Word for North Dakota

50 State Tour in North Dakota with Chuck Pierce and Dutch Sheets
Sunday, June 27 and Monday, June 28, 2004

Larry Borud:  Macedonia letter – leave a deposit that would benefit and edify.  “I long to see you that I may impart some spiritual gift that will make you strong.”

Chuck Pierce:
This is my joy to be here.  What a blessing and what a blessing that you are here. We are gathered together to not only raise up an army throughout this entire land, but to get to know each other. Grab someone’s hand and ask the Lord to save all of North Dakota.  Ask for a sweeping move of harvest here in North Dakota. Father, we come and we thank you for what you are going to be doing in this State.  We thank you for this State.  We exalt you and we honor you. Before you sit down, tell somebody, “The Lord is in North Dakota.  He is the Lord of North Dakota.”

You are our 43rd state to be in on this trip. I believe the Lord has saved the best for last.  It is awesome!  There is a great spirit here! Not every one of the States has been easy. Every State has been very unique.  But, coming in here tonight, I so feel the presence of God.  I feel something that I have not felt in the other States. I feel there is a reason for that. It is amazing how that each State we have been has been God’s perfect timing.

The Lord told me that you will not go to any State and give any message that has already been given.  You will seek me for that State because those people in that State are very special to me and I want them to have my message. I am so excited about being here!

When you think of North Dakota, you think of the word North and you think of the word Plains.  That is what comes to somebody who might be somewhere else in US.  Also, you think of vastness, sort of Western state.  You have a certain aspect of understanding.  A visual picture when someone mentions ND to you.

However, when I was praying about being here with you and was praying about North Dakota.  The Spirit of God would say to me, “This is a special place with hidden treasures.  My people are hidden treasures.”

It is so important right now that the body of Christ would connect together and rise up and get ready.  Our Nation is at such a crossroad

We are in year 5764 in the prophetic calendar.  We are in the third year of the seven-year war season.  The war season was determined by God in heaven.  It did not begin with 9/11. It began in September, 2001.

 It was a season that God was raising up his people to contend for their covenant blessings.  There would be great religious opposition that would rise up against God’s blessings.  It would be a time that contention would begin in the earth.  This is not the tribulation period. 

 It is a season of moving forward into a manifestation of God’s blessings and glory in the earth realm.  I believe that just as He when he planted a garden and set Adam and Eve in there, he longs for the glory of God to cover this earth.

In every region he has a people who are glory carriers, who carry the glory of God.  When we begin to commune with him and when we begin to move corporately, the more we pray and we sing this song, the bowls above our territory fill up and eventually they pour out His glory all over his land.  It goes into homes that have been held up and held by sin, held in captivity; it goes and finds prodigals who have been running from God and brings them back into the house of God.  It causes favor to come upon us; that glory begins to cause boldness to come upon us.  It is wonderful, but we must understand it is a war season.

God is raising up worshipers in this war season. 

This the year, 5764, actually means a year of mysteries being revealed and secrets being disclosed.  It is a year that God is going to bring some understanding to us that we have not had in the past.  It is a year that you can ask Him for revelation and revelation will come.  Where He is giving us access on how where we have been pressing and pressing, the Lord is saying that this year I am bringing you up to the door, which is a pivotal place in the year 5764 in the Hebraic calendar and 2004 in the Roman calendar.  I am bringing you up to the door and He will show us how to go through it this year.  I am changing the way things have been in the earth.  I am getting ready to move forward with my people who will be a new sharp, threshing instrument with teeth.  And, they will go forth and thresh the mountains.

When you thresh the mountains, you get a plain.  The people of North Dakota are going to rise up with faith in such a way that they are going to unite in such a way, they are going to become a new sharp, threshing instrument, in such a way, that the mountains of the past will not be able to stop them in the future.  And, they will have a voice of decree that will cause every mountain that has stopped the move of God to begin to fall and the mountains will become as a plain and as the mountains come as a plain in the Northern plains, the gory of God will visit this Northern Plains State and then it will flood down South.

Definition of  a Plain – level stretch of land, a wide expanse, it’s bigger than what our confined minds can comprehend.  A plain also has a very interesting Hebraic explanation and Plain means talent.  In the midst of ND there is much talent and gift that I am getting ready to break open.  The gift of God that has been held captive in this state, that gift of God will come forth like never before and be seen in this land.

Another word for plain in the word of God is circle.  Life is like a circle.   Circle of life means posterity, generational connection.  It is not a New Age term.

 Circle – God made us where one generation connects to another generation, until we have fully completed what God has ordained for us to do.

I saw that here in the Northern Plain, here in North Dakota,  you are actually the northern State that represents the circle of life. The Lord said to tell them the things not fulfilled in the past in my destiny, I am going to start working in a way in their midst that a supernatural fulfillment of my promise and destiny is going to come into the State.  That, which has been disconnected in the past, that which has been broken down in the past, right at the time for spiritual breakthrough, this will be a year that I will deal with the covenant breaking spirit in this land and what has caused covenant breaking in the past, I am going to give you authority over and what has broken my circle of destiny in this State no longer will it be able to break.  Unity is coming upon this State!   

When you look at the circle concept and the concept of the Plain, it represents an entire region.  ALL OF NORTH DAKOTA!   There is only one other state that He keeps saying that in our nation.  Oklahoma is that one.  (NOTE:  I have omitted the story about the bomb in Oklahoma City.)

When God is ready to work, He first finds someone that he can give His burden to.

The only restraining force against evil is the Holy Spirit.  When we gather like this, something happens.  Just by you coming together, the Holy Spirit starts to do something.  Just by you coming tonight, a process can begin in the State. 

 There is a sort of peculiar anointing in your isolation.  You can look at the place where you live as a place of isolation or you can say, “God has set you apart for something special”.

 You look at population, yet, you are the 17th largest state land wise in the ND.  You are more prone to know each other and know each other’s faults.  One of the things the Lord spoke to me about ND is, because he is going to move in such a way here, you need to command that any Nazareth Spirit that is dwelling here in this land needs to leave.  I want you to command it to leave! 

 A Nazareth Spirt is when everybody is familiar with each other.  Like when Jesus could not do things in Nazareth. It created an atmosphere where Jesus couldn’t do anything. It wasn’t that Jesus didn’t want to do things there.  He couldn’t do anything because of the atmosphere of unbelief that permeated that city because of familiarity.  Consequently, miracles and the will of God could not be demonstrated. 

The will of ND is for His glory to cover the state.  The will of God is for us to start looking at each other differently and seeing the gifts and talents of God in this midst of this State. The will of God for ND is for grace to permeate this state for 2 years and at the end of that period, God said, “I will break that which has resisted in this State and then My glory will fall and as My glory falls, there will be a sweeping move of My Spirit that will unlock the people of this State that will be heard about throughout the entire nation.”

 Let’s look at North.  I have always thought revival would come from these Northern States.  Not sure you have ever had this a sweeping revival.  You are a pioneering place still to this day in the Spirit. 

 So, let’s see what God says about North.  Remember what plains means.  Let’s look at what God says about North.  Let’s look at Psalm 48.  “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. In the city of God in his holy mountain. Beautiful of elevation.  Beautiful is that one which I have raised up.  The joy of the whole earth.  Is Mount Zion on the sides of north, the city of the great king!

1. Joy is going to overtake ND.  Psalm 48. Hope deferred from the generations since the early 1800’s must be broken out of the land.   And, sorrow must be broken out of the Land.  God says to ND, “Joy will be seen in this land!”  Joy comes when covenant is restored.  I believe when we hear the report that there is a new joy flooding across the land of ND we will know that our Nation has taken a shift in His covenant blessing. Though you feel like you are isolated, like what influence could you have, you are going to be known for some of the greatest influence that our Nation has seen.

Song of Solomon 4:12  “A garden enclosed.” That means locked or barred or sort of isolated.  “Is my sister, my spouse.  A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.”  We begin to see how God looks at you like a peculiar garden that has been sort of sealed up, until now.  You might not have heard a lot from ND but there is a lot here that we will hear about.  “Awake, O North wind, and come, O south!  Blow upon my garden, let my beloved come to his garden and eat its pleasant fruits.”  (Verse 16.)

1. ND is heading into a windy season.  But this windy season will be different from any other windy season.  This windy season is gong to be stirring up a fragrance of destiny that has never fully come into the atmosphere.  And, as the wind blows naturally, over the this next six months, it will be a spiritual sign to you that that which God has planted, He is unlocking and by unlocking it here in the North the fragrance of the Spirit of God in ND will begin to blow South into the rest of this Nation.  So that the fragrance of God’s purpose for this land will be fully synch. 

