It's housecleaning season. Hanukkah begins December 10 and celebrates the cleansing and rededication of the Temple following the liberation of Jerusalem from Greek Rule in 165 BCE. It seems to me that it is a good time to begin doing a little cleansing of the current temple, which has become polluted with all sorts of false mindsets and confusion.

Have you ever wondered why history seems to repeat itself? I think it is partly because the Lord is a circular thinker. We think of history as moving from point A to point B in a linear fashion but the Lord is not a linear God. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. The end and the beginning meet in a full circle. His perspective is from every perspective but we're only able to comprehend one level at a time usually. That is why Scripture is like poetry. It can be read on a very basic, very concrete level or it can be read on a very high level with multiple interpretations, applications and implications.

Such is our life. As a child we learn very basic, concrete lessons that we learn again as adults on a more complex level. For example, the lesson of sharing at the age of three becomes more complex as we become aware of the needs of others in the world and learn to share our blessings. When we marry we learn new lessons in sharing our lives. By the time we reach middle age, hopefully we have begun to learn to share our wisdom and knowledge and to give back to the world in less tangible ways. The lesson of sharing builds on itself and becomes increasingly complex, abstract and COMPLETE. The same principle applies to our individual spiritual life and maturity.

Paul said, "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. (1 Cor. 13: 11) It is time for the Bride to put childish mindsets away and to begin to think like an adult. The Lord is not interested in marrying a child. He wants a helpmate that is a true match for Him - a wife of full stature. In the past we have known the Lord as father, friend and brother but now it is time to know Him as husband and lover. This requires maturity.

Well, history is the record of the corporate lessons in maturing of the Body of Christ. From Adam and Eve to the present day we have been learning essentially the same lessons over and over through the historical events of the world on progressively more mature and complete levels. We are now entering into the fullness of time when the Bride will become "perfect" and enter into the age of MATURITY. She no longer has to traverse the circle of history but comes "full circle", bringing the lessons of history to complete fruition and birthing Kingdom Truth into the earth in fullness.

So let's look at the history of Hanukkah with an eye to gain maturity from its lessons so that we are not doomed to go around this particular circle again and again.

Antiochus Epiphanies, a harsh, cruel and ruthless man, had an ambition to have a one world power in which he was the king of a Hellenistic world. In fact, Antiochus believed he was "the visible god." As part of his attempt to rule the world, Antiochus signed a peace treaty with a brother of the high priest of Israel. Joshua (who later changed his name to the Greek name Jason) supposedly offered Antiochus the power to rule over Israel in return for protecting Israel. What he really "sold" Israel for was the opportunity for him to become high priest. In other words, POWER. He built a gymnasium in Jerusalem dedicated to Greek athletics which would become a recruitment center where citizens of the world and Israel could sign up to become citizens of Antioch in significant alliance with the Greek world government.

Does any of this sound familiar yet? Well, we'll get into the correlation with today when we start cleaning house.

Antiochus was making progress on building his world empire when his armies were successful in conquering the Egyptian kingdom south of Israel. He became infuriated when he received a message from Caesar in Rome giving him the ultimatum of giving up Egypt or being attacked by Rome. Antiochus tried to stall and negotiate out of it but was forced to make a decision when the messenger took out a sword and drew a circle with it around him. Antiochus was told: "You may not leave the circle until you give your answer back to Caesar." Infuriated at having to back down Antiochus marched up from Egypt through Israel and found that the people in Jerusalem were fighting over his kingdom. Having received an incorrect message, they thought he was dead in Egypt.

Antiochus could have used a little training in anger management. He was so mad that he ordered his lead commander to destroy Jerusalem, killing thousands of Jews and taking many of them into slavery. They hacked and knocked over the porticoes in the Temple and robbed many of the Temple vessels. He marched into the Temple and built a statue in the outer courtyard to the Greek god Zeus. The statue had a face that looked amazingly like Antiochus. Antiochus sacrificed a pig to the statue and sprinkled the blood in the Holy of Holies. He poured its broth on the Holy Scrolls and then cut them to pieces and burned them. Next he ordered his men to make the entire Temple a shrine to Zeus.

To understate it, Antiochus broke his treaty with Israel in which he had promised to protect her. He instituted a new law abolishing all the religious practices of Israel. Whole families would be killed if a Torah scroll was found in the house or if they were caught eating "Kosher". Many apostate priests accepted this new law and Israel became poisoned as it spread from town to town.

It was time for a Braveheart. Enter Mattathias, an old man in priestly garments from a nowhere town called Modi'in. One of Antiochus's commanders set up a statue of Zeus in Modi'in and thought that if he chose a leader that the people respected to be the first to sacrifice to it that all the people would follow. He picked the wrong old man. Even though the commander attempted to bribe him with the promise of being rewarded with great riches and authority, Mattathias replied that he and his family and brothers would not depart from the law of Moses even if the whole world went along with the new law. Out of the crowd, a counterfeit, an apostate priest, stepped up to the altar to offer the pig for sacrifice. Mattathias knew that if the priest was successful and the people went along with it that they would lose the Torah and they would all fall away from the law. Holy anger rose up in Mattathias as he drew his sword and slew the false priest and the commander. At the same time his sons rose up against the troop of men and killed them all.

Mattathias, his sons and supporters headed for the hills and began a guerrilla war against the Greeks and their Jewish allies. Jewish leaders were hostile to Mattathias' movement and the community was so far into the process of assimilation that they were ambivalent about the loss of their faith. It took three years for them to gain enough support to be a serious threat and Mattathias died of old age passing on his leadership to his son Judah the Maccabee. Judah lead his troops against the troops of Antiochus and finally liberated Jerusalem on Kislev 25, 165 BCE on the third anniversary of its desecration by Antiochus.

Judah reclaimed the Temple and had it cleansed and rededicated. It is said they could only find enough oil to light the Temple menorah for one day and it would take eight days to prepare new oil. The oil miraculously burned for eight days and the light never went out. That is why the Hanukkah candles are lit for eight days.

History has brought us back around to the lessons of Hanukkah. In the spirit of the festival I am going to send out a series of articles over the next few days that I hope will begin to cleanse some of our faulty mindsets and re-light the lamp with some fresh oil.

In the next installment we'll look at how the story of Hanukkah is the story of where we are today.

Diane Bahler December 9, 2001

I sent out an email a couple of days ago about the history of Hanukkah as background for the "housecleaning" or "temple cleansing" that needs to be done with our current mindsets this season. However, first some more background needs to be laid that is foundational to understanding the prophetic significance of how the story of Hanukkah is the story of Israel today. One of the most distorted mindsets that we have is our belief about who Israel is what is the church. New understanding is essential if we're to properly interpret the signs of our times and be prepared for the events of the end of the age.

Let's begin with the question of "Who is Israel?". There are two books by Angus and Batya Wooten that I am going to give the references to at the bottom of this email. I highly recommend everyone order and read them. These books do a very thorough job of documenting the truth about Israel and the restoring of her Kingdom. I can not begin to make the case that these books do for Israel in an email. I can only give you a brief synopsis of what I believe is the truth and a different perspective than that which is held by most of those in the current Christian church system.

When most people think of Israel they think of a tiny piece of geography in the Middle East populated by "Jews." This is only the most concrete observable level. In fact, Israel is much more than that both in terms of geography and population. Remember that the Lord looks at things from multiple perspectives and His concept of Israel is much more complex.

Let me tell you a "fairytale" or a "parable" that is more fact than fiction although I am going to take a little poetic license.

There once were two young sisters named Judah and Ephraim. Together they constituted the house of Israel. Both sisters were betrothed to a great king. While waiting for their beloved to come and take them to the formal wedding they got lost in the desert. Life in the desert was hard and the two couldn't get along. They fought among themselves and separated into two houses. Weakened by division both eventually were carried off by evil kings. They were raped and forced into servitude.

Ephraim was abducted by the king of Assyria and was passed around among the nations. She must have lost her mind because not only did she forget about her bridegroom but she forgot who she was also. Even though she carried the birthright of the firstborn in the house of Israel and was destined to be a great queen she became a beggar. She sold herself to false religions to preserve herself and she slipped deeper and deeper into a walking coma. She was sort of a Sleeping Beauty zombie. In the meantime, however, she had many, many children and they had children and pretty soon the nations were so intermingled with her bloodline that it became difficult to tell which were "gentile" and which were Israel.

The king of Babylon carried off Judah and although she did not forget who she was and her heritage, she did forget about her bridegroom. She committed adultery with Babylon - power, politics and religion - for protection and provision. When her bridegroom came to rescue her she didn't recognize him and even helped beat him and send him away.

Rejected, the bridegroom left but sent his servants to the gentile nations to search for his beloved Ephraim. Ephraim was still in a deep sleep but began to wake up as she heard the messengers calling for her and as she began to eat from the tree of life and drink the living waters. Her sister Judah was also beginning to wake up as she began to realize she had missed her bridegroom. In addition, to share in the joy of the news of their salvation, others - true gentiles without blood lineage- were also being invited to join the house of Israel as full sons and daughters. Freedom was being declared for ALL prisoners. The House of Israel was on its way to being reunited, enlarged and restored to her destiny.

Enter the evil queen of Babylon - the black widow. The evil queen was jealous of Israel. She had been rejected by Israel's King and bridegroom and hated him. She had tried to kill him but failed. She knew the best way to hurt him now was to hurt his beloved Israel. Babylon, like a big black widow spider, moved into the house of Israel and began injecting her with poison. Both sisters fell back asleep like Snow White, as they were fed the poisoned apple from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The queen drove Ephraim and Judah apart again. She turned Ephraim against Judah spinning lies about how Judah was responsible for sending away her beloved. Buying into the lie Ephraim began to persecute Judah and separated herself from her family and heritage. Believing that her "step-mother" was caring for her and protecting her, Ephraim began to turn over her possessions, her home and her identity to Babylon.

Babylon moved in and made herself queen of the manor. Soon she was hatching her own eggs and raising up poisonous stepdaughters and stepsons who helped their mother plunder Ephraim's inheritance. Still hoping to possess the true King's kingdom Babylon dressed her daughters up with the hope of deceiving him into accepting her own counterfeit as his bride. She also enslaved Ephraim's adopted sisters from the gentile nations so that they would not steal her hope of fooling the King. Soon Ephraim (including her adopted gentile siblings) had become a sad Cinderella, the servant of the evil stepmother and her stepsisters, a slave in her own house. She had never fully recovered the memory of who she was and where she had come from and now it was completely lost. However, she could vaguely remember stories of the bridegroom and she continued to hold onto the hope that some day her prince would come for her.

Judah, in the meantime, became bitter and prideful and something of an old maid. She forgot her own sin and became angry at the bridegroom that she now refused to recognize. She closed herself off to protect herself from the outside persecution and she placed herself into a self-imposed prison of defensive unbelief. She became a "liberated woman" of sorts. She didn't need a Messiah to rescue her. She could and would take care of herself. She would rather die than trust her heart again.

