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The delayed calling, part 6

While the Swaggart controversy was developing in February 1988, another issue was arising. On February 25, 1988 I received a word from the Lord that we were to go into spiritual warfare against the Prince of Persia on August 3^rd in a prayer campaign called “These Stones.”

At the time, we were attending an Alliance church in Memphis, pastored by Pastor Samm. Shortly after we moved to Memphis in late November 1987, I asked God if we should look for a church to attend. He reminded me of an old word where He had said, “Someday I will send you back to the church that you were raised in so that you can teach them how to pray.” So I looked in the telephone book and found that there was indeed an Alliance church nearby in Memphis.

Pastor Samm

The pastor, in my opinion, was exceptional. He knew how to hear from God and had good spiritual discernment. I liked him very much. I also taught the adult Bible class and occasionally also the teenage class at the church. Because they had a pianist but had no one to play the organ, I became the organist. I was not used to playing an organ, and was not too good at it, but no one complained.

At any rate, I shared my discernment with Pastor Samm about These Stones prayer campaign on Sunday, February 28, and after prayer, he believed that this was of God. On March 1, he called to tell me he was in agreement and would participate. To overthrow the Prince of Persia, we believed, would give us the opportunity to reach the Muslim world with the gospel of Christ.

He also believed that the Alliance denomination itself would want to participate in this prayer campaign, because it aligned with their stated goal of “reaching the unreached people of the world.” So on Thursday, March 3, we drafted a letter to the denominational headquarters in New York with our proposal.

Pastor Samm looked through the manual to see who the letter should be sent to. I discovered then that all of the top officials were men that I had known in my childhood. One of them had been a schoolmate in the Philippines when I was a child. Nonetheless, we had to send the letter to Rev. David Moore, a man I did not know, since he was in the appropriate position of authority.

Samm was quite optimistic about the Alliance joining us in the prayer campaign, but my revelation was that they would neither agree nor disagree. I told Samm that they would be wishy-washy and that the final result would be to reject the prayer campaign. Samm was quite sure I was wrong.

I also told him that we would hear back from him on March 19. I knew this because another man by the same name had established the timing by something he did on March 19, 1985. I prefer not to give more details of that incident, but the “coincidence” of names told me that we would hear from Rev. David Moore on March 19 and that he would not agree with us in prayer.

The response was sent to Pastor Samm and did indeed arrive on March 19. Rev. Moore seemed reluctant to reject the prayer campaign altogether but claimed that he was not the one to make the decision. He “passed the buck” to his superior, whose letter arrived on April 28, again deferring to his superior.

By this time, it was clear that they thought we were asking them to lead a denomination-wide prayer campaign. All we really wanted, of course, was their agreement. We would have done all the heavy lifting. If they had simply sent a letter of spiritual support, that would have been sufficient, since these leaders represented the denomination as a whole. But it was obvious that they were unfamiliar with this protocol.

They told us that the denomination’s agendas had already been set a year earlier and could not be altered. Samm was disappointed, but I was not surprised.

These Stones Prayer Campaign

The NOP revelation from a few years earlier foretold of a coming war in which the USA would send a half million troops to the Mideast. At the time, no one knew exactly how this would transpire. There was a very bloody war going on between Iran and Iraq in those days, so we suspected that this could draw America into the conflict.

God had established the prayer campaign to begin with a day of fasting on August 2^nd, followed by the actual prayer campaign on August 3^rd. We were also told that all of the prayer agreement had to be in place by July 24. So Pastor Samm led the people in prayer that day. I counted 40 of them. I heard later from Jimmy Melton, who did the same in his church, and this added another 45 people in prayer agreement.

Even Pastor Thomas in Batesville agreed with us in prayer, although his Masonic member opposed this. In all, I counted 153 people who were in prayer agreement. Obviously, this was a representative number of people, showing that this was a work for the overcomers as a whole.

The Net of Prayer officially launched the prayer campaign on August 2-3, led by Al and Cathy, who were leaders in the NOP. God would not allow me to lead prayer campaigns in those days, because I was still in training until 1993. The result was that we took the beast captive once again, after he had been released two years earlier during Ramadan of 1986.

A year later, on August 2-3, 1989 the Prince of Persia was able to escape, due to “sin in the camp.” One year later, on the night of August 2/3, 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait. The Gulf War had begun. War preparations began immediately, and America mobilized a half million troops to be sent to Saudi Arabia. By the following January (1991) the bombing campaign began, and the next month a short ground campaign took place, overthrowing the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Overcoming Apollyon’s Influence

As I wrote earlier, Apollyon is the personal name (in Greek) for the Prince of Persia. He was revealed to me in 1986 within the context of the word of the Lord that I was to leave the NOP. My refusal was evidence that instead of overcoming Apollyon, he had overcome me. His mission was to counterfeit the Holy Spirit’s leading. So I thought I was being led by the Spirit in refusing to leave the NOP, when, in fact, I was influenced by Apollyon without realizing it.

The next few years was spent in fighting Apollyon, and this included “These Stones” prayer campaign. The campaign was initially successful, but that success was only temporary. After the release of Apollyon, the effects on the nation and the world became evident, because the Gulf War broke out precisely one year after Apollyon’s release. How often we have seen events occur on the yearly cycles!

In my own life, my calling was delayed for many years while I grew spiritually. In October 1989 I finally resigned from the NOP, and this put me on the path toward recovery. Apollyon’s main hold on me ended. God gave me a year to recover, during which time I worked long hours managing the graphic arts department for Redbook Florists. I had little time to do anything else.

Then in September 1990, when I lost that job, God began to reveal the path toward full-time ministry. In November 1993, after my 12-year training period was complete, God called me to lead the Jubilee prayer campaign. This marked the real start of the ministry of calling the New Net of Prayer to prayer after a seven-year delay (1986-1993).

From God’s perspective, this seven-year delay had been built into the divine plan since the beginning. October 1986 was the 120^th Jubilee from Adam, but no one knew this at the time. But 1993 was the 40^th Jubilee of the Church since Pentecost in Acts 2. The seven-year interim coincided with my own delayed ministry.

This is a personal example of how even our failures fit into the overall plan of God. Although men everywhere violate the will of God, there is nothing they can do to stop His plan. Even my own disobedience in 1986, though it went against the will of God, was built into the plan. God also used this delay to train me further, once again proving Paul’s assertion in Romans 8:28,

²⁸ And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

That is comforting to those who struggle, and it gives hope to those in despair.