It was prophesied about this land that it would have probably have the most glorious future.  I don’t believe that was a wrong prophecy.  I believe you have a glorious future!  I believe you have resources in ND that will sustain our Nation.  I believe there is influence in this land that will sustain our Nation.  Ask for the wind to come and begin to blow those seeds and it will blow that fragrance.

1. ND is entering into a fruitful season.  You have been travailing and travailing and travailing.  Now, start calling forth the fruit.  Once the wind blows, then the fruit will come. The Lord says there is going to be a great fruitful harvest in this State; get ready for it.  Isaiah 43.  This is an interesting prophetic chapter because, in the context of this chapter, we are finding that Israel will be redeemed.  In the context of this particular area in Isaiah, Isaiah is prophesying that there is a promise for you that help is one the way.  Help is coming to ND.  The helper is coming to ND.  IS. 43:6  “I will say to the North, ‘give them up’!”

2. There is a cry coming out of ND that will say to the hidden supply in this State, that will say to the captured souls in this State, “Give them up!” 

A new sound arising of strength in God’s people in ND.  It’s a sound of declaration. It is a sound of restoration.  It says, what has been held back, “Give them up!” It’s a different sound. It is an apostolic sound.  A prophetic sound.  It is a sound of God’s people praying in a way and all of a sudden in the atmosphere there is a sound that arises that says, “Give them up” and the ground has to respond.  VS. 19-21  It’s a different dimension of praying.  I have not said that in any other state.  There is something arising in this state.  “Behold I will Do a new thing.  Now it shall spring forth.  Shall you not know it?  I will even make a road in the wilderness.  And rivers in the desert. The beasts of the field will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen. This people I have formed for Myself; they shall declare My praise.”  

1. There is a new thing going on in ND.  I have waited to really find the State that I could really say that I see the new thing.  Who would have thought ND?  In every state we (Global Harvest Ministries) have leaders, we have intercessors, we have teams, it is connected greatly. Other states are not like that.  Every state has had a key apostolic leader, and yet, I felt like that it was very key that ND was the one that had been vacated for a time such as this.  (Jim Hessler pulled out.) And, the only State that was not moving, yet, the way God had ordained for it. 

God said, “You wait!  I am going to do a new thing in that State that will become a model, a pattern, that will be a successful thing that others will be able to see.  Don’t look with your eyes. Don’t judge by what you know, for I have chosen ND for a new thing.”  I thought it was real interesting.  I would have chosen Texas for a new thing if I had been the Lord.  I actually like Michigan a lot.  But God said, “In ND, I am going to do a new thing.  I am moving.” 

Pray now and ask God for things to begin to stir in this State.  When we are asking God, he will begin to do it. 

Father, I do thank you.  Lord, I thank you for what I feel tonight.  Father, I have been in so many places, but when I came in here, my emotions were touched. 

It means you are coming back to a place and in the Bible in restoration, you have a multiplication factor. Once you move into restoration, you double, you quadruple, or you enter into 7-fold increase. 

It also means this:  I actually think ND population is going to double very soon. You are going to have to be ready for that to happen. It will bring great changes in your laws and your structure. There will be great changes in your influence. 

New also means that God will do a new act in your midst.  Something that you haven’t seen before.  He will demonstrate himself.  Where you have longed to see him do something, he will do it!  Like Exodus where the Red Sea opened.  Jesus did new act after new act after new act. 

It also means new relationships. It means seeing something you have had in the past multiplying into 7-fold — new relationships.  It means not only gaining new relationships with God but a new relationship with each other.  It means a new identity begins to happen. 

Remember, He said to Jacob, “Fear not, Jacob. You worm. You will be a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth.”  Isn’t that something — He changed him in a day to something that would overtake mountains.  So, God is saying, ”Don’t judge yourself on your past and what you have seen.”  God can ignite that in a matter of seconds and move you into a new identity in this State, that can cause things to begin to happen in this State, that can stun the entire nation.

Turn with me to Matthew 9 for a moment.  I found this so interesting.  When I was getting ready to go, you know, my life is supernatural.  It is peculiar. I have to stay alert to what the Spirit of God is doing.

I was leaving yesterday to go home from Colorado.  (I fly 250,000 miles a year.)  I went through security and all of the bells and whistles went off.  They pulled me aside and they asked, “Have you been working with chemicals or fertilizer?  Your bag is sending our scale off the charts.  What you do?”  I said, “I am a minister.”  They tested everything.  They said, “We don’t know why; but, you can’t use this bag on your next trip.” 

It was last night.  I was all set to come here today.  I thought, God, you are orchestrating my path to change bags before I go to ND.  I called and asked my wife to buy me a new bag.  She didn’t have time but offered me her new bag.  I unpacked everything and cleaned off everything.  I also had to change my shaving kit.  And, when I went to get my new shaving kit that I had been given for Christmas, here inside of it was a new wineskin.  And, all of sudden, actually the Spirit of God came all over my bedroom. And He said, “I sent you through that so that you would be sure to declare my Word to this State when you get there.” 

Now, I already had the message going but it is like, either I needed a little visual or you needed a little visual.  God had already told me this, but He said, “I have a new wineskin that I am forming and you are going to take it and impart it in that State. He said I have been holding it for a time such as this. It has been there for quite a while.”  

I have no idea how long I have had that bag that this was in.  The Lord says, “It is time for the people in ND to know that they are becoming a new wineskin.”  He said, “You will bring the wineskin and you will present the wineskin and you will declare from this time forward, a structure that is new.  Something that is fresh.  Something that is of greater quality than has been seen before in this Nation will begin to form in ND. That I will begin to do a work in the church in ND that is going to be one that will model to this entire Nation.”

1. North Dakota is becoming a new wineskin.  Matt. 9:14-17.  Jesus is ready to do something new and John’s disciples ask about fasting.  John has been a forerunner.  He had been a wonderful forerunner. He had pioneered or forerun the way for the Lord to come. He had formed a wineskin. He had leadership. He had disciples. Here, the Lord is saying to them, and they are asking Him, “Why are your disciples not having to do what we had to do in the past? 

Jesus said, Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? . . . .” What He was really saying is, “They will be able to fast in days ahead. There is nothing wrong with fasting. It is just not what we are doing right now.” 

Are you aware that when you do something, no matter how spiritual it has been in the past, and it’s not what God is doing today, it is nothing but religion. There is something new and fresh in this State that the Lord wants to liberate for all of us.  It’s on you!  “No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on a new garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse.  Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined.  But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” 

That’s an important phrase. I want to preserve everything because this is a different place. Still virginal in its aspect and identity.  I want to preserve what has gone before, but the only way I can present what has gone before (or watch after) in the history of the spiritual life of this State, is to do something new now, and if you allow me to do something new now, what has gone before will synergize with it and then you will move forward and unlock the treasure that is in this State for this hour. 

The Lord wanted to be sure that you see yourself for what you are. 

What they did with a new wineskin would be to hang it in smoke for several years.  In other words, the smoke would begin to bring it into the character that was necessary.  The presence. Smoke is equivalent to presence in the Word of God.  They would also soak it in water.  Soaking is necessary.  And, they would rub it with oil.

 The Lord says, “I am about to do all three.  There will be smoke in your midst.  There will be water that begins to come forth. A soaking type presence of refreshing that will rest on you.  Then, there will be oil of my anointing that will be rise up in this State will be fresh.  It will unlock revelation of how church is to be in the days ahead.” 

 “Now, hear me very, very carefully.  Territorially.   What is in this State will begin to be addressed, just as I addressed the seven churches in the region when I raised Paul up.  I will do something in this State that represents the territorial wineskin that I am attempting to present to my people.  I will require from ND a connection and a relationship that represents what the Spirit is saying to the church in the entire territory.”

 “I will deal with the circle or the plain called ND and I will produce a new wineskin from that plain.  This is a new wineskin State. “

I waited until I got here to see how it was forming.  I have known how it was forming in the other states.  By coming here I have seen how God is raising up apostolic leadership.  He is putting it in His place, He is choosing.  He is connecting intercessors.  Without intercessors being connected right, apostolically, they cannot accomplish what God is asking them to accomplish.

 By coming here, you can see, I can perceive the new wineskin that is forming in ND.  This wineskin is also generational. I want everyone under 30 to stand up.   Look around.  This wineskin is generational; it is connecting the generations. It is raising up a prophetic dimension in the generations. North Dakota, get ready, a new thing God is doing in your midst! You need to perceive it. You need to connect into it!  You need to let it multiply! You need to enter into worship! You need to expect God to move!  You who are standing, you get ready, there will come a boldness of evangelism on you in the days ahead that is going to shake this land. 

 Chuck Pierce then asked Larry and Karen Borud, Dakota Prayer Gathering, to come forth to present them with the new wineskin.