Well, this would be a sad story with no happy ending if it weren't for the love of the bridegroom. The story is not yet complete but the ending goes something like this: The bridegroom will once again send his servants to both Ephraim (including her adopted gentile sisters) and to Judah to wake them up and prepare them for the return of the bridegroom. This time they will wake up and realize that they have been lied to and plundered. Ephraim will see that she has been replaced by a counterfeit and will leave the house that Babylon built. She will rise up, recognize her birthright and heritage and take back her inheritance. All that was stolen will be returned when she takes her case before the righteous judge that knows the story from beginning to end and who is just waiting for Israel to plead her case before him. She will go to her sister Judah and ask for forgiveness and their relationship will be restored. Judah will recognize her need for her sister and Ephraim will regain the memories of her heritage from Judah. Judah will also realize that she too longs for and needs a knight in shinning armor to save her.

Reunited, stronger than ever before after having been tried through the fires, the two houses will unite with the engrafted adopted brothers and sisters. The children of both houses combined will be so numerous that they will cover the earth. Set free at last from the whirlwinds, their new house, like Dorothy's house from Oz, will fall on the house of the evil queen. There won't be anything left of her and her counterfeit children. She will not only be merely dead, she will be really most sincerely dead. In fact, the smoke of her burning will go up forever and ever.

The real happily ever after part of the story is that the bridegroom will come once again for his beloved Israel and will establish her as the queen of His Kingdom that she was destined to be. There will be a great wedding and a great feast. All the evil queen's horses and all the queen's men will become the main course. It will be a Bar-B-Q that will make Texas jealous. Bar-B-Queued roast beast.

Of course, this is not the end of this story, only the beginning, but it's as far as we can go for right now. In the next email we'll look at the interpretation of this parable.

Highly recommended reading: Who is Israel? By Batya Wooten and Restoring Israel's Kingdom by Angus Wooten. Published by Key of David Publishing, Saint Cloud, FL; Distributed by House of David, PO Box 700217, Saint Cloud, FL 34770 http://www.mim.net

Diane Bahler December 11, 2001

The Lord gave Abraham a blessing that He would multiply his descendants as the stars in the sky or the sand on the seashore. (Gen. 26:4) The word translated "multiply" means to increase, exceedingly, become numerous, great. The blessing given to Isaac's wife, Rebecca was "Be the mother of thousands of millions" or "myriads." (Gen. 24:60) Together they passed on their blessing to Jacob: "May God make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a congregation of peoples." (Gen. 28:3) The blessing given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was that of a great congregation of physical descendants. In other words, bunches and bunches of baby heirs, "gargantuan groups of great-great-great grandchildren" (Wooten).

The word for congregation is translated from the word ekklesia that is derived from two Greek words. Ek means "out of" and Kaleo means "to call out." Put together the purest meaning of ekklesia is "an assembly, congregation or gathering of called out ones." The Father said that Jacob, who was renamed Israel, would bring forth a huge ekklesia.

Ekklesia is the word that has been mistranslated as "church" in the scriptures. The word "church" was coined many centuries later and comes from the old English word "kirk". King James ordered his translators to substitute the word church because at the time the Church of England had become a political and religious institution. Translating ekklesia as "an assembly of called out ones" would have jeopardized the king's control as the head of the Church of England. The word "church" is not one Jesus or His apostles ever used.*

If the ekklesia are "called out ones" then one might ask "What are they called out FROM?" We'll get to that later. Back to the story:

Jacob passed on the patriarchal blessing and gave the birthright of the first born son to his beloved Rachel's firstborn son, Joseph and to Joseph's son Ephraim. The birthright included a double portion and the right to act as the next family ruler. The firstborn was considered the "priest of the whole family" and received the right to inherit family leadership, preferential status, sanctity, authority, sovereignty, and responsibility for the continuance and welfare of the family. When Jacob blessed Ephraim before he died, passing on the patriarchal blessing from Yahweh, he essentially said that those of Ephraim would become a "fullness of Gentiles (nations)! The abundance of the nations! They would be so numerous that they would have to inhabit the lands of other nations!" The blessing went from being passed from individual to individual to the NATIONS!

Israel was betrothed to the Lord at Mt. Sinai. I can't find in scripture where she was ever replaced as His intended wife. She was destined to be the bride and wife of God and to bear Him myriads of children but first she ended up spending a lot more than 40 years wondering in the wilderness. It's been more like a few thousand.

After Jacob blessed Ephraim, Ephraim's descendants were regarded as a single tribe. Later ten of Israel's twelve tribes collectively became known as Ephraim, Ephraimites and/or Israel. Ephraim separated from Judah and Benjamin in what was essentially a civil war of brother fighting brother. Ephraim became the northern kingdom and Judah and Benjamin formed the southern kingdom. The term "Jew" comes from "Judah" and refers primarily to those of the southern kingdom. Therefore, all who are Jews are Israel but not all who are Israel are Jews.

Eventually Ephraim and Judah were both taken captive by hostile invaders. Judah was taken captive by Babylon but stayed mostly intact as a people and race. They held onto their identity as Israelites and to their religious heritage. Judah returned to rebuild the temple and primarily composes the people who reclaimed and now populate the geographical nation of Israel in the Middle East.

Ephraim on the other hand fell to Assyria about a hundred years before Judah was taken captive. The Assyrians had an unusual policy of scattering their captives and so the tribes were "swallowed up by the nations." (Hosea 8:8) Ephraim began to mix with the pagan nations, adopted their customs and religions and essentially "forgot" that they were Israel by blood. For all outward appearances they became "foreigners" or "Gentiles" even though genetically they were very much Israel.

Ephraim became the "lost" ten tribes of Israel, except that they weren't really lost. Researchers have a pretty good idea of where they went: Scotland, Britain, Wales, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Spain. There is the possibility of descendants in Iran. The descendants of these tribes are now in those areas or in North America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Israel only lost her identity, not her birthright and patriarchal blessing. Scripture makes it clear that Israel will be restored and reunified with Judah before the second coming of the Messiah and the fulfillment of the promise of Abraham to make his descendants more numerous than the stars.

The single stick of Judah and Ephraim joined together in the Lord's hand in Ezekiel 37 is speaking of this end time reunion. "I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms." (Ezekiel 37: 21-22)

Yeshua/Jesus came to fulfill this prophecy and to gather the lost sheep of Israel. He DID reunite them in one stick - THE CROSS. Although Judah as a nation rejected Him as bridegroom not all Jews refused him as Messiah, but her national rejection opened the door for Ephraim to be re-gathered. The Lord sent His JEWISH apostles and prophets to the gentile nations to extend grace to those without Israelite heritage and to gather the scattered remnant of Israel that was scattered among them. Ephraim's Jewish brothers and sisters composed one stick of the "Ekklesia." They became a congregation called out from the law to live by the Spirit. They were sent to find Ephraim. Ephraim began to wake up and hear the call of the good news. Those of Israelite bloodlines but lost memories, and those who were truly "gentiles" by birth but who had been adopted as full sons and grafted in by grace, became a second congregation of "called out ones" from the pagan religions. The two sticks were beginning to come together in the CROSS.

For the first couple of hundred years progress was being made in the rejoining and awakening of Israel. The Ekklesia was growing and expanding. The Gospel was being preached throughout the known world. Satan knew that the fulfillment of this reunion would result in the return of Christ and an end to his reign of terror on the earth so he commissioned his "queen" Babylon (a demonic principality) to put a stop to it. Babylon took the two powers that conspired to kill Yeshua - politics and religion - and united them to kill the young Ekklesia of Israel. The political power of Rome established the Christian church system as a sanctioned religious institution. Babylon gained control of Israel and began to turn her against her sister Judah. The Jews became subject to persecution often by members of their own family of Israel. In response they hardened their hearts to the news of the Messiah. Ephraim, who had not fully regained the memory of her birthright, fell under the spell of the promises of Babylon. Believing she was becoming rich, she handed over her inheritance and became lost again among the nations. The church system of Babylon stole her identity, began to misuse the name of her betrothed, moved into her house and began spending her inheritance!

One of the MAIN points I want to make concerning the descendants of Israel is that there are MANY, MANY believers sitting in the Christian church system who genuinely care for Israel and pray for her and who have NO idea that they ARE Israel. There are also probably many who hate Israel or at the least care nothing for her and have no idea that they also ARE Israel. Not only have they come to accept themselves as "gentiles" but they have no idea that they carry within them the blessing of Abraham and the birthright of the firstborn of Israel. They have accepted a counterfeit in place of the real thing. They have become "the church" instead of the "Ekklesia." The "church" HAS replaced Israel in a sense! But it is time for Israel to COME OUT OF HER and take her proper position as the bride of Yeshua which is a ruling position of authority.

Many who are truly Israel by bloodline or by engrafting grace have COME OUT of this false system but because they have forgotten who they are they don't know exactly what to do with themselves now. They think they are wondering in the wilderness when in fact it is the wilderness they are coming out of! Many of them are still trying to patch up their wounds from the church system and trying to figure out which way to go next. They are poised to enter into the Promised Land but because they lack the understanding of who they are, where they originally came from, and the destiny of Israel they can't find a clear direction to get there.

There are others who have come out of the church system and may not fully understand why but have been drawn back to their Jewish roots. They have embraced the Hebraic heritage but the problem is that many of them have traded one Babylon for another. After beginning with the Spirit they have become "bewitched" and are trying to attain their goal by human effort again by returning to Jewish ritual. They become very legalistic in their return to their roots. (Galatians 3) Many Messianic Jews seem to fall prey to this same problem. They can't seem to get free of the old covenant and enter fully into the new.

Then there are those who come out of the system and try to return to a "New Testament model" for church. The problem with that is that the New Testament Church was the SEEDLING, not the full grown oak that would come with maturity. We have entered into the fullness of times which means the age of maturity. We have not yet seen what the Ekklesia is to look like when she reaches full stature but it will not be what she looked like as an infant and toddler. Still, some insist on returning to their childhood.

Then there are many, many, many who are genetic or engrafted Israel who are still trapped in Babylon believing they are supporting a good system approved and sanctioned by God. They support and defend the church system with fierce loyalty having no clue that they are trapped in a slave system. They are trapped by tradition, ignorance (no one has taught them differently), fear, manipulation by false shepherds and a variety of other chains.

And then there are those who are in the system who are just totally lost. They call themselves Christians but they are really unbelievers. They are probably more lost and harder to reach than the ones who know they're unbelievers. Some of them may be in waiting for a true encounter with the Holy Spirit but most of them are the ones the enemy uses to support and run the current church system. He especially likes to put them into positions of leadership and then he is able to manipulate the system and the sheep through them. These are the false shepherds, antichrists, false prophets and Jezebels that oversee the prison system and that keep the true remnant of Israel in bondage and darkness.

