YOUR DEEPEST DESIRE - ASK
ME FOR A SIGN
--- Sandy Warner
swauthor@usa.net
www.thequickenedword.com
In preparation to attend the recent Graham Cooke conference, I was praying about
it and I heard the Lord say. . .
“Conference, your deepest desire. What is it?”
This startled me, sobered me and excited me all in one breath. Was the Lord God
of the whole universe asking me what my deepest desire was, and was He going to
give this to me at the conference? Woa. Wow. I thought a LONG time about this
before I answered.
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BUT I HAD TWO DESIRES
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As hard as I tried, I could not narrow it down to just one request, one desire.
I had two. Healing for my husband and I, and for us to intimately know Him face
to face as Moses did. I could think of many more honorable and scriptural
desires then these. I apologized to the Lord for this, because the pain and need
in my heart had become overwhelming in comparison to all else. I had prayed and
stood for years and years for my husband’s healing, and the pain of delay had
made both of our needs so pressing that it equaled our desperation to know the
Lord even more intimately. I felt the pulling to choose between them and I just
couldn’t do it.
So I waited out the time prior to the conference wondering if this was going to
be the big fulfillment, and how I could live on the other side of this if we
should come home disappointed. So, this is the story of what happened. I hope
this really touches you, because I believe this Word extends a lot further than
my own life right now.
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MILEPOST 222
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On the way up to the conference I saw the milepost number 222. This particular
number is special to me and my Rhema has been sprinkled with it for years. The
number 222 in the Strong's Greek is translated Alexandria. My name, Sandy is a
derivative of that word and the name Sandra means, “Defender of mankind.” It
seems all my life I have been fashioned to be a defender in some way or another.
When I saw the number, even though I am usually drawn to the number, this time
it was particularly quickened to me. It was so quickened that it pierced my soul
so I asked the Lord why. I have seen the number 222 for years and He has
delighted me with precious gifts relating to the number. So why was this time so
important? I was about to find out.
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THE PROMISE
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At the very end of that night’s meeting Graham said the following quoted 7
paragraphs:
“I came here with a prophetic Word. I believe God wants to start us off with a
promise. This promise is rooted in the scripture: Isa 7:11. “Ask a sign for
yourself from the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height
above." NKJV
[ Inserted note by Steve Shultz: Before the meeting, I was speaking about the
conference and one prophetic slip lead me to say 7:11. I commented to Derene and
Lisa Cooke, "There's something about 711 and these meetings. So the first
night, Graham's Scripture was Isaiah 7:11. ]
"I believe God is giving you permission to ask Him for one thing. And the
answer is YES.
"I Kings 3:5 says “In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at
night; and God said, "Ask what you wish me to give you." NAS
"Be wise in what you ask Him for. James 4:3 says, “You ask and do not
receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your
pleasures.” NAS
"Understand this that every good gift comes down from the Father of Lights.
(James 1:17) Ask Him for a sign. It could be something spiritual, something in
your relationship with Him. It could be something in the natural. Maybe you’ve
got a loved one with sickness. It could be something to do with family. Whatever
it might be, the Lord is saying, “Ask Me, and the answer before you even ask,
the answer is Yes and Amen in Christ.” What you ask for is going to itself be
a gateway into a new experience of Who God is. God is going to put a signpost in
your life this evening. And when He gives you what you’ve asked, it will open
up a whole new way of faith and a whole new way of being for you in Christ.
"Close your eyes for a few minutes. I am not letting anyone out of this
room until you know what it is. And the Holy Spirit is going to breathe upon
you. Take your time. Don’t pick the first thing that comes. If you’ve got 2
or 3, just ask the Lord, so which one of these is it, or is it any of these?
"He’s saying to you, ask Me for a sign. Ask Me what you want Me to do for
you? Because some of us have gotten to a place where we no longer ask God for
things. And tonight we’re going to break that. He loves you with a passion. He
wants to open your eyes and see the totality and the majesty that He wants to
declare to you. Ask Him for a sign, the answer is YES. Holy Spirit, come and
breathe upon us. When you know what it is, I want you to write it down. And when
you’ve written it, I want you to stand as a declaration that you are going to
stand in this thing. Whatever this thing is, it is going to be a catalyst in
your spiritual development. An unmistakable act of God that will change the way
you think for the rest of your life. This is where the Holy Spirit gets to kiss
you.” {end of Graham's quote}
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THE REQUEST
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I closed my eyes and said, “Uh oh, here I am again.” So this is what the
Lord meant when He was preparing me for the conference. I was caught between two
of my deepest desires; healing and intimacy. Only this time, the tension was
worse.
