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A New Temple Ministry Begins

The significance and divine purpose of the "God is Able" prayer campaign of June 15, 2006 is just now beginning to come to the surface. The verse that named this prayer campaign is 2 Cor. 9:8,

"And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."

Most think of physical or monetary provisions that would allow the "good work" to go forward, but the verse specifies "sufficiency in ALL THINGS." I always let God worry about the physical provisions, as that was our agreement from the beginning when I took this job in late 1990. I did not want to be a fund raiser. I figured that if God was in it, the sufficiency would be there--and if not, then I would know it was time to find another job.

The real sufficiency, however, has always had to do with prayer backing, for that is the real key to the success of this ministry. I learned years ago from the story of Elijah that he conducted the showdown at Mount Carmel with boldness, because he had the prayer backing of the "remnant of grace" (7,000). After his success, however, Queen Jezebel vowed revenge, and Elijah ran for his life.

Why? What made the difference? The Bible is silent on this point, but this was the virtual end of Elijah's ministry. We next find him passing the torch to Elisha. Most simply blame Elijah. It is easy to blame someone when we do not understand the real circumstances and do not know the spiritual causes of their failure.

I learned from this story that the remnant of grace no longer felt the need to pray as diligently for Elijah. After all, the battle was won. Time for a little vacation from prayer. With the war over, the prayer warriors went home. Elijah was left without his army of prayer support. Then Jezebel threatened, and he ran for his life.

All of this occurred according to the sovereignty of God in order to teach future generations that Elijah was not a "one-man show." He was the one doing the work, but he was only the representative of the "remnant of grace" and was acting on their behalf. In military terms, the general can do nothing without the army. So it was with Elijah--and, indeed, all who are called in Scripture to do the work of the Lord. Not just prophets, but kings, judges, military leaders, and even the priests.

"Like people, like priest," says Hosea 4:9. Or, as I have said before, "we get what we deserve." In other words, we get leadership that represents the collective heart of the people. This is why I cannot be angry with our own government officials. They give us what we really want in our hearts--not necessarily what we think we want.

In the case of Clinton and Bush, President Clinton represented those who wanted sexual freedom. President Bush now represents those who think they want religious freedom and morality, but in actuality they want punishment for Clintonites and other sinners. Unlike judgment, punishment is rooted in fear and revenge, while divine judgment is rooted in love and restoration.

The point of this is to show that leadership represents the hearts of the people. It is God who raises people up and casts them down by His sovereign will. Old King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon discovered this the hard way (Dan.4:32).

So what does this have to do with "God is Able" prayer campaign? Participants presented themselves to the Father as vessels for divine service in His Temple. Last March 15, when we reached the 2,520th anniversary of the completion of the Second Temple under Ezra and Haggai, the new prophetic temple was completed. I have written about this in the past many times.

The ministry of Haggai was a 5-year ministry from 2001-2006, corresponding to his original ministry 2,520 years earlier from 520-515 B.C. Now that phase of ministry has been completed insofar as the Temple is concerned, and we then entered into the time of completing the vessels of the temple for divine service.

This was completed rather unexpectedly on June 15, 2006. I am used to waiting for much longer periods of time. You are those vessels that have been prepared for such a time as this. You may not feel any different--I do not know--but I certainly am seeing the difference.

Once the "Battle of Waterloo" was completed (June 15-18), the Lord suddenly opened up a whole new understanding as to how this changed things. On the very next day, June 19, my family and I left home to go on a 32-day ministry trip. (Deanna and Rob, my co-workers, will carry on the work back at the office.)

This is the first trip carried out under an expanded backing of prayer warriors ("vessels of the temple"). Since 1993 the ministry has been functioning under the backing of 490 original prayer warriors who signed up at the beginning of the Jubilee Prayer Campaign. Though the ranks grew over the years, the army always remained small. Even so, I have often been amazed at what was accomplished in the past 13 years.

But today the ministry is literally backed by thousands--I won't say exactly how many at this time. I am being sent out now to represent the collective decision of your hearts, because your simple act of faith meant that you believed this word (faith) and that you were in agreement with God's plan as best as you knew how. From that simple beginning, the ministry has entered into a new phase that will be able to accomplish much more than in the past.

In essence, the Battle of Jericho (1993-2006), has been a 13-time march around the "city," and we are now reaching its conclusion by the feast of Tabernacles this year. So God is now setting up a new Gideon's Army to prepare for the next phase of work that lies ahead. You are that new Gideon's Army.

But, you might ask, what do the vessels of the temple have to do with spiritual warfare? Are not these two totally different themes?

They overlay upon each other. In biblical times, the warriors conducted physical warfare, while the priests conducted spiritual warfare. The physical outcome of the war depended largely upon the spiritual warfare done behind the scenes. So it is today. That is the connection. But more than this, the very vessels of the temple were involved.

For example, when the Ark of the Covenant was moved, the priests were to pray: "Rise up, O Lord, and let Thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate Thee flee before Thee" (Num. 10:35). Is that not an act of spiritual warfare?

When God called the sons of Aaron to be priests, we find that they were called literally to "war the warfare." This terminology is found in Num. 4:23,

"From thirty years old and upward until fifty years old shalt thou number them; all that enter in to perform the service ["war the warfare"], to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation."

Every time the priests picked up a temple vessel, it was an act of spiritual warfare. So it is today. Whoever is called as a Melchizedek priest to minister in the new Temple of God has the use and backing of the Temple vessels that have been dedicated to God for divine service. I am one of those "priests," and I am actively engaged in the ministry of building the Kingdom of God.

For this reason, I feel a great change coming. That change has already begun as of June 15-18. The present ministry trip is the first of its kind since the change. In a sense, this is a trip that will test and explore the new boundaries for new possibilities. And where I can, I will keep you posted on new developments.