The Voice
of the Sign
by Paul Keith Davis
Obviously,
the question most often asked in recent days concerns our prophetic perspective
of the calamities associated with the oil spill. This is something that we are
very personally and intimately involved in as it is occurring right outside our
home. Clearly, I have spent countless hours praying over the subject both as a
defense mechanism for our region and prophetic understanding of its
implications.
In
the process, I personally felt it was imperative to not take a hindsight
position and prophesy after the fact with various impressions or opinions. That
posture has a place of value to spearhead intercession and mobilization of
resources; even so, I have felt a greater need for a more sure word of prophecy
that bears the insignia of Heaven and provides valid direction and insight to
mobilize God's people.
The
biblical pattern has always been that prophets foretold key events with
direction and insight attached to it. When the event occurred as prophesied, a
greater measure of faith could be attached to the message associated with it.
Exodus 4 outlines the model for ministry in the life of Moses; spiritual signs
were given with a voice or message. It is the message that is of paramount
importance.
And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither
hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the
latter sign. Exodus 4:8
According
to Amos 3:7, the Lord will do nothing unless he first reveals His secret
counsel to the servants the prophets. Furthermore, Jeremiah articulated God's
perspective in Jeremiah 28:9 saying: "The prophet
who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet comes to pass, then that
prophet will be known as one whom the LORD has truly sent."
It
is imperative that we now contend for a greater measure of prophetic
understanding and foretell events before they occur with the corresponding
heavenly message. With that said, I felt
it essential to only prophesy of what we may have seen before the event. In
December 2006 I had a prophetic experience that I now believe has direct
application.
Further
below I will share a transcript of the full message as I preached it in 2008.
However, there are two quick points I would like to highlight. In this
experience I saw what appeared as a "manhole" being lifted from the
bowels of the earth. In various times of sharing this message throughout the
last three years I have used the expression "manhole" as the best
description of the image I saw being opened over the "bowels of the
earth" or the "bowels of hell." (I used both expressions in
various accounts of sharing the experience)
When
I finally began to understand the implications of this experience with the oil
spill, the Lord reminded me that this is a "man-made hole" that has
opened the bowels of the earth to this deep reservoir of oil. The footage shown
on news networks of the oil billowing up into the Gulf are almost identical to
the images I saw as the manhole was lifted and clouds of evil began to pour
out. In my experience the lid or manhole looked like this:
As
a further confirmation, there was an article published in Petroleum World
magazine entitled, "The Well from Hell." In the article the author
made this statement:
According
to the New York Times , BP's internal "documents show that in March, after
several weeks of problems on the rig, BP was struggling with a loss of 'well
control.' And as far back as 11 months ago, it was concerned about the well
casing and the blowout preventer." The problem is that this methane,
located deep in the bowels of the earth, is under tremendous pressure...
This
article utilized some of the exact language that I used while describing my
experience. Furthermore, while in Connecticut in early June we were discussing
the oil situation and one of our hosts commented that he had listened to me
share my prophetic experience concerning the lid being lifted over the bowels
of the earth. He reminded me that I saw spirits ascending that had the
appearance of Hitler and other tyrants of the past. He pointed out that Hitler
was born on April 20 and this event started on April 20. Just in recent days we
have seen an escalation in anti-Israel sentiment that is demonically inspired.
This
seemed to be a further affirmation of the application of the experience. The
Bible predicted that during the last days darkness would cover the Earth and
deep darkness the people; but also marked the exact time that God's people
would " arise and shine for our light has come." (See Isaiah 60:1-5)
The Oil Spill
From
my perspective, I feel this is not an act of God but the foolishness and greed
of mankind that the enemy has influenced and fueled as the
"devourer." Even so, God will use this as a signpost that we have
crossed a line of demarcation in end-of-the-age events.
The
good news is, I heard a Voice say in my 2006 experience that great hosts of
Heaven will be dispatched to work with Christians to prepare and equip them to
walk in realms of glory to facilitate the harvest and become the mature sons of
the Kingdom. That is our hope and the object of our prayerful focus and
determination.
When
evil abounds, grace will much more abound. This is not a time for fear, but
faith filled decrees and proclamations in agreement with God to activate His
people to meet the challenges of this age and overcome the enemies attempt to
hinder and impede the harvest.
The
following is a written transcript of a message preached in 2008 in which I
share this experience.
Encounter of Lid Being Lifted
from Bowels of Hell
December
2006 I had a revelatory encounter that I have shared in various places of
travel. But the Lord is beginning to
give us the next installment of understanding it. I was very restless one
evening and couldn't sleep. I prayed for
a while and finally went to bed.
