LIVING WATERS from Lightbearers

THE HINGE OF ALL HISTORY – THE WEEK THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:8 NKJV

Most of us tend to think about weekends, but the Lord thinks about weeks. He took a ‘week’ in Genesis One to reestablish the heavens and the earth that had been devastated in Genesis 1:2. Then Daniel tells us that ‘weeks of years’ will be involved in the fullness of time with the coming of Christ and the end of the times. But it is this central week, the seven days from Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Sunday until His triumphal exit from the tomb on Saturday right before nightfall, the beginning of the new Hebrew day, that is the hinge of history. Then Sunday, the eighth day when He appears to Mary, becomes a new beginning for all mankind. What a week!

Let me briefly recap the week. More detailed biblical studies, whole books even, are out there that can document everything I’m saying.

The Master arrives in the triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Sunday from Bethany, enters the Temple, and returns to Bethany. Then on Monday Jesus and his disciples have the last supper, He enters the garden, prays, and is arrested. Thus begins the approximately forty hours of trial and testing that will culminate with his death on the Cross at 3pm on Wednesday, the fourth day of the week, the central day of the sequence of seven, four being the number for the world. Jesus was sacrificing Himself for the sins of the whole world on the fourth day, the ‘world’ day in the divine significance of numbers.

The Bible does NOT say Jesus arose on Sunday. He died and was buried before sunset on the preparation day before the great sabbath day of Passover, not the weekly sabbath. He was in the ground for three days and three nights, seventy-two hours. He first appeared on Sunday morning so He must have arisen on what we would call Saturday evening before sunset. Counting back seventy-two hours leads us to Wednesday evening before sunset, the day of His death. The central day in the week that changed everything points to the central reality of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross being the linchpin in the hinge of history. Then that He arose on the seventh day, the number for divine perfection, puts a cap on the week that is the week that changed everything.

…for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13 NKJV

Let me digress just a bit to show you how God works in our lives in patterns as well, in my case in patterns of seven. I’ll use the example of my own life then perhaps you can see similar patterns in yours. In no way am I seeking to vaunt myself, but only to glorify Him who sovereignly holds our lives in His hands.

The Hebrew kings dated their ministries from Rosh Hashanah of the year they acceded to the throne. Since we are kings under the King of kings, I date mine from then as well. In December of 1971, at the tender age of sixteen, I got filled with the Holy Spirit and almost immediately began to serve, so the first seven-year period of my ministry ran from Rosh Hashanah 1971 to RH 1978.

One is the number for unity and commencement. The Lord and I were unified by the power of the Holy Spirit in the beginning of those seven years and I graduated from Bible College with a commencement service right at the end before RH 1978. At the commencement service I got the revelation to go to Africa and teach on the gifts of the Spirit.

Two is the number for confirmation. In the second period of seven years – RH 1978 to RH 1985 – my life was confirmed with marriage to RM (TWO becoming ONE), my ministry was confirmed with my ordination, and my two sons were conceived, one being born slightly out of the RH 1985 window.

Three is the number of establishment and completeness. Our princess was born and our family was complete. At the end of that period – RH1985 to RH 1992 – I got the revelation to do the first Holy Spirit seminar in Los Angeles, which came to pass in the summer of 1993, in the beginning of the fourth season, with fifty students.

The fourth season, four being the number for the world, began at RH 1992 and culminated at RH 1999. Oh, I could write a book about the fourth season! It began with that lifechanging class in the valley in the summer of ’93 with fifty students from four states. Then I began to teach other classes among the house churches of LA and the ministry began to grow. In 1994, a woman brought her mother Naomi from Nairobi Kenya, a city that the Lord had spoken specifically about in my revelation in 1978, to be in a class I was teaching in the San Fernando Valley. One night, everyone was healed in the class including Naomi, who was healed of diabetes. Toronto happened and sovereignly hit us at a retreat in Virginia. My friend Dale had clarified for us that the gift of faith operated by a command, and that upgraded everything. The fourth gift listed is gifts of healings, and that gift is what launches you out into the world. Naomi, with her healing, invited RM and I to come to Nairobi. Our ministry out into the world was being launched!

Five is the number for grace, and grace is divinely associated with the working of miracles. Many of the miracle stories that I tell even today come from this period of RH 1999 to RH 2006. We planted our first school of ministry in Ndele, CAR in January 2001.

Six is the number for man, and the sixth season the emphasis changed from me doing the miracles to me training others to walk in the gifts. Through the admirable help and assistance of Don, RC and especially Patty who became our first director of intern studies, in the first year of the sixth season – 1996 – RM and I launched the intern program to develop teachers of the gift of the Spirit. This training has blessed hundreds who have in turn blessed thousands around the world, who have seen many miracles, many healings and salvations, and have gone farther with God than I ever have. Reg, our first international director of the schools of ministry came on board during this time.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 2 Corinthians 1:3,4 NKJV

Six is also the season of mans weakness, and in the sixth year of the sixth season -2012 – we had one of the great catastrophic challenges that almost destroyed our ministry. My own foolishness in handling the situation exacerbated the problem of the sin of another and led to a year where we hung on by a thread. But God was merciful and used others to pull us through it. Oh the lessons of the sixth season!

The seventh season – RH 2014 to RH2020 – is when everything from the first six seasons came into a new level of perfection. Our schools began to blossom and Carl and I sought the man of peace in over fifty cities in the USA, which led to so many wonderful new relationships leading to our current involvement with house churches all across the fruited plain. Another highlight was the ordination of Carl, Gabi, Bill and Lorna on Good Friday 2019.

Our jubilee year – RH 2020 to RH 2021 – God sovereignly brought us into a season of rest. Even in the midst of the cruel and wicked unnecessary lockdowns the Lord had us rest from international travel to allow the works we had planted to grow on their own. And grow they have, glory to His name!

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto Me…Acts 1:8a

Hey! Speaking of the Resurrection, how do we become eyewitnesses of that blessed event?

If all you have to go on is what you read in the Bible, then at best you are a hearsay witness. You’ve heard what some one else said or in this case wrote, and you bring that testimony. Eyewitnesses are people who experienced that thing about which they testify. How can you experientially testify to the Resurrection, and not relate subjective experiences? Speaking in tongues is the one and only objective experience that confirms your belief in the Resurrection. Without a belief in the Resurrection and the lordship of Jesus one CANNOT speak in tongues. People might babble anything they want but they cannot speak a language they have not been taught according to the laws of learning. The only way this can occur is by the Spirit of God, and you only have the Spirit of God if you have biblically believed on the Lord Jesus. This is why Jesus said, and He continues to say to us all, that you will receive power at Pentecost to make you an eyewitness of My resurrection. It’s the confirmation! Let’s believe and receive!

But when the fulness of time had come, God sent forth His son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those…and because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father! Gal. 4:4-5a,6 NKJV

In the fullness of time God has sovereignly worked to bring His perfect purposes, His perfect will, to pass. Man never stopped Him, nor will they. The devil never stopped Him, nor will he. You can be assured that He who has made His promises, His covenants, never slumbers, never sleeps, but is faithful in all things. As we begin a new season of unity and commencement, I am thrilled and excited to see what He has in store for us. It’s been well said that history is HIS STORY, and the hinge of all history, on which everything turns, is that Passover week in Jerusalem in approximately 33 AD – the week that changed everything. Love you!

Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father’s business…