The Power Is in the Glove
Back in 2007, a friend of mine had an important dream regarding me. In the dream, I was a boxer and fought five giants, knocking out each of them—one per round over five rounds. I floored each giant with one punch; and with each opponent, I alternated fists.
After I knocked out the fifth giant, I walked from the ring and addressed the young man having the dream. Holding up my gloved fists, I declared, “If you’re going to take out the giants in this season, you’re going to have to wear these two gloves.” One of the gloves had the word “Everlast” on it; the other, “Evergreen.”
The Weapon of Everlast
When the dream occurred, I had been studying the life of Abraham and his journey with God. In Genesis 21:33, scripture tells us that at Beersheba, Abraham called on “the Everlasting God.” The Hebrew words are Olam El, and this is the first time in scripture anyone referenced God as Olam El.
The meaning of the word olam, “everlasting,” is not our typical concept of eternity, which is basically an endless future. The concept of olam, however, is eternity extending both directions in time. One lexicon described it as the most distant times in both directions—past and future. Even such an amazing description as that falls short, however, because the word “times” in the definition violates the very concept of olam, which is timelessness. Olam cannot be defined by a timeline. This is why the word was applied to God. Olam El, Everlasting God, created time and exists outside of its boundaries and limitations.(1)
Mind boggling, I know.
For our finite, human minds—and in order for us to understand why Abraham chose this phrase to glorify God—suffice it to say that Olam El is the strong and mighty God, who is Lord over the eternal past, present, and future. He can reach back and completely forgive and heal the past; He can predict the future with 1,000 percent accuracy.
For example, God doesn’t see a born-again, former thief as “a former thief;” He doesn’t see the redeemed murderer as “a former murderer.” When He forgives, He eradicates past sins and separates them from us “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12), which is an immeasurable distance. He cleanses us and remembers our sins no more (Hebrews 8:12, 10:17). Olam, through the cross, eradicates all record of our former sins.
Olam doesn’t speak of our future based on who we’ve been, nor does He limit it to our current state of being. He references it through the lens of what He will transform us into. Yahweh knows what He can do in us and is confident of the future He predicts.
Abraham’s Failures
Consider Abraham’s situation when he calls on the Lord as Olam El, Everlasting God. He has been on a twenty-five-year journey of attempting to follow God, and as he looks back over his life, Abraham remembers occasions where he failed miserably. There were blotches, torn places, and embarrassing failures on his timeline.
Most believers rightly think of Abraham as “the father of faith,” a description of him taken from Romans 4:16. Likewise, Hebrews 11 refers to him as a great man of faith. We forget, however, that Abraham wasn’t a man of great faith in portions of his life. There were significant deviations from that path, which could have disqualified him.
Actually, Abraham and Sarah both wavered at times in their attempt to believe God would give them a son, and through the son bring forth a nation. The Lord had promised this, but when no child came, their lack of faith in God’s promise caused them to introduce Hagar into the family, resulting in the birth of Ishmael, another sin that could have disqualified them. Later, they actually laughed a cynical laugh at God’s final re-stating of the promise. And why not? Abraham was 99 years old and Sarah was 90 (Genesis 17:1,17).
This wasn’t Abraham’s only failure of faith, however. On two different occasions when Abraham and Sarah were younger, he was afraid that foreign kings might kill him in order to marry her. His solution for these predicaments included the despicable acts of pretending Sarah was his sister rather than his wife. In essence, he threw Sarah to the wolves in order to save his own life. She was, indeed, taken into the harem of both kings, two more incidents that could have stolen their destinies! God, however, supernaturally intervened before physical unions occurred and restored her to Abraham. These deceptions and fabrications were horrible breaches of the marriage covenant and bold-faced lies—ones I’m sure necessitated awkward conversations with the kings when Abraham had to set the record straight. He and Sarah probably had a few things to work out, as well.
Olam Overcomes Our Unrighteous Past
Having committed such despicable acts, why does the Bible call Abraham a father of faith and a friend of God? Because even though he may not have fulfilled these descriptive phrases at every phase of his journey, they are accurate descriptions of how he finished. Abraham “grew strong in faith” (Romans 4:20, italics added), and in his walk with God. And having been cleansed by Olam of his sinful past, Abraham isn’t remembered as “the covenant breaker,” “the liar,” or “the double-minded man.” He is known as God’s friend and our faith example!
Abraham was grateful his past actions were not allowed to define his present situation. Olam El had navigated him through every season—even the embarrassing and wicked ones—transformed him and preserved his destiny. And as He does for all of us, He reached back in time and cleansed Abraham’s wrongs, once and for all.
