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An increase of authority, part 3

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is pictured in the constellation of Aquarius, the water bearer who pours water from an urn into the mouth of the fish (Pisces). The fish, of course was an early Church symbol used to identify themselves to each other, often covertly. The Greek word ICHTHUS was an acronym for Jesus Christ God and Savior.

It may be because of the constellation in the heavens that we often picture the outpouring of the Spirit as coming from above. However, more likely it is due to the fact that anointing and baptism was always pictured as being poured over the head of someone, since anointing was to be from God in heaven. Likewise, Joel 2:23 pictures Pentecost as a latter rain, which always occurred in the month leading to Pentecost.

Nonetheless, we cannot ignore the urn itself, from which the Water Bearer pours water. We are those urns, for we hold this treasure in earthen vessels (2 Corinthians 4:7), and Jesus said that if we drink this water, we too would become wells or springs of living water to dispense to others (John 7:37, 38).

In other words, the outpouring of the Spirit needs to begin somewhere, as we have seen so often in history with other revivals. But from there, those who have received this “water” are called to share it with others until it fills the entire earth. Unfortunately, all past revivals have stopped short of filling the whole earth. While those have been partial, the one that comes, I believe, is the one that will be continuous, because God will have urns that will not fail.

How Revivals Die

It is a given that revivals die when they are replaced by elements of the flesh. The deeper problem is that flesh goes unrecognized and is usually mistaken for spiritual activity. Our very desire for the manifestation of the Holy Spirit entices us to try to make it happen by fleshly activity. By thinking that we must do something to cause the revival, we usurp the work of the Holy Spirit. We must understand that our works are a response, not the cause.

Here is where our doctrinal viewpoints are important. For centuries, we have been trained to think that our salvation originates in our own decision to follow Christ, rather than as a response to His work and leading. Our part in it has been elevated to a position it was never meant to hold. Most Christians have never been able to break free of this and to give credit where credit is due.

When we examine the roots of this problem, we see that it comes down to the question of the basis of our faith. Which covenant shapes our faith? Is our faith in our own vow, promise, or decision to follow Jesus? Is our faith in God’s vow or promise to save us? Who is actually responsible to fulfill the promise, you or God?

Most have never really considered the difference, simply because our will is involved either way. Under the Old Covenant, we make decisions and vows according to our (fleshly) will, usually with good but unrealistic intentions. When we fail the next day, we renew our vows, hoping to succeed thereafter. Honest believers find that they must renew their vows continually to maintain their “saved” condition.

New Covenant believers, however, place their faith in God and His promise, rather than in their own ability to keep vows. Abraham is their example of faith, for when God made a promise to him, he believed “that what He had promised, He was able also to perform” (Romans 4:21). Hence, the New Covenant is based on the promise of God, not the promise of men. Men are responders, not initiators of faith. Men’s responses prove that God is fulfilling His promise in their own lives. They see their faith as a gift from God, which is imparted by His word (Romans 10:17), not as something originating in the soul of man.

Our training in matters of faith and salvation establishes our mindset about the Holy Spirit as well. As with Justification, so also with Sanctification. As with Passover, so also with Pentecost. And so, many think that they are called to initiate the Holy Spirit, when in fact, if you study past revivals, those “urns” were led by the Spirit to bring in those revivals. They really did not initiate anything. The Holy Spirit gave them instructions on what to do, and as they were obedient to His will (not to any of their own “good ideas”), God prepared and cleansed the urns before the revivals ever hit the earth.

It is my belief that the New Covenant will be the driving force behind the coming move of the Spirit, because that is the only way this revival will have no end. Anything short of this will prove to be temporary, because flesh will get in the way at some point. The root of flesh is the will of man. Anything initiated and done by man’s will is of the flesh. It is not necessarily bad in itself, but flesh was never capable of doing certain things.

Angelic Matters

When we look at the “mechanics” of spiritual things, how such things work, rather than just what happens in a revival, we see certain angelic beings called to implement the word (or promise) of God in the earth. Angels are the word of God personified, and they are named according to their nature, which is the nature of the word itself.

By contrast, God has seen fit to include in His plan such things as “evil spirits,” whose ultimate job is to judge sin, usually by magnifying it so that it is exposed and can be dealt with. Those evil spirits are thus closely connected to the flesh itself, causing some to think that evil spirits and flesh are the same thing. In my experience, evil spirits are empowered by sin and operate through flesh, but one is spirit and the other is flesh. Though related, they are not the same thing.

