Doesn't that lift up your spirit when you hear someone say, "I am determined!" or when you say it?  Pastor Shelley recently found great determination rising up within him which led him to have a wonderful supernatural experience.  Here is the essence of what he shared with his congregation:

 

 

It’s been a week of determination.  I have been awakened with a specific and special determination to press all the way in.  And I found myself supernaturally transported way ahead into the journey.  Now, unfortunately, I had to come back to where I really was on the timeline.

 

How many of you learned to count on a timeline or number line?  Remember, it was a straight line, had an arrow on the end, had dots along it and numbers.  And we learned math that way.  We learned to add and subtract with it.  You would go forward 8 and come back 3 to subtract.  Well, that's kind of like the journey of life.  It's kind of like a number line. 

I had an experience this week where I was transported in the spirit way ahead on my number line.  And I saw my life way up ahead.

 

I want to tell you what I was thinking about when it happened to me.  

 

I woke up with a determination in my mind.  I sat up in the bed.  I closed the bedroom door.  And this was my determination.  I said, “I am determined to press my way into the Kingdom of God with force.”  The Bible said so.  Heaven suffers violence.  The violent take it by force.

 

“I am determined to take my eyes off of those who are being swallowed up by their own compromise.”  That’s what I was thinking at the time.

 

“I am determined to make it all the way, even if everybody else falls by the wayside.”  I was just telling the Lord, “Even if everyone else falls by the wayside, lusting after the fleshpots of Egypt, God, I’ve got to make it." 

 

"And if You’ll help me to get there, I promise You I’ll do everything I can do to help the rest.” 

 

And the minute that I determined to take my eyes off of everybody else’s stuff, I found myself moving forward in the spirit at train speed or faster.

 

And I went so fast that I could feel gravity pulling against my cheeks.  I don’t know how else you could feel that unless you were riding with the Blue Angels.

 

And I knew that I had been transported in the spirit realm way ahead of where I was really living at the time.

 

And I could stand here and describe to you what things were looking like.  I could even tell you what some of you looked like because I saw some of you in my fast-forwarded version of my journey.  I was just glad to see you.  Hallelujah.  Glad to see that you were still around.

 

I would come to places along this journey and I would slow down a little bit.  As I would slow down, I would look around and I would see the fulfillment of things that we have believed for.

 

I saw the Spoken Word being manifested through ordinary people who were not in ministry, who were not big names – just people in the Body, like mothers and grandmothers, and so forth.

 

And I saw things multiplied by the Spoken Word, little things made big.

 

I also saw creative miracles.  I saw an arm grow out.  I saw God put an eye in a little girl who had no right eye.  I saw skin grow over a hole in a man's stomach that had been eaten away by cancer.  I saw all kinds of things.

 

Each was a scene, perhaps eighteen or more, and I would slow down to see that scene, then I would speed up again.  And I saw myself in ministry.  I saw other people that I recognized in ministry – different things going on.

 

I heard music that was so anointed like I don’t think I have ever heard.  I discerned it was sounds that were coming from heaven, and God was letting our musicians who had a passion capture those sounds and sing those songs.

 

And I feel right now as I’m telling it, like my hair standing up.  It was so amazing.

 

And all of a sudden, I was almost to the end of the journey.  I was so close to the end that I could look just up ahead and see the end of all things.  Hallelujah.

 

You just don’t know what it feels like to be that close to the end of the journey and see the finish line.  God let me feel that.  I looked just ahead and could see the finish line.

 

You’ve had that feeling if you’ve ever run in a race.  You see that finish line.  You think, “I believe I can  make it.”

 

You may be hassling for breath. You may feel like you’re about to collapse.  Your eyeballs may be bulging in your head and you can feel your heartbeat in your neck. And then all of a sudden you look and see that finish line.  Whooh!  It seems like everything slows down except you.  Your heart slows down, your breathing slows down, and you start saying, “I can make it!  I can make it!  I can make it!  I can see it!” 

 

So I want to give you a key.  I don’t know whether or not the Lord will let you have that same experience He let me have this week or not.  I can’t promise you that you will have the identical experience.  But I can tell you that one of the ways that you can access those spiritual things and one of the ways you can get a determination of going on is if you determine in your heart, “I’m going to take my eyes off of people and I’m going to put my eyes on the finish line.” 

 

You know who’s standing at the end of the line?  Jesus is standing there at the finish line.  Hallelujah!

