Encountering God

by Carley Clark

My name is Carley and I've been a Christian for over 30 years. My personality was always pretty low key, nothing much ever excited me. I tried to be a good wife and mother but was going through life almost like on automatic pilot. Over the years I started to suffer from a number of maladies such as anxiety, high blood pressure, fibromyalgia type of body pain, and insomnia, just to name a few. I've been taking medication for all these illnesses. My favorite activities in the past were reading secular books, going to movies, shopping and lunch dates out with friends. Several years ago I began to get stirred to seek a deeper walk and relationship with Christ. I heard stories of others who were attending Christian conferences where very anointed and prophetic speakers were speaking, and they were being touched, healed, and moved into greater anointing themselves. I started going to conferences myself. I remember in particular attending a conference at Bethel Church in Redding, Ca. where Bob Jones was one of several speakers. At one session, as the worship band was rehearsing before the evening meeting, I felt drawn to the front of the room and was standing there worshipping when one of the Bethel intercessors walked up to me, put her prayer shawl over my shoulders and her flag in my hand, and prophesied that I would take a greater measure of worship back to my home church and lead in breaking open the dance and flag ministry. She said, “Now do it: run and dance across the front!” And I did.
The next day, while standing in line to go into another session, an intercessor from another church said, "May I speak something over you?" He said he saw me wearing a full suit of armor and that I was a “worship warrior.” He said the Lord had actually shown this to him the day before as he saw me worshipping. I got very excited and picked up my Bible and showed him the large label I had glued to the top of it saying "WORSHIP WARRIOR," which is something I had been declaring over my life ever since my husband, Charley, first gave me the label. After this I ordered a book by the same title written by Chuck Pierce, and my personal prayer time and hunger to know Jesus grew deeper.
During this time our pastors were being stirred to lead our whole church deeper and higher than we'd ever been before. Our ladies' Tuesday morning Bible study meeting’s name got changed to "Women Encountering God" because that’s what started happening. Our pastor Cheryl would come into the meeting and say "I don't have any agenda today; let’s just pray and ask Holy Spirit what He wants to do" (see "Ladies Intercessory Prayer Meeting" posted 3/23/08). Thus we positioned ourselves to be wide open to whatever God had for us each week and we began encountering Him regularly.
I kept going to conferences that hosted speakers who had come and ministered in my own church, and also other prophetic speakers that I know my pastors stand with. About 2 years ago I attended a meeting in San Diego with Pastor Cheryl and some of the other ladies from our church. The main speaker was Jill Austin. One afternoon between sessions I went back to my hotel room to rest, but while dozing in and out of sleep I received 4 very clear picture visions from the Lord. In the first one I saw myself on a stairway into Heaven with an open door at the top. In the second vision I saw myself with my head tilted way back and my mouth wide open and a big spoon coming toward my open mouth. This transitioned into vision #3 in which I saw myself bent over in labor pains and then giving birth to a baby. Lastly, in the 4th vision, I saw my head with a huge ladle spilling oil all over it. At that point I woke up and thought "Oh wow! You have just shown me some amazing things, Lord." (I am now seeing several of these visions come to pass. I am one of the ladies in our church who has been experiencing birthing something in the Spirit. This is a very intense experience of labor-like pains and crying out as if in childbirth.) Pastor Cheryl was also overcome by the presence of the Holy Spirit at this conference and went down under the Power as the glory of God was released over her. She could not walk or stand for some time during that meeting. We had to drag her back to her seat as she couldn’t walk under her own power.
Since then I have prayed continually to be filled and used by God and for His will to be accomplished in my life. My hunger keeps growing and the realm of His presence is opening up to me.
\Last month I attended another conference in San Jose, Ca. on "Empowering Supernatural Women." The theme of this gathering was joy and celebration. There was much "drunkenness in the Spirit" as well as much laughter and dancing. Each night we were invited to come up to worship and dance, and hundreds did. One night in particular I was up front dancing to a song about soaring on eagles’ wings. I literally felt like I was soaring; I had my arms extended and was lost in the moment when I heard a woman next to me say, "Oh wow! You really are flying with Him!" She could sense what I was feeling. Portals of God's glory began opening all over the meeting room. In some places people were weeping while at others they were laughing. As the night got late, some people got out of their seats to leave. But when they reached a portal of glory in the aisle they just fell down to the floor! They couldn’t get up in spite of trying to.
During a session where Patricia King was speaking, a misty rain began to fall and the smell of fresh rain filled the room. There were other manifestations such as feathers falling. I saw 2 of them myself. After we sang a song about the sweetness of God's wine, many could smell the fragrance of new wine.
While standing at my seat one afternoon worshipping, a woman in the seat ahead of me turned around, took my hands and started speaking prophetically to me. She spoke of a new level of intercession and said there was a roar of the Lion of Judah deep within me getting ready to sound. I opened my eyes and realized it was the same woman who had spoken that initial word to me up at Bethel Church in Redding. I reminded her of that incident and she thought it was pretty amazing. At that point she began praying “more” over me and I shook violently. I continued to tremble after coming home for several days especially when sharing my experiences about this conference with anyone.
People ask how these experiences have changed me. I have an increased hunger to know Jesus more intimately, and a burning desire to be in His presence daily. There is nothing that gives me more joy than getting lost in worship. I am consumed; I am obsessed; I am addicted to the lover of my soul and I can NOT get enough of Him! At the same time, many physical things that I have been fighting in my body are showing improvement. I have been able to cut back to half on the meds I take for pain, anxiety, and high blood pressure with no ill effects. I have constant joy, zest for life, and excitement about what God is doing in the earth. The things of this world hold no more attraction for me. I feel like I have come alive from the deadness of my previous existence. My heart’s desire now is to see Jesus lifted higher, to see others set free as I have been, and to see the lost come to know Him and His amazing grace.