Father, I come right now.  This is the beginning of the New in North Dakota.  Lord, I say worship will begin to explode in this State. I say city transformation will start happening.  It will surprise all of us the cities You choose. Great fruit is becoming to come forth.

Lord, I say a new wineskin is coming into place in North Dakota. Lord, you have uncovered it for a time such as this.  Many of you have been frustrated, you have been longing, you have been knowing that this is a special place.  I have been wanting to do a new thing. I would say to you tonight, that my redemptive plan for the future has come now upon this land.  My purity will begin to move. 

I will reconcile old and new, sayeth the Lord.  I would say to you, I have gathered you here this night.  You will represent to this nation a new structure of unity, purity, power, authority, boldness and faith.  I say to North Dakota,  the plains will begin to experience the power of my redemptive plan, the circles that have been broken no longer can be broken, sayeth the Lord, I will begin to sovereignly align and rectify the blood-thirsty ground of this land, I will begin to break grief that has gone through the generations, I will say that, where you have been in the last, you will now be positioned in leadership. 

 I say an apostolic, prophetic anointing is coming upon you;  I declare North Dakota a new wineskin of this land!

50 State Tour in North Dakota with Chuck Pierce

and Dutch Sheets

Sunday, June 27 and Monday, June 28, 2004

Part II

 Dutch Sheets:

Throwing myself on the mercy of the Lord – okay you told me to do this – you better give me something.  Because I just don’t have time to prepare ahead of time for all of these meetings and the Lord has been very gracious to do that and give us specific words and He has a specific word for you and I know that began last night. 

He has a specific Word for North Dakota and He will have a specific Word for South Dakota.  Some of the places we have been I like to give a testimony or two about what the Lord has done in various places.  

 Most states get a good Word, some states have gotten a hard Word.  I don’t like to give those.  We were flying into Michigan and I said, “Lord what do you want to say to Michigan?” and He said, “Tell Michigan they’ve lost their voice.”  And I said, “Lord, let Chuck tell them they have lost their voice.  And I will come up and teach on being a voice again – or something nice.”  He said, “Tell them they gave it away and then preach on reclaiming your voice.”  I said, “Lord, I don’t have a message on that.”  This was early in the tour, thinking that the Lord would allow me to do something else and He said essentially, “You better get busy.”  Because I was up in the plane, I was up in about two hours and I was basically heading straight to the service. 

So I just put together whatever I could come up with on reclaiming your voice.  Told them you’ve lost your voice, gave it away, don’t know how this happened.  God hasn’t told me anything else.  Then preached on reclaiming your voice. 

Chuck came up after the message and said he had been conferring with some of the leaders there while I was speaking, and said, “We know when Michigan lost its voice.  Twenty years ago the Mayor of Detroit gave Suddam Hussein the keys to the city.”  And, that whether people understand it or not, you can make a mess out of ignorance.  Just because you don’t know what you are doing, sometimes you can still be doing some things, some times, that can have incredible, broad ramifications and that Spirit of Babylon that is behind Islam was invited in and so, it wouldn’t probably surprise most of you that the highest population of Muslims in America live right there.  In fact, to find a higher number of Muslims living in one region, you have to go to another Nation.  It is the highest population of Muslims in anywhere in the world that is not its own Nation.  Deerborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.

 You might have heard in the news not that long ago that they are fighting now this war over broadcasting prayers either five or seven times a day over the loud speakers into the community – the calls to prayer. So it’s a war, but the Lord said to us, “Now begin to take back that authority in this meeting.”  This is what the 50 State Meeting for Michigan was.  Take back that key of authority and move this place back into covenant with the Lord.  The interesting thing was that it was the very night, the night that I preached that sermon, that God spoke that and then we started that process, was the very night that our troops surrounded Baghdad and went in the next day and took that city. 

 So, while they were doing it in the natural, we were doing it in the Spirit.  You could never convince us in a hundred years that that was a coincidence.  And Michigan is making great, great strides. There is almost as much breakthrough happening in Michigan, maybe more than in any other State.

I will be there in August and we are going to going to Pontiac Stadium in August to fill that stadium up with believers.  I am not initiating, I am just going to be a part of it.  There is an African American Bishop that is heading this up and God has spoken to him to bring the body of Christ together and there is a great healing that is taking place and so there are white believers with African American believers and we are just going to go and pick a fight with the devil.  And Chuck and I are going back in September or October to do another meeting.  It has just been amazing what the Lord has done. 

Another just fascinating one to me, is what happened in Tennessee, which may very well have been the most unusual service that I have ever been in, in my life.  I have never been in a more God-orchestrated service then what I was in, in the State of Tennessee.  Flying in, again I said, “Lord, what do you want us to say to the State?”  “Tell them there has been a curse broken off of them this week and that I am releasing blessing instead of the curse.”  And I said, “Lord, tell me something more than that because I don’t want to tell – I don’t want to leave here implying that it’s broken off of them this week just because we showed up.”  So I said, “Tell me more.”

 And the Lord said, “Tell them they have been under a curse because of the broken treaties, broken covenants with the Native American people.” 

You know covenant breaking brings a curse, don’t you?  And of course, the trail of tears started right there, and so much history that has to do with covenant breaking.  Tell them, “They have been under a curse because of that, but in Judges 12 it says that those that bless the descendants of Abraham, those who bless them I will bless.  Because they have aligned themselves now with Israel, I am able to break that curse off of them.”  And so, I got up and said this just by faith, hoping that I was hearing accurately.   And one of the leaders almost just ran to the platform and said, “Just this week,” it was on a Thursday we were meeting, “on Monday, the 10th,  the Governor of the state of Tennessee, signed a declaration that Tennessee will stand with Israel.” 

Now, I didn’t know that; most of the people there did not know that, that that week that had happened.  Isn’t it funny how something you don’t even think about, I mean just a little formality, and because a person in authority representing the Government of that State makes a declaration like that a centuries old or at least generations old curse breaks?  And that meeting turned into a prophetic free-for-all.  It was wonderful, holy, chaos!

It really wasn’t chaos, but I released, as I always do, to Chuck, anytime I am up here speaking he just jumps up here and gives the word and begins to prophecy.  Sometimes he just gets a microphone and sits on the front row and prophecies.  So we just flow in that way, and sometimes we go into prayer and if there is a Word during the message, sometimes I just continue the message and I release some of the other leaders there to do the same thing. 

Seven different words were brought during my message.  They weren’t all prophetic words, one brother, Steve Fry, ran to the piano and began to play a song of the Lord.  I’d preach a point and someone would come and prophecy and lead us into intercession about that.  I said something, I don’t know what it was, and he ran to the piano and did this incredible song, it was just incredible.  So it was like a play, all the players were brought on the stage to do something and I’d get out of the way – two or three times I’d just say – you just prophesied my sixth point so instead of doing number three we’ll just do number six and come back to number three and someone would come up and prophecy number three, and so it was just incredible.

The Lord has probably, I think, brought more fruit from this journey than we’ve been on, more from this, than anything I’ve ever been a part of.  It’s been amazing!  And, I think Chuck mentioned the fact that one of the things it has done, it is also connecting the Church.

I received a prophetic word that it was like an electrical grid, and that as we were traveling we were connecting the circuits from state to state to state and all the shorts were being repaired and that when this tour was over, there was going to be a release of incredible power that was going to go across. 

It’s not about us, you know that, it’s just about God’s people.  And, God is not doing that just because we are here. We being Chuck and myself. 

God is doing this because all of us, as God’s people come together, and when God can get a group of His people to come together in agreement, representing different parts of the state, different leadership, different spheres of authority, there is a synergy that kicks in that enables Him to do what He cannot, maybe just because He will not, do it any other way then if we come together like this.  So, we are here for that reason; we are not here for any other reason other than to hear from the Lord for this State and say, Lord, what do you want to do in North Dakota?

 And by the way, I don’t want to be offensive when I say this, but it’s just – you need to know this – it is not for you as an individual primarily, if you came to receive something from the Lord, then you just keep your faith out there and ask the Lord to do whatever He wants to do whatever you need Him to do.  Our purpose in being here is for the State, to see breakthrough come to the state of North Dakota that results in great harvest and the Lord Jesus Christ being glorified.  And that is what we are all about. 

So what does the Lord want to do in North Dakota.  Well, I wish I would have been here last night.  I heard it was remarkable and that there were some amazing wonderful words that were spoken.  Hopefully, mine will connect it somehow.  Clean up any messes that Chuck made.  Prophets are weird, you know that they are strange people.  The higher the level of the prophetic, the stranger they get.  (Some clowning with Chuck that is not transcribed here).  He’s scary; he is so accurate.  When we were in New Jersey, he prophesied. 

