THE SHADOW!
 by Prophet Phil Rich
www.epaministries.com
(epaministries@earthlink.net)

Acts 5:14-16;  "And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.) Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.   There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one."

            There came a multitude and they were all healed. The shadow of Peter overshadowed some of them.

            This is a story that has intrigued me since I was a small boy. I thought what had happened here was so awesome. Peter was seeing multitudes of sick people healed.

            A multitude in the word of God can be anywhere from twenty thousand to one hundred and twenty thousand people. A lot of people were being brought to the general area where Peter was.

            For years I thought the shadow of Peter was his actual shadow. When I stand in my shadow may go about six feet in one direction. There is no way I can minister to sixty thousand people with that size shadow.

            When we study scripture we find that the word "shadow" means the covering of Peter. Who was his covering? The Lord, the Holy Spirit.

            We are going to be talking about how to get this shadow, which is really the overshadowing of the presence of God, the Shekinah glory of God that hovers over us. We can get the presence of God to tangibly hover over us and anybody who comes near it will receive the effects of it.

Exodus 13:21;  "And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:"

            Notice, it says the Lord was going to go before them as a cloud. A cloud will cover portions of the earth. The shadow of the cloud overshadows and is affecting what is under it.

            This scripture says the Lord would go before them and would be the shadow, the covering to them by day and by night. The Lord Himself would be the covering. The pillar of a cloud would protect them from the heat of the day and the burning sun. The heat of the desert could dehydrate them very quickly. The sand could scorch their feet. It was a dangerous situation with the heat of the sun while they were in the desert. The Lord became their covering. He overshadowed them from the heat of the day. He overshadowed them and became the warmth and light they needed by night.

            They had the fire by night (warmth and light) and cloud by day (to cover them and keep them cool).

Psalms 17:8;  "Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,"

            "Wings" actually means beams of light or revelation. "Hide me under Your revelation, Lord." Revelation is a covering. The revelation of Jesus will be your covering of protection. It was that revelation that brought you into salvation. It is that revelation that brought you into healing. It is that revelation that brought you into deliverance. It is that revelation that brought you into a brand new day.

Luke 1:34-35;  "Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."

            Mary was asking a question of the angel. She wanted to know how it could be that never having known a man she could give birth to a baby. That is not a bad question. She wanted to know for clarity. There was no unbelief in her when she asked the question. If there had been, the angel would not have answered the question.

            Wherever the Holy Ghost overshadows us there are creative miracles. The impossible becomes possible with the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. What cannot happen begins to happen.

            I have been in services where God began to open blind eyes. How? Because of His overshadowing presence. I didn't even touch the people. The Lord did it by His shadow. The overshadowing presence of God can recreate organs of the body that don't even exist. I was there when the Lord recreated eyeballs for a twelve-year-old boy.

            Do you want the shadow of God?

            Now let's look at how to have this experience where the overshadowing power and presence of God is with you all the time.

            When you get the shadow people's lives are changed wherever you are, wherever you go. I was talking to an evangelist I know and he was telling me that he had spent one morning in the Word and in prayer. He felt the presence of God very strong that day. Remembering he had a letter to mail, he left his house and walked down the street to a mailbox. On the way he passed a woman who was using a walker. As she came around the corner, he walked past her and she fell on the grass. He went over to see how she was and she was healed. As he walked past her the power of God hit her, she was healed and didn't need a walker anymore.

            I love it when people just get healed in a service without me laying hands on them. How does it happen? The shadow is there.

            Can I tell you something about the shadow? Even if you are sitting all the way in the back of a service, the shadow is still touching you and you are about to receive.

            There are three scriptures that show the three ways you can have the experience of the shadow with you all the time.

Psalms 31:19-20;  "Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues."

            To fear the Lord means that you respect, reverence and obey Him and His words.

If you fear the Lord, you keep His commandments. When you obey God's Word that is your proof that you fear God. To fear God is the beginning of wisdom. (Psalms 111:10; Proverbs 9:10)

            To fear God is not thinking that any moment God will strike you down. To fear Him is to know that He is so awesome, that He is Lord God Almighty. You respect Him. You honor Him. You wouldn't want to do a thing to hurt Him. You want to obey His Word. That is the fear of God.

Proverbs 3:5-6;  "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

            Trust Him. Probably the strongest faith you will ever have is trust. Trust that no matter what happens you know He is going to bring you through. Even when what you are believing for hasn't happened yet, you still trust. You know He is going to work things for your good. That is the kind of faith we need to enter into.

            To get the covering of the secret of His presence, the pavilion we must fear and trust God.

