Standing on the Shoulders of Giants (16 page)
Read Standing on the Shoulders of Giants Online
Authors: Steven Brooks
After the author shared in his book the personal testimony of Shoran Singha, he then added his own comments, stating:
This is Shoran Signha’s story of what he actually saw that night. When I questioned him closely about it, he told me how he was so benumbed by fear that he could not even cry out. It all happened at a place in Bareri, which I know so well that I can still easily recall every detail to mind. Therefore, I have confidence that the incident occurred as Shoran has described it. He goes on to relate how in the morning he had asked the Sadhu, “Were you not frightened when you saw the leopard?” “Why should the leopard harm me?” he replied. “I was not his enemy. Moreover, as long as I trust in Christ, I have no cause to tremble.”
On another occasion, however, the Sadhu himself tells us that he was terrified. He woke up in a cave, where he had spent the night, and found a large leopard beside him. He confessed afterwards that for a moment he was almost paralyzed with fear; for he was taken quite unawares. But, once outside the cave, his courage returned, and he gave thanks to God who had thus preserved his life.
2
Let the Holy Spirit choose your mantle. God has something special for you. Open your heart to the new and fresh anointing that God wants you to receive. Let the wonders of the spiritual and natural world become a greater reality in your life. God wants to give you His very best!
NDNOTES
2.
Sadhu Sundar Singh
by C.F. Andrews is public domain; Hodder & Stoughton Limited London—1934; pages 164-168.
HAPTER
10
How I Received My First Mantle
We have examined scriptural examples of how mantles are transferred and how the anointing can be imparted from one individual to another. We have also observed the lives of certain saints in recent church history who have had mantles transferred to them through serving, close association, dreams, visions, or angelic visitations. Through the years, I have received various mantles as I have progressed in my walk with the Lord. Now I would like to share with you how I received my first mantle from the Lord.
At times, the Lord will speak to me through dreams at night while I am asleep. These are not simple little dreams that you can vaguely remember when you wake up, but rather the type
of dreams that have a weight to them and are crystal clear and straightforward in understanding. Dreams are also referred to in the Bible as
night visions
. It was through a night vision that the Lord chose to impart a mantle to me.
Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a
night vision
. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven
(Daniel 2:19).
At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon during the
night in a dream
, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you”
(1 Kings 3:5 NIV).
We see clearly with Solomon that his dream was a real encounter with the Lord. The Lord did not appear to him while he was awake, but waited until he was asleep. The bottom line is that whether it happened to be a dream or a wide-awake experience, we see that the purpose was still accomplished—Solomon received what he asked for.
I must admit that when I went to bed that night I had no idea an experience like this was going to take place. That night, I actually went to bed somewhat discouraged. For a little over two years I had sought the Lord for a mantle but nothing ever happened. In my times of prayer I would talk with the Lord about how Elijah transferred the mantle to Elisha. Within my heart I sensed the Lord had a mantle for me, but after two years of praying I still had not received one. As I lay down in bed that night I was discouraged but I still knew God would answer my prayer in His timing. I quickly fell off into a deep sleep and began to have a dream.
In this dream I was transported into the realm of the second heaven. Have you ever been out on a beautiful day when there were no clouds in the sky and looked up to see a jet flying high overhead? It was in this realm about six or seven miles straight up where the Lord took me, but I was carried there in the spirit realm. The first heaven is the realm we live in on earth. The second heaven above us is the realm where satan has his kingdom of darkness established. From this position of the earth’s upper atmosphere, he plans and launches his evil attacks upon humankind. He rules over the lives of those in spiritual darkness as the prince of the power of the air. The demons and evil spirits on the earth get their orders from the headquarters of darkness that circles the earth in the second heaven. Angels from Heaven have to break through this realm to reach us here on earth. At times, angels can travel with little or no resistance by moving through portals that reach from Heaven to earth. Other times, they are sent by God into areas that do not have an established portal. When this is the case, they may encounter the resistance of enemy forces found in the second heaven. We see this spiritual parallel in the following verse concerning how a heavenly messenger broke through demonic resistance to reach Daniel.
But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me because I was detained there with the king of Persia
(Daniel 10:13 NIV).
So he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? Soon I will return to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I go
,
the prince of Greece will come; but first I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. (No one supports me against them except Michael, your prince.)
(Daniel 10:20-21 NIV)
There are great spiritual battles that are fought in the second heaven. That is why it is so important for us to pray and be persistent in our prayers. Although Jesus has completely defeated satan and all the powers of darkness through His death, burial, and triumphant resurrection, we must enforce the devil’s defeat. If we do not pray and exercise our God-given authority as believers in Christ, then the enemy will try to delay, hinder, or prevent the will of God from occurring. The third Heaven is the heavenly realm of Paradise. In this realm, no evil can enter.
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the
third heaven
. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—was
caught up to paradise
(2 Corinthians 12:2-4a NIV).
Now, back to the night vision I was sharing. As I reached my destination in the second heaven I arrived behind a large outcropping of rocks. As I peered over the rocks, I could see down into a valley where there appeared to be an enemy camp. In this camp I noticed fierce looking demons marching around something that they were trying to protect. These large demons had huge razor sharp spears that looked to be about eighteen feet long. Some of the demons were well over ten feet tall. Over the top of the enemy camp flew two huge evil spirits that
were completely black, having the appearance of bats. They had large, leathery looking wings with knife-like talons and claws on their feet and at the tips of their wings. Their sharp beaks were polished black like oversized crows. As I watched this bizarre sight, the thought formed in my mind that I sure would like to get down to that camp and see what they were guarding.
