The Columbia River Work

In an earlier report I mentioned that our car died in Montana and that we were in Billings, waiting for a computer part to arrive. It did not arrive when it was supposed to, so we rented a car and continued our journey West. We made it to Boise, Idaho just before the meeting was scheduled to begin.

With only one full meeting scheduled in Boise, it allowed us to rest and recover for a few days. Then on the morning of Wednesday, June 10, we received a word from the Lord regarding "children." As we prepared to leave, our hosts suggested that we stop in Pendleton, OR to see the Native American museum. They said that it included a wall-size picture of Native children in uniform, who had been forced to attend a Church school to be trained in white culture. If they dared even to speak a word in their native tongue, they were beaten.

We were interested, but discovered that the museum closed at 5:00 p.m. Since we did not leave Boise until 1:00, and it was a 4-hour trip, we figured we would be too late to see the museum. But we had forgotten that we would enter a new time zone before coming to Pendleton. This meant that we arrived at the museum at 4:00 p.m. and were able to tour the museum for the next hour.

When we arrived at the wall picture of the children, we were led to repent on behalf of the country and the church, asking for forgiveness and reconciliation. I then heard the word of the Lord referencing the Scripture about those who offend children. It would be better that a millstone be hanged around their necks and they be cast into the sea (Matt. 18:6).

We then left and crossed the Columbia River at the McNary Dam, because we had been led to pray there to bless the river and the land on both sides of the river and to remove the curse. Then the Lord made it clear that we were to find a stone at the McNary Dam and carry it along the Columbia River all the way to its mouth, and then we were to cast it into the sea (Pacific Ocean).

Most of the stones were volcanic and very rough, but then we saw a stone that was shaped like a fat cigar. It looked like it might have been used in the past to grind things in a bowl. One might call it a miniature millstone. We took it with us and began the long trip to the Ocean, blessing the river and the land as we went.

In pondering this new mission, it occurred to me that the millstone was Babylon (Rev. 18:21), which was put around the neck of America and the Church on account of (in part) their offense against the children.

We checked the map to see if there was a town at the end of the Columbia River. It was the town of Astoria, named after John Jacob Astor, who made his money with a fur trade monopoly in the early 1800's. He was not a nice man, and so it was appropriate that we would cast the "millstone" into the ocean at the place bearing his name.

The advantage of driving is that it provides us with time to ponder and pray mile after mile. It occurred to me that we had been following the Lewis and Clark Trail virtually the entire trip. In Montana we had followed the Yellowstone River, then the Snake River, and now the Columbia River. They had explored this area from 1804-1806, which was 203 years ago. Next year (2010) will be 204 years since Lewis and Clark finished their trip.

These numbers are important to those who have studied the Great Pyramid, often called "The Bible in Stone." It was built with 203 courses of stone, representing the body of Christ. The King's Chamber is at layer #153 ("sons of God"), with 50 layers above it (Jubilee). The captone which was never placed is the 204th level. It represents the stone that the builders rejected (Christ), which has become the Head of the corner (Ps. 118:22).

This had crossed my mind while in Billings, when I found Chief Sitting Bull's vision on pages 203 and 204 of the book on Chief Crazy Horse. But at the time, I did not see how it fit into the picture. I did not connect it with Lewis and Clark, because my intention was to cross the Columbia at Pendleton and go to Seattle on Interstate 90.

However, the change of plan, taking us along the Columbia River to its mouth, triggered the correlation with Lewis and Clark. And in praying about that new insight, I finally put together the pieces of the revelation. The Native Americans had the right idea about God's ownership of the land. They did not believe that any man owned land as such, but that all men had only the USE of the land. They recognized God's ownership and man's stewardship, and so they did not claim private ownership over God's land.

The Louisiana Purchase was the U.S. government purchase of this huge tract of land from Napoleon in 1803. Lewis and Clark were hired to explore what had been purchased, opening it up to the white settlers. It occurred to me that whenever the US government laid claim to land without recognizing God as the true Owner (by right of creation), they were usurping the land for their own use and their motive was self-interest. Because they had "no ears," to hear the word of the Lord, they tended to kill anyone who got in their way or who objected to their policy of breaking treaties if it served their self-interest.

Lewis and Clark were only doing their job, and it is unlikely that they had any idea of the spiritual implications of their actions. In claiming and usurping God's land (by appropriating it for use that is not sanctioned by God's laws), the land came under a curse. It was the curse of man's usurpation of God's property for his own misuse. The purpose of our long trip following the Lewis and Clark Trail had been to remove that curse and replace it with a blessing. In other words, we were laying claim to the Louisiana Purchase for the Kingdom of God, reversing the curse from 203 years ago.

For this reason we had to follow the trail to the end of the river and cast the "millstone" into the sea at Astoria. This ended the Columbia River work.

We then drove north on Interstate 5 and arrived in Seattle Thursday evening, June 11. The previous mission was completed, and we now turned the page and wondered what we might learn in Seattle.