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My journey into the prophetic realm, part 5

On my reconciliation trip to Phoenix (March 16, 1983), I had much time to fellowship with Christ. I like driving across the country, because it gives me time to pray, discern, and ponder the things that He shows me. On this occasion, I asked Him, “What is a battle axe?”

A month earlier, I had noticed that a battle axe was my weapon of choice in spiritual warfare. Scripture talks about the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17), but I did not know what a battle axe signified.

His answer was simple: “With Signs Following.” I knew that this was a reference to Mark 16:17 KJV, “And these signs shall follow them that believe.” That gave me much food for thought at the time. At the time, I did not have the time or opportunity to study this in greater depth. But today, as I write this report, it occurred to me to find the biblical reference to a battle axe.

The KJV uses the term in Jeremiah 51:20 KJV, “Thou art My battle axe and weapons of war.” The context showed that this was a weapon that God was to use against Babylon. So that is how I took it at the time. But the Hebrew word mapes really means “war club, hammer.” The NASB translates it “war-club.”

There is a different word for a battle axe that is found in Psalm 35:3 (NASB),

³ Draw also the spear and the battle-axe [sawgar] to meet those who pursue me.

The word sawgar is translated “shut” forty times and “shut up” nine times. That is the way it is usually translated, but it also means “to deliver.” Figuratively, it means “to surrender.”

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H5462&t=NASB95

The word seems to picture a heated dispute, where one of them shuts the mouth of his opponent, either by truth or by force. More recently, I encountered the Shut-Up Angel and have joked about this for the past few years. This is the angel that provides the solution for long-winded preachers.

Until today, I had never related this angel to a battle-axe. We see this idea in Psalm 35:1-7, which David wrote many years ago in regard to his enemies:

¹ Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me. ² Take hold of buckler and shield and rise up for my help. ³ Draw also the spear and the battle-axe [sawgar] to meet those who pursue me; say to my soul, “I am your salvation.” ⁴ Let those be ashamed and dishonored who seek my life; let those be turned back who devise evil against me. ⁵ Let them be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the Lord driving them on. ⁶ Let their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of the Lord pursuing them. ⁷ For without cause they hid their net for me; without cause they dug a pit for my soul.

Today, as I reflect on the events in 1983, I see this revelation with new eyes.

The Den of Lions

Before I left on my trip to Phoenix and Las Cruces, I had learned that the only reason the pastor had agreed to meet me was because he had been informed of my unpayable debt that I had incurred the previous year. He had decided to confront me with it. In his view, if I denied it, he could claim that I was a liar. If I admitted it, he could claim victory. It was a trap.

But God saw to it that I was informed ahead of time, and when I prayed about it, God said to tell him the truth. “Did I not deliver Daniel from the lions’ den?” He said. “I will also shut the lion’s mouth and deliver you.”

Armed with that word, I set out on my trip with no fear, knowing that God would deliver me. On March 17 I stopped to visit friends in Tucson. (They are good friends to this day.) The next day, Friday, March 18, I drove the short distance to Phoenix. There I learned that no one was going to see me, because I had not stopped at Las Cruces first to talk to my former elders.

It took a few days to clear up that misunderstanding. I had written to the elders, but I had not received any response from them. For this reason, I bypassed Las Cruces and went directly to Phoenix. Once I learned that the elders wanted to speak with me, I agreed to see them on my return trip. I spent the next few days negotiating the terms of a face-to-face visit with the pastor, and I also spent time with a few others that I had known from the past.

One man brought his list demanding apologies for a dozen things. I apologized for everything that I could, including all of the “gray” areas. If I recall, there was just one matter that was an outright lie (or false accusation) that I could not apologize for—not in good conscience. The next day he brought another list of demands, and I realized that some people will never be satisfied, because it is not in their hearts to forgive or to seek reconciliation.

Finally, on Tuesday morning, March 22, I met with the pastor for about two hours, telling him my story. I included the account of the unpayable debt, which obviously surprised him and caught him off guard. When he had heard the full story, his mouth was stopped, and he was unable to spring his trap. In the end, we shook hands and agreed to “live and let live.”

I then left to continue on my journey. I had been asked to drive to Colorado to meet with other friends and accompany them to northern Washington state for a Passover conference. When I arrived in Colorado, I received a phone call telling me that as soon as I drove away, the pastor vented his anger to his employees, calling me some colorful names and saying that I was “the most ingenious liar in the world.”

So I knew that no true reconciliation had taken place, but I was satisfied that I had done all that the Lord had asked me to do.

Breakthrough in Washington

We arrived at our destination in Washington the evening of Sunday, March 27. I was asked to teach a private session, and it was a disaster. I prayed and fasted on March 31^st, knowing that a spiritual battle was taking place in the heavens. The next morning I awoke refreshed, knowing immediately that the battle was won.

In talking to the people, I could see clearly that a breakthrough had occurred somehow. Late that morning, I was finally able to phone my wife back home. There were no cell phones in those days, and so I could not call her while we were on the road. At the camp in Washington there was only one telephone, and it was in a private home. So it had been nearly impossible for me to stay in contact with my wife.

When I called that morning, April 1^st, my wife told me, “I’m glad you didn’t call me earlier, because I would have begged you to come home.” She told me that she had been bedridden for three days with vertigo, a condition that affected her balance. But she had awakened that morning completely healed.

I realized that she had been involved in the spiritual battle that I had experienced in the same three-day period. When the battle was won in the heavens, she was healed. Even though we were more than a thousand miles apart, we were still connected in spirit, where there is no distance. The spiritual realm transcends both time and space.

The Return

I returned home the southern route so that I could talk with the elders in Las Cruces. It was not a warm welcome, but it was cordial, and they accepted my apologies. I arrived home on the evening of April 8 just before the deadline of April 9.

The end of my reconciliation trip also ended the 76-day cleansing cycle since January 23, when we arrived in Batesville, Arkansas. The 414-day “Cursed Time” cycle had been cleansed by this 76-day cycle, bringing me back into Blessed Time (490). I was ready for a new life, and then I started my new job as a typesetter, which I held until 1987.

Although this ended the most immediate problem, I still had many years of training ahead of me. There were many more lessons to be learned, and I would yet have to endure another disciplinary cycle of Cursed Time before my 12-year training was complete.

There was much that I did not yet understand, including the principles of Cursed Time and Blessed Time. I would not learn of this until 1991. But because I kept journals, I was able to go back to my old records and see how God had led me over the years. When I finally discovered that I had gone through a distinct 414-day cycle, followed by a 76-day cycle of cleansing, all without my knowledge, it proved to me that these cycles were real and that they were directed by the sovereign hand of God alone.

These lessons laid strong foundations of understanding in my journey into the prophetic realm.