22. Placing Revelation 12

I have three chapters together. The first, “Placing Revelation 11,” is the ministry of Christ to His Church, by which she is enclothed entirely with the Lord Jesus Christ and is enabled to bring forth a people who know that they live only inside of God and inside of the authority of His Mercy Seat.

The second, this letter, “Placing Revelation 12,” is focused on this victorious Church of Christ, living inside the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles as well as the dynamics of her deliverance and protection. The third, “Placing Revelation 13,” is then focused on the great forces of assault coming against that Church, millions of Spirit-filled believers in Jesus all across this earth, over the next several years, an assault we see growing all around in ways and dimensions we had never imagined in our lives.

In this letter, I want to discover even more specifically the dynamics and meaning of this great deliverance service taking place for the Church, an event we now know is the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement in our present time. We will reserve to the next chapter the protection provided to that Church as the flood of the serpent hits her full blast.

And a great sign was perceived in heaven, a woman enclothed with the sun {the Church having put the Lord Jesus Christ upon herself), and the moon {a Christianity reflecting only a far-away Jesus} under her feet, and upon her head a garland [of victory] of twelve stars. And having [a child] in her womb, she screams, being in travail and being tortured to bring forth [to bring to birth].

And another sign was perceived in heaven and, look, a great fire-colored dragon, having seven heads and ten horns and upon his heads seven royal crowns {depicting the entire realm of the dragon, his full reach among angels and humans}. And his tail {think of the “tail” of a comet} drags a third of the stars of heaven and he cast them into the earth. And the dragon stands in the face of the woman about to bring forth, so that when she should bring forth, he might devour her child {that’s you and me right now}. And she brought forth a male, a son, who is about to shepherd all the nations with a rod of iron, and her child was seized into God and into His throne {this is the only place we live, sharing Hheart with God as His Mercy Seat}. And the woman escaped into a desolate place where she has a place there having been prepared by God {the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles in Christian Community}, so that they should nourish her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days {the number of completion}.

And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels warred against the dragon and the dragon fought back and his angels. And he [the dragon] did not have the strength, nor was a place found for them any longer in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown out {expelled from the heavens, from the spiritual realms}, the original serpent who is called the devil [the accuser] and Satan [the adversary], who is deceiving the entire inhabited world. He was thrown down into the earth {into the physical realms and the outer court church, that is, into the exaltation of a natural Israel} and his angels were thrown down with him.

And I heard a great voice in heaven saying: Now have come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down, the one accusing them in the presence of our God day and night. And they have overcome him {that’s you and me, right now, standing in the authority of God in the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement in absolute fullness} through the blood of the Lamb, and through the word of their testimony; and they have not loved their souls unto death {the one death of Christ}. Because of this, rejoice, O heavens and those dwelling in them {speaking of this glorious Church}. Woe to the earth {the outer court Christians who will not believe} and the sea {the unregenerate peoples of the world}, because the devil has come down towards you {visible in the physical realms – possibly}, having great fury, knowing that he has a brief time (Revelation 12:1-12).

I want to focus on “and they overcame him.” In order to do that, however, we must have this entire picture before us. And I see these words, “and they overcame him,” entirely as this great ministry of deliverance in casting down the accuser out from the minds of our brothers and sisters in Christ. For that reason, this letter is primarily about the structure and dynamics of a deliverance service, otherwise known as the Day of Atonement.

I know deliverance services, inside the family of God with every member of the Church from young to old in full participation, inside the river of the Holy Spirit, with the gifts of the Spirit in full operation, in the authority of Love, with the focus on the healing of the believer, not on the expulsion of the demons. Yet I have also seen the requirement to speak placed upon demons, but only to show the believer that the tormenting voices inside of her had never been her but had always been malignant and opposing persons that she could easily be free from.

And I have seen my close friends in the family of God set free, their lives transformed, and the joy and peace and light upon them as they had never known before. And in all these things, I also knew my own deliverance and the fight to stay free that has grown to the knowledge of full victory in the present time. I have seen the Shekinah glory of God coming upon the family of Christ, each one whom I knew and loved, all of us together, in a display that could only be called a reflection of the Mount of Transfiguration.

