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The delayed calling, part 1

When I first joined the Net of Prayer by the spirit on November 12, 1981, I was unaware that God had conscripted me for spiritual warfare. Neither did I know that this was supposed to be a five-year term in God’s military. I learned this later by reading the NOP newsletters.

A Change of Calling

On July 9, 1986 the aftermath of Operation Clean Sweep concluded two years after it began. This was supposed to be the end of my time in the NOP, for a week later my brother was given a word from the Lord, which he shared with me on July 16,

“What you see now is not complete but is only the beginning…The time has come for them [the NOP] to be separated from you. This is what has been and is being done. My blessings will come with overflowing soon, but not until the final separation is made.

“Call the New Net of Prayer to prayer.

“A restoration and transformation of My people and My land must start with My own. Now that you have been separated, the work begins. When most thought the work was over, now it begins. There is much to do and little time to do it.”

“What do we have to do? What work?” I asked.

“Start the restoration process.”

This was not a word that I wanted to hear. My life had been bound up in the NOP for five years, and I never wanted to leave. Though the local group all bore witness to this word—twelve witnesses—I put the matter into Chuck’s hands. He said it was just a carnal word, and I believed him. I realized later that God had answered me according to the idol (desire) of my heart (Ezekiel 14:3).  It was not Chuck’s fault; I was deceived by my own strong desire.

It was clear that God had joined me to the NOP in 1981, and after five years He was calling me to a ministry of “restoration.” This was something that I could not do while in the NOP, because Chuck did not believe in the restoration of all things. As long as I was subordinate to him, the ministry of restoration was suppressed.

I learned later (in 1991) that October 1986 was the start of the 120^th Jubilee year from Adam. I did not know this in July of 1986. There were many things I did not know at the time. Yet I should have been obedient to the word of the Lord, whether I understood it or not. I should have realized that God knew things that I did not know, and that His word always has a good purpose.

God had joined me with the NOP in order to teach me the fundamental principles of intercession and spiritual warfare. After five years, I should have known enough to begin the new work of restoration, but because I refused to leave the NOP at that time, I had to take another course on Basic Obedience 101.

The Deadline: September 2, 1986

God often gives us time to make our final decisions. He does this because grace is part of His nature and is also built into the law of Jubilee. As I have said, Cursed Time is also a grace period that is given to those who are under the curse to give them time to repent before the sentence is carried out.

When I was first given the word to leave the NOP, it threw me into a very strange spiritual state. For the next three days (July 16-18) I walked around in a daze. I felt more dead than alive, and yet I was more alive than ever. In later months, as I contemplated this, I concluded that God was showing me what it means to die to the flesh. During that time, it was as if I knew everything. When people asked me difficult questions, I immediately knew the answers.

This death-life state was very uncomfortable (to my flesh). I found it difficult to do my work as a typesetter. It was hard to focus on my work, because I (my spirit) was somewhere else, and that my spirit held my conscious identity. I was no longer my flesh. I was my spirit, and my spirit wanted to go places and do things other than typesetting.

Finally, after three days, I begged God to take this away. I could not stand it any longer. He answered my prayer, and life went back to normal. This experience gave me a taste of what it is like to walk in the spirit, and it also showed me that I was not yet ready to do this as a permanent feature of normal life. I would have to come into this more gradually.

On September 2, our local group called together another meeting. As I drove to the meeting that evening, I suddenly knew everything again. This lasted just three hours, covering the time of our entire meeting. When I arrived, I told them the reason for the meeting, and so they did not need to tell me the word that they had for me. The word was that because I had not left the NOP, the local group would be disbanded, and I would have to move away.

This turned out to be my deadline and the start of three cycles of Cursed Time for being in a calling that was no longer mine. Of course, I did not know this yet, because I did not learn about Cursed Time until February 1991, which was five years later. A year later I lost my job in Batesville and soon had to move to Memphis, TN to find typesetting work.