 

And you know who’s behind Him?  That great Cloud of Witnesses are behind Him.  I saw Him.  I saw that Cloud of Witnesses.  I heard their cheers.  I heard one of them that I recognized say, “You’ve almost made it! You’ve almost made it!  You’ve almost made it!”  Hallelujah!

 

And whether we can see that with our physical eyes or spiritual eyes, or not, it’s still the truth.  We may not be where we’d like to be in Christ, but we know we are not where we have been, and we know we are not where we could have been.

 

In the natural, it’s discouraging when you see people doing the things they do.  It’s discouraging when you get your eyes on people and you see people looking back.  And what can be the most discouraging is when you realize they don’t really know.  They’ve convinced themselves, and they don’t even really know they’re looking back.  That’s the hardest part.  And if you’re like me, you want to pull them and help them, or you want to slap them, or whatever you want to do to wake them up.  You want to say, “Wake up!  Can’t you see?  Can’t you see what the creepers are doing in your life?  Can’t you see what’s happening?”

 

You see, we were warned from the beginning, if God’s going to use us in the way He’s desired, we’re going to have to make sure that we don’t compromise in our personal lives.  Every person in this house has got to have their own personal experience with God.

 

And you’ve got to determine in your life, “I’m going through with the help and the grace of God, and I’m not looking to the world for my happiness or for my peace.”  You’re a foolish person if you think there’s any peace in the world.  Someone was recently here that hadn’t been here in a long time and their words to me were, “What I miss the most about this place is peace.”

 

People look at peace as an emotion.  But peace is not an emotion; peace is a position. Peace is relationship.  Peace is where you’re standing with God.

 

He wants you to find that position of peace in Him so that no matter what’s going on around you, no matter what others are doing, you are determined.

 

I don’t care what you’re going through this morning, I don’t care how hot the battle is or how hard the trial is, there’s going to be a people in the house that will overcome, that’ll press through, that’ll make it all the way to the end.

 

But I’m telling you, you’ve got to get your eyes off of each other.  Get your eyes on Jesus and press toward Christ with everything that is within you.  And don’t you smite your chest with religion.  That’s what the enemy wants us to do.  He wants us to smite our chests and say, “I’m more spiritual than you.  I’m more righteous than you.”  That’s the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

 

 

I’m determined, brother.  God knows what it takes to keep me going.  I just wish you could see the finish line.  All I can do is try to faithfully relate to you what has happened in my own life.  But wouldn’t it be wonderful if I could point at that wall, or touch you on your head, and you could see what I’m seeing. 

 

 

I've got news for you.  There’s not a person in this house that wouldn’t change some things.  I knew immediately, without anybody telling me, without any preacher preaching to me, that there were things I had to change.  Because I saw myself differently than I see myself now.

 

I didn’t see myself physically different, but I knew there were things different about me.  I saw myself.  I looked around and I saw people differently, some physically.  But I saw some other things through the Spirit.  I could see there were great changes made.  And so that gives me hope.  I saw you near the finish line.  Hallelujah.

 

If you’re trying to run this race by yourself, you’ve already lost before you started. But if you’ll depend on Him, He’ll take you through.

Now let me tell you something.  You can’t gripe and make people change.  You can’t fuss at them and make them change.  You can’t mistreat them and make them change. You can’t pull yourself away and make them change.  The only thing that can change people is the same power to transform that changed you - God’s power.  He can transform lives.

 

Your job is to live solid, to stand firm in righteousness and not to compromise. And when you’re in a situation where you need to speak up, you can do it in love.  But you need to speak up.  There are times that we just flat out need to speak up.  I have to do that sometimes.  Amen. 

 

 

 

"Press the Battle!  Keep Going!  Keep Going!"

 

In a message in Jeffersonville, Indiana, on May 15, 1960 called “The Rejected King,” Bro. William Branham shared a spiritual experience he had had.  Pastor Shelley said that it was slightly similar to the experience he had just had.  Here is a slightly edited version (for readability) of what Bro. Branham shared:

 

 

And I raised up on my pillow, as many of you people have done, put my head upon the headboard of the bed and put my hands behind me.  I was laying there like this, and I said, "Well, I just wonder what it will be on the other side.  I am already fifty, and I haven't done nothing yet.  If I could only do something to help the Lord.  For I know I won't be mortal.  Half of my time is gone, at least, or more than half.  If I live to be as old as my people, still half my time is gone."

