The Power of Remembering
(I will be leading us in Communion at the end of today’s post. If possible, pause your recording and/or reading and get some juice/wine and bread ready so you can join me. Communion is more than remembering and honoring; it is a declaration of, the release of, and celebration of victory!)
[I shared the following introductory paragraphs on Friday and Monday. Since all of you do not see/read every post, for clarity and context, I am including them again on the written post, but for time’s sake will not read them on the video. If you did not see the next 4 paragraphs on either Friday or Monday, please read them now. This will enable you to understand why I’m leading in Communion for the next few weeks.)
On January 2 of this year, my friend Greg Hood was given a dream which I have visited often throughout the year. In this dream, the Ekklesia and the kingdom of darkness were contending for America; this was pictured by a baseball World Series, called the World Seers Series. It was the last game of the series, the eighth inning, and we were winning by a score of 20-22.
I and others felt that the 4 batters we sent to the plate in this inning represented prayer assignments for the 4 quarters of 2022. For those of you who would like to see the entire dream and my comments regarding it, you can use the following links (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4). Today, however, I want to talk about the batter/assignment for the fourth quarter of this year, which we are obviously now in. The assignment for this quarter was to remove the voice (influence and control) of Baal, the ruling principality over America. We did so by hitting the baseball into his throat, with a bat taken from a box marked “Communion,” and engraved with “Ephesians 1:17,” a verse referencing “the spirit of wisdom and revelation.” In the dream, it was said to this fourth batter, “If you hit the mark it will change this game.” “Hit the mark” is one of the definitions of the Hebrew word for intercession (paga). If we do and pray as Holy Spirit instructs us, we will change this nation!
I have known since 2007 that Baal was “the strong man” (Matthew 12:29) over America. Demons and angels do not have physical bodies and, therefore, do not die. The same spirits that operated in ancient history are still alive and active today. Baal was a principality mentioned often in the Bible, who was frequently used by satan to oppose Israel. His influence produced violence, blood sacrifices, and great immorality, including all forms of sexual sin. He is no doubt the spirit behind abortion, adultery, homosexuality, pornography, and the blatant attempt to defile our children with sexual perversion. The sudden escalation of activity in our nation to promote abortion and sexual perversion - even to small children - is no doubt due to this spirit’s desperate attempt to remain in control.
My purpose in this post is to focus on the method God gave us in the dream - Communion - with which to end Baal’s control over America. And I will be doing several more posts between now and the end of the year on this subject.]
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“For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way, He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26; NAS)
Our concept of “remembering” is somewhat different from that of the Hebrew culture, as is the concept of “testimony.” After teaching on the power of history recently, I was asked by a Messianic Jewish rabbi if I knew the meaning of the Hebrew word for “testimony.” I did not.
“The word doesn’t mean simply to convey something from the past,” he informed me. “Its true meaning is ‘to repeat an action or do it again.’ We Hebrews believe,” He continued, “that when we share about what God did in the past, it releases the same power into the present…in other words, power is released to ‘do it again.’”
Whoa!
My head was spinning!
He continued, “That’s one of the reasons we are so diligent to share with our children the stories of what God did in our Hebraic history. It’s not only so they’ll know their cultural history; it is so the power in that history can be released to them today. For example, when we tell them about Passover and the Exodus, we believe God’s delivering and saving power that was demonstrated back then, will be released to save and deliver our children from bondages they may have today.”
Whoa times two!
The rabbi went on to tell me he and his congregation had been experiencing healings from simply sending other believers to sick individuals and having them recount healings they had received in the past. When they testified of their healings, power was released to “do it again.”
This drove me to my Hebrew lexicons. While studying the word “testimony,” which meant exactly what the rabbi had said, one dictionary also sent me to the Hebrew word for “remember.” Similarly, it doesn’t mean simply to “think about” something from the past; it includes doing what is being thought about. (1) This is why God tells us in Isaiah 43:26, “Put me in remembrance…” He doesn’t require this because He, like us humans, sometimes needs a reminder. Rather, He is instructing us to ask Him, based on something said or done in the past - to take action today.
God “remembered” Hannah, who had been barren, and she conceived (1 Samuel 1:11). He “remembered” His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and commissioned Moses to deliver the Israelites from Egyptian slavery (Exodus 2:24). God hadn’t forgotten these people. For Him, remembering is a call to action.
This was a life-changing revelation for me. I finally understood why God said we overcome satan by “the word of [our] testimony” (Revelation 12:11). And I knew why David stated his testimony of the lion and the bear before facing Goliath!
