Aug 18, 2010

Early last week I told people that if my trip to San Francisco was going to involve spiritual warfare, it would most likely come at the end of the week. This proved to be the case.

On Friday the 13th (evening) as I was teaching, I "accidentally" stepped off the platform backward and fell to the floor. I was not hurt and stood to my feet immediately, but it gave the people quite a scare. I brushed it off and continued teaching as if nothing had happened. Even so, I knew immediately that this had been the work of a "possessed" woman attending the meeting who was very much into Santeria, an old religion from Africa similar to Voodoo.

It was surprising to me that she was able to do this, since I am always well aware of divine protection around me. But for the moment I put it out of my mind in order to focus upon teaching.

The next day the three of us went into San Francisco, where we saw the sign: Hello, My Name is AMOS. We discovered from this that the particular "breach" being repaired was the one mentioned in Amos 9:11, a verse we had related to Sept. 11, 2001 (i.e., 911) since the Twin Towers demolition. Ron has often mentioned the repair of this breach in his talks, relating Amos 9:11 to 911.

About two hours later, as we turned into the parking lot of a coffee shop, it finally all came together in my mind. "I got it," I told them. Amos 9:11 speaks of the repair of the breach of Tabernacle which had FALLEN DOWN. We are the temple of God, Paul says, but in the same manner we are also the Tabernacle of David. That Tabernacle had fallen down, and I had represented this Tabernacle the previous evening. For this reason, God had allowed me to fall down.

God allowed Job to be struck down when He removed His hand of protection temporarily. It was not because Job had done something wrong, but there was a higher purpose in God's mind which would ultimately be a blessing to Job. So also God allowed me to fall down in order to provide a type of the Tabernacle of David, knowing that the next day we would say "hello" to Amos 9:11.

It reminded me a lot of Balaam, who wanted to curse Israel but all he could do was bless them. So it is with us. When the enemy tries to curse us, all they can really do is bless us. Even if they appear to "win" in the short-term, we always win in the long term.

After our meeting on Friday evening, we had opportunity to pray with the husband of the Santeria woman. He too had been involved in that religion, though she was better at it, having been dedicated to the devil by her parents when she was a child. I will not go into any detail here, except to say that this is a religion of witchcraft, and that its demonic power is very real. He offered a full repentance and confession of sin, and we prayed deliverance for him.

The group there had already accomplished a partial deliverance for her some weeks ago, but because of the lateness of the hour, they had been unable to finish the job. They discovered that they were successful in overcoming these spirits when they linked hands in a circle around her. As soon as they did this (with prayer, of course), they had good success. This told them that their strength for success was in UNITY.

For this reason, I wrote my blog last Saturday, asking that you pray to be in unity with me during this time of spiritual warfare. We were being opposed by the spirit of Santeria in the attempt to stop the repair of the breach. It seems that the breach represented disunity in a way, and that repairing the breach had to do with uniting the living stones. Anyway, I appreciate your taking the time to be in unity with me in this work.

On a larger scale, this idea of Unity has everything to do with the teachings of the book of Galatians. Paul's epistle deals with disunity inherent in Judaism and in the Judaizers of his day, where men are divided into two camps: chosen and not chosen. The whole problem was represented by the dividing wall in the court of the temple in Jerusalem, which separated Jewish men from the women and "gentiles."

Amos 9:11 speaks of repairing the breach in the Tabernacle of David, and the next verse gives us the reason for repairing it:

(12) That they may possess the remnant of Edom [or "men" in the Septuagint] and all the nations who are called by My name, declares the Lord who does this.

Acts 15:17 and 18 quotes this verse from the Septuagint, saying,

(17) In order that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name, (18) says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.

The names Edom and Adam are nearly the same in the Hebrew. Adam, when used without the definite article, simply means man or mankind. This is the passage specifically mentioned in the first Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 to show that the other nations were also "called by My name." This was all part of getting rid of that dividing wall that kept non-Jews and women from getting close to God.

As we approach the time of the Open Door Ministry, taking the Gospel of the Kingdom to all nations, it is important that the breach in the Tabernacle of David would be repaired. This breach was repaired by the Apostle Paul, but since 1948 the dividing wall has been rebuilt with the help of the Church. Once again this caused a breach in the Tabernacle of David, which is now being repaired after 62 years.

So, as I have written in the past, it appears that the two-year delay since 2008 is coming to an end. It is quite possible that the two-year delay of the Iranian War is also coming to an end. Recall that Georgia went to war against South Ossetia on August 7, 2008, and Russia entered the war the next day, August 8. In bombing the airfield, they made it impossible for the US and Israelis to use it against Iran as planned.

I then flew to South Africa a month later in September, thinking that this was the start of the Open Door Ministry. But that, too, proved to be premature and was delayed.

This month I flew to San Francisco on August 7 and spoke in the church there for the first time on August 8. This trip involved spiritual warfare to repair the breach in the Tabernacle of David, which is now known to be about the unity of all believers in Christ. People of all the nations can be called by His name and can approach God as freely and as closely as any natural Israelite.

It is likely, then, that we are on the brink of war, and that the Open Door Ministry is about to begin. War in the Middle East will not stop the Gospel of the Kingdom from going to the rest of the world. In fact, it will open up the rest of the world to the Gospel. In connection with this is our series on Galatians, which gives the final understanding needed to carry out the work that lies ahead.