Angels with Assignment Are Preparing Us to Receive Revelation - From the Open Book

Before leaving home in Salem, Alabama, the morning of July 28, 2008, I had prayed in frustration, asking the Lord to help me recapture the dream that I had experienced during the previous night. I remembered that an angel had walked into our bedroom and over to my side of the bed. He had spoken several things to me, and as he was finishing, I was awakened by our four-year-old daughter Olivia crying out in the night, "Daddy, that door is open, should I go through it?"

I got out of bed and walked to the doorway of her room. She was sleeping soundly. As I walked back to bed, I suddenly realized that I could not remember a single thing the angel had said to me. It was as though it had been erased from my memory.

The next morning I was scheduled to fly to Canada for a conference with Paul Keith Davis and Neville Johnson. With a stopover in Salt Lake City, I was to meet up with Paul Keith before completing our journey. I finally spotted him, and as I approached him he greeted me with: "Steven, what happened to you last night?" I must have looked shocked because he then explained that around 3 AM he woke up with his wife Wanda standing over him, asking him the same question!

Earlier that night, Wanda had experienced a supernatural encounter. She was shown that a message of some sort was being given at that very moment to both Paul Keith and myself. It was embarrassing for me to have to tell Paul Keith that even though I knew I had been visited by an angel in a dream, I could not remember anything that had been spoken to me. He agreed to help me pray that the message would not be lost.

Late that night I finally settled into my hotel room in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. In desperation, I called out to the Lord to restore what I felt the enemy had stolen from my mind. I randomly opened my Bible and used it as a pillow and I lay on the floor and buried my face into its open pages. I was so very disappointed in myself for letting this slip and repented in case there was anything that I had done that had caused it to be lost. I felt like a poor steward of what the Lord was saying to us.

After much weeping I raised my head and my eyes fell on the open pages of my Bible. It was opened to Daniel Chapter Two, where the king had forgotten a dream and was asking for Daniel to tell him both the dream and the interpretation of it. I smiled inside at God's perfect timing. I was encouraged and drifted off to sleep, knowing that the Lord would restore to me the revelation that had slipped from my memory.

God didn't waste any time. I began dreaming that I was back in my bedroom in Alabama. I was somehow conscious enough to wonder in excitement if this would be the lost dream. I soon recognized the angel that I had seen the night before and determined to listen carefully to what he had to say. The dream progressed as he walked over to my side of the bed.

The Message

He said: "The plumb line is NOW in the hand of Zerubbabel."

Zechariah 4:10 For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.

A "plumb line" is a simple but accurate ancient tool that is used to determine whether or not something is perfectly vertical or upright. It consists of a line and a weight of some sort. Initially a stone was used, but in later times the weight was more commonly made of lead.

I knew that in the context of this experience this plumb line spoke of a Word or Message from the Lord that was being released in our day that would measure, once and for all, the "uprightness" of the Bride. The very definition of the word righteousness is "uprightness."

Amos 7:7-8 Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the LORD stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in His hand. And the LORD said unto me, "Amos, what seest thou?" And I said, "A plumbline." Then said the LORD, "Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of My people Israel..."

We have, in recent times, been guilty perhaps of leaning too far to the left or too far to the right. I knew that the Angel was saying that it was time to examine how we were standing and to make the necessary adjustments immediately. We can only make these important changes by examining our lives according to the clear plumb line message of the Kingdom being released by God in the earth NOW. In addition, we must cooperate fully with the double grace (see Zechariah 4:7) that is being extended to the Bride in this season.

Interestingly, Zerubbabel is the one who led the first band of Jews back to Jerusalem from Babylonian captivity. This exodus took place in the first year of Cyrus, the King of Persia. We also learn that Zerubbabel laid the foundation for the Second Temple.

Zechariah 4:9 The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you.

It becomes clear that as Zerubbabel was a builder of the natural temple, these same Scriptures prophesy of the building of a spiritual temple. Zerubbabel is a type of the Master Builder, who is shaping and molding His people into a temple in which He can dwell with all His fullness. Zerubbabel's perseverance in the completion of the earthly Temple is a prophetic sign to us that the Lord Jesus will also prevail in finishing the spiritual temple that he is building in and through us.