Later we'll look more at Israel and the "new creation" she is supposed to become and expand our vision of the Promised Land and the boundaries of Israel, but first let's expose the false church system with more depth. Isaiah 47: 3 says of Babylon: "Your nakedness will be exposed and your shame uncovered." In the next installment we'll begin to uncover the truth of the "Circus Maximus."

* For more in-depth study of the Ekklesia there is an excellent article by Pastor Terry Parks posted on the website of the Rock Church. The address is: http://www.therockchurch.ws/ecclesia.htm

Highly recommended reading: Who is Israel? By Batya Wooten and Restoring Israel's Kingdom by Angus Wooten. Published by Key of David Publishing, Saint Cloud, FL; Distributed by House of David, PO Box 700217, Saint Cloud, FL 34770 http://www.mim.net

Diane Bahler December 13, 2001

Before we go any further I think we need to begin to expand our vision. I mentioned earlier that the Lord sees things from ALL perspectives. We have got to begin to see things more from HIS perspective than ours if we're going to understand the times we are living in. It is difficult to put into words but let me see if I can share an illustration He gave me this summer.

On a plane trip home this summer I looked out the window across the aisle to the west where the sun was beginning to set but looked in line with our plane. I saw the most incredible rainbow I have ever seen. It began on one side of the sun and seemed to circle the entire sky so that I could see it out of my window to the east and came full circle back to the other side of the sun. Below this rainbow the sky was cloudy and gray and hid the earth from view. Above this rainbow however the sky was perfectly clear and blue with a bright moon shinning.

Think of revelation like this: The Lord's perspective is from the top of the mountain. It is the clear blue sky. He can see in every direction, from top to bottom, inside to outside and beginning to end. Our ability to see on the earth is gray and cloudy. Our vision is very darkened and very distorted by the clouds. The clouds represent our own souls and also the interference and lies of Satan. In between heaven's perspective and earth's, however, the Lord has placed a spiral staircase that takes us to the top of the mountain. Imagine it as the rainbow in the shape of an upside down whirlwind. On the earth the circle is very wide but gets tighter the higher you climb. The rainbow is the Word and promises of God. It contains the written word and the revelatory word and they are swirling around in the wind of the Spirit. The higher you climb, the clearer the revelation. The higher you climb, the steeper and more difficult the stairway becomes because it requires putting your soul to the cross to keep moving upward.

Here is a KEY point: Revelation has NOTHING to do with "giftedness" but EVERYTHING to do with PROXIMITY TO GOD.

In other words, the gift of prophecy is the gift of prophecy no matter what level you're on. Prophecy is the testimony of Jesus, therefore, we are all called to be prophets when we become believers. You do not become an "office" prophet because you can see more clearly. There are NO offices. In fact, those who are at the highest levels are usually the ones who are the least likely to look for office "titles." Jesus was about as close to the Father as you can get and He never claimed a title. He warned against it. Instead He operated in whatever gifting was needed at the time.

The TRUTH about the "five-fold ministry" is that we are all to be functioning in ALL of the ministries just as Jesus did. We should all be doing the work of a pastor, teacher, apostle, prophet, evangelist, etc. as the Spirit leads us and flows through us. We'll talk more about this when we get into the subject of the mature bride but let's stick to the subject of revelation for right now.

Revelation progresses from the lower levels to higher levels. The lower the level, the more concrete and reflective of things on the earth and also the more distorted by the soul and the confusion of the enemy. The higher the level the purer it becomes and the more abstract, complex and reflective of the mind and heart of God. This is why we should all eagerly desire the gift of prophecy and pursue it. (1 Cor. 14:1) It brings us closer to the mind and heart of Christ.

The truth is that RIGHT NOW most of even the "seasoned" and "respected" prophets are seeing things on a very low level. Their revelation may be true but they are interpreting it on a very concrete, earthly level and there is a lot of interference from the enemy and interpretations coming from their own souls. (Actually, those who are prophesying on higher levels right now are mostly unrecognized "no names" who have been out in the desert with nobody to talk to but the Lord for a long time!)

Let me give an example: Today I read this prophecy on a popular prophetic list:

"On 11/20/01, I was given a vision of an enormous seismic event, which was so large that it caused mountains to explode across the entire continent of North America. Many of these mountains had no known history of volcanic activity. I was told in the vision that "If America wishes to divide Jerusalem in half, then America shall be divided in half." Unless the United States discontinues pressuring Israel to give up land allocated to her by God, the day is soon coming that America will be literally ripped in half like a garment, and the land masses of America drastically reduced."

This may be a true prophecy and the interpretation may be true also on ONE LEVEL but it may also be true on other levels. I do not believe that the Lord wants Jerusalem divided on ANY level and so to completely understand the message and warning of the prophecy we have to be able to look at it on multiple levels.

On one level the Lord is speaking of the literal, physical city of Jerusalem. On another level He may be speaking of America refusing to recognize that she is a sister to Judah and that she houses a huge unrecognized population of Israel in the descendants of Ephraim who migrated here. Her refusal to acknowledge her own Hebraic roots is dividing the greater population of the spiritual city of Jerusalem from one another.

We have got to expand our vision of WHO Israel is if we are going to begin to properly interpret the revelation the Lord is giving us these days. I intend to talk about America in more depth later but for now one of the things we have got to begin to understand is that the enemy - who on the highest level is SATAN, not the Taliban - (although they are certainly an enemy on the earthly level) KNOWS who Israel is better than we do. He knows that America is one of the "annexes" for Israel. We are more than a political supporter. We are a SISTER. America IS Israel in a sense as well as the Middle Eastern Israel. When America is attacked, ISRAEL is attacked. When Israel is attacked, AMERICA is attacked.

Now, this understanding does NOT negate the revelation that we are to pray for the literal land of Israel and Judah. We are to pray for the peace of the earthly Jerusalem and for the land and people of the geographic land. But we also need to expand our vision for what the boundaries are of Israel and the Promised Land.

Isaiah 54: 2 says: "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. 3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities."

The little geographic region of Israel, even if she reclaims all of the land given to her originally, won't be big enough to hold the seed of Abraham when the promise is fulfilled. Israel will DISPOSSESS NATIONS. It will take the geographic land of NATIONS to contain her because she will become so numerous! She already IS if we include all of Ephraim that has been dispersed throughout the nations.

Psalm 24 says "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it." The WHOLE earth is the promised land of Israel. We are to take back the entire land that was stolen from us by our highest level enemy - Satan. We are also to DISPOSSESS HIS nation which is a spiritual kingdom as well. Which brings us to an even higher level of understanding and that is that the Lord Himself is our Promised Land and the NEW JERUSALEM is a spiritual kingdom that we are to also possess.

We are to possess BOTH HEAVEN AND EARTH. There ARE NO BOUNDARIES FOR ISRAEL. We own it ALL and need to take it ALL back from the lowest earthly level to the highest spiritual level.

The difference between the lowest level revelation of this truth and the highest level is that the lowest level REFLECTS THE HIGHEST LEVEL. What happens on the earthly level, how we pray for and respond to the truth to pray for and protect the earthly Israel, reflects what we should be doing for Israel on the HIGHEST level. Ultimately our goal should be to see the NEW JERUSALEM which is the Kingdom of Heaven come to earth. Then we will truly have dispossessed both earthly nations and spiritual nations and reclaimed the WHOLE LAND AND KINGDOM AND INHERITANCE THAT BELONGS TO ISRAEL.

We have got to begin to see outside of the box if we are ever going to truly possess the promises of God. Jerusalem is more than a city in the Middle East that is being fought over with the Arabs. It is also a larger nation that fills the earth and is a SPIRITUAL CITY - a city of LIVING STONES that cover the earth and are not in just one little geographic region. This spiritual city is ALSO being fought over by spiritual forces. Believe me, the battle at this higher level will determine what happens at the lower level. Right now the battle is that the devil wants to keep Israel divided. He does not want Ephraim to wake up and find out who she is and reunite with Judah. He wants to keep Ephraim lost in the nations and thinking that she is a "gentile."

Think of this: What if America woke up and realized that a great part of her population is truly Israel? America probably houses the largest representation of the "lost" tribes of Israel who are genetic descendants as well as the engrafted gentiles who are Israel by the grace of the promise. What would the effect be on the geographic region of Israel and Judah if America realized this? Wouldn't it be to the benefit of the land of Israel if America began to see herself as more than just a supporter and more of a sister - a member of the family? Who fights harder - a drafted soldier or a brother?

We'll go into some of these issues in more depth later, including the issue of prophecy and prophets, but this is enough for tonight. Blessings.

Ezekiel 36: 7 Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I swear with uplifted hand that the nations around you will also suffer scorn. 8 "'But you, O mountains of Israel, will produce branches and fruit for my people Israel, for they will soon come home. 9 I am concerned for you and will look on you with favor; you will be plowed and sown, 10 and I will multiply the number of people upon you, even the whole house of Israel. The towns will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt. 11 I will increase the number of men and animals upon you, and they will be fruitful and become numerous. I will settle people on you as in the past and will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the LORD. 12 I will cause people, my people Israel, to walk upon you. They will possess you, and you will be their inheritance; you will never again deprive them of their children.

Diane Bahler December 14, 2001

In yesterday's email I wrote: Revelation has NOTHING to do with "giftedness" but EVERYTHING to do with PROXIMITY TO GOD. After thinking about that last night I decided I should explain this more.

There is a tendency to correlate the magnitude of prophetic visions and words to a person's relationship with God as if He bestows "gifts" as a reward for pursuing Him. I have heard it said that the Lord will trust those who are "mature" with "more revelation." This is patently false. Once we enter into the Kingdom of God we have access to all that is the Lord's. Every gift is ours, that's why they are called GIFTS. If we have to EARN them by meeting some criteria for maturity or some other thing then they become BRIBES. The Lord should NOT have to bribe us to seek His face or to desire His companionship (which is how we really become spiritually "mature.")

The youngest babe in Christ - both in physical and/or spiritual years - can have overwhelming spiritual experiences. Satan is extremely "gifted." He is able to move in incredible revelation. Nebuchanezzer, the king of Babylon, had amazing dreams. However, it took Daniel - a man who spent time every day with the Lord - to INTERPRET them.

Here is the point I am trying to make: All spiritual gifts become available to us when we become believers. A prophet who sees great visions or has Technicolor dreams is not more "gifted" or more "rewarded" than someone who does not. Not everyone chooses to open his or her gifts even though they are available to them. The Lord may choose to give different gifts to different people, however we can not compare one prophet to another by how "gifted" they are. Every single one of us is GIFTED. The difference between an immature prophet and a mature one is their ability to INTERPRET what the Lord gives them. He GIVES freely.

That is why right now we have a multitude of prophetic voices who are seeing all kinds of things and giving us all kinds of information but the body is becoming more and more confused. They may be seeing real revelation but very few right now are interpreting on a level that is free of the soul and old mindsets. Revelation is extremely clouded right now by the souls of the prophets giving it. Their own mindsets, wills and emotions are jading the revelations they are receiving. They are not necessarily false prophets or giving false visions, but they are not in close enough proximity to the mind and heart of the Lord to accurately interpret what they are seeing and hearing. And most of them would bristle at that possibility!

