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The rise of the house of Joseph, part 7

There are always those who question those who claim victory in spiritual warfare, saying, “Where is the evidence? I see no change in the existing condition.”

Their expectation is that things ought to change immediately, because they do not realize that the earthly dimension is time-bound, but it is not so with the heavenly or spiritual dimension. All things happen in the spirit before they happen in the world. The events or conditions in the spirit are like blueprints that set the patterns for earthly events. To change earthly conditions, someone must first change the spiritual conditions.

When Moses built the tabernacle, God showed him the pattern of the tabernacle in heaven, which he then copied on earth (Exodus 25:40 KJV). Years later, God showed David the pattern of the temple in heaven (1 Chronicles 28:12 KJV). But how does one build a physical structure of a spiritual object in heaven? The bigger question is this: how does one bring heaven to earth?

Somehow they did so, and those structures represent spiritual truths and principles that are alive and that prophesy to us. Yet also, when the tabernacle of Moses was misused, it ceased to reflect the truths in the tabernacle in heaven. When the temple of Solomon was misused, it too ceased to reflect the truths of the temple in heaven. In both cases, God destroyed those structures, because their inherent spiritual truths did not truly reflect the hearts of the people.

Even so, by progressing from tabernacle to temple, we see how the heavenly sanctuary too was being built over time. Moses saw it as a tabernacle; David saw it as a temple. The same can be seen later in the church. James took note of Amos’ prophecy about God raising up the fallen tabernacle of David (Acts 15:16). Paul saw it being built up as a temple of God (Ephesians 2:20-22). It is obvious that God has an ongoing building project in heaven and that this has set the pattern for the church in the earth.

Yet the Pentecost church has failed to fulfill its calling, even as the church in the wilderness under Moses and the temple of Solomon also failed. Yet I believe that the overcomers will fulfill the prophecies in our time, so that they can lead the rest of the church into the principles of truth during the Tabernacles age to come. When their work is completed, the heavenly city and its temple will come to earth. Revelation 21:2, 3 says,

² And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them.”

This is the fulfillment of the Immanuel prophecy in Isaiah 7:14. It means “God with us,” or “God among us.” It is also the fulfillment of the New Covenant oath that God took in Deuteronomy 29:12, 13 to make us His people and to be our God. These passages together reveal the purpose of God’s great building project to restore all things by bringing heaven to earth.

Yet there is more. It is plain that this building project takes time. Although the spiritual world is not subject to time as we know it, time links the heavenly work with the earthly work. If this were not so, all things would happen immediately on the earth. So also, in spiritual warfare and in Divine Court cases, we may see many signs that confirm victory, but the actual outworking of such victory may take a very long time.

During the battles in 2001, the Lord responded to a question that I asked by telling me, “The time difference reflected the interdimensional distance from the spirit to the world.” From this, I understood that the “distance” is what determines the “time” it takes for a heavenly event to be fulfilled in the earth. While there is neither time nor distance in the spiritual realm, there is likewise no difference between them.

From God’s perspective, all events are mere parts of a single event, even as all the colors of the rainbow converge to a single white light. But from the earthly perspective, the reverse is true. God’s white light is refracted into many colors next to each other in a timeline of history.

So Jesus’ death and resurrection redeemed all of creation, but “we do not yet see all things subjected to Him” (Hebrews 2:8). The fact of universal salvation has been secured, but its timing is still an ongoing process.

Likewise, God said to Abraham, “A father of many nations have I made you” (Romans 4:17), but what God was seeing had not yet manifested with a single son on earth. Hence, we see the doctrine of imputation, where God “calls into being that which does not exist” (NASB) or “calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Romans 4:17 KJV).

Existence depends fully on the word of God, but spiritual existence precedes physical existence. The distance between these is time, which translates spiritual events into earth’s history. We must learn to respect time, because God created the ages of time and because it links heaven and earth. It has been called a portal, but it is better viewed as a tunnel or passageway.

This detour has been brought to you by the word that was given to me this morning.

