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July watch dates

As we approach the month of July, I want to remind you of the important watch dates that appear every year in that month.

June 29 to July 1

On the Hebrew calendar, the new year (Rosh Hoshana) begins on the first day of the seventh month, or 7/1. It normally occurs some time in September, based on the sighting of the new moon. This year it will be the evening of September 9, just as our conference in Branson is ending.

So in a sense, July 1^st is a prophetic type of Rosh Hoshana, the feast of Trumpets, which also prophesies of the resurrection of the dead.

I recall some years ago, as Darla and I were driving north from California to Washington state, we stopped one Friday evening at a hotel. As the sun began to set, I suddenly became dizzy and had to go to bed. Worse yet, I could not move my head without seeing the whole room spinning. I had vertigo all night and all day (Saturday).

Finally, at 3:00 a.m. I woke up and turned my head. I did not become dizzy. I cautiously got up and went to the restroom without any problem. Later in the morning, we checked out of the hotel and continued our journey to Portland, Oregon, where I had a meeting that evening.

The point? I experienced a type of death and resurrection so that I could receive a revelation of timing. Jesus was laid in the tomb on a Friday evening and was raised at 3 a.m. on Sunday morning on “the third day,” as the Scriptures tell us and as the early church leaders affirm. The “three days and three nights” (Matthew 12:40) was a Hebrew idiom that meant continuous time. It does not refer to a period of 72 hours, as some insist.

Note that the Muslims just got through their holy month of Ramadan, where they fast for 30 days. But they do not fast 30 days and 30 nights. They fast only during the day. Their fast is not continuous. So “three days and three nights” conveyed continuous time, rather than just being dead during the day and walking around during the night.

At any rate, there are 21 passages which speak of “the third day” and only one that says, “three days and three nights.” The apparent contradiction means that at least one of these expressions has to be idiomatic. Luke 13:32 defines “the third day” clearly:

³² And He said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I reach My goal’.”

See also the prophecy of resurrection in Hosea 6:2,

² He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day that we may live before Him.

Jesus Himself said many times that He would be killed and then raised on the third day. See, for example, Matthew 17:22, 23 and Matthew 20:19.

Anyway, since I was required to experience it for myself, it is my own revelation that Jesus was laid in the tomb on Friday toward sundown, and He was raised up at 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning. I had always wondered what time Jesus was raised, since the women arrived at the tomb “while it was still dark” (John 20:1) and discovered that Jesus had already been raised to life.

I believe that Jesus was raised when the temple doors opened that same morning to allow the new shift of priests to enter the city. The priestly families ministering in the temple rotated every week, and the new shift arrived some time early Sunday morning. Hence, when the big iron doors opened, that is the moment, I believe, when Jesus’ tomb was opened as well.

The feast of Trumpets also speaks of resurrection. Here is where Hosea’s prophecy is applicable, for it blends the resurrection of Christ with the resurrection of His body of overcomers as well. That is one reason why the resurrection has been postponed for 2,000 years. As we come into the third day since the first work of Christ, we are at the dawn of a new day, as Hosea says.

But again, the resurrection of the overcomers will probably occur again while it is yet dark and before the sun rises (prophetically speaking).

So that is what I learned in my death-and-resurrection experience, which was designed to teach me timing. I had no control over this. I believe that God taught this to me directly by putting me through that experience. I was raised up at 3:00 a.m. on Sunday, July 1^st.

Insofar as watch dates are concerned, I normally watch July 1^st only, but in years where July 1^st falls on a Sunday, I find it necessary to watch a longer time period from Friday, June 29 to Sunday, July 1^st.

What shall we watch for? I do not know. However, if we know the background of those dates, then when events occur, we will recognize what is happening and understand the revelation.

July 9-15

On July 9, 1984 I had a vision while I was in the midst of spiritual warfare. I told the story in The Wars of the Lord, chapter 4. This was the beginning of the revelation of July 9. I saw it emerge again periodically over the years, and every time it did, the event built upon the original revelation. As I have seen so often, God tends to paint a picture, a little at a time, on the same date over a period of years.

On July 9, 2010 God painted a significant part of that picture when we cast barley into the Mississippi River at 2:16 p.m.

Some background… Fran Fisher was scheduled to speak at a local conference July 10 and 11. She flew to Minneapolis two days early (July 8), because she had never been to Minnesota and wanted to see the headwaters of the Mississippi River. So we scheduled a group trip to Lake Itaska for July 9 to see where the river began its flow out of that lake.

