Thank you for joining us for our 222nd posting with Word Press!
Breaking news—Robert Stearns, founder of Eagles Wings Int’l, is joining us for Revolution 2013! Make plans now for November 21-23 in Valley Forge PA. Also with Rick Ridings, James Nesbit, Abby Abildness, Jamie Fitt, and others. More info at www.revolutiongathering.com and www.lamplighterministries.net
Our first book, Crown and Throne, will be officially launched at Revolution 2013. Hallelujah, it’s on the way to the printers now! Cindy Jacobs wrote in the foreward that “These pages simply rumble with the sound of awakening!” So grateful. It is truly our best attempt to chronicle the spiritual revolution that’s now under way in America. And we are gathering together to see the Lord ignite the flame!
Thanksgiving and Hanukkah Converge!
Speaking about lighting fires… just after Revolution 2013, an absolutely historic convergence will occur. Thanksgiving will be on the first day of Hanukkah.
“It’s a turkey. It’s a menorah. It’s Thanksgivukkah!” That’s how the Daily Mail describes this historic intersection of these two sacred celebrations. According to news reports, it won’t happen again for another 79,043 years.
Call me crazy, but this Pilgrim descendent believes it’s a sign. The book Crown and Throne actually conveys this convergence of these legacies, because we’ve felt they at the very core of the awakening God is birthing in this hour. Of course, this is also a primary theme of Revolution 2013—just before Thanksgivukkah.
The Pilgrims, inspired by the legacy of the Jews, established covenant with God as the cornerstone of their life, land and governance in the New World. Thanksgiving is a celebration of this covenant. Judah Maccabee and his warrior priests retook the Temple to re-establish covenant with God, apart from the idolatry that defiled this sacred space. They relit the fire on the altar, and the menorah blazed supernaturally for eight days. Hanukkah is a celebration of this covenant restoration.
That God would grant such an historic sign, with the convergence of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, seems to bear witness to His desire for covenant to be restored, apart from all idolatry, as the foundation for His new move.
And clearly the Lord is also bearing witness to the partnership of the two covenantal legacies He brought forth in America and Israel.
Prophecy: Hammers and Hanukkah
Most Lamplighter readers know how Jolene and I experienced a similar convergence at our wedding. Seven years beforehand, Jolene had a dream she would be married on December 20. It just so happened that December 20, 2003 was also the first day of Hanukkah.
So we chose a special menorah from Israel to hold our unity candle. God supernaturally lit this unity candle—in front of everyone—during our wedding.
That said, With all my heart, I had desired for our first time in Jerusalem to be over Hanukkah 2012. Holy Spirit clearly instructed me to lay down my dream. In exchange, He spoke that He would send us in 2013.
You can bear witness that the Lord has been faithful to His promise! That said, over Hanukkah 2012 we actually found ourselves in Oklahoma City instead of Jerusalem, for an HAPN/RPN gathering. On 12-12-12, I was invited to share about our Hanukkah wedding experience and God’s “new birth of freedom.”
Just as I began to speak, Sandy Newman interrupted my message. This vivacious thundercloud preacher from Kansas wanted to present a gift… a hammer. She was so excited about purchasing it from a nearby Wal-Mart.
Privately I was wishing Jolene and I had gone to Jerusalem.
Then Sandy began to prophesy. “God is calling you forth as a GENERAL, like Judah Maccabee! Do you know who Judah Maccabee is?” she thundered. I smiled and nodded, timidly. “Of course you know, because Judah Maccabee took back the Temple and relit the lampstand! That’s what Hanukkah is all about!”
I again smiled and nodded, timidly. Thinking I might not have much more to preach about after she’s done with her Hanukkah message. Wishing we had made it to Jerusalem…
“What you may not know is that the name Judah means praise. The name Maccabee means HAMMER! And I believe that in the Spirit, your name is being changed tonight. Hamill is becoming HAMMER! And God is going to raise up a great company of warrior priests after the order of Judah Maccabee, Praise Hammer, in this very hour.”
Suddenly I was so glad we stayed! And neither we nor our thundercloud friend had any idea how the Lord would soon move to confirm this word. As you know, within a year we were in Israel—by the actual cistern of Judah Maccabee.
By the Maccabee Well
Of course, it was amazing for this Pilgrim and his Hanukkah bride to visit the Temple Mount. The King who died to redeem mankind will eventually fully establish His Crown and Throne from this sacred mountain, uniting heaven and earth in glory. But the Mount is also where Judah Maccabee and his band of spiritual revolutionaries fought to take back the Temple. They relit the lampstand—the menorah—as part of their reconsecration of the Temple to the Lord.
Through an unannounced surprise, we were also privileged to visit the home of a vibrant elderly woman—the widow of a holocaust survivor. They emigrated to Israel, where they purchased a home in Jerusalem’s Old City. There they both felt strangely compelled to dig.
So she and her husband dedicated 30 years of their lives to excavating the ground beneath their home in Jerusalem’s Old City. One bucket at a time, the dry expanse separating dirt from treasure was removed. Beneath their home, they literally discovered a Maccabee palace!
And we suddenly found ourselves at the very cistern, or well, of Praise Hammer.
Can’t make this up. Of course we prayed—with the precious words of Sandy Newman thundering in our hearts. “Sovereign Lord, uncap this spiritual well of Judah Maccabee, and release Your Crown and Throne movement. Release your generals. Release Your spiritual revolutionaries all over the world for this hour of history!”
But really, God had not brought us there to strive any more in prayer, He brought us to the very well of Judah Maccabee to make a point. This new move of His Spirit has indeed been birthed and released to the earth. As it was for the Pilgrims and the Maccabees, so it is today—all about covenant. Spiritual revolutionaries are now being released to take back desecrated thrones, reconsecrate them to the Lord, and rule with Him to release His justice and freedom in our world!
Your Invitation
As you read these words, please consider them to be your invitation from your Father. You too are being summoned as a pilgrim and a warrior priest. You are a lamplighter! May your legacy as a spiritual revolutionary be as substantive and fruitful as those who bore the torch before you. And may you be fully empowered to redefine our world according to the dream within Christ’s heart.
“Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things out of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; AND AS ONE SMALL CANDLE MAY LIGHT A THOUSAND, SO THE LIGHT HERE KINDLED HATH SHOWN UNTO MANY, yea in some sort to our whole nation; let the glorious name of Jehovah have all the praise.” William Bradford, Governor of the Pilgrims, from his book “Of Plymouth Plantation.”
