BLOG

The Four Battlegrounds

In recent months I have been helping two groups of intercessors as they lay claim to certain parts of Minneapolis for the Kingdom of God. One group is targeting Anoka, MN, a northern suburb of Minneapolis, which is known as the Halloween capital of the world.

http://anokahalloween.com/

It is full of witchcraft, and so we are dealing with that problem. I cannot make public any details of our strategy for obvious reasons, but I can say that I have met new friends from outside our normal circle.

The other project is just south of the University of Minnesota in the downtown area, where the group has laid claim to a square mile of the city. In the past few weeks, we were led to pray and decree certain things north, south, east, and west of the church where we meet. We meet on Wednesday evenings from about 6:00 until 10:00. Last night’s meeting went longer, as we did not finish the prayer/scripture/decree in the south until past 10:30 pm.

We have now finished all four points on the compass.

The first prayer-decree, a few weeks ago, was read on a particular street corner. The prayer was designed to “change the atmosphere” above Minneapolis, clearing out the darkness and replacing it with the light of the Holy Spirit. As the men came to the final paragraph, a stranger walked up to them and said, “Hey, what are you doing? You’re changing the atmosphere around here!”

He was obviously displeased. I believe that he was the gatekeeper for witchcraft in that area. He refused to come within about six feet of Sean, keeping his distance. He obviously had good spiritual discernment, but he was working for the dark side.

The next week, after discussing and discerning the particular prayers and scriptures to read, we went to another point on the compass. The main scripture we were to read was Isaiah 45, along with Philippians 2:9-11 (which quotes Isaiah 45:23). It is about the sovereignty of God, where He declares that “every knee will bow.” Isaiah 45 is mostly about King Cyrus of Persia, who was to do everything that God told him to do, even though he did not know God.

When we got to our predetermined location, I noticed that some artist had constructed a 30-foot bear at that location. Persia, of course, was described as a bear in Daniel 7:5, so this confirmed our discernment to read Isaiah 45 and to declare that “every knee will bow.”

Last week we went to the third point on the compass at the chapel at Augsburg College near where we meet. Augsburg is a very liberal Lutheran college, and to us it represented a spirit of counterfeit Christianity in general.

Finally, last night we finished at the southern point at a place known as Little Earth. We met near an apartment complex that had just burned in a fire this past week. It was a known drug hangout, and more than likely a meth lab had somehow gotten out of control and caught fire. Our purpose here was to pray for the release of the oppressed.

Discerning the Four Beasts

It occurred to me, as we were discussing strategy, that the four points of the compass represent the four beasts of Daniel 7.

1. Winged Lion (Lamassu) of Babylon

2. Bear of Persia

3. Leopard of Greece

4. Iron-toothed beast of Rome

These are the beast systems that have controlled the kingdoms of this world since the fall of Jerusalem in 604 B.C., when God took the Dominion Mandate from the king of Judah and gave it to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Each beast in turn brought something new to the table, which extended and promoted the rule of these beasts in different ways.

1. Babylon is about Commerce

2. Persia is about Religion

3. Greece is about Culture and Politics

4. Rome is about Law

These are the four main areas of world rule that must be replaced by the Kingdom of God in our time, now that the time of the beasts has expired. When Revelation 17 talks about Babylon’s fall, we find the merchants of the earth weeping and wailing, because their trade has been disrupted.

Persia is ruled by Apollyon, the Prince of Persia, and in my past experience, wherever we find counterfeit Christianity or a false manifestation of the Holy Spirit, the Prince of Persia is the root problem.

Greece brought us not only Democracy as a political form of government, but also the immoral culture of democracy, where the people are allowed to do whatever the majority wants.

Our western legal system is Roman, and for this reason all legal terms are in Latin. Our legal system today is based upon the Laws of Justinian (534 A.D.), the man who changed times and law in Daniel 7:25. Up to that time, the western calendar dated from the founding of Rome (ad urba condita, or A.U.C.), but he changed it to begin with the birth of Jesus. Justinian then completely overhauled the Roman laws to reflect Church law.

The problem is that Church law is not the same as God’s law. The Laws of Justinian spawned the Feudal System in the Middle Ages, which brought most people into near slavery as serfs ruled by land-owning lords. God’s law, on the other hand, sets men free.

Hence, these four main areas of civilization have been ruled by the traditions of men for a very long time. God put the world under these “beasts” until the time came when the saints were to be given the Kingdom. As I have written elsewhere—see my commentary on the book of Daniel—that time began to come to a close on October 16, 2014 and I now see that it should finish closing on October 16, 2017.

The spiritual work of claiming this area in Minneapolis is a microcosm (fractal) of the world-wide reversal of world dominion. Essentially, our small group is representing the larger body of overcomers, or “saints of the Most High,” as Daniel 7:22 calls them. By the principle of unity (“one body”), what one does, we all do. God’s system of government is a Monarchy-Republic, where one (Christ) represents all, and a few represent the many.

As the Dominion Mandate is passed to the saints of the Most High, they are each led in various ways to have a part in the overthrow and replacement of the beast system. The four beasts are empowered by four spiritual principalities (or “princes”), and each is opposed by an angelic prince (or archangel).

1. Babylon: Red Dragon is opposed by Michael

2. Persia: Apollyon, or Abaddon, is opposed by Peniel

3. Greece: Vainglory is opposed by Amet (“Truth”) and his twin, Amen (“Truly”)

4. Rome: Usurper is opposed by Gabriel

The four beasts of Daniel 7 have their angelic counterparts as the four beasts around the throne in Revelation 4:6-8. The four beasts around the throne are taken from the banners (flags) of the four leading tribes of Israel that camped on the four sides of the tabernacle in the wilderness.

1. Judah’s Lion, led by Michael, opposes Babylon’s Lion

2. Ephraim’s bull, led by Peniel, opposes Persia’s Bear

3. Dan’s Eagle, led by Amet and Amen, opposes Greece’s Vainglory

4. Reuben’s Man (Firstborn Son), led by Gabriel, opposes Rome’s Usurper

The four beasts around the throne of God are depicted by the four banners of the leading tribes of Israel around the tabernacle. These not only represent Israel, but creation itself. Israel is a microcosm of the creation, representing the whole world. So the four creatures are the king of beasts (lion), the king of birds (eagle), the king of cattle (bull, ox), and the overall king of men (the Son). These are the categories of creation listed in God’s covenant with Noah (Genesis 9:9, 10), and they are seen also in Ezekiel’s vision (Ezekiel 1:10).

Each living creature is led by an archangel. These all have spiritual counterparts from the dark side. Each archangel has been empowered to overcome his specific counterpart. History is the time that it takes for the heavenly warfare to be fully accomplished.

Each of these four elements and categories require a complete study of its own, but this is a basic outline to provide some insight to stimulate further study. The point is that in the past few weeks we have been led to do to four points on the compass to engage in spiritual warfare, and this has been an occasion for revelation about the larger warfare that has been going on for thousands of years.