Protection from the Red Dragon

The third battle against the seven princes over America was fought from March 22-24, 2001. In this battle, the red dragon took the lead and was overthrown. But before the battle began, God took steps to protect the sons of God, because the red dragon’s main goal is to devour them as soon as they are born (Revelation 12:4).

During Sunny Day’s “almond” meetings on February 21-22, 2001, Christine was led to come as an “observer.” We understood that she represented Christ who was observing the proceedings. A month later (March 19), she and Anna called me from Beaumont, TX to ask for prayer and confirmation about a possible trip to Corpus Christi. The Father said:

“Christine and Anna are to go today to Corpus Christi. Tomorrow they are to pray to protect both the Manchild and the Bride of Christ from the red dragon. They are to do this on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico.”

“Is the red dragon planning an attack on Corpus Christi?”

“Yes, on the 25^th. [Later, the Lord clarified this as April 25.] This is why you are to imprison him ahead of time.”

“Is he planning to attack by means of a hurricane, as in 1989 and 1997?”

“No, it is a different type of attack. Christine and Anna are to drive through the city and then pray on the shore of the Gulf afterward, praying Titus 2:11-15.”

Titus 2:11-15 reads,

¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, ¹² instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, ¹³ looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, ¹⁴ who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed [anomia], and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession [Exodus 19:5], zealous for good deeds. ¹⁵ These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

Corpus Christi means “body of Christ,” and the sand on the seashore represents the seed of Abraham (Genesis 32:12). Paul interprets this “seed” first as Christ (Galatians 3:16) and secondarily as all who share Abraham’s New Covenant faith (Galatians 3:7, 29). Christine and Anna were called to pray for God’s protection upon the children of God.

God Bless America

On March 20, 2001 I asked God, “In the coming prayer campaign, should our prayer be patterned after Titus 2:11-15 like it was for Christine and Anna in Corpus Christi?” The Lord responded,

“No, pattern it after James 3:10.” (“From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.”) “Pray blessing upon America.”

This revelation brought us to pray blessings upon America beginning at 1:47 p.m. on March 22, 2001. Recall that at the same moment, the Dow began to recover after falling 1600 points.

That evening, the Lord reminded us again: “Continue to pray blessings upon America.” This was the core Scripture of the prayer campaign called “He Is Building Effective Apostleship.” It seems that “effective apostleship” is rooted in blessing the people, rather than cursing them. Our mouths should not curse others, James wrote.

Yet Scripture speaks of many curses. God cursed the ground in Genesis 3:17. Noah cursed Canaan in Genesis 9:25. God effectively put a curse upon Amalek in Exodus 17:14-16. What James meant, then, is that curses must be pronounced only by the direction of the Holy Spirit, because God’s curses are ultimately a blessing, while men’s curses are meant to harm people permanently.

James was referring to the fact that the Hebrew word barak has a double meaning. In Job 2:9, we read, “Curse God and die.” The Hebrew word is barak. Yet in 302 cases the KJV translates barak as “bless.” In Genesis 12:2, 3 God spoke to Abraham, saying,

² And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless [barak] you and make your name great. And so you shall be a blessing [berakah]; ³ And I will bless [barak] those who bless [barak] you, and the one who curses [qalal] you I will curse [arar]. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed [barak].

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H1288&t=NASB95

Even those who curse and are cursed will ultimately be blessed through Abraham and his seed. We see this especially in the story of the curse upon Canaan. That curse was for Canaan to serve the Lord God of Shem (Genesis 9:26). This was seen when the Gibeonites made a covenant with Joshua (Joshua 9:15). In this strange manner, this Canaanite town was “condemned” to serve the Lord God of Shem in the tabernacle of Shiloh (Joshua 9:27).

As for us, our prayer campaign was based on the simple prayer, “God Bless America.” This set the pattern for what was soon to come, according to “the interdimensional distance from the spirit to the world.” In this case, the “distance” was six months, and on September 11, 2001, this became the dominant prayer of the entire nation.