Now Paul is talking about the Jews specifically, but the Holy Spirit is talking about us. To enter into the place of higher dimensions, there is only one way to go. There is only one road. Do you see this carpet? What color is it? This carpet is red. The road we must travel is stained with the blood of Jesus, but it is also stained with the blood of the saints. Anyone who comes to the cross where the glory dwells must come down this path. The only way to get there is by the blood of Christ and by the blood of your own life. You must die that He might live. It is the only way an exchange can be made. Death starts through repentance.

When traveling to various places in the world and teaching, I have found that almost no one in the world understands repentance. Very, very few people understand, because we have had about 30 or 40 years of being taught the message of grace that bypasses repentance. And yet repentence is the only way into the deeper things of God. The Bible says, “But whenever a person turns in repentance to the Lord, the veil is stripped away.” What veil? The current veil that stands between you and the higher glory you seek.

I was in prayer one day and I was telling the Lord what I tell Him so often—how much I desire to know Him more completely and to dwell in the deepest part of Himself. I was crying out to Him in this way, when suddenly I found myself in an experience. I found myself walking down a corridor, a hallway. As I walked down this hall, I saw veil, after veil, after veil, after veil and each veil was a different color. One veil was in pastel pink and the walls that surrounded the room this side of the veil were the same colors as the veil. The next veil was perhaps violet, and the walls that surrounded the room or the hall this side of the veil were the same colors as the veil. So pink walls, pink veil; violet walls, violet veil; baby blue walls, baby blue veil and it went like that until we covered all the colors of the rainbow. Each veil was one of the colors of the rainbow.

I found myself going down this hallway, and just as I would get to a veil it would rip open in front of me and I could see into the next section of the hall. I would walk down until I approached the next veil and the same thing happened. And in each section of the hall, the glory that I could see before me was brighter than it had been before. At each ripping of a veil, the glory was getting brighter and clearer until finally I got to the last veil. As I entered into the last veil, I saw the Lord sitting upon the throne, in the crystalline, radiance, and majestic glory in which He reigns. Then He gave me this scripture: “But whenever a person turns in repentence to the Lord, the veil is stripped off and taken away.”

If you want to grow, God will begin to reveal the hindrances to your growth. He will begin to show you your heart, the blackness, the murkiness, the ugliness, the wretchedness of your heart. He will show you individual and specific sins, individual and specific ways of thought and life that are opposed to His fullness and His glory, to His nature and His character. Now, what most Christians do when they begin to go through this process is that they cannot tolerate seeing the ugliness of their heart and they cut it off and begin to leave the prayer closet, begin to put the Word of God aside and harden their heart to His conviction so the transformations never occur.

Now, I want to tell you a secret about God so listen to me very carefully. How many of you want to go into deeper things in God? Listen to what I am going to say very, very carefully—it is a strong warning. There are some things that God will offer to you over and over and over again, giving you many opportunities to embrace what He is wanting to do before He finally relents and closes the door if you have not appropriated it. But there are some things He offers only once and if you do not take it then, and allow Him to do the work to grant you the blessings He wants to give, the door is forever closed.

This is another mystery about God so again, listen very carefully, because these are important truths you really want to know to go into the deeper things of God. The Lord will usually not say to you, “I want to give you thus and so blessing.” Sometimes that is what He will do, but usually if He really wants to take you in deep, what He will say is, "I want to take you through thus or so trial.” Or, “I want to carry you through thus or so storm; I want to humble you.” Or, “I want to develop this virtue in you; will you allow Me to carry you through this?” And if you say no and run in the other direction, the blessing that waited on the other side is removed and withdrawn.

One time He spoke to me in a vision and said, “I want to carry you through a storm that will last five months. This storm is going to be very painful for you because everything you say is going to get twisted and turned, you are going to get judged and criticized, you are going to experience defamation of your character and you are going to feel very much alone. Will you allow Me to carry you through this?” And I said, “Yes Lord.” He said, “All right then, this is what I will give you on the other side,” and He began to show me what He was going to open up to me.

So, I went through that five months and it was everything that He said it was going to be. I mean, even the grocery clerk seemed to misunderstand me. The dry cleaning lady seemed to misunderstand me. No one trusted my heart. I lost several friends that I thought were dear friends and never dreamed I would lose. The Lord is only just now beginning to restore those relationships. It was very painful, but on the other side of the storm, all the blessings that He promised me, He gave.

And so there are times that He will say to you, “I want to give you this blessing” and you can almost assume that you will travel through a storm to get to that blessing. But very often, He will say to you, “I want to carry you through to thus and so and it will be difficult for you, will you go?” And He will judge by your response the character and quality of your heart and your worthiness to receive this blessedness of growth in Him.

Earlier in this conference, a brother said, “Everything in the kingdom has a price” and I cannot tell you how true that is. Salvation is free, but once you get saved, all of the growth in God carries with it a price. It carries with it a price of self-exposure, which is not comfortable. It carries with it the price of swarms of testings and trials to to temper you, to develop you and to help you so that when He releases the blessing of the impartation of Himself, you can receive it.

Please hear me. We have so cheapened life in God in the Body of Christ by all of this prosperity teaching. Now I am not trying to step on toes or offend, but what I am saying to you is the truth. We have so cheapened life in God that we have brought it down to be of almost no value at all, until all we look at is whether or not God is blessing us. Like our brother said, “We are looking for His hand.” And in looking for His hand we totally avoid His face.

We have so cheapened life in God that we act like spoiled children, having temper tantrums when God does not respond the way we think He should. Amen? Am I telling you the truth? The truth is, there has never been a more precious gift than the life of God. Every new revelation of impartation of His life is so precious. It is worth any price you have to pay to get it. If you ever see Him face to face just one time, you will know that it is worth traveling through the hardest storms in life to see the beauty of His countenance. It is a privilege to hear the voice of God—let us not cheapen it. It is an honor to be a child of God, to hear His voice, His sense of touch. To experience the life of His Spirit is the highest honor, the highest privilege a human being could ever know.

Even if you have walked with presidents and kings, it is of no value compared to one word from God’s throne.

To be continued next week…

In His Amazing Love,

Nita Johnson