>> Hi, my name is David Edwards.
I'm the director of School of Revivalists in Destin, Florida,
and the author of Mystify.
And I really burn to experience God in supernatural ways.
And in fact, I want to share
one of my supernatural stories with you.
God longs for those who long for him.
And if we're willing to pray to spend our lives,
as Matthew six six says, in that sacred place,
we're going to unlock this amazing supernatural world
that's available to us. You know, it says many are called,
but few are chosen. And who are the ones who are chosen?
I think they're the ones who show up.
And so one of the ways that we can show up is by saying,
Jesus, I'm going to choose to be with you in private
because our private lives fuel our public lives
and it sets us on fire to be a light to the world,
to our cities, to our friends and family.
So one day I was doing just that.
I was actually in the study of my old home and I was praying.
I was on my knees with my head between my knees.
And I was just going for it. I was doing my due diligence
to pray and to seek God and to seek his face.
But I wasn't really feeling much.
I kept having to push past distraction as God was speaking.
But there was only silence in that moment.
And I came to a crossroads. It was one of those times where,
wow, maybe, maybe I'm done praying,
maybe that maybe that's all there is for right now.
Maybe I should go make myself a cup of coffee and watch TV.
You know, I've already checked off praying today.
There's something inside of me said,
keep seeking me, keep going and you're going to find out
something new, something more.
And so I pushed past all those distractions
that many of us have every single day.
And as I began to wait on the Lord,
all of a sudden I heard it sounded
like somebody ran up on my front porch.
Now, I became instantly aware of the spirit.
I knew it wasn't the UPS man.
I knew it wasn't a friend stopping by.
And then the next moment, my entire house began to shake.
Wow. I can feel his presence began to shake and vibrate
in the presence of the Lord.
And I'm laying there almost in awe like, what do I do?
What do you do when your house begins to shake?
I was excited, though, because I read the Bible and I
knew that there are stories in the Bible
when God's presence was so powerful
that the natural environment around would begin to respond.
Now I've been in a couple of earthquakes.
I lived in Georgia at the time,
so it wasn't like a crazy earthquake,
but I knew it wasn't an earthquake.
It was if the walls were doing this fine buzzing,
this fine vibrating type of motion.
And I remember thinking this is happened like this is happening.
My house is actually shaking like,
wow, like what do I do?
And above me at the time, there's this glass chandelier.
And I kept thinking, I really hope the chandelier doesn't fall
and stab me in the back. Oh, wow. My house is shaking.
And the presence of something like that so amazing
just began to it
even reminded me of an earlier encounter I had.
I heard about some people who would just wait on the Lord.
There's something about waiting.
The Bible says that those who wait on the Lord
will renew their strength,
they will rise up on wings like eagles.
And so I was waiting on the Lord one day
at a prayer meeting in a chair not too dissimilar from this.
And I had heard about people having encounters in the cosmos,
in the galaxies. And I leaned back in my chair
and I lean my heart towards towards the Lord.
And the next moment I find myself circling around a galaxy
faster than the speed of light.
I could see the core of the galaxy.
I could see the spiral arms coming off of the galaxy.
I could see the lights and the colors.
And I was on earth, but I found myself in the heavenly place
and I was like, whoa, this is too much.
It is like trying to hang on to the back of a roller coaster.
And the next moment after I thought, man,
this feels too much,
I found myself back in the chair. Well, I know, Lord,
I said it was too much, but I wanted to experience more.
And then I went back. And the next moment I, I,
I disconnected myself from the earthly realm
and I found myself swirling around the galaxy
faster than the speed of light. You know, it says in Ephesians 2
that we're seated next to Jesus in heavenly places.
Our origin is Father God
breathing his supernatural life and substance into us.
So we're naturally supernatural.
We have the supernatural reality of God in our DNA, and so
for us to be in his presence causes us to come more alive
than we ever have been or that we've ever known.
And even in sharing these encounters with you right now,
I can feel God's presence beginning to fill the studio.
I can feel the wind of God is even kind of
flowing across my hands even now.
So if you're at home watching, this invitation is set,
his table is set for you to experience more of him
than you may have ever known before.
It's also set for if you used to burn for Jesus,
but you've been having trouble finding that fire,
His table is set.
And so if your prayer lives feel dull
or you feel like man like God hasn't been speaking to you,
I challenge you and I encourage you to wait.
Because if you're waiting in silence,
that means that God has an amazing meal
that he's preparing just for you.
Intimacy, creator in creation, Father
in his sons and in his daughters.
And so these two encounters erupted in my life
because I wanted to be with Jesus more than I wanted
that cup of coffee. That cup of coffee is okay,
but in that moment I chose him.
So look for those opportunities where you can choose God.
You can choose him in those little things.
And one of the things that is a really practical tool
is when I go after an encounter,
I try to look for what God is doing,
not for what God isn't doing.
When I first began to feel and have some of these encounters,
I expected the wind to blow through the room.
I expected like this physical thing begin to happen more like,
oh, like a movie set,
like all of the sudden heaven's right in front of me.
Now, those times have happened, but they were ignited by me
seeing the small difference of heaven on earth,
the cloud the size of a man's hand,
and then saying, OK, Lord, I'm going to turn my attention,
my heart and my focus to what you are doing.
So even as my house was shaking, it lasted,
I can't tell you how long. Some of these heavenly
encounters, time kind of fades away
and you're on God's time frame, who is actually timeless.
But after a few moments,
the shaking in the house began to stop
and I began to shake and vibrate in myself.
And I could just feel his presence flowing through me.
And it wasn't one of those moments
like where a wow like heaven opened up.
It was just the realization that God was present in the natural,
you know, and it wasn't like the house was just moving.
It was if the house, the drywall,
the studs, the different building materials
were responding to the very presence of God,
almost as if they had come alive. And the fact
that the presence of Jesus was right there in my house with me,
the house itself began to react.
You know, it says all creation groans
for the sons and daughters of God to be revealed.
Even when Jesus was going into Jerusalem,
the people were praising him and they said they said,
Jesus, are you going to allow this?
He said, if they don't praise me,
the rocks themselves will begin to cry out.
And I think that as Romans eight nineteen says,
all creation is groaning, waiting with eager expectation
for the sons and daughters of God to be revealed.
So when we show up, we reveal Jesus,
we show up as God's kids,
we'll have these supernatural solutions.
We'll have these supernatural answers.
But that fire is born, and it's stoked,
it's stewarded and it's protected in the secret place
when no one's around, when no one's watching,
when it's just you and Jesus, creator and creation,
father and son or daughter.
And that's where I found myself that day.
I had no idea when I woke up that morning
I would experience this desire,
this dream really that was burning in my heart
to experience God in that way,
the way it talked about in the Book of Acts,
the way it's talked about in different revivals
or even the experience in the galaxy.
When I actually went to heaven, even as Paul would say,
was I in the body? Was I of the body?
I don't know. I was aware of both realities at once.
But I think if you look at the life of Jesus,
he was aware of both realities at once.
So there's an invitation for you.
And I'm so glad I was able to share my story with you today.
If you'll just turn your heart
to him, lean your spirit towards his spirit,
I believe that you'll have your own story
of the supernatural, of heaven
invading earth in your own life.
And when you have a story like that,
that's what others long to hear.
Blessings.