In the cross of Christ I glory,

Towering o’er the wrecks of time.

All the light of sacred story,

Gathers around its head sublime.

-John Bowring

The world gazed with shock and sadness watching the great Notre Dame cathedral burning in flames. But then,  through the ashes and the smoke, a light shone on the great cross, still standing and undaunted in its effulgence. Even as the towers burn and fall, as glorious as they may be,  there is shining over Europe now, a hope that Christ will free. The smoke of religion and the shroud of atheism will be penetrated by the light of the gospel and the preaching of the cross. With the 2020 vision there dawns a new and glorious morn. In 2020 we are calling all of Europe into the Jesus fast of Lent in expectation that those who sit in darkness will see a great light. The Battle for Britain will arise and the cry to “take back the continent!” will be heard. Even now the evangelists are calling all with European blood and heritage to return to the Motherland and preach the love of Christ. Stadiums will be filled. Fear not little flock! It is the pleasure of the Father to give you the Kingdom! Europe shall be saved!!

Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them…

Exodus 3:7-8

“You need to dig the wells of revival at Harvard and tear down the false ideologies of Boston”.

United States Congressperson

At Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts, our forefathers came ashore and established a colony built on the foundation of God’s word and religious freedom. Their dream was to build a city set on a hill that could not be hidden. They had fled the tyranny of a nation that suppressed religious freedom and there in Massachusetts a holy experiment was enacted. Now centuries later Massachusetts is at the forefront of crushing the very religious liberties their forefathers bled and died for. This past week Governor Baker signed into law the conversion therapy bill. Now parents will not have the freedom to get therapy for their minor children who may be struggling with gender dysphoria. A licensed therapist could lose his license and a parent could possibly lose their child. This kind of therapy in the bill is called ‘child abuse’. So is there now no freedom to help a person find his true identity male and female in Christ? Will pastors be forced into silence on the power of Christ to convert souls leading to inward transformation and biblical sexual wholeness.

It is my conviction that the reason such bills are now being passed is because the church has not exercised the power of God to bring deliverance to those struggling with same-sex attractions and lifestyles. I’m reminded of the young man who stood and challenged me saying “you have no right to tell me as a homosexual I cannot have civil liberties if you cannot manifest the power of God to deliver me. “ That my friends, is what God is about to do. He is coming to save and deliver. Soon hundreds if not thousands of testimonies of once gay men and women will overflow the refuge of lies that a person can’t change. God may just challenge this conversion therapy bill with his own conversion therapy, a movement of prayer and evangelism borne of great love, healing, and deliverance. What if there was a great gathering of tens of thousands of once gay men and women to Boston to declare “We are changed!” What if we gathered thousands of mothers and fathers whose sons and daughters are in LGBTQ lifestyles and lift up a united cry with tears for salvation and deliverance to come down!  What if thousands converged in Massachusetts to evangelize the great-grandchildren of Jonathan Edwards, the father of the First Great Awakening? Could this be our Jericho?

Derek Prince once said that Boston is the Jericho Of America and when it’s walls of intellectualism fall,  America will be swept into the great revival. During these days of treading, I find myself yearning for the land of New England and in particular Boston and Massachusetts. This is my 2020 vision; Bob Jones prophecy; 100,000 LGBTQ saved and transformed because Love never fails.

I’m doing a video blog today as I walk around the Jericho center in Colorado Springs. Circling my promises and treading.

Thank you,
Lou

“If the bride is a revelation of the 1st commandment, the Ekklesia is the agency of Christological dominion.”

-Dean Briggs ‘Ekklesia Rising’

“The vocabulary of attack is not popular today. Many of the Lord’s eagles have been influenced by the mood of the world and assumed the character of doves.”

-R. Arthur Matthews ‘Born for Battle’

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ the Son of the living God…and upon this rock, I will build my ecclesia and the Gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

Matt 16:16-18

Yesterday we set out on a 40-day prayer and praise experiment, circling our promises and treading upon our obstacles. I encourage you once again to write down and walkabout the promises you’ve received from God, and the territory you are called to possess. You cannot be vague. God doesn’t answer vague prayers. Your promises must be clear and your territory must have boundaries. Now for the next 40 days, walk around that territory with your feet and your mind, and claim your promises with explosive praise, because you have already received the victory and the answer in Christ.

Now let us go back to the book of Joshua, and examine the kind of person, attitude and lifestyle it will take to possess walled cities and break demonic altars. First of all, the name Joshua is the same as the name Yeshua. Joshua is the old testament picture of the new testament Jesus. Both come out of the wilderness, one from forty years and the other from a forty day fast. Both of them receive a revelation of the God of battles. Joshua before taking Jericho is encountered by the theophany of Jesus, “The Captain of the Angel Armies.” Jesus is revealed to Peter as the Christ, the Son of the living God, who comes to challenge every gate of Hades and manifest His dominion over those gates.

Before God’s armies will ever possess their promised lands, they must have a revelation of the God who is the Lord of angel armies and who comes to take offensive action against the powers of darkness. He comes to knock down city walls and false ideologies. He comes to heal and cast out demons and destroy the works of the devil. Before you will ever take your Jericho, you must have a revelation of not only the GreatGod but last the God who is great in you. He is the one who is more powerful than the demonic strongholds you are going to face. “More are those who are for us than those who are against us”. When we look at the walled cities like Boston and their intractable ideologies that threaten the church, drive them into caves of silence, or delude them into living in peaceful coexistence w compromise, we must know the God of Battles and that He is with us.

