The Fresh Kiss of God

by Dotty Schmitt

For me personally, the fresh kiss of God's Presence upon my life occurred early in March, 1994. For months a handful of intercessors had been meeting regularly on Monday mornings. The longer we prayed together, the more focused and intense our intercessions became for more of His refreshing, revival Presence to become manifest among us – especially among our children. For years the account of the 1950's revival in the Hebrides Islands deeply stirred and inspired my heart to believe God to “do it again” here and now. The rhema promise given to the two elderly Smith sisters at that time was from Isaiah. Our small intercessors group also began to claim this powerful promise for revival:

“For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants” (Isaiah 44:3 NIV)

In March, 1994, the winds of revival began to blow through our congregation. He began with our children and then fell upon the adults. One of the prophetic words given to this small group of intercessors was: “I will ignite the kindling first and then the logs will catch the fire.”

Even though I had been at the forefront of praying and interceding for revival and for more of His manifest Presence, when He did suddenly come on that weekend in March, I found that I was somewhat bewildered, confused, and skeptical about some of the manifestation that seemed to accompany His coming. Laughter, weeping, shaking, trembling and people falling all over the place was not what I was asking for. By temperment I love deep, quiet times of worship. I treasure the old hymns of the church. I love to be in silence in the awesomeness of His Presence. (All of this I have learned also continues to be part of His kissing the earth.) He also seems to enjoy seeing our formulas for proper church protocol shaken up a bit – just read the many accounts of authentic moves of revival.

By Sunday evening I had become rather exhausted by all of my analyzing and attempts at discerning what was happening. On one hand I was thrilled by what was sovereignly happening among the children and on the other hand, it all seemed rather confusing at times. After all wasn't our God a God of order and not of confusion?

On that eventful Sunday evening, I stood at the altar for prayer along with the rest of our pastoral staff. Soon I realized that I was among the few who still remained standing. That was fine with me, except that I knew that I needed something more from the Lord. He seemed to be passing me by! I remember crying out, “Lord, it's you I want. I don't want experiences. I don't even want the blessings of your hand. Oh, Lord, please, I hunger for more of you.” It was as if my heart were crying out to Him, “Lord, remember my quest for you glory.”

Once again the gentle voice of my Good Shepherd spoke deeply into my thirsty spirit. “My daughter, stop analyzing it all. I want a deeper yieldedness from you and I want you to learn how to receive from Me at a deeper level of your being.” With those words piercing my spirit, I forgot about everything and everyone else. It was the Lord and me interacting on a deeper level of yieldedness and receiving. I can still remember lifting my hands up as a sign of a fresh surrender and deeper yieldedness of life to His total Lordship. I then opened my hands in a receiving position and whispered, “I receive from you a fresh baptism of your love. Enlarge the capacities of my heart to receive more of your love, mercy and grace.” With that interchange between the Lord and myself, Paul's words took on new meaning:

“And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who He has given us” (Romans 5:5 NIV).

As I stood there learning anew how to yield and how to receive, the Lord lavishly poured out His love into my heart. Even though the experience of these encounters differs from one individual to another, the Lord knew that for me He needed to not only fill my hungering heart, but also to still my skeptical mind! At that very moment of fresh yieldedness, and deeper receiving, I was thrown backwards to the floor, shaking and trembling as I had never before done. In fact, it was as if I had been hit by a spiritual tornado! I don't know how long I lay there, but I do know I was basking afresh in the glory of His Presence. After some time, when I did finally get up from the floor, I was changed – permanently changed! I loved Him more, I became more sensitive to what grieved Him, and a whole new dimension of the fear of the Lord which is to hate evil (Proverbs 8:13 NIV) gripped my soul. In addition to this there was released in my life a new boldness and confidence to witness, and a greater anointing to minister life and healing to His people. No wonder Peter could say to the crippled man: “Silver and gold I do not have, but whatI have I give you” (Acts 3:6 NIV). I understood so much more clearly that night that the Lord yearns to pour His love mightily into our lives, to that He can pour out through us into the lives of a lost and hurting world.

Through the course of passing time, I have also continued to learn more deeply the truth that “the just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:7 KJV). Our daily Christian life, with all of its challenges, trials and tests, gives us continual opportunities to make choices which will either sustain and cultivate the anointing and glory of His Presence or diminish and grieve His glorious Presence. Presently I sense He is teaching us how to welcome the glory of His Presence into the midst of all of our everyday living.

Thank the Lord for all those dynamic revival encounters with the Lord, but thank Him even more for those daily opportunities to carry the fragrance of those precious encounters into our homes, our work places and our neighborhoods.