Graham specifically said either yourself or someone else. I thought of the years
of pain in my husband’s need for healing. I thought of my own. I thought of
our pursuit and desires for deeper intimacy with the Lord. People were standing
up all around me and I felt the tension grow as I sat there. Finally I made my
choice. I said, “Lord I know if it were my husband’s desire, he would choose
to know You better. But I choose healing for him. He has suffered too many
years. He’s grown weary in the waiting.” “However Lord, if there are 2
requests I ask to know you face to face like Moses did!” “And Lord I am not
sure what Graham meant about the sign part. I don’t know if Graham meant that
You are going to give me a sign that You are going to answer these things, but
You can pick the sign. I love Your signs!” Once again I apologized to the Lord
for my seemingly wrong priorities, and I stood.
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THE REVELATION
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As I was standing there I felt the Lord was asking me why I chose healing for my
husband. I knew He knew the answer, but I didn’t know until that moment. The
answer bubbled up from the depths of my being. Of course love conquers all and
when two people are married, they really do become one. We celebrated our 26th
this year. But even deeper, my pain of waiting for the Lord to answer had
decayed my relationship with the Lord.
My prayer life was dying from the hopeless decay of delay. Deep down inside I
was hopeless that I was not getting through anymore. I have many wonderful gifts
and I hear the Lord in such joyous ways. But my prayer life had become wounded.
Prov 13:12 NKJV
"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a
tree of life."
In my past journey I have had many, many prophetic intercessory assignments from
the Lord. I have been given the blessings of seeing and hearing what He is going
to do in the body of Christ, then partner in standing against the obstacles for
such. The wound of delay had affected me so deeply that I was losing my zeal for
being an avid defender of mankind, the very nature of my calling. I was stunned
by the revelation.
As I thought of this, the Holy Spirit brought back a phrase Graham had said,
“God is going to put a signpost in your life this evening.” I burst out
laughing and in that instant I knew, I understood. It all made sense.
The Lord set me up! The signpost 222 on the way up to the meeting!
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HIS FIRST ANSWER
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This was His answer to me: “Sandy as often as you see the number 222, it is
now to be a reminder that WHATever and WHOMever you defend, the answer is and
always will be YES!!!!!!!!!” Only the Lord can turn one small tiny request
into something large enough to encompass the whole world. Only God can do that.
And that is the kind of language that He speaks. Even without any answers in
sight, I had the awesome joy of connecting with His love at that moment. I knew
deep inside my knower that He was rescuing me on levels where I did not know how
to rescue myself.
Ps 2:7- 8 NKJV
I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, 'You are My Son, today I
have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give you the nations for your
inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession.’
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HIS SECOND ANSWER
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On the way home, I was marveling at all of this, and I suddenly remembered that
if there was a milepost 222 on the way up, there would also be a milepost on the
way down in the other lane. I was excited. My eyes were pealed with the
headlights on every post as they passed.
I wanted to know what I would see near this milepost! Finally 222 came. It was
pitch dark except for one thing. I saw a bright red light in the air just beyond
the sign. It was a cell phone tower. I laughed with joy! I knew EXACTLY what
that meant that my precious Abba answered BOTH requests!
I have lots of Rhema (dreams, etc) where the Lord is either calling me on the
phone, or I am calling Him! And I also have Rhema where the reception has static
and poor reception.
My request since 1984 when I wrote the first edition of the book, "101+
Ways God Speaks" (and How to Hear Him) [ note by Steve: this book can be
obtain at: http://theelijahlist.safeshopper.com/356/cat356.htm?391has
]has been to hear the Lord more and more and more and more and I have wanted to
hear him CLEARLY. I have wanted complete intimacy with Him. I knew that Jesus
only did what the Father wanted and so if I could hear Him at all times, there
would be no need for any other gift. That may sound kind of simple, but upon
that precedent I figured all life could flow. I wanted to hear Him with what I
called clear speech… just like Moses.
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Num 12:6-8 NKJV
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If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, make Myself known to him in a
vision; I speak to him in a dream. Not so with My servant Moses; He is faithful
in all My house. I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark
sayings; And he sees the form of the LORD.
Before telling him any of this, I asked my husband what he prayed for. He said,
“Well it was really hard to choose between my healing and wanting to know Him
better.” I smiled with that inner prophetic poker face. He paused and said,
“I chose to know Him better since I can’t live without Him.” I was touched
at his answer and then joyously told him I had him covered and spilled the whole
story!