 

And I looked around and I was laying there fixing to get up.  It was about seven o'clock.  I said, "I believe I'll go down to church this morning if I am hoarse.  I'd like to hear Brother Neville preach."  So I said, "Are you awake, honey?"  And she was sleeping very soundly.

And I don't want you to miss this.  It has changed me.  I can't be the same Brother Branham that I was.

And I looked, and I heard something kept saying, "You're just starting.  Press the battle!  Just keep pressing!"

I shook my head a minute and then I thought, "Well, I'm probably just thinking like this.  You know, a person can get some imaginations."  And I said, "I just probably imagined that."

It said, "Press the battle!  Keep going!  Keep going!"

And I said, "Maybe I said it."

And I put my lips within my teeth and put my hand over my mouth, and there it come again.  It said, "Just keep pressing!  If you only knew what was at the end of the road!"

 

And seemed like I could hear Graham Snelling, or somebody, that sing that song like this.  They sings it here, Anna Mae and all of you all:

I am homesick and blue, and I want to see Jesus;
I would like to hear those sweet harbor bells chime;
It would brighten my path and would vanish all fears;
Lord, let me look past the curtain of time.

You've heard it sang here at the church.

And I heard something say, "Would you like to see just beyond the curtain?"

I said, "It would help me so much."  And I looked, and in just a moment, one breath, I'd come into a little place that's slanted.  I looked back, and there I was laying on the bed.  And I said, "This is a strange thing."

 

Now, I would not want you to repeat this.  This is before my church, or my sheep that I am pastoring.  Whether it was I was in this body or out, whether it was a translation . . .  It wasn't like any vision I ever had.  I could look there, and I could look here.

 

And when I hit that little place, I never seen so many people come running, screaming, "Oh, our precious brother."  And I looked, and young women, maybe in their early twenties (eighteen to twenty), they were throwing their arms around me and screaming, "Our precious brother."

Here come young men in the brilliance of young manhood, and their eyes glistening and looking like stars on a darkened night, their teeth as white as pearl, and they were screaming, and grabbing me, and screaming, "Oh, our precious brother."

 

And I stopped and I looked, and I was young.  I looked back at my old body laying there with my hands behind my head.  I said, "I don't understand this."  And these young women throwing their arms around me . . .

 

Now, I do realize this is a mixed audience, and I say this with the sweetness and with the mellowness of the Spirit.  Men cannot put your arm around women without a human sensation.  But it wasn't there.  There was no yesterday nor tomorrow. They didn't get tired.  

 

I never seen such pretty women in all my life.  They had hair way down to their waistline, long skirts to their feet, and they were just a hugging me.  It wasn't a hug like even my own sister setting there would hug me.  They were not kissing me, and I was not kissing them.  It was something that I have not got the vocabulary, I haven't got the words to say.  Perfection wouldn't touch it.  Superb wouldn't even touch it nowhere.  It was something that I never . . .  You just have to be there.

 

And I looked this a way and that way, and they were coming by the thousands.  And I said, "Now, I don't understand this."  I said, "Why, they . . ."

And here come Hope.  That was my first wife.  She run and never said, "My husband."  She said, "My precious brother."  And when she hugged me, there was another woman standing there that'd hugged me.  And then Hope hugged this woman, and each one . . .

And I thought, "Oh, this has to be something different.  It can't be.  There's something . . ."  I thought, "Oh, would I ever want to go back to that old carcass again?"  I looked around there and I thought, "What is this?"  And I looked real good, and I said, "I can't understand this." But Hope seemed to be like a guest of honor.  She was no different but just like a guest of honor.

 

And I heard a voice then that spoke to me that was in the room.  It said, "This is what you preached was the Holy Ghost.  This is perfect love.  And nothing can enter here without it."  I am more determined than ever in my life that it takes perfect love to enter there.

 

There was no jealousy.  There was no tiredness.  There was no death.  Sickness could never be in there.  Mortality could never make you old.  And they could not cry.  It was just one joy, "Oh, my precious brother."

And they took me up and set me up on a great big high place. And I thought, "I am not dreaming.  I'm looking back at my body laying down there on the bed."  And they set me up there, and I said, "Oh, I shouldn't set up here."

And here come women and men from both sides just in the bloom of youth, screaming. And one woman was standing there, and she screamed, "Oh, my precious brother.  Oh, we are so happy to see you here."

I said, "I don't understand this."

