August 2014, A Time of New Birth: Consecration with Rees Howells
by Jennifer A. Miskov, Ph.D.
“This is what the Lord says,
He who made a way through the seas, a path through the mighty waters…
‘Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up: do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.’”
Isaiah 43:16-19
Seeds Sown October 27-November 2, 2013 will Emerge August 2014 and Beyond
In my own life, I am feeling that July 2014 is the final trimester in the 9 months of what is about to be birthed in August 2014 and beyond. I believe that seeds that were sown during the week of October 27-November 2, 2013 will come to see their fulfillment in a greater measure August 2014 and beyond. I see August 2014 not only as a time of birthing things that were sown 9 months previously but also even more fullness, synergy, and alignment from lifelong dreams and promises given by God in the past.
When I reflect back on what happened the week of October 27-November 2, 2013 in my own life, it was full of signs, wonders, declarations, clarity, shift towards alignment, new tongues, and other strange but profound experiences. I encourage you, too, to look back in your journal or your calendar and recall with the Lord what happened your life during that week. Then ask God if there was anything that happened then that will be birthed soon and how He wants you to prepare yourself to step into this upcoming season. If negative things happened that week, pray for God’s kingdom to come in that area and ask Him what He wants to sow into your life in this new season instead of those things.
One of the seeds I have seen develop and grow since that profound week in late October 2013 has to do with our Destiny House Redeeming Halloween event. Our Destiny House family set out to redeem and sanctify October 31 by worshipping and recounting what God did in history at that time. Besides this being a catalytic day for birthing the Protestant Reformation, it was also the day that Evan Roberts lit a fire for the Welsh Revival at Moriah Chapel in Wales. You can learn more what was released at that event in a blog HERE and soon be able to access a recording of the event on our PODCAST.
That same week, Destiny House Alumni Jenny Schoensiegle offered to do a painting of Evan Roberts as a fundraiser for Destiny House. Her painting received a bid from someone all the way in Wales named Darren who lives around the corner from Moriah Chapel. Seeds that were sown that night were only the beginning of what has begun to develop, grow, and increase these past nearly 9 months…
Not long after my MIRACLE FLIGHT to the UK in June 2014, Darren picked me and my friend Becky up at the train station in Wales to take us to the Moriah Chapel. While there, we met up with a few of our Destiny House family, Cornelius and Matt, who were present at the October 31st event and happened to be in Wales at the same time. Matt is the anointed Welshman who sang a Welsh revival song in his mother tongue during our October 31, 2013 event at Destiny House. It was incredible reconnecting with these friends in the land of revival. Through Darren’s connections, I also got to stay a night at the house Evan Roberts grew up in. Glory!
During this adventure in Wales, we also had the opportunity to visit revivalist Rees Howells’ Bible College. A year or two before this, I had studied about Rees Howells and learned about his great faith. In part, it was recalling some of his testimonies which inspired my own faith to step out and trust in God’s leading over my circumstances for breakthrough to get to England. At our June 28, 2014 Destiny House event, Cornelius and I shared testimonies of our time at Wales and I also released impartation of Rees Howells’ legacy. Cornelius also invited everyone to join in on a prophetic act of consecration.
Building on the momentum from of our October 31, 2013 Welsh Revival event, our trip to Wales, and our Rees Howells night of consecration at Destiny House, this August 8-10, Cornelius, I, and some of the Destiny House family are heading to Carrie Judd Montgomery’s Home of Peace in Oakland, CA for our 3rd Annual Healing & Revival Retreat. At this first and historic healing home and revival center on the West Coast, we will continue to build on this theme of Re-Digging the Wells of Revival. I can feel the momentum building from all from seeds that were deposited October 31, 2013.
Throughout this past 9 month season from October 2013 to August 2014, I have also seen some alignment and long awaited dreams fulfilled in my own life. In March 2014, one of my dreams came true when I got to release Carrie Judd Montgomery’s Legacy at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry 1st Year Class in Redding. On May 1, 2014, alignment came together after nearly 2.5 years when all 3 floors of the Destiny House were released for us to rent exclusively for hosting the presence of God and releasing impartation, healing, and destiny. We started with one floor in 2012 and over the past few years God has continued to bless and add to our growing Destiny House family by sending people from around the world to run after the things of God with us in that place.