 Lord, help us to communicate what you want, nothing more, nothing less.  We do stir up that prophetic anointing.  We thank You, that You are still a God that speaks, You didn’t lose Your voice and we thank You for the various anointings of Christ that you have given to the Church to equip us, to prepare us, to position us, and we thank you, Lord, that you have a very wonderful plan for the people here and for the state of North Dakota.

Thank You, that where others may not come here often, leaders and ministers, maybe it is out-of-the-way or hard to get to, that it is not for You, that You are very, very much a part of this State and You love this State and You want to do here just as much as you want to do something in a large population center.  There are cities that have more people than this State, probably lots of them.  Lord that doesn’t matter to You, You went out of your way for the one and, Lord, You love this State and You love the people of this State and You want desperately to pour out Your Spirit and so, Lord, we are excited about what You are about, what You are going to do and we are thrilled to be a part of it.

We love doing Your will and speaking for You, so Lord, show us what you want and we will do it.  Say whatever You want, stir up that prophetic anointing. We do it in each one of us not only in each of us to say, but for your people to have ears to hear what You are saying   Let them be that fresh wineskin that enables them to receive the new.  Amen.

 Open your Bible to Joshua, Chapter 5.  Let me introduce this while you are turning.  The Lord gave me a phrase this morning. He said, “I am going to heal North Dakota.”  So, I have been asking the Lord what that means.  I have had strange words over States at times.  I usually don’t know what it is all about when the Lord speaks to me.  I try not to study and read much on any State before I get there.  I like to hear from the Lord about it.  And, when the Lord said this to me I said, “Lord what do you mean, are you going to bring a movement of healing?” and maybe He is. 

 “Are you going to bring a strong healing anointing for miracles?”  I don’t know, maybe that is what He is going to do, I don’t know, that’s not where I am going today.  I would almost assume theologically, biblically, based on what He is saying to me that would certainly be logical, that there would be a season of great release of signs and wonders.  In fact, we will just ask Him for that, right now.

 I just heard the Lord say, “I am going to heal ND.”  And I don’t think, I just don’t know some of this.  I didn’t hear it in the context of a lot of division, there may be, and maybe that is a part of it.  I didn’t hear it in the context of the Lord bringing people together and healing a lot of breaches of relationship, although that would be logical, too, wouldn’t it? 

So, Point One:  There are signs and wonders coming.  (I am just changing my message while I am up here.) 

 Point Two:  He is going to heal relationships.  What I felt was, there is just a general sense God is coming to heal, including a healing of the land. 

Now, I don’t think I have ever really spoken or preached a message that touched on as much as I will in this – healing the land. Let me just introduce by saying this – we cannot separate what we do from what we own.  We cannot divorce what comes under our authority from what we do with our authority.  So, what do you mean by that?  Deuteronomy 27 says, If you walk in Covenant with the Lord, even your dogs, cats and cows and your horses will be blessed.  Did you know that?  Deut. 27 says, “If you walk in Covenant with the Land obey Him, everything you own and everything you touch will prosper.” 

 If we don’t walk in covenant with the Lord and we disobey Him, everything we own will be affected negatively.  And then He lists them, your barns.  What’s that all about?  That’s your crops.  He says, if you walk with Me your crops are going to prosper, your barns are going to be full. And, blessed will be the fruit of your body.  And, blessed will be the offspring of your flocks and your crops and it will rain when it is supposed to rain. 

So, in other words, not just am I, personally, as a human being, affected by my walk with the Lord, and my obedience to the Lord, and my covenant with the Lord, but everything that I touch, everything that I own is affected.  Now, I am really not here to do a lot of teaching this morning, I don’t really feel equipped to do that.  I am not really here to teach an in-depth message on the land and what happens, but I feel like I have to at least lay a foundation for this, because what God wants to do in this State is, He wants to bring such a healing atmosphere.  And, I am moving very slowly here, because I want to be real careful in what I say and try to really be accurate and prophetic.  And a lot of it usually comes to me when I am up speaking. 

 He wants, I see an atmosphere of healing that is going to begin to just hover over the state of North Dakota and it is going to heal people.  But see the point is that when God begins to work in us and forgive US it affects OURS.  That is what I am trying to say. 

 The emphasis – even when God starts talking about healing the land or your crops or your lands in dealing with famines or drought or the opposite too much rain, when He starts doing that, it is not about the land, it is about the people of the land.  I think this is where it gets weird sometimes, when people try to disassociate it and make it about soil or the elements and they get the focus on that and it was all about the God of Israel, if you do this, then all that you have, will be affected.  Again, we cannot disassociate what we do from what we have or own.  In fact, God says, because of Adam the whole earth is groaning.  Because of the sin of the original Father, the whole earth is in travail waiting to come out from under a curse.  And the animal kingdom is waiting for this, and, so again, when we sin, for example, the shedding of innocent blood, Tennessee, broken covenants, it not only affects that people, it affects the land. 

David went to the Lord in 2 Samuel 21 and he said, “Why is this famine in the land?  I have done everything, I’ve searched my heart” and He said, “It’s because of what Saul did.”  So a generation before, had broken Covenant with the Gibeonites.  And the Lord said, “This generation” (being David’s), “this generation is suffering a curse because of what that generation did.” 

Now we really don’t understand this real well as Americans.  We tend to be very individualistic in our thinking in America.  You go to some places and parts of the world and they are much more corporate in their thinking.  We are just now coming to understand the blessing of the father passed on generationally and iniquities being passed on generationally.  But, how many of you know it’s true?  Well, it is, whether you know it or not.  It is true.  And until something happens to break that, either repentance or just maybe some righteous work that begins to offset the curse, until something happens to break that, it just kind of sneaks along through time. 

 I know Chuck preached a message; I was blown away by it.  I don’t know where we were, and he talked about how God has healed him of the generational curse — this iniquities pattern that has brought so many physical infirmities.  Brought a lot of other junk in his life.  But, a part of it was physical.  And he talked about two to three years ago, he was going through another difficult physical struggle, and he said, “Lord, what is this, why can’t I get rid of this?”  And the Lord said, “It is the last vestige of that thing.”   And he said, “I thought I got all of that thing,” and the Lord said, “You have to get this last piece.”  And, he just about died.  He just about was taken out by it, I am being very serious.  It wasn’t just sickness, where he thought he was going to die; I mean he was in bad shape. 

 So, just to set the stage for this, when there are things that bring curses, broken covenants, shedding of innocent blood, it defiles and then there are just open doors for satan to operate, that just flow right on down through history.  There are phrases in the Old Testament where it says the desolation of many generations.  

  So, I heard the Lord say, “I want to heal this State.”  That’s really big, by the way!  This is far greater than somebody getting up and saying your crops are going to do better this year.  If there is a Spirit of healing that really begins to flow through this State, I just want you to know, it is going to affect everything.  Absolutely everything.  It is going to affect the weather patterns, it’s going to affect the crops, it will affect the animals, it will affect your churches, it will affect your kids, it will affect your grandparents, it will affect everything.  It will release healing of relationships.  It will release signs and wonders.  This will affect EVERYTHING.  And I believe it is coming.  I believe, I am just going to say this one more time, THERE IS AN ATMOSPHERE, THERE IS AN ATMOSPHERE OF HEALING  that is going to be released.  The very anointing of healing is going to hover over this state.

Joshua 5:13 Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand.  And Joshua went to him and said are you for us or for our adversaries and he said no, rather I indeed come as captain of the host of the Lord, and Joshua fell on his face to the earth and bowed down and said to him what has my lord to say to his servant?  And the captain of the Lord’s host said to Joshua, remove your sandals from your feet for the place where you are standing is holy.  And Joshua did so. 

 When He said to Joshua you are standing on holy ground, the place on which you are standing is holy, He used the Hebrew word qodesh – that’s the word for holy. I want to bring that to your attention because a different form of the word is used in Joshua 3:5, where God is about to take them across the Jordan and He says to Joshua consecrate the people because tomorrow I am going to do wonders about them.  Consecrate is qadash, holy, as in the place you are standing is qodesh.  Same root word – it means to be separated unto God.  It means to be set apart unto God. Not in the sense that we normally think of holiness; because there is another word that we think of and that would be nazar; from which we get Nazarite.  Nazar has more of the concept of  “separation from something”  – qadash or qodesh has more of the concept of being “separated  unto something”.

  It is probably a more important distinction than we realize.  You see a Nazarite, for example Samson, don’t touch this, don’t touch that, don’t do this, is a separation from.  But biblically nazar, being separated from, does not make you qodesh – holy.  We tend to equate holiness with don’t do this, don’t do that.  Don’t touch this, don’t touch that, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t.  Well, Samson lived that life for many years and really never, partook of true holiness.  You never find anything really that causes us to believe that Samson had a life of separation unto the Lord.  He was always dealing with this and that, very selfish.  And while he lived this legalistic life of separation from, he never really, never had a heart of separation to. 

