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The rise of the house of David, part 9

In the latter half of 1996, my wife and I were led to move from Washington to Minnesota. We knew from the time we moved to Washington that we would be there about three years in order to complete the Jubilee Prayer Campaign and part 2 called His Fullness.

A 6.8 Richter earthquake struck Los Angeles at 4:31 a.m. on January 17, 1994. This was 49 days after our Jubilee Prayer Campaign (November 29, 1993). When I heard of it on the news, my first reaction was that it came a year too soon. Because the prayer campaign was designed in part to overthrow Babylon, it seemed logical that we would see a sign of Babylon’s destruction on January 17, 1995, which was 414 days later.

Nonetheless, because the Los Angeles earthquake occurred at 4:31 a.m., we related it to Acts 4:31,

³¹ And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

This, of course, was a second outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the days of the apostles. It was a prophetic type of the outpouring that we expect to see in our time in association with the second work of Christ. Acts 2 tells us the story of Pentecost, while chapters 3-12 prophesy of the second work of Christ. Hence, we see Peter and John going to the temple at the ninth hour of the day (Acts 3:1), where Peter raises up the man lame in his feet. It prophesies of the resurrection of the dead at the end of the age.

They were arrested in Acts 4 but were released. In this they fulfilled the prophecies of the second dove (Leviticus 14) and the second goat (Leviticus 16), both of which are prophetic types of Christ in His second appearance. (See The Laws of the Second Coming.)

The point is that after Peter and John were released, they returned to the gathering of believers, where the place was shaken by a second move of the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:31). We noted that the Los Angeles earthquake occurred at 4:31 a.m., and that this was the 50^th day inclusive from November 29, 1993. The timing itself likened it to Pentecost, which was the 50^th day from the wave-sheaf offering (Leviticus 23:15, 16).

The Kobe Earthquake (January 16, 1995)

Just as the Los Angeles earthquake struck on the 50^th day from the prayer campaign, so also a 7.2 Richter earthquake struck Kobe, Japan on the 414^th day from same the prayer campaign. The quake devastated the city.

By this time, of course, I was watching for a sign of the fall of Babylon. The Los Angeles quake a year earlier had alerted me to this. In our discussions, many thought we would see an earthquake in the Seattle area. Some warned us of possible danger from a volcanic eruption of Mount Ranier, which overlooks Seattle.

But the quake hit Kobe, Japan instead.

God’s Gate or Confusion?

Shortly after the quake, someone informed me of the meaning of the name Kobe. In Japanese, it means God’s Door, or God’s Gate. It carries the same meaning as Babylon in the language of Babylon. The Babylonians called their city Bab-ili, “God’s Gate,” based on Genesis 11:4,

⁴ They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

Historical records show that the Tower of Babel was a seven-stepped pyramid. There was a temple on its top, from which, they claimed, men would spring into the heavens. In their theology, they believed that man fell from heaven in seven stages, represented by the seven planets. To return to the plane of the fixed stars (“sons of God”), they believed that the people would have to return through each of the seven planets.

Hence, the Tower of Babel, to them was Bab-ili, “God’s Gate,” that is the gate of heaven.

The Bible calls it Babel, “confusion,” because there God confused their languages, as we read in Genesis 11:7-9,

⁷ “Come, let Us go down and there confuse [balal] their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” ⁸ So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused [balal] the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

The “confusion” of tongues at the Tower of Babel divided the people and scattered them.

God’s Solution

The divine solution that came in later years was the gift of tongues, which was designed to reunite the people in Christ. Perhaps this was why the Apostle Paul recommended this gift, and yet warned of its misuse that could cause confusion in the church. 1 Corinthians 14:18, 19 says,

¹⁸ I thank God, I speak in tongues more than you all; ¹⁹ however, in the church I desire to speak five words with my mind so that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue.

The purpose of tongues is to unify God’s people, not to divide and scatter them. Hence, it is somewhat ironic that the gift of tongues has again divided the church perhaps more than any other gift. The Pentecostal outpouring in the early 1900’s failed ultimately to reunite the church and thus prepare them for captivity to Mystery Babylon. This failure was manifested throughout the Laodicean Church of the Captivity (1913-1994).

See The Revelation, Book 2, chapter 4.

Some took issue with the gift of tongues itself, insisting that it had no place in the post-apostolic church. Others pointed out the misuses of the gift. Still others did not want to look foolish. But in the end, the church failed to overcome the Babylonian problem through unity in Christ.

Sister Cities

Kobe, Japan was a prophetic type of Bab-ili, or Babel, because the names mean the same thing. The earthquake, which we thought might hit Seattle, hit Kobe instead. We then learned that Kobe was Seattle’s first sister city (1957).

https://www.historylink.org/File/3254

https://www.seattlekobe.org

So this is what the people were discerning, although they did not fully understand what they were sensing. In fact, none of us knew the spiritual connection between Seattle and Kobe, so we were all taken by surprise when the quake hit Kobe instead of Seattle.

Divine Protection

Two weeks after the Kobe earthquake, three of us (Ken, Dave, and I) were led to drive to the top of Capitol Hill overlooking Seattle.

https://www.mapquest.com/us/washington/capitol-hill-wa-282010170?s1recircid=kSaFXMJqbam2EipD7JfJ&s1sid=acFPhIuQWeHHCjQAITSw

The word of the Lord said to “read John 17 at 7:00 p.m. at the corner of 7^th Street and John, then watch what I do.”

It was the evening of January 28, 1995. When we arrived there at 7 p.m. it was dark and drizzling rain. We read John 17 by the light of a flashlight, finishing at 7:05. After concluding our business, we decided to walk around to see what we might observe. About two blocks away, we noticed people running out of the business establishments. They were talking excitedly.

We asked one of them, “What’s going on?”

“Didn’t you feel the earthquake?” they asked.

Well, no, we did not. But we took their word for it. Later, we learned that a 5 Richter earthquake had stuck nearby Federal Way at 7:11 p.m.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/5-0-Earthquake-Shakes-Up-Seattle-Area-Strongest-3046857.php

“In a sharp reminder that western Washington sits astride the seismically active Pacific Rim, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.0 rumbled through the Seattle- Tacoma area over the weekend.

“No injuries or major damage were reported, but the quake, which hit at 7:11 Saturday night, was felt from Canada to central Oregon and as far east as Yakima, Wash.”

We learned from this that we should expect divine protection even in the midst of disaster, as Psalm 91 tells us. The judgments of God are not directed at us but at Babylon. Our focus is not upon the disasters but upon God. We are called to be led by the Spirit, and the safest place to be is where we abide in Him. So Psalm 91:8-10 says,

⁸ You will only look on with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. ⁹ For you have made the Lord, my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place. ¹⁰ No evil will befall you, nor will any plague come near your tent.

Having experience this personally in the midst of a sizable earthquake, we knew by revelation that we would be protected no matter where we live. The judgment was to come upon “Capitol Hill,” representing Washington D.C. It was not to come upon us.

In recent months and years, we have begun to see this judgment descend upon our nation’s Capitol (the building itself within the nation’s capital city). Capitol Hill in Washington state is linked spiritually to the Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. As long as we lived in Washington, we were able to observe the spiritual roots of Washington D.C. Hence, the word we spoke from John 17 was a word for all those who are called to find unity in Christ, even as Jesus said in John 17:20, 21,

²⁰ I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they may all be one, even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.