On the other hand there are those who are giving false revelations because they do not know the Lord and may not even know that they don't know the Lord. They are prophesying very much out of their own imaginations or are open to the mind of Satan. Satan is an extremely good counterfeiter. He will give true revelations but very twisted interpretations. Most are not really able yet to discern the truth from the lie and to separate what part is from the enemy and what part is true. The enemy is "in the loop" so to speak. He is able to hear what the true prophets speak and then he is able to twist it and regurgitate it.

One of the sacred cows we need to pull down is our open acceptance of any prophetic word that comes from people with certain well-known names. Some "names" have flat out become idols. Many of them have fallen prey to their own publicity. They may be seeing and hearing all kinds of things from the Lord - dreams, visions, directions, etc. - but they are interpreting them through the same mindsets they have built over the years in building their ministries. To change their mindsets might mean losing their ministries. Once set in motion some of these huge ministries can't stop rolling and change directions. In some cases, to keep up with their ministries and careers or to keep from being run over by them, they begin to prophesy out of their own imaginations. This happens when they begin to interpret their revelations through their own souls rather than through the mind of Christ.

I got a "catalogue" from a big name minister the other day and I thought he must spend every waking moment in conferences or writing books there was such a list of both. I couldn't figure out how he had time to write all those books. I wondered when he actually had time to spend with the Lord to get all of this wealth of spiritual information.

I'm not just picking on the ministers and prophets. I'm also picking on the people who eat their stuff up like Big Macs. Have you noticed that you don't really have to chew fast food? You can gum it a little bit and swallow it practically whole. Churches are filled with fat chickens who want to sit around and be fed "teaching" and/or "preaching" every Sunday and now prophecy has become the new food fad.

At first we just had McDonalds and then suddenly the world exploded with a myriad of fast food places. The Internet did the same thing for prophecy that McDonalds did for junk food. Not only could people sit and have their McDonalds of "teaching" on Sundays now they can eat out any time they want at a variety of "golden arches wannabes."

I am NOT against the Internet or Internet prophets. What I am concerned about are the people who are content to sit and eat up whatever is served to them without learning how to provide real food for themselves. Believers are meant to become EAGLES and hunters, not fat chickens sitting around waiting to be fed. Prophecy is meant to be served as a cold drink of water in the desert or a bit of bread to sustain the weary. It is not meant to become the full course meal. If we consume prophecy - and teaching and preaching as well - without ever learning to hunt for the meat ourselves then the same thing will happen to us that happens to people who live on fast food. We will become spiritually fat on empty calories with very little nutrition. We'll lose our energy and motivation and basically starve to death while sitting on our behinds and gorging ourselves with whatever someone else feeds us whether it is healthy or not. In fact that is in large part exactly what has happened to the crowds who are sitting in the "Circus Maximus" eating up whatever cotton candy, hot dogs and beer the hucksters sell them.

So, next, let's talk about the "Circus."

Diane Bahler December 14, 2001

There is no proof that P.T. Barnum ever said, "There's a sucker born every minute." He did, however, say that, "Every crowd has a silver lining."

In his 80 years Barnum gave the public of the 19th century shameless hucksterism, peerless spectacle and everything in between. He gave them enough entertainment to earn the title of "master showman" and give his grand traveling museum, menagerie, caravan and circus the title of "The Greatest Show on Earth."

Well, P.T. might be disappointed to find out that he has been out-done by a circus that has been entertaining the public for 2000 years and has taken in more money than even Dr. Evil could wish for. It is a grand circus with many rings. Each ring has it's own ringmaster running the show and feeding the crowds what they want to see and hear. Clowns abound. There are a few acrobats and flying Wallenda's but most walk a tightrope. The museum - a sepulcher filled with dead men's bones and relics of the past - is unsurpassed. There is a menagerie of caged animals - although there have been some incidents because eagles and lions don't make good pets. In the last few years the circus has gone on the road as traveling caravans called conferences.

I received a flyer the other day from one of the caravans of the traveling circus that is well known and "respected". The flyer was practically exploding with "power" as it promised me: "POWER! AUTHORITY! ANOINTING! SIGNS AND WONDERS!"

Hallelujah! I thought. I can have of all of this for a mere $125 plus the cost of hotel, meals, and any books, tapes, or "power accessories" I might want to buy. The only thing better would be if they threw in an autographed picture of Jesus for early registration. He has already become a sideshow exhibit. Just send in the clowns - the "apostles" and "prophets" rounded up by the "ringmaster" of this particular traveling "world's fair" and there will be nothing left to be desired.

Well, I'm an equal opportunity cynic. I don't just pick on the big boys. The local circuses do the same thing - some on a small scale, some on a grand scale. They compete for the crowds with "contemporary music", "children's ministries" (more clowns that scare me more than make me laugh), dramas, family activities, etc. Even the smallest town circuses will compete for the best "ringmaster" in town. I lived in a small town most of my life and believe me, the circus that had the most attendance was the one who had the ringmaster who could deliver the most entertaining Sunday sermon.

Praise the Lord and pass the hat. There is a country song that says something like "They're billing me for killing me. Why is the rich man busy dancing while the poor man pays the band?" Well, most of the ringmasters have figured out that there IS a silver lining to every crowd. Hypnotize them with enough entertainment and drug them with enough junk food and they'll keep putting in quarters to see the next show.

Somebody said, "religion is the opiate of the people." I can't remember who said it, probably someone infamous, but it is certainly true. Babylon is a whole religious system designed to keep the masses in a stupor so that they never wake up and realize they are ensnared in a huge spider web of lies and are being slowly starved to death and drained of their spiritual power. Babylon is drunk on the blood of the saints in more ways than one. (Although it has literally killed plenty.) And to add insult to injury, they're being "billed" for being "killed". It's called the tithe and offerings.

Babylon is huge business. Have you checked out some of the cathedrals that have gone up over the centuries? I know that in my own city there is a huge building boom going on. On one suburban crossroads alone there are three huge new church buildings sitting within 200 yards of one another. Each of those buildings cost probably around 4 million dollars to build.

I think of the Indian couple that I know who travel to the farthest reaches of Canada to minister on reservations where there is one spigot of running water for the whole tribe. They drive their cars on fumes and faith a lot of the time. I think of a little Christian school that runs on a shoestring and takes in the kids that the public schools can't handle. I could have some fun with that 12 million dollars and it wouldn't involve building a single wall. It would involve tearing some of them down though.

The circus got its start around 324 CE when Constantine became the ruler of the entire Roman Empire. It was about that time that the "Circus Maximus" the "largest spectator venue ever" reached its peak. People came from all over the empire to watch the chariot races. The Circus was a maze of shops, rooms, stairways and arcades. Throngs of people moved about the great interior corridor that provided access to any part of the structure. Vendors hawked their wares and sold refreshments and souvenirs; and of course there were always prostitutes, gamblers, pickpockets, girl watchers and drunks. The charioteers were a pretty rowdy bunch as well and took to sending "curse tablets" to befoul the rival charioteers and to poisoning each other's horses and breaking their legs and so on. The charioteers were deemed above the law and not prosecuted for any crimes. The bookies took to "looting the horse poop" to dissect it and find out if the horse had been eating properly or was sick so that bets could be altered accordingly.

Not everyone found the Circus enthralling. One citizen wrote: "I can find nothing new or different in them: once seen is enough, so it surprises me all the more that so many thousands should have such a childish passion for watching galloping horses and drivers standing in chariots, over and over again When I think how this futile, tedious, monotonous business can keep them sitting endlessly in their seats, I take pleasure in the fact that their pleasure is not mine."

The races lasted until the 12th century when the decadence led to riots and declining crowds. Then-living historian Ammianus Marcellinus said this about the crowd's squalor and dashed hopes: "These spend all their life with wine and dice, in low haunts, pleasures and the games. Their temple, their dwelling, their assembly, and the height of all their hopes is the Circus Maximus. You may see many groups of them gathered in the for a, the crossroads, the streets and their other meeting places, engaged in quarrelsome arguments with one another torn by their conflicting hopes about the result of the race, the greater number of them in their anxiety pass sleepless nights."

If that does not describe the church system I do not know what does. I take pleasure in the fact that their pleasure is no longer mine.

The Circus Maximus also became a place that allowed the emperor, without the benefit of the current mass media at his disposal, to announce new laws or taxes. In response the public would indulge in open lamentations shouting such things as "How long are we to suffer such things?" and "How long are we to be waging war?" After airing their dirty laundry for a time they would finally turn their attention back to the horse race. The judicious ruler noticed that the crowd would shut up when the horses came out. Reward the restless with entertainment and they'll leave you alone. Except for Caligula who decided a sterner show of force was necessary. Rather than hear them out or even ignore them, he had the shouting persons brought to the center of the Circus and summarily executed so that the bulk of Rome could see he wasn't just fooling around. I've known some of those pastors too.

The other force behind the circus besides money is power and politics. Constantine exploited Christianity for political purposes. He stopped killing Christians physically and made an institution out of a church system that would kill them spiritually. He convened the Council of Nicaea and the theologians have been disputing the nature and essence of Christ ever since. They turned Him into a "doctrine" instead of recognizing Him as a living savior. Religion replaced relationship. The whole system of "authority" that the current system is still enslaved under began with this council. They established a special, privileged status for the Bishop of Jerusalem. Today the church builds parsonages and pays pastors to lord over the sheep. Instead of whipping the congregation to make more bricks they whip them to attend more prayer meetings, pay more money into building funds and serve on more boards and committees. The church must be a "success" to keep the local church government in power. "They're billing me for killing me"

As a result of Constantine's policies Jerusalem was transformed with impressive building projects. It became a powerful magnate for pilgrims from the whole Roman Empire. The city and the circus flourished financially. "There's a silver lining in every crowd."

Constantine uncovered the site of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus in Jerusalem. He built on it the CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHER. (I wonder how much they had to pay for this side show?) Well, the church has been a white washed tomb full of dead men's bones ever since. It has replaced the CROSS and the POWER OF THE RESURRECTION with a TOMB. It kills people with religion, ritual, dogma, tradition and entertainment and then warehouses their bones for a small fee. "They're billing me for killing me"

I'm not going to mince words. It is time to come out of the Babylonian "church" system. I am not just talking about and picking on the Catholic Church. She was just the mother that Babylon used to hatch the rest of the baby spiders. I am talking about ALL of them: the Protestant and Nondenominational churches as well. The "nondenominational" churches have become just as much a "denomination" as the others. They are all products of the same adultery with politics, power and money. They all spring from the same root - the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The whole system is rotten to the foundations and the Lord is about to bring it down. A good strong wind of the Spirit will blow the "Big Top" away. For years I have been doing strategic spiritual warfare and I have found that there are some things and places that can be redeemed and there are some that can't. The Lord will have to destroy them and rebuild. The church system is one of those things that can't be redeemed. It needs to be rebuilt from the ground up, this time using lumber from the tree of Life.

