June 22, 2011
by James C. Stephens
FORTY-DAY GATEKEEPERS INITATIVE FOR TURTLE ISLAND_June 10-July 20, 2011
“But without belief it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to Elohim has to believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who earnestly seek Him. By belief, Noah, having been warned of what was yet unseen, having feared, prepared an ark to save his house, through which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to belief.” Ibrim (Hebrews) 11:6-7.
“Trust in YHWH, and do good; Dwell in the earth and feed on steadfastness (cultivate faithfulness).” Psalm 37:3
AMERICAN NOMAD
My father Carlton who grew up in Texas, desired to make his way in the world as a young man and hopped a train to California with one of his friends. He loved business and became an entrepreneur at a relatively young age and was not afraid of taking calculated risks. One summer our family went on vacation and visited Zion National Park, Yellowstone, and Glacier National Park back when gas was abundant and inexpensive. They decided to stay in Montana to raise their family. We moved quite a bit and finally settled on a 72 acre ranch in North Crowe Creek Community near the Flathead Reservation.
Our neighbors were sheep farmers and horse ranchers. We raised alfalfa for feeding livestock. I learned that our sheep farmers had to protect their flock from major predators like wolves and coyotes. Fences were critical as well as proper monitoring or sheparding of the flock. We also had a healthy respect for the forest on our property after we’d run into a black bear. Swiftly flowing canals were particularly dangerous during the springtime as well as mossy stones in creeks, and swifting flowing streams.
My living experience in the countryside was very helpful in understanding the Bible as it uses a number of agrarian terms. In many ways, Americans are modern nomads, rarely living in one home longer than five years.
As Christians, we’ve come to look at the land differently. We are called to seek the welfare of the city we have been called into exile in. We are pilgrims on a journey out of the city of destruction. We do see ourselves as stewards of whatever we are given and attempt to take good care of the properties we live in whether or not we rent or are paying a mortgage.
When we moved into Arcadia, we went with a brother in the LORD to City Hall to pray and ask God to bless the city and to direct our steps where He wanted us to live. When we drove around the city looking at homes, we prayed over the city. We prayed for stable families, that God would pour out His Spirit upon them and that they would come to know His Son Jesus Christ our LORD.
Finally we found the home we ended up living in for five years. When we moved in, we prayed over the four corners of the property and anointed all the windows and doors in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
When I was working on writing the chapter on the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism I began to run into more and more spiritual warfare. Our son had a garage band and we later found out that one of the band members was using drugs. One day he was drawing a picture and when I looked at it I immediately recognized it as the Chinese Zen Buddhist patriarch Bodhidharma. I said, where did you get this picture?”
He replied, “Out of my head.”
At times, I would sense a dark spiritual presence over my office in the back house. At other times, I would feel it in the house. It seems that whenever there is a demonic presence in the area, I can feel the strong presence of the HOLY SPIRIT who is protecting us and alerting us to the danger. When we began having more issues around the house, I began to seek the LORD about what He would have us do.
It became obvious to me that we were dealing with a principality that had been brought in by Chinese Folk Buddhism. Often as my wife and I would prayer walk the neighborhood in the evening, we would see red lights on our Chinese Buddhist neighbors altar tables. We would pray a hedge of protection over our home every night and ask the LORD to protect us in our sleep as we found some members of our family were suffering from frightening demonic dreams at night.
We’d ask Him to give us a good night’s rest and cause us to wake refreshed in the morning so that we could serve Him with all our heart, soul and strength. Next to my bed on my nightstand, I have my Bible and have made it a habit to read the Word, until I find something that the LORD seems to be speaking to me about, write it in my commonplace, and meditate on that passage prayerfully before falling asleep.
After seeking the LORD about the increased warfare on the property, I talked with a Christian brother who was radically saved out of high level Satanism when he was an arms dealer for the Hell’s Angels. He stayed with us a few nights and he said he’d heard sounds from the rear neighbor’s house next door that he recognized as a witch. The next day, he discreetly pointed out a number of signs that confirmed that she was indeed a practicing witch.