In October 1995 I first saw the angel Peniel while I was in North Carolina at a conference. I soon discovered that he was the angel of Tabernacles and that he had been assigned to me. Angels determine callings, according to the word that is in them. I understood from that manifestation that I would have something to do with the outpouring of the Spirit that was to come. That outpouring would be a Tabernacles revival which is greater than the Pentecostal outpouring seen in the book of Acts.

For this reason, much of the work that I have been led to do (even prior to 1995) has been to prepare the way for the fulfillment of Tabernacles. When I looked back to prior years, especially to 1986 and beyond, I realized that my battles with Apollyon/Abaddon, the Prince of Persia, were designed to overcome the counterfeit manifestation of the Comforter (or Holy Spirit). These battles were fought not only in the heavenlies but within myself as well.

Daniel fought the Prince of Persia through his angel (“Michael, your prince”), as we read in Daniel 10:13, 21. Battles in the heavens are fought in a realm beyond time. The battle that Daniel fought is the same battle that we ourselves fight. In that timeless realm, we fight side by side with the prophets who have lived throughout the ages, each entering the battle according to a different moment of earth-time.

In Daniel’s day, Michael came to assist. Assist who? My belief is that Michael assisted Peniel, who (as I have learned) is the natural enemy and counterpart to the Prince of Persia. Peniel brings the fullness of the Spirit through Tabernacles, but he is opposed by Apollyon, whose job is to identify flesh and use counterfeit versions of the Comforter in opposition to the genuine move of the Holy Spirit.

That is essentially why the angel began to give me revelation about the Prince of Persia in 1986. Two years later, August 2/3, 1988, we were finally led to engage in spiritual warfare against him and to take him prisoner. However, a year later on the same dates, we had to release him, because we were not yet ready or able to hold him. A year after that, on August 2/3, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and that led us into the Gulf War, beginning January 17, 1991.

That was precisely 28 years ago today. It began with an air campaign. I wrote about this in my book, The Wars of the Lord.

A few years later, January 17, 1994, we saw the Los Angeles earthquake, and a year after that came the big earthquake in Kobe, Japan. The Kobe quake occurred (as expected) 414 days after the end of our Jubilee Prayer Campaign (November 29, 1993). I have written about all these things in the past.

Also, January 17, 1983 was the day that I joined the Net of Prayer. That was a significant change in my own life, as I began my time of training in the art of spiritual warfare.

Current Events

In the past few days we have witnessed some very significant events, not in the news as such, but here in my office in Minneapolis. January 14-16 has been on our radar every years since 2010, as it is a type of the Passover season, based on our western calendar. We saw the glory of the Lord come on January 14 and again on January 16 (yesterday).

The January 14 revelations focused on the theme of Passover, while the January 16 revelations were about the wave-sheaf offering (resurrection). The culmination saw the expulsion of the evil spirit called “Mystery of Iniquity” (2 Thessalonians 2:7 KJV), which the NASB renders more correctly, “Mystery of Lawlessness” (anomia).

This was followed shortly by the manifestation of the evil spirit called “Son of Perdition” (2 Thessalonians 2:3 KJV), which the NASB renders, “Son of Destruction.” The Greek word is Apollyon, who we know as the Prince of Persia.

With this victory, we have received a sword and a mantle, which one of the Council members that were present hung up on our wall. I am not sure what all of this means, but we will see how this all works out in the days and months ahead. An early view is that Apollyon has now been overcome fully in preparation for the true Comforter to be poured out in a Tabernacles way. Yet this seems to be in conjunction with the wave-sheaf offering, which in Scripture is the start of a 50-day cycle toward Pentecost. Before Pentecost, there is also a Second Passover (Numbers 9:9-11), which correlates on our calendar with February 14-16.

There was at least one problem in the past few days which we could not deal with until the time of the Second Passover, so that indicated that we would have to meet again on February 14-16 to finish up something.

In the end, all of this seems to suggest the possibility that the feast of Tabernacles this year may be quite significant. It is too early to tell, of course, but the fact that Stone Kingdom Ministries is holding a Pentecost conference next June may suggest that it is a stepping stone toward Tabernacles.

Time will tell.