Now, I bring into these letters an account of the pattern of my own life for three reasons. The first reason is that I am convinced that seeing the Lord Jesus Christ in every moment of our lives is essential in our putting Him upon ourselves, a woman clothed with the sun. The second reason is that I want to show you an example of such a practice so that you might do the same, placing the Lord Jesus Christ into and upon all the days of your life until you see the glory He has always intended as you. The third reason is that I want to teach the truths of Christ out from practical human experiences, so that we might see together what is real.

I have seen something important in the pattern of my own life as I have been writing these things over the last couple of weeks. In “How Will They Hear,” I shared of an experience that was part of my own deliverance, except only to show how lying spirits sit where they can influence the hearing and the speaking in the human frame. Let me give a fuller account now.

When I was sixteen years old, I overdosed on LSD. As the horrors came upon me, I had a vision of the gates of heaven closed and barred against me forever. I then spent the next eight hours wide awake in my bed in the grip of absolute fear. From that time on, for the next fifteen years, a torment of fear gripped my inner parts, a torment I knew every single day. The covenant I made with God at age 21 and 22, the mighty anointings I witnessed and moved in, the revelation of God to me, time after time, did nothing to remove the grip of that torment.

I was a Spirit-filled believer in Jesus, and I was tortured every day by demons of which I knew nothing. More than that, I was highly contemptuous against any thought that such a thing could have anything to do with me. I was in control of myself!

My first experience of deliverance at the Blueberry Christian Community in British Columbia brought great liberty in the joy of Christ, but did not, in fact, touch that specific torment. Certainly, I had times when it seemed to have lifted, but when those times faded, the torment came back full and strong.

Then, when I was 31 years old, several months after the initial great outpouring of the Holy Spirit in deliverance at Blueberry, an outpouring that continued for months and months, I was in a particular service in which a great anointing of deliverance had come upon the Church during the praise service. In that anointing, as we were singing praises to God, that moment of my teenage years when I had lain in absolute fear upon my bed came strongly into my mind. In that same moment, something broke loose inside of me as a raging nest of hornets, as I said, about midway between my heart and the back of my neck. I shot my hands up into the air and cast myself absolutely upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And as I did, something monstrous shot out from me, up from the back of the lower base of my skull, and I knew it no more.

You see, I cannot remember that torment. I can tell you about it, but it’s as if I am talking about someone else. Inside myself, I have had no idea of that torment from that day to this. It’s like being unable to envision thirty below zero in Northern Canada when you are working outside in the Georgia heat of one hundred and ten degrees. (There were a few years when I actually spent the winters in northern Canada and the summers in the deep South!)

But what happened through the next year of my life after that experience of freedom at age 31 is what I want to focus on. I experienced deliverance because I held absolutely to Jesus in me and with me against all darkness that I knew was NOT me. Nonetheless, two most important things came into my life over the next months, only after that deliverance. The visible thing was that my friendship with Maureen finally began after I had waited for seven long and difficult years after God had spoken to me concerning her, seven years of being utterly unable to speak with her.

The other wonderful and important thing was that, over the next several months, two critical pieces of the knowledge of God established themselves inside me as the foundation of all that I presently teach. Up until that time, I had believed that a word spoken into me by others was the truth of God. Yet I knew that before I could share what was real with others, I needed my own word, coming out of Christ inside of me. The beginning of that word, this word that I share with you was two things.

First, I knew that “God is Love,” that is, “Father’s heart” (though I did not call it that then) must be the source and the explanation of everything. If anything cannot be known out from God Love, then we do not see clearly. In other words, it was then that God placed in me the certainty that Father’s Heart and Purpose must be the rule of how we know everything. And second, fully corresponding with that first, Romans 8:29 became the rule of my life and of how I would read the Bible – conformed to the image of His Son – the firstborn of many out of the same womb.

Actually, a third understanding came to me at that time, probably as I was taking every symbol and line from Revelation back into Genesis, and that was the role of the first words of the serpent, “Did God indeed say.” I did not receive this from anywhere except the Lord, that this first accusation ruled and that it must be silenced through Jesus proven faithful and true in our lives upon this earth.