 Therefore, God was never really able to impart that holiness to the man.  And, of course, someplace along the way, if you are trying to live off of nazar, you’ll always have a weakness somewhere, that if it’s not dealt with, will take you out.  And, even if you are trying to overcome a sin — and this is not the point of my message —  but I might as well say it, since we are on it, maybe it will help some people.  If you are trying to overcome something in your life you will never get free of it by trying to be a nazarite.  A nazar, you will never be free of sin by trying not to do it.  That is just law.  You might as well be in the old covenant. 

 The way you really overcome anything that is of an evil, unholy nature, is to qadash yourself, or separate yourself unto the Lord.  And, when you separate yourself unto Him, devotion, intimacy, worship, the word and you draw near to Him, then He is able to impart qodesh, holiness to you and you find yourself then not doing things or separated from, simply because you are separated TO.  I brought that up here because God called the land Holy.  We haven’t even thought of that for decades when we talk about the holy land, Israel.  It is called holy because God said it is holy.  He said take your shoes off; you are on holy ground.  It’s the place, you can just say to the ground, like this immediate place – this place is holy.

 Here is my point to you at this stage of the message – because the people agreed with the Lord and qadashed themselves, let me keep my directions right, since the Nazarite is over there – God said in chapter, set them apart unto me, I want to come and do something wonderful.  I want to work miracles.  Tomorrow they begin.  Set apart to me – that’s what I need. 

 So, the people, let me say it this way, so you really get the gist of what I am saying, the people holied themselves.  They set themselves apart unto Him, and so, the Lord said – now that that has happened, their inheritance has become holy.  The people are qadeshed the land is qodesh.  And, notice something, He didn’t just call it, He didn’t wait to call it holy after all the giants were gone – He didn’t wait until all the demons and all the idols were gone, He just said you separate yourself unto me, I am here now, it’s holy. 

 But the cities are still full of drugs, there’s still sin, there is still a humanistic force in our government.  The courts are still making decisions that are anti-God.  Well, that won’t stop, the Nation won’t become holy when that stops. That will stop when we understand that we can decree that it is now holy.  We, as God’s people, have separated it unto Him again.  And He will honor the authority that He has given to us and He will allow us to begin to call it Holy before we ever begin to see the fullness of it manifested. 

So, there is another interesting thing that takes place, and this is all introduction, but I  have a short message.  Sometimes I have long introductions. 

 There is another interesting word here that does a similar thing in these early chapters of Joshua. When the people crossed the Jordan, the men were circumcised because they hadn’t done it for the whole time they were wandering.  They had totally abandoned the covenant.  They didn’t celebrate Passover as they were commanded to every year.  The seal of circumcision, the seal or sign of the covenant had been ignored and the Lord said, okay Joshua before we go any further you have to get that in order.  But it is fascinating to me that at least twice, when it talks about the Jordan river being rolled back, it doesn’t use the words rolled.  Sometimes it does, sometimes it uses “waters rolled back”, but sometimes it says they were cut off and each time it does, it is the Old Testament word for circumcision.  The cutting off of the flesh, the foreskin of the male. 

Could it be, well, of course, it is, what God is trying to say is, that when you move back into covenant with me not only do you become set apart unto me, not only do you begin to experience the fruit of covenant with me, but all that you own, and all that you possess, does as well.  You are holy, set apart.  Your land is now holy.  You are circumcised, you are now in covenant with Me, and your land is now circumcised and in covenant with Me.  And, if you don’t do this, God talks about sin, where is that reference – I will spew the inhabitants of the land?  I will spew you out, the very land will.  Where is that found?  We areso connected to what we own.

  So, now why am I doing all that, I am doing that so, because of broken covenants, because of the shedding of blood, because of, I don’t know what.  There is just a, there are things operating in this State that must be healed.  Because, I don’t know the history well enough to go into detail.  I don’t know if it is the shedding of blood, it probably is the shedding of innocent blood, but it’s probably some broken covenant.  I don’t know all that it is, but I know this much, if you, if we hear from the Lord and do what we need to do in this meeting, there is a force of life that is about to be released across this State that is going to heal this state of ND.  The land, the elements, but more importantly, it’s not about that, it’s about the people.  That’s why it can’t be fixed until people come together and lock themselves into agreement and say, “We want holy land, we don’t want cursed land”.

It is kind of interesting that, now I have never seen this before, this same root word, this is real revelation to me, the same root word for a curse in the old testament as qadash/qodesh  is qadowsh. (Transcribers note – Strongs #6944-qodesh, #6942-qadash, #6918-qadowsh).  Different form of it.  This is the word for when example Achan, which is where I was going to go to anyway in a minute, stole the tithe of Jericho and there was a curse brought. 

 When you worshipped idols, you were accursed.  It is the same root word for holy and set apart to God.  It is as though the Lord is saying, this is what I am hearing Him say to me right now, “You either separate yourself to Me, and everything you own is blessed because it is set apart to Me, or you do something that sets you apart to sin and everything you own is cursed.”  

  In fact, here is something that is interesting, that word, is the word from which we get harem.  A group of women, virgins, that become the property of, the harem of the king.  It is almost as if the Lord is saying you are either going to be my bride, my harem, or you are going to become the harem of the serpent and he is going to curse everything.  I feel an amazing anointing coming into this room right now. I feel just an amazing presence of the Lord. 

 I’ve never ever seen that before.  So, the Lord is, I think what He is trying to say is, “I want to come and bless this State.  If My people, (doesn’t make any difference if you are not the majority, doesn’t make any difference if they are still more sinners than saints.  It doesn’t matter.  It doesn’t matter if you are not possessing every city.  It doesn’t matter.)  If my people, will separate themselves to Me, I will come and marry the land.” 

“I will come and make it holy and bring it back into covenant with me and it will produce, and I will break that marriage with evil and I will break the curse off and I will let you say ‘the land is married’.”  (Isaiah 62:4)  Where is that?  Isaiah something or the other.    I am just going to do this now. I am just getting all mixed up here.  I am going to follow the flow.  I am not going to that verse, by the way.  You can go to that in a minute or Chuck can come up and share about it, jump in here anywhere you want, Chuck. 

 God has been speaking to me from the passage in Hosea 2, where Israel, after they had the land, then they turned back to idols and the land became cursed again.  And, then he says, this is all about redeeming the land now and redeeming the people.  This is where you are.  I don’t know what you have done in North Dakota.  Somebody has been doing some repenting and praying and fasting because God is saying, “I am ready to heal this land.” 

Isn’t that good?  Now, somewhere along the line, if we are going to do the first part of 2 Chronicles  7:14, sooner or later, we have to believe we are supposed to get the last half.  Heal, forgive, hear from heaven, forgive our sin and heal the land.  And, in Hosea it says, if you read it Hosea 2:15.  He is going to come with His sweetness really.  His beauty, His beauty of holiness.  The beauty of qodesh.  He says, “I am going to allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak kindly to her.  Then I will give her her vineyards from there and the valley of Achor as a door of hope.  And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.  And it will come about in that day, says the Lord, that you will call me ‘Ishi’.”  (You know what that means.  You are going to call me your husband again.)  I think we are onto something here today, folks.  “And you will no longer call me Baal.” 

Isn’t it fascinating?  I didn’t see all this till I got up here.  Isn’t it fascinating that this passage is connected to Joshua?  Because, right after they cross over, in this, that we just read about happens, then they cross the Jordan, then they go take Jericho and a guy named Achan takes for himself some of the spoils of Jericho, which the Lord says was supposed to go into the treasury. 

 Jericho was the first fruits of the land.  I think much of our Nation is cursed because of untithing Christians.  I know that will get a great hooray!  Do with it what you want. 

 Tithing is a covenantal thing.  I could take you back to the law of first fruits.  The word first fruits is the first word in the Bible.  It is the phrase – in the beginning.  It is the very same word.  God immediately established a covenantal principle in the earth.  It is a principle of giving him the first fruits.  It is also a principle of when we put that principle into operation, it releases a law of multiplication and blessing.  It is used all throughout Genesis at creation and it flows right down through Abraham and to us.  You can do with it what you want; I am not here to speak on that today.  Don’t get mad at me.  But, if you want to walk in covenant with the Lord, this is what tithing is all about. 

 Now, Jericho was the tithe of the land.  The first fruits is mine.  And it goes into the ‘owtsar (Strongs #214) storehouse.  It is the same word as Malachi as in Joshua.  Bring it into the storehouse for Me. It is the first fruits.  The rest of it, it’s all yours.  You get all the spoils of the rest of the land.  Achan took some of that and hid it.  He was judged, he was killed.  It was a very strong judgment in this case.