Then I was led to speak to my landlady as the LORD had burdened me for the task. I told her that the LORD had spoken to me about the property and that there was something wrong. She then said that when she moved in she discovered that all the cabinets had been filled with Chinese artifacts that were collected by the former owner who had traveled extensively to China and held meetings at her home about China.
Our landlady got rid of all of the items which were filling shelves around the house. She said that she’d seen a demon in the main house and was frightened in the rear house when she was painting by a strong apparition. After she saw the demon in the front house, she discovered that her husband had gotten very involved with drugs. His behavior became more and more violent and at one point he got so angry he began to beat her up in the kitchen. After his drug use escalated he ended up in a vegetative state from which he has never recovered.
We then seriously began to pray over the property and for its sanctification. We were led into the back yard behind the clubhouse in the southwest corner where there was a unusual pile of stones. We prayed and were led by the LORD to excavate the ground. As we dug we began searching the soil through our garden sifter and uncovered strange wire in configurations, bones, broken plates and other items. When we took it to the police department because of the size of one of the bones, he mentioned that it should go to the coroner’s office for investigation. As it happened, the coroner said it was most likely from a Wiccan or Santeria ceremony.
We then fully dismantled the stone altar and sanctified the ground through sprinkling it with Kosher salt and anointing the fences with olive oil. We asked that YHWH to sanctify the ground from all its defilement by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
We then inadvertently noticed through a window in our landlady’s adjoining storage unit to our garage that she had a collection of boxes which we could see were witch figurines. We grew increasingly uncomfortable with our situation.
The warfare increased dramatically when we dug up the bones, which were not human evidently, but animal. We determined that this was not an old incinerator site first.
Things became increasingly horrific. We discovered that the street had been named after the first Mayor whose name was Perkins. The City of Arcadia had been founded by Lucky Baldwin who was deeply into all sorts of occultism and had been a preacher’s kid from Indiana gone bad, and became an adventurer, made it in the Silver business, purchased 63,000 acres of land which are now Monrovia and Arcadia, was married four times, and prohibited any church from being planted there for nearly a century as he didn’t want them to interfere with his brothels and his horse racing track and gambling business.
He had gone to India as well and made contact with Hindus and brought back peacocks which now populate certain neighborhoods of Arcadia. The peacock is said to represent Lakshmi, a Hindu deity and is also associated with a Chinese Buddhist deity Kwan-yin.
“If a ruler pays attention to falsehood, all his ministers become wicked.” Proverbs 29:12
His relationship with his daughter Anita was tumultuous. She shot and almost killed him and was heavily involved in the occult. She had close ties to Grace Nicholson who she donated many artifacts which she displayed in her Chinese style home in Pasadena, which eventually became the Pacific Asia Museum.
We began to understand that there were bigger issues than we had knowledge of before. Each city has a redemptive gift which is often the missing component in a founder’s life. As believers we are commanded to pray for those in authority over us. That means, we need to have a list of their names, positions and responsibilities. We ask the LORD for ‘able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain” (Exodus 18:21), that are “wise and discerning and experienced men” (Deuteronomy 1:13). Leaders who exhibit the attributes of integrity, and recognize the need for justice balanced with mercy.” The Biblical purpose of government and civil law is to restrain the evil action of men in society” (Romans 13; 1 Peter 2).
By establishing a place in our home to pray, be it a room set aside for prayer and worship, or an area of the room, or a closet, we can establish a place where we can quiet our hearts, read His Word, and listen to His still small voice, and present our petitions, pleas, and draw near to Him. A map of the community is also very helpful as you pray over its boundaries and for the pastors of churches in the community.
We believe that the redemptive gift of Arcadia which is known as the City of Homes is “Solidly Committed, Compassionate and Wise Biblical Parenthood” as exemplified by Dr. James Dobson whose established the Focus on the Family in Arcadia thirty years ago (August 1981).
The city has now been adopted by many Chinese immigrants as their new home. Many of the homeowners hold dual residences in China and the US. The churches now serving the community and actively sharing the Gospel are proof that YHWH will build His Covenant Community and the gates of Hell will not prevail (Matthew 16:18).
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