Dec 16, 2006

Yesterday I received emails and phone calls from friends living in Washington State, telling me about a powerful 90 mph wind and hail storm that had hit them, knocking out power to 1.5 million people. The AOL News today says,

"It was the most intense storm to hit the region since the Inauguration Day storm of Jan. 20, 1993, which killed five people and caused about $130 million in damage, said Clifford F. Mass, a University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor."

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/storm-cuts-power-to-about-15-million/20061215000109990003

In the past I have mentioned this storm back in 1993 that struck on the day President Clinton was inaugurated. It was a sign that an evil wind (spirit) had entered Washington D.C. Because Washington State is the spiritual headquarters for Washington D.C., I have watched that state for many years to see spiritual indications of what is happening in D.C. Seattle, Washington is in King County.

Snow and hail are physical signs of spiritual warfare occurring, as we read in Job 38:22, 23,

" (22) Have you entered the storehouses of the SNOW, or have you seen the storehouses of the HAIL, (23) which I have reserved for the time of distress, for the day of war and battle?"

Something significant is going on in Washington D.C. The battle is already on and is perhaps linked to the seventh vial poured out on October 7 at Babylon, NY. In the fall of Babylon we read that God send huge "hail stones" to destroy Babylon (Rev. 16:21). Of course, this is figurative language, because God no longer has to overthrow a physical city. Babylon is more than a city these days. And the physical hail is now only a sign of a greater warfare occurring in the heavens, along the line of what Daniel saw in Daniel 10:13-21.

I learned by personal experience many years ago that the armies of God are not only angelic but also consist of the spirits of His people. Since our spiritual consciousness is not often picked up by our soulish (mental) consciousness, we are usually unaware when we are in battle. But when we are, there are signs around us, and things happen to us that manifest our particular participation in these battles. Usually, we attribute these occurrences to "bad luck" or simply to other people doing things to us. Such is our blindness to spiritual things.

The New Gideon's Army was formed in May of 2001 by revelation, and God gave us a basic number of people whose spirits would be involved unconciously until June of 2006 when we called our first online prayer campaign. Then it became a conscious decision. Those of you who volunteer for duty are the ones who were called at least back as far as 2001, but now you are conscious prayer warriors.

The battle has been continuous and mostly unconscious, which is good, because that is less disruptive to us in our daily routines. We have also called for specific prayer campaigns along the way that bring the battles to our conscious mind and also serve as a teaching tool.

Our latest is to be held this coming Monday, December 18 called "Bear One Another's Burden." This has long been a watch date, because it is 40 days from November 8 (Noah's flood beginning). In other words, this marks the end of the 40 days of rain that occurred in the time of Noah (Gen. 7:12). The flood itself lasted another year in Noah's day, but the rain was only for 40 days.

Now that we know this 40-day period must end with a prayer campaign, it tells me that the "rain" represents spiritual warfare to judge the earth and overthrow the oppressive system. The primary difference, of course, is that this time we are expecting a flood of the Holy Spirit that will bring the glory of the Lord to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. And so the rain in Washington, while physical, is really only a sign of a greater and more positive flood that is coming. This flood will not remove the breath (ruach, "spirit") from man (as in Noah's day), but will insert it back into man.

I cannot stress enough the importance of this prayer campaign. It sounds innocuous enough, but I can assure you that it will have a huge impact upon America and the world. Certain ones have carried a huge and crushing burden in intercession for a long time, and the Lord has told us that the body needs to share the burden in order to find the strength to complete this work by the end of January 2007.

The spiritual opposition to Gideon's Army knows the importance of what is going on, and hence there is an all-out effort to crush us before our goal is reached. This storm in Washington is a physical manifestation of this warfare. In fact, they have had unusually bad weather for the past month as the spiritual battle has intensified. Now it has exceeded the 1993 Inauguration Day storm, according to today's news.

Having lived there for a few years (1993-1996), I know how unusual this weather is. I only heard thunder once during that whole time. There is a lot of rain in the form of a drizzle, but seldom any wind comes with it. Hail is almost non-existent there.

But now they are seeing all of this. The presence of hail indicates to me that God is bringing a spiritual hailstorm to Washington D.C. that will ultimately sweep away the refuge of lies (Isaiah 28:17). Hail is a sign that TRUTH is coming--by force if necessary.

I think of Jimmy Carter's new book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, as a big part of this. It has drawn a distinction between two concepts of Christianity: President Bush's Zionist Christianity that emphasizes war as a means to peace, and ex-president Carter's Christianity that promotes equal justice as the means to peace. Which variety do you think Jesus, the Prince of Peace would support?

I find it interesting that even in the midst of war, God is reaching out to Muslims in an unprecedented way. Reports indicate that at least 14 new evangelical churches have opened in Baghdad alone, and many more in the Kurdish region north of Baghdad. One church among the Kurds just opened two years ago and already has over 500 members. These churches are starting elementary schools, and 95 percent of the students are from Muslim families who have no problem sending their children to Christian schools.

There is much more security in the Kurdish north than in the Baghdad area. Since the new Iraqi constitution guarantees freedom of religion, many officials are actually abiding by this principle. And because Christian relief organizations have been such a great blessing to the people, they have had opportunity to manifest the love of Christ to the Muslim people.

Among many Muslim communities in other places, most of the Christian pastors are ex-Muslim Imams. Many of them were converted, not through missionaries, but because they report that Jesus appeared to them in a dream or vision and revealed Himself to them. Many report that He showed them the last 24 hours of His life prior to His crucifixion. It had such a tremendous effect upon them that they immediately confessed Him and accepted His sacrifice on the cross. It is not unlike the revelation to the 12-year-old artist in yesterday's web log, to whom Christ appeared when she was just four years old.

This is the kind of outpouring of the Spirit that I believe will become a flood shortly. It is the real purpose of our intercession and spiritual warfare.