. . . But the Lord didn’t stop there, He had more delights to come.
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THE PROPHETIC BLOOPER
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The next AM Graham says, “Hey do you know what? I made a mistake last night!
When we were doing the prayer thing at the end, you know, ask me for a sign….I
made a mistake. And the Lord woke me up in the middle of the night and said:
“There’s a lot of people praying right now because you made a mistake!”
I’m thinking, so what did I do wrong? He said, “We agreed that sign would be
anything they want personally for themselves. What you said son, you tacked this
thing on that it could be for you or it could be for someone else. And Gray,
that was not what we agreed.” And I thought, oh You’re right! So Lord what
do I do? He said, “Aren’t you so thankful I can cover all your mistakes?”
I’m thinking on this occasion, extremely so! So I SHOULD have said last night,
that anything personally in your relationship with God, you can ask for and the
answer is yes. So this is what we are going to do! Those of you who asked
something for somebody else, the Lord says, “You can KEEP that one, AND you
can ask for something for yourself! And those of you who asked something for
yourself, you get to ask something for somebody else!” {end of Graham quote}
I was probably the loudest voice in the audience on that one! I had already
asked for my 2 requests, one for my beloved husband, and one for myself. It was
a prophetic blooper, thoroughly ordained by the Lord. The Lord had the whole
thing set up, mistakes and all! He is the most loving awesome God!
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CONFIRMATIONS
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This was all confirmed the last meeting of the conference when Paul Cain spoke.
He was not there the first meeting when we had prayed our requests. He said,
“I believe the Lord wants to give you the desires of your heart!” I grinned
at my husband. On the way home, in relation to what Paul Cain had said, we
revealed to one another our prayers. My precious husband had prayed for my
healing, and I had prayed for his. We both thought of the old Christmas story
about the poor couple on their first year of marriage. She had cut her long hair
in order to sell it to buy the gold chain for his watch, and he had sold his
watch in order to buy the beautiful hair pin for her hair. My eyes filled with
tears and I thought that we are completely and 100% covered in our love and in
His love.
Matt 25:40 NKJV
And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as
you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
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HE KNOWS US EVEN BETTER THAN WE KNOW OURSELVES
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After the conference was over I realized that for years I have stood for the day
when I would know my Heavenly Papa as Jesus did, and walk in Jesus’ anointing
and even do greater works, as the scripture says. (John 14:12) After all was
said and done I felt like I had blown my window of opportunity for this lifetime
request. When one is hurting, sometimes they cannot see past the pain. All they
want is to be set free. I believe many, many people are in that place right now.
What a loving Papa we serve! In the middle of the night this is what I heard:
“Could you believe for twice as much? An anointing as Jesus walked, and more.
Your on!”
My heart melted in one big blob. His love is so tender and He wants to reach
every hidden recess.
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SUMMARY
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Beloved of the Lord, there are so many in the body of Christ that have grown
weary with delayed promises and delayed prayers. Do not be weary in well doing,
for He is our loving Papa. Through the years of pain and delay, the stakes,
rewards and recompense have only grown higher and the Lord has multiplied the
answers to your requests. You shall have a 7-fold return on anything stolen from
you, and double portion joy for all your shame.
As the Lord has schooled me in the Quickened Word writing ministry, I believe
that my forerunner life and the Word that springs forth from such, is a living
parable for others. Because of this I know that my conference story is
multiplied to you too. I want to share with you that the Lord is not only asking
those at the conference, but He is also asking you and giving you the same
opportunity to ask Him for your deepest desire and for a sign that His answer is
"YES!" Choose wisely my dear ones, for great joys await you in the
answers, which will be much greater than you can imagine, conceive or think.
“Ask me for a sign, Ahaz, to prove that I will crush your enemies as I have
promised. Ask for anything you like, and make it as difficult as you want."
(NLT)
This is our time and opportunity to make our deepest desire known to God, to be
strengthened, and then STAND that He has heard our prayer and that His answer is
YES.
As one final word, we are entering into Psalms 103 for the new year 2003
(starting on Sep 15, Day of Atonement.) As you read that Psalms, notice how it
centers around 2 themes: healing and intimacy with our Papa, all to be passed
down through our families. Praise the Lord!
Lovingly,
Sandy
Email: swauthor@usa.net
www.thequickenedword.com ~ 101+
Ways God Speaks can be obtained from THE ELIJAH LIST at:
http://theelijahlist.safeshopper.com/356/cat356.htm?391