All the recent “signs of the times” point to great changes that are soon to take place. We have worked long and hard to prepare ourselves for the Great Commission for the Kingdom under the Tabernacles anointing. This runs directly parallel to the Great Commission under Pentecost, except that it is the next step in Kingdom progression.

As I wrote in the April FFI, we completed the cleansing cycles (2 x 76 days) on April 22, 2011. This brought us up to the feast of Passover.

The Second Passover Signs

As I write this, we are at the time of the Second Passover (May 18-19), when we expect to see much more revelation and signs occurring. The Second Passover is like the first (regular) Passover, except that it is a month later, as stated in Numbers 9. From a prophetic standpoint, we are to watch these dates:

May 14 = 10^th day of the 2^nd month (select lambs)

May 15 = “Palm Sunday” (cast out moneychangers)

May 18 = 14^th day of the 2^nd month (kill lambs)

May 19 = 15^th day of the 2^nd month (Passover Day)

May 22 = Wave-sheaf offering

Dominique Strauss-Kahn

On Saturday, May 14, a West African woman who worked as a housekeeper at a hotel in New York filed a complaint against a man who, she said, sexually assaulted her in his hotel room when she came to clean the room.

At 4:40 p.m. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the chief of the International Monetary Fund was removed from an Air France jet as he attempted to leave the country. He was then formally arrested at 2:15 a.m. early Sunday morning.

He was denied bail in his first hearing Monday, and as I write this, he remains in jail.

Because of the timing of his offense on May 14, and his subsequent arrest on May 15, he seems to be fulfilling a major sign of the times.

The Wikipedia says that Kahn has a mix of Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish background. As a Jew, his name is another form of Cohn or Cohen, which is the Hebrew word for “priest.”

These signs point to the events of Palm Sunday in Matt. 21 and Mark 11, when Jesus cast the moneychangers (bankers) out of the temple in Jerusalem. Kahn was one of the top bankers in the world as head of the IMF. He was Jewish, and his name derives from “priest.”

As I write this, we are in the middle of the week of the Second Passover, so I do not yet have the complete story. Nonetheless, it seems that the arrest of Kahn is a major sign of things to come, as it fits squarely with the biblical events on Palm Sunday.

This arrest also has another side to the story.

The Selection of the Lambs

Kahn was taken off the plane on Saturday, May 14, the tenth day of the month. You might say he was “selected” as we read in Ex. 12:3,

³ Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, “On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their father’s households, a lamb for each household.

Verse 5 says that the lamb was to be “an unblemished male,” and the idea was to inspect the lamb for four days to be sure that it was not diseased. The possibility always existed, then, that the lamb might prove to be unworthy or unqualified as the Passover lamb. The significance of this is seen when we apply this principle prophetically. Kahn is blemished and is not qualified as a type of Christ. In other words, he is not one of the sheep who hear Christ’s voice.

Kahn resigned as IMF chief on Wednesday afternoon. This was the 14^th day of the month at the end of the inspection period.

Ishmael and Isaac

Genesis 22 tells us that God spoke to Abraham and told him to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah. Abraham showed himself willing to obey, but at the last minute, God provided a substitute ram for the actual sacrifice. This story is seen as a prophetic type of the sacrifice that the true Lamb of God would make on the same site many years later.

This means that Isaac was a type of Passover lamb. But in Islam, the Koran tells the story differently in Sura xxxvii, 102. It claims that God told him to sacrifice Ishmael, rather than Isaac.

So there is a dispute over which lamb is the unblemished one that qualified as the Passover lamb. Does the true lamb come from Sarah or from Hagar? Which group carries the true calling? Which group has the true character of Christ, the Lamb?

In the Old Testament context, the dispute was seen largely as a matter of genealogy. The fact that Hagar was an Egyptian is a major factor, because to make her the “chosen” mother would be to place Egypt as the mother of the overcomers.

Israel’s Mother was Egypt

Israel’s “mother” was, indeed, Egypt, for we read in Hosea 11:1, “out of Egypt I called My son.” God takes credit for being Israel’s Father, but Egypt was the mother. As such, Israel was a spiritual Ishmaelite.

The angel told Hagar that her son, Ishmael, was to be a pereh awdawm, “wild-ass man” (Gen. 16:12). In the law found in Ex. 13:13, a firstborn donkey had to be redeemed by a lamb. Donkeys were unclean animals and were not qualified as offerings to God. Hence, a substitute lamb had to be given to God.

This law was the basis of the Passover feast. Israel was about to be birthed out of Egypt at that first Passover, but they were coming out of Egypt as an Ishmaelite donkey. So God established the feast of Passover in order to provide a substitute lamb. Without that lamb, they were not qualified to be the sons of God or the inheritors of the Kingdom.

In the New Testament this came to be of utmost importance. Without the Lamb of God as their Passover, they were disqualified as the sheep of His pasture. In rejecting Christ, they remained as mere donkeys in the spiritual sense, and they were disqualified.

Those who accepted Jesus as the true Passover Lamb were the ones who could lawfully be presented to God as the little lambs—the body of Christ, the Lamb. The rest could never inherit the Kingdom in their fleshly position, regardless of their genealogy, for they did not possess the character of Christ.

