In early October of 2002, Vanita called me from Pennsylvania and asked me to pray about a word she was getting in regard to praying at the Washington Monument in Washington D.C.

This sparked the revelation that this prayer represented a circumcision of Washington itself (that is, America as a whole). In praying about this, the Father said that she was to pray there on October 16, 2002.

At the same time that we received this revelation, a serious of sniper attacks began near Washington D.C., in which people were killed in a random manner. These attacks began north of the city, then on the West side, and then to the South of the city. The snipers were encircling the nation's capital.

Having the revelation that this was a “circumcision” of the heart of America, we determined quite early that 10 people would be killed, because 10 is the number of the law. I was at a conference in Florida when the tenth victim was killed and knew then that whoever was doing this would be caught before they could shoot anyone else.

At the Florida conference, I discussed the event with a friend named Joe. His discernment was that there would be 13 victims, not just 10, because 13 is the number for depravity or rebellion. It is also the number most clearly seen in America's beginnings and on the Great Seal. America began with 13 colonies, just as there had been 13 tribes in ancient Israel (including Levi).

Well, of course, both of our discernments proved to be correct, since there were 13 people shot, but only 10 of them were actually killed. The latter victims were killed on the East side of Washington, and the final one was killed just a short distance from where the first had been killed (on the North side). The sniper had come “full circle” with his final victim on Oct. 23.

That same night, early morning of Oct. 24, a Christian truck driver spotted a suspicious car and called 911 (emergency telephone number). Later, when he was interviewed, he revealed that he and 50 other Christian truck drivers had held a prayer meeting a few days earlier to pray God's mercy upon America and to stop the sniper attacks. It was appropriate, then, that one of them would be used of God to find the snipers and put an end to the killings.

However, God allowed them to continue until they had come full circle, because this represented the circumcision of the heart of America. Keep in mind that this “circumcision” began within a week of the third bowl of wine that had been poured out in the Mississippi River (Sept. 27).

As I showed earlier, the third bowl of wine signified divine judgment upon Jerusalem, the city where the prophets and saints were killed in Scripture. So the fact that God was portraying the circumcision of America as the first order of business suggested that God intended to use America's defense of Jerusalem as a way to turn the heart of America and American Christians. This would obviously be painful, but the results in the end would be positive.

In studying this revelation, we related it to the bigger picture of the Battle of Jericho, in which the six “days” of blowing trumpets took place from 1993-1999, followed by the final “day” in which the Israelites marched around the city seven times (2000-2006). We related this “circumcision” to that found in Joshua 5:8, when Israel had crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan.

Israel's entry under Joshua began a war in those days against the “giants” in the land. These were the giants that the Israelites had feared 38 years earlier when they refused to enter under Moses in Numbers 13, 14. And so, when the World Series (baseball) was played in late October of 2002 toward the end of the circumcision of Washington, we did not think it coincidental that the Giants were playing the Angels.

The Angels won the series in the seventh game on October 27, 2002. Then, because the Angels were owned by Disney, the winners immediately went to Disney World in Orlando to celebrate their victory. We had been watching the World Series between meetings, since we were actually meeting in Orlando.

The Angels' victory over the Giants provided us with another sign of the times. It was a sign to us that the overcomers (Angels) would be victorious over the “Giants” in the land. There are many giants ruling America, both in government and in the Church. In the days of Joshua, the giants were intimidating, but they were no match for people with faith. In our time, the giants in America and in the Church system are likewise no match for the overcomers who walk by faith. For this reason, we are not intimidated by the seeming hopelessness of the world situation, for we know that the battle belongs to God, not to those who are strong in their flesh.

The results of the third bowl of wine, poured out on Sept. 27, 2002, would be seen in the coming year. As I wrote earlier, the invasion of Iraq began on March 21, 2003. From the beginning, there was no question about the initial outcome of the war. Iraq could not possibly win such a war against vastly superior forces, and Saddam Hussein's statue was pulled down in dramatic fashion within a few weeks. Ultimately, Hussein himself was found, tried, and executed, and his sons killed.

As long as the war was being won, it was popular. President Bush's popularity rating spiked to new highs. Americans love wars that they can win. But they also hate protracted wars that go nowhere but drain our resources. Then reports surfaced of torture, and suddenly some Americans began to wonder if we had simply replaced one torturer with another. The war began to become quite unpopular, and as the insurgency dragged on, the President's approval rating dropped dramatically.

The circumcision of America had begun. Even as it took many days for the Washington snipers to circumcise the nation's capital, so also will it take time for this to be completed on the world scene in the bigger picture. It continues to this day. But the good news is that God is in the process of cutting the flesh from our hearts so that His Kingdom may be fully manifested in the earth.