The rise of the house of Joseph, part 2

In early January 2001, I was led to study the connection between Jeroboam, the first king of Israel in the Divided Kingdom and King Josiah, who reigned in Judah three centuries later.

Jeroboam built the golden calves for the Israelites to worship in Bethel and in Dan (1 Kings 12:29). We are not told precisely when these golden calves were built, but it appears that this project was Jeroboam’s first act as king in Israel.

A prophet then came to the altar at Bethel and prophesied to it in 1 Kings 13:2, “Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and on you [the altar] he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.”

This remarkable prophecy was fulfilled in the 12^th year of Josiah’s reign (2 Chronicles 34:3-5).

³ For in the eighth year of his reign while he was still a youth, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, the carved images and the molten images. ⁴ They tore down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars that were high above them he chopped down… ⁵ Then he burned the bones of the priests on their altars and purged Judah and Jerusalem.

In January 2001 I was led to study Jeroboam’s golden calves and the prophecy of Josiah. Josiah destroyed the altar, but nothing is said about the golden calves. No doubt they were taken to Assyria as spoils of war. It then occurred to me that the specific problem of the golden calves had not yet been addressed. The golden calves continued to rule spiritually over the house of Israel (Ephraim) while they were in exile.

Something needed to be done about this. God also showed me that I was a descendant of Jeroboam and that I was in a position to overcome the problem that my forefather had caused in Israel. As early as June 1982, when I had first begun to hear God’s voice, He told me that I was “as Joseph.” At the time, this revealed that I was to experience a 12-year time of training, even as Joseph had 12 years of hardship and prison from age 18 until he was raised up as Prime Minister of Egypt at the age of 30 (Genesis 41:46).

So I had known since 1982 that I was connected to Joseph, but in 2001 I learned that I was specifically of the tribe of Ephraim.

Jeroboam was of the tribe of Ephraim (1 Kings 11:26). The revelation was that I was called to engage in spiritual warfare—similar to what Josiah had done in regard to the altar—against the golden calves.

The Sonship Conference

Elaine Cook and I held a Sonship conference in Vista, California from January 19-21, 2001. I saw this as the first major work after the rise of the house of David. I was yet unaware that this was actually the heart of the Joseph work that lay ahead. Joseph’s Birthright is about sonship, for when Jacob blessed him, he said in Genesis 49:22, “Joseph is a fruitful bough.” The Hebrew word ben is translated “bough,” but it is usually translated “son.” A son is a branch on the family tree. The Birthright, then, is the authority and calling to bring forth the sons of God.

Christ’s Joseph work is to bring forth the sons of God. That is why He must come a second time. His first appearance as the Son of David laid claim to the Scepter of Judah, but His second appearance lays claim to the Birthright of Joseph.

At the conference, Elaine and I set forth the revelation of the sons of God, not only from the New Testament but beginning in the book of Genesis. These teachings must have alarmed our enemies in the spiritual world, because we immediately discerned that our message was going to be challenged.

The Challenge

Shortly after the conference, Bob and I asked God, “What is our next watch date?” He replied, “January 29.” Oddly enough, that was my birthday. We wondered if this date might be connected to 1991 by the Hezekiah Factor, but the Lord surprised us by saying, “No, it is connected to seven years ago” (i.e., January 27-30, 1994).

Well, that was when we held His Fulness prayer campaign, which was the second part of the Jubilee Prayer Campaign. We noted that on January 29, 1994 the followers of Rabbi Menachem Schneerson of New York City had placed a full-page ad in the Jerusalem Post appealing to the Israelis to accept him as the Messiah.

This messianic proclamation, at the time, was essentially a spiritual challenge to the overcomers and represented the age-old dispute between Ishmael and Isaac. Seven years later, on January 29, 2001, the overcomers were again challenged, this time by the Pentecost church.

