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Intercession for America: Part 5

In May of 2001 a dozen people were led to meet in Coer d'Alene, Idaho to discuss the Word of the Lord and to establish certain things by the Spirit. While we were there, the Lord revealed that He was raising up a new Gideon's Army to do spiritual warfare. He showed us that many had volunteered already, even as in the original story in Judges 7, but most would actually not qualify.

The first disqualification was through FEAR (Judg. 7:3). The second disqualification was lack of understanding the Word (Judg. 7:5, 6). Gideon had to observe how the people drank water. If they put their face down into the stream without scooping up the water into their hand, they were disqualified. Those who could see what they were drinking qualified.

Scripture puts it also in terms of "lapping the water like a dog" from their hand. There were only 300 who did this, and they were the ones who were left to fight this battle. They were associated with Caleb, one of the two overcomers in the days of Moses, because Caleb means "dog" and has to do with faithfulness. Caleb and Joshua worked as a team, because Joshua (Jesus) is the Good Shepherd, and He has a good sheep dog (Caleb) to protect His sheep.

Gideon ended up with only 300. We today seem to be working with the latter-day "remnant of grace" (7,000). Numbers are important for their meaning, but God does not need multitudes to accomplish His work. The only really important factor is whether the Divine Court backs us or not, and this depends upon the lawfulness of our actions. We have come to see that spiritual battles are ultimately just Court battles, and that it does not matter how many people are on each side of an issue--all that really matters to the Judge is who is in the right. He does not follow a multitude to do evil (Ex. 23:2), nor is He swayed by public opinion or the wealth of the litigants.

So no matter how spiritual things may be visualized, no matter what its spiritual setting, whether a battlefield or a court, nothing should be literalized, for these are only helpful pictures by which our soulish minds may comprehend and visualize spiritual events. Daniel saw various "beasts," but they represented nations. John saw "dragons," but they represent spiritual concepts ("spirits"). He saw a great harlot, but she only represents the Babylonian system that pretends to be the bride of Christ.

There is, of course, a distinction between spirit and flesh. These spiritual entities seen in biblical visions should properly be thought of as the spiritual cause of the physical event, or the spiritual counterpart to the physical entity. One does not have to understand all of this to participate in spiritual warfare. No one understands it completely. The real qualifications for spiritual warfare are (1) love, which casts out fear (1 John 4:18), and (2) faith, which comes by hearing (Rom. 10:17).

This does NOT mean that your love must be perfect, nor does our faith, our ability to hear, have to be perfect. But there are certain minimums necessary. We are involved in a great warfare to replace Mystery Babylon with the Kingdom of God. In part, this means casting out the Old Covenant bondwoman (old Jerusalem) in order that Sarah (New Jerusalem) and her son might inherit the authority to rule that Kingdom.

The old Jerusalem is based upon works, not love. It is based upon rebellion, not upon obedience. It became "the bloody city" (Ez. 22:2), and "a curse to all the nations of the earth" (Jer. 26:6). It was for this reason that the city became "as Shiloh" that would never again be rebuilt (Jer. 19:11) or re-established as the Capital of the Kingdom of God.

But the name "Jerusalem" is plural in the Hebrew language [Yerushalayim]. This is simply because there is more than one Jerusalem. Even as the first Jerusalem is the "bloody city," so also the New Jerusalem is the true City of Peace. Thus, when the prophets speak of "Jerusalem," one must discern which Jerusalem is being referenced. As a general rule, when the prophets speak of blessing Jerusalem and its restoration, they are prophesying of the New Jerusalem. When they speak of Jerusalem being a curse, they are prophesying of the Old Jerusalem.

All of this formed the background for the new Gideon Army that God said in 2001 that He was raising up. It is important that you know this, because, while there are many smaller battles dealing with sub-issues, the overall strategy of God is to overthrow this bloody city and cast out the bondwoman and her son. For this reason it is important that you have some understanding of Galatians 4:22-31. Most of the Church does not understand or believe this passage today.

Thus, a big part of discerning and understanding the Word (lapping water like Caleb, the "dog") has to do with knowing the difference between the two Jerusalems. If we do not have a clear idea of which side we are on, we will end up fighting the wrong Jerusalem and doing more damage than good. This is largely what has happened in the past, because the Church has not understood the Jerusalem question. This is why I wrote The Struggle for the Birthright, as well as Who is a Jew? and Who is an Israelite?

In July of 2001 some forerunners of the Gideon army engaged in spiritual warfare. After a few minor skirmishes from July 1-4, the real battle began at 8:30 p.m. on July 5. It was called the "War of Shields." We were the Blue Shields. The enemy had Red Shields [or "Roth-Schild"], led by an Archprince of Europe and America named Theos.

Theos manifests himself primarily in the three religions: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. He is behind the obsession that these three religions have with possessing (or being possessed by) the old Jerusalem. He puts men into bondage to "Hagar" and is behind the heart attitude that makes men hate and kill each other over possession of these so-called "holy places." He was behind the Christian Crusades centuries ago. He is behind Islamic fanticism. And he is behind Jewish Zionism, led by the Rothschild family. (Obviously, not every Christian, not every Muslim, and not every Jew is included in this statement. It is manifested in those who have a spirit of violence and force.)

Theos is also referenced in 2 Thess. 2:3, 4, for it is the one who "takes his seat in the temple of God [Theos], displaying himself as being God [Theos]." We took him captive by July 8, toward the conclusion of the War of Shields.

Then Carlos called to tell me that the Lord had told him that we were suffering casualties and that our angels were being "wounded." I didn't think such a thing was possible, and I wondered if I would have to alter my whole theology on angels! That evening others called to tell me the same thing. Well, that got my attention. We prayed and were told that we had taken Theos captive in an unlawful manner, and thus he had legal cause against us in the Divine Court.

We had known that only an Archangel could lawfully take an Archprince captive, but we had not known that it had to be a specific Archangel with that particular calling. And so Theos appealed to the Divine Court, and in this sense the angels were "wounded." We consulted our Paraclete (Advocate, Jesus), who told us that Theos was supposed to be bound by Gabriel, not Peniel. Gabriel was the angelic agent called to bring the word to Mary. John tells us that the Word [Logos] was God [the true Theos], and so Jesus was born as the result of the Word from Gabriel. Thus, Gabriel was the counterpart to Theos.

We were then led to go back in time and bind Theos in a lawful manner using Gabriel. That is how we won the court case. In the spirit we are not bound by time.