After 3 years, I also finally had the opportunity to return to England to reconnect with my friends and be there for my friend’s wedding. This miracle flight to get me there was influenced by Rees Howells’ faith. While all that happened these past few months leading up to August 2014 were so special and I am more than thankful, I remain hungry and I believe they were precursors of what is coming in even greater fullness and measures in this upcoming season. I believe these promises fulfilled are only just the beginning, the tip of the iceberg of what is going to hit us August 1st and beyond.
It’s a Time for Consecration: July 2014
I see July as a time of stretching, strengthening, purifying, and consecration. It’s like a time right before a snake sheds its old skin and awaits the new. Or a when a caterpillar has been in its cocoon and feels it’s ready to be set free but the wait is just a little longer. Or when a pregnant mother is ready to explode but has to wait just a little longer for the promise to be birthed.
I believe that the month of July 2014 is to be a time of consecration, refinement, and preparation for what is about to come upon us. A stripping off of the old, shedding old skin, getting rid of old ways of thinking, purifying our thoughts, lives, plans and being present before the Lord to hear what He is saying for this new season.
Rees Howells and Corporate Encounter
On March 29, 1936 at his Bible College in Wales, Rees Howells had a time of corporate consecration when he called his students to surrender their lives afresh before the Lord. The next day it was recorded in the diary of the College meetings that
“Fire fell on sacrifice. Holy Ghost descended on evening meeting. We went on knees and someone started the chorus, ‘Welcome, welcome, welcome! Holy Ghost, we welcome Thee.’ Liberty and power so great we continued singing this one chorus for a full hour.”[1]
Just over 9-10 months after this, a corporate encounter followed the act of consecration. The presence of God was so thick on the campus that the staff and students could only whisper to each other. The earlier act of consecration and surrender continued to yield an “increasing consciousness of God’s presence.” It became visibly manifest when a woman on staff broke down “confessing her sense of need and crying to the Holy Spirit to meet her.” Then “He came” and they experienced a corporate visitation for 3 weeks straight of His presence surrounding the campus. The headmaster of the school at the time recalled that God
“[He] did not come like a rushing mighty wind. But gradually the person of the Holy Ghost filled all our thoughts, His presence filled the place, and His light seemed to penetrate all the hidden recesses of our hearts. He was speaking through the Director in every meeting, but it was in the quiet of our own rooms that He revealed Himself to many of us…We were people who had left all to follow the Savior, and had forsaken all we had of this world’s goods to enter a life of faith, and as far as we knew we had surrendered our lives entirely to the One who died for us. But He showed us, ‘There is all the difference in the world between your surrendered life in My hands, and Me living My life in your body.’”
“There was no excitement or enthusiasm of the flesh those days. When His power had come upon us after March 29 we had been carried away and were singing and shouting our praises. But in these days we were so awed by the holy majesty of His Person that we hardly dared raise our voices in the meetings…Even the grounds outside seemed filled with His presence. Walking around together we would suddenly be conscious that we were speaking in whispers. The late hours came, but no one thought of bed – for God was there… 2 and 3 a.m. often seemed just like midday as we communed together, prayed with some who were ‘coming through,’ or waited before God in the quietness of our hearts.”[2]
May God do it again in this season. May the Spirit quicken our hearts and draw us to lay down everything at the feet of Jesus, trusting Him with our very lives. He is worthy of it all. May you have grace, strength, and endurance to enter into this new season with no strings attached, fully able to take hold of all that He wants to pour out. Ready your heart. Invite the Holy Spirit to clear away anything that is not meant to enter into this new season with you. I pray He invade your very being with the Father’s beautiful love and position you exactly where you need to be in this next season. All that you have surrendered and sacrificed in seasons past have not been a waste. He is waiting to pour out His Spirit in immeasurable ways. Be ready to receive all that He has for your today. He is so for you.
[1]Norman Grubb, Rees Howells Intercessor (Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1952), 208.
[2]Grubb, Rees Howells Intercessor, 218-219.