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The work of the house of Joseph, part 30

Two months after pouring out the sixth bowl of wine and water at Fruita, Colorado, I baptized Lori and Danny on November 22, 2005.

They had been making arrangements to visit Lori’s mother in order to testify to her about the power of God and how He had delivered Lori from the spirit of Baphomet in June of 2004. Lori wanted me to accompany them, but I told her that this was something that she must do herself.

About a week before the visit, Lori and Danny began to quarrel. This continued for a few days until Danny received a flash of inspiration and said, “The devil is trying to get between us to prevent us from testifying to your mother! Would you please call Stephen; I want to become a Christian!” So in this case God used the devil as an evangelist to bring Danny to Christ.

Lori called me, and I immediately drove to their apartment, where I led Danny to Christ. Both of them expressed a desire to be baptized, and so I baptized them on the 42^nd anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (November 22, 1963). This was also the 42^nd anniversary of the death of C. S. Lewis.

The 42^nd Generation

Baptism, of course, signifies death and resurrection (Romans 6:4). The number 42 is the biblical number of arrival, often pointing to the second coming of Christ. Israel had 41 camps in the wilderness, listed in Numbers 33:3-49. Their 42^nd camp was in the plains of Jericho after crossing the Jordan. Again, Matthew 1:17 says,

¹⁷ So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah [Christos, “Christ”], fourteen generations.

Fourteen times three is 42. However, if you actually count the names in Matthew’s genealogy, there are only 41 generations to Jesus Himself. The body of Christ is the 42^nd generation. Psalm 24:3 asks, “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place?” The answer is given in terms of those who have “clean hands and a pure heart” (Psalm 24:4), and Psalm 24:6 concludes,

⁶ This is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face—even Jacob. Selah.

This generation is not seeking the face of Jacob. This generation is following Jacob’s example of seeking the face of God. It is a reference to the night where Jacob wrestled with the angel Peniel (“God’s face”) and then named that place after the angel himself (Genesis 32:29, 30).

Jacob was the classic type of overcomer, starting out with defective faith, but later coming into the revelation of the sovereignty of God. When he was renamed Israel, “God rules,” he bore the testimony that marked him as an overcomer. After a life of seeking the face of God, He finally achieved his goal.

So also is it with the overcomers. They are “the generation of those who seek Him,” that is, “Your face.”

Lori and Danny were apprehended by our sovereign God, the God of Jacob. They did not know who or what they were seeking, but in the end, God exposed their inner desire to find Christ, and that is when their hearts were changed. I am reminded of what Paul said in Romans 11:7,

⁷ What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened [or “blinded,” KJV].

Hence, Lori and Danny are modern examples of “those who were chosen.” In the fullness of time, they responded to God’s choosing, and this is true for all the overcomers. They start out as Jacobites who think God needs help to fulfill His promises; but they end up as Israelites who recognize that God needs no help from the flesh (man’s will) to accomplish His purposes.

In the context of the bowls of wine and water—especially the sixth bowl of water—Lori and Danny were prophetic types of those whom God was calling and gathering together as inheritors. These inheritors are the “blessed” ones who stay awake and keep their clothing (Revelation 16:15), while the three unclean spirits gather their own followers and supporters to fight Christ in the battle of Armageddon.

Types and Shadows are Prophecies

The day after Lori and Danny were baptized, the new roof on our house was completed. Recall that our house had been badly damaged just before the feast of Tabernacles two months earlier while we were in Denver. The new roof was a new covering, and the fact that it coincided with Lori and Danny’s baptism suggests the idea of resurrection and new clothing to go with the inner transformation occurring on a prophetic level.

It has been said that history is prophecy fulfilled. But it is equally true that prophecy is history fulfilled, in that many historical events in Scripture prophesy of events yet to come. Such historical events are called types and shadows, but they are also prophecies of other historical events in the future.

So when we poured out the bowls of wine and water, we were prophesying of future events. We were fulfilling prophecies from the past, but we were also establishing prophecies for the future. Along with this, Lori and Danny were types and shadows as well, and God used them as patterns of things to come.

By no means were Lori and Danny the only types and shadows revealing spiritual truths and things to come. There is no way to know how many people were involved as pieces of the big picture. We only know of a few of them because of our fleshly limitations. Neither is it important that we know all the stories that could be told.

For example, on November 26, 2005 a woman in France received the first face transplant. On the Hebrew calendar, it was the 24^th day of the 9^th month, a day set forth in Haggai 2:18, 19,

¹⁸ Do consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month; from the day when the temple of the Lord was founded, consider. ¹⁹ … Yet from this day on, I will bless you.

Haggai’s name means “feast day,” because he is the prophet of the feast of Tabernacles. He is also The Prophet of the Greater Temple, which is the title of my commentary on Haggai. The second temple in the time of Haggai was completed on March 15, 515 B.C., but the prophetic works of Haggai and the builders of that second temple were establishing prophetic types and shadows of a greater temple yet to come.

In fact, we would soon see more prophetic types and shadows occur 2,520 years (“seven times”) after the completion of that temple. That date fell on March 15, 2006.

The face transplant in France prophesied of Jacob’s transformation after wrestling with Peniel, “God’s face.” Prophetically speaking, Jacob received a face transplant, although this is more clearly seen at Moses’ transfiguration when “the skin of his face shone” (Exodus 34:29) and again at Jesus’ transfiguration when “His face shone as the sun” (Matthew 17:2).

Even as Jacob sought God’s face and would not let the angel leave without giving him a blessing, so also God promised a blessing on the 24^th day of the 9^th month in Haggai 2:18, 19.

We often make the mistake of assuming that when we do something prophetic, or make some decree from the divine court, that it must come to pass immediately. But all time is one in the spiritual realm. In that realm, all events occur at the same moment. It is only when those spiritual events are translated into earth time that they occur in a particular order in history.

Yet all types and shadows that relate to the same prophetic goal speak into the time of fulfillment. It is as if Haggai’s prophecy were spoken in our time on March 15, 2006. It is as if the 2,520-year historical interim does not exist. And even the event in 2006 was just another type and shadow of greater things to come. God does it this way to allow people from many generations to take active roles in establishing the same prophecies.

Our Talkative God

In this case, the woman in France probably had no awareness of the prophetic role that she was playing. But we ourselves saw what was happening, and her surgery was the occasion of our own revelation about the work of Peniel that was yet to be fulfilled in the 42^nd generation that seeks the face of God.

God speaks constantly with many silent voices and pictures, but only few have ears to hear and eyes to see. Psalm 19:1-4 says,

¹ The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. ² Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. ³ There is no [audible] speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard. ⁴ [But yet…] Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their utterance to the end of the world…

Because God’s “speech” is silent and cannot (normally) be heard with physical ears, most people think God does not speak at all—or at least not to them. But that is not the case at all. You may have to hear with your eyes, but once you begin to see that virtually all events prophesy on some level, the revelation of God begins to flow in your understanding.