All of this is the basis of Paul’s teaching in Galatians 4, showing that the physical city of Jerusalem on earth is “Hagar,” while the New Jerusalem is “Sarah.” One must have the right mother to be an inheritor of the promises given to Abraham. In the days of Abraham, the type was a matter of genealogy, but when fulfilled, the antitype was a matter of spiritual genealogy.

Our Identity in Christ

As I showed in the May FFI, this year (2011) has started with a Declaration of Identity in the first two 76-day periods of the Prophetic Year. Though we did not know where God was going with this at first, it is now apparent that this has to do with our identity as Isaac or Ishmael.

Are we children of the flesh or of the Spirit? Who is your mother? Do you work to establish the old Jerusalem or the new? Do you believe that the Kingdom of God will be centered in the old Jerusalem or the New? Will Christ live in a physical temple in Jerusalem and enjoy animal sacrifices served up by Levitical priests? Or will Christ inhabit His spiritual temple that is being built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles (Eph. 2:20-22)?

Take care, because who you claim as your “mother” may determine whether you (as a believer) are an inheritor or a servant in the Kingdom of God. There is a difference.

When Jesus went to Jerusalem to be crucified, He entered the city on Palm Sunday and cast the money changers out of the temple. This is what caused the priests to “select” Him as the Passover Lamb (Mark 11:18). God caused them to select the true Passover Lamb blindly. So also in our time, God has caused the IMF to reject the blemished lamb (Mr. Strauss-Kahn) and force him to resign as IMF chief.

In Jesus’ day, though they selected Him, they also rejected Him at the same time (John 1:11), because His character and calling did not align with their own. In fact, they preferred Barabbas, the robber, and in choosing Him to be set free, they were actually rejecting him as the Passover lamb! By the sovereignty of God, they fulfilled prophecy, while at the same time rejecting Christ. They preferred a blemished lamb as their Christ, one who would act carnally and overthrow the Romans with force. The priests had a problem with the love of money, and so they had established the spirit of the moneychangers in the temple.

Even as the priests rejected Jesus as the Lamb, so also did Jesus reject the banker-priests. He cast them out of the temple, saying, in effect, that their “lamb” was blemished and unqualified.

This is what Mr. Strauss-Kahn represents in the present revelation that is being seen in today’s news. The true Lamb and His little lambs are casting out the money-changers from the temple of God. The dispute between Isaac and Ishmael is heating up.

I am speaking of the heart, not of genealogy.

A Heart Matter

Ten years ago, on May 19-20, 2001, a select group of 15 met at Coer d’Alene, Idaho to discuss and to petition the Divine Court to unite the Sons and Daughters of God in the Order of Melchizedek. The key word was Ascension, and the primary symbol was the Rose.

We are now seeing the results of that work ten years later, according to the Hezekiah Factor (2001-2011). The Passover Conference April 22-24, 2011 was held at Manassas, VA, and its main theme involved the daughters of Zelophehad and their petition to be inheritors.

However, the Second Passover occurred on May 18-19 this year, which coincides more precisely with the Coer d’Alene meetings on May 19-20, 2001. Both Passovers are important in understanding the current signs.

In that context, we see the emergence of two types of Passover lambs. The first is the blemished, diseased lamb that represents those whose hearts are not right. The second is the arnion (little lambs of John 21:15) whose heart reflects the character of the Amnos Lamb of God (John 1:29).

The acceptable lambs today in the second work of Christ are thus seen to be balanced by the male and female gifts and callings. In a report that I issued in 2001, I wrote about the culmination of the Coer d’Alene meetings:

“That afternoon [May 20, 2001] we were scheduled to take a cruise on the lake, during which time we read a petition before the Divine Court of Heaven that God would unite the Sons and Daughters in the Order of Melchizedek.”

The Word of the Lord then told us of 32,000 angels of the overcomers who were to be released “to do the second work of Christ.” This is the great work that lies ahead. We have had revelation about this time since the early 1980’s and have worked toward that end. It seems that we are now nearing the time when God will release the provision necessary to accomplish this end-time work. It correlates with the Elisha Ministry and what we earlier called the Open Door Ministry.

These 32,000 angels of specific overcomers relate to the 32,000 volunteers in Gideon’s army (Judges 7:3). The main difference is that in the days of Gideon, 22,000 of the volunteers were too full of fear to have sufficient faith to do the work. Another 9,700 were disqualified by their lack of discernment of the Word (“water”). Only 300 were left to do the work with Gideon.

In 2001, however, the situation had changed. All 32,000 of the overcomers were qualified to join Gideon’s army that was being raised up in that year to do the spiritual warfare that was required. For this reason, we had the assistance of their 32,000 angels.

As I mentioned earlier, one of the main themes at the time was also the Rose. I had been led to bring a small jar of rose oil with me, which had a frequency of 320 Hz. I had brought it with me from Minnesota, the 32^nd state.

Since 32 is the biblical number signifying “covenant,” this also represented a work done under the authority of the New Covenant.