And thus, this present word that I share has grown inside of me as my own for thirty years.

Then, as I was comparing the seven overcomings with the seven seals, I realized that the sealing of our foreheads before the mighty storm hits comes after our ending of all hiding from God and all pretending, and it comes before accusation against God goes silent inside of us. In other words, it is this sealing of our minds that is the end of accusing God of ever forsaking us.

You see, this is so important. If you do something foolish and then turn and “repent,” trying to “get back” into a full connection with your Father, you are, in that action, accusing Father of all demonic falseness. You are accusing Father of not leading you embedded inside of His love and of not being part of all that you are. This accusation must cease. Don’t ever accuse God again.

I can safely say that, regardless of my ins and outs, my ups and downs, from the summer of 2013 when I read “Sealed in the Midst of the Storm” into audio, until now, I have never accused God of not sharing all things with me, a God who fills all that I am with all that He is.

Then, my knowledge of being the Mercy Seat of God, of our sharing Hheart with Father, came into me only after that moment of being seized into God and into His authority. When I first saw it, I thought I was now truly becoming a heretic. Now, it seems to me to be the only obvious thing. Would Jesus have commanded us to love one another if we did not have the authority from God to do so?

Here is my point in this letter. Only one thing can follow the deliverance of the Day of Atonement in the experience of millions of Spirit-filled believers in Jesus all across this earth, and that is the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles, God among us in our full knowledge and confidence together.

Now, “and they overcame him” presents an interesting requirement. “Him” is all accusation against God, against each individual, and against His Church together found in the minds of our brother’s and sisters in Christ. In other words, how could accusation be cast down by accusation? (Yet that is how most interpret the two witnesses, as two Old Testament prophets going around accusing every one of their sins.)

I was very brave and I sent out several copies of my book, Knowing Jesus as He Is, with the two-page letter inserted, which I have shared with you twice, and which I have put at www.ourpathhome.com. Now I have gotten several more copies of the book, and I have gone through Google maps, finding Spirit-filled churches in the Houston area, and I have a list of several more names and addresses to which I hope to send more copies.

Seeing the faces of these men and women to whom I am proposing to send that letter scares the living daylights out of me. This is not something I am able to do – except that I have written these words in the last few days. “You and I have all authority from God to love one another. We have the authority from God to win the hearts of our brethren to the fullness of Christ now revealed through them.”

For me to send out that letter with my book is to cast myself utterly upon the Lord Jesus Christ in total trust that He alone carries me, just as I did in that service at Blueberry, just as I have done so many times in my life. Yet, I could never have sent out such a letter before this present time.

There are three parts on our side of this deliverance service during which we expect with all confidence that the demons sitting upon our brethren across this earth, causing them to hear and to speak the “gospel” of Nicene Christianity and to be unable to hear the gospel of Christ their only life, will be broken away from them, gone from the Church of Jesus Christ forever.

Part # 1. We ourselves stand together (this ministry must be us utterly together in heart, in spirit, and in all agreement, though we are separated physically) in full confidence in the absolute Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, His Blood – no consciousness of sins, and His Cross – no knowledge of any “life” not Jesus and us, utterly together as one. Inside of that confidence, we also stand in the confidence that rivers of Spirit ARE flowing out of us in all directions because we believe in Jesus. Inside this standing together is all joy and praise, all prophecy and the seeing of visions, all expectation that God arises, and His enemies are scattered.

Part # 2. Our focus together is on the healing of our brothers and sisters in Christ and on their arising from this deliverance into all the goodness of God. Yes, we know that seven powerful demons must be broken off of them and that those demons have power only because they have married their unthankfulness to the accusation. Yes, we know that they must place their sins and all their sinfulness utterly into the Lord Jesus, and that such an action is a terrible experience of letting go. Nonetheless, our hearts and intentions are not on the sin or on the demonic seals being broken off, but on one thing only, on seeing our brothers and sisters, whom we love, being healed and set free into all the joy of Christ.