And then that voice that was speaking from above me said, "You know, it is written in the Bible that the prophets were gathered with their people."

And I said, "Yes, I remember that in the Scriptures."

Said, "Why, this is when you will gather with your people."

I said, "Then they'll be real, and I can feel them."

"Oh, yes."

I said, "But there's millions.  There's not that many Branhams."

And that voice said, "They're not Branhams; them's your converts.  That's the ones that you've led to the Lord."  And said, "Some of them women there that you think are so beautiful were better than ninety years old when you led them to the Lord.  No wonder they're screaming, 'Our precious brother.'"

And they screamed all at once, "If you hadn't have went, we wouldn't be here."

 

I looked around and I thought, "Well, I don't get it."  I said, "Oh, where is Jesus?  I want to see Him so bad."

They said, "Now, He's just a little higher, right up that way."  Said, "Someday He will come to you."  You see?  Said, "You were sent for a leader.  And God will come, and when He does, He'll judge you according to what you taught them, first, whether they go in or not.  We'll go in according to your teaching."

I said, "Oh, I'm so glad.  Did Paul, does he have to stand like this?  Does Peter have to stand like this?"

"Yes."

I said, "Then I've preached every word that they preached.  I never divvied from it one side to the other.  Where they baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, I did, too. Where they taught the baptism of the Holy Ghost, I did, too.  Whatever they taught, I did, too."

And them people screamed and said, "We know that, and we know we're going with you someday back to earth."  Said, "Jesus will come, and you'll be judged according to the Word that you preached us.  And then, if you are accepted at that time, which you will be, then you will present us to Him as your trophies of your ministry." Said, "You will guide us to Him, and all together we'll go back to the earth to live forever."

I said, "Do I have to return back now?"

"Yes, but keep pressing on!"

 

I looked, and I could see the people, just as far as I could see, still coming, wanting to hug me, screaming, "Our precious brother."

 

Just then, a voice said, "All that you ever loved and all that ever loved you, God has given you here."  And I looked and here come my old dog come walking up.  Here come my horse and laid his head up over my shoulder and nickered.

Said, "All that you ever loved, and all that ever loved you, God has given them into your hands through your ministry."

And I felt myself move from that beautiful place.  And I looked around.  I said, "Are you awake, honey?"  She was still asleep, and I thought, "Oh God, oh help me, oh God. Never let me compromise with one word.  Let me stay right straight on that Word and preach it.  I don't care what comes or goes, what anybody does, how many Sauls, sons of Kish rise, how many this, that, or the other, let me, Lord, press to that place.

All fear of death . . .  I say this with my Bible before me this morning.  I've got a little boy there four years old to be raised.  I've got a nine-year-old girl and a teenager that I'm thankful for, that's turned the way of the Lord.  God, let me live to bring them up in the admonition of God.

 

Above that, the whole world seems to scream to me.  Ninety-year-old women and men and all kinds scream, "If you hadn't have went, we wouldn't been here."  And, God, let me press the battle.  But if it comes to dying, I am no more . . .  It would be a joy, it would be a pleasure, to enter from this corruption and disgrace.

If I could make it up yonder, one hundred billion miles high, a square block . . . and that's perfect love.  Each step this way, it narrows until we get down to where we are now.  It would be just merely a shadow of corruption, that little something that we can sense and feel that there's something somewhere; we don't know what it is.

Oh, my precious friend, my beloved, my darlings of the Gospel, my begotten children unto God, listen to me, your pastor.  I wish there was some way I could explain it to you.  There's no words.  I couldn't find it.  It's not found anywhere.  But just beyond this last breath is the most glorious thing that you ever . . .  There is no way to explain it.  There's no way.  I just can't do it.

 

But whatever you do, friends, lay aside everything else till you get perfect love. Get to a spot that you can love everybody, every enemy, everything else.  That one visit there to me has made me a different man.  I can never, never, never be the same Brother Branham that I was.

 

Whether the planes are rocking, whether lightning's a flashing, whether the spies has a gun on me, whatever it is, it doesn't matter.  I'm going to press the battle by the grace of God while I preach the Gospel to every creature and every person that I can, persuading them to that beautiful land yonder.  It may seem hard; it may take a lot of strength.

I don't know how much longer.  We don't know.  Physically speaking, the doctor, from my examination the other day, said, "You've got twenty-five years of hard, good life. You're solid."  That helped me.  But, oh, that wasn't it.  That isn't it.  It's something within here.  This corruption has got to put on incorruption; this mortal's got to put on immortality.