There is a house that is about to fall out of the sky on top of the wicked witch of Babylon. It is called THE NEW JERUSALEM (Rev. 21). It is the house of the LORD and when it falls on the house of Babylon anyone still inside will be crushed. It was the religious leaders, the pastors and prophets and apostles of their time that Jesus was speaking to when He said: "Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed." The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against THEM. (Luke 20:18-19)

However, don't think "good" Christians won't be affected when the walls come down if they are still in the building! Were there true believers who died when the Twin Towers fell? Jesus said of the 18 who died when the tower of Siloam fell on them: "Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."" (Luke 13:4) Revelation 18: 4 says it pretty straightforwardly: "Come OUT of her my people, so that you will not SHARE IN HER SINS, so that you will NOT RECEIVE ANY OF HER PLAGUES"

There is an end coming to this circus and time is running out. For the last several years when the Lord has sent me to do strategic warfare He had me "pull up tent pegs" and push down "center tent poles" in several places to bring the collapse of this huge dark tent that I could see in my spirit. I knew it was a dark covering that was blocking the people from receiving from the open windows in heaven. Now I see that the tent we have been pulling up is the circus tent of institutional religion that we call "the church" in all its various forms and denominations.

It is time to come out of her. It is time to leave the circus tent of Babylon and rebuild the true tabernacle of the Lord. It is time to leave the slavery of Egypt and enter into the full promises of the Lord. It is time for Israel to be delivered her children.

Isaiah: 54:1 "Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband," says the LORD. 2 "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. 3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.

Isaiah 60: 3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. 4 "Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm. 5 Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come.

Diane Bahler December 19, 2001

The Lord told me sometime back that the best way to expose the false is to reveal the true. (Sounds like something He would say doesn't it?) So, if the false looks a lot like a circus, then what does the true Bride look like? Is she going to be a fire breathing, sword swinging "Dread Champion?" In the Spirit, yes. But in the natural she is probably not going to look like much to those who don't have eyes to see. She'll probably look a lot like an army of homeless bums, old ladies, little children and punk rockers. But looking at her through the eyes of the heart she will look like the Jesus of Revelation 1: "And his eyes were bright like flames of fire. His feet were as bright as bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came from his mouth. And his face was as bright as the sun in all its brilliance."

True heroes are usually ordinary people who have the heart to rise to the call of extraordinary circumstances.

This fall the Lord sent me to downtown Battle Creek, Michigan. I had never been to Battle Creek before and had no idea what I would find there. I should be getting used to the Lord's "surprises" by now but I still find them amazing. Standing in the center of town on DIVISION STREET was a statue honoring the memory of a former black slave who adopted the name of "Sojourner Truth." Let me tell you a little about Sojourner because I see her as a TRUE "forerunner" who carried the mantle of the Spirit of Elijah long before we were born and long before the term was ever coined by Charismatics. I doubt that she ever attended a single conference for the "forerunner's ministry."

Sojourner was born a slave in 1795. She was originally named Isabella but took the name of Sojourner Truth after gaining her freedom in 1827. She became a well-known antislavery speaker at a time when few women even dared speak in a meeting. Women were considered much less than men and were fighting for even the basic right to vote. Black women were not even considered particularly human. She was a tall, gaunt black woman poor in education and provision but rich in the Spirit. She couldn't read or write. She dressed in drab, worn clothing with a white turban wrapped around her head under an uncouth sunbonnet.

One of my favorite stories about Sojourner is when she rose up and spoke extemporaneously at a woman's rights convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851. When the women of the movement saw her walk into the church with the air of a queen up the aisle and take her seat on the pulpit steps they begged their leader, Frances Gage, not to let her speak. "Every newspaper in the land will have our cause mixed up with abolition and niggers and we shall be utterly denounced!" they exclaimed.

Sojourner sat silently through the first day. On the second day she listened to the Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, Presbyterian and Universalist ministers who came to hear and discuss the resolutions presented. One claimed superior rights and privileges for man on the grounds of "superior intellect" and another said that because of the "manhood of Christ; if God had desired the equality of woman, He would have given some token of His will through the birth, life and death of the Savior." Another gave a theological view of the "sin of our first mother."

The hot and humid Ohio atmosphere was about to be broken with a storm. Moving slowly and solemnly to the front amid jeers and hisses, Sojourner laid her old bonnet at her feet and turned her lightening eyes to the crowd. They must have felt the anointing that was on the old black woman because the tumult subsided at once. Standing almost six feet tall Sojourner broke the silence with the quiet thunder of her voice which reached every ear in the house and even to the throng at the doors and windows. Her words still ring today:

"Dat man ober dar say dat womin needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted ober ditches, and to hab de best place everywhar. Nobody eber helps me into carriages, or ober mud-puddles, or gis me any best place!" Raising herself to her full height and her voice to a pitch like rolling thunder she asked: "And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm!" She bared her right arm to the shoulder, showing her tremendous muscular power. "I have ploughed, and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear de lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have born thirteen chilern and seen em mos all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?"

Sojourner went on: "Den dat little man in black dar, he say women can't have as much rights as men cause Christ wan't a woman! Whar did your Christ come from?" Raising her voice still louder she repeated, "Whar did your Christ come from? From God and a WOMAN! Man had NOTHIN to do wid Him!"

Turning to another objector she took up the defense of Mother Eve. "If de fust woman God ever made was strong enough to turn de world upside down all alone, dese women togedder ought to be able to turn back and get it right side up again! And now dey is asking to do it, de men better let em."

Sojourner returned to her corner amid roars of applause leaving many with streaming eyes. Mrs. Gage wrote: "She had taken us up in her strong arms and carried us safely over the slough of difficulty turning the whole tide in our favor. I have never in my life seen anything like the magical influence that subdued the mobbish spirit of the day and turned the sneers and jeers of an excited crowd into notes of respect and admiration. Hundreds rushed up to shake hands with her and congratulate the glorious old mother and bid her God-speed on her mission of 'testifyin' agin concerning the wickedness of this 'ere people.'"

Well, there is a picture of the TRUE BRIDE of Christ.

When the True Bride wakes up and realizes she is a free woman she will become a woman on a mission from God. No one will have to pay her or give her glory to motivate her. Her motivation will come from a heart that has been plowed and planted and brought forth produce. The wheat and the chaff will have been separated and burned by the Spirit of judgment and burning. She will have a heart that is on fire with passion and that passion will drive her. She will be a woman who has seen her children sold into slavery and her home seized and she will fight like a lioness to set them free. Her heart will be to be reunited with her husband and children in the land that was stolen from them.

The True Bride won't have time for chili suppers and board meetings. She won't wait for some slave owner/pastor to give her his approval to fight. She won't wait for a "Cemetery" degree to start speaking forth the truth and she won't be detered by the lash. This is a woman who will have already walked through the fire and died a thousand deaths. The grave will no longer have power over her and neither will religion and control. Death and hell will tremble at the rising of this free woman because when she pulls herself up to full stature the voice of the Lord will thunder from her mouth and roar across the nations. Demons and angels alike will tremble at the sound of her voice.

She may not be stylish or learned but she will carry herself like a queen through ridicule and ignorance. She will know the authority of the name she carries and won't be afraid to use it. The only fear she will recognize will be the "awful grace of God." The self-elected will try to silence her but find themselves silenced by the anointing she carries. Her power won't be in the strength of horses and chariots (titles and ministries). Her power will come from her relationship with the One who IS power.

She is the "Second Eve" who will help the Second Adam turn the world upside down. And if anyone questions THIS Bride about whether women should be in ministry or not, she will rise up and roar, "Ain't I a woman!"

She will bear a remarkable resemblance to her husband from whose side she was taken. She is His sister and bride and the same lightening that flashes from His eyes will flash from hers. When you see her you will see Him because she will be clothed with the Son and burn like bronze tried in the fire. The same dividing sword will thunder from her mouth and sever soul from Spirit and the true from the false. She will use that sword to draw a line in the sand that will leave no doubt about which side she is on and force others to make the same choice. There will only be two sides to choose from: light or darkness, the truth or the lie.

Legend has it that one of the leaders at the Alamo drew a line in the dirt and gave the men the choice to leave or to stay and fight even though it meant certain death. All but one man crossed the line and stood with him. All who stayed died.

The Lord will use His Bride to draw a line in the sand to divide those who will save their life by losing it from those who want to save their life and who will surely lose it. In the next email let's count the cost and "remember the Alamo."

I'll be honest. I have never been very crazy about Texas. When the Lord suddenly seemed "obsessed" with talking to me about it a few months ago I couldn't understand what His fascination with the place was all about. Then He got me started reading about the Alamo and the early Texans. I have to admit there is a spirit about the place and the people who settled there that has made a place for Texas in my heart. I can understand now why it is in the Lord's. Like the story of Hanukkah, it is a story for our times as well.

The Alamo was an abandoned Spanish mission that became known as the "cradle of Texas Liberty" after a band of 189 Texas volunteers defied a Mexican army of thousands for 13 days of siege in 1836. The Battle of the Alamo played a critical role in the Texas Revolution and came to symbolize a heroic struggle against overwhelming odds - a place where men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.

In 1823 Texas belonged to Mexico. Stephen Austin received a grant from the Mexican government and began introducing a large number of colonists to Texas from the United States. It is hard to imagine what motivates people to leave their homes and country to travel long distances over rough terrain in the crudest forms of transportation just to follow a dream. To even survive the trip meant overcoming hardship, disease, Indian raids, outlaws, hunger, thirst, weather, rattle snakes and a host of other oppositional forces. Some may have been scoundrels or criminals or fortune hunters but no matter the purity of their motivations they must have all at least shared the courage of an adventurer and the heart of a romantic. Or they were a little nuts. Or all of the above.

Like Davy Crockett, one of the heroes of the Alamo, they probably came with no intention of joining the fight for Texas independence. And yet, each must have come with some hope for a new, better and more independent life that tied their future with the future of an independent Texas. Crockett, who came to symbolize the rough-hewn frontier spirit of independence and virtue, went to Texas with the hope of rejuvenating his political career and making a fortune in land speculation. However, once visited, there must have been something about Texas that changed his plans and led to his martyrdom at the Alamo.

Crockett wrote in January, 1836, only a few months before he was bayoneted and shot defending the Alamo: "I must say as to what I have seen of Texas it is the garden spot of the world. The best land and the best prospects for health I ever saw, and I do believe it is a fortune to any man to come here. There is a world of country here to settle."

By the 1830s the "Texians" far outnumbered the Texas Mexicans. Mexico had a constitution giving it a republican form of government but it failed to define the rights of the states within the republic, including Texas. In 1833 Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was elected as president of Mexico in a democratic election but he decided Mexico was not ready for democracy and pronounced himself dictator. He overthrew the Mexican Constitution and seized control.