Philippians 1:6 (AMP) And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ (right up to the time of His return), developing (that good work) and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.

I then asked the angel, "Who are you?"

"I am one of those who has been sent to prepare a people to receive the open book and to eat it!" he answered boldly.

I believe that this was the Lord speaking clearly of a people in this hour, who were chosen before the foundation of the world, to discover hidden treasures that have been reserved in darkness. These hidden treasures are truths that were sealed and not available to the Body of Christ for many centuries...until NOW.

Isaiah 45:3 And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.

Taste and See

Perhaps some wonder why these mysteries were hidden for so long. The answer is two-fold. First, these truths were reserved until this generation because we have now crossed that threshold into the end of days to which these truths are at long last relevant. Second, there were things concealed in this open book which, because of their spiritual implications, made it imperative that they be hidden from our enemy. Just think what damage might have been done had they fallen into satan's hands at the wrong time or ahead of God's great times and seasons.

Satan is constantly trying to cause things to engage earlier than their appointed time. Prayer warriors are often being arrested to pray against this plot of the enemy to pre-empt the timing of the Lord. Because of this strategy of the enemy, it requires that we as a Body of Believers walk even more sensitively and in total agreement with the purposes and seasons of the Lord (see 1 Chronicles 12:32).

It is part of the overcomer's calling to receive this open book revelation and to eat it. We read in Revelation 10:9-11 that John was told to eat it up. He was also warned that it would be sweet in his mouth, reminding us of the sweetness of true revelation. John was further warned that the book would be bitter in his belly. This speaks of the effect that these revelations will have on the inside of the Believer. As these truths are made real to us we will not be able to keep them inside; they are not for us only but must come out of us again as we prophesy these end-time truths to many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.

It is refreshing for us to know that in these troubled and uncertain times when we often feel overwhelmed and insufficient for the task of harvest, that God is releasing angels who find and mark those who hunger for deeper truths. These angels will then help to prepare us to open up our hearts for Kingdom mysteries. Additionally, they will release God's grace over us to step aside, when necessary, from our own opinions and interpretations of the Word.

Angelic Convergence

A few weeks ago we were gathered once again in Red Deer for the annual "Rivers of God's Love" conference. Again God chose to speak to me in a dream. I was given a pair of very old binoculars and then instructed to look through them. As I placed them before my eyes, I saw two groups of angels coming in, one from the East and one from the West. They were converging in the middle and teaming up in pairs. I then saw them being dispatched to various places throughout the world.

I then took the binoculars away from my eyes and realized that I could no longer see the angels.

"What was I seeing?" I asked.

The messenger replied: "This day begins a new cooperation in the angelic realm. Two classes of angels who each have distinct commissions are now being joined together in full cooperation for a season of ministry."

I found this so fascinating that once again I placed the old binoculars up to my eyes and carefully examined the scene before me.

The angels coming in from the West looked almost identical in every way. Their robes matched in every detail down to the trimmings. They seemed oddly familiar to me. I suddenly realized that the one who had come to me in Alabama was one of these. I could only surmise that these were the angels who were being sent to prepare a people to receive and to eat the open book!

I then asked the messenger who had given me the binoculars, "Who are these other angels coming in from the East?" I had noticed that they were also quite similar to each other, but I observed that there were variations in the belts that they wore.

"These are angels that gather," I was told. Although I was very familiar with Paul Keith's encounter with them, this was my first time seeing them.


He then restated to me what I had concluded on my own: "There will now be a divine cooperation between the angels that gather and the angels that are sent to prepare a people to receive and eat the open book."

We are living in incredibly exciting days. Angels are being dispatched to help prepare us to receive, eat, and digest perhaps the most astounding revelation of all time...the revelation of the open book! We may not yet have the full understanding of what this angelic cooperation will look like, but I am convinced that it certainly means that help is on the way. More than ever, humility is the order of the day. Declare with your mouth that you are HUNGRY and willing to do whatever it takes to be a vital part of what God has in store.

For further understanding of what the revelation of the "open book" is about, read Daniel 12:1-4, Revelation chapters 5, 6 and 10.

Steven L. Shelley
New Hope Revival Ministries
Email: pastorsteven@revival.org



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