After doing so, David then did something extremely interesting. He grabbed his staff, five stones and his sling, and approached the giant (see 1 Samuel 17:40). Why would David want to be encumbered with his staff when fighting Goliath? In those days, men carved symbols depicting their history, their testimony - on their staffs; it was their journal, of sorts. David's staff no doubt depicted pictures of a dead lion and dead bear - his testimony, his history.
Who knows what other victories it pictured? Perhaps it had the phrase “God is my father” inscribed. Many scholars believe David was conceived “illegitimately,” that his father Jesse had an affair with a maid and David was the result. They believe this is why Jesse didn’t invite him to the line-up of his sons, from which Samuel planned to choose Israel’s next King. When asked if there were any other sons, most translations say Jesse referred to David as the “youngest” (1 Samuel 16:11). The word is actually qatar, however, and means “of no account; not worthy.”(2) David was an outcast. He stated in Psalms 27:10, “My father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me up.”
David refused to allow the rejection by his parents and half-brothers to define him. He also refused to allow Goliath to define him. “I choose, rather, to honor my history with God, who has become my Father, and from Whom I receive my identity,” David implied in the Psalms. And when facing Goliath, he declared his testimony, grabbed his history (staff), and headed toward the battle. This is so incredibly profound.
David made one stop on the way to the battle, visiting a nearby brook to gather stones as ammo for his sling. Even this seemingly insignificant act was connected to history. In this passage, the Hebrew word used for “brook” means “inheritance.”(3) That may seem strange, but Hebrew is a pictorial language, and this word pictures receiving something, then possessing the authority to control where it goes; thus, an “inheritance,” or a “streambed.” Actually, it is perfectly logical for Holy Spirit to use this symbolic picture of an “inheritance.” After all, it WAS Judah, David’s land and inheritance Goliath was attempting to take. David took his “history” in one hand, reached into his “inheritance” with the other, then ran to face the giant.
WOW!
And yet, there is still one more connection to his history David used in this battle with the giant: his Judah nature. Most Christians believe Judah means “praise.” That, however, is a derived meaning. In this pictorial language, the Hebrew word pictures the extending of the hand. It is the word for “praise,” since raising the hands is a form of praise.
However, because Judah means to extend the hand, it also means “one who throws a stone.”(4) In his history, David was from “the tribe that throws stones!” He probably thought, I don’t need a sword or spear. I’m from the tribe that throws stones. All I need to do is reach deep into my DNA, my history, and be who God made me to be - a stone thrower. If I do, I’ll defeat the giant.
We believers in America are going to defeat the giants ruling our nation, and we will do so using the same weapon David used: our history. The God who formed and preserved America in her past will fight for her today. As you pray for our nation, boldly declare His past faithfulness, believing in the power of testimony.
And also “remember” the communion meal. “Testify” of it! As we partake of the bread and wine/juice we are causing God to act. The blood on the Mercy Seat is still speaking…in fact, it is shouting! And every time we partake of it in faith, “proclaiming” Christ’s death, victory is released again. Let’s do it now.
Pray with me:
Father, we take this bread now and hold it up before You as a remembrance of Christ’s broken body. Through this sacrifice, He took our suffering and purchased our health. We proclaim His death, burial, resurrection, and victory over all of hell. As we partake of it now we are releasing this victory over every principality and spirit of darkness in this nation, just as David released Your victory over the giant.
And we hold the cup up before You, as well. It represents the blood of Jesus sprinkled on the Mercy Seat of heaven. It represents our covenant with You. It represents victory over death, hell, and the grave. As we partake of it today, we are swinging the bat and driving the “baseball” of victory into the neck of Baal. We declare that the blood of Jesus is greater than all of our sin. We declare that His redemption is coming to America to free us from the influence of this evil spirit. Our faith is not in our good works, wise strategies, individuals, or organizations. Our faith is in Christ alone. Of Him, through Him, and to Him are all things. Do it again, Lord! Amen.
Portions of today’s post were taken from my book Giants Will Fall.
Click on the link below to watch the full video.
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Strong, James. The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Red-Letter Edition. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2001). Reference no. 2142.
Zodhiates, Spiros. The Complete Word Study Dictionary. (Iowa Falls: IA: Word Bible Publishers, 1992). p 2012.
Strong, James. The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Red-Letter Edition. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2001). Reference no. 5157 and 5158.
Ibid., Reference no. 3034.