One of the songs we used to sing when I was a child was I am bound for the Promised Land. In conjunction with this, the mission school that I attended taught us the Scriptures, including the story of Israel’s wilderness journey to the Promised Land. Yet I did not realize it at the time that we all are part of Israel’s journey and that we all have our own unique journey from Egypt to Canaan. It took many years for me to discover my own journey.

I was more fortunate than most Christians to receive a good Bible background, learning the Scriptures from an early age as part of the school curriculum. In high school I devoured books on Bible prophecy, including Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth. I learned all the nuances of the coming rapture, the tribulation, the antichrist, the temple in Jerusalem, the end of the time of grace and the resumption of the “age of law” (i.e., Old Covenant religion) that Christ was to set up in the coming Jewish Kingdom.

Looking back on this, I see now that I grew up in “Egypt” in a time of bondage and captivity. Looking at this from another angle, I was born in the middle of the Laodicean Church age (1913-1993), which is the Church of the Captivity to Mystery Babylon.

Then, when I was 21, God began to move in a new way and to reveal His Word in new ways that were different from how I had been taught. I first discovered the difference between Israel and Judah, which revealed that the Jews were not the Israelites of Bible prophecy. Judah had an entirely different calling and destiny spelled out clearly in Scripture.

This, of course, radically changed my view of the Israeli state, which was not the fulfillment of prophecies given to the so-called “lost tribes of Israel.” To see the radical difference between Israel and Judah, note that Jer. 18:1-10 prophesies about Israel, while the rest of the chapter, along with Jer. 19, prophesies about Judah and Jerusalem. Israel was to be like a vessel of wet clay that could be rebuilt, while Judah was a hardened vessel that was to be smashed in the valley of Ben-hinnom (i.e., Gehenna).

There are other prophecies, of course, which seem to contradict this, showing Jerusalem’s glorious future. In later years, however, I learned that Jerusalem in Hebrew is Yerushalayim, which, with its dual ending (ayim) literally means “Two Jerusalems.” Hence, whenever the prophets speak of Jerusalem, one must ask, “which Jerusalem?” As a general rule, when the prophets speak of Jerusalem in terms of its sin and corruption, calling it “the bloody city,” it refers to the Old Jerusalem. On the other hand, when the prophets speak in glowing terms of Jerusalem, they are referring to the New Jerusalem.

This is made clear in Galatians 4 as well as in Revelation 21, where John quotes Isaiah’s statements about Jerusalem and applies them to the New Jerusalem. Knowing this, we can reconcile the differences in various prophecies.

For the next ten years (1971-1981), I studied Scripture intensely to know the truth. In 1973 I discovered the truth of the reconciliation of all things, and this alone took a year to integrate into my viewpoint as a whole. It showed me the divine plan and what “the late great planet earth” would look like at the end of history.

In 1974 I discovered that the law of God had not been put away in favor of “grace.” Law and grace have been with us since the beginning of time, functioning together. In 1978 I embarked upon a serious study of the law itself, reading Rushdoony’s book, Institutes of Biblical Law. It broke down the Ten Commandments and showed how all the other laws were subsets of at least one of the Commandments.

In 1979 I began teaching the law, applying it to daily Christian life and how it ought to be the law of the nation. My view was yet incomplete, however, because I did not yet know how the law was spiritual (Rom. 7:14). This would come only after I left “Egypt” in 1981.

Leaving Egypt (Passover)

The Israelites left Egypt at Passover, after killing and eating the lambs the previous evening. This command prophesied of Christ’s death on the cross. In fact, this set the timing of Christ’s crucifixion, because He died when the people were killing their lambs.

For me, God saw to it that I was in Las Cruces, NM, the place of the crosses. This was my personal Passover, the place where I was forced to resign from the church that I was pastoring at the time. It was a time of death for me, but it was also the start of my wilderness journey.

