Dec 22, 2012

Some were relieved. Some were disappointed. Some celebrated birthdays. Some were buried.

Some will want to institute a new calendar, the start of AW (after world) or NA (new age) or even PCE (post-Christian-era). My preference would be KA (Kingdom Age).

Most of you survived yesterday’s end-of-the-world celebration. Not much changed, except that Congress went home without resolving the issues that are sending us over the Entitlement Cliff.

Democracy works fairly well until the people figure out that they can vote themselves other people’s money. Would a Dictatorship work better? Well, it worked fairly well for Rome until the army discovered that it was actually holding the reins of power. Then the army elected Rome’s dictators.

I find it somewhat amusing that the Democrats today pretend to be worried about the expiration of the tax cuts passed under the Bush era. They say if we don’t extend them, America will go back into recession. In other words, if we go back to the tax policies that were passed in the Clinton era, it would cause a recession.

In essence, they are agreeing with the Republican tax policy instituted under President Bush and warning against going back to their own Clinton-era tax policies of high taxes for all. That seems a bit ironic. I am surprised that the Republican leadership does not use this to spin straw into gold.

Perhaps neither side really wants to make a deal. Perhaps the Democrats secretly want to go back to the Clinton plan. Perhaps the Republicans also prefer Clinton’s plan, since it would force the government to stop spending so much money. At any rate, it is obvious that neither side cares deeply enough to stop us from going over the so-called “cliff.” When it happens by default, then each side can blame the other for inaction.

Perhaps the fact that the negotiations collapsed on December 21, 2012 shows that the world really has come to an end. Sort of. I doubt that the Mayans had visions of America going off a cliff. But one never knows where this path will lead down the road.

I recall writing a song 31 years ago on Dec. 21, 1981, called The World Sleeps On. Rather depressing for a Christmas song. The world is certainly a better place for not hearing it. I wrote it at a low point after my world ended in 1981. It spoke of the tremendous event that had occurred when Christ was born, how the angels sang to the shepherds, how the wise men were divinely led to come, and even how Herod was afraid for his kingdom—yet for the most part, the world slept on. Depressing, really. But many songs are born out of deep emotional stress. This one renewed my strength to carry me through the wilderness in the coming year.

In 1981 I knew that God had ended the world as I knew it, and though it was difficult to see any silver linings, I knew that God was still on the throne and that I would rise again. It happened a year later. I had taken note of 5 main dates going down into “the dungeon,” Dec. 5, 21, 30; January 23, 27 (1981). Those same dates a year later saw events that brought corresponding steps toward resurrection. Prior to this, I knew the sovereignty of God as a doctrine, but after this I knew it by experience. At the same time, I began to see the importance of timing in the divine plan. I entered into a new world, being reborn from a past life that was good, but inadequate to the task ahead.

In those days, of course, no one talked about the Mayan calendar, nor was anyone seriously concerned about the end of world on December 21, 2012. In my experience it took a full year to transition from death to life. Someone sent a request to the Net of Prayer that Chuck would send me newsletters about their spiritual warfare from the previous year. I received them on December 4 and finished reading them all by the next day.

I then wrote to him in Washington, suggesting that he visit me in southern Minnesota if he passed through our part of the country. On December 21, I received another newsletter from him, in which he mentioned that he would be traveling to Wisconsin from Washington state, because he had to be at his destination on December 22.

I knew he had to come through Minnesota on the 21^st to arrive in Wisconsin on the 22^nd. So I prayed, “Lord, please have him stop in to see me. I really need to talk to him.”

That evening the telephone rang, and I knew it was Chuck. Sure enough, he was at the edge of town (Redwood Falls) at a restaurant. I met him, and he told me that he had not intended to visit me, but he took a wrong turn about 20 miles north. He discovered that he was lost when he saw the sign at a crossroad that said, Redwood Falls 6 miles. He remembered my letter, and found the phone number I had given.

That was how we met. It was the night of December 21, 1982. It confirmed to me that I was indeed coming out of the grave. Nine days later, on December 30, I received a telephone call offering me a job in Arkansas and to start a new ministry with a group. As this was the one-year anniversary of the day we had left Las Cruces in 1981, it provided my third confirmation that I was indeed coming out of the grave.

I arrived in Batesville, AR on January 23, flew to New Mexico on the 27^th to pick up all of our furniture that had been in storage, and returned home January 30. A year earlier, the prayer campaign had ended January 27 and a 3-day victory celebration had been declared from January 28-30.

Since we are currently seeing this cycle resurface, I knew that December 21, 2012 was not the end of the world, or even the end of the current prophetic cycle. It is only one of the major dates signifying a new beginning. We will have to wait until the end of January before we can get a clearer view of what God is establishing at this time. Right now we are seeing bits and pieces, and so we are able to make hints and guesses. But the picture will clarify as time passes and as events occur on the watch dates ahead.

The Lord has revealed that this is the Year of Release, and so I can see that this has a direct parallel to my release from the grave thirty years ago into a new life and work of ministry. Yet thirty years ago I was just beginning my time of training to learn about intercession and spiritual warfare. It was a 12-year time of training, as the Lord told me in June 1982. The 12 years began November 12, 1981 and ended on the same date in 1993. A few days later we began our Jubilee Prayer Campaign (Nov. 21-29, 1993).

I am always amazed at how far ahead God prepares us for any serious work that He has for us. The length of preparation is determined largely by the importance of the work. When I learned in 1982 that this would be a 12-year preparation that was comparable to Joseph’s 12 years (prior to his rise to power), it was incomprehensible to me.

Then in 1993, we learned that the Jubilee Prayer Campaign was going to last 7 years, instead of 7 days. It would be like a Jericho battle, where we would march around the city (Babylon) for seven years. Once again, that seemed incomprehensible.

So 7 years later, on November 28-30, 2000 we learned by revelation that the full transfer of authority had occurred from “Saul” (Pentecost) to “David” (Tabernacles). The 7½ year transition had been completed since “Saul” died on May 30, 1993, the 40^th Jubilee of the Pentecostal Age. (See 2 Sam. 5:5.)

This coincided with the end of the 7-year Jubilee Prayer Campaign as well.

But we also learned that the Israelites had marched around Jericho 7 times on the last day. We understood that we this was a 13-year cycle total, ending in 2006. It finally ended on the Day of Atonement, October 7, 2006, in Babylon, NY.

By this time it should be clear that we were in this for the long haul. It was also a progressive revelation, and we had to exercise faith like Abraham. We went out not knowing where we were going, but we trusted that God would lead us to the Land of Promise.

After the Jubilee Prayer Campaign ended in 2006, we began to prepare for the work ahead, characterized by Elijah and John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Christ. We are now in our 7^th year of this preparation (2012-2013), and I believe that we are finally coming to the end of such preparation and the start of the actual work. God is never in a hurry, and when we look over our shoulders and contemplate all that we have learned to prepare us for the next step, we can be grateful that we were not sent out earlier.

This is a long-term plan for the New Creation Man. During the times of preparation, many live and die in many generations. Their individual work may be completed, but it is all preparation for the final work at the end. Some sow, others water, and the last generation reaps, but we all partake of the fruits in the end. We can never say for sure if we will be part of that final generation that reaps in the great harvest of the ages, but we will all eat from the same table.

If we do as we are led according to our callings, we can say with Paul in the end, “I have fought the good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).

I often review the past, as it is encouraging to see the reality of God’s presence and His leading that we know by experience. It takes some years of experience before we can truly begin to identify with the biblical writers and understand how they were led by the same Spirit that leads us today.

Today seemed like a good time to muse on such things.