Years ago, when the Net of Prayer first went into spiritual warfare in November 1981, it was on account of a “breach” in the prayer wall of protection around “spiritual America.” At that time it was pictured spiritually as a breach at San Francisco, which was said to be the “Sheep Gate,” one of the 12 spiritual “gates” around America. The Net of Prayer was called to close up the breach (or gap) and to begin dealing with the spiritual forces that had come through the breach.

It is much easier to keep the barn door closed than to chase the cattle over a thousand hills once they have been let loose. But in this case, the door was open, and America had a problem which the Church as a whole refused to address. Hence, the Net of Prayer was called into action to “stand in the gap.”

The problem was that because “King Saul” was in authority at that time, the overcomers were limited in their authority to deal with the problem. By faith they had the ability to clean up much of the mess, but “Church decision” always prevented the full victory in the end.

This began to change in the year 1993 when “Saul” died—that is, the Church under Pentecost completed its 40 Jubilees as “king.”

After the completion of the Dragon Wars in 1999, the wall was repaired at San Francisco in the year 2000. It was 52 years after 1948, the year that the Latter Rain revival began, and 52 years after the establishment of the Israeli state. In 1948 the Church gave its birthright to the Zionists, and Britain withdrew from Palestine. Although this was part of the divine plan, as I showed in The Struggle for the Birthright, it did cause many problems in the Church and in America as well.

Back in the days of Nehemiah, it took 52 days to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem (Neh. 6:15). We recognized this time frame as being applicable in the year 2000, which was 52 years after 1948.

I was invited to speak at a Church in Redwood City, CA, just south of San Francisco, and so I flew there on July 7, 2000. As the plane landed, I suddenly realized that I had been sent there to witness the completion of the wall's rebuilding.

On July 11, 2000 the Camp David summit began under President Clinton, who had invited Palestinian Chairman Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Barak to make a peace deal. The timing of this summit, coming at the same time as the spiritual work at San Francisco, showed the connection between these two events. Those talks ended July 25 with a dispute over the status of Jerusalem. On the same day the Concorde crashed in Paris, and the Lord said, “Peace has been taken from the earth.” Precisely 414 days later was Sept. 11, 2001, when this word was fulfilled. But that is a later story.

Raphael, Carlos, and I made arrangements to go into San Francisco itself on July 12 to have breakfast and then to scout the territory and discern what God might be saying. Before leaving the house, God gave me a Scripture for the day: Luke 3:16, 17,

¹⁶ John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose; he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire; ¹⁷ whose fire is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.

Based upon this Scripture, the Word of the Lord came to me, saying,

“This is the end and completion of the wall around the New Jerusalem. Once it is complete, I come to inhabit My temple, My people. I come as fire to consume all that is within My walls. All flesh shall see My glory, for I shall baptize all men with unquenchable fire.”

We drove north on Hwy. 101 to San Francisco. As we passed Candlestick Park, I asked, “Is that THE Candlestick Park? The stadium?” He affirmed that it was. Who could forget the images of the World Series being played there when the city was shaken by the 7.1 Richter earthquake on Oct. 17, 1989? The quake had stuck the day after I had resigned from the Net of Prayer, so I remember it well.

I said, “This is where we are to do the prophetic work today. But let's have breakfast first and come back later.”

After breakfast, we decided to walk down Market Street. “Yes, we need to inspect Sodom,” I said. I did not know my way around the city, but the Lord said to me, “Go to Fifth Street. There I will show you the sign you need to see.”

“Is there a Fifth Street anywhere near here?” I asked.

“It's down one block,” my companions informed me.

“Good,” I said. “That is where we need to go to see the sign God wants to show us.”

We continued to Fifth Street, but saw nothing. “Let's cross the road and go back on the other side,” I said. We crossed the road, and then we saw two girls holding up a large sign, like a banner about six feet by three feet, which read in large lettering,

San Francisco On Fire

It matched the Scripture and Word that the Lord had given me earlier about the baptism of fire that would consume all flesh. The second line on the banner gave a date: July 15, 2000 and advertised what I thought was a Billy Graham Crusade. However, Billy Graham was not the sponsor of that crusade. To this day I do not know who sponsored the Crusade.

I nudged the others and said, “See there? That's the sign that God is showing us. Now we can leave.”

We then returned south and stopped at Candlestick Park. When we arrived, we found a flurry of activity as workmen were building a platform inside the stadium. We learned that this was where the Crusade was to be held on July 15! The one we saw advertised on the banner in the city!

So we knew that the work of repairing the breach in the wall around spiritual America had been completed. On the evening of July 15 we had a home meeting, where we pronounced the wall officially repaired. Then we were led to inspect the work the next day, July 16. Eight of us walked across the Golden Gate Bridge and back to inspect the “Sheep Gate” and again proclaim it to be fully repaired.

The completion of this wall-building work prepared us for the full authority that the overcomers were to receive a few months later on Nov. 30, 2000, which was the end of the 7 1/2 year transition from Saul to David. The Word of the Lord revealed to us that we had been repairing the wall around the New Jerusalem. This is the capital of the Kingdom, the residence of the King, and we are that city.

Earlier in that same year (2000), we had been given the revelation of the Banner being planted in the heartland of America. This revelation came through Dr. Melissa in Leslie, Arkansas. We did not realize it at the time, but it would take seven more years before this Banner revelation would actually be fulfilled. A banner was actually made in time for our Tabernacles conference in Leslie, Arkansas in September of 2006. We will have more to say about that at the appropriate place.

So the work of the Kingdom of God is steadily progressing. It takes time, often many years, to see the results of the work, but God is in no hurry. He goes at His own pace and by His own calendar. When we begin any phase of the work, we do not usually know many details, and timing is often obscure while we do the work. We know just enough to do what is necessary, but not enough to allow personal understanding to take over. Only when it is completed, or nearing completion, can we see the bigger picture. Then we can all stand back and admire what God has done.