 

Sons of Kish may rise.  All the good things they do, I have nothing evil to say against it: giving to the poor and to charity.  And you remember, why, Samuel told Saul, "You'll also prophesy."  And many of those men are great mighty preachers, can preach the Word like archangels, but still it wasn't God's will.  God was to be their King.

 

And brother, sister, you let the Holy Spirit lead you.  Let us bow our heads just a moment.

 

I'm so homesick and blue, and I want to see Jesus,
I would like to hear those sweet harbor bells chime.
It would brighten my path and would vanish all fear;
Lord, let us look a past the curtain of time.

Lord, let me look a past the curtain of sorrows and fear;
Let me view that sunny bright clime.
It would strengthen our faith and would vanish all fear;
Lord, let them look a past the curtain of time.

 

 

 

Israel Was Determined and Is Now 61!

 

Most of you know that Israel recently celebrated her 61st birthday as a modern nation.

 

I enjoyed celebrating by going to the Live Museum where actors in period costume take over a different central neighborhood in Jerusalem each year, turn the clock back to 1948 plus and have skits, singing, dancing, instrumentals and old documentaries about the founding of the state.

 

In this picture, the lady is singing patriotic camp-style songs sung on the kibbutzim while they were working at making the land inhabitable.

 

They were determined to settle the Land that God gave them, no matter what opposition they faced.  And they still are!

 

 

 

Pastor Shelley's Speaking Itinerary - 2009

(For details, click here.)

 

Vanguard Revival Ministries - Fire and Glory Conference 2009

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

May 14 - 16

 

Frontline Worship Center

Red Deer, Alberta, Canada

July 26 - August 2

 

New Hope Revival Ministries

Smiths Station, Alabama

August 5 - 9

 

Prayer Link of St. Louis

St. Louis, Missouri

August 23 - 25

 

Church of Glad Tidings

Yuba City, California

August 28 - 30

 

Desert Rock Fellowship

Richland, Washington

November 12 - 14

 

Fusion Church

Auckland, New Zealand

November 19 - 21

 

 

 

Campmeeting Registration Now Open!

 

Registration is now open for the New Hope Revival Ministries' 16th Annual International Campmeeting, August 5-9,  at their Smiths Station, Alabama, facility (near Columbus, Georgia).

 

Speakers will be Paul Keith Davis, Neville Johnson, Sadhu Sundar Selvaraj and Steven L. Shelley.

 

Seating is limited so register now at:  www.revival.org.

 

 

 

CDs, DVDs and Downloads Available:

The Revelation of the Open Book Conference - West Coast with speakers Paul Keith Davis, Chuck Pierce and Steven L. Shelley held in Tucson, Arizona, was unique and outstanding!   Downloads from individual sessions of this conference are available by clicking here.   For CD sets, click here. For DVD sets, click here.

In Closing

 

I am feeling quite well in spite of some coughing fits and occasional soreness where my leg joins to my body.  Thank you so much for your wonderful prayers! Please don't stop now!  I am determined to fulfill the Lord's destiny for my life!

 

Financially, we desperately need your help!  When I returned to Jerusalem, our vehicle wouldn't start and needed some expensive repair work and an annual inspection.  Coming up quickly on May 15th, our quarterly rent is due, and we are sorely lacking in funds.  But God isn't!

 

We are asking that everyone receiving these updates ask the Lord if you are to be part of the solution of helping us pay our basic living expenses!  Thank you in advance for responding to His nudges!

 

Pictured are our orange blossoms.  The fragrance is heavenly and the bees are happy! The tree is prolific with blooms and we should have loads of oranges from it this year (only 10 last year)!

 

By the way, if you ever miss an issue of our Update from Jerusalem, links to the issues are always posted on the left side of our website, www.jerusalemrevival.com.

 

 

(Php 3:13) Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

(Php 3:14) I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

 

 

May we have that same determination, with the help of bulldog faith (they never let go) and God's grace, to fulfill our destinies and high callings as sons of the Most High God, no matter what or who tries to hinder us!

 

 

 

Blessings, Grace and Shalom from Jerusalem!

 

Nancy Bergen

Jerusalem Revival Center

PO Box 49380

Jerusalem 97882, Israel
Tel. & Fax: 972-2-5825301

 

JRC@jerusalemrevival.com
www.jerusalemrevival.com