For the past week I have been in prayer and more or less stopped writing and preaching to give me time to attend to some urgent matters and to focus on discovering Yahweh's will for the immediate future both for my family and the ministry. I am interrupting this briefly to share with you something that Yahweh has shown me which I believe to be important. There have been so many signs and 'coincidences' of a prophetic nature the last few days that they are clearly not coincidences at all. Let me share with you what has been happening.
For those of you not familiar with the island, Madeira lies off the north-west coast of Africa and is a dependency of Portugal. It is the farthest outpost of the European Union. What's particularly interesting about this island is that it is, in fact, the peak of a mountain 2½ miles high that sits on the bed of the Atlantic Ocean so that most of it is invisible, like an iceberg. Bear this in mind as I continue this tale.
A few days ago friends of my mother mailed her a postcard from Madeira where they were vaccationing. The next day I randomly pulled out a National Geographic magazine (along with several others that I regularly circulate for the family to read if they want to). When I opened it (April 1073, Vol.143, No.4, pp.488-513) I found an article on ... Madeira. The next day I was in town and rummaging in a Swedish second-hand store and to my surprise I found a large book on Madeira by Willy Heinzelmann (1971) in English (very rarely are there any books in English in that store). My curiosity naturally peaked as I started reading about it's history in Heinzelmann's book.
The word 'Madeira' literally means 'wood' in Portuguese. Originally a heavily forested island, every single tree burned down when an over-zealous farmer decided to burn the ones on his land to make way for agriculture. The fires were not finally extinguished until after 7 years. We have just finished our 7th and last festival (Sukkot). Paradoxically, what might have been a disaster turned out to be a blessing because vast amounts of ash were left in the wake of the fire which made excellent fertiliser for the soil from which is grown the famous grapes that make the world-famous Maderia wine. Sukkot, as you know, is the Grape Harvest!
As I was sharing this data with my wife, she suddenly lit up and as she did I knew that she was thinking the same thing as I was. I let her speak first and she reminded me of an amazing dream (in Norwegian) an early member of this work had in about 1988/9, the day we met him for the first time under extraordinary, Ruach-led circumstances. In the dream, he and some companions were waiting in a small, plain room which overlooked a large lake or fjord. He saw a huge mountain come out of heaven that crashed into the lake and when it had settled, only its top was visible, the rest of the mass was under water. He knew that this mountain had been sent by Yahweh. The following day I gave him the interpretation under the spirit of prophecy and told him it was the Kingdom of Elohim as represented by the work that we had been called to do.
Both my wife and I instantly saw the connection between the island of Madeira and this Mountain from Heaven which Madeira represented. What does 'wood' symbolise? Stability, growth, shelter, simplicity, wisdom and a relationship that has become solid. Yah'shua the Carpenter (Himself the Tree of Life) worked with wood, shaping and making useful things from it. The wood of Maderia was burned down in what seemed to be a disaster, much as this ministry has been brought to the brink of disaster by adversity, only to provide fertiliser for something better: grapes. And we all know what grapes represent in Scripture. The wine that is made from grapes is used to symbolise Yah'shua's teaching (Mk.2:22). Wine represents that which Yahweh Himself had prepared and offers from His own hand to His people (Prov.9:5; Is.55:1).
There is one personal association with Madeira that I have. It was described by Pliny as the Purple Island, 'purple' being an online nic I used for some years. They were also known as the 'Blessed Isles'.
On the morning of 4 October I was awakened very early in the morning, as I had been when Yahweh told me that October would represent 'the end', and I heard Him speak very clearly again, saying: TWELVE DAYS. As He did so, I became aware that somehow each of these days represented 12 persons, and that each of these persons would somehow be contacted by Yahweh. Though I have speculated on who or what these 12 may be, I do not yet know for sure, other than what would now be happening would be fully under Yahweh's sovereign control and that I would be able to do nothing whatsoever to influence events. The 12 days end on the Sabbath Day, 16 October in the Roman system, Day #214 in the current Hebraic calendar year (2+1+4=7).
More than this I do not know yet. We will hopefully know more in the next few days. Stay tuned!