Sep 10, 2012

I was out of town last Saturday and will again be out of town Monday through Wednesday, Sept. 10-12.

Last Saturday we were in Des Moines, Iowa for the memorial service for Tad Stittsworth. Some you know him, as he was one of the speakers at our conference in Chandler, Arizona some years ago. He had a stroke in July 2005 and had to go to a nursing facility. He died of pneumonia last Wednesday here in Minneapolis and was buried in Des Moines on Saturday. Ron Oja led the memorial service.

It was a beautiful day, and Tad was laid to rest next to a section where children were buried. Tad always loved children, and they loved him. He was childlike in many ways. We will miss him.

Today we will be driving north to the headwaters of the Mississippi River once again. The last time we were there was on July 9, 2010 when we were led to throw barley meal into the headwaters as the 8th sign of Elisha (2 Kings 4). In one sense this trip will be like a double witness, perhaps closing off that 8th sign and preparing for the 9th.

We will do the main work tomorrow, September 11, which is the one-year anniversary of the start of Operation Jericho last year (Sept. 11-17, 2011). You can read about Operation Jericho from the blog archives at the time.

But also, this date is the 52nd day from July 22, 2012. Recall that it took 52 days for Nehemiah to repair the walls of Jerusalem. He finished on the 25th of Elul (Hebrew calendar), which correlates this year with Sept. 12, 2012.

So our work will primarily focus upon the conclusion of repairing the breach in the walls ("law") of the New Jerusalem.

The discernment leading up to this was the topic of a blog last June after our Pentecost conference in Irving, TX. You can find it easily.

Once again, this work is the outworking of all the study and prayer that has been done in the past. We do not simply engage in Bible Study. We also live it, because studying the Scriptures and learning about God is for the purpose of doing His work as we are led by the Spirit. If we just learn things without applying what we have learned, then our learning has only personal value but will make little impact on the world itself.

Hence, in all of our studies presented in these weblogs, we must occasionally be sent out to apply these things in a practical way to build the Kingdom. There will be a small group of people doing this work and bearing witness to what God is doing.