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My journey into the Prophetic realm, part 2

When God disrupted my past life and delivered me from building my own little kingdom in 1981, I knew very little about the prophetic realm. Though I had been raised in the church, these things were not taught in that denomination. Though I had experienced the Holy Spirit in 1971, I received no instruction manual about prophetic things.

Accepting My Calling

In 1974 I had been given the opportunity to join with Charismatics, but God called me to teach a Bible study class in a “normal” church. When I complained, He asked me, “What calling do you want?” I instantly knew that this was a serious question, and that the real question behind it was, “Are you dissatisfied with your calling?”

I wrestled with it for three days. God was giving me a choice. I could become a Bible teacher or I could become something more “charismatic.” In the end, I knew that God called me to teach, and so I resisted my own preference and sadly said, “Ok, I want what You want for me.”

This is how I became (or remained) a Bible teacher. God honored this and gave me the tools necessary to fulfill my calling.

Later, I remembered an incident that occurred when I was in high school, probably about 1967. I had come across Jesus’ statement in John 16:13, where He said, “when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth.” I recall praying, “Lord, lead me into all the truth.” I did not fully realize it at the time, but truth is necessary to teach the Scriptures.

In 1974 the Charismatic movement was still young and fresh, full of exciting things as miracles abounded. I was drawn to it, but the thing that troubled me was its lack of truth. They focused upon the Holy Spirit, but there seemed to be a great lack of useful revelation. The Holy Spirit gave personal words to people—which were greatly needed—but the Holy Spirit did not seem to open up the Scriptures much beyond the Baptism of the Spirit.

Hence, when I was confronted in 1974 with the choice of calling, I knew that I was to choose either the path of truth or the miraculous. That was a difficult decision, because I had heard Charismatics say that “knowledge” came from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and that “doctrine” was harmful.

But doctrine simply means teaching, and true knowledge of God comes by revelation. By treating doctrine and knowledge as if these were inherently carnal, they were in no position to receive either from the Holy Spirit. I wanted not only the Holy Spirit but also His revelation of truth. That was how I interpreted the promise in John 16:13.

To obtain my real objective, I had to establish my priority. I could see that the excitement of miracles drew many people but did not seem to impart much truth, because truth was not a priority in the Charismatic movement.

When I look back at my decision from today’s viewpoint, I can see that I was given a revelation that truth was to be my top priority, because without it, there is no point in trying to be a Bible teacher. Yet I also sensed that if I sought the Spirit of truth, He would bless me with all that the Holy Spirit does in our lives.

A year later (1975), God moved me (and my family) to Phoenix, where I learned more about teaching methods, and where I began a serious study of God’s law. I also learned the art of typesetting. I wrote three books in those early years, and I set the type myself. (In those days no computers were available to the common people.)

Dark Clouds on the Horizon

In 1979 the pastor took a six-week vacation to tour England with a group led by our friend, the biblical archeologist, Professor E. Raymond Capt. I remained behind to teach in the church. I then began a series on The Sixth Commandment. These taped sermons were sent out to the tape lending ministry, and many people chose to purchase them instead of returning them.

Within a few days of the pastor’s return, he had a heart attack, and the doctor instructed him to rest for another six weeks. So I ended up teaching twelve weeks in a row, covering more of The Ten Commandments. By the end of twelve weeks, my name was well known throughout the country.

I was approaching my thirtieth birthday (1980). Both John and Jesus were thirty when they began their full-time ministries. The same was true of Joseph and David. My expectation had been that I would establish a ministry of my own. But with my new popularity in that church, I thought that I had found my place, and I wanted to remain there forever.

God had other plans, however. In December of 1979 He used my popularity as an irritant, and I soon realized that I had no long-term future in Phoenix. So I looked for another place to minister independently and in 1981 I was asked to start a church in Las Cruces, NM. I finally moved there in August 1981, leaving my troubles behind—or so I thought.

A series of misunderstandings occurred for the next few months, until the trouble surfaced on November 12, 1981. A man from Michigan had written a scathing letter to the pastor in which he came to my defense. The pastor, of course, assumed that I had put him up to this, though I had not discussed the problem with him. His letter arrived on November 12, and I also received a copy the same day. I was horrified and knew that this would end all hope of reconciliation.

The angry pastor called me on the phone that evening to share his thoughts.

