The first prayer in history is pictured in Gen. 1:1, 2,
1 In the beginning God alef-tav created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth became formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep [ocean], and the Spirit of God was moving [rawkaf, “move, brood, flutter” (vibrate)] over the surface of the waters.
The “alef-tav” in the Hebrew text is not translated at all in most English versions, yet it speaks of God who is “the beginning and the end” (Rev. 1:8; 22:13). In Hebrew, alef and tav are the first and last letters of the alphabet. In Greek, it is expressed as alpha and omega.
The passages in the book of Revelation interpret this for us. He was there at the beginning and will be there in the end, which comprehends all things in between those endpoints.
I would propose this as a proper translation of Gen. 1:1,
1 In the beginning God, the beginning and the end, created the heavens and the earth.
The ocean is seen as “the deep,” or, as in Rev. 9:1, “the bottomless pit,” or “the abyss.” The depths of the oceans were unmeasurable in those days and appeared to be bottomless. So Isaiah 51:10 speaks of “the waters of the great deep.”
Over these waters, the Spirit of God brooded as a bird hovering to protect something or contemplating some action. This metaphor was used again in Deut. 32:11,
11 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers [rawkaf] over its young, He spread His wings and caught them. He carried them on his pinions.
The word rawkaf creates a word picture of a bird hovering over a nest—which is only possible when the bird continues to flutter its wings. Fluttering creates a vibration, which in turn creates sound. So the Spirit of God did more than just passively hover over the waters of the great deep. A vibration was created, the sound of the voice of the Spirit speaking prophetically into the waters.
This voice was described as “the sound of many waters” (Ezek. 43:2; Rev. 1:15). It is as if the waters had received the voice of the Spirit and now thundered like a great waterfall.
The Nations
This is the first prophetic prayer of the Alpha and Omega, which was recorded in the waters themselves and which set the goal of history in view of the chaos which was to be overcome. The waters prophetically represented the nations, as we are told in Rev. 17:15,
15 And he said to me, “The waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.”
Essentially, the prayer of the Spirit prophesied the overthrow of the great harlot who usurped power over the nations for a season. Eventually, those nations themselves—also pictured as a “beast” in Rev. 17:16—would turn on the harlot and “burn her with fire.” This marks the time when the nations repent and revolt against the New World Order of Mystery Babylon.
I believe that this revolt has now begun, in fulfillment of the Spirit’s original prayer in Gen. 1:2. Those “beast” nations ridden by the harlot are now angry with her rule and are turning against her.
Men’s hearts are being changed, for we have entered the day prophesied in Ezek. 36:25-27,
25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and will give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
What began at Pentecost in Acts 2 is now being completed at the end of the age through the power of the feast of Tabernacles.
David’s Prayer
This day was prophesied in Psalm 67:1-7,
1 God be gracious to us and bless us and cause His face to shine upon us—Selah—2 that Your way may be known on the earth, your salvation among all nations. 3 Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You. 4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy; for You will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth. 5 Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You. 6 The earth has yielded its produce; God, our God, blesses us. 7 God blesses us, that all the ends of the earth may fear Him.
David prayed for the blessing of God—the same blessing that the Spirit of God had prayed for in Gen. 1:2—that the nations would “be glad and sing for joy” when the Messiah would come to judge and guide them. This was not wishful thinking on David’s part. His prayer echoed the Holy Spirit’s prayer over the waters (nations), so we know that it will indeed be answered fully.
In the climactic psalm of the Exodus Book of Psalms, we read in Psalm 72:8, 11, 17-19,
8 May He also rule from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.
11 And let all kings bow down before Him, all nations serve Him.
17 May His name endure forever; may His name increase as long as the sun shines; and let men bless themselves by Him; let all nations call Him blessed. 18 Blessed by the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone works wonders. 19 And blessed be His glorious name forever; and may the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen.
This describes the end of the story (tav/omega), the success of the Spirit’s prophetic prayer, wherein the whole earth is subject to Christ the King (1 Cor. 15:27, 28). Many government structures, along with their employees, will be abolished and replaced with the structure of God’s Kingdom with the sons of God in positions of authority. I believe that a great revival will affect many of the existing government employees as well, and these will gladly swear allegiance to Jesus Christ, if they have not already done so.