There are many manifestations of the children of the flesh. Ishmael was a biological son of Hagar. Paul says that the followers of Judaism are the children of Hagar. And during the Pentecost Age, the church too became quite fleshly, not only in its moral character but also in its eschatology. When it claimed that the earthly Jerusalem is the mother of the church, it claimed Hagar as its mother and therefore identified itself as another Ishmael, a child of the flesh.

This is how the watch date of January 29, 2001 would surface.

The Lord told us that on January 22, 2001 a petition and an accusation had been filed against us in the Divine Court. The main petitioner opposing us was the Prince of Persia. The court date was set for January 29, and if we did not answer it, they would win by default.

Upon inquiring further, God showed us that we were also dealing with the golden calves that Jeroboam had set up. These had never been overthrown throughout the exile of the Israelites. Recall also that the Prince of Persia (“Apollyon”) carried out the divine sentence upon Israel. Hence, they were called the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24).The word “lost” is from the Greek word apollumi, from which is derived the name Apollyon.

We learned all of this the next day, January 23, in our prayer time. So we began to prepare our case for the Divine Court date.

Answering the Petition

We answered Apollyon’s petition at 9:00 a.m. on January 29, 2001. It read in part,

“I ask that these golden calves be cast down, burned with fire, and ground to powder, even as Moses Thy servant did to the golden calf of his day. . . I ask that the whole Church be set free from all influence and domination by the golden calves and that the Church be put under the full authority of Jesus Christ alone.”

About an hour after the petition was made, the mail arrived at my office, and I received confirmation of the opposition. It was a letter from a woman claiming to be “Commander in Chief of the Army of the Lord,” threatening fire and brimstone upon me. She even sent a bag of ashes after burning one of my newsletters.

It would have been humorous, except that I immediately recognized it as the earthly manifestation of the spiritual event in the Divine Court. She wrote as follows:

Stephen E. Jones

Thus saith the Lord—Enclosed you will find the remnant of the Satanic army, comprised in part of would-be seekers who have dared cross the line into My Holy Kingdom. You are leading a group of people all across the land through the churches that I, by My hand, shall destroy. You, sir, with your carnal mind, carnal intent, and carnal baggage have portrayed yourself to be a General of sorts in My mighty Army. Henceforth I shall bring you to the ground, for you, with your carnal, Satanic moves, have crushed and put to death all hope of My true anointed ones from coming forth. In your carnal nature, your carnal mindsets—the enemy doth work death in your members. Yielding this day to this rebuke may save you; if you resist Me, saith God, My fury upon your life shall flow like a flame of fire against you.

1. You shall discontinue all teaching.

2. You shall remain at home until I dispatch a member of My mighty army unto you.

3. Fast and pray that the baptism of repentance fall upon your life.

I will take My wrath out upon your life for the evil you have committed against Me if these conditions are not met and adhered to. Your letter—your abomination of a writing—last—is enclosed. I use it as a seal today upon these words. Amen and Amen.

Tavjah-K—Commander in Chief of the Army of the Lord.

I had met this woman a few months earlier. She was very Pentecostal and was highly offended by the concept of the restoration of all things.

Interestingly enough, her letter had the flavor of a sore-loser concession speech, for she wrote, “you, with your carnal, Satanic moves, have crushed and put to death all hope of My true anointed ones from coming forth.” In other words, from her perspective, I had won the court battle, crushing her own hopes of receiving the Kingdom authority—and she was angry at the verdict!

Of course, I recognized that she herself did not realize that she was simply speaking on behalf of the “Saul” Church that had already been disqualified and rejected from ruling the Kingdom in the Age to come. Having seen this kind of thing before, I did not take it personally.

Her letter informed us of our victory in the Divine Court. The letter also made it clear that the Church would not accept God’s verdict but would fight to retain the right for Hagar’s son to be the designated son and heir. But if the children of the flesh were to rule in the Kingdom, their plan would be to destroy all unbelievers, rather than to convert them and to save them.

Hence, the meaning and purpose of sonship was at stake. Whose plan was to be established, one that made God a loser, or one that would make God the overwhelming Winner?