The Prayer Battle

When I answered the phone that evening, I was unaware that the Net of Prayer had just begun its first prayer campaign the same day. Neither the pastor nor I were aware that we had been caught up in a spiritual battle. We had heard of the Net of Prayer, but we were not on the mailing list, nor had we heard of this prayer battle.

The pastor did all of the talking for about 45 minutes and would not let me interrupt to answer or object to his accusations. In summary, he accused me of causing strife and division in his church, of joining with his enemies, and (as he put it) of chopping him off at the knees. When he was finished, he hung up the phone, and I was left stunned and speechless.

I went into our living room and told my wife what had just transpired. Then I said, “What’s going on here? We must be in some sort of spiritual battle.” But at that point I knew little or nothing about spiritual warfare or about prophetic things.

While I was listening to these accusations, the prayer campaign was raging in the heavens. More than a year later, when I finally received and read the battle reports, the report that was dated November 13, 1981 told about the events of the previous day—the first day of battle. One paragraph in particular stood out to me:

“Strange thing, in the midst of this, a Christian in the Spirit walks up to me (I believe he was praying, a new Christian and was drawn by the Spirit of God) and he asks, ‘What’s going on here?’ Here I am in the midst of a furious battle. I said, ‘Look! What do you see?’ He looked and was shocked. ‘What are THEY doing here?’ He prayed and took on the armor of God and joined the fight.”

It is clear that I joined the Net of Prayer without realizing it on the first evening of the prayer campaign. The leader saw me in a vision and heard me say, “What’s going on here?” I was not a new Christian as such, but I was certainly new to spiritual warfare. When I finally heard about the NOP more than a year later, I then consciously joined it on January 17, 1983.

My spirit joined the NOP on November 12, 1981, but my soul (mind) joined the NOP on January 17, 1983. The spirit and soul are two different things. We have a spiritual consciousness, and we have a soulish consciousness. Our soul does not know what the spirit is doing, unless it receives revelation from the spirit, which in turn receives its revelation from the Holy Spirit.

I also learned further details from the prayer campaign itself. I learned that the enemy forces had entered America through a breach in the prayer wall around America. Intercessors were responsible to build that wall of protection around the nation, but the church had condemned the city of San Francisco and had thus abandoned the spiritual “gate” there, known as the Sheep Gate. This had allowed the enemy entrance into the country in a Broken Cross formation.

The NOP was called into warfare to fight this Broken Cross formation. Two divisions of the NOP were called to bisect the Broken Cross at its base at San Francisco and to seal up the Sheep Gate to prevent more demonic forces from entering. The Nehemiah Prayer Group attacked the formation from the south; the Gideon Prayer Group attacked from the north.

The Nehemiah Prayer Group was assigned to pray against the spirit of strife and division in the church. The Gideon Prayer Group was assigned to pray against the spirit of fear.

In 1983 I joined the Nehemiah Prayer Group, because an old friend led that group. I had corresponded with him some years earlier, but I had not heard from him in a few years. So naturally, I wanted to be part of the Nehemiah Group, not knowing that God had already joined me to that Group in 1981.

How did I know? Because on November 12, 1981 I found myself in that battleground, being accused of causing strife and division in the church. Secondly, I had been accused of “chopping me off at the knees,” and that is precisely what the Nehemiah and Gideon Prayer Groups were doing to the Broken Cross formation.

Thirdly, I had been accused of joining with his enemies to fight against him. Neither he nor I understood that we had been thrust into spiritual warfare, of course, so I tried unsuccessfully to object. I later realized that the pastor had been caught up in the Broken Cross formation and that he was acting as its spokesman. He talked as if it was a personal attack on him, but in reality, I had joined the NOP and was attacking the Broken Cross formation.

How Prayer Changes Things

Spiritual warfare can be quite strange. In the following years I saw in numerous examples that unsuspecting people get caught up in the warfare without realizing it. They take sides without knowing why. They agree with one side or the other, thinking it is their own idea. Once I began to understand how this works, my whole perspective of the spiritual world began to open up.

I began to see how the spirit and the soul function in their own realms, and I began to see their relationship and how they interact with each other. I learned that all things happen in the spiritual realm before they happen in earth. Earthly conditions and events are simply reflections of a spiritual reality.

There is an old saying, Prayer changes things. I came to understand that when we pray in the spirit, we enter a heavenly realm and alter those conditions, which then reflect upon the earth. That is how prayer changed things.