A few months ago I was at a prophetic conference where thousands of believers were gathered together worshiping the Lord. As we sang “God of Wonders,” suddenly a wave of fiery passion to worship the Lord spread across the congregation. As the song came to an end, the worshipers continued to cry out “You are Holy, Holy, Holy” over and over again. The entire auditorium seemed to reverberate and shake with the cries of the worshipers. As this continued, I saw two bright lights in the upper corners of the front of the auditorium. These burning lights appeared, at first, to be two whirling swords of fire. While I could still hear and feel the worship in the room, it was as if my eyes were fixed on these twirling flames. It was then that I realized I seemed to be in a different realm than the other worshipers around me. The presence of the crowd of worshipers looked almost like a shadow surrounding me, as I suddenly realized I was in the same realm as these two whirling flames.

I was unnerved by this realization, yet I couldn’t help staring intently at them, and soon realized the flames that spun about were not swords but wings. These fiery ones were seraphims joining in with the worship of the redeemed in this place. As the worship service came to a halt, the flames of the fiery ones faded away and I found myself once again merely standing with others in the auditorium.

I asked the Lord what this experience was about and what it means for the Church. He revealed to me that for the last decade there has been a cry going up to heaven from much of the Church “Lord, enlarge Your kingdom and increase Your presence on earth. May it be on earth as it is in heaven.” God is about to answer these prayers in ways that will surprise and even startle many believers. We are entering into days when there is being released increased spiritual encounters with the heavenly realm. Across the body of Christ and around the world there will be increased angelic encounters, more manifestations of the glory cloud of God’s presence, the appearance of various heavenly sounds and supernatural signs, and spontaneous healings occuring during worship services. At first, only a few will experience this realm of heaven come to earth. But later, many (sometimes even the entire congregation) will have a close encounter of the best kind — an encounter with the throne room of heaven.

The Lord wants us to know that there are two ingredients necessary for this kind of encounter to occur, and they were both present at this conference. First, we were not singing about ourselves nor even about what God has done. We were passionately engaged in true worship; declaring the unfathomable greatness of God’s attributes. In Isaiah 6 we see the seraphim worshiping God. They flew around the throne of God proclaiming, “‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!’ And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke” (Isaiah 6:3–4).

The second prerequisite was united worship — hearts that had come together with a singleness of purpose to exalt the Lord with one voice. It was at a time like this that the glory cloud came and overwhelmed the priests when Solomon’s Temple was dedicated. “Indeed, it came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying: ‘For He is good, for His mercy endures forever,’ that the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God” (2 Chronicles 5:13–14).

If we will come together in worship with hearts desiring to declare passionate worship to Jesus, we will find that the things of heaven will invade our times of worship. Lord, prepare our hearts to boldly go in worship where we have never gone before, and help us to experience the throne room of heaven — where the supernatural is natural and the King is most highly exalted!