Hearts United Women's Ministry

Knitting Hearts Ministry Presents:
International Bible Teacher
Nicky S. Raibordai
“Recognizing God’s Visitation”

Written by Sue Sanders
September 9, 2017

Those of us gathered today were able to cast aside our apprehensions concerning the impending storm and focus on the joy of being in His presence. We, the worshippers, did arise, as the song indicated. We, His sons and daughters, sang as we surrendered our all. Joyce Sanders opened the event in prayer and shared Psalm 34:4 with us. The praise team then led us in singing about the blood, the blood that will never lose its power. This blood reaches to the highest mountains, flows to the lowest valleys, gives us strength from day to day, soothes our doubts, calms our fears and dries all our tears. The next song made the declaration that we need Jesus, and hope is our anthem. The praise cloud got higher and higher as we sang about the beautiful, wonderful, and powerful name of Jesus Christ, our King.

After Gail Timmons prayed the offertory prayer, Joyce introduced Pastor Nicky S. Raiborde, pastor of International Family Church in Columbia, SC. Pastor Nicky’s calling is to teach the Word of God and to prophesy. He shared, “God wants to visit each of you. He moves in our lives, and we need to recognize those times.”

Pastor Nicky shared Luke 7:16 from the NKJV and the Message:

“Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us”; and, “God has visited His people.”

“They all realized they were in a place of holy mystery, that God was at work among them. They were quietly worshipful—and then noisily grateful, calling out among themselves, “God is back, looking to the needs of his people!”

Pastor Nicky focused on “visited” and “God is back, looking to the needs of His people.” The next Scripture passage he shared was Luke 19:44 (AMP): “ And they will dash you down to the ground, you [Jerusalem] and your children within you; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, [all] because you did not come progressively to recognize and know and understand [from observation and experience] the time of your visitation [that is, when God was visiting you, the time [a]in which God showed Himself gracious toward you and offered you salvation through Christ].”

Pastor Nicky zoned in on “did not recognize the time of their visitation” and “visiting.” Jesus was rebuking them because they had not recognized that God was working in their lives. There are two different responses: Some are sensitive to the moving of the Spirit and recognize the visitation while others are disconnected and oblivious that God is working.

Pastor Nicky shared of His hunger and thirst for the things of God, a hunger that began when he was 12 and progressed extensively causing him to read over 500 books about God from the time he was 12 until he was 17. He knew a lot about God, but he indicated that he did not really know God. He had always said that he would never preach. Everything changed when he turned 20 when God moved in his life in a dramatic way. In June 1997 Jesus appeared to him, called him by his name, and asked him to lay down his life because he was sending him to the nations of the world. Before he was 21, he had been to 5 continents. He had told God that if he allowed him to go to 5 continents, he would hear more of His instructions. Pastor Nicky said that everything he has accomplished is because of the touch of God. He has no seminary education, yet God has allowed him to minister extensively in other countries. He indicated, “I am fulfilled when I preach. My prayer has been ‘God use me.’” Pastor Nicky mentioned some O.T. men and women whom God visited: Sarah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Jonah, etc. He reminded us that the language of the O.T. was Hebrew while the N.T. was Greek. To Nicky the English language is boring. He shared some examples of English words that are very confusing to him. Nonetheless, he acknowledged the power of the Word of God and shared, “God speaks to those people who honor His Word.”

He then moved into the heart of his message: Five Pictures of Visitation.

1. God comes as a Doctor and gives a prescription. (See Psalm 41:4.) The majority of us are looking for breakthroughs, miracles, and/or healings; and we want the answers now. However, God might be saying that there are some issues in our lives that need to be dealt with. We need a prescription although we might not recognize it. We put God in a box and expect Him to work in a certain way. Unfortunately, we have limited vision. God might be interested in dealing with our pride, just as he was with Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Syria who had leprosy, and was told by the prophet Elijah to wash 7 times in the Jordan River. He might tell us to forgive someone or love on someone we despise. God is interested in dealing with the root issues.
   
2. God comes as a chiropractor and brings alignment. We ask, “Why can’t I hear God’s voice?” The answer often lies in our obedience. Some of us will never move forward until people die in our lives because we are emotionally connected. God instructed Abram,, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” Abram left, but he took Lot with him. People can block what God can show you. Family problems are birthed where God is absent. Quarrels and mocking often come from family members. Because of quarreling between Abram’s herders and Lot’s herders, they separated and took different portions of the land. As soon as Lot left, Abram saw a vision. Lot’s name means veil.  Pastor Nicky reminded us, “Sometimes alignment is painful and noisy. Remember that God is at the place where He last spoke to you, and you obeyed. Where has God planted you?” We Christians are living stones. Stones are not the same shape. They have to be chiseled on. God makes us and puts us at a church so that we can grow up. We often find it difficult to work at a church where people are different from us. If I am so in love with God and can’t love people, something is wrong. “Where is God?” Pastor Nicky asked. “We are playing church. People are not where they are supposed to be in obedience to God.”
   
3. God comes as a building inspector. There are building codes, standards that must be adhered to. The building code inspector follows certain guidelines: He does the following things: a. Tells us what the code is. B. Tells us what things are not according to code. C. Tells us how to get things in alignment with the code. D. Tells us how to stay on track (Deuteronomy 16:16).  God asks us to go through inspection, to see if we have deviated from the blueprint. Names are so significant in Bible culture. Jacob meant heel grabber, and Esau red. It is important to realize that we become what people call us. God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, a name that meant prince along my side. We need to lift up what God thinks of us.
   
4. God comes for divine intervention. God visited Sarah when there was no possibility of the fulfillment of the earlier promise of a child. There is a right time. We think God has missed it, just as Sarah and Abraham did. God is the Master at doing impossible things and making them possible.
   
5. God comes as an investor. In the story in Matthew 25, the master gave his servants talents. God comes and deposits in us. If we are faithful in the little things, God will give us much. We tend to compare and measure ourselves beside others who seem greater and more productive. We must remember that we stand for an audience of One.

Pastor Nicky shared the trips that he made on trains to 5 different continents right after committing his life totally to the Lord. He had no outlined plan, no agenda, no ministry opportunities; he listened to God’s voice and took advantage of any opening that God gave.

He admonished us, “Be faithful in the little things. Don’t compare yourself with others. Use what you have.” There is a connection between death and visitation. In Genesis 50: 24-25, Joseph was dying, but he told his brethren that God would surely visit them and bring them out of the land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

God will surely visit each one of you. Something has to die for the visitation. Isaiah 6:1 says,” In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.” King Uzziah was prideful. On that day pride died for their nation. There are characteristics attached to every person in God. Something has to die.

Isaaiah 54:1 reminds us that we need to sing in the midst of the storm, even and especially when everything is bad. There is breaking through and breaking forth, a song being birthed. Watch the breakthrough come! In every season God highlights a key to breakthrough. Ours is song.

While Pastor Nicky ministered and prayed for those who responded to the altar call, the praise team sang a breakthrough song, “What a Wonderful Name, the Name of Jesus.”

We could all say that a great prophet was among us and that God visited us His people. We experienced a visitation from the Lord. The Scripture Pastor Nicky spoke was prophetic: “They were quietly worshipful—and then noisily grateful, calling out among themselves, “God is back, looking to the needs of His people!”