The Red Sea (Baptism)

My “resurrection” occurred a year later on the same date that I had “died.” The Israelites experienced their time of resurrection when they were delivered at the Red Sea. Paul interprets this in 1 Cor. 10:1, 2 (KJV),

¹ Moreover brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; ² and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

The Israelites had identified with Christ’s death at Passover by consuming the lambs. They were resurrected, so to speak, when they were baptized at the Red Sea. Baptism includes both death and resurrection, but the main purpose is to bring us to resurrection life, or what Paul calls “newness of life” (Rom. 6:4 KJV).

For me personally, it took a year of dying daily to fully die—that is, to lose all hope and to enter a time of utter despair. Only then did God move to raise me from the dead. I was then offered a job in Arkansas, which gave me a new life, along with an opportunity to do some teaching in a local church. This was from 1983-1986.

During these years, I was also part of the Net of Prayer, which taught me the basic principles of intercession and spiritual warfare. Likewise, my ability to hear God’s voice increased, especially on those occasions when the idols of my heart were exposed and overthrown.

A heart idol is a preconceived view that causes people to hear what they want to hear or to interpret it to fit their preconceived definitions. Ezekiel 14 is the classic Scripture dealing with heart idols. There is almost no teaching on this in the church. I had to learn it by hard experience, but this, I believe, was an extension of my Red Sea experience.

One very big heart idol is often seen when God speaks of Israel. Most Christians immediately think of the Jews or the Israeli state, when, in fact, God is speaking of another group of people—usually, the overcomers, but sometimes one of the nations made up of the dispersed tribes of Israel. Unfortunately, most Christians fail to search for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, thus coming under prophetic condemnation in Ezekiel 34:4 KJV, “neither have ye sought that which was lost.”

Ezekiel was applying the law in Deut. 22:1-4, which commands us to care for lost sheep until the owner can be found. In this case, God’s sheep had been lost in the Assyrian captivity, and because no one would search for them, God vowed to find them Himself (Ezek. 34:11).

The church has redefined “lost” in terms of being an unbeliever. Hence, they fail to see that God was talking about the lost ten tribes of Israel. If the scholars had searched for them in history and in the archeological monuments, they would have understood the difference between Israel and Judah (“Jews”).

But as it stands, most Christians have this as a heart idol, a strong opinion that distorts the sure word of prophecy. (See my book, Who is an Israelite?)

Mount Sinai (Pentecost)

When God came down as fire upon Mount Sinai and spoke the Ten Commandments to the people, the event was thereafter commemorated as the feast of Weeks, because it was 7 weeks after the wave-sheaf offering. By the time of Christ it was known by the Greek name, Pentecost.

Pentecost was the celebration of the giving of the law. Faith comes by hearing, and so when God speaks and we hear/obey, faith is born. This is Pentecostal faith, as distinct from Passover faith. Passover faith is our justification by the blood of the Lamb. Pentecostal faith is the ability to hear and obey God’s voice and be led by the Spirit.

Anything God tells us to do is a law to be obeyed. The law is always an expression of the nature of God, because God never tells us to do something contrary to His nature. The law given at that first day of Pentecost in Exodus 20 is the basic outline of the entire law.

We know from Exodus 20:18-20 that the people were unable to hear the law, because they were afraid to die. If they had been able to hear, the law would have been written on the hearts, and there would have been no need for a second covenant—i.e., the New Covenant.

Essentially, the Israelites rejected the New Covenant and had to spend 1400 years under the bondage of the Old Covenant. Those who reject the law today, thinking that God put away the law through Christ, are following in the footsteps of the Israelites at Sinai. The story of Israel at Sinai was written to us as a warning, not as an example to follow.

My own Pentecost occurred when I heard the word of the Lord telling me that the law is spiritual. Specifically, this came through the revelation that the laws of war in Deut. 20 were also the laws of spiritual warfare. This caused me to view the law with new eyes and to apply it in a New Covenant manner.