I was there for two years (1987-1989), and toward the end of that time, I finally resigned from the NOP on October 16, 1989. Hence, when my third cycle of Cursed Time ended, God moved me to Leachville, AR on January 27, 1990, where I began my cycle of cleansing at Rt. 2, Box 76.

The Bear Vision

In addition to my duties as a typesetter, I was also asked to be the editor of the company magazine. As editor, I scheduled a staff meeting for March 26, 1986 at a local restaurant, where we were to have breakfast together. However, no one else came to the meeting, so I was left alone to eat, pray, and meditate.

While I was eating breakfast, I looked up and saw an angel standing quietly about ten feet away. I had seen a few angels in the past, so this was not particularly unusual. Yet it was an angel that I did not recognize, so I asked who he was and why he was here. He told me his name was Mel, which I believe is the angel of the Melchizedek Order.

I then asked him, “Where is my angel?”

Mel responded, “He is on assignment in Saudi Arabia.”

I was curious and asked if I could join him and see what was going on. “That is why I have come,” Mel said. Immediately, I was taken in the spirit to a “dungeon” in Saudi Arabia, where I saw my angel guarding a giant bear-like beast with glowing red eyes. Mel then disappeared, and I conversed with my own angel for the rest of the vision.

In my notes, I wrote this:

“I suddenly found myself in a somewhat dark, dungeon-like room. The first I see is a black, hairy, bear-like beast. However, the angel has it chained and is guarding the beast. Then my angel speaks.

“Ramadan. Watch the month of Ramadan.

“Why?” I asked.

“I must then release the beast you see before you,” he replied matter-of-factly. I look at the beast, as it sullenly glares at me, its eyes glowing read.

“What is this beast? What is his job (purpose)?”

“This is the beast of war to be released when peace is taken from the earth. It hungers after the flesh of men and lusts after blood.”

“Why is it in Saudi Arabia?”

“It was sent here by the Church in their hated for the Arabs. They think they do God a service by thus supporting the Jews.”

I was surprised by this answer and could not think of a reply at first. After a short pause, the angel continued, “There is a like (similar) beast in Jerusalem, sent by those who hate the Jews. Both have been commissioned by the Church to devour much flesh.”

“What can be done about them?” I asked.

“Nothing. Only guard them until the appointed time. Keep watch over them, that they be not released before their time.”

I then found myself back at the restaurant finishing my breakfast.

At first I thought that this beast was the “Russian bear,” as this was the popular metaphor in those days of the Soviet Union. But later I realized that it was the Persian bear, for it described the beast that Daniel saw in Daniel 7:5 KJV,

⁵ And behold, another beast, a second, like to a bear. And it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth, between its teeth; and thus they said thus unto it, “Arise, devour much flesh.”

I came to know that this was a manifestation of the Prince of Persia, which my angel was restraining in an underground dungeon in Saudi Arabia. Nonetheless, it would take a few years (after the Gulf War) before I actually saw the fulfillment of this vision.

Just as my first five years in the NOP had been dominated by the revelation of Operation Clean Sweep, the next five years was dominated by the revelation of the Prince of Persia. Over the next few months, God showed me how the Prince of Persia had been working in the world (and even in the Church) for a long time. I learned that his name was Apollyon in Greek and Abaddon in Hebrew (Revelation 9:11). The Prince of Persia was only his title. For a fuller account of his activities, see Book 3 of my commentary on Revelation 9.

It was clear that God was revealing the nature of my calling and what I was to overcome in the time ahead. Though I was to spend more than three years of training under Cursed Time, this did not mean that God had forsaken me; instead, He had put me into a disciplinary mode in order to cause me to repent, so that I could finish my calling properly.

Furthermore, God had already planned this from the start. I know this because in June 1982 He had told me that I would be “like Joseph” in that I would be trained for twelve years (1981-1993). In 1986 I had been trained only five years—phase one. My disobedience in 1986 only showed my need for further training to learn obedience. Again, it was on-the-job training.