The
moment my head hit the pillow, I went into a revelatory experience. I saw as it
were a lid that looked like a manhole being lifted from the bowels of
hell. The unique thing about this
experience was that as I was experiencing it, I was also articulating audibly
what I was seeing. Wanda was able to
listen as I spoke what I saw. I watched as these spirits came pouring up out of
hell, and I even recognized the appearance of some of them.
I
saw spirits that had a resemblance to Hitler and Stalin, and other tyrants of
the past. I knew we had crossed some
form of timeline in the plan of heaven, and that this end-time darkness had
been released on the earth.
I
watched as these spirits were coming out of hell and literally manifesting
themselves in the bedrooms of people.
And I watched as these spirits were teaching individuals how to walk in
realms of evil and darkness.
When
it seemed I couldn't watch anymore, I heard a Voice come booming out of
heaven. And the Voice said, "The
sons of light must respond in like manner." I watched as angels were coming out of Heaven
and were manifesting themselves in the bedrooms of individuals and speaking to
them and training them to walk in Heavenly realms never before so freely
accessed by a generation of people.
And
the good news of this message and what the Lord is doing now is revealing to a
certain degree the nature of these angels being dispatched from the Throne
room. Interestingly I had this experience on a Friday afternoon, and I went
through the weekend contemplating it. On
Monday morning the Holy Spirit told me to write the experience down and e-mail
it to Neville Johnson.
It
turned out that very day he had exactly the same experience. He even saw the identifications of the same
spirits of darkness being released by name.
He shared his experience with friends that morning and received my email
12 hours later outlining the exact same experience."Out of the mouth of
two or three witnesses, let the Word be established."
If
you'll remember in the experience that Neville and I shared together, there
would be angels coming out of Heaven to meet with saints to prepare them for
this calling. Now we are discovering
these are not just going to be ordinary angels.
These are angels of a very extraordinary nature coming from standing in
the presence of Almighty God. Isaiah 63:9 declares:
In
all their affliction He was afflicted, And the angel of His presence saved
them; In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them, And He lifted them and
carried them all the days of old. The
Angel of His Presence saved them! We're
finding out that this could have been more accurately translated in the
original language, "Messenger of His Face." The word used here for "angel" is
most often translated "messenger."
The word for "Presence" is most often translated
"face." The Lord sent the
Messenger of His Face to save them.
So
what I'm prophesying to you this evening is, "That messengers of His face
are coming from Heaven to empower us to become messengers of His face."
It
says in some rabbinical writings, that the "Angels of His Presence"
are high level angels, also known as the "Angels of His face." According to the Book of Jubilees,
"Angels of His Presence," are angels of sanctification, and are among
the highest order of angels. According to rabbinical tradition the "Angels
of His Presence" are the carriers of His Glory.
There
was an incredible promise given to the patriarch Jacob. He had one of the most fantastic experiences
ever given to a human being. There was
something that distinguished him from his brother Esau; I submit to you it was
his un-denying desire, even though his methods were poor, to be blessed with a
very specific and unique blessing. A
very specific and unique blessing is what He was contending for.
If
you'll remember, Abraham had been given a promise that he would have a son
through Sarah. However, the promise
seemed impossible since the Bible says his body was as good as dead. Then, the
Lord appeared to him for the first time in human history as El Shaddai.
I
was in Dallas, Texas, several years ago, preaching on the ministry and
anointing of El Shaddai. I had shared
that El Shaddai was the "All Sufficient-One, the many-breasted One,"
like I had read in dictionaries. There
happened to be a professor of Hebrew in the meeting. He came to me after the meeting and said,
"Can I help you a little bit."
Abraham
was not able to fulfill the promise now in His own strength. God did for him what he could not do for
himself. That's called the El Shaddai
blessing. Can I submit to you what Israel needs in this very hour is the El
Shaddai blessing. Can I equally submit
to you that the Bride of Christ needs the El Shaddai blessing.
That
blessing was then transferred and imparted from Abraham to Isaac. Isaac received the blessing given to Abraham;
to be fruitful and multiply and occupy the land of his sojourning. That was the blessing that Jacob had to have,
even if he were to become a "supplanter" to get it.
When
the time came, Isaac laid his hands upon Jacob and blessed him with the El
Shaddai blessing. He said, "May God
Almighty, or El Shaddai, bless you to make you fruitful and multiply, and
occupy the land of your sojourning."
That
very day that blessing opened the Heaven's over Jacob. With that blessing Jacob traveled one day's
journey. When evening came he laid his
head upon a rock and saw the Heavens opened and angels ascending and
descending. We need the El Shaddai
blessing to open the Heavens for us as it did for Jacob.
