Chag Sameach Rosh Chodesh kol beit Yisra'el and welcome to the start of the second month of this Yovel (Jubilee) Year. Every year we assemble, in either the flesh, spirit or both, to engage in spiritual warfare for a week as Yahweh directs us. We call this time the Annual Jericho March because it was exactly at this time of the year, according to the Biblical Creation Calendar, that this historical event too place. It also happens to be the birthday of one of our presiding ministers and we pray Yah's bounteous blessings on this day as he is called to service!

Last night Yahweh woke me up at 3 am and I retired to my office to pray. Picking up my staff, I poured out my soul to Him, venting all my frustrations, doubts and fears, releasing them to Him, and then covenanting that I would place myself in His service for this Jericho March in whatever way He wished. I lay down at 3.32 am and within one minute I was called into prayer for the next couple of hours. Though I had had a bad day the day before, having slept poorly because of my illness, and was really so tired that I could barely concentrate to do much beyond giving the sabbath sermon yesterday and spending a nice quiet day outside with my family in the afternoon, I noticed something quite different happened this time. Whereas in the past the Enemy has brought the battle to me, this time I was bringing the battle to him.

I cannot tell you the specifics of the spiritual warfare I was engaged in, or who was involved, other than to tell you a little of its type and nature because this is to be the divine tavnith (pattern) over the next seven days after which, on the eighth day, we will celebrate the Sabbath and rest [1]. As I believe I have told you before on at least two occasions that I can think of, spiritual warfare amongst us has to now move from a defensive posture to offensive Ruach-led action.

That said, I have to warn anyone hearing me today or reading this afterwards that you cannot go into offensive spiritual warfare if you have important issues that you have refused to deal with. Most people fight their invisible battles from a defensive position because they are not repenting of habitual sins. They defer or postpone tackling them. To be an offensive spritual warrior does not mean that you must be perfect but that you must be in the business of positively or pro-actively overcoming, meaning, seriously engaging in the battle until you have won the victory in Messiah Yah'shua (Jesus)! If you go onto the offensive whilst the Enemy has major legal claims on you, you will be beaten up. So be warned.

This morning's experience was unlike any kind of spiritual warfare I have done before. I experienced, I believe for the first time, something of the aggressive principle of the Ruach Eliyah or Spirit of Elijah. Most of you probably associate the Spirit of Elijah with the ministry of reconciliation spoken of at the end of the Book of Malachi and this is indeed a very important aspect of it. To remind those of you perhaps not familar with this passage:

"See, I will send you the navi (prophet) Elijah before that great and dreadful day of Yahweh comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse" (Mal.4:5-6, NIV).

This passage doesn't only speak of the repair of biological relationships in families, and in particular those between fathers and sons. This is one of the characteristics of Rosh Chodesh, incidentally, which is a monthly 'Fathers' Day' starting with our Heavenly Father and Yah'shua (Jesus) and ending with fathers and husbands who should be especially honoured. The human type of this is to be found in Jacob, the founder of Israel. By contrast, the Shabbat which is a weekly 'Mothers' Day' beginning with the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), our Heavenly Mother, and ending with mothers and wives who should likewise be especially honoured. You will have noticed the 1:4 ratio which bespeaks the relationship of Jacob and his four wives.

So what else does this passage speak of? Think back on the ministry of the navi (prophet) Elijah and you will recall that one of his tasks was to bring the recalcitrant Israelite King Ahab and his nation back into alignment with Yahweh and for this mission he was bitterly opposed. You will, I am sure, remember some of the dramatic aspects of his life, and the miracles Yahweh did through him from the burning up of groups of 50 soldiers with heavenly fire sent to arrest him to the burning up of a righteous sacrifice on Mt.Carmel followed by the judgment and slaying of the false prophets of Ba'al. This also is the Ruach Eliyah or Spirit of Elijah. It is one of the tasks of the nevi'im (prophets) of the Remnant to engage in this kind of work too. It is being restored and is verily one of its signs.

I said that my experience in spiritual warfare early this morning was very different from anything I have experienced before and I'll tell you why now. But before I do, I got a taste of what was coming a few years ago when I was working with an SRA victim here in Sweden. This only ever happened once that I know of because she reported back to me and told the story in great detail. Except for one meeting in the flesh, a story in itself, most of our business in the form of deliverance ministry was done online. Before being converted at a foundational level to Yah'shua (Jesus) because of tract she had been given by a faithful Christian on the street of her home town one night, part of her had been born again. The theme of the pamphlet was 'Jesus Loves You', something she initially rejected because of all the horror she had experienced in the satanic covens she had been born into. You can read the deliverance poems of Tintomara Dutius to get a better idea of the persion I was helping.

To cut a very long story short, the details of which I do not in any case share in public for the safety of the various persons involved, Tintomara was to be taken to Switzerland by the coven holding her prisoner to perform, and be involved in various rituals that included, as a matter of course, the usual abominations of torture and human sacrifice. And of course, the part of her which was now a believer, wished this horror in her life to end for good. By pre-arrangement, I agreed to interceed for her on the night of this meeting which was to be held in the basement of some public building which may have been a theatre, I can't remember exactly now. At the time I knew the satanists were assembling, I performed a 'Jericho March' in the spirit around this building whilst doing so physically around a symbolic structure where I lived. The result, I learned a day or two later when she was able to again communicate with me, was a victory for Yahweh. As the coven assembled a main waterpipe burst causing the large cellar to flood, forcing the meeting to be abandoned.