Isaiah 4:5-6;  "And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies [churches, gatherings], a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.  And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain."

            God said, "I am going to create this upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion (Christian people) and upon her assemblies (gatherings of the believers)." God wants His people to understand and come in His Name.

Matthew 18:20;  "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

            "Midst" means to manifest in the middle of you. When we come together in His Name (in His nature, likeness, personality, character) He is there in the midst. He will be that covering, that shadow in the house of the Lord. Everybody will feel the shadow of God. They will experience the covering of God and we will understand the power of the corporate anointing to bring the shadow of God upon us.

We come into the house of God and don't have hate in our heart toward each other. We have love in our heart. We don't have unforgiveness in our heart toward one another. Before we come into the house of God we need to repent and ask God to forgive us for things, to get things out of our heart. Don't wait till you get to the house of God to do your repenting. Do it before you get there. Then when you come, come in His nature, come in His character, come with the love of God in your heart, come with the peace of God in your heart, come ready to bless somebody, come ready to love on somebody, come ready to lift somebody up. Before we come to church we have to make sure we have done our spiritual housecleaning so that when we come we are coming in His Name (nature, likeness, personality, character).

I have been in services where people got saved sitting in their seats. There didn't have to be an altar call for them to give their heart to the Lord. Many of them started speaking in tongues. When the shadow comes, everything God has is there and it is released automatically, supernaturally.

Psalms 91:1;  "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."

            To dwelleth means to make your abode in His presence.

In other words, you are not religious. You are not putting on your "Sunday-go-to-meeting-clothes." I saw an old songbook one time that had a song entitled "Ain't It a Shame." The words went like this: "Ain't it a shame to sin on Sunday when you have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Ain't it a shame to commit adultery on Sunday when you have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday." We may think that is absurd but that is the way a lot of Christians live.

My son came to me one day and said he was troubled. Many of the young people in a high school he had attended said they were Christians. But, they would get drunk like the rest of the people. They would cuss, sleep around and do everything the others did. Then, they would go to church. That is not abiding. There will be no shadow. Do you know what is sad about that? If you get involved in an accident during the week, there is no shadow. If somebody with a gun wants to shoot the gun your way during the week, there is no shadow. If you live like everyone else to fit in, there is no shadow. There is no covering.

He that dwelleth in the secret place does not mean you have to stay in your prayer closet all day long. It means that you have spent some time with God to get His covering over you. When you walk out of your prayer closet you carry your prayer closet with you. I have noticed that when I have a wonderful time with God in the morning, He goes with me. I will feel the same anointing I had felt earlier when I was praying.

I believe there is a place where no harm can come to you if you have the shadow. The shadow is the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God. He will overshadow you, protect you, provide for you. He will release finances. He will release healing. He will release blessing to you and to everybody you come in contact with. There will be people radically changed and all you did was walk past them or happen to be in the same building.

Smith Wigglesworth had some of that shadow on him. He stopped to get some directions one day. There was a factory and he went in the door to get the directions. When he did the shadow walked in with him. All the workers fell on the floor. They had to shut down production and all the workers got saved. In the Welsh revival there was a church that prayed so much they had the shadow cover their city. It was a church of thirty or forty people. When people came into the town, they would fall off their horses and repent. The whole city got saved.

Do you want the shadow in your life?

Matthew 6:6;  "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

            This passage tells me that if I will spend some time in devotions with the Lord, He will reward me. Guess what He rewards us with?

Genesis 15:1;  "After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward."

            There is no greater reward that God can give you than to give you Himself. He could reward you with healing but then you could get sick again. What if He rewards you with Himself and He is Jehovah Rapha. Isn't it better to get the healer than just the healing?

            "Well, I wish He would reward me with a lot of money." Why? You would spend it all and be broke again. Isn't it better to get Jehovah Jirah and El Shaddai, the creator of all wealth and all silver and gold? Isn't it better to get the one who creates wealth than to just getting wealth? Why not get the source of wealth into your life and He will take care of you.

The greatest reward I will ever get from God is to have Him. That means divine favor wherever I go. I will get the job others can't get. I will receive things when others can't get them. There have been times when I have gone into stores to buy something and a clerk would whisper to me that something was going on sale the next week but they would give me the sale price right then.

The shadow causes you to get what others can't get. It causes you to be able to do what others can't do. It causes you to have results that others can't have. Do you want to be extremely productive even in natural things and be able to bless mankind? That does not even touch all the spiritual things you can have to bless mankind with. I happen to believe that God wants to bless some people with the ability to create wealth, an ability to literally have the power to get the wealth.