The Restoration of All Things Brings Victory
We too have caught the same vision and understand that God is the great Winner in the end. God declared Victory on January 27, 2022, even as Victory was declared in the original prayer campaign of the Net of Prayer exactly 40 years earlier (1982).
If you have been reading my daily weblogs, you know that I have been writing about some unusual spiritual experiences being reported out of South Africa. In talking to the prophet and his father on the morning of January 27, they told me of an unusual experience that occurred the previous night. Bradley’s room was suddenly filled with light, and the shepherds of Bethlehem appeared to bear witness of the “son” that was being born to us today.
God has achieved and declared Victory, not only spiritually speaking, but also in the world. So we today are given the honor of agreeing with the Holy Spirit’s prayer over the waters as well as David’s prayer for the nations.
We are praying prophetically over the waters, even as the Spirit of God prayed, sending a voice (vibration) through the waters of the deep. That prayer is the oldest prayer on record.
His Glory Covers the Earth
Those who believe that the whole earth will be filled with His glory can pray with understanding as well as faith. This prophecy came to Moses originally in the form of a vow, or oath. In Num. 14:21 God says,
21 but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.
The phrase, “as I live,” means that God was taking an oath in His own heavenly court to do this. He is therefore responsible to make it happen, for whoever speaks an oath is the one responsible to keep it. He cannot use the power of man’s will as an excuse to fail, for if the will of men were too strong for Him to overcome, He should never have made such an oath. But we know that God is not a failure, and His will is more powerful than the will of all men put together.
When God takes an oath, His adversaries will challenge that oath, because they know that if they can cause God to fail, then God will fall from His position as Supreme Ruler of the Universe. To fail to keep an oath is a sin, and if God ever proved to be a sinner, He would cease to be God.
Num. 14:21 is a New Covenant oath, where God takes upon Himself the responsibility to make it happen.
In fact, God did not hesitate to swear more oaths to remind us of His responsibility. We read this again in Isaiah 45:22-24,
22 Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God and there is no other. 23 I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. 24 They will say of Me, “Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.” Men will come to Him, and all who were angry at Him will be put to shame.
What does it mean that “every tongue will swear allegiance”? Paul says in Phil. 2:11, “every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” This is the interpretation of the statement in Isaiah 45.
What exactly will those tongues say? The answer is in verse 24, “Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.” God’s nature is the standard of righteousness for the whole universe, and He is the One with all power to enforce that standard.
1 Cor. 12:3, Paul says that “no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” Therefore, when every knee bows and every tongue confesses (professes) Christ to be Lord, they will be saved in the same manner that we are saved today. Rom. 10:9, 10 says,
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, 10 … and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
The revelation of both Isaiah and Paul asserts that all men will find salvation through their confession of faith and be filled with the Holy Spirit. The salvation of all is for “the glory of God the Father,” because it will prove that He is able and has the power to do all that the Spirit of God prayed for in Gen. 1:2.
We serve the God of all power who is not restricted by the will of man in any way. Man’s will certainly exists, but in no way is it more powerful than God’s will. In fact, God is so powerful that He is able to make every man willing to confess Jesus Christ as Lord. He does not have to force them to make such confessions.
There is an old song that says, “He does not compel you to go, no, no! He just makes you willing to go.” That, I believe, is the proper way of viewing God’s sovereignty.
The revelation of God’s absolute sovereignty gives us confidence that we are on the winning side. God will not lose 98 percent of humanity and then declare Himself to be the winner. The devil gets nothing in the end—not a single soul.
Present to me any great sinner from the past. Tell me that his sins were too great for God to save him, and I will tell you that God is greater than you think. In fact, He will not merely save them in spite of their sin; He will cause them to repent, to bow their knees, and to confess faith in Jesus Christ, saying, “Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.” They will finally know Him and be in agreement with Him, for the reconciliation of all things brings agreement and peace between enemies.
When all creation is in agreement with God, then their representatives—the four living creatures—will say “Amen,” for we read in Rev. 5:13, 14,
13 And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” 14 And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped.
John saw into the distant future. While violence and unbelief and immorality dominated both government and populace in his day, John knew that the story was yet incomplete until the four beasts, representing creation, say “Amen,” being in full agreement with the King of the Universe. That is the reconciliation of all things in heaven, earth, under the earth, and on (or in) the sea.