No sooner had that thought formed in my mind when suddenly, over my left shoulder, flew two huge white angels with wings! These big angels flew down into the enemy camp with incredible speed and quickly circled the camp several times. These two angels were so fast that they flew in between the demonic bat creatures with rapid, darting moves. In one way, the two angels reminded me of an aerial exhibition I saw a few years earlier by the Navy’s Blue Angels elite flight team. Their movements were powerful, precise, and daring. This only served to stir up the demons into a wild frenzy while the two white angels took off in blazing speed. The demons were so enraged by this provocative act that the entire enemy camp, including the flying bat creatures, took off in pursuit of the two angels. The entire camp was now left completely unguarded!
It was then I heard the voice of the Lord speak to me, saying, “Go quickly, those are My decoy angels.” I ran down that hill into the valley as fast as I could and to my surprise I ran up to a large stack of clothing! In this stack of clothing I saw hats, gloves, shirts, coats, scarves, boots, shoes, and many other kinds of clothing. The density of the pile was enormous compared to the actual size of the pile, which was about five feet high and shaped like a rectangle. The stack of clothing was only about
ten feet long and five feet wide. But within this small pile were thousands upon thousands of pieces of clothing. I said, “Lord, what is all of this clothing?” He said, “These are unclaimed mantles.” He continued by saying, “My people from times past have come home to be with Me in Heaven, but when they left this world no one ever claimed their mantles. They are waiting to be claimed.”
Without a moment’s hesitation I somehow knew exactly which mantle was for me. I reached deeply into the center of the pile with my right arm. I reached so far into the pile that the clothes in the stack actually touched my shoulder. Grabbing hold of my mantle I then pulled out, to my surprise, a beautiful blue sweatshirt! You have to understand that blue has always been my favorite color and sweatshirts are my favorite things to wear. I pulled it over my head and pushed my arms through the long sleeves. Ahhh, a perfect fit!
The voice of the Lord then came to me and told me exactly who it was that had previously worn the mantle. He said it belonged to one of His trusted prophets who lived his life out fully on the earth and was now in Heaven. The Lord even shared with me his name and where he used to live.
It was only about two weeks after this event took place that I actually found a book which recorded many of the events of this man’s life. Although he lived hundreds of years ago, there were accurate writings made about many of the miracles that happened in this man’s ministry. As I read through the book, I
noticed very similar personality traits that he and I both have. I also like the fact that he lived to be of great age.
After this experience, I continued on with my ministry, but there was a noticeable change. People would come up to me after meetings and tell me how much I had progressed spiritually since they last saw me. It was also only a short time after receiving the first mantle that the supernatural realm began to open up to me like never before. Upon studying the life of the former prophet, I found he had a life marked with angelic visitations and heavenly experiences. I’m so glad I allowed the Lord to choose the right mantle for me. Although the Lord has now taken me on into the apostolic ministry, I still love moving in that prophetic anointing. Glory to God!
After receiving this dream from the Lord, I shared it with several respected ministry leaders. One of these leaders is a pastor of a church who has been through many trials and hardships, yet he is still moving forward in the work God has called him to do. Without him knowing about this dream, I called him up on the phone to greet him and to see how he was doing. As we shared in conversation, he on his own initiative said that God had told him 11 years ago that the mantle for the city where his church is located would be his if he persevered. Despite other churches in the same area coming and going, he is still laboring and trusting God to fulfill His word to him. When I shared the dream with him, he lit up on the other end of the phone like a light bulb. This wasn’t planned, but when I was talking to him about the dream, I realized I was wearing a
blue sweatshirt. The Lord then moved upon me strongly to minister to him prophetically and we were both blessed.
Shortly after this my wife and I were having dinner with a respected evangelist and his wife. After a great meal and fellowship, my wife suggested I share the recent experience about the dream regarding the mantles. Upon hearing the dream, the evangelist suddenly lost interest in his delicious tiramisu dessert. He wanted his mantle! That evening he left with a divine desire imparted within his heart to find the mantle God had prepared for him. Certainly for him it is some type of healing mantle, which will greatly enhance his ministry, thus bringing the Lord increased glory and honor.
The Lord has a mantle for you to receive. In these last days we are going to see mantles merge together to form new expressions of God’s glory never seen in the earth before. You might be surprised at what mantle comes falling toward you from Heaven.
Once I went to minister in Nevada at a church that loves the moving of God’s Spirit. I wasn’t scheduled to minister until Sunday morning, but I arrived earlier in the week, on a Friday morning. The pastor shared with me that the church had a prayer meeting every Friday night and he invited me to come. I agreed to come along; no one has to twist my arm to go to a prayer meeting because I love to pray with the saints. Once there, the church began to pray and it was a great time of intercession for the city, state, and our nation. After over an hour of prayer, I went and sat down on the steps leading up to the pulpit and began to pray in the Spirit. While I was sitting there, I noticed mantles
begin to fall through the roof of the church building. They would come toward certain people and hover over them. I thought to myself, “Lord, I’m not even going to say anything because this church knows I’ve done extensive teaching on the subject of mantles. If I say something they’ll probably think I’m mantle crazy!” So I just sat there and watched mantles float through the air of that church’s sanctuary.
Sunday morning rolled around and I was scheduled to minister in the morning service. That morning, as the pastor of the church walked into the building, everyone was surprised to see him wearing an expensive three-piece suit. This was far from his normal style of dress. Usually he would wear blue jeans and a nice shirt. On other occasions he might put on a sport-coat with his jeans if he felt like being dressier. But a three-piece suit for him was almost unheard of. The church wondered what was going on. As he stepped behind the pulpit that morning, he explained his reason for his step-up in clothing.
