The spirit of Rabshakah

Today has another very full schedule, but I have few moments to share a few items of interest.

God has revealed another problem that we need to resolve. He calls it the spirit of Rabshakah, taken from Isaiah 36:4. Rabshakah was the head of the Assyrian army division that surrounded Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah (Isaiah 36:1, 2). He represents the spirit of intimidation, which works on those who are dominated by fear, rather than faith.

The spirit was bigger than Rabshakah, of course, because we see the same spirit operating at Kadesh-barnea when the 12 spies gave their report (Numbers 13:32, 33). We are being called to deal with this spirit and to replace fear with faith. In the days of Rabshakah, Hezekiah’s negotiators were Shebna and Eliakim, and their secretary was Joah (Isaiah 36:3).

It seems that Shebna was as fearful as the Israelites at Kadesh-barnea, while Eliakim was a man of faith, as were Caleb and Joshua. So Shebna was later replaced by Eliakim as Hezekiah’s Chief of Staff (Isaiah 22:15, 19, 20) and given the key of David.

We today are being given the key of David in this regard, so that we can deal with the spirit of intimidation that threatens the Kingdom of God and the world as a whole. Those who walk in fear are unable to deal with this spirit, so the overcomers are called to do the job.

It appears that this is a new authority that will be given to us on February 1^st as we conclude the first 76-day cycle of cleansing (November 21 to February 5). At this point, I do not know what this will look like, but I think it will be evident that we live in interesting times.

Meanwhile, people from all the nations on our present prayer list have responded, including 2 from Norway, the nation that was added yesterday. Most of the response, as expected, has come from the USA. But responses are still coming in from around the world, and we thank God for raising up those having the vision to redeem their own nation.