The Upper and Lower Waters
One of the first things we learn from Scripture is that there were waters above and waters below with a “firmament” (KJV) or “expanse” (NASB) between them (Gen. 1:6, 7). The earth appeared to be enclosed in a huge heavenly dome that was full of stars and constellations which had been created as “signs” (Gen. 1:14). The space between heaven and earth was the “expanse.”
There were heavenly waters and earthly waters. The heavenly waters were pictured in the great river in the heavens which we today call “The Milky Way.” In Egypt it was viewed as a pool of milk; in eastern Asia a Silvery River. But the “signs” in the heavens, biblically speaking, pointed to Christ and the divine plan of universal salvation.
In Gen. 1:7 the Milky Way is pictured as “the waters which were above the expanse.” This was a heavenly river, a river of life. John saw this and wrote in Rev. 22:1,
1 Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Yet God separated the upper waters from the lower waters for the same reason that He separated Eve from Adam. It was to reveal the purpose of the double witness. Adam and Eve, being in harmony under a New Covenant marriage, were separated and then rejoined as one. They were two individuals united under one common purpose. God did this so that when each heard the voice of God, they could bear witness to each other of the will of God within their nuclear family.
However, this principle did not begin with Adam and Eve but with the separation of the upper waters from the lower waters. The upper waters represented the flow of life in the Kingdom of heaven; the lower waters represented the flow of life on earth as it was in heaven.
After Adam and Eve sinned, however, life on earth no longer was immortal. Death reigned in the kingdoms of men (Rom. 5:12). The kingdoms on earth no longer reflected the same quality of life that was in heaven. Men (as individuals) were sold into bondage to sin, and kingdoms degenerated into systems of slavery and death, rather than freedom and life.
The Harlot Overthrown
The darkness deepened over time, and by the end of the age, the harlot was seen sitting on many waters—“peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues” (Rev. 17:15), oppressing and enslaving them until they finally turned upon her and burned her with fire (Rev. 17:16).
The day has now come when the oppression of the harlot is opening the eyes of the nations, “for God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose” (Rev. 17:17). Although these nations collectively are yet ungodly and are called “the beast,” they are now revolting against the harlot’s whip.
The nations as a whole are yet ignorant of the ways of God and the path to “the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21). All they know at this point is that they are being oppressed by the harlot through fear. But fear is giving way to anger.
Though I do not condone anger, it is clear that God is using the anger of the people to overthrow the harlot. Then He will send forth His Spirit to teach them His ways and to write His laws upon their hearts.
This is the beginning of the end of the chaotic rule of Mystery Babylon in all of its forms that have arisen through history. With the fall of man’s kingdoms comes the rise of the Kingdom of God. As the stone hits the image on its prophetic “feet,” the image of man will crumble and the image of God will grow until His Kingdom fills the earth.
From Chaos to Order
The main theme in history is to move from chaos to order, from disharmony to unity, from disagreement to harmony, from angry enemies to loving friends.
To this end, the Spirit of God prayed over the earthly waters to bring the heavenly waters to earth—that is, to merge the two rivers and align them so that they would be in agreement. In other words, the prayer was for the nations to be in agreement with the flow of the Spirit in the heavens.
Jesus prayed the same prayer in Matt. 6:10, saying,
10 Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.
This same unity was His main desire in His prayer for the disciples in John 17:21,
21 that they may all be one, even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
For this purpose, the Holy Spirit was sent into the world. The same Spirit of Truth (John 14:17) that spoke Truth into the waters at the beginning was sent into the world to “teach you all things” (John 14:26). Any deposit of Truth that the Holy Spirit imparts to us brings us closer to fulfilling the original prayer of the Holy Spirit to bring unity between heaven and earth.
We stand now at the time of a great shift in the history of mankind. Adam’s sin brought death and chaos to the earth, but Christ’s death and resurrection promised the return of life and the divine order.
We are fortunate to be living in that day when “the words of God will be fulfilled” (Rev. 17:17). As Babylon falls, there is naturally an increase in this chaos, but in fact, this is due to their final and futile struggle to maintain control of the earth. We ourselves have no intention of evacuating the earth, for we are on the winning side of this battle. We press on to full victory.
On January 27, 2022 God appeared to a prophet in South Africa and declared victory. This occurred precisely 40 years after victory was obtained in the first prayer campaign of the Net of Prayer on the same date in 1982. The prayer campaign in 1982 changed my life. The victory in 2022 is again changing my life and the course of this ministry.