Then God revealed that we were to cast barley into the river in order to stop the BP Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This was to fulfill the eighth sign of Elisha in 2 Kings 4:38-41. As many of you may recall, the oil spill was capped 144 hours later on July 15.

A double witness was also done at the same time, when Tim Latimer put barley into the Rio Grande river near Deming, New Mexico. We once lived near the headwaters of the Rio Grande when we moved to Las Cruces in 1981. In fact, we were given property to build a church and ministry very close to those headwaters.

But God had other plans, because Las Cruces (“The Crosses”) turned out to be the place of my crucifixion in December 1981. This suggests that I was not yet ready for a Joseph ministry. I had to experience the Judah calling first (the dead lion in Genesis 49:8-12). Jesus too had to be born of the tribe of Judah to die on the cross before he could come the second time in His Joseph ministry to receive the birthright. Revelation 19:13 says that when He comes, His robe will be “dipped in blood.” This identifies Him with Joseph, whose robe was also dipped in blood (Genesis 37:31).

The Signs of Elisha

On April 12, 2009, we saw the start of the signs of Elisha. Within a month we began to see each of the signs fulfilled prophetically over a period of 15 months until they ended abruptly July 9-15, 2010 with the capping of the BP oil spill.

Recall that Elijah performed 8 miracle-signs, while Elisha (who received the double portion from Elijah) performed 16 miracle-signs.

So far we have seen the first 8 signs fulfilled in the world, but we have now waited 8 years to see the start of the double portion ministry (9-16). It has been a long and painful wait, because we believe that when these signs begin again, many Kingdom ministries will be released with renewed authority of the double portion.

The double portion in Scripture was always given to the heir of the birthright. That is why Joseph received the double portion when Jacob blessed his twelve sons. Joseph’s two sons were adopted as full sons, and they formed two tribes of Israel (Ephraim and Manasseh). So we read also in 1 Chronicles 5:1, 2 that “the birthright belonged to Joseph.”

In other words, those who have a Joseph calling will be affected directly when the double portion is released. This event, I believe, is bound up in the 9^th sign of Elisha (2 Kings 4:42-44), which speaks of the multiplying of the barley loaves. Its New Testament parallel is found in John 6:4-15. Note that John 6:9 tells us that Jesus multiplied barley, not wheat.

Back in 2010, after seeing the 8^th sign fulfilled, we assumed that the 9^th sign would occur within a few months, since this was the pattern that we had been seeing since April 2009. However, there was a clear break between the two halves of Elisha’s signs. That break has now stretched into eight years.

We have been watchful of various barley dates each year, because we do not know specifically when the 9^th sign will emerge. We know, however, that if we are watchful, God will reveal it to us when the time comes. Our next barley watch date is July 9-15, because July 9 is when we cast barley into the Mississippi River in the course of the 8^th sign on July 9, 2010.

Will we see the 9^th sign of Elisha on the anniversary of the 8^th sign? Was there an 8-year period of prophetic silence between the first and second portion? We will see.

A Coming Bank Crisis?

When the Elisha signs are completed, then I will be able to write a sequel to The Wars of the Lord. This book is ten years old now, and much has happened since 2008.

In fact, the Hezekiah Factor could prove to be very important this year, because September 2008 saw the collapse of Lehman Brothers, AIG, Freddie Mae and Freddie Mac, etc. It was the great banking crisis that was never resolved except to throw a lot of taxpayer money at it. We now face a much bigger problem with Deutsche Bank in near collapse. If that bank goes under, Germany will be unable to find enough money to bail them out, and this would certainly affect almost every bank in the world in some way.

We need to watch this situation very closely, and we need to realize that neither the bank nor the German government warn people ahead of time that it is soon to collapse. If they made such an announcement, the bank would collapse immediately, because it would cause a bank run. So they simply cannot warn anyone.

Watch for news about a Deutsche Bank crisis and know that within a few weeks not only Europe but America and the whole world will catch economic pneumonia. Many will lose a lot of money, but in the end the most important result will be a new financial system. It remains to be seen if that new system will be good or bad or both.

In my view, the next world bank crisis will coincide with the general time frame of the 9^th sign of Elisha, though not necessarily on the precise date. I would expect to see the overcomers emerge just as the world system begins to collapse. We are called to be a light when darkness covers the land, just as Joseph was called to feed the world when famine hit.