On March 24, 2001 we overthrew in spiritual warfare the seven princes over America, representing the golden calves. The third and final battle began at 1:47 p.m. on March 22, at which time we were told to begin praying “God bless America.” That was the minute that the stock market began to climb after dropping 1600 points since our previous battle on March 8 against the Prince of Usury.

Two days earlier, on March 20, we had received the Word from the Lord that we were to begin praying “God bless America” in this third battle. And, of course, six months later, the whole nation was praying this after the Twin Towers disaster. While most carnally-minded people were praying for God to bless their wallets and bank accounts, God defines “bless” a bit differently in Acts 3:25, 26—“to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.”

Hence, God used the Twin Towers disaster to motivate the people to ratify God's blessing--i.e., to pray that God would turn us from our wicked ways. God has been responding to that prayer, not in the way we wanted, but in His own way. It occurred to me in early 2008 that we were seeing a number of 7-year patterns emerging and that we ought to be especially watchful of September—which was 7 years after the Twin Towers Disaster.

It is now quite clear that God is turning up the pressure on us to cause us to repent of our wicked ways. Sept. 11, 2001 plunged us into the second Gulf War, causing us to spend such massive amounts of money that we have been brought to the brink of national bankruptcy. On Sept. 15, 2008 the failure of Lehman Brothers proved to be a major turning point in the banking system.

On March 25, 2001 the Lord began to prepare us for further work, particularly on June 19-22. On March 27, He gave us this Word:

“You are to issue a Call to Arms to the [private] mailing list for the June 19 battle. . . The purpose of this prayer campaign is for the salvation of America as a nation, rather than for the people as individuals.”

He also told us that victory in this battle “signifies a full end of America's harlotry relationship to false gods.” We were to take the name of the prayer campaign from Col. 3:18,

¹⁸ Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.

At first I did not understand. In fact, I thought I surely must have heard incorrectly, because it seemed so out of place. But then the Lord spoke further:

“America is to submit to Me as her Husband. This is a marriage proposal for a New Covenant wedding. . . The date of the betrothal is June 19.”

I asked, “Do those who respond to this prayer call represent Christ proposing marriage to America?”

“Yes, they also represent the Bride in accepting the marriage proposal. The Husband is the full, complete Body of Christ, consisting of Me as the Head and the overcomers as the Body. America's princes were her lovers and husbands. Once they were overthrown on March 24, you should consider America to be divorced from these false gods.

“In the prayer campaign, you are to make a decree, a written proposal of marriage. All who respond to the prayer call are automatically saying AMEN to this marriage proposal.”

“What should we call this prayer campaign?

“Call it, 'We Accept Your New Covenant Marriage Proposal'.”

This Word really astounded me at the time. But then I saw that the foundations of this “marriage” had already been laid five months earlier on Oct. 20, 2000 at the Feast of Tabernacles in Champaign, Illinois. That was the date of the wedding between Richard and Sharon, which was patterned after the marriage feast of Cana in John 3. We had received the revelation also: “No longer consider yourselves separate from Christ.”

So this Marriage Proposal on June 19 actually had its spiritual roots in the Feast of Tabernacles of 2000. But this new marriage could not take place until the golden calves were overthrown, because these were the gods that America had married. So finally, after months of spiritual warfare, we understood the mind of God in this.

First, the warfare could not be accomplished until the overcomers had received the full Kingdom authority on Nov. 30, 2000. Secondly, we had to answer the enemy's petition before the divine court on January 29, 2001. Thirdly, when God confirmed our authority by the staves bearing fruit, they decided to fight us instead of submitting to the divine will. This gave us the authority to overthrow them and, in effect, to bring about a divorce from those gods.

All of this, we discovered afterward, was necessary in order for God to propose marriage. For this reason, God has said to begin praying “God bless America,” for when God proposed marriage with Abraham and his descendants in Gen. 12:3, He promised to bless them. That is, He promised to turn them from their wicked ways, as we read in Acts 3:25, 26, in order to qualify them for marriage.

On March 28, 2001, I asked the Lord for more details about this blessing. He gave me James 5:17, 18 (about Elijah) and Luke 24:23-28, where Jesus spoke to the two men on the road to Emmaus shortly after His resurrection. Verse 27 says,

²⁷ And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

Then He said,

“You are to pray that their ears be opened to hear the Word. This is their primary blessing, but not their only blessing. As you pray, I will open their ears.”

So I sent out the marriage proposal and received 444 responses. The numeric value of “Holy Place” and “Sanctuary” in Hebrew is 444. In addition to that, the Father sent a huge diamond ring to His Bride. It came in the form of a solar eclipse on June 21, 2001.

One writer, Ernie Piini, had traveled to Zambia to view the eclipse. He wrote an article on June 21, 2001 called An Eclipse Over Zambia: A Triple Diamond Ring Ceremony,

http://www.astromax.org/zambia-tse2.htm

The article says that a man from Tennessee knelt down and proposed to his girlfriend, presenting her with a diamond ring at the same time. I don't think he understood the signs of the times, but he was flowing with the revelation unknowingly.

Jesus Christ's marriage proposal was accepted by those in authority (the overcomers), much like a girl's father or guardian might accept a proposal on behalf of the daughter. However, Jesus has no intention of marrying anyone who is not yet ready for marriage. Much work has yet to be done. The Gospel of the Kingdom must yet be preached on a larger scale, and it must replace the inadequate forms of the gospel currently being preached.

As we were later to see, this set us up for the beginning of the “Elijah” (or “John”) phase of ministry, which has to do with the Gospel of the Kingdom being preached in the whole world before the end comes. It is the preparation necessary for the Bride to make herself ready. It is not the unbelieving world that needs to be made ready. It is the Bride that needs time to prepare by hearing the Word.