Dark Night Of The Soul

Stephen Gray

Dear Saints, The final night of the Holy Convocation is a night I will never forget. To stand in a place the Lord calls the Holy of Holies!

REHEARSAL OF AN APPOINTED TIME
The Lord said to Moses in Leviticus 23:2, "Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts.'" The Hebrew word for "feasts" means "appointed time" or "meeting place." "Convocation" means "rehearsal." So what is God saying? He has appointed a set time and place to meet with you to rehearse future events!

Saturday night I believe we experienced in a measure what it will be like on the Feast of Tabernacles when the glory will fully manifest on the Church! We had what one might call a rehearsal of an appointed time.

The passage in Hebrews 10:19 tells us that because of the New Covenant we should enter boldly into the most Holy Place! What a privilege -- what a blessing to stand in the Holy of Holies and experience the awesome presence, glory and revelation of God. Most would think this passage is a symbolic one, but I can assure you such a place exists.

THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL
This December at the Holy Convocation in Mobile, Alabama, a church of about 50 people stood in the Holy of Holies. It was life changing for me and for all those who were there.

We followed the format the Lord had given. Wednesday night we began with a literal procession as two white-robed men representing the Levites carried the Table of Showbread into the sanctuary. The next two nights the messages and call to repentance focused on the Lampstand and the Altar of Incense. Saturday night the message was to be on the Ark of the Covenant.

As I walked out of the Saturday afternoon session, I stopped to ask one of our intercessors what the Lord was saying to her. She spoke with eyes closed and a hushed tone, "the dark night of the soul." Immediately I was hit with a wave of the glory of God. I could hardly walk and those around me seemed to be pushed back.

I could not get that phrase out of my head as I drove home to prepare for the night's meeting. I remembered a book I had at home called Critical Mass. It had a chapter on the dark night of the soul. The Lord had me read that chapter and then used it to give me a word I was to read at the night's service.

CRITICAL MASS As I entered the sanctuary early to pray I was immediately impacted by the heavy presence of God. The air felt charged with electricity and pregnant with expectancy. The Lord said, "When they enter, tell them not to speak -- they are entering the Holy of Holies." I asked a pastor to stand outside the sanctuary and inform all who entered exactly that. Then the Lord instructed me to have two people stand with gold banners at the entrance so people walked under them when they came in. As people entered they walked into an amazing weight of God's glory that permeated the room in a most unusual and real way.

I called everyone to the altar and read the following word:

2 Chronicles 7:14 - If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins and heal their land.

Eccl. 3:1 - To everything there is a season; a time for every purpose under heaven...

There is a similarity between revival and nuclear fission. A strange phenomenon occurs right before the atom splits. The nucleus depresses, Scientist observe during this phase nothing seems to be happening. This is also what happens right before the manifestation of God’s glory. The revival core will be praying and sensing a rising tide of power and expectancy. All of a sudden you hit a brick wall. The power is gone. God’s presence seems to have lifted. Your prayers feel trapped in your mouth. A deep despair settles in. You feel physically drained. It will take everything in you to keep moving. The sobering fact is that many who have reached the dark night will seem unimportant. It is what you do now that makes or breaks your heart’s desire.

At no other point does God express love more than when He allows this time of total emptiness. God risks being misunderstood. He faces the potential of one of His children walking away frustrated and confused, but He believes the good it will produce is well worth the risk. What do you do? Scientist respond by intensifying the neutron beam, and resolve to do so until fission occurs. This is precisely what we must do to see the end of this night. Our loving Father allows this lonely time.

A person lacking humility won’t survive the praise of man. A person without perseverance won’t survive the attacks of Satan. The revival core must realize and stand the test. During this dark night, our true motives surface. The only thing that will hold us is our pure heart of love for the lost and a true desire to see God glorified. During this stage it would seem God knows we have abandoned sin, however, there is a deeper issue, to deal with our ways. Our repentance deals with what we have done our purification deals with what we are. The word distinguishes to aspects of God, acts and His ways. We must now be delivered of our ways. The inner nature must be surprised, caught of guard, in order to be exposed and conquered.

Here we find the truth to release the Glory. In repentance we deal with our sin and rid ourselves of evil but in the dark night of the soul, we surrender the things we dearly, love, things we can’t readily identify as being in conflict with God. Here is not the issue of right and wrong but the high and low purposes of living. Spiritual awakening is not simply getting rid of sin, it is giving God what he wants. Abraham gave his son, Mary an Alabaster box. Tonight your Alabaster box is being called for. America is dying because we have sales reps and not channels for the Glory.

TO THE HEAVIEST LEVEL After a time of prayer I turned to the people and asked them to lay the gifts the Lord had asked for on the altar. A wave of weeping and brokenness swept through the place as the glory grew stronger. This was a level that was perhaps one of the heaviest I had ever experienced.

It was an amazing conclusion to the promise that God had given me. Old Testament priests always prostrated themselves before leaving the Holy of Holies and so I asked everyone in the church to do the same. All of us in one accord on our faces as God's love and pleasure rolled over us like waves. He had called a Holy Convocation and He met us in a most incredibly way!

Glory to God in the Highest!
Stephen