Relations between Texas and Mexico were already strained when Santa Anna attempted to forbid further emigration into Texas by setters from the United States and imposed the collection of customs duties. The settlers rebelled against Santa Anna's dictatorial government. In 1833 Austin was sent to Mexico City carrying a petition to the government requesting a repeal of the law making new immigration illegal and requesting separate statehood. He was imprisoned for two years. By July, 1835, Santa Anna had asserted full Centralist authority. Jim Bowie, a Texas immigrant, and others were beating the drum for war.

Texans were divided into the "Peace Party" and the "War Party." A lawyer named William Travis Barret became the leader of the "War Party" and led an amphibious assault at Galveston Bay that captured the Mexican soldiers easily. However, the action alarmed the Peace Party and for several months Travis was regarded by many Texans as a troublemaker. The Mexicans branded him an outlaw and demanded that the Texans surrender for military trial.

In September Austin arrived home from his long imprisonment in Mexico City and was elected to command the volunteer army. He issued a call to arms and the Texas revolution began October 2, 1835 when the Texans repulsed a detachment of Mexican cavalry at the Battle of Gonzales and won subsequent victories.

Austin placed Jim Bowie on his staff as a colonel but apparently Bowie had little interest in formal command and tried to resign from command twice. He had earlier served in a volunteer ranger group, fought Indians and was the type of officer who served in time of need but cared little for being an officer of the government or army. Sam Houston, the leader of the regular army suggested Bowie could organize a guerilla force to harass the Mexican army but soon found another assignment for him. On January 19, 1836, Bowie, with about 30 volunteers, arrived at the Alamo carrying orders from Houston to demolish the fortifications there.

Travis, in the meantime, had been promoted to lieutenant colonel of cavalry in the regular army and became the chief recruiting officer. He was ordered by the governor to recruit 100 men and to reinforce Col. James C. Neill at the Alamo. Travis was embarrassed and requested to be relieved when he was able to recruit only 29 men. The governor insisted and within a few days Travis found himself at the Alamo in command of about 30 men.

Bowie and Travis found the garrison in grim condition. Neill, commanding a contingent of about 78 men, stated that his men lacked clothing and pay and talked of leaving. Texas volunteers had carried off most of the munitions and supplies for another expedition. On February 3 Crockett rode in with 12 men bringing the total of the garrison to about 150 men.

On February 11 Neill gave his command to Travis and left but the volunteers preferred Bowie as commander and insisted on holding an election. The volunteer vote placed Bowie in command and he celebrated by getting drunk and parading his volunteers around the city. Travis, to escape implication in the disgraceful affair, took his regulars from the Alamo to the Medina River. Finally, by February 13 Bowie and Travis worked out a compromise. Travis took command of the regulars, Bowie took command of the volunteers and both men shared joint authority over garrison orders and correspondence.

Despite orders to destroy the stronghold, Bowie wrote to the governor urging that it be held because it was a "strategic frontier picqet guard." On February 23 Bowie and Travis learned that Santa Anna and 1,500 of the main command of the Mexican army were advancing to the San Antonio de Valero Mission, known as the Alamo.

With engineer Green B. Jameson, Travis strengthened the walls, constructed palisades to fill gaps, mounted cannons, and stored provisions inside the fortress. He also wrote letters to officials requesting reinforcements but only 35 men came from Gonzales raising the number of the Alamo's defenders to approximately 183 to 189 men. One of Travis' most famous dispatches was a plea for more than the reinforcements of man. It was also a cry for intercession and reinforcement from heaven. Travis addressed this famous dispatch to: "The People of Texas and ALL AMERICANS IN THE WORLD." The Lord works through the prayers of His people and even though Travis recognized that "The Lord is on our side" Neither the plea for reinforcements or the desperately call for intercession was answered in time.

With the possibility of additional hope fading legend holds that Travis drew a line on the ground and asked any man willing to stay and fight to step over. All but one did. As the defenders saw it, the Alamo was the key to defense of Texas and they were ready to give their lives rather than surrender their position to Santa Anna.

Travis wrote on February 24, 1836: "To the People of Texas and All Americans In the World: Fellow citizens and compatriots - I am besieged by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna. I have sustained a continual bombardment and cannonade for 24 hours and have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword if the fort is taken. I have answered the demand with a cannon shot and our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I SHALL NEVER SURRENDER OR RETREAT. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism, and every thing dear to the American character to come to our aid with all dispatch. The enemy, receiving reinforcements daily and will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor and that of his country. VICTORY OR DEATH."

These were ordinary men who had the heart to rise to the call of extraordinary circumstances. They were doing their part. The Lord was on their side. But the intercession and reinforcements came too late to save them from martyr's deaths.

Meanwhile, on March 2 the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed by members of the Convention of 1836 forming an interim government for the newly created Republic of Texas. Not knowing the outcome of the convention Travis wrote on March 3 in another dispatch to the president of the convention: "I sent an express to Col. F urging him to send us reinforcements - none have arrived Unless it arrives soon I shall have to fight the enemy on his own terms. I will, however, do the best I can under the circumstances and I feel confident that the determined valor and desperate courage heretofore evinced by my men will not fail them in the last struggle, and although they may be sacrificed to the vengeance of a Gothic enemy, the victory will cost the enemy so dear, that it will be worse for him than a defeat"

"If these things are properly sent, and large reinforcements are hastened to this frontier, this neighborhood will be the great and decisive battle ground. The power of Santa Anna is to be met here or in the colonies. WE HAD BETTER MEET THEM HERE THAN TO SUFFER A WAR OF DESOLATION TO RAGE OUR SETTLEMENTS. A blood red banner waves from the church of Bexar and in the camp above us in token that the war is one of vengeance against rebels. They have declared us as such and demanded that we should surrender at discretion or this garrison should be put to the sword. "

Listen carefully to the following words of Travis. They are a profound description of a soldier's heart: "THEIR THREATS HAVE HAD NO INFLUENCE ON ME OR MY MEN BUT TO MAKE ALL FIGHT WITH DESPERATION AND THAT HIGH SOULED COURAGE WHICH CHARACTERIZES THE PATRIOT WHO IS WILLING TO DIE IN DEFENSE OF HIS COUNTRY'S LIBERTY AND HIS OWN HONOUR."

The soldiers were fighting and dying for independence while the politicians were debating it. Travis wrote: "Let the convention go on and make a declaration of independence, and we will understand, and the world will understand, what we are fighting for. If independence is not declared, I shall lay down my arms and so will the men under my command. But under the flag of independence, we are ready to peril our lives a hundred times a day and to drive away the monster who is fighting us under a blood-red flag, threatening to murder all prisoners and make Texas a waste desert. I shall have to fight the enemy on his own terms, yet I am ready to do it, and if my countrymen do not rally to my relief, I am determined to perish in the defense of this place, AND MY BONES SHALL REPROACH MY COUNTRY FOR HER NEGLECT I will visit vengeance on the enemy fighting against us My respects to all friends, confusion to all enemies. God bless you."

The story of the Alamo is one of supernatural provision. Travis wrote in his famous dispatch: "The Lord is on our side - When the enemy appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn - We have since found in deserted houses 80 or 90 bushels and got into the walls 20 or 30 head of Beeves."

Travis wrote on March 3: "I have held this place for ten days against a force variously estimated from 1,500 to 6,000 and shall continue to hold it til I get relief from my country or I will perish in its defense. We have had a shower of bombs and cannon balls continually falling among us the whole time yet none of us has fallen. WE HAVE BEEN MIRACULOUSLY PRESERVED."

In fact, the Lord preserved the little band of less than 200 defenders for 13 days under siege by an army of thousands. The final assault came BEFORE DAYBREAK on the morning of March 6, 1836. Columns of Mexican soldiers emerged from the predawn darkness and headed for the Alamo's walls. Cannon and small arms fire from inside the Alamo beat back several attacks. Regrouping, the Mexicans scaled the walls and rushed into the compound. Once inside they turned captured cannon on the Long Barrack and church, blasting open the barricaded doors. The desperate struggle continued until the defenders were overwhelmed. By sunrise the battle had ended and Santa Anna entered the Alamo compound to survey his "victory".

In the end the defenders died to the last man but the cost to the Mexican forces was dreadful. The cost to the enemy was indeed "so dear that it was worse than defeat." When Santa Anna dictated an announcement of glorious victory, his aide, Col. Juan Almonte, privately noted: "One more such glorious victory and we are finished." Santa Anna was finished by April 21 when the "Napoleon of the West" was captured and his army routed at the Battle of San Jacinto by Houston's forces. Mexican troops then withdrew from Texas and the Republic of Texas with its Lone Star flag remained independent until 1845 when it became part of the United States.

Travis was 26 years old when he died at the Alamo. His last known letter was written to David Ayers before the fall of the Alamo: "Take care of my little boy. If the country should be saved, I may make for him a splendid fortune; but if the country be lost and I should perish, he will have nothing but the proud recollection that he is the son of a man who died for his country."

The story of the Alamo and its defenders is also an illustration of the Spirit of Elijah and the True Bride of Christ. The True Bride is a warrior. She is the army of the Lord. In the next email let's look at the current condition of the army and also begin to clarify our vision. What are we really fighting for and what do we really mean when we talk about freedom and independence? These are terms that seem to be on the lips of almost every prophet these days but there seems to be very little understanding as to what they really mean.

Diane Bahler December 25, 2001

A long time before William Barret Travis drew a line in the sand at the Alamo, a man named Moses did the same thing on behalf of a greater cause. Exodus 32 tells the story of how Moses came down from the Mountain of the Lord with the Ten Commandments. He had been gone a mere 40 days but that was too long for the Israelites who went to work making a golden calf to worship while he was gone. When Moses saw that they were dancing and worshipping an idol he became so angry that he threw the tablets down and broke them into pieces.

Exodus 32: 25 Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies. 26 So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, "Whoever is for the LORD, come to me." And all the Levites rallied to him. 27 Then he said to them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.'" 28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. 29 Then Moses said, "You have been set apart to the LORD today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day."

Hard to believe that killing your own sons and brothers can get you blessed by the Lord, isn't it? But the fact is, when the Ekklesia begins to wield the sword of truth it is going to be their sons and brothers that they will be called to slay with it. The Lord is calling for a complete REVOLUTION and all revolutions are actually CIVIL WARS. In fact, all wars are civil wars because as far back as Cain and Abel we have been slaying those who are our brothers since we all sprang from the same common gene pool.

Revolutionaries are seldom heralded as heroes during their own lifetime. More often they are branded as troublemakers by their brothers and outlaws by their enemies. Most lose their homes, their livelihoods and their lives. It's only after they are dead and gone that their sacrifices are recognized by those who benefit from them and they are remembered as the "good guys." Those who desire the anointing of the Lord to be a "forerunner" and to carry the Spirit of Elijah can expect the same treatment.