So ten years later in 2011, we see that the dispute and conflict between Ishmael and Isaac centers around the old and new covenants. Ishmael adheres to the old covenant, because he is “of Hagar,” while Isaac adheres to the New Covenant, because he is “of Sarah.”

The Warfare

The conflict between Ishmael and Isaac first appears in Genesis 21 at the “great feast” celebrating the time of Isaac’s weaning.

⁸ And the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. ⁹ Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egypt, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking. ¹⁰ Therefore she said to Abraham, “Drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son Isaac.”

This obviously does not tell the whole story. It seems unlikely that Sarah would react so strongly if Ishmael had merely laughed at Isaac or shown him some disrespect. The Apostle Paul says in Gal. 4:29,

²⁹ But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.

Where did Paul get the idea that Ishmael had persecuted Isaac? And how did that relate to Paul’s time? We see the answer in the book of Jasher, with which Paul may have been familiar. Jasher 21:11-15 says,

¹¹ And Ishmael the son of Abraham was grown up in those days; he was fourteen years old when Sarah bare Isaac to Abraham. ¹² And God was with Ishmael the son of Abraham, and he grew up and he learned the use of the bow and became an archer. ¹³ And when Isaac was five years old he was sitting with Ishmael at the door of the tent. ¹⁴ And Ishmael came to Isaac and seated himself opposite to him, and he took the bow and drew it and put the arrow in it, and intended to slay Isaac. ¹⁵ And Sarah saw the act which Ishmael desired to do to her son Isaac, and it grieved her exceedingly on account of her son, and she sent for Abraham and said to him, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son, for her son shall not be heir with my son, for thus did he seek to do unto him this day.”

That pattern of warfare has carried to the present day in the conflict between their descendants, both physical and spiritual. In Paul’s time, he recognized that Judaism was an Ishmael, having Jerusalem as its spiritual mother. The children of Jerusalem (i.e., the adherents of Judaism) had continued to persecute the Isaac company (early Church).

In fact, Paul spoke from personal experience, having been a persecutor of the Church before his conversion. He knew firsthand what it meant to be an Ishmaelite, but his conversion was a pattern by which any Ishmaelite might become a true inheritor, Isaac, son of Sarah. It requires faith in Jesus Christ to bring a person under the New Covenant and to take on a new mother.

The story in Genesis actually speaks of two occasions when Hagar was cast out. The first time was when she was yet pregnant with Ishmael. Sarah had treated her harshly for her pride (Gen. 16:4-6). At that time, the angel of God had appeared to Hagar and instructed her to return and submit to Sarah (16:9).

Hagar did so, but 19 years later Ishmael attempted to kill Isaac with an arrow, and they were cast out permanently. This suggests prophetically that Hagar-Jerusalem and her children would be cast out twice; first in 70 A.D. and again (permanently) in our time.

The Hebrew word for “arrow” has a figurative meaning as well. It is figurative for a Teacher, one who hits the mark of Truth. When Ishmael intended to shoot Isaac with an arrow, it prophetically signified a doctrinal teaching that would bring death, rather than life. It was a false teaching whose purpose was to destroy the Isaac company and allow the Ishmaelites to become the heirs of Abraham.

This is the nature of the battle, both in Paul’s day and in our own time. When men teach that the sons of Ishmael are God’s chosen people and are the inheritors of the Kingdom, they are antitypes of the story of Ishmael persecuting Isaac by intending to shoot him with his arrow.

The Dispensationalist teachers in the past 150 years have taught a carnal fulfillment of the promises of God that caters to the “children of the flesh.” It says that genealogy determines the heirs of the promise. It elevates one’s genealogy above one’s spiritual connection to Jesus Christ, the Last Adam.

Those who claim to be heirs based upon genealogy to Adam, Isaac, or Israel, are yet “children of the flesh” that are functioning under the provisions of the Old Covenant. Those who claim to be heirs based upon the Declaration of Identity with the Last Adam are the true heirs of the promise as sons of God.

Ten years ago we engaged in intense spiritual warfare through most of the year 2001. Within that context, we were in Coer d’Alene dealing with matters of the heart. The name of the city means “heart of the awl.” This spoke prophetically of the law in Deut. 15:15-18, where a freed slave who loved his master could return voluntarily to be a permanent member of the household. His ear lobe was to be bored to the door with an awl.

The door is Christ (John 10:9). Hence, Paul calls himself “a bondslave of Jesus Christ” (Rom. 1:1). Such “slaves” are free indeed, because true freedom comes only through Jesus Christ, when we leave our own household (family, or genealogy) and become part of the household of Christ.

Hezekiah’s Second Passover

Our Second Passover watch dates this month is based upon the Hezekiah’s great feast in 2 Chronicles 30. We discovered from 30:23 that the people enjoyed the feast so much that they decided to keep a double feast. Since the normal feast of Unleavened Bread was seven days, they kept the Second Passover celebration a full 14 days.

Passover Day itself is just the first day of the feast of Unleavened Bread. That day is May 19, 2011, so the double feast actually ends on the 14^th day, June 1.

For this reason, while May 22 is certainly a watch date for us, we may see this time extended until June 1^st. But since I must get this bulletin to the print shop earlier, it is not possible to know yet how these things are fulfilled.