easily healed and saved. Joshua says that if you do what he does you can get the same results! My assignment is to announce the coming of God’s Glory and prepare you to receive the full measure! That’s why I urge you to get Joshua’s exceptional resources presented in this newsletter. They are not just theory. They work!

God is saying to us, “ALL HANDS ON DECK!