Now listen to me, don’t get distracted by the tithe issue.  I am not apologizing for anything, I am saying, just saying don’t get distracted by it.  Here is the point, the whole point was – he is breaking covenant with me, and if I allow this to remain in the land right now, everything that we just did when we brought the land back into covenant with me and the people back into covenant with me, everything is erased, Joshua, and we cannot take this land if I let this man steal from me and break the covenant.  And, so he is destroyed.  The spoils are taken, put back into the treasury, covenant is reestablished. 

Here is what I am coming to – his name is Achan – troubler.  So, they name that spot the valley of Achor – the valley of trouble.  This is so amazing to me.  Before it got here, the last few days, I’ve been meditating in Hosea 2, and I get here and God takes me to Joshua, then he connects them.  He is saying to them here, what you did here Hosea, what you’ve done when you returned to your Baal’s and you’ve broken covenant with Me, you have moved back to the valley of Achor.  You’ve moved back to the place of trouble.  Curses,

I am just going to stay here for a minute, all right?  He uses this word, cherem, this harem this accursed word, that it’s a derivative of holy and qodesh, this is the word He uses like eight or ten times in Joshua, seven or eight when He is talking about the sin of Achan.  This man did not honor me, and he has brought this curse. 

 In other words, Joshua – I see this so clearly.  Joshua, you qodashed the people and Achan reversed that. And instead of being separated unto me – qodesh – he has made the people accursed and aligned them with the Spirit of this land again.  Greed – of covenant breaking.  He said, “I have got to reverse this.”  Now they named it the valley of Achor.  Now here we are there again in Hosea and the Lord is says, now you’ve been back at this place, come on now I want to get you back into covenant.  I want to heal the land, I want to reverse the effects. 

North Dakota, I want your children to be free.  I want your families to be healthy and strong.  I want you to live in Deuteronomy 28, I want the offspring of your body to be blessed.  I want the offspring of your earth to be blessed.  I want it to rain when it is supposed to rain, I want it to be dry when you need it be dry, I want you to have bumper crops, I want everything you touch to prosper.  I want a Spirit of healing to permeate the atmosphere. 

 He says, “I am going to allure you back into the wilderness,” He says here, and then He says something incredible, “I am going to use,” this is amazing how the Lord does this, “I am going to use the valley of Achor and make it a ‘door of hope’.”  You talked on ‘door” last night, is that right?  He says, in the Amplified is great in this, the Amplified calls it a “door of hope and expectation”.  And it is not, this is what fascinates me the most, He doesn’t say, instead of one I am going to give you the other, instead He says, I am going to transform one into this.  I am going to transform Achor into hope.  In other words, if you allow me to, I am going to use the trouble that is coming.  I am not going to waste your tears, I am not going to waste the pain, I am not going to waste the evil.  I even know how to take that which satan meant for destruction and turn it into something good.  So I am going to allow these difficulties that came your way, He was saying to them here, “I am going to allow these things to turn you to me and then instead of them being a door of trouble they will be a door of hope because, through that, you will return to me.” 

And then He says, instead of being “cheremed” to this stuff, you will turn and begin to call me again “your husband”. 

 I am not real sure where to go at this point.  You got something?  Come on up and do whatever you have because there is a strong anointing in here right now. 

Chuck Pierce: 

 Why don’t we stop right now and let’s pray through this portion over North Dakota and then we’ll just wait for a moment and then we’ll let the Spirit of God just lead us. 

Let’s just stand up right now and thank God for what He is going to do with this. 

 Father, you say right now you want to remove trouble and loose expectation. 

That’s why the Lord would be saying this healing aspect to you.  Hopefully, as Pastor Dutch continues we will find out issues that we look at Biblically so that things can be jogged in you.  We were talking earlier, great history.  Of course, you know the history of this State, it was just covenant broken and pilfered and just war, even the Natives amongst each other, warred in this State.  There are a lot of issues in the land and the body of Christ, because of the healing anointing, if you will walk in God’s redemptive plan, you can overturn all of that.  Let’s say OVERTURN! OVERTURN!  Amen.

Pastor Dutch

 Let’s just stand up for a minute.  I believer there are a couple of things that we do need to overturn in this particular.  Jim, will you come up and lead us.  First of all, I want us to ask God to deal with — there is something that always sticks out and that is how your resources were pilfered here with the fur trades.  In this hundredth year of Lewis & Clark expedition, I do feel God is trying to overturn certain things.  Let’s ask God to restore what has been lost.  Pastor Jim,  you just lead us in that prayer.

Pastor Jim Hessler:

Father, Father, Father, we come to you today with our hearts humbled and realizing that we have strayed, but we are coming back.  And, Father, we realize the damages that have happened to this State, but this is a new day.  This is a new hour!  This is a new time!  This is a time for restoration!  This is a time for healing!  This is a time for you to move your hand upon this State in every city, in every county, in every community, the small town as well as the large town.  Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we ask for that restoration to come, that healing to come, the power of the Spirit to move upon the government, the power of the Spirit to move upon the eccelesiastical, the power to move upon the governmental, the power to move upon the medical, the power that would move, dear Lord, upon every aspect of this State.  Dear Lord, shake this State, shake this State for the purpose of good, for the purpose of restoration and for the purpose of healing.  We thank you, Lord, for the words that have been spoken, we believe them, we accept them and, Lord, we do move in our obedience now, as a people of God.  We will be obedient!  In Jesus Name, Amen

 Chuck Pierce:

 “And, Lord we also say that you will blaze a new trail across this State of healing; Lord we say, connect the cities from Fargo, north all the way down.  We say connect the cities with a healing anointing.  Lord, we say blaze the trail for healing throughout this State, north to south, west to east, east to west; Father, we say, let the trail of healing be blazed new and fresh in this State. 

Now, let us thank God that He is going to do that.”

Dutch Sheets:

 Amen!  Glory!  We will pray some more in a few minutes.  I am just blown away about how the Lord does this stuff.  I found myself saying, now Lord, why would this State need healing?  I don’t know anything about your history, any more than others.  That’s what I’m saying.  The whole Nation needs healing, we have all had shedding of innocent blood and curses working all across this Nation, but to know that this State has led — there is not enough population– how can that be?   Led the Nation in insurance claims from results of these natural disasters?  Could there be any question that there has been a strong curse that has been working here?  But, what a glorious Word that God is going to heal this State and marry it.  A door of hope! 

I don’t even know whether to go . . .  someone told me during that break that there is a Democratic senator from this State that is the first Democrat to sign a anti-pro-life resolution or bill.  How many of you knew that?  So, it is true?  I am not trying to be political up here; Republican or Democrat.  But, that is what it says to me, that there is something at work in this State that is linking a curse.  But, when you get these guys starting to cross these political lines?  It is a pretty strong sign that something is happening in the Spirit.. Now, that is just not where I want to go. It is just usually an indication of something happening in the Spirit.  This is big.

 Here is what I saw during the break.  I saw that this is not just about North Dakota;  this is very much about the Nation.  That the healing that God is talking about here today and the curse-breaking that is coming, is not just about you but about the Nation  In other words there are some things, some aspects of the healing of the Nation that cannot happen until this takes place in North Dakota.

 Isn’t it funny that most Americans don’t give a whole lot of thought to North Dakota probably.   Maybe that is why the enemy tries to hide and set up strongholds in some of these out-of-the-way places.  Maybe he can just hide there better. I don’t know. But here you are a key. 

 The Lord said the same thing in Wyoming.  I don’t even remember what it was.  I do remember they were a key to some things for the Nation.  So, the healing of this Nation is very linked to the healing of North Dakota.

 Let’s just stay on that theme for a minute.  I don’t know how long I want to go here because I want us to pray again.

 Go to II Samuel 5.  You will find the passage, which we won’t necessarily read, but just allude to.  Where David is entering into the fullness of his inheritance, his destiny.  David went through three major transitions cause there were four phases of his destiny, from Bethlehem to Adullam to Hebron and then to Jerusalem.  In between each, he had go through a transition, three of them.

In this passage, when the Lord makes him king over all of Israel, and he is about to transition into the fullness of them.  It is not just about a man, but about the purposes of God, historically, that are moving through time. This was about you and me, also.  What God did through Israel was all about bringing forth a people through whom he could establish covenant so that he could bring a seed and heal the earth.  So, everything that happened with Israel was about reversing what happened in Genesis.

It is about the purposes of God in this earth.  So, he is about to be established on the throne and so these demons, I’m not talking about the people they used, I’m talking about demons . . . these principalities that are still around, started rising up and saying, “ No, we are not going to let this happen”.  So, the Jebusites rise up and say, “You are not coming into Jerusalem.  You are not taking this city”.  Because Joshua’s bunch had stopped short of taking some places in the land and the Jebusities were still ruling that hill, that mountain there, of Jerusalem.  The Lord said, “I want to set up my throne in Jerusalem.”  So, the Jebbusites came against him and he overthrew them and then he went to Jerusalem and set up his throne.