Jesus knew the way it worked. He was a revolutionary who was no hero at the time. He confronted the religious leaders of His time with the fact that they made heroes out of the very men their fathers killed. Later they would follow their fathers and kill Him too.

Luke 11: 47 "Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your forefathers who killed them. 48 So you testify that you approve of what your forefathers did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs.

Like William Barret Travis and Jesus, Elijah was also branded a trouble maker: 1 Kings 18: 16 "So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. 17 When he saw Elijah, he said to him, "Is that you, you troubler of Israel?" 18 "I have not made trouble for Israel," Elijah replied. "But you and your father's family have. You have abandoned the Lord's commands and have followed the Baals."

How good it truly would be if brothers could dwell together in unity but there are times when dividing lines must be drawn. The Spirit of Elijah that burned in John the Baptist and that burns in the True Bride makes the path straight for the return of the Lord by drawing the lines of truth. The same voice cries from the wilderness: "Whoever is for the Lord, come to me."

With that said, let's look at some of the dividing lines.

UNITY

There is a false unity movement in the church system right now that elevates unity over the truth. This movement tries to get people from different denominations and doctrines together to pray. The participants are not required to lay down their pet doctrines but are encouraged to be "tolerant" of one another. The truth is that there is only ONE way of unity and that is not tolerance but DEATH. We are all called to put everything to the cross and through the cross we are able to enter into the Lord's Presence where the only TRUE unity of the Spirit is possible. The Lord God is ONE God. That means He is not divided up into a thousand different doctrines and denominations. Those who have walked through the cross and come into the unity of the Spirit will be one with the Lord. They will all look alike, think alike and believe alike. They will share ONE mind - the mind of Christ and ONE heart - the heart of the Father. Unity at that point will not be some contrived meeting of individuals. It will be one body functioning by the direction of the Spirit.

ANCESTOR WORSHIP

A housecleaning task that needs to be taken on is the issue of "ancestor worship." The Protestants and Charismatics pick on the Catholics for their idolization of the saints but they have their own forms. Lately it seems to be taking the form of idolizing past leaders of revival while ignoring or spiritually "killing" those who are leading the current one. They look to the past and can't see the new thing the Lord is doing right now. This new move isn't going to look like past revivals. Those were revivals. THIS IS REVOLUTION. Those revivals ended. This revolution is going to establish the Kingdom of God for eternity.

The scriptures make it clear that the Lord is doing a NEW thing. That new thing is that God Himself is going to come and live with us again. There is no past revival that we can look to for a paradigm for what that will look like or how to bring it about. The only thing we can do is follow the Spirit step by step.

Rev. 21: 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." 5 He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

I don't want to turn the men at the Alamo into idols. I don't want to touch their bones or lay on their graves. I do want us to see, however, that real men with real failings can rise to the call of extraordinary circumstances if they have a brave and passionate heart. Let's not idolize them, let's relate to them.

The men at the Alamo seem to me to be pretty comparable to the group of men that followed David to the cave of Addulum. They were the distressed, the in debt and the discontented. From what I can tell, the "heroes" of the Alamo didn't come to Texas with lofty ideals or dreams of glory. A lot of them came to get away from wives and debt and legal problems or to make money with land speculation.

The point is that heroes are not perfect men and women. They are ordinary people who have the heart to rise to the call of extraordinary circumstances. The Lord isn't looking for perfect men and women to lead this revolution. He is looking for overcomers with a passion burning in their hearts that they may not even understand yet. They are people who will be willing to lay down their lives when they are confronted with the truth and hear the nobler sound of the trumpet call to freedom. Not many will have well known names or respected ministries. Most will be the distressed, the in debt and the discontent. In short, people who have nothing to lose.

FREEDOM

What kind of freedom does that trumpet call for? Jesus died for more than to save us from hell. He died for freedom's sake. Most can not really grasp this concept. The truth is He died so that we could have complete freedom of choice without the fear of retribution by God. Most believers can't handle that kind of freedom so they hire religious leaders to make guidelines for them and establish doctrines and dogmas, rituals and traditions to help them know what to do and not to do. Well, friends, that is the LAW just the same as the endless list of rules and regulations established by the rabbis was the law.

Do you feel guilty if you miss church on Sunday? Do you feel that you have done something sinful or wrong if you go to see a movie that your Christian peer group doesn't approve of? If so, then you are living under the law. This is not conviction by the Spirit, it is trying to follow some code of law that may be unwritten but that is emblazoned on your spirit nonetheless because you have agreed to the terms for acceptance into a group of some sort.

Galatians 5: 4 says: "You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace." James 2: 10 says: "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it."

That is BONDAGE! That is the slavery of the church/circus system.

True freedom is the freedom to lay down our free choices and the slavery that comes with them and become the slave of the Spirit. Most people can't really handle the freedom of the Spirit because He is freedom. John 8: 36 says: "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." The Spirit takes away all our rules and guidelines and replaces them with relationship. Suddenly you are forced to walk daily with the Spirit and to listen to the voice of the Lord for your directions. No more "thou shalts" and "thou shalt nots." No more hard and fast rules on what is acceptable and what is not.

Let's look at an example: Harry Potter. I personally have no interest in seeing the Harry Potter movie and feel that it is a dangerous lure for children into the demonic. However, if I make a rule about not seeing this movie or even imply to others that I would not be accepting of them seeing the movie, then I set up a law and put myself into a position of opposing the Spirit of grace. Those who are walking by the Spirit and living in His freedom may be led in many different directions about Harry Potter. The Spirit may tell one person to go to the movie because He has someone for him to witness to there. The Spirit may tell another to stay away because the Spirit knows our weaknesses and knows that the person may be drawn into the occult. The Spirit might tell another person to go and to learn what they can about the way the enemy is using the movie because they are called to spiritual warfare. There are no hard and fast rules when you are living in the freedom of the Spirit and yet I have seen endless articles on Harry Potter trying to establish a rule of thumb for everyone.

Another sacred cow is the issue of abortion. Yes, God hates abortion but He is also a God who knows the end from the beginning and has a heart of compassion. We can't make hard and fast rules that say there should never be an abortion under any circumstance. The Spirit knows the whole of the circumstances and the past and future of a person. If we are living in the freedom of the Spirit we may find that all answers are not the same for everyone. Laws will never settle the debate. The issue of abortion takes a wisdom that surpasses Solomon and that wisdom is found only in the Spirit.

The problem is that most people can't give each other the freedom to be free in the Spirit. They can't be free and they won't allow others to be either. I think this is what Jesus was referring to when He told the religious leaders: "You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are." (Mat. 23: 15) The Spirit is a great deal more free than our rules and laws are. Anyone who dares to walk outside the expectations of our indoctrinated mindsets will soon find themselves labeled a heretic or a rebel. Well, bring on the revolutionaries.

THE PROMISED LAND

The promised land that we're fighting for is not the "American Dream" of working harder so we can have more stuff. Neither is it a small piece of geography in the Middle east. I am amazed when there is an uproar when Israel gives away a small piece of land but no one notices that we've given away most of the earth to Satan. That does not mean that we are not to fight for both America and the land of Israel, but neither are the country to which we owe allegiance. Like the Republic of Texas, America, Israel and every other nation in this world is eventually meant to join a larger Kingdom. This Kingdom is not a democracy. It is a divine monarchy and there is only one King - Jesus. We are to pray for our leaders but our main prayer should be that they will come into the truth and give their allegiance to the Kingdom of God. Most of the calls for prayer for Bush that I have seen on the prophetic lists sound more like the Israelites asking for a King. Until we stop rejecting the Lord as our one true king, we will have Saul's ruling over us. The cry of the American Revolution was "We will have no King but Jesus." The Lord is coming back as King and He isn't going to share His rulership with presidents or prime ministers or anyone else. He's coming back to take over the world. That should be our goal as well.

AMERICA

I saw a bumper sticker after 9-11 that said: "The power of pride" with the American flag as a background. Well, pride is what got America into this fix in the first place. What America should be doing is humbling herself and repenting of her pride. The principle of judgment is fairly simple. We can ask the Lord to judge us and repent of those things He shows us that need repenting of. In exchange for our true repentance, we receive grace and mercy. If we refuse to humble ourselves and seek the LORD'S judgment, then we have a grace problem. The enemy has legal rights to come and bring his judgment. His judgment ends in destruction.

It concerns me more than a little that I see signs virtually everywhere now that say "In God We Trust" and "God Bless America" when there has been very little true repentance and seeking of the Lord's judgment. America may be putting herself into a dangerous position when she asks the Lord to "bless America" without first seeking His judgment. Without true repentance, the enemy has legal rights and he loves to mock God. Many may blame God for judgments that may be coming but America has no one to blame but herself. Somebody had better start crying out on the housetops before it is too late.

THE FLAG

The American flag has become an idol. The flag that flies over the Kingdom of God is the "blood red banner" of the rebel, Jesus. It is His blood that covers us. His banner over us is His love - the kind of love that gives its life for others. That is the banner we had better get under.

9-11 AND THE CHURCH

Sept. 11 was a warning to the current church system. The church has a grace problem. There is very little true repentance in it and a great deal of idolatry. The Lord is about to remove the hedge of protection and the walls are going to come down.

There is still a lot of housecleaning to be done but I'm out of time for now. I'll be off line for the next two weeks. When I get back I want to begin to really look at the condition of the army of the Lord and begin to do some housecleaning in the area of spiritual warfare. But it will have to wait. By now I hope that the story of Hanukkah that we started with so long ago makes more sense for today. I was going to try and recap it but, as I said, I'm out of time. Instead, I'm going to leave you with one more email after this one.

I saved the best wine for last. I hate it when I read prophecies or teachings that just cite the things that are wrong without providing solutions. Well, there is only one solution. If we want to have a true ekklesia, a called out assembly, if we want to see the Kingdom of God come and His house built, then there is only one way. He has to do it. He will do it through us but we have to be so filled with His Presence and His life that it is no longer us living but Christ living in us. In the last email of this series let's talk about getting intimate with Jesus.

HOUSECLEANING PART: 10-A Falling in Love

Diane Bahler December 25, 2001

If the previous articles have not been enough to get me stoned or burned at the stake then this one should do the trick. Nevertheless, if we are going to talk about moving into a mature marital relationship with the Lord then we need to be able to talk about marital relationships in a frank manner. The Lord is not offended by sexual concepts. In fact, HE invented sex. Satan has taken a holy thing and polluted and perverted it but the original idea was the Lord's. If you doubt it then you'd better reread some of the stories of the patriarch's and their love lives. And anyone who can read Song of Songs without blushing at least a little is so dead they are in need of an immediate resurrection.

Everything living in the earth is sexual. It takes a male and female to mate in order to bring forth new life. The same is true in the spiritual realm. The Lord wants a mate with whom He can reproduce. He wants the kind of intimacy that brings forth life. He wants a wife and a family. From the beginning the Lord's command has been: "Be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it."