We
need the El Shaddai blessing tonight to open the Heavens and release the
"Angels of His Presence." The
Bible tells us over in Genesis 48:3, when Jacob is recounting this experience
to his son Joseph, he said, it was El Shaddai that appeared at the head of that
ladder when the blessing was given to him. In Genesis 28:13 he said: Behold, the Lord stood above it and said, "I am the
Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which
you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. "Your descendants will also be like the
dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to
the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the
families of the earth be blessed.
When
Jacob awoke from the experience he said, "This is none other than the
House of God and the very gate of Heaven."
Later
on we then find his descendants, the children of Israel, in Egyptian bondage
but they had a promise of deliverance. There was a very specific and unique
anointing that was released to them to bring them into this promise that was
given to Jacob.
The
Bible records in Exodus 23: Behold, I am going
to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into
the place which I have prepared. Be on your guard before him and obey his
voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your
transgression, since My name is in him. But if you truly obey his voice and do
all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to
your adversaries. But you shall serve
the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water; and I will
remove sickness from your midst.
That
was no ordinary angel; it was the Angel of His Presence. That was the Pillar of Fire in the burning
bush; that was the Pillar of Fire that met Paul on the road to Damascus; that
was the Pillar of Fire that we saw revealed before thousands one generation ago
to reveal the secrets of the hearts.
The
Lord manifests Himself as the Angel of His Presence, but He has in His
jurisdiction angels of His presence or messengers of His face.
Remember
what Gabriel said when he appeared to a little 15-year old Jewish girl? 'I am Gabriel, and I stand in the Presence of
Almighty God.' The greatest revival that
the modern church era has ever seen was commissioned in a very unique way.
A
little free-will Baptist minister withdrew into a cabin deep into the woods of
Indiana. He was having supernatural
experiences for which he had no grid of understanding. He had told his wife that day, "I'm
going into my cabin to pray, and if God does not meet with me, you'll never see
my face again." He said, "I'll
die in that cabin before I leave it, without the Lord coming to talk to
me."
Three
o'clock in the morning, after having prayed and weep until his eyes were
practically shut; he sat on a chair with no more prayer left in him. 3 o'clock in the morning, deep in the woods,
no electricity, no running water, no wife to hold on to if he got scared, when
suddenly a ball of Fire came into the cabin.
And if that weren't enough to scare you, a man came walking into the
room and stood under the ball of Fire.
The
Angel said, "Fear not, for I am sent from the Presence of Almighty
God." Can I submit to you tonight
that we need to hear an angel come and say, "I am sent from the Presence
of Almighty God!"
The
man was released into a commissioning.
The Angel said, "Your peculiar life and your misunderstood ways are
to indicate that you're to carry the ministry of healing to the nations of the
earth. You'll pray for kings and princes
and monarchs."
He
said, "How can that be? I'm an
uneducated man, and a poor man, and I live among poor people." The angel
said, "As Moses was given two signs to validate his ministry, so will
you."
That
was on May 7, 1946. By 1948, the entire
world was in revival. Millions of people
came into the Kingdom. Millions of
people were healed supernaturally by the power of God.
Never
before has any generation been more desperate than ours to see a demonstration
of the power of God. But we're
discovering there is something greater than that; that is, to encounter the God
of Power.
Right
now all over the nation there are people that are following signs and
wonders. But I submit to you there will
be a company of people emerging today and signs and wonders are going to follow
them!
And
the secret that is going to release us into that mandate is when the Messengers
of His face come who are the carriers of the Glory of God.
The
prophet Moses stood face to face before the Lord Jesus, under a covenant sealed
with the blood of bulls and goats. I had
an experience where I saw the Apostle Paul sticking his bony apostolic finger
right in my chest. He said, "Moses
had to veil his face because of the residual glory under a covenant sealed with
the blood of bulls and goats." He
said, "You have the covenant sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ, what's
your problem?" This is his
admonition from 2 Corinthians 3.
In
other words he wasn't saying that we should timidly say, "Can I come into
Your Presence?" He was admonishing
us to prepare ourselves and come boldly before the Throne of grace and meet
with the Lord face-to-face. We can't do
that flippantly.there is Throne room protocol; but the grace to live in that
place was purchased at the cross and it is attainable.
Zechariah 6:1-2 declares: Now I lifted up my eyes again and looked, and behold, four
chariots were coming forth from between the two mountains; and the mountains
were bronze mountains. With the first
chariot were red horses, with the second chariot black horses, with the third
chariot white horses, and with the fourth chariot strong dappled horses. Then I
spoke and said to the angel who was speaking with me, "What are these, my
lord?" The angel replied to me, "These are the four spirits of
heaven, going forth after standing before the Lord of all the earth.
