The Coronation Stone

It has often been the case that the Lord's word would come ten years before it was actually applicable. In general, this is due to the Hezekiah Factor, which I have explained previously. It is as if the two dates, ten years apart, are the same day, with God turning the clock back ten years.

On July 5, 1986 I received a word from the Lord, "My people on the move." In part, the word said, "Rise up and walk. Be on the move. Do My will . . . I now set you free to do so. Be on the move."

This became applicable precisely ten years later. On June 30, 1996 my wife and I each heard the Lord say, "It's time to move. Move to Minnesota." When we compared notes later that evening, we made this discovery and knew that it was time to move from Seattle to Minneapolis. Even so, this really took us by surprise. We decided to pray about it until July 5 and then see if we still felt impressed to move.

On July 5, precisely ten years after the word about "Be on the move," we came to our final decision, knowing that God had indeed told us to move. But another event occurred during this same week. On July 3, 1996 Britain's Prime Minister John Major announced that the Coronation Stone was going to be given back to Scotland after 700 years.

It had been taken from Scotland in 1296 A.D., along with other items and official records. When the Treaty of Northampton was signed in 1328, King Edward also agreed (separately) to return the stone, but the Nobles stopped the king from returning them in 1330. This history formed the backdrop to the movie, Braveheart, which was set in the 1320's with Robert the Bruce.

Anyway, the Coronation Stone had been in London for 700 years, but it was 666 years since 1330. I found this particularly interesting, because of a parallel situation long ago. The Temple vessels had been taken by the Babylonians in 597 B.C., and again by the Romans in 70 A.D. That, of course, was a 666-year cycle. It is not merely the number of a beast or of a man (Rev. 13:18). It has to do with the worship of God (temple vessels) being taken over by men with carnal minds.

It is interesting also that between the two 666-year periods stood a cycle of 1260 years (from 70 to 1330 A.D.).

Ron had discerned some years earlier that the Coronation Stone would be returned in 1996, but few thought this possible until it happened.

The Coronation Stone is (or at least represents) Jacob's pillar, on which the kings of Judah were crowned (2 Kings 11:14; 2 Chron. 23:13). It is said that Jeremiah took it to Ireland, along with the Ark of the Covenant, David's Harp, and King Zedekiah's daughters, after the fall of Jerusalem. In 534 A.D. it was taken to Scone in Scotland, and hence it is called the Stone of Scone, or the Stone of Destiny.

Then, of course, in 1296 it was taken to London by King Edward I of England.

The point is that, for prophetic purposes, the return of the Coronation Stone signifies a transfer of divine authority--that is, the divine right to rule. That is its traditional meaning and is probably the main reason why King Edward took it in the first place.

John Major made his announcement on July 3, 1996, but declined to say precisely where it would be moved. Would it go back to Scone? Would it be sent to Edinburgh Castle? The Irish also wanted it back, and even the Israeli government petitioned to have it returned to them on the grounds that it belonged to Jacob! I have no idea what was going on behind the scenes, but we soon discovered that all of this was very pertinent to our move to Minnesota.

We understood that we were to hold a final prayer campaign on August 3, 1996 called "These Stones II," precisely 980 days after the Jubilee Prayer Campaign (Nov. 30, 1993). In other words, we moved to Seattle to oversee the first prayer campaign, and our stay there ended with a final prayer campaign. We left town the following Monday, August 5.

We moved to Minnesota purely by faith without first securing a place to live. After trying to rent a house, we found we had insufficient credit. Strangely enough, we were able to buy a house. But we had to wait for the previous owners to build another house for themselves. So meanwhile, we found temporary housing at an apartment complex called The Gates of Edinburgh. Once we moved there, I began to understand that there was a connection between The Gates of Edinburgh and the Coronation Stone.

I then remembered a Word given in 1985 that said, "Occupy the Gates until I come." It was part of the revelation given in regard to "Occupy Till I Come" prayer campaign on June 4, 1995. The revelation had been given ten years earlier in regard to June 4, 1985, but the prayer campaign itself was not held until 1995. Recall that this prayer campaign was 490 days after His Fulness (Jan. 30, 1994).

So I began to see that the prayer campaign on June 4, 1995 was setting us up for our move to The Gates of Edinburgh in 1996. And this entire experience was a revelation about the transfer of authority taking place as the result of the Jubilee declaration on Sept. 23, 1996.

The bottom line was that we were to "occupy" The Gates of Edinburgh until the Coronation Stone arrived in Edinburgh Castle. The Stone itself represented Christ as well as the authority of Christ, because as Paul tells us, "that Rock was Christ" (1 Cor. 10:4). That is, it was the "anointed" (christos, Christ) rock, which Jacob had anointed with oil in Gen. 28:18, making it a type of Christ.

This told me that we would not be able to leave The Gates of Edinburgh and move into our house until the Coronation Stone had moved to Edinburgh Castle. And, incidentally, this told us WHERE the stone would be moved long before it was publicly announced.

On November 15, the Coronation Stone left Westminster Abbey in London and was taken on a tour to various places before finally coming to rest in Edinburgh Castle on November 30, 1996. This was St. Andrews Day, and Prince Andrew presided over the ceremony. Andrew means "manly." We took this to mean that the princes of MEN were officially turning over the divine right to rule to the SAINTS of the Most High. This was in accordance with Daniel 7:27,

"Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions will serve and obey Him."

As it turned out, the previous owners of our house were able to move to their new house in late November. We signed the final papers Nov. 27, but because they still wanted to clean the house on the 28th, we could not begin moving until Nov. 29. We finished moving the final items on Nov. 30 just two hours after the Coronation Stone was placed in Edinburgh Castle.

So we had indeed occupied the Gates of Edinburgh until Christ (the Rock) came to Edinburgh Castle.

The historical events themselves were important to those involved in them, but to us the real importance was the revelation of what God was doing. The return of the Coronation Stone signified to us that the Jubilee declaration had been effective in the Divine Court on Sept. 23, and that the transfer of authority to the saints of the Most High had become official on November 30, 1996.

The inter-relationship between world events and spiritual events is well illustrated by this example. Most people see only from a worldly perspective and miss the more important spiritual event and its revelation. But when we have eyes to see and ears to hear His voice, all of life around us begins to be one big revelation of the Kingdom.