First He commanded the "the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind" to be fruitful and multiply. Then He commanded Adam and Eve: "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it." He gave the same command to Noah regarding all the creatures he had taken with him on the ark and then to Noah and his sons. The Lord said to Jacob/ISRAEL: "I am God Almighty ; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body." (Gen 35: 11)

Part of the problem with the church system is that it has made the true concept of intimacy so taboo that it is difficult to break out of the mindsets that keep the Lord so sterile and separated from us. It is hard to get close enough to get a kiss, never mind the kind of intimacy it takes to bring forth life. Yet Psalm 2: 12 says: "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way!" The consequence of our dispassionate relationship has been that very little life has come forth and the Kingdom of God is not currently filling and subduing the earth. If you doubt that, turn on the evening news.

A friend of mine wrote to me awhile back that the Lord made the creation to be ever growing and expanding. It was Satan's idea to introduce the concept of keeping everything in the world "balanced". It stopped the growth of the physical family of God. For example he wrote: "Except for the brief inundation of the flood and an extended drought, the prairie lands of the Midwest have been stable for about 24,000 years. In that 24,000 years pick any one acre of the native (undisturbed) prairie still existing today and you will find that it only produces enough seed to replant itself. No increase in 24,000 years! However, the first acre of wheat planted only 6,000 years ago now feeds the entire world! That's the difference between the two kingdoms."

That is the difference between the kingdoms of the Babylonian church system and the Ecclesia Kingdom of God. The church has produced only enough to replant itself and has made little to no increase in the past two thousand years from what was birthed by the first apostles. This lukewarmness is what is about to get the Laodicean church system spit out of His mouth. It has failed to "kiss the Son" and He is angry. The Lord himself is going to deal with this failure of the church to reproduce. Jeremiah 23 speaks to that day that is here NOW:

2 Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: "Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done," declares the LORD. 3 "I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number.

He will bring out a remnant that is truly passionate for Him and who will enter into a relationship that will multiply and produce children. Scripture speaks regarding His true bride, Israel, in Ezekiel 36:

11 I will increase the number of men and animals upon you, and they will be fruitful and become numerous. I will settle people on you as in the past and will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the LORD. 12 I will cause people, my people Israel, to walk upon you. They will possess you, and you will be their inheritance; you will never again deprive them of their children.

Since we're talking about multiplying, let's do the math. For the last several months I have been seeing the numbers 111 every time I turn around. I discovered that several others have been seeing the same numbers with various interpretations. What I see in the numbers is a divine math problem: One plus one equals one. The Lord has His own math system:

Gen. 2: 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Jesus Himself said in Matthew 19:

4 "Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

Paul spoke of this intimate union in 1 Corinthians:

6: 16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

And again in Ephesians:

5: 31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." 32 This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church (Ecclesia).

I think the scriptures have made my point for me. We need to KNOW the Lord and I do mean in the Biblical sense. There is a place in the Spirit where we can know the Lord in a way that is deeper and more satisfying than human sexual relations. It is the place of His GLORY. It is a place where we "melt into" Him and we become one with Him. It is the place of rest where there is nothing left to do but just "be". It is in that place of union and communion with Him that life is conceived and brought forth. I can't really explain it, you have to experience it. I have only had a taste of it myself but a taste is enough to make you addicted forever and to send you on a magnificent pursuit for more. The Glory/Presence of the Lord is much more addictive than chocolate or cocaine or anything else. He's so addictive people will die to get more of Him!

continued...

I get very frustrated when I read prophetic words or teachings and they tell me I need to do something but they don't tell me how to do it. I can't tell you how to "know" the Lord but I do know that the first step is falling in love with Him. I can give you some suggestions that can get your relationship started on a new level. After that it is between the two of you. He is very invested in this relationship so I am sure He will lead each person individually in their desire to know Him.

There is currently a country music song on the radio that asks the musical question: "Why do they call it falling?" referring to falling in love. The song's point is that when you fall in love you feel like you're flying, not falling. The falling part comes when the relationship comes apart. There may be something to that song.

In Revelation 2: 4 -5 Jesus says to the Ephesian church: "Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen!"

Every time I have heard this scripture interpreted it has referred to the first experience of salvation. That may be part of it on one level but not everyone had a really spectacular salvation experience. I had an intense salvation experience but it was more about experiencing the power of God than the passionate love of God.

There is a reason why the crucifixion of Jesus is called His Passion. He didn't just die for us because He liked us a lot. He died for us because He was passionately in love with a Bride that He wants to spend eternity with. Just for fun let's look at some of the synonyms for "passionate" in the Thesaurus: "fiery, ardent, burning, glowing, , irascible, fervid, excitable hot, impetuous, emotional, impulsive, excited, zealous, enthusiastic."

Have you seen anyone act like that in church lately? I doubt it. Not without getting called before the Sanhedrin for some serious flogging. Yet it is scriptural! Song of Songs 8: 6 says: "Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. 7 Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.

Where HAVE I seen that kind of love? Have you been around any teenagers in the throes of first love lately? This is the kind of "first love" I think the Lord wants us to have. It is that crazy, out of your mind, reckless abandoning of your heart that you experience the first time you fall head over heels in love - usually around the age of 13 or 14 (which was marrying age back in Bible times by the way). We have known the Lord in the past as father, brother and friend but He is coming back for us as lover and husband. He wants us to fall head over feet in love with Him. He wants us to be PASSIONATELY in love with Him. This is the first step in getting ready to receive Him as our husband.

I'm 45 years old and I know that most of the people on my mailing list are in that relative age range. It may be a little difficult to remember that feeling so I'm going to be a "spiritual Dr. Ruth" and give you some tips on getting it back.

My first tip is to just spend some time remembering what it felt like the first time you ever fell in love regardless of the outcome of that relationship. I remember keeping notebooks upon notebooks recording every word he spoke, every time he looked at me. I arranged my life around "accidentally running into him." I covered bulletin boards with his pictures and memorabilia of any encounter with him. Every song on the radio was about him. He made my heart soar and he made it break. He made me laugh and he made me cry buckets of tears. All I knew was that I couldn't possibly live without him and the entire world was pointless and meaningless outside of his existence. Do you remember ever feeling like that? If not, then you haven't really lived! The agony and the ecstasy of teenage angst! Well friends, I have a feeling this is the intoxication the "new wine" is going to bring us. It ain't going to be nice and neat and controllable. Wildfire never is!

Second tip: Put away all those nice praise tapes and go buy a Backstreet Boys CD. If that doesn't remind you what it feels like to be a teenager in love, I don't know what will. If the Backstreet Boys don't do it for you then try Nat King Cole or Billie Holliday. They can both melt me into a puddle pretty quickly. Can't afford a new CD? Turn on the country music station. You'll be in love in no time. Faith Hill will really get you into trouble. Now, sing those songs TO THE LORD. Close your eyes and spread your spiritual wings. There is a place you can go in the Spirit where He is waiting for you. Find it and sing to Him. Sing LOVE songs to Him. Put away your religious mindsets. He is NOT offended by secular love songs. He loves them! In fact, being the CREATOR, I suspect He had a hand in their being written and popularized in the first place. Then, let HIM sing them back to you. That's the part that will really make you melt inside! Pretty soon you will be singing a duet. Next thing you know you'll be in His arms and you'll be dancing. He'll take it from there.

Tip three: Lovers have their own language. It is based on some universal symbols but mostly personal ones. The Lord has encoded the entire creation with personal messages just for you. Learn to recognize His still small voice everywhere you go. He is talking to you in movies, on the radio, on billboards. Shut up that voice that tries to tell you it is just "coincidence." There are no such things as coincidences. Learn to listen with your heart and you will find a wonderful adventure in learning to know aspects of Him you never dreamed of. He is incredibly creative and fun to be with. He loves to "court" us and to surprise us. He is absolutely the best boyfriend in the history of the universe.

Tip for men: I know that it is more difficult for men to think of the Lord as their husband and I don't have a really good handle on how to make that more real for them, but here are some suggestions. The Lord fills women with His Presence as much as men, right? Therefore, there must be a feminine aspect of the Spirit of the Lord. Try and find that part of the Spirit and connect there. If you are married then see the Lord in your wife. You can actually make love to the Lord with your spouse. If we are believers then the Lord lives IN us. If couples began to think of their spouses as they would the Lord, then there might be a real revival in marriages! Love the Lord in your husband and wife. See the Lord in them. If you were married to the Lord how would you treat Him? A lot differently I'll bet than most treat their own spouses. Would you spend more time with Him? Talk to Him more? Be more interested in what He had to say? Yet, if your wife or husband is a believer then the Lord is in them and you ARE married to Him. You have an opportunity to experience the Lord in ways that single people can't. Most people never even consider this.

Tip four: This one is really sacrilegious and will no doubt get me stoned: Skip church one Sunday morning and stay in bed with the Lord. Stay at least until 2 p.m. Rest in His arms. Cuddle with Him. Kiss your pillow (or your spouse) and imagine you are kissing HIM. You might just be surprised to find that you ARE! Whisper things that lovers whisper when they're lying in one another's arms. Do you love Him? Adore Him? Do you worship the ground He walks on? Tell Him how beautiful He is, how exciting, funny, amazing. And then relax and let Him make love to you. He will take on the role of husband, protector, and provider and will lead you into that holiest place in the Spirit of deep intimacy. You don't have to work at it. Just love Him and He will love you back. He will whisper sweet things into your spirit and before you know it you will be consumed by Him and worship will take on whole new meanings. The hardest thing that you will ever have to do will be to go back out into the unreal world. You will have found the true rock upon which He wants to build His Ecclesia and you'll find out that it is actually very soft. Anything that isn't built from this fiery altar of intimacy will be destroyed when the storm hits. This is the ark of safety.

Do you want to know what the true definition of a Jezebel spirit is? D. H. Lawrence defined it very well in the book, Lady Chatterley's Lover: "The beautiful pure freedom of a woman was infinitely more wonderful than any sexual love! A woman could yield to a man without yielding her inner free self! A woman could take a man without really giving herself away. Certainly she could take him without giving into his power. Rather, she could use this sex thing to have power over him! he was merely her tool!"

Well, my friends, this has been the woman of the church system. She has never really given herself to the Lord. She has held back what she thinks is her "free self" rather than commit to the freedom of His Spirit. She has married herself to the Lord without really giving her heart away. Instead, she has used him as her tool to have power for herself. This is not true love, it is prostitution.

Galatians 4: 30-31 says: "But what does the scripture say? 'Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son.' Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman."

True freedom comes by giving ourselves completely away to the Lord. "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." (Gal. 5: 1)

The True Bride will hold nothing back from Him. She will love Him with all of her heart, all of her soul and all of her strength. She will want nothing more than to be one with Him and to please Him all the days of eternity.

Well, I saved the best wine for last intentionally because I know it will be distasteful to some. But like Sojourner Truth I have done my best to tell it like it is. Only new wineskins will hold this new wine. It is time to clean house and get ready for the new.