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Shaking the heavens and the earth

We are finally on our way home from California.

Since the conference began in San Francisco, the world has become a very different place. The earthquake in Japan has been promoted from 8.9 to 9.0 or even 9.1 Richter, depending on reports. This makes it a "great quake," and will be remembered forever in history books.

The tsunami it generated was worse than the quake itself. It appears that at least 13,000 people in Japan are dead, though at present only 4,300 bodies have been found. More than double that amount are missing.

The tsunami hit San Francisco bay at 8:16 a.m., and our conference began at 9:00 a.m. For some months now we were wondering if we might see something occur on the order of Elijah's showdown at Mount Carmel. Recall that there was a deadly fire on Mount Carmel in northern Israel on Dec. 2, 2010. This fire came a few months after the 8th sign of Elisha (July 9). We took note that Elijah performed 8 miraculous signs, culminating with the showdown on Mount Carmel. Elisha asked for the double portion and thus performed 16 miraculous signs. Thus, Elisha represents the double portion inheritance.

We are still in the interim between the first 8 signs and the final 8 signs. That is, we are transitioning from Elijah to Elisha, prophetically speaking. This transition has gone on for much longer than we had anticipated, but the Mount Carmel fire on Dec. 2, 2010 confirmed that we were still in transition. When we scheduled our conference in San Francisco, we suspected that this too was part of that transition and would represent the glory (fire) coming down at the prayer of Elijah.

We did not realize that this "fire" would be nuclear or that it would hit Japan. When the tsunami reached the bay area at 8:16 a.m., I immediately related this to the 8 signs of Elijah and the 16 of Elisha.

Yet if you have read my book, The Wars of the Lord, you will recall that the story in 1981 began at San Francisco when the prayer warriors were called into action to stop a spiritual invasion coming into America at that location in the spirit. No one really discerned how long that "gate" (Golden Gate) had been breached, but Nov. 12, 1981 was when the Christians were called into action to fight it.

Likewise, no one really asked where this invasion had been coming from, other than that it was obviously coming from the West. Because of the history of that story, we now understand that the spiritual invasion was actually coming primarily from Japan, but also from China. There is a spiritual connection between Japan, China, and San Francisco.

The final repair of the breach at the Golden Gate occurred in July 2000, and a secondary breach was repaired in August 2010. I wrote of this in my blogs at the time.

The point is that the quake and tsunami hitting Japan at the time of our San Francisco conference shows the spiritual connections to Japan. This connection shows both good and bad news. The bad news, of course, is that our intercessory work in America and specifically in regard to San Francisco has had a negative effect upon Japan. But the positive side of it is that we have prayed for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit ("San Francisco on Fire") that will soon have a great effect upon Japan as well.

For many years we have talked about "a tsunami of the Holy Spirit" that is about to hit the earth. Every so often I have written about the great shaking of the heavens and the earth prophesied in Haggai and Hebrews. Scripture shows that this great shaking is designed to shake apart all things that can be shaken, so that in the end only those things which are of the Kingdom of God will be left standing.

We have understood this to be both symbolic and literal. As the spiritual powers of the heavens are shaken, so also will this manifest in the earth in such things as earthquakes and tsunamis. When authorities in the spiritual realm are overthrown, it does have a negative effect on the earth. The negative does have a positive purpose in the bigger picture, of course, but those caught up in the great shaking can hardly understand this, because they do not understand the cause-and-effect relationship between spiritual and earthly things.

Furthermore, it is only natural to be caught up in the personal side of these disasters, especially if one sees it up close. In the heat of the disaster, it is nearly impossible to focus upon the big picture in the progression of the Kingdom and the overthrow of the nations--as the great "stone" grinds the Babylonian image to powder. Men have talked and taught for many years about the stone crushing the image on its feet. Then when it happens to them, they seem surprised to see the disaster and its effect upon people. My question is this: What did you expect to see?

When Jesus warned the people of His day about being caught sitting on the "feet" of this Babylonian image in Matt. 21, the warning was very real. He knew that many "innocent" people would be affected, and that the only real solution was to avoid identifying with the image in its "feet" (end time). It is always tragic when individual people are caught up in the judgments of the nations and religions to which they belong. Yet the same occurred when God raised up the Babylonian army to destroy Jerusalem in the days of Jeremiah. The decisions of the king and the religious leaders led to great loss of life among the ordinary "innocent" citizens of Jerusalem. It is not "fair," but the reality is that little people inevitably pay the price for blindly following their leaders.

The solution is to know God for yourself. Be led by the Spirit. Know the divine plan, so that you can find protection in His hand, even as Jeremiah and his followers were divinely protected.

The good news today is that the Kingdom of God is being established. It is good news that the kingdoms of this world are becoming the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. This means that the great shaking in the earth will have a positive effect in the long run. Even if the nuclear reactors in Japan are in danger of melting down, keep in mind that Japan is a future Kingdom nation. The nation is not going to be destroyed. Regardless of how bad it looks, God knows how to work everything out for good in the big picture. This will be of little comfort to those who are suffering today--and we should certainly pray for them and do all we can to assist them--but we have been called to keep our eyes on Jesus Christ and to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The bottom line is that the warfare in San Francisco has been won by the spiritual forces of the Kingdom of God. The warfare has overthrown very powerful spiritual entities hidden in the heavens over Japan and oppressing the Japanese people. These entities have fallen with a great "thud," much like what happened a few years ago which caused the tsunami in Indonesia.

Getting back to Elijah-Elisha, these manifestations began at Passover of 2009. It may be that the second set of 8 signs will again begin at Passover in April 2011, or even at the time of the Second Passover in May. We do not know for sure yet, and I do not have any specific revelation about this, but it is possible. When it occurs, we believe it will signify that the Birthright's double portion will begin to be poured out--perhaps in 8 distinct steps as laid out in the story of Elisha. This will be the real "glory of God" poured out in the big picture, as distinct from the personal manifestations of His glory that are seen in the lives of individual people or limited to specific locations.