Then, of course, his nemesis, the Philistines come against him.  You have to understand there are demon powers, there are evil Spirits, principalities behind this and we still face them today.  It’s the same thing.  So, they rise up against him and say, “We have to stop this man.”  They come against him.

 Vs. 17, II Sam 5.  Now when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David.  And David heard of it and went down to the stronghold.  The Philistines also went and deployed themselves in the Valley of Rephaim.

All through the book of Joshua you will see that name, what does the word, Rephaim, mean?  It means the valley of the giants.  David must have had a flashback at this point.  “I thought I dealt with this demon back when I was about 16 or 17.  I thought I lopped off this demon’s head.”  Well, you did the man, but the demons didn’t die!  So, here they come, the valley of the giants.  So, he inquired of the Lord and the Lord gave him instruction on how to deal with these Philistines in this valley of the giants..

He prevailed and he had to go through the same process again.  They came against him again in the same place. Which is meant very clearly to be symbolic for us that they came back to this valley of the giants.                  . 

 So he asked, should I go before them again.  Should I go before them?  No, wait until you hear the sound in the treetops.  The wind blowing.  You will know that I have gone before you.  Which is all very symbolic.  Which way is the wind blowing?  What is the Spirit saying?

 So, you listen for the voice, for the breath of God.  What is He saying?  When you hear the wind as it starts to blow here, and you say, okay, the Lord is going before us.

 For then, you will know that the Lord has gone out ahead of you, which is really the key to victory.

But, here is what I want to say about this valley, Rephaim.  Can you hear another word there  . . Rephaim?  Come on, engage with me.  Somebody said it.  Rapha, the Lord our healer.  This is the same root word.  Isn’t it amazing, it’s almost like it’s and I don’t know how, I have studied this, but it has been a long time since I have studied this … how did they get there?  Like when something is fed very well, enriched, growing and growing and everything is right and it is healthy and it has grown strong and big.  You look at a little baby and say, “It has grown up; it looks so healthy.”  It became the word for a giant because they are so healthy; they grew so big!  They are healed.

So, here’s this same word.  It is so fascinating to me how the Lord does this “play on words”.  That the same word for giants is essentially the word for heal. 

What did the Lord say to North Dakota?  “I am going to heal North Dakota; I am going to rid North Dakota of the giants. It will not be a valley of Achor.  It will not be a valley of Rephaim!  (“Aim” just makes it plural.)  It will not be a valley of giants.  It will be a valley or a place of healing.” 

What is that Psalm that says they go through a valley of weeping, is it, and they turn it into a place of strength or blessing?  Psalm 84  (It is just coming to me right now, so it must be God. (Dutch chuckles))  Vs 5  “Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage.  As they pass through the Valley of Baca, They make it a spring; the rain also covers it with pools.  They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.” 

Passing through.  You are not supposed to live at this bad place.  Baca means the valley of weeping. The water of tears becomes a place of blessing.  This valley of weeping, this valley of trouble, this valley of giants, I want to transform it into a place of healing.  Rapha!

Let’s go back to Joshua for a minute. (I don’t know where I’m going. We are just kind of roaming up here.)

 Isn’t it kind of interesting that Joshua 14 is the story of Caleb taking his city?  I’m not going to read much of it, I just want you to have the reference so you can go there, maybe we will point out one or two verses.

Caleb takes his city called Hebron but formerly it was called Kirjath Arba. What does Kirjath mean?  City.  What does Arba mean?  It was the name of a person.  Who was that person?  Joshua 14:15 says Kirjath Arba was the greatest of the giants. The Anakim, the plural form of Anak, the sons of Anak, the giants.  So, this city was named the city of the greatest giant.  It was the highest point in all of Israel.  This demon, principality ruling through this giant says, “I think the highest point in the land ought to be mine. I want the high place.”  So, he builds this fortress up there.  This is pretty symbolic isn’t it?  You have the biggest and baddest, probably the most demonized, probably ruling the whole land and he is living on the highest point.

 Caleb goes in to spies out the land and he gets to that point, gets up there and righteous indignation comes to him.  He looks up and says, “That ought not belong to the giant, it ought to belong to God.  It does belong to God.  He ought to be honored there.  It ought to be a place of worship for Jehovah.”  So, Caleb says, “That is the mountain that I want,” he takes it here in Joshua 14 and he renames it, Hebron. 

 What does Hebron mean – friendship, communion, intimacy.  I like these definitions — federation….  (Someone from the audience speaks)  What is that?  Dakota means friend?  This is getting kind of spooky Spiritual, isn’t it? 

 Maybe you are supposed to turn this stronghold of giants into a place of healing and friendship with God.  I mean, to the prophetic, everything is prophetic.  I can go with that easily. 

 North and South Friendship.  Refuge of God.  Stronghold of healing. 

Because it was the place of friendship and in keeping with that symbolism . . . that’s where Abraham and Sarah were buried, the friend of God — Hebron.  So, friendship, intimacy, communion.  A couple of the lexicons said it means confederation or league, in other words, covenantal joining; you come into a confederacy, a federation.  Where you are more than just friends, you are now linked in that friendship, covenantly.  So God’s covenant man friend, Abraham, is in the earth there — buried there in Hebron.  There is so much symbolism in all of this. 

 Hebron, this place which once was the stronghold of the biggest and baddest, the most demonized man who terrified all of the Nation, caused them to flee and not take their inheritance, has now become a place that represents friendship with God, safety, covenant, and it became a city of refuge!

 How many of you know what those were?  There were six cities in Israel that if you accidentally killed someone you could go there and be safe.  Why did they do it this way?  I can only assume that it eliminated the potential for crimes of passion where you accidentally killed somebody in a fit of rage and a family member comes for you.  It was just a practical way they separated them. So, you go to a city of refuge and live, if you accidentally took a life and you were safe there and  they were not allowed to come there.  One of the six cities of refuge was Hebron.

 But Hebrews 6 tells us that they were all types or pictures of Christ.  “We who have fled for refuge laying hold of the hope that we have in Christ.”  Laying hold was a phrase for the horns of the altar.  Three were two places you could go for refuge in a case like that.  If you couldn’t get to the city of refuge in time, you could go into the tabernacle or wherever the altar was and you could grab the horns of the altar.  A place of sacrifice, a place where the blood was shed for covering.  You could hold onto them, and as long as you were there, you were preserved.  They could not harm you.

 So, Hebrews picks up on this and says we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us. A hope which enters within the veil where our great high priest is.

 It is all symbolic.  How long did they have to stay in the city of refuge before they could go free from it?  Until the death of the current high priest.  So Hebrews picks up on all of this and says, our High Priest has died and gone to that place for us and so now, we run to Him for refuge and lay hold of the hope.

 Can’t you see these Israelites hoping that the High Priest would die so they could go free?  They get this prayer request circulating around Israel that says, “Pray for high priest so-and-so, he is not feeling well,” and they say (space on the tape and everyone laughs)   “Oh Lord, bless the High Priest’.

 Why did I said all of that?  Because of this symbolism of this high priest this stronghold of giants; became a place that people did not run from in terror but a place that people run to. 

 Could it be that God is saying that he wants all of that to be a picture of North Dakota? And, instead of insurance companies running from you they will run to you and say, “Go to North Dakota, there are less claims there.”

 That the valley of Rephaim could become a place of healing.

It fascinates me as I am trying to wrap up here.  (Someone from the audience speaks.)

 There is a Hebron, ND?  They make bricks in Hebron?  Does Dakota really mean friend?  Really?  How come you guys fought so much up here?  (Someone form the audience says, “We are also the Peace Garden state.)  Why don’t you start living up to some of this stuff?

 Let me do one more, quickly, here.  The very next city that they captured in Joshua’s campaign after Kirjath Arba, Hebron, the very next city was Kirjath Sepher, It is in the 15th chapter somewhere.

 And Caleb says, “Okay, I took Kirjath Arba, (Hebron now) who wants to take Kirjath Sepher?  If you do, I will give you my daughter.”  The ladies didn’t have much say at that time.  Sorry, ladies.

 His nephew, Othniel, said, “I will do it.”  It was his brother’s son.  He took Kirjath Sepher, another stronghold, and he named it Debir.  I am sorry I am doing all of this from memory so I can’t give you the verse (Joshua 16:17 for your notes).