I no longer recall the date of this revelation, but it was probably in 1986.

From that point on, every time I looked at the law, I saw that the law was prophetic. It was as if I finally understood the law as the prophets understood it. I recall opening the Bible one day and seeing Lev. 19:32 KJV,

³² Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God; I am the Lord.

This law tells us to honor our elders by standing when an old man comes into the room. But this law is also prophetic, as we see in Daniel 7:9 KJV,

⁹ I beheld till the thrones were cast down [actually, “set up” as in Rev. 20:4] and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool…

The next verse tells us that “ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.” This pictures the resurrection of the dead at the great White Throne judgment. The Ancient of Days is the “old man” in Lev. 19:32, and when He arrives, all rise from the dead and stand before Him.

When my new eyes fell upon Lev. 19:32, I was able to correlate the law with the prophets and thereby interpret the law in ways that went beyond the literal application of the law. This new perspective was life-changing to me. Though I had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit in 1971, it took about 15 more years before I actually arrived at my Mount Sinai to receive the revelation of the law.

Kadesh-barnea

A year after leaving Egypt, the Israelites erected the tabernacle and celebrated their first Passover in the wilderness. A month later, God told them to leave Sinai and go to the southern border of Canaan to a town called Kadesh-barnea.

From there Moses sent out 12 spies, and they returned, carrying grapes from Eshcol (Num. 13:23). Grapes ripened in September, and this was the 50^th Jubilee from Adam. The spies gave their report, and ten of them gave an evil report about all the giants in the land.

Israel is called “the church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38 KJV). They were all justified by faith through Passover. They failed to become Pentecostals at Mount Sinai, because they were too afraid to hear the voice of God. So at Kadesh-barnea they refused to enter the Kingdom. They turned this Jubilee into the Day of Atonement, a day of fasting and repentance for refusing to enter the Kingdom.

In my own journey, my Kadesh-barnea moment came in 1992 with the revelation of being in agreement with God. Years earlier, in the late 1970’s, I had studied the sovereignty of God and realized that I did not know how to pray. Should I ask God for things that I wanted without knowing how this would affect my life afterward? Should I keep God informed of all the things He has forgotten?

I realized then that I did not know how to pray. So I said, “Lord, teach me to pray.”

In 1982 I met some friends who knew how to hear God’s voice. Their prayer meetings were quiet, because they spent most of their time hearing rather than speaking to God. I myself broke through the barrier on June 5-7, 1982. But this was just the beginning. I had much to learn and had some heart idols to overthrow.

It took 10 years to overthrow the idols and to receive the revelation of agreement. Passover faith means that we believe the promises of God, as did Abraham (Rom. 4:1,22). Pentecostal faith is about learning obedience by the leading of the Spirit. Tabernacles faith is about coming into agreement with God.

One can believe God without obeying the law. One can obey the law without being in agreement with it. It is only when we come into agreement that the law is truly written on our hearts.

This revelation changed my entire prayer life, and it also identified me with Caleb and Joshua who were the only two spies that were in agreement with God at Kadesh-barnea.

Specifically, the Kadesh-barnea moment occurred on June 5-7, 1992. This was precisely ten years after I began to hear God’s voice, and it was when my wife began to hear. More accurately, we discovered that she had been hearing all along, but her hearing was finally confirmed.

Strangely enough, this came about through my own struggle against an idol of the heart. This idol was causing me to hear a distorted word. My wife was in disagreement, but I did not think she could hear the word. Neither did she, because God would speak to her in a different way. The moment of truth came on June 5-7, 1992, when the truth was revealed. My idol fell hard, and her ears were opened.

This revolutionized our lives and transformed our marriage from an Old Covenant marriage to a New Covenant marriage. It was no longer a relationship where I would hear God and then tell her what God said so that she could comply and obey. No, from that point on, she was my primary double witness to anything God might tell me, and I was also her primary double witness. When we both hear independently and are in agreement, we act accordingly.