The first words that God gives to Joshua are, “Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I am  giving to you.” He doesn’t say, “Walk” like a stroll in the park. He says, “Tread” which means to walk upon with the purpose of crushing something. Jesus said, “I have given you the authority to tread on serpents and scorpions.”

So as you begin this forty day walk around your promises, you must take the attitude of attack mode. You are coming to face Goliath and you must, like David declare, “You come to me with sword and spear, but I come in the name of the Lord of Hosts.” Today, while you tread, praise the Lord of angel armies and declare, “every promise and every territory I tread You have already given to me.”

My servant Moses is dead. So now, arise, you and all these people,  cross over this Jordan to the land that I am giving to them. Every place on which the sole of your foot TREADS I am giving to you, as I spoke to Moses.  From the wilderness and this Lebanon to the great river, the Euphrates River—all the land of the Hittites – to the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory. No one will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong!  For you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their fathers to give them. 

Joshua 1:1-9

“Every person and every ministry has a gift, a territory, and a promise.”

Yesterday I told about my dream of fasting for 40 days, and then prayer walking 40 Days. Please go back and read that introduction to these 40 days that I’m calling Treading Times. I believe that dream was a blueprint of how to circle your promises, tread on your obstacles and possess your territory.

Notice from our scripture that Joshua, after the 40 year wilderness, could not go back to normal. He and the people must arise and cross over the Jordan into a new season of dynamic conquering faith. Everything has shifted after the fast from wandering in the wilderness to warring for promises and territory.

You’ve finished this fast. You heard whispers from His word and promises of His purpose for your life. Now get up and cross over you’re Jordan River. Move from the land of familiar to the land of the unknown. “I never did a crazy thing until I heard the voice.” (Ray Kinsella, ‘Field of Dreams’) Begin to follow the voice. Your promises are always on the other side of risk. Begin by circling your promises in prayer.

John Dawson says, “Every person has a gift, a territory, and a promise. The Gift on Joshua was leadership; “You will lead these people.” What is your gift? The Promise to Joshua was a territory and the abiding all powerful Presence of God assuring success. What are the promises you have from God? Joshua’s territory was a portion of land with very specific boundaries. What is the specific territory you’re called to possess?

Today as we begin this journey I want you to take a journal and write down your gifts. Then list every promise, prophecy or dream you have ever received. Take the ones that the Spirit highlights powerfully as you ponder. These prophecies are like the spies who went into the land 40 days before the conquering began. They may speak to you concerning a promise for your life, your family, and your future; or they may show you a territory you are to claim, a building or house you must possess, or a business to begin; or they may be a sickness to be healed or a marriage restored. Don’t look at the giants of obstruction but fuel your imagination with visions of a land filled with milk and honey, great clusters of grapes and walled cities to possess.

 
Do you see your Jericho? Do you only see the huge walls? Or do you see the great God who declares that all things are possible to them that believe. Start treading upon the obstacles and the demonic resistance with the word, “Be gone Satan!” Start walking around your promises imagining future fulfillment rather than the futility of the present impossibility. What is your Jericho?  Is it a son or a daughter who is not walking with the Lord? For the next 40 Days Draw a circle of prayer around that child, praise around your promise and bellow “Satan be gone!” over their lives. Let’s make this a holy experiment together. I have never done this personally in my whole life. But I’m expecting a breakthrough.

These 40 days I am treading and walking around five or six Jericho’s. Today I’ve started prayer walking with many others, circling the Jericho center at Every Home for Christ. My spiritual son Tanner Peake, one of the new Joshua Generation’s leaders, whom God is raising up has been apprehended with the ‘Every Creature Commission’. He has launched a movement named OIKOS envisioning every home in the world to be reached with the gospel in the next 20 years. It’s an impossible task but it is our Lord’s command, “Preach the gospel to every creature.” I am praising God daily walking around this building that holds a 73 year history of great and mighty promises. For 40 days I’m begging the Lord of the harvest to Ekballo millions of indigenous workers into the harvest field. I’m declaring that nations that are closed To EHC shall be opened—Somalia, Afghanistan, the Maldives, Tibet… I am declaring that all obstacles and demonic resistance will be removed. I believe these 40 days could be the launching pad for the Arrow of the Lord’s Victory for the every creature commission. Praising God in the heavens, treading on serpents on the earth; this is how we fight our battles. “It may look like we’re surrounded but we’re surrounded by God”. Therefore we cross over to surround our Jericho. It’s a Treading Time!

In 1997, I had just finished a 40 day fast that Bill Bright had called for America. On that final night, I had a dream, in which, our Prayer Room of devotion became a Strategy Room for war. The Lord spoke to me that I was not done with the 40 day prayer assignment but that for the next 40 days I was to prayer walk the US Center For World Missions Campus and claim the promises He had given me.

For 40 days I prayer walked the campus, and on the 39th night I had a dream, and in this dream, a young man came up to me and said, “You are now receiving the 3 promises that you have been praying for.  I looked down, and I realized that I was on the sidewalk on which I had been walking for 40 days, but instead of it being a sidewalk it was a huge serpent, and in the dream,  I began to dance on the serpent’s head.

I woke up out of that dream knowing that My prayer walk had broken through demonic resistance and obstacles and I had obtained the promises.

My 40 day fast was like Israel’s 40 year  sojourn in the wilderness, and my 40 day tread was like Joshua who was told by the Lord, “Every place that the sole of your foot treads, I am giving to you.”

AFTER THE FAST—YOU MUST TREAD

Join me for the next 40 days on this blog journey that I am calling TREADING TIMES. 

Lou Engle