What does Debir mean?  It comes from the root word dibber (Hebrew 1699) which is the primary word in the Old Testament for the Word of the Lord.  The Word of the Lord.  So, debir, (Hebrew 1687) this form of the word means literally — innermost sanctuary.  Not the outer court, but the innermost sanctuary.  Debir.  Why did they call it that?  Why did they pick the name from the Word of the Lord for the innermost sanctuary?  Because that is where God spoke.  That’s where he hung out.  That’s where he said I will meet with you there between the cherubim over the ark of my presence.  And, so they called it the debir, the innermost sanctuary.  Where the Lord hangs out and speaks to us.

 It is very fascinating that in this progression of cities they moved from friendship to the very innermost sanctuary.  We are not talking about casual.  We are not just talking about friends. We are talking about coming into covenant. We are the most intimate friends.  This is the inner place where only the closest of the close speak and hang out. 

 It’s almost like the Lord says, If you can get to Hebron then you can take Debir.  It you make it that far and can conquer this giant you can come into the innermost place, the innermost circle with me.”  I think what the Lord is saying to you is that He wants to help you conquer every giant, He will deal with the valley of giants, He is going to reverse the Valley of Achor, the Valley of Baca and turn them into places of hope, of springs of healing.   

 This is good.  I take absolutely no credit for this whatsoever.  I don’t have the foggiest idea of what I’m doing up here.  There wasn’t one of those in my mind when I started today.  I wish the word for Colorado had been this good!  This is awesome!

 There is an atmosphere of life, of healing that is coming to you, to your State, to your city!  He is coming!

Let’s pray. Come up here, Chuck.

Lord, thank you for your word of encouragement, that though the enemy has come indeed to steal, kill, and destroy, to bring his snare, his trap, so that we become a covenant-breaking people and we shed innocent blood, the land becomes defiled and even the elements begin to work out of sync and curses and violence erupts.

 You come and you say, “But I am going to allure them and I am going to draw them back to me so that I can transform the Valley of Achor, where curses were established, where wrong alignments in the marriage with evil powers has taken place that has brought a curse.  I am going to transform that into a door of hope; I am going to separate them unto me.  I am going to make the land holy again.  I am going to bless the crops, bless the weather, bless the elements and bless the people.”  That’s where it flows from and it is from us and it is for us and it is about us and we either bring curses or we bring blessings.

He is going to bring marriage to Him again.  North Dakota will call him the husband.  They will be married to God and the land will be married to him, it will be wholly unto Him.  Blessing will come and it will be a place of healing, where healing permeates the atmosphere.  And so people will be healed, the relationships will be healed, salvation will begin to come forth, friendship with God will abound.  It will be a place of refuge, a place of safety, a place where people will no longer leave it out of fear of loss but they will come to this State because it is a refuge.

 And the wind of your Spirit will blow and it will no longer be a valley of giants but a place and valleys of healing, where the atmosphere is filled with health and healing and homes will be healed, and our offspring will be healed and they will serve God.  Prodigals will come home; and there will be harmony, there will be peace, there will be friendship.  It will be a place of friendship; a place of covenant with you, Lord.  Lord, we decree that over this land.  In Jesus’ name.

 Chuck:

 Now, another important thing about North Dakota:  Rugby, of course, is the very center of North America.  It is the innermost place in North America.  Let’s ask God just to bring his presence deep within this State.  Let’s decree that the presence of God will overtake Rugby.  Let’s declare that Fargo will have a major wind of the Spirit of God invade the churches.  Let’s declare that in Bismarck, there will be a release, there will be a launching of God’s purpose and plan that will affect this entire land. 

 Father, we thank you for this State.  We thank you for the healing atmosphere that is coming into this State.  Lord, I hear you saying, “I have had to clear the atmosphere of demonic forces.  I have had to send hell, I have had to cause rivers to rise, I have had to flood the plains, I have had to dry up things, but now I am longing to bring healing into the atmosphere of this State.”

 If you are a pastor or ministry leader, just lift your hands.  Would you come up and pray over us.  You are from Jamestown, isn’t that right?  Would you come up and ask God to forgive the leaders of the past just like the ten spies that went in and didn’t grab hold where the giants caused them to fear, and they didn’t move into God’s plan.  I want us to ask God to forgive past leadership for not moving into the fullness of God’s plan and then decree that the leadership arising now would be filled with faith to move forward.

Pastor Scott Avans, Jamestown:

Heavenly Father, we call upon you today in behalf of the leadership of our State of North Dakota.  And, Father God, we repent on their behalf, Father.  Lord, we don’t know all of the details of all of the things that have gone on before, but You do.  And, Heavenly Father, we ask for repentance to come, Lord.  Father, we ask for repentance to come in our current administration here, we pray for reconciliation.

 Father, I am thinking specifically of the covenant breaking.  Let there be repentance and let there be reconciliation and for the shedding of innocent blood and for the raping of the land, the taking of the resources of the land, Father God. 

Father God, we repent and we ask, God, that you grant us repentance for these things. 

 And, Father, for those who you sent here to drive out those demons, to drive out those forces, Lord, as you brought the Israelites, into the promised land but they failed to drive out all of the Nations.  For those that you sent here, who failed to drive out those demonic forces, God we repent and we pray that you would restore that call, Father, in this generation!  In this generation!  May they be driven from our midst in this generation!  In the name of Jesus.  This is the hour! Now is the time!  In Jesus’ name.  Amen

Chuck Pierce:  Now, Father, we receive a gift of faith to sweep across this land.  Lord, I pray for the leadership of the land.  I say, “Let a gift of faith rise up in Jesus’ name.”  Lord, we declare North Dakota as a new wineskin for the healing of the Nation! 

Now, just repeat after me.  “We are a new wineskin for the healing of the Nation.”

Lord, we thank you for what you are doing in this State, in Jesus’ name. 

 Now, let’s give the Lord one more clap offering and thank Him for what he is doing.

I am going to have South Dakota pray for North Dakota and then I am going to have Larry (Borud) send us to South Dakota from here so that we continue to move forward and in what God is doing here, we are connected properly,

 Heavenly Father, we know that this state of North Dakota and South Dakota, these states, Father, are linked historically, they are linked geographically and they are linked Spiritually.  We thank you for that.  We declare today north and south friendship.  And we pray, Dear God, that there would be a covenant between these states.  I ask that the leadership would yoke together in authentic relationship.  And, Father that the intercessors that know one other back and forth and I pray that there would be a partnership, Lord God, that would bring forth great fruit.  Father, I ask that there would be an open heaven above this whole region and this would be a place called “sought after” instead of a place of oblivion. I pray, Oh Lord, that the Nations would be touched from what you are doing here.

 I bless this work here today and I am hungry for it to rain from the North to the South. We say, bring it on!  In the name of Jesus.

Pastor Jim Hessler:

 Before we pray for Chuck and for Dutch, I just want to admonish you in one area because we have been guilty of this — that we have spoken evil over our State ourselves.  We need to repent from that.  Jesus said, “The words I speak, they are words of life and not death”. 

 Lord, I am asking right now for us in this room and those out there in the other room, Lord, that you would forgive us for we have spoken evil over our State.  We have cursed our State, we ask that you would forgive us for that, cleanse us from that sin right now, in the name of Jesus and that the words of life would be loosed over this congregation, over this people.  As we go forth across the State, back to our cities and communities, that the words of life would be in our hearts and out of our mouths.  That, as we speak, that we would declare the riches of God, the riches of the Righteousness One over our State and over our communities. 

So Lord, we just receive that grace, we receive the anointing of blessing right now, in the name of Jesus; we receive that as we open our mouths, as we visit, Lord, as we hear words coming to  us that would desecrate, that would be down upon our state.  Words like:  Why would people come here?  Or, whatever it might be, let an anointing come upon us that would rise up in us to refute those words and not allow those words to be sown in our State.

 Extend your hand out here to these brothers, (Chuck Pierce and Dutch Sheets):

 Lord, we thank you that you have had mercy upon us in sending these servants of the Lord to come to us, to bear their hearts, to speak those things that you have placed within them.  Lord, that we have been enlarged, they have been enlarged, Lord, even that which you have sewn within them, God, that even now as they would go forth to South Dakota, that the anointing would so rest upon them as they sit amongst the brethren in South Dakota.  Father God, that there would not be an understanding of themselves from their own mind, that there would be an anointing of the Holy Spirit that would rest upon them, that they would even be able to connect North and South Dakota in such a way that the friend of God, the friendship of God, that which is born of your Spirit, Lord, would flow over these northern plains.  And, yes, God, not just for us, but for the Nations.

 So as we lay our hands upon them, we send them forth, Father, with the benediction of blessing, the benediction of peace, the benediction, Father God, of being able to hear your voice to speak your voice at that land, South Dakota, would be blessed exceedingly, abundantly above all that we could ask or think.  Lord, have your way in the midst of us.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.

  Carol Boeckel, President, ND Aglow, and Carrol Dahl, V P Public Relations, ND Aglow.

July 7, 2004