Part # 3. We together, stand together in all the authority of God in us, that our hearts are the Mercy Seat, the throne of heaven, the authority of God over all. In that togetherness, we KNOW that we have the authority and the sending of our Father to lay down our lives for our brethren, to set forth our souls for their own seizing of age-unfolding life. And in that KNOWING, we give our all, without any thought of ourselves one way or the other. We KNOW that demons flee in a moment, for they have no ability to stand in our light. And out of the fullness of the Atonement, we speak the knowledge of Christ into the Church across this earth.

Part # 4. Michael and his angels do everything else. They have a vital role to play, and we honor them fully in the task God has given to them.

Now, everything I have described thus far is found inside of Revelation 12, and this is the only thing that chapter has ever been about.

Let me expand just a bit on Michael and his role. We do not place our confidence upon Michael, but upon the Holy Spirit. Rather, we give full honor and respect to Michael and those with them, in full acknowledgement of their role and gift. Angels are not above the church but are servants. And when we honor them by not “trying to do” their job, their hearts are encouraged and strengthened, something they are not accustomed to receiving from humans, who are the masters.

Understand this about angels; humans have shattered their lives as much as any other. Although they are servants of the church, they do not trust Christians. To receive full respect and honor from us (and not obsequious worship or false exaltation) is to receive strength of heart they have rarely known, just as we are strengthened when someone of honor also treats us with respect.

Let’s rehearse again the seven powerful demons that have been sound asleep inside the Church of Christ for nineteen hundred years. As Agur said, “There are three things which are too wonderful for me, yes four which I do not understand: The way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man with a virgin” (Proverbs 30:18-19). I always get excited when I read Agur, an almost unknown man who thinks so much like me. Every one of these things fits fully into this discussion, but I will limit myself here to the way of a serpent on a rock, that is, demon spirits sleeping upon the rock of the Church, sunning themselves in such a way that they block the sun from the rock.

Demon Seal # 1. The mental image of the super-Christ, which image they have titled, “God the Son,” but have cast in their imaginations as a limited and bounded humanoid demigod, far away from us and fairly irrelevant, a someday and Tantalizing “Jesus,” who is always just beyond their reach and who requires of them a Sisyphean task which they can never actually accomplish, as they endlessly repeat John Valjean’s song, “the unending road to Calvary” (Les Misérables – the musical).

Demon Seal # 2. A contempt for other Christians including the role of ministries in setting themselves “over” their congregations. Making use of Bible verses to wage war against and to condemn others, even though they also believe in Jesus. Controlling the flesh of other Christians by misusing the law and the “cross.” Seeing the church as a failed experiment, a temporary blip on their path to superiority.

Demon Seal # 3. All limitation of the Atonement. Any idea that the old has not passed away and that the new has not already fully come. Any consciousness of sins. Any suspicion that all did not die inside the one death of Christ. Any doubting that the Blood upon their hearts commands the universe inside of love. Any singing of “the unending road to Calvary.”

Demon Seal # 4. Death. The pursuit of death, the false image of “heaven” as Salvation, the endless waiting for a “someday” Jesus. The mindless expectation of a “rapture” in the face and worship of the beast. The fervent religious belief in a “God” who knows good and evil and who has created a universe split between good and evil forever.

Demon Seal #5. Refusal to enter the Holiest. Refusal to place all sin and sinfulness upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Refusal to live only inside of God. Refusal to put the Lord Jesus Christ upon themselves. Weeping and wailing over sin and over the sins of others in an abject refusal to give thanks. The definition of themselves that God is “testing” them. The singing of “the unending road to Calvary.”

Demon Seal # 6. All hiding and pretending. All boasting in self, that “I am seeking the will of God,” that “I will do His will and not my own.” All arrogant self-righteousness. All masquerade of faces. All lying and dishonesty. All exaltation of human so-called “obedience.” All identification with this world. All drinking of the lies of the world. All worship of human government and expertise.

Demons Seal # 7. All accusation against God. All accusation that God lies. All accusation that God knows evil. All accusation that God is in charge of or causes or brings forth evil. All accusation that God made them falsely. All muttering inside the refusal to be guilty and executed.  All unthankfulness. All accusation that they are not coming out of the good speaking of Jesus every moment. All accusation that God is not leading them in triumph, embedding their every step inside of love. All accusation that God has separated Himself from them and does not share every part and every moment of their lives with them.