The Jordan River

When the Israelites crossed the Jordan River, it was like a second baptism (death and resurrection). As such, this event prophesied of the first resurrection (Rev. 20:6), where the overcoming sons of God are raised as a royal priesthood to reign with Christ in the Tabernacles Age to come.

In my own journey, it is clear that we have not yet arrived at that place. We have certainly experienced lesser types and shadows—like practice runs—which have taught us the principles that are needed to know the truth. Yet we have not yet experienced that which Paul describes in 1 Cor. 15:54,

⁵⁴ So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

My soul is still corruptible, and my body tells me it is still mortal, so I know that this “victory” is yet to come. Even so, we have experienced victory after victory over the years in many other ways as we prepare for the final victory.

Many of these victories anticipate the final one, as we reach out to heaven and pull its victory into the earth. We have already fought again Jericho and have prevailed. In one sense, we are already eating the fruits of the Kingdom. More is yet to come, but we do not have to wait for that day.

As we progress spiritually, being led by the Spirit, we learn how to walk by faith and to appropriate future things and bring them into today’s world. Spiritual warfare itself is fought in the heavens, a dimension that is bound by neither time nor space. When one’s spirit enters that realm to do battle, he or she joins countless others from every past and future generation who are fighting the same battle.

The battle of Jericho provides a prophetic pattern for the overthrow of Mystery Babylon today. The victory was secured from the beginning and guaranteed by Christ’s death and resurrection, but victory must be gained also by those on earth who are Christ’s body. So Paul tells us in Rom. 16:20 KJV, “the God of peace shall bruise Satan shortly under your feet.”

One main purpose of spiritual warfare is to train the body of Christ to do as He does and thereby partake of the victory along with Him. The training I received in the Net of Prayer during the 1980’s taught me what I needed to know for that time. I resigned in 1989, and God called me into ministry in 1991. The ministry was activated in 1993, and we engaged in our Jubilee Prayer Campaign on November 21-29, 1993.

This began a season of warfare under the anointing and vision of the feast of Tabernacles. Prior to that time, the warfare in the Net of Prayer was done under the anointing of Pentecost and was thus subject to the church as a whole. As we discovered, we could win every battle but could never win the war. The reason, God said, was “church decision.” The church had authority to decide these things as long as Pentecost had dominion.

This changed on May 30, 1993, because this was the 40^th Jubilee of the church since Pentecost in 33 A.D. King Saul is the main biblical pattern, because he was crowned on the day of “wheat harvest,” i.e., Pentecost (1 Sam. 12:17). He was filled with the Spirit, he prophesied, and he was “turned into another man” (1 Sam. 10:6).

He did well at first, but over the years he became rebellious against the word of the Lord. He set the pattern for the church, and each year of his reign represented a Jubilee cycle (49 years) in church history.

Jerusalem

So 1993 was the year that “Saul” died, and we began to transition into the reign of “David.” The transition took 7½ years (2 Sam. 5:4, 5), ending November 30, 2000. We then conquered the earthly Jerusalem (as did David), but we proclaimed the New Jerusalem to be the Kingdom’s capital.

By the authority granted to us through the feast of Tabernacles, we declared that the earthly Jerusalem, known to Paul as “Hagar” and the Old Covenant, will not be the capital of the Kingdom. We “cast out the bondwoman,” as the Scriptures command us (Gen. 21:10; Gal. 4:30). This declaration will be manifested in the earth shortly.

We then entered the time of Joseph, followed by Elisha. Just as John the Baptist (“Elijah”) was to prepare the way for Christ’s first coming, so also Elisha, having the double portion, is now preparing the way for Christ’s second coming. This has taken the form of an Elisha company.

The year 2024 is the end of a long age. It is 70 Jubilees since the Jordan crossing under Joshua. There is a parallel here, except that we have been given the sword of the Spirit to conquer the nations. That is Christ’s Great Commission.