With that in mind, one can almost see Abraham as he searches for the right name to use in thanking and glorifying God. Elohim? Adonai? Yahweh? None described the God who controls time—past, present, and future. Finally, exhausting all known possibilities, he had to coin a new name. In Abraham’s mind, the process may have been something similar to this:
You are more than Yahweh, Adonai, and Elohim. You are the infinite and powerful God of the Ages—Olam El. You are outside of time and Lord over time! As Ruler over the past, present, and future, you forgave and eradicated my sins and kept my destiny intact. When I was unfaithful, You were faithful; when I doubted, You overcame my unbelief; when I lied, You were able—not only to forgive me—but to cleanse me and keep my marriage intact. And even when our bodies were too old to conceive and reproduce—99 and 90 years of age—You placed some of Your timeless nature in Sarah and me, and we drank from the fountain of youth. Truly,
You are the creator of and ruler over time—Olam El, Everlasting God!
With that declaration, Abraham entered a new phase in his walk with God. He recognized that the Sovereign who was bigger than his past, could be fully trusted with his future. Abraham placed his faith in Olam El, the God who could bring his fractured past into alignment and chart the right course for his destined future.
Wearing the Glove for America
When I pray for revival in America, I boldly and confidently wear the Everlast glove. I know the breaches in America’s history well—the injustices, the evil acts, and our many sins. Like Abraham, we have failed, sometimes egregiously. But I also know Olam El and what He can do through the blood of the cross. No giant is too big for Him, including those empowered by our sin.
Yes, our nation has a flawed past and present. But I’m not asking for a merit-based revival where God gives us tokens of His goodness in response to our excellent behavior. Obviously, the Lord isn’t going to award America with a revival simply because He’s impressed with our actions. But isn’t that the point of revival? If we were “good enough,” we wouldn’t need one!
I’m asking for awakening because covenant-keeping Olam El lives up to His name. I have faith for revival because I know the timeless God can reach back and heal our breaches. I declare that Everlasting God can cancel the bad fruit, repairing the wrongs we’re responsible for and also the ones we’ve inherited. For- giveness and cleansing—redemption—are His specialties. When we wear this glove and place our faith fully in God’s grace and the blood of Jesus alone, blessings can and will flow through America’s timeline once again.
Much “identificational repentance” has occurred for America just as occurred for Israel in the scriptures. Nehemiah repented for the sins of Israel and it was accepted (Nehemiah 1:4-11), as did Daniel (Daniel 9:1-19). Ezekiel 22:30-31 speaks of God forgiving nations through the prayers of one intercessor.
The national sins of America have been repented over by hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Americans. This includes our sins against the First Nations people, slavery, abortion, rebellion against God, and much more. Many prophets and national spiritual leaders, myself included, believe God is saying this repentance has been accepted allowing Him to forgive, heal and send revival to America.
In the dream, God said we must wear Abraham’s Olam glove. We must believe that for us, like Abraham, Everlast can reach back, forgive and cleanse. Olam heals history! He knew America would fail when He called and destined us, just as He knew Abraham would. But He also knew there would be repentance, allowing Him to restore. Our faith is in Christ alone, not our goodness.
Wear the glove!
Pray with me:
Father, Your mercy endures forever. It triumphs over judgment. The “better” sacrifice of Christ’s blood now stains the Mercy Seat of Heaven, making this mercy much more available than it was through old covenant sacrifices. We praise and thank You for delighting in showing mercy.
We anchor our faith to this now, Olam. We wear the glove You said to wear. We would be powerless against the giants of our day if we had to rely on our performance to earn forgiveness, cleansing, and breakthrough. But our faith is in Christ and His blood. We arm ourselves with this provision now and strike the giants of unrighteous government, false religion, abortion, pride, and other strongholds. In the name of Christ, our Everlasting Redeemer, we take them out.
And Everlasting God of mercy and grace, we use Your name now against the principality/ruling spirit over Afghanistan. We say over that giant who enslaves, deceives, murders, rapes, and oppresses, as the scriptures state in Jude 9, “The Lord rebuke you!” We declare that the blood of Jesus is against this stronghold. We use the sword of the Spirit from Psalm 2 and decree that Yahweh has installed His King upon Zion, His holy mountain. He has given Him the nations as His inheritance, and the ends of the earth as His possession. He will break those who oppose Him with a rod of iron, and shatter them like earthenware (Verses 6-9). The salvation of Yeshua will be visited upon the people of Afghanistan!
Our decree:
We, the Ekklesia of Christ Jesus, decree that Olam will win the fight!
Some of today’s post was taken from my book Giants Will Fall.
Click on the link below to watch today's full prayer.
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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. 5769.