So I do know that Jericho Marches work when Yahweh commands them. This morning I got my own marching orders that covered three main areas:

• 1. Our homes;
• 2. Our extended family and friends; and
• 3. Local, National or International Objectives.

I was smoothly taken from one objective to the other without knowing before what they would be. I was literally thrust into battle and went spontaneously into aggressive and offensive spiritual warfare. I watched these battles in vision for 1½ to 2 hours as I engaged in them so I could clearly see what was happening and in every case I was holding my staff and smashing altars and strongholds in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Each of the three battles got progressively harder and when it came to the third one it was as though Yahweh knew what the current limits of my emunah (faith) were. In the first battle I saw the Enemy defeated and driven out. In the second, following the battle, I experienced the great shalom (peace) that settled on the household that I had been waging spiritual war in and for. The third was very different as the target was orders of magnitude greater, being a political one and I found myself up against very powerful opposition in the form of the demonic powers controlling a very influential national leader. I cannot tell you yet what precisely was achieved other than I saw that the powers concerned get a bloodied mouth, to serve as a warning and a reprimand. Only some of our closest people know the details.

Throughout all three events, I was throwing in the whole energy of my being and all of my emunah (faith) and expressing all of my disgust with the satanic system. There was no thought of personal safety, only the awareness that the Divine Hand was in full control and I was an executive of sorts, mediating His Power. I knew that I could neither relax my emunah (faith) nor lower the intensity of the assault. I felt no physical energy loss throughout.

As I said yesterday at the end of my sabbath address, we would start the Marches with a barrage or carpet bombing before the actual pinpoint assaults. And barrages, as those of you with any military experience know, have as their objective, the softening-up of the Enemy by effectively stunning and disorientating him.

There is a reason the Battle of Jericho lasted seven days and began on Rosh Chodesh (New Moon). One of the reasons is to grant space for repentance before the final blow or judgment (mishpat) falls on the condemned. The way that works is to remove the demonic presence that blinds the mind and heart so that it can briefly see the emet (truth).

Just released for a short span of time, the soul, able to identify its personal issues clearly, can then make a final choice before the Day of Grace ends at the end of the sixth day. If the seventh day is ordained by Yahweh to be a day of destruction, as it was in the case of Jericho and its King and inhabitants, then this is the point of no return. If this is not the final judgment of a soul, then on the seventh day the demonic veil falls once again, with even greater force, over the spiritual eyes of the one granted this space for grace and he or she returns to the darkness once more until Yahweh ordains the next time in which an opportuinity for repentance is given.

In spiritual warfare there are those who lay down barrages, those who witness, and finally the shock troops who deal the final blow. Do not ask me why Yahweh uses human agents to do this because I have never been able to answer this question myself. I have never understood why the universe is set up this way, but it is, and it is not for us to quarrel with the Almighty. Prayer has always been a great mystery to me personally, others seem to have no difficulty understanding it, and perhaps that is because thay are more trusting than I am, who knows. All I know is that when I am called, and I know I am called, I go to battle with all my might until the job is done. And we have just started a job for this season. What we will be wariing against over the next seven days, I have no idea. Like good soldiers, we get our marching orders one day at a time. Each of you will get personal assignments from Yahweh. This Mishpachah gets its assignments through the nevi'im (prophets) who then rally the people, as Elijah did atop Mount Carnel, and then everyone gets to work as a single echad Remnant Body.

Spiritual warfare is not, of course, limited to seven days each year in the second month, but this is a very special time, for some reason, and especially this year in the Year of Yovel (Jubilee). Finally - and this I have to underline - if you have not been given spiritual toqef or authority (the staff) by Yahweh for a particular spiritual warfare assignment, you have no promise of protection or empowerment and may quite likely find yourself out of order and in rebellion. We are soldiers in a spiritual military hierarchy where each has his or her place and assignment. If you are not sure what your place is, pray until you do or pray for those engaging in spiritual warfare instead. If you don't have toqef (authority( you'll find out sooner or later by either being ineffective or getting a sound thrashing from the dark side. And if you don't know all the names of the persons engaged, pray for Mishpachah Lev-Tsiyon at this time. This we will be grateful for.

Finally we are setting up a prayer list and invite those who need intercession to place their requests up on our social media and we will pray for those as we are led by the Ruach (Spirit) to do so. This is all I wish to say today. Jericho Marches, we have found in the past, are spiritually invigorating times that set us up for the rest of the year if we enter them with a right and submitted heart. You husbands and fathers, grab your staffs; you wives and children, rally around them and backup your husbands and fathers. And if there is a fellowship staff, as there is for this Mishpachah, support and gather around that as families and individuals.

May Yahweh bless you all and give you a mighty infilling of the Ruach (Spirit) according to your emunah (faith) and committment to emet (truth) in Yah'shua our Messiah (Jesus Christ). For if you try to do this in a lie, you will obtain a false spirit and end up possibly doing yourself great harm. To the march, brethren and sisters and Hallelu-Yah!

Endnotes

[1] Also see, The Sabbath Day at Jericho: Important Clues from a Famous Battle