I
submit to you there is a host of Heaven that has been reserved for this
end-time confrontation that go forth after standing before the Lord of all the
earth; the very same ones that will bring the Bride of Christ into her end-time
mandate will be the very same ones that cover and protect Israel.
You
and I are called to be messengers of His face; we have a calling to see the
Lord face-to-face. Jacob had an
experience with God. He saw the Lord
face-to-face and lived to tell about it.
Moses saw the Lord face-to-face and carried the Glory of God. There is about to be a release from Heaven
that is to begin to cause you and I to be illuminated, and we're going to shine
with the Glory of God.
Daniel
said, we're going to shine as the brightness of the expanse of Heaven, and
we're going to lead many to righteousness. The Lord Jesus said, "The Son
of man is going to send forth His angels that gather out of His Kingdom all
stumbling blocks and everything offensive; then the righteous shall shine like
the sun in the Kingdom of our Father.
We
have an invitation to "come up here."
I believe the El Shaddai blessing is going to be released upon us to
open the Heaven's like it did for Jacob.
The Lord is going to do for us what we can't do for ourselves. Then He gets all the Glory. No flesh is going to glory in His
Presence.
Angels of His Presence;
Messengers of His Face
I
believe they just came in. Something
just shifted in the room a moment ago.
I'm contending for this to take place now. Wouldn't it be incredible if we could leave
Israel carrying with us messengers of His face?
Wouldn't it be incredible if the Angel of His Presence descended to
protect the borders of Israel?
He
will cover them and He will protect them.
I submit to you that the enemy is trying to escalate things before their
time. Several years ago I heard the Lord
say that the Prince of Persia is once again trying to withstand the birthing of
God's purposes. And the way he was
trying to do that was to facilitate things that are legitimately going to
happen, but he is trying to initiate them before its timing.
It
says in Zechariah 14:1-3, "Behold, a day
is coming for the Lord when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you.
For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city
will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city
exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.
But
it doesn't stop there. "Then the Lord will go forth and fight against
those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. In that day His feet will
stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and
the Mount of Olives will be split.
My
point in all this is all about Jerusalem.
It says on some level that there will be a splitting of Jerusalem. It says it here in Zechariah; But not right
now! I'm not sure what it's going to look like when this prophecy is fulfilled,
but I know when it happens, the Lord Jesus is coming down to set His foot upon
this mountain.
And
you see the battle is taking place in the heavens right now, as the enemy is
trying to make these things happen before the right timing. He's been trying to bring you and I into a
battle before we are ready for the battle.
But I'm telling you angels are coming to visit with people to facilitate
the preparation. He can do for us in a day what we think will take a year. The messengers of His face are the carriers
of His glory.
End
of the Transcribed Message from 2008
Conclusion
I
feel confident the circumstances surrounding the oil spill highlight spiritual
parallels marking the release of great darkness in our nation and around the
world. Correspondingly, the prayers of the saints in agreement with God will
facilitate the release of Heaven's host to work closely with the Last Day
Church to:
- Fulfill Biblical End-Time
Admonitions
- Prepare for the
Harvest
- Activate the
Bride/Sons of the Kingdom
- Function in our Role
as Priests/Kings
- Stand in the Gap for
Israel in a Greater Way
All
spiritual seeds are coming to maturity simultaneously, just as the Bible
predicted. I see these events as a signpost in the natural to emulate spiritual
realities primarily targeted against Israel and the Church. The ultimate
objective is to hinder our ability to achieve our mandate and influence our
generation socially, economically, spiritually and culturally.
It
is my prayer that God will take what the enemy intends for evil and utilize it
for good by opening doors of opportunity for Christian ingenuity and words from
God to help resolve this overwhelming situation involving the oil spill.
On
a personal note, I believe the enemy is attempting to utilize these events to
circumvent the promised outpouring for our region. We must look at it as a
personal assault on our inheritance and begin to take a stand as the mighty men
of valor described in the Bible. I've always admired the story of Shammah in 2 Samuel 23:11-12 saying: Now after him was Shammah the son of Agee a Hararite. And the
Philistines were gathered into a troop where there was a plot of ground full of
lentils, and the people fled from the Philistines. But he took his stand in the
midst of the plot, defended it and struck the Philistines; and the LORD brought
about a great victory.
At
the time of harvest the enemy routinely rushed in like a flood to steal the
inheritance of God's people. The lentils could represent all things brought to
the place of harvest promised during the latter days. Shammah is a
representation of God's Army filled with courage and valor imparted through
God's lion-like nature who refuses to run even when faced with overwhelming
odds. That noble act will strike God's heart and He will give a great victory
to His remnant. That is what I am believing for!
Paul Keith Davis