“Behold, I send My Messenger, and He will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts. “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.” Malachi 3:1-3
This scripture sums up some of what is going on globally and individually. Things that have been hidden are now starting to be made manifest. Strongholds and character issues are coming to the surface.
We can see in the above passage, when the Lord suddenly comes to His temple or even to the earth He comes as a refiner’s fire, causing those things that have been hidden to manifest. Normally man sees trials, sudden emotional changes, and economical crisis through a negative mindset. This mentality creates more torment and can cause man to respond in a primitive or violent way. However, there is a different way to look at our situations. In this scripture lies an answer to some of the problems occurring in people’s lives and around the world. That answer is, we are getting a visitation from the Lord! If we focus on the visitation of the Lord, it will cause our minds to rise above the world’s perspective. We then receive supernatural understanding that is above all demonic forces or thoughts that entangle man in the affairs of the world. Instead of focusing on anger we find ourselves praising Him. Instead of focusing on depression, we count it all joy. Instead of failure, we see success.
Let’s get our heads above the drowning waters of the mind of the world and into the heavenly place of God where it is above all rule and authority. Jesus is passing by; grab a hold of Him! We are having a visitation! Take a look at your life right now and see where there are trials and obstacles. What if it’s an opportunity for a visitation from the Lord? Invite Him to show you where He is and how He wants to set you free. Rather than looking at our lives as problems verses non-problems, just maybe He will help us see opportunities and freedom.
The Pharisees were looking for a physical sign that Jesus was the Son of God and that God’s Son had visited them. But in Matthew 16:4, He states that the sign of the visitation of the Lord is spiritual. It must be spiritually discerned. (See Matthew 16:1-4) His Kingdom is not of this world. It is hidden in the Spirit! What is Spirit is the reality of God. The Kingdom is like what Jesus said in Matthew 13:44, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”
The enemy would like to leave us stuck in our heads trying to figure out our situations. Just like the Pharisees were stuck in religion and looking for physical signs that the Son of God had visited them, we must also choose faith and rise above what we can see and determine in our minds. Visitations from the Lord come in many forms. If the enemy can keep us focused on our situations and our human perspective he can dull our discernment from truly seeing the Lord in our lives.