Gone! In Jesus’ name.

The word, “Come,” in Revelation 6, is spoken to the Christian, calling each one to arise out of the false hearing and into the Joy and Salvation of Jesus in which they already fully live.

Let us pray together. In fact, it might be good for you to pray these prayers out loud in full confidence that you ARE joined together with other like-minded believers in this authority.

“Father, I stand together with other precious believers in Jesus here inside the Blood of Your Son in full measure, sprinkled upon our hearts. We together live only inside of Jesus and Jesus inside of us because we are fully confident that the cross of Christ keeps sin and death far away from us. As we stand together in this confidence, we know that the Holy Spirit is always flowing out from our hearts together to set your people free.

“Father, it is Your precious people, the beloved of the Lord Jesus, who are the passion of our hearts as well. It is our brethren for whom we lay down our lives, that they might know the Jesus of their hearts, that they might live inside of all Salvation. We understand the darkness blocking them in unbelief, yet we value far more the healing of their hearts to know You.

“Father, we stand together, taking all authority You have given to Jesus, now living in us and as us, and we direct that authority against the demon spirits who are sleeping inside your church, turning their ears and their mouths away from the speaking of Christ. We possess all the authority of Christ, Your Purpose and Intention, and by our words, they must flee.

“Father, in the name of Jesus, we cast down the demon of the image of the super “Christ,” this faraway and above-you image our brethren hold in their minds and call “Christ.” You false image, we cast you down with all your argument. You have no more place in our brethren.

“Father, in the place of this false image, we open the eyes of our brethren to see Jesus alone, the Jesus of their hearts.

“Father, in the name of Jesus, we cast down the demon of arrogance and contempt ruling in the Church of Christ, all thinking that “my gift makes me above you,” in the minds of all who belong to You. You false spirit of self-righteousness, we cast you down with all your fakery. You have no more place in the minds of our brethren.

“Father, in the place of this arrogance, we open the hearts of our brethren to know a God who is meek and lowly of Heart and who always carries them.

“Father, in the name of Jesus, we cast down the demon that limits the Atonement in the thinking of our brethren, this demonic “wisdom” that teaches that the sacrifice of Jesus is not enough, something more is needed. You false limiter, we cast you down with all your intellectual explanations. You have no more place in the thinking of our brothers and sisters.

“Father, in the place of this limitation, we plant the knowledge of one sacrifice for sins forever all through the knowing of their minds and the speaking of their mouths.

“Father, in the name of Jesus, we cast down the demon that places death as the answer to the Christian “dilemma.” We break the false covenant with death our brethren have made and by the power of the Mercy Seat, we set them free to know only You, the only knowing that is LIFE. Death, you are defeated; death you are cast down.

“Father, in the place of death, we give You, that they might know You alone.

“Father, in the name of Jesus, we cast down the demon of unbelief that keeps our brethren from stepping through the wide-open veil to live only inside of Christ. You false accuser, that anoints their imagination that they are “always falling short,” we cast you down. Your weeping and wailing has no more place in the Church of Christ.

“Father, in the place of refusal, we take our brethren by the hand and run joyfully with them into all the fullness of God.

“Father, in the name of Jesus, we cast down the demon that offers every mask of pretending, every rock or tree to hide behind, every excuse that thrusts sin into the space between the Christian and God. You dance of faces, we cast you down in Jesus name. No Christian remains for you to offer your masks.

“Father, in the place of the masks, we give our brethren one face to wear, the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, faithful and true, and them real and whole, complete inside of Him.

“Father, in the name of Jesus, we cast down the demon of accusation out from the minds and mouths of our brethren. We cast down all accusation against God, against themselves, and against others. You accusing devil, your time is finished; flee the Church of Christ into your chains.

“Father, in the place of accusation, we show our brethren the silence of all that opposes and the joy of thanksgiving, knowing Christ Jesus as the only story of their lives.”

~~~

I felt to keep each one of these prayers short and direct. Feel free to pray these many times inside the same confidence and togetherness but directed towards specific gatherings of people or churches.

The kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.